Fridays 10:00am - 11:00am (EDT)
EPISODE SUMMARY:
To learn about the impact of nonprofit work, especially work like Dance Entropy and Green Space that directly serve our target populations.
The VG/DE Mission: - Create a platform for multicultural understanding through dance - Nurture connections between dance creation and education - Build community among dance artists - Foster physicality, creativity and empowerment in underserved communities
#dance #dancer #danceteacher #dancelove
Name of your organization: Valerie Green/Dance Entropy Website: https://www.danceentropy.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/danceentropy Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danceentropy/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/valerie-green-b13a1b26/
Tune in for this sensible conversation at TalkRadio.nyc
Tommy D extends a warm welcome to Valerie Green as a guest on the show. Valerie provides an insightful overview of her professional journey, elucidating the trajectory that has led her to her current position. She further expounds on her profound affinity for dance and shares her deep appreciation for the art form.
Tommy D extends acknowledgment to Valerie, presenting an overview of her background and her entry into the world of dance. Valerie provides insights into her organization's mission and objectives. She shares details about her imminent journey to Africa, outlining the scope of her forthcoming endeavors. Passionate about both instructing and performing dance, she underscores her dedication to these aspects. Valerie further reflects on her collaborations with various individuals in her past engagements, highlighting the valuable lessons gleaned from these experiences.
Valerie delves into the rationale behind her choice to establish a nonprofit organization, opting for this approach over a for-profit dance studio. Tommy D graciously promotes her website and highlights the array of events hosted at her studio. Expanding on the theme, Tommy D underscores the significance of community and its positive impact on mental well-being. Valerie, in turn, explores diverse forms of dance and their capacity to serve as a means of healing trauma.
Tommy D initiates the concluding segment of the show by extending his endorsement to Valerie's organization. In return, Valerie graciously provides her website and email address for individuals seeking further information or inquiries about the organization.
00:00:35.690 --> 00:00:45.599 Tommy DiMisa: those sounds, those tones, those noises mean. It's Friday morning. It's 10 am. And your buddy, the nonprofit sector
00:00:45.960 --> 00:00:50.109 Tommy DiMisa: connector is back at it again. Philanthropy and focus bit of a road show.
00:00:50.170 --> 00:01:17.370 Tommy DiMisa: You know, bit of a bit of travel going on. So I'm not 2 flights up from the kitchen, where I get my coffee. As I like to say, I am not just below the roof of my house. I am not in my attic. So if you're if you're only listening and didn't go to the Facebook or Twitch or Linkedin and all these other places, you can watch the show, and you're just listening. Well, you might. It might sound different. Might not sound like a guy who's still the way up in an attic.
00:01:17.920 --> 00:01:29.350 Tommy DiMisa: Maybe I do. Maybe it doesn't sound any different. I don't know. Valerie Green is my guest today. We're going to jump into everything. First of all Valerie Green, and entropy is the name of her organization. Good morning, Valerie. How are you?
00:01:29.790 --> 00:01:49.880 Valerie Green: Good morning, Tommy. I'm great glad you're not in your attic. Well, it's funny. It's I haven't been in the attic in a couple of days, so I don't know why, if it's hot in the attic or not, but oftentimes this year it is a bit warm in the attic. But listen. This show is philanthropy and focus, and, as I've said many, many times, I do a couple of things on this show.
00:01:49.940 --> 00:01:53.500 Tommy DiMisa: One of those things is, I help nonprofit organizations tell their story.
00:01:53.660 --> 00:02:11.409 Tommy DiMisa: and after that I help them amplify their message, and I like to help make connections. I bring people together. In fact, the way Valerie Greene and I had originally met was at an event. I'm sure you remember at the Queen's Chamber of Commerce. It was a networking event. If I'm not mistaken because I tend to do this.
00:02:11.410 --> 00:02:36.000 Tommy DiMisa: I throw on a red velvet jacket, usually, and at certain times in December, and I probably had that jacket on when we first met Tom Gradf, friend Levi, good friends of mine out of the Queen Chamber of Commerce. I'm always making connections for them, and they certainly are always making connections for me. And and you know, professionally personally, but also, as I say, professionally, in into the agency, into vanguard benefits, the benefits agency that I'm one of the partners in.
00:02:36.040 --> 00:02:37.740 Tommy DiMisa: but also just because
00:02:38.210 --> 00:03:06.569 Tommy DiMisa: they'll bring me relationships because they think I might be additive or helpful to those relationships. And I think, when I was at the the holiday event. I might have said Christmas, but the holiday event at the Chamber of Congress back in December, I was able to make some great connections in the room that day. And Valerie, you're the second person that I met that day that runs a nonprofit organization that has come on philanthropy and focus, and I only met 2 in the room that day, and both have now come on, or you're in the process of coming on the show. So we're doing that right now.
00:03:06.640 --> 00:03:18.859 Tommy DiMisa: So really, what we do on the show is I speak to the leader of this nonprofit organization. They're gonna tell me their stories. They're gonna tell me the programs of the organization, how the organization makes an impact. And then ultimately.
00:03:18.860 --> 00:03:45.850 Tommy DiMisa: people show up to pay attention to learn things here, and they also pay pay attention because they want to find out how they might be supportive of the organizations that I partner up with that I connected with that I build relationships with. So that's what's important. That's what the show is all about. This is episode like 100. 3,233. I sort of lost count. It's one of those things where I don't know why I was counting, anyway. But I guess we just because there's numbers we count them. But really it's it's just the labor of love. It's my passion.
