In the News

Kindly visit www.artbark.org for news on how SonneBlauma evolved.  

2013

HIGHLIGHT!  We were listed in the NY times in print and online and a lovely preview article came out in the Brooklyn Paper. We were well pleased with our first East Coast production!

ADaPT FESTIVAL SERIES

INTERNATIONAL

GIFT Magazine, Austrian Theater Magazine 

Austria meets California at Raw Matters Adapt Special - pages 34-35

Article pertaining to the second in the ADaPT Fest series which sprouted in Vienna, Austria.  We are presented as a part of the "alternative scene" next to an article about ImPulsTantz

AFFINITY PROJECT - AFFINITY FEST

LOCAL

Santa Barbara Independent

Dance Festival of the Week: Affinity III 

Annual Event Promotes Artistic Collaboration

preview by Elizabeth Schwyzer

Santa Barbara Independent

Affinity III, at Various Locations 

Mini Dance Festival Brought Artists Together from Across U.S.

Review by Elizabeth Schwyzer

NOOZHAWK

Review: NECTAR Collaboration Exhibits ‘Affinity’ for Dance

Review by Justine Sutton

Santa Barbara News Press

ON STAGE: The Lab of Collaboration - Art Bark's Affinity Fest Is the Soul of Artistic Sharing 

Preview by Ted Mills

Link to pay per view article

AFFINITY PROJECT - AFFINITY I

Santa Barbara News Press

Affinity: SB-ADaPT Fest Sprouts

ONSTAGE: Sayonara SonneBlauma, Hello ArtBark - Co-Artistic Directors Misa and Stephen Kelly are mellowing a little, but don't expect them to retire from a life in the arts anytime soon

By Dan Kepl

Link to pay per view article

"Last year, SonneBlauma Danscz Theatre co-founders Misa and Stephen Kelly, had an idea: send an email to the world, inviting dance and physical theater artists to come to Santa Barbara — at their own expense — for what was dubbed A Dance and Physical Theatre (ADaPT) Festival. Never underestimate the power of the internet, or the nearly indefatigable energy of the Kellys, nor the impression our little paradise on the Pacific has on the outside world. Last year's ADaPT Fest was huge, drawing artists from throughout the U.S. and Europe to Santa Barbara for several shows at various venues around town"

Santa Barbara Independent

A Review of SonneBlauma’s Final Show  Review by Elizabeth Schwyzer

Santa Barbara Independent

Affinity: SB-ADaPT Fest Sprouts  Preview by Elizabeth Schwyzer

2011

INAUGURAL SB-ADAPT FEST

Santa Barbara Independent

SB-ADaPT Festival at Center Stage Theater 

Dance Meets Physical Theater from All Over on Sunday, June 19

Review by Charles Donelon

"The inaugural SB-ADaPT Festival took over Center Stage Theater last weekend with two full programs—Alpha and Omega—that brought together dance and physical theater companies from as far away as Istanbul and as close by as Long Beach to create a magical atmosphere of excitement and aesthetic adventure. Organized in a thoroughly grassroots manner by dancer/choreographer Misa Kelly, SB-ADaPT contributed not only a beautifully executed set of programs to the community but also an example of how much can be accomplished on a small budget by like-minded artists willing to take chances and engage in genuine international exchange."

Santa Barbara Independent 

Experimental Artists Converge on Santa Barbara

Preview by Elizabeth Schwyzer!

