On November 16 and 17, 2010, Louise Reichlin & Dancers, a performing company of Los Angeles Choreographers & Dancers, presents an interactive work Dance at the Stone House at theSun Valley Youth Arts Center. The Center is also known as the Stone House because of the unusual use of native river rocks set into the architecture and interior of the building. Built in 1925, the buildingdesignated as a City Cultural Historical monument has been transformed into a first-of-its-kind art education center in the East San Fernando Valley.
     In 2007 we debuted our original site-specific piece Dance at the Stone House. The unique use of the historic building, the native river rocks set into its interior and exterior architecture, and the restriction of only six people in a room inspired Louise Reichlin to create this work for 4th through 6th grade students. Working with our professional company dancers, the students explore the site and artwork there, learning and creating movement phrases that are then integrated into an original dance based on both architecture and movement. It is a completely kinetic approach to the building as the students first learn about the building, view the art, and also learn phrases that are part of the dance. They are included in the audience on either the outside lawn or inside room. They are also part of the performance at the appropriate time as Louise Reichlin & Dancers perform a completed work that incorporates the 10 short phrases. They are set to music on a patio area that is visible to both the inside and outside audiences' areas.
     When Reichlin went to see the building, her first thought was "How can we do our dances on this cement patio" and her next thought was - "We need to design a totally new piece with an open structurethat will work with this unique building and with our theme." The elements of dance - space, time, and
energy, will be brought into play, so both the students and the audience will become more aware of how dance and architecture are a part of life around us that we often don't notice. Reichlin contacted Jesus "Chuy c/s" Rangel, the Youth Arts Center Director, and the partnership has continued. This will be the
fourth year of this presentation for the interactive work, which is part of The Reality Series. This year we have doubled the amount of performances each involving 60-80 students. Louise Reichlin is Director, and dancers include Sung-Yun Park, Brittany Midiri, Angelina Prendergast, Angela Todaro, and Zsolt
Banki. Students this year are from El Oro Elementary, Cantara Elementary, So. Regional MS#2b, and Plainview Elementary.

     Louise Reichlin & Dancers was founded in 1979, using the nonprofit base of Los Angeles Choreographers & Dancers. LA C&D has presented both Reichlin's
company and Zapped Taps(tm)/Alfred Desio and has a long history of creating works for families, as well as educating children and youth. The company tours to many LA, Santa Barbara and Orange County schools, is a founding member of the LAUSD Arts Community Partnership Network and Director Louise Reichlin is on the Steering Committee for the new LA Arts Consortium: http://laartsconsortium.org/. The company has twelve programs featured on the LA County arts resource web site, www.LAArtsEd.org. Some of Reichlin's other well-known works include "The Tennis Dances", "Celtic Suite", "Urban and Tribal Dances", the multimedia "The E-Mail Dances" and "The Patchwork Girl of Oz", and the choreography from the cirque-music show "Dream Scapes". Most recently Reichlin coproduced the Dance Showcase 2010 for the Western Arts Alliance annual conference for 18 dance companies, and was dance coordinator for the TriArt Festival featuring 12 companies.

     The general theme of The Reality Series is to use ubiquitous ideas, objects, and movement that we usually don't pay too much attention to in order to raise our awareness of the world around us. Other performances in the series have been in more traditional theatres including the Madrid Theatre, the
Warner Grand, and the Steelworkers Auditorium. Louise Reichlin's newest work called "The Better To Bite You With" premiered at the Jazz Bakery, and was presented by the city of Fontana and at the Edye Second Space (The Broad Theatre) in Santa Monica.

     The Sun Valley Youth Arts Center is a Neighborhood Arts and Cultural Center of the Department of Cultural Affairs. The Reality Series is funded in part by the California Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency through a grant called "Creating Public Value". It is also funded by a grant from the City of Los Angeles, Department of Cultural Affairs. The events of this season are supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of
Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

Please contact us at 213-385-1171 if you would like to attend. The Sun Valley Youth Arts Center is located at 8642 Sunland Blvd., Sun Valley, CA 91352.