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Welcome to the KST Blog!

The KST Blog serves as an alternative view of the KST programming, showcasing our artist talk series, press, and more!

  2. Hotline Ring Spotlight: Dreams of Hope

    By: Kelsy Black

    Check out this spotlight video from Hotline Ring 2021 partner: Dreams of Hope

    Through the power of the arts, Dreams of Hope provides the region’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, asexual, and allied (LGBTQA+) youth a welcoming environment to grow in confidence, express themselves, and develop as leaders.

    Join Dreams of Hope for Hotline Ring, a virtual fundraiser led by the Kelly Strayhorn Theater in collaboration with 1Hood Media, BOOM Concepts, Braddock Carnegie Library, The Legacy Arts Project, and Pearlarts. Mark your calendars TODAY for July 15th at 6:00pm. kst.imagebox.dev/hotlinering/

    Hotline Ring is sponsored by Duolingo, PNC, and Mosites Company, Inc., with support from The Pittsburgh Foundation, Opportunity Fund, the Arts Equity Reimagined Collective Action for Re-Imagining grant, a funding initiative managed by New Sun Rising, and in-kind media sponsorship from Pittsburgh City Paper.

    Hotline Ring: A Collective Virtual Fundraiser

    We are thrilled to announce the return of Hotline Ring, a collective virtual fundraiser led by Kelly Strayhorn Theater in collaboration with 1Hood Media, BOOM Concepts, Braddock Carnegie Library Association, Dreams of Hope, The Legacy Arts Project, and PearlArts. Join us for the live streaming program as Hotline Ring brings together our aligned missions and our supporters to create a spectacular event as an opportunity for giving that will have an enormous impact on our region.

    Thursday, July 15, 6:00pm – 10:00pm  

    DONATE TODAY

  4. Hotline Ring 2021 Spotlight: PearlArts

    By: Kelsy Black

    Check out this spotlight video from Hotline Ring 2021 partner: PearlArts

    A Collective Virtual Fundraiser

    PearlArts is a dance-focused arts organization that also provides music and media arts programming. We offer artistic experiences through creative residencies, innovative collaborations, and a broad range of dance and sound education and outreach opportunities. PearlArts is the creative parent organization for STAYCEE PEARL dance project & Soy Sos and Tuff Sound Recording.

    We are thrilled to announce the return of Hotline Ring, a collective virtual fundraiser led by Kelly Strayhorn Theater in collaboration with 1Hood Media, BOOM Concepts, Braddock Carnegie Library Association, Dreams of Hope, The Legacy Arts Project, and PearlArts. Join us for the live streaming program as Hotline Ring brings together our aligned missions and our supporters to create a spectacular event as an opportunity for giving that will have an enormous impact on our region.

    Thursday, July 15, 6:00pm – 10:00pm  

    DONATE TODAY!

  5. Open Air: Staycee Pearl

    By: Dance Currents

    Check out this exciting write-up by Dance Currents about Staycee Pearl and KST’s company in residence, PearlArts!

    “[Kelly Strayhorn Theater] helped keep Pittsburgh honest (if not perfect), but still with its finger on the pulse of the future, and this program was a perfect example.”

    “Choreographer Staycee Pearl is currently the artist-in-residence at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, which is a rarity in itself. Also a rarity: Staycee, a black artist, loomed large at PBT’s recent Open Air festival. It was a long time coming, but it proved that PBT was serious when it was one of the first American ballet companies to make a firm commitment to including blacks in their essentially European art form.”

    FULL ARTICLE HERE.

  6. KST in the news: Juneteenth celebrated as a day of service, song and remembrance

    By: Pittsburgh Post Gazette

    “When we say we’ve come this far, Black people, and we’re able to have our art in a beautiful building like this — that really says something” -Women of Visions president Christina Bathea
    We were so honored to partner with Women of Visions for MAGNIFICENT MOTOWN! Art Inspired by the Music. The opening reception, coupled with the ORIGINS Marketplace, was a success, as we welcomed the community to our first in-person event of the summer with music, art, and celebration!
    Read the Post Gazette’s write-up below:

  7. Hotline Ring 2021 Spotlight: Erin Perry from the Legacy Arts Project

    By: Kelsy Black

    Check out this spotlight video from Erin Perry highlighting The Legacy Arts Project and the impact of Hotline Ring!