00:03:45.850 --> 00:04:14.960 Tommy DiMisa: And I will tell you, Valerie, I was. Gonna say this kind of joke, for later on, when my theme song comes on, when we come back from the breaks, the theme song with the lyrics and stuff like that. But I'm wondering if there might be an opportunity for some interpretive dance that might explain Tommy D. And philanthropy and focus. I'm sure it would be someone shaking and bouncing around the stage. Just something like that in a in a harried frenzy pace. It almost sort of reminds me of
00:04:14.980 --> 00:04:31.590 Tommy DiMisa: oh, God! The movie being John Malkovich when John Cusack had at the end of the movie. He is John Malkovich, but he's got like marionettes, and he's he's like doing a puppet show. And it became a very and there was like this puppet step. I didn't even know we were. Gonna talk about this, Valerie. But this is the
00:04:31.640 --> 00:04:56.610 Tommy DiMisa: this is how the program goes. You know, it's a a bit of stream of conscious, and that's what's coming through my brain right now is that seen where the puppets are passing? Right? So let's do that. Maybe there is some interpretive dance. I would love to learn how to dance, and maybe then we can perform some dance together. See? That's pro this program, May. I'm not sure I'm not sure.
00:04:56.790 --> 00:05:03.799 Tommy DiMisa: Let's not do the dance today we'll we'll figure out like we'll have to collaborate on that. I mean, you're the choreographer. I'll just be the talent.
00:05:04.490 --> 00:05:26.090 Tommy DiMisa: Okay. How bold, how bold! I've never danced like in any sort of good way of my life, so we'll have to work on that. Listen, that would be awesome. Maybe we'll just dance. Well, let I want to dance right? Let's do this, Valerie. Let's talk instead of dancing right now. Let's stop dancing around the subject. Let's get into this.
00:05:26.240 --> 00:05:28.850 Tommy DiMisa: So I wanna ask you, what
00:05:29.480 --> 00:05:33.879 Tommy DiMisa: brought you to dance? What brought you to?
00:05:34.870 --> 00:05:47.840 Tommy DiMisa: You know I have friends who are dancers, and they, you know, went to dancing school as as little girls and little boys and things like that. But was this something that was always in in your world? Was it something that you were always connected to?
00:05:48.650 --> 00:05:58.019 Valerie Green: Well, I started dancing when I was 3 in a you know suburban dance studio, where you did tap jazz and ballet so I danced my whole life.
00:05:58.420 --> 00:06:12.359 Valerie Green: and then when I went to college, I stumbled upon modern dance, which I didn't even know existed. There really wasn't that access? I grew up in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, so we just didn't have access to, you know, other dance forms.
00:06:12.710 --> 00:06:41.360 Valerie Green: So when I stumbled into a modern class. I knew that was what was right for me. I knew that was where I belonged, and the reason why I think it's such an amazing dance form is because you can create anything out of nothing. You know, there's not like a codified form where la, for example, is very specific and modern dance. You can. You know why you walk in the studio? Nothing exists
00:06:41.630 --> 00:06:45.000 Valerie Green: and you create something, you know.
00:06:46.350 --> 00:06:55.349 Valerie Green: depending, you know, work could take a year to make. It could make a year and a half. It could be 6 months. But you start from from the place of like nothingness.
00:06:55.400 --> 00:07:02.990 Valerie Green: And that's sort of the beauty to me is just seeing what what evolves from this this space of exploration.
00:07:04.430 --> 00:07:09.119 Tommy DiMisa: Wow! So you know, I've heard that term before modern dance, but I don't think I'd actually
00:07:09.360 --> 00:07:20.050 Tommy DiMisa: heard it defined. So with with what you're saying. There, it sounds like less rules, or maybe there, I'd say no rules. Is it? Is that how it is?
00:07:20.780 --> 00:07:32.390 Valerie Green: I could? Yeah, I could. I could take that. There's not necessarily rules. I mean, there's ways to make dance. You know where you're looking at, you know. Structure and the architecture of the dance, and certain things like that.
00:07:32.560 --> 00:07:42.429 Valerie Green: To, you know, make the dance the best that it could be if you're presenting it for public. But it's you know, it's such a wide genre. There's so many aesthetics inside modern dance.
00:07:42.550 --> 00:07:43.880 Valerie Green: and
00:07:43.970 --> 00:07:47.169 Valerie Green: sometimes people might feel like it's
00:07:47.680 --> 00:07:59.959 Valerie Green: hard to understand. But there's so many types out there that I like to encourage people, you know. Maybe if you didn't like one thing, don't give up on it, and you know, see more, because there's so, there's so much diversity in the form
00:08:00.430 --> 00:08:10.939 Tommy DiMisa: that's awesome. II guess that's you know it's it's interesting, like I have. A friend of mine who's daughter has become a performer, is become a singer in in involved in
00:08:10.950 --> 00:08:30.800 Tommy DiMisa: first was involved in like community theater and local stuff, and now is is in the city doing different things. And I've watched him as an adult really evolve his own pace as a man in his early fiftys. That was, you know, grew up with an athlete, and was not, you know, was not into the theater didn't grow up in a community that really encouraged theater going and things like that. And I think
00:08:30.830 --> 00:08:47.869 Tommy DiMisa: I'll go even further, probably probably discouraged. It probably wasn't exactly the scene. It wasn't. Let's go to Broadway, I mean, I grew up growing. You know. My Nana always made sure we got to Broadway shows and things like that, so we had always been exposed to it. I remember my cousin
00:08:47.980 --> 00:08:51.150 Tommy DiMisa: was a performer. He was in foot loose one time.
00:08:51.240 --> 00:09:15.100 Tommy DiMisa: and we got to go see him perform in folk loose, and they got to go backstage, and that sort of stuff was really interesting and exciting and fun. And II it's funny I got. I don't know you cerebral wind, but you've been checking in on twitch man so, or man or woman, person, human being. I just want to say, Hey, what's up? He says the energy is different today. I kind of dig it. Good morning, Tommy. Yeah, the energy is a bit different. I felt a little different when it woke up today. I felt a little.
00:09:15.220 --> 00:09:38.369 Valerie Green: Maybe it's the travel schedule. Maybe it's just not in my attic, as I say. But I'm certainly in in the attic below this hat that attic moment taking me to see.
