What would 10 minutes of dance at 10:00 a.m. each day in October look like?

Who: Dancer Mary Wohl Haan
What: HAAN Dances: 10 @ 10 throughout 10 / 2010
When: Every morning throughout the month of October, 2010 at 10:00 a.m.
Where: 1100 block of the Pearl Street Mall, east of the split stone sculptures, just east of Boulder Bookstore, Boulder, CO
Why: A dance offering to the community.
FREE!

For the entire month of October, dancer Mary Wohl Haan will be found in downtown Boulder dancing at 10:00 a.m. for ten minutes. As a member of the Boulder dance community for the past twenty years, Haan has wanted to take her dancing to-the-streets in recent months and was inspired by a Canadian dancer who spent 30 minutes dancing in a public place for 30 days this past summer in New York City. With a few adjustments, she decided on a variation that felt like a good starting point - something manageable and not too obtrusive, thoughtful, yet hopefully enough to pique some interest. Wanting to jump right in and with October being the beautiful, if volatile month we know it to be; she's decided to inaugurate this project with ten minutes each day.

Passers-by will find her on the 110 block of the Pearl Street Mall just east of the split rock sculptures, east of Boulder Bookstore each day in October. Rain or shine, snow or wind, this daily dance for the community will be part ritual and part spectacle as she explores the changes that might occur over an extended period of time. Without recorded musical accompaniment, she looks forward to the ambient sounds of people talking and going about their business. Haan says, “I will choreograph a loose structure as a starting point to be repeated each day with whatever variations happen. I’m also bringing a small white wooded pedestal to help ground where I am and delineate the area. Dancing out-of-doors or producing site-specific work is not new, but it’s always a little risky. That variable often brings a new excitement to how we look at artists and art making.”

Haan will be dancing for herself as well as the community, and has set up a day-to-day diary online to document the process. People are encouraged to bring their cameras, cell phones or other recording devices and post what they see to You tube, then forward the links to her www.HAANdances.com site. Her Web site will also have a place for people to log comments if interested.

Photos: Mary Wohl Haan / HAAN Dances from her recent performances in the Boulder Fringe Festival

Photos by Heather Gray Photography

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ABOUT MARY WOHL HANN

Mary Wohl Haan, modern dance choreographer, teacher and performer, took her first dance class as a sophomore at the University of Toledo with Elaine Valois. After receiving an Master of Fine Arts degree in choreography from the University of Utah, she spent nine years in Chicago as faculty at Columbia College Dance Center and principal dancer with Mordine & Company Dance Theater. Performing in New York City, across the Midwest and at the World Expo in Brisbane, Australia, she won Chicago’s 1989 Ruth Page Award for Outstanding Dancer of the Year. Since moving to Colorado, she has taught and produced concerts across the country.

As Artistic Director of HAAN Dances in Boulder, she creates original solos and group dances and commissions solo work for herself from other artists. Haan has been an integral part of the Boulder dance community for 20 years, and is currently coordinator of the Boulder Arts Commission’s dance resource project, Dance Bridge.

Growing up as one in a family of twelve children, her choreographic work stems from a belief that one-among-the-many can speak of our human condition and commonality, and still develop a uniquely individual voice. She continues to be excited about the possibilities for dance and performance, collaboration and experimentation. Mary teaches in the local community and is also a competitive master’s swimmer.