    A Collective Virtual Fundraiser

    We are thrilled to announce the return of Hotline Ring, a collective virtual fundraiser led by Kelly Strayhorn Theater in collaboration with 1Hood Media, BOOM Concepts, Braddock Carnegie Library Association, Dreams of Hope, The Legacy Arts Project, and PearlArts. Join us for the live streaming program as Hotline Ring brings together our aligned missions and our supporters to create a spectacular event as an opportunity for giving that will have an enormous impact on our region.

    Thursday, July 15, 6:00pm – 10:00pm  

    DONATE TODAY!

  8. Gia Fagnelli & Jordan Harris Showcase A Different Way to Meditate & Find Balance

    By: Orlana Darkins Drewery

    The benefits of meditation cannot be ignored, but not everyone finds it easy to sit in one spot and in total silence. This is why another type of meditation, called movement meditation, can be so beneficial. Movement meditation is not your usual meditation where you sit still and focus on your breath. Instead, you are moving through various positions with a mindful and slow pace.

    Gia Fagnelli, a third-generation yinzer, the current reigning Mx. Innovative at the Portland Erotic City Awards, and a writer, speaker, death doula, video producer, actor, performer and extraterrestrial gender experiment who combines the arts of drag, pole, prose, video, sound, installation and movement and transmits the amalgam to screens and stages across the galaxy, and Jordan Harris, an experimental movement artist, aerialist, choreographer, dance instructor, and drag artist currently working in both Pittsburgh, PA and Austin, TX will present their interpretation of movement meditation with the assistance of various movement artists during Kelly Strayhorn Theater’s Freshworks Residency Showing: Moving Meditations – Kinaesthetics on Friday, May 7 at 7:00pm on Zoom!



    Being quarantined during the pandemic was the inspiration for this 30-minute meditation tool for community members in the world of drag and sex work. “I noticed two things,” Gia said. “One, we definitely need to recognize that we need a work/life balance and that television is programmed to make us nervous, panicked and tense. I wanted to create something therapeutic that focused on healing through movement with different artists from the drag world to sex workers. The piece will show how we can use our bodies as movement meditative art.

    ”

However, the piece is open to a variety of folks as Jordan explains, “Although we focus specifically and identify with sex workers and queer bodies of color, our piece is open to anyone who consumes the meditative medium.”

Gia agreed stating, “A lot of folks will be able to engage and recognize their own energy and representation in the piece. It’s not literal. It’s very abstract. I believe that we are all a cluster of quivering cells and will be able to identify with something or someone in the piece.

    ”

The main objective is for the viewing audience to notice their current state and notice if their breathing is more relaxed and their heartbeat is at a steady rate. “I don’t think people realize when they fall asleep with the television on their subconscious is soaking in the panic, noise and explosions,” Gia said. “We are recording and internalizing this stress and it’s living in our bodies. This piece will provide a rinse cycle for the mind, spirit and be visually stimulating.

    ”

The soundscore for Moving Meditations – Kinaesthetic was created by dynamic Pittsburgh music and dance duo slowdanger who collaborated on the experience with Fagnelli and Harris. 

To experience Moving Meditations – Kinaesthetic yourself, visit Kelly-Strayhorn.org to purchase your tickets and join us on Friday, May 7 at 7:00pm.

    Moving Meditations – Kinaesthetic
s
    Gia Fagnelli & Jordan Harris
    Freshworks Residency Showing

    Friday, May 7, 7:00pm
    Join us on Zoom

    Pay What Makes You Happy!

    Buy Tickets Now!