00:09:38.370 --> 00:09:45.870 Valerie Green: You know the ballet, even if you know I'm not a ballet dancer, and I'm grateful that I was exposed to different things.
00:09:46.160 --> 00:09:52.589 Valerie Green: And I think it makes a mark on a on a child. And definitely.
00:09:53.360 --> 00:09:59.480 Valerie Green: you know, I'm pursuing dance for a lifetime. Now I'm I'm a lifer. It's it's my whole life.
00:09:59.520 --> 00:10:00.770 Valerie Green: And
00:10:00.800 --> 00:10:08.030 Valerie Green: it's grown and changed with me, you know, as I evolve as a human and my my interest. And you know
00:10:08.310 --> 00:10:32.770 Tommy DiMisa: my own evolution. My work changes with me. So it's something I just wrote down. I want to show you my notes. I literally just thought wrote down evolution, wanted to show it says like, as you were saying, and I wrote down evolution. I didn't know that you were going to say that, because I think that's what you're saying there to me. I was feeling you, and I was going. You know what it is, man, there's so much to be connected to this, so much to try out in life, and life goes by pretty quick.
00:10:32.930 --> 00:10:34.700 Tommy DiMisa: And you know.
00:10:34.980 --> 00:10:53.039 Valerie Green: gosh, man, if there's an opportunity to try something new would be exposed to something new, or learn about something new. Valerie, like? Isn't that the thing, man? Isn't that what we should be doing? I always somehow end up challenging myself in a different way. Just sort of happens. It's not like, Oh, how can I challenge myself now? It just sort of
00:10:53.070 --> 00:11:06.430 Valerie Green: organically, is something new and different each time. So for me, the process of making dance is really fulfilling. It's fun. It's all immersive.
00:11:06.590 --> 00:11:16.010 Valerie Green: I'm really. I love the process. I the performance is great, too, but the process is, I think, the most fun part for me.
00:11:16.370 --> 00:11:27.450 Valerie Green: What does that mean? Cause I'm not sure, I guess with the process versus the performance. Is it the creative side is that we're referring to the creation of the work? So you know, you could be creating a work like I said.
00:11:27.480 --> 00:11:40.129 Valerie Green: for 6 months or a year. So you know that whole time of exploring it, questioning it, being curious about it, challenging yourself about it, you know, even invite people into my process
00:11:40.220 --> 00:11:45.079 Valerie Green: that I'm that I know and are trusted. To get feedback. So
00:11:45.090 --> 00:11:57.499 Valerie Green: it's a living and breathing art form that can can continue to change even when it premieres like there's still things you could be shifting and evolving with it.
00:11:58.010 --> 00:12:12.780 Tommy DiMisa: Well, I again, not knowing very much about dance at all. It to me. It's it's II could see, though, as you say, it isn't that another part of life. Like all these different things we test out, we try out, I mean, you know, like
00:12:12.930 --> 00:12:18.899 Tommy DiMisa: performance or business creation, whatever that might be. We're kind of
00:12:19.330 --> 00:12:29.299 Tommy DiMisa: trying things. It works, it doesn't work. Let's go back. Let's try this. Let's look at it this way. And the piece you said about you invite other people into your process. That sounds really cool, because, you know.
00:12:30.030 --> 00:12:37.969 Tommy DiMisa: that's where I think a lot of creativity comes out is when we sort of challenge each other and say, Well, what if you look at it this way? Just II hit a long drive yesterday and
00:12:38.170 --> 00:12:41.760 Tommy DiMisa: I was listening to
00:12:41.790 --> 00:12:45.069 Tommy DiMisa: the history of the beastie boys, and I was.
00:12:45.150 --> 00:12:48.169 Tommy DiMisa: And then there was an interview with Rick Rubin.
00:12:48.290 --> 00:13:16.859 Tommy DiMisa: and might be an adrock of the beastie boys and Spike Jones. And this was an interesting interview, and I think like if people didn't, you know, if if the young 1314 year old beasty boys don't meet Rick Rubin and Rick Rubin doesn't meet the beastie boys or all these things right? We're we're I don't know if we're destined to connect and collaborate with certain people, but I think something I was listening to this morning by Wayne Dyer, about just being open to, you know. Have an open mind. Never have a closed mind.
00:13:16.960 --> 00:13:33.110 Tommy DiMisa: And that's sort of the law of Attraction piece where we bring people into our sphere, you know, as a result of just putting out these vibes, you know. I don't know, you know, Valerie, part of the show is is me exploring things, and just kind of putting things out there and thoughts out there. But what's coming up for me from what you're talking about
00:13:33.750 --> 00:13:46.799 Tommy DiMisa: is really things that we can learn from each other, that we can take into our businesses, our creativity, whatever it may be. And I think there's so many nuggets of goal that we learn from each other, and having these types of conversation it's and it isn't just about.
00:13:46.820 --> 00:14:00.990 Tommy DiMisa: you know, raising funds. And it isn't about board governance, although obviously those are important things when we talk about nonprofit philanthropy, but it's a lot about the arts. Shout out to the New York City! Imagine awards! Shout out to the Long Island! Imagine or shout out to ken serene
00:14:01.580 --> 00:14:10.959 Tommy DiMisa: because one of the categories in the imagine awards is arts and culture, and it's a specific category unto itself, because arts and culture organizations.
00:14:10.980 --> 00:14:18.729 Tommy DiMisa: you know, may have a challenge if it's a head to head competition between arts and culture and an organization that served 200,000 people
00:14:18.770 --> 00:14:34.750 Tommy DiMisa: with food, that experiencing food, insecurity anyway, shout out to the imagine awards, Go to New York City! Imagine, or Nyc. Imagine Awardscom not really a commercial, just a big event that we'll have in October in New York City. So, Valerie, excuse me, we do have to take a quick break
00:14:35.360 --> 00:14:50.760 Tommy DiMisa: when we come back from the break I want to talk about. You know your experience in dance at at the college level. Some people have been you know your training. Some people have been influential. And let's get into some of the programs and some of the works that you've done at your studio. How's that sound
00:14:51.050 --> 00:14:52.379 Valerie Green: sounds great. Thank you.
