BLM in Utah

by Carl Flink on 15 July 08

BLM Artistic Associate Emilie Plauche Flink and Carl traveled in our minivan with our three daughters to conduct a summer residency at the Brigham Young University dance department in Provo, UT from July 21 – August 1. Emilie and Carl also set Carl’s piece “A Duet for Wreck” on the department’s student company.

McNight Artist Fellowship

by Carl Flink on 29 May 08

l was named a recipient of a 2008 McKnight Artist Fellowship for Choreographers, administered by the Southern Theater and funded by the McKnight Foundation. McKnight Fellowships for Choreographers. The fellowship comes with a $25,000 cash award that will help BLM tremendously in the coming year.

Southwest HS Program

by Carl Flink on 21 May 08

The Southwest High School Dance Program students premiered a new work by Carl called “We Who Are About To . . .” during their spring concert at the Lake Harriet Band Shell. The 6 minute piece for 30 dancers was created in five 50 minute rehearsals and was danced with grace and beauty by the Southwest dancers.

Boomerang

by Carl Flink on 6 May 08

The Boomerang Fund for Artists, Inc. surprised BLM with a $3,000 award “in recognition of [Carl and BLM’s] creative vision and the excellence with which [we] express that vision.” BLM thanks the Boomerang Fund and its president Joe Morra for this wonderful recognition. For information about the Boomerang Fund go to www.boomerangfund.org.

Other Happenings in the First Half of 2008

by Carl Flink on 1 February 08

In April 2008, Carl traveled to Bristol, RI to conduct a residency and set his piece Lost Lullabies on the student dance company at Roger Williams University dance program. Carl was honored to be asked by long-time program director and friend Kelli Wicke Davis to have Lost Lullabies on her last dance program concert before she retires. Kelli and the RW program gave Carl his first commission back in 1996. Good luck Kelli!

On January 30 & 31, 2008, BLM teamed up with the Twin Cities based dance company TU Dance to perform a new commission by Carl and Uri Sands for the Minnesota Orchestra’s Young People’s Concert series performance of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. This marked the first time Sands and Flink and their respective performing groups collaborated. This commission was made possible by funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and the University of Minnesota McKnight Endowment for the Arts and Humanities.

January 20, 2008, BLM closed its enormously successful run of Carl’s first evening length work Wreck at the fabulous Southern Theater in Mpls, MN. Dance Magazine critic Linda Shapiro wrote “The powerful dancers, risk-takers all, deliver the combination of buoyant athleticism and feral intensity that is a hallmark of Flink’s style. They often move in tight formation—either within shifting groupings of wooden benches that define the compartment in which they are trapped, or careening through space, colliding and rebounding off of one another. Sometimes it’s like watching a display of cascading fireworks: carefully sculpted forms filled with volatile explosions of light.” Dance Magazine Online February 2008.