    Gia Fagnelli is a third-generation yinzer, the current reigning Mx. Innovative at the Portland Erotic City Awards, and a writer, speaker, death doula, video producer, actor, performer and extraterrestrial gender experiment who combines the arts of drag, pole, prose, video, sound, installation and movement and transmits the amalgam to screens and stages across the galaxy. Jordan Harris is an experimental movement artist, aerialist, choreographer, dance instructor, and drag artist currently working in both Pittsburgh, PA and Austin, TX. The artists collaboration proposes a meditation tool for community members in the worlds of drag, art, and sex work, exploring queer creative alchemy, gender identity, and the intimacy and isolation of performing digitally. Moving Meditations – Kinaesthetic features movements and a healing soundscape by Pittsburgh’s slowdanger.

  9. Jasmine Hearn on [text me when you get home]

    By: By Jasmine Hearn

    Contextual writing from Jasmine Hearn concerning [text me when you get home] the upcoming Artist Talk with Joseph Hall. 

    Joseph Hall and I met a lesbian dance party in 2011 or maybe in the lobby of the Kelly Strayhorn Theater. If the first, I was in complete shock that he won first place in the dance competition that we both had entered into. I placed second. If the second, I was in complete admiration of this person who cared so deeply for artists and order.

    Joseph and I kept meeting on dance floors from then on at SAPPHO — a bimonthly queer dance party … at post show dance parties at the Kelly Strayhorn… at protests.

    We found each other in sweat in joy in movement together spinning in the night.

    As I continue my residency at Kelly Strayhorn Theater with A Patient Practice, I am remembering how I have learned to move my queer black body and listening to who I learned from, alongside.

     

    Queer dancing black body

    Queer dancing black body at night with spirit and kin alongside

    Queer dancing black breathing body at night alongside

    Sweat

    Sweat through my white geometric print dress

    We were together tequila on the floor
    Gin on tongues

    Maybe you make out with that one
    And I make out with this one

    Meeting you at first at a lesbian dance off
    You win
    And I identify lesbian
    You had heels
    I got second place

    Competition

    And spark of interest

    Who is this guy?

     

    Sappho

    Protest

    Mayor’s office

    Sleep overs

    Living room spillage of grooves and the tempo of want and release

     

    Sappho — a bimonthly queer dance party
    Like full moon
    Like new moon
    Like best time to make medicine of sweat and the accidental bumps that immediately are followed by sympathy and apology

    The wild
    The ancient
    The naming of ourselves

    Rhythm that didn’t prescribe it self

    Cypher without pressure

    Sometimes white hands on our breathing black brown sweaty bodies

    Mostly eyes

    Mostly awe

    The Walk home always measured
    In the middle of the street
    Loud
    Maybe witnessed
    Crazed

    Or lucky rides with friends with cars

    Bus no longer running
    Black bodies running or walking fast
    In middle streets

     

    Or alongside with two others
    We flank ourselves

    Text me when you get home

     

    photo by Caldwell

  10. AUDITION FOR STAYCEE PEARL DANCE PROJECT & SOY SOS

    By: KST Staff

    STAYCEE PEARL dance project & Soy Sos is seeking 2 full company members and apprentices for upcoming seasons. Contracts include training, rehearsals, performances, and teaching. Please review their website to learn more about SPdp&SS at spdpandsoysos.com. Hourly and salaried pay information will be discussed upon invitation to the next stage of the audition process. 

      • May 10, 2021, Video Audition Deadline.
      • July 5, 2021, In-person Call Back in Pittsburgh, PA by invitation only
        (Invited dancers will be notified by May 24, 2021).
      • Aug 16, 2021, Contract Start Date On-Ground in Pittsburgh, PA

    REGISTER TO AUDITION

    Upon completing the audition registration, you will receive a private link to access video audition criteria which will include three sections of submission:

      • SPdp&SS Repertory
      • Composition
      • Ballet Technique

    Applicants must have:

      • Excellent physical ability and stamina
      • Technical and aesthetic versatility
      • Curiosity of various movement methods
      • A positive attitude
      • A strong work ethic

    *People of color are strongly encouraged to audition and passionate allies of all race/ethnicities are welcome.