00:14:52.710 --> 00:14:56.909 Tommy DiMisa: We will be right back. Philanthropy in office.
00:17:05.890 --> 00:17:27.859 Tommy DiMisa: You're watching somewhere. If you're seeing in streaming video, I'm dancing to my theme. Music, little interpretive dance. Shout out to Valerie Green because we're gonna work on it. We're gonna Collab man, we're totally gonna collab on that. You know what I got a lot to say before we get right back to this conversation. Shout-out to make Collins always looking out for me, and yes, the beasties and Rock, I believe, did introduce ll cool. Jay shout out to Hollis
00:17:27.859 --> 00:17:47.569 Tommy DiMisa: to Rick Rubin, Rick Rubin from Long Island. Look, Rick Rubin's from Long Beach, Long Island, and you know Mick also wanted to say to you, Valerie, shout-out to Cleveland, my Buddy Mick Collins paid for processing Cleveland guys. We bounced around the country but a bunch of times. But Mick's always looking out for me. He's always in my corner, you know, and and bringing information during the show. So he's
00:17:47.840 --> 00:18:07.359 Tommy DiMisa: he goes out on the Internet and shares your links to your website while we're talking while we're doing the show. So appreciate you, Nick. A great job in that presentation you made the other day. So Valerie Green is an active dancer, choreographer and teacher in the New York City dance community. Since 1,995 graduated the University, Miss. Wisconsin Madison, studying
00:18:07.370 --> 00:18:16.199 Tommy DiMisa: one of the Eric Hawkins, you will want to Eric Hawkins, school's last student. Did you have to tell us what that's about? And you sort of to create a platform
00:18:17.030 --> 00:18:38.199 Tommy DiMisa: of your own innovative movement, style, and artistic vision. We'll get back into some of the stuff. But here's what I want you to know. Every 42 dances, including 10 evening works, all which incorporate forms of original production, musical composition, innovative set design, or new media, you know, is probably something right down here, like
00:18:38.430 --> 00:18:57.019 Tommy DiMisa: the whole virtual thing. And what that's gonna look like. We're not gonna dive into it now. But I wonder just sets and backgrounds and different things, because, you know, I really usually am in an attic. I'm not in an attic now. I'm in a Co. Working space. I'm not in a hotel room, shout out to rebel, but I'm not in a hotel room. I had to find a Co. Working space so, Valerie.
00:18:57.020 --> 00:19:08.459 Tommy DiMisa: let's talk about that background. Let's talk about what W. What the organization looks like. Valerie Green. Dance entropy! What is the organization? What is it all about every day? What's the looking? Feel
00:19:09.930 --> 00:19:11.610 Valerie Green: sure.
00:19:11.990 --> 00:19:23.220 Valerie Green: well, we just celebrated our 20 fifth anniversary this year. So that's an exciting milestone and feel has a few different parts.
00:19:23.560 --> 00:19:48.069 Valerie Green: It is a not for profit. So one of the main parts is the professional dance company we perform in New York City. We do a lot in queens. So that's our home base where queens queens! Let's just shout out, Queens! Let's talk queens for a second shout out to queens, sorry for the other 5 boroughs. Queens is definitely top borrow. Let's go back again out to my Buddy Mcconnell. Let's go. Mets. Sorry, Valerie. Let's talk about queens. A lot of stuff out in queens
00:19:48.070 --> 00:19:57.480 Valerie Green: so we definitely have a stronghold and performed all over queens naturally, all over the rest of the city. We do things
00:19:57.480 --> 00:20:14.690 Valerie Green: in other States. I do a lot of international work. I'm actually leaving for Africa this evening in several hours. Albania, Armenia. I love that. These are now for me Armenia, Austria.
00:20:14.800 --> 00:20:24.060 Tommy DiMisa: Azerbaijan, Bosnia, Burkina, Faso, Canada, Colombia, Croatia. I'll stop at sea. But now you've performed in all these places.
00:20:24.370 --> 00:20:25.720 Valerie Green: Water perform yeah.
00:20:27.060 --> 00:20:35.650 Valerie Green: taught or performed. Sometimes I'm just teaching. Sometimes it could have been a performance, sometimes it's both. But it's where I've done creative work.
00:20:36.030 --> 00:20:47.929 Valerie Green: Yeah, that's awesome. So what's gonna happen in Africa before we go back into the day in and day out. It's a 2 week intensive of training and then creating a new dance work
00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:53.709 Valerie Green: on young dance professionals in Togo, West Africa. So.
00:20:54.160 --> 00:21:11.140 Valerie Green: and I haven't been to Togo. But I've been to Africa several times and actually met the director of this organization when I was teaching in Burkina Paso, similar type of project. So we've gotten this project together. And I leave tonight. So
00:21:11.180 --> 00:21:31.870 Valerie Green: wow, and and how 2 week intensive. So are you there 3 weeks, you know. The project is 2 weeks. So with the travel on either side, it's like 2 and a half till I meet the dancers.
00:21:31.880 --> 00:21:47.749 Valerie Green: They all speak French. It's not so much English there, I know. That'll be a challenge. Experience. you know I have to like dig back, and the recesses of my mind my high school French which was quite good back then, but it's been a while. So
00:21:48.440 --> 00:21:57.940 Valerie Green: you know, it'll be like we say in the dance world arms and legs. And you know we communicate, and maybe some Google translates, and
00:21:58.060 --> 00:22:12.340 Tommy DiMisa: you know what you could do. I keep hearing these ads on the radio for app. I don't know how long the flight is to West Africa. But maybe you can learn French, relearn it on the way to the on the flight over. I mean, it's an app. I'm sure you just get the app and learn it. I don't know.
