Dear Friends,
As 2014 comes to a close I am reaching out to you for your help in producing a new show and writing a second book. For over 24 years, I have been teaching around the world. I deeply appreciate the support you have shown me over the past 8 years of my artistic development in New York City. 2014 has proven to be another remarkable year, and 2015 looks to be even more exciting with your continued support. I can’t wait to share it with you!
In 2013, I published my first book with your continued support. After the success of my first book Unveiling Motion and Emotion, I am looking forward to creating another resource for the dance community. Unveiling has already gathered a strong following –
“It is a book that I will return to again and again for inspiration about dance, art, and for general guidance about how to create a genuine, fulfilled, and fully realized life.” Veronica Hackethal
“Anabella Lenzu is a life changing teacher– now we know why” DanceReader
It is imperative that I build quickly on my success and deliver this resource to my readers. Universities such as RAD (School of The Royal Ballet in London), K-State University, Syracuse University, and others have already picked up this resource for their school libraries and it continues to fill a niche for bilingual artists. I self published Unveiling with your support and distributed it through Amazon. I am already in conversation with a number of publishing companies as I move forward with my second book, Meaningful Gestures: Inner Thought and Outward Expression, but this process is expensive and time consuming. While my team is hard at work, I turn again to you, my invaluable friends and supporters, to help us bring our dream to fruition.
I am writing Meaningful Gestures as a companion to my first book, Unveiling Motion and Emotion. My first book was a memoir that shared my experiences as a dance artist; Meaningful Gestures will be a deeper exploration of training, and artistic realization. My philosophy is that the journey is the destination – one must bring as much focus and energy to training as to performing. My second book explores:
Basic exercises, visualization exercises, active imagination and artistic application, technique as a philosophy and technique as a theory, body as an instrument: alignment isolations, gravity, verticality
Teaching in three languages has had a profound effect; I have found clear explanations, metaphors, and stories that communicate my approach to training. This text will be accompanied by Todd Carroll’s photographs and drawings to illustrate the excises. I look forward to your continued support as I move forward in this process and to sharing this resource with you in the new-year.
I am also continuing to work on my newest piece In Pursuit of Happiness… which will be premiering in 2015 at DUO Multicultural Arts Center. I look forward to seeing you there! This show is an ongoing daily memory trip to remember and honor my dad Antonio. He was my guide, my scaffolding and a lot of fun. I miss him terribly!
“I want the happiness that comes from both remembering and from fighting against remembering. A happiness that includes the sadness, pain and injury of experience but also goes forward. Memory works not like an anchor, but like a catapult. Not a memory that you just arrive at, but one that’s a launch pad.” – E. Galeano
I have been hard at work in the studio with my dancer, Lauren Ohmer, acting and voice coach, Daniel Pettrow, and music landscape designer, Todd Carroll. While we are already deep in our process, we need your continued support to see this work fully realized.
As you know, producing a new show and creating a new book comes along with many costs; I’ve listed below how your donation will directly help us with these projects.
Practice makes Perfect I:
$2,500 will cover rehearsal expenses for an entire show
Be our Graphic Designer:
$1,000 pays for the graphic designer for a book
Be our Photography Assistant:
$500 covers photography costs for the new book
Shipping out:
$250 covers shipping, postcards, and postage costs
Be our Wardrobe Assistant:
$100 pays for the fabric of one Costume
Be our Publishing Assistant:
$50 “Unveiling Motion & Emotion” printing & design cost for one book.
Practice makes Perfect II:
$20 pays for one hour of rehearsal
Donations are tax-deductible through our fiscal sponsor, The Field, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. ** If you are unable to contribute financially, we also appreciate donated goods, services and volunteers. All donors are acknowledged on our website and in our newsletters.
Please help us as we move forward with our plans for 2015!
Any donation helps us reach our goals. I look forward to hearing from you and seeing you at our upcoming events.
As a choreographer, I celebrate, meditate, respond, protest, scream, cry, and laugh about life through dance. When I write, I have a civil, moral responsibility. I need to express ideas clearly and transparently, whereas when I choreograph, I can go into my darkest corners to explore why I dance. Putting these words on paper forces me to be honest with myself.
A Hug, Anabella
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What the critics have said about Unveiling Motion and Emotion:
- ” Lenzu has chosen—or been chosen by—dance as her investigative framework because, as her opening essay is titled, “dance underlies all that I am.” This boldly provocative collection of writing should be in every dancer’s personal library.” – 4Dancers.org, USA
- “Most inspiring is a list of lessons she’s learned from Dance (“To witness small miracles,” To embrace change,” “To celebrate life”) – Dance Magazine, USA
- “Her writing is visceral and filled with insights that distill from deep intense reflection and research housed in her ‘thinking body'” – Attitude: The Dancer’s Magazine, USA
- “All in all, Anabella Lenzu’s “Unveiling Motion and Emotion” is a refreshingly vulnerable literary statement, and a great addition to your summer dance reading list.” – Heather Desaulniers, USA
- “Whether writing, leading a class or staging new choreography, Lenzu’s mission remains the same: to foster a more mindful, more kinetic, more connected dance community — and to keep moving with meaning for years to come.” – Dance Informa, USA/Australia
- “Ms. Lenzu has a deep and broad background in dance, and a joy in a life of dance, that comes across clearly. ” Exploredance
- La Nueva Provincia -in Spanish (Argentina)
Televised Interviews:
- NBC (New York)
- Telemundo -in Spanish (New York)
- Bronx Journal (New York)
- Dialogo Abierto -in Spanish (New York)
Anabella Lenzu's Blog 