Downtown Dance Center to Disappear?

Our Town Downtown — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 19:04:24 +0000

Dancers Warm Up Photo by Amy Eley

Lower Manhattan’s Dance New Amsterdam in danger of closing

By Amy Eley

On the second floor of Dance New Amsterdam’s downtown studio, a dancer balances his weight on his palms while extending his legs into the air. An arm’s reach away, a woman practices her pirouettes. This studio, often referred to as DNA, is an epicenter of the city’s dance community.

“There is nowhere else in New York City for dancers to have space and time to develop their craft,” said Martha Chapman, chairman of the board. “DNA is an integral linchpin in the community.”

But this linchpin, which has been part of the Manhattan dance scene since 1984, is at risk of becoming loosened from Lower Manhattan’s culture scene within the coming weeks.

The nonprofit organization, at 280 Broadway, lost a major sub-leaser of studio space in the summer months, leaving the organization with a $150,000 rent deficit. The studio has been able to gather $50,000 to pay part of the past due rent, through earned revenue, fundraisers, silent auctions and donations.

Still, Catherine Peila, executive and artistic director of DNA, says the group is in crisis mode to produce the $100,000 difference.

“It’s a working beehive, and everyone is buzzing,” said Peila. “There isn’t a lazy bone in the house.”

Peila is not exaggerating; the studio swarms with activity. It houses six dance studios, a 150-seat theater and approximately 140 classes each week. On a recent evening, a teacher pounded a drum in studio one, providing eight dancers with a tempo as they dipped their torsos to the floor with their hips centered to stretch. The neighboring room teaches Gaga (no relation to the pop star), an Israeli-based choreography. And at the end of the hallway, the sound of handclaps and feet pattering on wood floors fills the air during a flamenco class.

Even local politicians are providing support for the studio, including Julie Menin, former chair of Community Board 1 and a candidate for Manhattan borough president.

“It brings a real support of arts to the area,” said Menin. “People from all over the city come to attend.”

State Sen. Daniel Squadron says the studio is a driving force in downtown’s efforts to recover from 9/11. In June, Squadron helped DNA reach a new lease agreement before the sub-leaser abandoned the nonprofit.

“DNA has been an integral part of Lower Manhattan’s recovery, and critical to our neighborhood’s emergence as one of New York’s burgeoning cultural centers,” said Squadron.

Phone calls to the studio’s landlord were not returned.

The studio’s disappearance will be a loss to the city’s dance culture, eliminating what many in the industry say is an essential stepping-stone for performers on the road to professional dancing, says Peila, the executive director.

For aspiring dancers, the loss of the studio will cut deep. Fresh out of college in 2008, Anna Adams Stark, now 26, began taking dance classes while also getting involved with DNA’s production apprenticeship program that teaches participants the ins and outs of producing a show. As a result, Stark says she has learned skills both on and off the dance floor that have led to paying jobs. After meeting modern dancer Alexandra Beller at DNA, Stark became her rehearsal stage manager.

“Most of my jobs I’ve gotten are through people I’ve met in class or in the hallway at DNA,” said Stark. “It really is a community. People really want to be here. People really want to learn. These are my people.”

Gov. Cuomo Proposes Reduced Penalty for Public Possession of Marijuana

NYPress — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 19:33:54 +0000

Photo by saebaryo. Photo courtesy of Flickr Commons.

Cuomo seeks to loosen marijuana policies, while some lawmakers call proposal too lenient

By Paul Bisceglio

Get caught with a joint hidden in your pocket in New York and you get a fine. Get caught with a joint tucked behind your ear or lit in your hand and you get arrested. Concealed possession of 25 grams or less of marijuana is a violation, while possession of the same amount in public view is a misdemeanor. Simple distinction, right?

Nope. Consider this: A cop stops you on the street and tells you to empty your pockets, and along with your wallet and keys, out into the open comes the small bag of pot you wanted to smoke at home. Because you followed the cop’s orders, and only because you followed the cop’s orders, you are now subject to a much more severe punishment than when you were whistling down the sidewalk with Mary Jane ensconced by your side.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo started a charge last week to erase this “loophole” in law enforcement, as many officials have called it, by proposing a change in state law that would reduce the penalty of visibly possessing 25 grams or less of marijuana in public to a violation with a fine of up to $100 for first-time violators.

Cuomo maintained that smoking in public should remain an arrestable misdemeanor, but argued that a reduced penalty for visible weed that’s not burning would combat the discriminatory police stop-and-frisk tactics that contributed to the arrest of over 50,000 New Yorkers for possession of small amounts of marijuana last year.

“This is an issue that disproportionately affects young people—they wind up with a permanent stain on their record for something that would otherwise be a violation,” he said when he announced the proposal. “The charge makes it more difficult for them to find a job. Together, we are making New York fairer and safer and ensuring that every New Yorker has access to a justice system that doesn’t discriminate based on age or color.”

The numbers are telling. Cuomo pointed out that 50 percent of those arrested last year were under 25, and less than 10 percent were ever convicted of a crime. 82 percent were either black or Hispanic. When compared to federal government data on drug use showing that whites use marijuana at higher rates than blacks or Hispanics, the likelihood of police discrimination becomes clear.

Supporters see Cuomo’s proposal as a necessary continuation of the decriminalization of concealed marijuana in 1977 that will not only protect unlawfully targeted youths from arrests that harm their education, job and housing prospects, but also free up significant police resources to concentrate on graver crimes.

“The over 50,000 arrests for low-level marijuana possession last year—one out of every seven arrests in New York City—cost the city and state of New York nearly $75 million in police and court costs,” said Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, speaking in support of Cuomo’s announcement.

“The simple and fair change proposed by Governor Cuomo will help us redirect significant resources to the most violent criminals and serious crime problems and, frankly, is the right thing to do,” said District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance.
Other officials who endorsed Cuomo’s proposal include City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn, New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and State Sen. Daniel Squadron. A major coalition of advocacy groups, including Color of Change, Drug Policy Alliance, VOCAL-NY and the Institute for Juvenile Justice Reform and Alternatives launched an online video campaign following the governor’s announcement in support of the change.

Opposed to the proposal is the State Senate’s Republican majority, headed by Dean Skelos, who argued that the change would be excessively lenient. “Being able to just walk around with 10 joints in each ear and only getting a violation, I think that’s wrong,” he told reporters. He said the proposal would not pass his chamber in its current form.

On the police’s manipulation of stop-and-frisk tactics to garner arrests, however, Skelos said, “That is wrong. It should be a violation. You’re following the policeman’s order.”

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Downtown Dance Center to Disappear?

Gov. Cuomo Proposes Reduced Penalty for Public Possession of Marijuana