00:22:28.170 --> 00:22:50.170 Tommy DiMisa: and worked in restaurants for many, many years, and the Spanish that we that I would speak, and that the the English of the guys in the kitchen when we would connect with more Spanglish. It was somewhere we sort of met in the middle, you know, and then a lot of the boards we learned from each other were not very nice words. So we you know, it's probably not words. I would teach my definitely not words. I would teach my chest.
00:22:50.510 --> 00:23:03.449 Tommy DiMisa: Yeah, it's French, exactly. And then I'll tell you this. I didn't think I would ever tell this so what I was like 1415, 16, something like that. And there was a book that I picked up. It was called Mierda
00:23:03.800 --> 00:23:26.489 Tommy DiMisa: and Meredum means shit in in Spanish, and that was a book, and it just taught you all bad things to say. So there you go, gang, if you're looking for all the bad things to say in Spanish, pick up that book again. I don't know where this comes from sometimes, Valerie. I just tell stories here. So you're getting down. You're gonna get down there. And are these people that have danced before they have a background? So they all do. They have to get
00:23:26.490 --> 00:23:35.499 Valerie Green: like at a certain level for you to be engaged. I'm not organizing the dancers. That's what the director of the organization does, but it will be
00:23:36.180 --> 00:23:47.949 Valerie Green: He called them like younger professionals, so you know, I don't know what that means to him, but I will find out very soon so it'll be. It's specifically to be with 10, so it's a good number
00:23:48.060 --> 00:23:50.600 Valerie Green: to train and have good.
00:23:51.040 --> 00:23:54.939 Valerie Green: you know, personal contact, and then I will make a dance on them.
00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.000 Valerie Green: and then we will perform it on september second.
00:23:59.170 --> 00:24:05.570 Valerie Green: So how cool here! Here's a perfect example. I'm gonna walk in there, Tommy. Nothing is gonna exist.
00:24:05.840 --> 00:24:09.809 Valerie Green: And when I leave there's gonna be something, and I don't know yet.
00:24:09.830 --> 00:24:13.839 Tommy DiMisa: Oh, and so what a cool thing! What a you know.
00:24:14.150 --> 00:24:25.970 Valerie Green: like a blank canvas, or just a you know, blank choreography. When I go to these places.
00:24:26.300 --> 00:24:35.030 Valerie Green: somehow, there's something that emerges and we start to move and work together. I find that themes just come out, and
00:24:35.140 --> 00:24:46.699 Valerie Green: I work a lot with this stream of consciousness in my work, and I feel like each individual brings themselves to it in different ways. You know who they are, what their background is.
00:24:47.170 --> 00:25:08.639 Valerie Green: you know, maybe, what their hopes, their dreams are, their struggles, and somehow it it just easily appears what the theme is. So you know I have my work, my ways of working, certainly, and I do this frequently where I have to output a dance in 2 weeks and train people. So this is a structure that I know well and do often, and I know know how to do it
00:25:08.760 --> 00:25:33.819 Tommy DiMisa: so. But there is a very, very different, you know, results. So it's, you know, that'll be an exciting 2 weeks. So
00:25:33.860 --> 00:25:36.009 Tommy DiMisa: you know, it was either Lenin or Mccartney.
00:25:36.500 --> 00:25:46.690 Tommy DiMisa: and it was like sometimes and again, I'm not gonna get spiritual or religious right now, but it was like this thing where they didn't necessarily say that they were creating, but they were almost like
00:25:46.700 --> 00:25:57.009 Tommy DiMisa: receiving the information, and that became some of the output, you know. And I wonder if if if you see that similar that you're kind of open to
00:25:57.410 --> 00:26:18.090 Valerie Green: what what comes to you. You know whether it be the connection with the people that you're going to meet down there the 10 dancers or the director down there, and different things, or even just as you learn about the culture like it does a lot of that around. You sort of inform what that outputs going to be. Absolutely. I mean any dance who the dancers are will inform the piece
00:26:18.170 --> 00:26:31.490 Valerie Green: when I work with my company. I like that. They are different, and they're unique, but yet I can have them all dance beautifully together, and I like to pull out their strengths and their gifts. So I like to make each dance or shine.
00:26:31.590 --> 00:26:38.029 Valerie Green: So what I can say is, the dance turns out specifically knowing the dancer I'm working with, because I want them
00:26:38.130 --> 00:26:45.120 Valerie Green: to look amazing. And I'd like to, you know, dig in deep with who who they are as a person and let them shine so.
00:26:45.480 --> 00:26:48.320 Valerie Green: you know, if it wasn't like, say, you know.
00:26:49.060 --> 00:26:56.410 Valerie Green: certain set of dancers in a different set, it would come out different because they're they're different bodies, personalities. So
00:26:56.600 --> 00:27:10.740 Valerie Green: that's part of it. I'm definitely feel that I receive information from the universe is what I like to say and and feel like I'm a channel. So there's things that flow through me that are
00:27:10.990 --> 00:27:40.260 Valerie Green: far greater than me. Things that I'm like. This isn't from. You know this lifetime at least. So II feel very lucky, and that things just happen. They move through me and making work as an enjoyable process, for some people could be really hard and challenging. But, like I love it, it just works out, you know, I can make something, and maybe I don't understand. One piece is, but you know, over here on the side, maybe there's this, and I don't know like what it means yet in the end
00:27:40.290 --> 00:27:44.460 Valerie Green: everything will miraculously come together, and I'll be like, you know.
00:27:44.750 --> 00:27:52.589 Valerie Green: you know the universe directed and guided, and it moved through me, and everything is in the place. It's supposed to be so to me. That's beautiful.
