education

Amphibian Stage Productions is thrilled to offer a series of classes that are open to the community. Please see below for information on our various offerings, and check back regularly for updates. All classes subject to availability.

Stilt-Walking Class

Tad-Poles perform at BRIC in Brooklyn

Call 817-923-3012 or email boxoffice@amphibianproductions.org to register.

Tad-Poles perform at BRIC in Brooklyn

Amphibian presents Tad-Poles: Cuentos Mexicanos in Conjunction with Laura Anderson Barbata’s Transcommunality Exhibition at BRIC House

Amphibian Stage Productions has accepted an invitation to perform at BRIC Arts Media House, a non-profit arts organization presenting contemporary art, performing arts, and media in Brooklyn, on August 23 at 11 a.m. The performance, presented in conjunction with BRIC’s exhibit titled Transcommunality: Laura Anderson Barbata, Collaboration Beyond Borders, will include costumes designed by Barbata, as well as storytelling, dance and live music depicting Aztec and Maya gods and typical dances and music of the states of Veracruz and Michoacan. Ethnomusicologist and composer Sinuhé Padilla Isunza will join Amphibian’s Tad-Poles, whose dancers (Natalie Chapa, Shelby Bennett, Daniela Quiñones, Winston Daniels, Nolan Chapa) range in age from 11 to 29.

The event will also feature students, grades 10-12, from Oogie Art (an art portfolio prep school) who will share the results of their internship with Laura Anderson Barbata, presenting works in which ancient Korean Folk Tales and the Transcommunality exhibit intersect. A stilt walking workshop led by the Brooklyn Jumbies caps off the event, allowing audience members of all ages to learn how to walk on stilts!

Tad-Poles is an outreach program of performance, dance, theatre, music, art, history, geography and workshops. This project has been created for at-risk children in under-served schools and has a threefold focus to:

1. foster cultural pride and encourage cultural tolerance and collaboration
2. give children in underserved communities the opportunity to experience the arts free of charge
3. encourage good health through joyful physical activity

Amphibian will present a free public performance of Tad-Poles: Cuentos Mexicanos at BRIC Arts Media House on Saturday, August 23. The event begins at 11 a.m. BRIC is located at 647 Fulton
Street, Brooklyn.

About the collaborators:

Laura Anderson Barbata (costumes) was born in Mexico City and lives and works in New York and Mexico City, where she is Professor at the Escuela Nacional de Escultura, Pintura y Grabado La Esmeralda of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, México. Her transdisciplinary work has received grants and awards from Bellas Artes and FONCA. Since 1992 she has worked primarily in the social realm, and has initiated projects in the Amazon of Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, Norway, the USA, and Mexico. Her work is included in various private and public collections, among them the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, the Museo de Arte Moderno Mexico City, and Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart, Germany. Barbata’s book, Transcommunality, documents her ten years working with stilt dancers around the world, for whom she creates wearable sculptures.

Sinuhé Padilla Isunza (music) began his studies at the Casa de Cultura in Corporal Expression, Music, and Dance. In 1992 he began to study Nahuatl cosmogony, sacred music, and ritual dance under Master Ehekateotl Kuauhtlinxan. With his group Reptil Ensamble-Fusión he merged these disciplines with other influences such as jazz, Afro-Latin music, and trova. In 1998 he graduated from the Instituto Mexiquense de Cultura, majoring in Contemporary Dance and Choreography, and soon began teaching dance-theatre, music (guitar, percussion, jazz, ensemble techniques) at the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Mexico. Interested in researching Arab and Andalusian roots of Latin American music, Mr. Padilla went to Spain in 2000 to study Flamenco history, music and dance at the prestigious schools Amor de Dios and Conservatorio Flamenco. Four years later he traveled to South America, investigating various forms of Afro-Amerindian music in Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Bolivia, where he also collaborated in various projects involving music, dance and performance. He currently lives in Brooklyn, where he leads two Latin fusion bands, Jarana Beat and Cumbiagra.

BRIC (venue) Since 1979, BRIC has been the driving cultural force behind a number of Brooklyn’s most renowned and beloved arts and media programs. All of BRIC’s programs are anchored by the organization’s commitment to artistic excellence, programmatic breadth, diverse cultural representation and genuine accessibility.

BRIC presents live music and performing arts, contemporary art, and community media programs. The organization places special emphasis upon providing opportunities and platforms for Brooklyn artists and media makers to create and present new works.

In 2013, BRIC inaugurated a new era of service to the borough when it opens BRIC House, a 40,000 square-foot arts and media facility located in the cultural hub of Downtown Brooklyn. BRIC House includes a flexible state-of-the-art performance space, a major contemporary art gallery, artist workspace, and multiple television and media production studios. Designed by Brooklyn-based architect Thomas Leeser, BRIC House aims to be a true home for artists and audiences—a place where emerging and established artists create work that deepens their practice and engage with the diverse communities of Brooklyn. BRIC House opened in October 2013. Learn more at BRICartsmedia.org.

At Amphibian Stage Productions
120 S. Main Street
Fort Worth, TX 76104

Stilt-walking

Exercise both body and mind with stilt-walking classes. Stilt-walking requires extreme focus while increasing awareness of the body and developing the core. New students begin on 12-inch peg stilts, gradually working their way up to higher models. Students are challenged to work on new skills each week and quickly learn the all-important lesson of how to fall (and back up, of course). Classes include short lessons on stilt-walking cultures around the world and on-stilt activities such as soccer or hula-hooping. Students will also have several opportunities to perform throughout the year at community events.

Ages: 9-adult
Beginners are welcome. Athletic skill not required.

Instructors: Amphibian’s stilt performance troupe

Date & Time:
Saturdays, 10 a.m. – 11 a.m. Adult Class
                11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Children’s Class

Cost:
$15 per class, or
$50 for a month of classes