GREENE MILE
Follow a trail to neighborhood tales
COURIER L 38 IFE, SEPT. 27-OCT. 3, 2019
Swing music
TBy Rose Adams hese performers are
reaching new heights!
A group of freshly
minted circus artists will take
to the skies this weekend,
exhibiting their experimental
acrobatic and aerial routines
at a Bushwick big tent. The
Evolving Artist Showcase,
hosted by circus school the Muse
on Sept. 28, will feature eight
graduates of the company’s preprofessional
intensive program,
displaying their skills with
trapeze, swinging hoops, and
a host of other high-flying
circus tricks — often adding
their own personal twists to the
techniques.
One Crown Heights artist
plans to incorporate singing
into her aerial silks routines,
turning her death-defying debut
into a theatrical performance as
much as a circus show.
“I’m 100 percent acting
and embodying the character
I’m trying to portray,” said
Christina Schwelder, who will
belt out “Endangered Species”
by Dianne Reeves during the
Sept. 28 showcase. Schwelder
says she will embody the jazz
diva’s spirit while climbing up
the silk rope, singing a new
verse each time she pauses to
strike a pose. Drummer Rick
Smith and singer Sirintip will
accompany her, playing along
while the artist dangles from
the silk rope by her ankles and
sings upside down.
Schwelder, who was trained
as a vocalist, started learning
acrobatics in 2015 as a hobby,
and quickly grew to love the art.
“It’s the first active thing
I found that made me feel
strong and beautiful at the same
time,” she said. “I’ve never had
anything feel so right.”
Combining acrobatics with
her musical background created
a new art form that Schwelder
had never seen before.
“It’s something new to add to
the circus world,” she said.
The Sept. 28 show’s other
acts will include acrobats
spinning from a hoop suspended
from the ceiling and wall
running acts, where performers
dash along the wall while
strapped into harnesses. Each
routine will showcase a wide
range of acrobatic abilities, said
the circus school’s founder and
director.
“You’ll see gorgeous
acrobatics, flips, tumbling,
different kinds of splits, and
feats of flexibility,” said Angela
Buccinni Butch, who founded
the Muse 10 years ago. Watching
the dancers, who choreographed
their own routines with a oneon
one coach, offers an exciting
glimpse into the future of circus
arts, she said.
“It’s like watching the rising
stars,” Butch said. “This is the
next generation of performers.”
“Evolving Artist Showcase”
at the Muse 350 Moffat
St. between Irving and
Knickerbocker avenues in
Bushwick, (929) 400–1678,
www.themusebrooklyn.com.
Sept. 28. at 8 pm. $20.
Boy in brew
HBy Kevin Duggan e poured his heart into his
passion!
A new documentary
follows a Sunset Park lawyer who
quits his job to become a master
beer brewer. “Brewmaster,” which
screens at the 12th annual Bushwick
Film Festival on Oct. 5, shows how
Drew Kostic takes a leap of faith,
leaving his steady job in favor of a
wild passion project — a bold step
that intrigued the film’s director.
“I like this journey of how hard
he’s trying and how hard he believes
in it, it’s almost like this blind faith,”
said Doug Tirola.
Tirola shows his subject’s
evolution with creating beer,
starting with brewing batches in
his apartment, then presenting his
product at beer events around the
country, and eventually becoming
the head brewer at Circa Brewing
Company in Brooklyn’s Downtown.
The filmmaker documents
Kostic’s rise, along with that
of a Milwaukee beer educator
who trains to attain the highest
certification among beer experts,
by passing the Master Cicerone
exam.
Both stories illustrate how the
craft beer movement has grown in
recent years, said Tirola.
“It’s for those who are interested
in beer, but also those who are beer
drinkers but not thinking about it
every day. The film tells the story
of how craft beer became a bigger
thing,” he said.
He hopes his film will appeal to
anyone who wants to take a risk and
pursue their dreams.
“Anybody who dreams of doing
something big — whether it’s
opening a restaurant or a brewery —
where the odds are so against you,
will see themselves in this story,”
Tirola said.
The movie will join more than
100 films at this year’s Bushwick
Film Festival, taking place all
over the northern nabe and the
surrounding area, from Oct. 2-6.
“Brewmaster” at Chemistry
Creative 305 Ten Eyck St. between
Morgan Avenue and Waterbury
Street in Williamsburg, (347) 450–
3464, www.bushwickfilmfestival.
com. Oct. 5 at 7:30 pm. $12. Festival
runs Oct. 2–6 at various locations.
YBy Aidan Graham ou can uncover a treasure
trove of stories!
A series of short
theatrical and dance performances
will reveal the stories of Fort Greene
— but audiences will have to hunt
for them! “Pop Up: An Artistic
Treasure Hunt,” running Oct. 4–6,
will send audience members on
a creative treasure hunt through
Fort Greene, following clues on a
hand-drawn map to the next artistic
interpretation of the neighborhood,
said the show’s director.
“You walk around, following the
clues to find the next performance,
and visit these different
performances that all happen in
different parts of Fort Greene,”
said Leese Walker. “It makes the
neighborhood come alive.”
Each night, visitors must unlock
the secret locations of five unique
performances, each based on true
stories that Walker gathered while
interviewing Fort Greene residents
last spring.
“We tried to interview a
broad range of people,” said
Walker. “We got some really
interesting responses. We found
out some rumors, secrets about
the neighborhoods, people’s
dreams, their impressions of the
neighborhood. And then we use all
that material.”
The free shows can be seen more
than once, said Walker: the shows on
Friday and Saturday will be largely
the same, but the Sunday afternoon
and evening performances will
feature completely different stories,
and every night contains a heavy
dose of improvisation.
“There’s several places where
any of the performers can pull from
any of the interviews during their
improv,” she said. “For example,
one piece features a string trio
playing while an actor performs
a monologue. Several things we
uncovered in the interviews
may come up in the improvised
monologue.”
Other scenes feature pre-set
numbers directly inspired by details
uncovered in the interview process,
according to Walker.
“There’s going to be a percussion
piece, because there were several
people who told us that the ‘sound
of Fort Greene’ was percussion and
drums,” she said.
Walker, a Prospect Heights
native who now lives in New Jersey,
said the interviews unveiled a widespread
desire for more greenery in
Fort Greene.
“A lot of people that we
interviewed wished there was more
trees in the area — more greenery,
and less skyscrapers. So that is
definitely going to come up in a
few places,” she said. “One of the
ways that will manifest itself is with
a clown — Agent Green — whose
mission it is to ‘green-up’ Fort
Greene with balloons and things
like that.”
“Pop Up: An Artistic Treasure
Hunt” location in Fort Greene
location provided the day prior, sign
up at www.strikeanywhere.info/
tickets.cfm. Oct. 4–5 at 7 pm; Oct.
6 at noon and 5 pm. Free.
Circus showcase features
a new singing aerialist
Dance of France: The 20-member cast of the “Artistic Treasure Hunt,” which last
performed in France, will put on a series of dance and theater performances around
Fort Greene on Oct 4–6. Guillaume Le Baube
Kitchen craft: Drew Kostic starts with
homebrewing and works his way up
to head brewer at Brooklyn’s Circa
Brewing Company, in the documentary
“Brewmaster” screening in the Bushwick
Film Festival on Oct. 5. Sean Cooper
Rising high: Christina Schwelder, an aerialist and a singer, hopes to pursue a
career in circus arts or in theater. Georgia Cross
/www.themusebrooklyn.com
/www.bushwickfilmfestival
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/www.themusebrooklyn.com
/www.bushwickfilmfestival
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