00:27:52.590 --> 00:28:17.170 Tommy DiMisa: I love that. That's what I was feeling. That's what I was saying. And again, I think you know the Beatles certainly said that I see a lot of artists that that kind of say that. And you know whether it's whether you I close my eyes, everybody. But whether it's you're meditating is that meditation? It's that nature walking in nature connecting with nature. There's excuse me, I believe, wholeheartedly, that there's so much we're not in tune to and not aware of, because we have these blinders on. And we're staring at these things
00:28:17.170 --> 00:28:25.569 Tommy DiMisa: and this life and all that stuff, whereas, you know, I think there's so much going on outside of our view. And certainly,
00:28:25.640 --> 00:28:29.430 Tommy DiMisa: I guess below the surface, I wanna ask another question before we go to break about.
00:28:29.980 --> 00:28:32.809 Tommy DiMisa: Do you think in terms of
00:28:34.260 --> 00:28:36.359 Tommy DiMisa: Well, if if I was to compare
00:28:37.350 --> 00:28:42.650 Tommy DiMisa: to like a play or another type of work from like a movie or something like that.
00:28:44.090 --> 00:28:45.480 Tommy DiMisa: Is there ever
00:28:45.520 --> 00:28:50.869 Tommy DiMisa: a storyline as well? That be? You know that you're taking people through?
00:28:51.210 --> 00:28:55.620 Valerie Green: That's a good question. It varies in, you know, for every artist
00:28:55.920 --> 00:29:13.230 Valerie Green: for me. Sometimes there could be an abstract dance sometimes there's been very specific themes like. I had one whole dance. That was about what helmets different people in different countries. One dance that was what Utopia means to the dancers and to the collective of the dancers.
00:29:13.440 --> 00:29:22.770 Valerie Green: I just did a site specific piece at Socrates Sculpture Park that was inspired by this amazing giant installation.
00:29:22.830 --> 00:29:30.609 Valerie Green: and I was working with the artist writings on her process, and this piece was about water, and as a time plot sorry a water clot.
00:29:30.870 --> 00:29:40.570 Valerie Green: And so my process was revolving around what her writings were, and using them in abstraction to create movement and dance. So
00:29:40.860 --> 00:29:54.040 Valerie Green: you know, when you watch it, it's abstract, you know. Maybe you pick up whatever you pick up, but there's, you know, a rationale to me, and some pieces have a much stronger dramaturgy, so it depends on the work.
00:29:55.020 --> 00:30:01.370 Tommy DiMisa: So II just wanted to. I'm Googling, Socrates, Sculpture Park. You said right?
00:30:01.670 --> 00:30:04.379 Tommy DiMisa: And that's well that's in. It's in Long Island City.
00:30:05.330 --> 00:30:10.300 Tommy DiMisa: So when you do something like that? And you said it was related to that installation.
00:30:10.320 --> 00:30:20.490 Tommy DiMisa: Is that just like kinda a time and a place? And then that's it. It goes it, or does that sort of stuff? Will that come up again? And you'll do that performance again?
00:30:20.700 --> 00:30:22.270 Tommy DiMisa: The same dancers?
00:30:23.040 --> 00:30:34.209 Valerie Green: I could try to adapt it to another site. You know, it probably would need to be outside. It would be different. It would have to go back to this word of evolution. It would need to evolve
00:30:34.340 --> 00:30:48.469 Valerie Green: and have a like a rationale. You know, we contextualize. I am interested in that if it can continue to survive, and in another environment. I did do one site specific work that was around
00:30:48.520 --> 00:30:56.850 Valerie Green: go goat sculptures. And there's all sorts of goat sculptures. And it was about goats, and you're talking about goats. And it was inspired by goats.
00:30:57.290 --> 00:31:03.030 Valerie Green: and I thought there was a lot of interesting material there, and it took a couple years, but I re
00:31:03.430 --> 00:31:10.000 Valerie Green: molded it re, I don't know. Reexperienced it into a dance, you know, for the stage
00:31:10.090 --> 00:31:23.610 Valerie Green: that had nothing to do with goats, but like it sort of had a an evolution to this other sort of performative being. And then I figured that out. It was difficult, because it was trying to like. You know, you can't put
00:31:23.740 --> 00:31:33.769 Valerie Green: a square inside a circle, so it's like it needed to be reimagined. But I did, and then and then, and then Covid happened, and we didn't ever get to really re show it in its new form.
00:31:33.910 --> 00:31:37.799 Valerie Green: So it's it's possible it just it takes a little bit of work.
00:31:37.900 --> 00:31:39.269 Valerie Green: but it it can be done.
00:31:39.560 --> 00:31:45.410 Tommy DiMisa: Yeah, II hear as you talk, I hear like a lot of like trial and error or
00:31:45.480 --> 00:32:00.719 Tommy DiMisa: playtime, which I think I feel and and correct me if I'm wrong, if that's not right. But I feel like it's that play where you get to just play. And II think a lot of adults. And I think this is something that I think for sure disappoints me is we? We forget to play.
00:32:00.880 --> 00:32:10.019 Tommy DiMisa: you know we always work, and you know they always say, if you know the man or woman who does what they love never works a day in your life. Okay.
00:32:10.140 --> 00:32:10.940 Tommy DiMisa: maybe.
00:32:11.180 --> 00:32:21.290 Valerie Green: I think they work super hard, actually. But they're enjoying what they're doing. I think that's the differentiation. But what do you think about that before we go to break about playtime? Well, I think, yeah, I guess.
00:32:21.490 --> 00:32:25.809 Valerie Green: I wanna comment on like, I don't think there's an error in dance when you're exploring.
00:32:25.950 --> 00:32:48.649 Valerie Green: you try a lot of stuff, and it's like, Oh, that doesn't work. But it's not an error. It's like finding what's working the best like. I would never use that word. But I'll I'm often going to be like I'm really glad, you know we tried that, and that, you know, we know it doesn't work like. So it's about this trial exploration. It's play but I don't really think there's like error in that, because it's all about
00:32:48.650 --> 00:32:56.290 Valerie Green: yeah, it's play. And that's what makes it so fun. It's like, Oh, well, you know, I'm glad we know that doesn't work and something, and you're just sort of like a
00:32:56.320 --> 00:33:11.419 Valerie Green: it's like, I kind of feel like it's going like this through the dance, over and over and over to find like what it's Essen is essences and what's working the best. What is it trying to say? You know what? What is necessary, what's not necessary. What is the dance is essence.
