Founded by Natica and Richard Angilly, the Dancing Poetry Festival offers poets and performers an incredible outlet for creative expression and showcases a wide array of local talent. Find these longtime OPEN EXCHANGE listers in our Dance & Movement category.

It has been said that you are what you eat: I eat poetry for breakfast, lunch and dinner! And when it is nearing the time for my annual Dancing Poetry Festival, I snack on poetry for between meal treats! I have found that poetry, old and new, lets me savor emotion as it shares inspiring thoughts that satiate and motivate the senses. On first read of new poems, and in the pursuit of becoming a factor in the art of becoming a poem, sometimes along with the feelings, emotions and moments of revelation, a color appears and I say "Aha! This poem is green, red, fuchsia, light orange." The work may bring forth a connection or a visual sensation of a season and therefore impart a whole pallet of color that leads us to bringing the work to the stage in vivid color. Often we share our ideas in progress, and recently we asked the poet: "Do you think your words really go with this tonality and concept of our dance," and the poet said: "Yes! Sure it's an autumn poem and you are painting moving images with the colors of autumn".

"Not to be recorded, but a felt in the part, in this fabric, this texture, this intricacy, this organic music!" is a line from my poet husband Richard Angilly's poem "Organic Music." It suggests the feelings a poem can give of deeply felt emotions about the wonder which surrounds us. Sometimes the fusion of poetry with dance, or the impulses that lead us to extend our effort to becoming a poem, work so naturally. At other times the poetry seems to require long consideration and development time for a good or even a somewhat rocky relationship to manifest for the dancers, and for the poet to be able to say this is a working relationship, this piece works. Most poetic dances are harmonious, joyful, touching, piercing, moving, and internally satisfying reactions to the words. Of course there are as many ways to choreograph a piece as there are poems, the limits are only our abilities and perceptions, and our own course as to how we may relate or can become related to the work.

The last Dancing Poetry Festival (our 11th annual) produced some amazing challenges for our Poetic Dance Theater Company. One poem we brought from the page to the stage was in the form of a Pantoum (which consists of quatrains with repeating lines). The poem presented an immediate poignancy of memory and celebration of personal sacred moments in life experience, the changes, the lush and the barren times. The work was all held together with a poetic spine of a ubiquitous object in a certain time zone of American culture. Called "Pantoum for Blue Cologne," it had been submitted to our annual poetry contest and search for new poetry to choreograph. The use of antique tea-dyed wedding dresses helped our dancers of all ages come together in celebration of the memory and anticipations of a major life turning point. One of the dancers said: "I love this, but did we find these in our attics and want to show them to each other?" – "Yes, yes exactly, I said. If you got this message maybe the audience will also enjoy the concept." The music came to me immediately with a somewhat soulful heartfelt tone from the composer Scriabin, and the whole performance seemed to fall together easily, with each performer having some personal relationship to the concept of life ceremony, celebrated with an indelible personal and idealized social memory. The audience responded extremely well and the poet was very impressed with what we had created using her poem.

We also had a red dance this year called "Autumn Tango," and it was winner in Spanish and English. It was written in Spanish and each following stanza was the English translation. The title, the essence, revealed itself musically and with very lyrical movements of the tango. Four dancers offset the central couple who punctuated the essence of the tango.

A more challenging work was the Grand Prize winning poem based on the news story about the ancient bone of a crane recently found in China, which was believed to be the first flute. The poem called for an archetypal discovery that re-connected all the woodwind instruments which had been developed later, and identified the playing of this flute as the mother calling to her new prodigy. We had a wonderful time with this piece, as well as some moments of trepidation, because it spoke of the mud where the crane bone had been found, and the idyllic romance or attraction to the flute by its discoverer. We were lucky again that some iridescent fabrics came our way and we all felt inspired to unusual approaches toward moment, space and time. With a work this large we were careful to try to develop something out of the ordinary. Overreacting and mundane movements were consciously avoided in our approach to the choreography. We had a great time allowing the influences of the woodwinds of the world to invite us to the dance. To became that poem with reverence and commitment is indeed an unforgettable life experience.

It is said that the test of excellence can be measured with three concepts. (1): Can you feel there is an honesty about your invested intent that is true to the nature of the work. (2): Do you maintain respect for your relationship to it. And (3): Do you like or appreciate the work. With these simple measurements to help in the striving to " become a poem", each work and each person furthers the very personal account. The alliance of kindred arts, the poem and the movements, the poet and the dancer, remains a beautiful adventure. We generally like to gravitate toward work that has lasting "listening" (that is, some line that can spark an eternal image), something we personally enjoy. We continue to hold the vision that we can meet the challenge as we seek to engage the poetry and the dance. Service to the spirit of the work that can breathe though us and our efforts may reveal to ourselves and others a new insight into the poetic. A splendor and a revelry in everyday life as well as amazing and extraordinary thoughts continue to give enlightening, stimulating and glorious opportunities for creating ourselves with the words of extraordinary beings – the workers of words, images, and thought – who are sometimes called "the Poet"!

Each year the challenge of bringing a moving image of poetry and dance is accepted by twelve performance companies chosen to show their own version of the state of the art of poetry with dance as a unified art form. Their expansive endeavor gives challenge for new works and words to be offered as stage production. Our Dancing Poetry Festival is presented to stimulate and expand and showcase the art, and is now in its 12th year, presented by Artists Embassy International and the Natica Angilly Poetic Dance Theater Company.