Santa Barbara News Press 

DANCE REVIEW: Making art, making community at the ADaPT festival : Upstart festival's showcase event featured daring emerging genres Saturday at Center Stage Theater 

Review by Daniel Kepl

pay per view article

Santa Barbara News-Press

Cover of Scene Magazine

ART and its ADaPTations

Preview BY DANIEL KEPL, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT 

pay per view article

Santa Barbara News-Press

ONSTAGE: The Surfacing of the S.B. Artistic Underground - The first bi-annual festival of dance and physical theater has found a soul mate in the Fishbon Artists Collaborative 

Preview by Daniel Kepl 

pay per view article

Santa Barbara News Press

ONSTAGE : Meeting at the Center - SB-ADaPT Festival celebrates movement and emerging genres in its second weekend and emerging genres in its second weekend 

Preview by Daniel Kepl 

pay per view article

3 Cities: 3 Choreographers Project 

Three California Choreographers Collaborate, Strength in Numbers - by Elizabeth Schwyzer (Independent)

Getting three for one: Delightful selection of choreographer's recent works TED MILLS, NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT 

"The evening was like a good mixed tape made by a friend who wants to turn you on to the newest in new. Consider that mission accomplished."

3 Cities: 3 Choreographers - by Rebecca Joley (LA Yoga) 

"Kelly’s pieces – especially Nadar Sabe Mi Llama el Agua Fria – explored the coexistence of athletic genius and disability in the same body, while maintaining an insistence on aesthetic appeal." 

FEATURE ARTICLES

Up Close With Misa Kelly: A Choreographer with a Mission - by Elizabeth Schwyzer (Independent)

Art Unframed - by Felicia Tomasko (Independent) 

Steven Libowitz did a really delightful work that flattered Misa's soul for the Montecito Journal called "Dance Me to the End of Time."

ADDITIONAL PREVIEWS AND REVIEWS

Audience Participation Encouraged - by Elizabeth Schwyzer (Independent) 

New Works in Dance at Center Stage - by Charles Donelan (Independent) 

Kinesis at Center Stage - by Elizabeth Schwyzer (Santa Barbara Independent)

"Beneath the hot stage lights, 11 dancers march in unison. They wear knee pads and bike shorts. One girl sports a short kilt. A boy wears a white dress shirt unbuttoned; a skinny red tie hangs from his bare neck. Bright paint streaks their faces, and as they march, they confront the audience, chanting: “Taka taka taka taka!”

A slender young man breaks away from the group. In a lacy blouse and white gloves, he’s gorgeous and ghostly, his poses suggesting feminine seduction. A moment later, he’s whisked back into the tribe.

The dance is “Flint,” created by Misa Kelly for a group of Santa Barbara City College (SBCC) dance students, and it represents a shift for the Dance Alliance’s annual showcase. In its new incarnation asKinesis, the showcase formerly known as New Works aims to include a broader swath of the community’s dancers and choreographers. This year marks the first time SBCC students have been able to take part, as well as the first time Kelly has set work on them, and the result was electric."

The Fourth Annual Mix-Match Festival - by Steven Woodruff (Dance Plug) 

"Here are some of the (festival) highlights...Kelly, a woman slight in stature, proved an overwhelming and formidable presence on stage in her work which used her own vocalizations in a psychological journey. In the end she retreats into blackness with a series of looming balances. It was slightly terrifying." 

Dancing Out Loud - by Justine Sutton (Noozhawk) 

"Misa Kelly choreographed and performed “Ranunculus,” a solo set to a mix of eclectic music and vocalizations. 

Kelly is clearly a highly-trained and accomplished dancer, and yet unlike many, she is also capable of projecting great expression. Between frenzied moments of leaping and tossing her body about wildly while making guttural sounds in her throat, she would pause and give the audience such an arch look over her shoulder that the texture of the piece immediately deepened. 

Some dance tells a story, some is abstract. This piece seems to present an abstract story, dreamlike — but one of those odd dreams where lots of strange, disjointed things happen and you’re afraid if you tell anyone about it, you might sound kind of crazy. Perhaps it is an embodiment of the subconscious mind, with all its twists and turns. At once tragic and heroic, innocent and all-knowing, the persona Kelly presented here was as fascinating as the piece was gorgeously multilayered." 

www.socal.com

MixMatch Festiva1 2011 

Under No Certain Circumstances

"An Audience Favorite"