00:33:12.020 --> 00:33:36.250 Tommy DiMisa: you know it's interest. Thank you for all that. It's interesting, because II sometimes I don't realize the words I'm saying so, trial and error meaning there was a mistake. But that that's a great correction, because I wrote down trial and opportunity, and you sit trial and exploration, and like, that's a totally words have so much meetings on, you know, on a conscious, but then a subconscious level and super again, you know what maybe we. Maybe you are vibe in on a different
00:33:36.250 --> 00:33:42.110 Tommy DiMisa: frequency today. Cerebral wind, you know. Maybe you're right about that, because learning a lot
00:33:42.260 --> 00:33:50.349 Tommy DiMisa: and this is more about life and exploration and things. I do want to come back when we come back earlier. I wanna ask you, you're gonna do this opportunity.
00:33:50.680 --> 00:33:53.680 Tommy DiMisa: Excuse me flying out to West Africa.
00:33:54.030 --> 00:34:13.140 Tommy DiMisa: I want to know. You talk about the output, and I'm curious. Don't answer me now. But will we be able to see and experience that output, because these days you can record everything. So let's talk about that when we come back and we'll talk about some programming. Eventually, we're going to get into how you all can connect with and help out this organization. We'll be right back. Philanthropy in focus.
00:36:11.480 --> 00:36:40.680 Tommy DiMisa: or other places when he's not in his attic. And then he wrote that song for me. I know, Valerie, I don't know if you know that Brendan Levy, who's one of the people who introduced us is a singer in a band, and he wrote that song. We wrote the song. We wrote the lyrics together, but he he's the singer, and did the music behind it, so I don't know if you know that, but one day we should. Maybe we'll go see Brendan Band. They call themselves damage goods. They used to be the goods back in the nineties, but now they're all the guy, so they call themselves damage goods. In fact, I think to play in the sun. August thirty-onest.
00:36:40.740 --> 00:37:07.290 Tommy DiMisa: Send me a note on on Instagram if you're local to the Long Island or New York City area, Tommy Dott, Nyc, and also I tried to do a thing. Maybe Logan, our producer, can help me out with this. I know he's into the gaming world and stuff. But I tried to create something on twitch because I got people that are reaching out connecting. And I don't really know much about it. So I did like a Tommy d Nyc thing on twitch. Or maybe it's Tommy D Underscore, Nyc. I can't really remember. I tried to look during the break.
00:37:07.290 --> 00:37:17.969 Tommy DiMisa: but we'll get back to all that stuff, but hit me up on Instagram if you want to talk about that, because, you know, we got a lot of ways to connect with people, and certainly, connecting with different communities. I looked at this word
00:37:17.990 --> 00:37:19.130 Tommy DiMisa: entropy
00:37:19.940 --> 00:37:23.679 Valerie Green: cause the organization's call, organize chaos.
00:37:23.770 --> 00:37:25.869 Tommy DiMisa: organized chaos. Wow.
00:37:25.930 --> 00:37:30.120 Valerie Green: it's a science word.
00:37:30.930 --> 00:37:42.509 Valerie Green: So I look at as yeah, organizing the chaos. You know, there's so many possibilities of movements, and I organize them into something beautiful, hopefully thought provoking.
00:37:42.530 --> 00:37:50.279 Valerie Green: So it's the name came in 1,998, and has been with me ever since, and I still like it.
00:37:50.460 --> 00:38:06.730 Tommy DiMisa: Yeah, II mean, I'm looking at it, and I sort of embody this word certainly inside of my head. I mean, it's just lack of order or predictability, gradual decline into this order. If you ask the people I live with, you actually all saw what the attic looks like when it away from the cameras view.
00:38:06.730 --> 00:38:31.290 Tommy DiMisa: That's sort of what that's that's all about. And then it says in physics it says, a thermodynamic quantity representing the unavailability of a system's thermal energy for conversion into mechanical work, often interpretated as the degree of disorder or randomness in the system. Wow! What a cool thing to just think of it! Randomness in the system, if anything really is random, right? But there's nothing
00:38:31.490 --> 00:38:38.589 Valerie Green: possibilities. So it's like taking the randomness, all the possibility and organizing it into something
00:38:39.080 --> 00:39:01.159 Tommy DiMisa: I love that that's so. So how do people connect with the organization? And then I want to find out, like what I asked before we went to break about the work you're going to do in West Africa like is that going to be? Will there be videos? Is it going to go on the Youtube page? Is there a Youtube page? Let's talk. I don't. I don't know, because I'm not sure how they're organizing that. I'm sure I will have a video of it at some point. But I don't know if it's something that will
00:39:01.180 --> 00:39:19.249 Valerie Green: be live streamed or not like I don't. I don't have those details, but I hopefully have some video of it. But I'm very, very active in posting on Instagram on my tours. So if somebody wants to see a lot of you know behind the scenes footage of the process.
00:39:19.360 --> 00:39:22.700 Valerie Green: And you could follow me at dance entropy.
00:39:23.250 --> 00:39:26.239 Valerie Green: and I will be posting a lot
00:39:26.850 --> 00:39:34.420 Tommy DiMisa: at dance entropy on Instagram. The website is dance entropy org what? Let's say, let's
00:39:35.380 --> 00:39:40.989 Tommy DiMisa: why did you decide to create a nonprofit, I mean, I guess you could have created a
00:39:41.080 --> 00:39:50.720 Valerie Green: again correct me if I'm wrong. But you could have created the choreography business, a dance studio. Right? Why did you go? The number, Tommy? If someone
00:39:50.950 --> 00:40:01.299 Valerie Green: has a professional dance company, then they're usually not for profits, and we are not profit because we're improving the lives of others in this case through movement and dance.
00:40:01.760 --> 00:40:03.569 Valerie Green: So
00:40:04.130 --> 00:40:18.360 Valerie Green: the dance studios with the kids that are in them growing up all day long, you know, like I did. You know those are generally most of the time for profit models or commercial dance studios. That's not what I do. I have a dance studio
00:40:18.380 --> 00:40:22.659 Valerie Green: it's called Green Space. It's my our home, the dance Company.
00:40:22.690 --> 00:40:29.689 Valerie Green: It's we've been in Lyon City for coming up on 18 years. So it's a rehearsal space. It's where I make my work.
00:40:29.930 --> 00:40:31.600 Valerie Green: There are
00:40:32.680 --> 00:40:44.269 Valerie Green: over 300 choreographers a year that are creating work in the space. There's someone in the other room now bouncing around. And we have shows here. We present
00:40:44.640 --> 00:40:46.969 Valerie Green: about 80 artists a year
00:40:47.980 --> 00:40:50.199 Valerie Green: in the studio programs.
00:40:50.340 --> 00:41:11.250 Valerie Green: And there's there's the homepage. Yes. So if you're not watching and you're just listening, go to dance entropyor. But I checked out the website. I mean, this is your space right with, like, these are my dancers. So then there's a whole other website called Green space. That is more so. This is more about the company.
00:41:11.390 --> 00:41:22.529 Valerie Green: and then the other one you can go into at the far right. It says, green space. Just keep going over there. And this is all about the studio, the performances in the studio.
00:41:22.700 --> 00:41:26.079 Valerie Green: rehearsal space. So everything
00:41:26.300 --> 00:41:28.380 Valerie Green: happening in the in the space
00:41:28.550 --> 00:41:30.270 Tommy DiMisa: and then in front.
00:41:30.920 --> 00:41:34.379 Valerie Green: Yeah, please. Sorry if you're curious about that.
00:41:34.490 --> 00:41:42.999 Valerie Green: I do a lot of work with. Actually, this is a great segue to a new program that started last year. I do a lot of work with movement and healing.
00:41:43.400 --> 00:41:49.670 Valerie Green: So we we store all our trauma in our body, and
00:41:49.960 --> 00:42:08.769 Valerie Green: talking is really not enough. It's good, but everything is stored in our body. So I have 3 different components of my healing program for working with people, one on, one to doing workshops with other, not for profits that are healing journeys, and this last one that you have up here was new last year somatic Healing group.
00:42:09.080 --> 00:42:15.650 Valerie Green: And it's about the group being together for 10 sessions. And it's sort of a group therapy.
00:42:15.710 --> 00:42:39.419 Valerie Green: we're not supposed to use that word. But it's a process group where you're going through really individual things that you're working on inside the group container. And sometimes other people are used in someone's process. Sometimes, you know, there's props. There's always voice, there's movement, the use of the body. And actually there's a new session starting the end of September. So I'm glad you brought that up.
00:42:39.480 --> 00:42:50.309 Valerie Green: and we're trying to register for this now. And it's challenging to get the word out for this. Because not everybody knows about this modality.
00:42:50.850 --> 00:42:59.510 Valerie Green: but kind of blew my mind when I encountered it. And if someone is working you know, we all have issues right. There's no human that doesn't.
00:42:59.650 --> 00:43:16.759 Valerie Green: So this is something that's for everybody. And so I'm glad you brought that up. But you know, as I evolved in my in my body and in my life and doing on my own healing journey. This has become a very large and important part of my work is.
00:43:17.720 --> 00:43:24.029 Valerie Green: you know, working through what's on the inside and creating healing from that, and oftentimes dance.
00:43:24.230 --> 00:43:25.440 Valerie Green: So
00:43:26.250 --> 00:43:28.119 Tommy DiMisa: yeah, I mean, listen.
00:43:28.410 --> 00:43:53.999 Tommy DiMisa: we are ever evolving as a race, as a species, as a as a human right and and as individuals. And I talk a lot on this program about mental health. Ever since the inception of this program first episode of the show was forcibility. Back in January. The second episode of this show was transitional services for New York. Dr. Larry Grupler, Tsi Ny. Which serves 4,000 individuals with,
00:43:54.020 --> 00:43:59.630 Tommy DiMisa: some sort of mental health issues that you know moderate to severe mental health issues. And
00:44:00.770 --> 00:44:14.489 Tommy DiMisa: Larry said to me, Dr. Larrybler, on that show said to me, You know, Tommy D. We all need support at different times, and II say that. And I've taken those words, and he probably didn't realize that I would I if I've done 132 episodes to just show
00:44:14.530 --> 00:44:26.020 Tommy DiMisa: 15 or 20 times I brought up that story because it stays with me. We all need support at different times. And when you think about this healing group. look gang.
00:44:26.250 --> 00:44:34.770 Tommy DiMisa: I have no clinical background, and I can't even say anything to you, but I also don't think I get in trouble for saying that that this stuff helps. But being with people
00:44:34.820 --> 00:44:48.420 Tommy DiMisa: in group helps being in community helps. What is the antidote for depression, community connection relationships. I can tell you this, I experienced it myself when
00:44:48.850 --> 00:44:55.059 Tommy DiMisa: Covid first happened, and that lockdown first happened as a person who was used to going out
00:44:55.190 --> 00:45:09.869 Tommy DiMisa: everywhere, meeting people, seeing people, hugging people on a consistent basis on a daily basis, getting all the dopamine and all good vibes, and the serotonin fired up because II that was and it was gonna I certainly, of course, had my
00:45:09.890 --> 00:45:22.250 Tommy DiMisa: my family, and we love each other and that. But it was a different situation. I didn't have that connection. And I will tell you community changes things, communities, what we need. And it's being with different people and and relating to
00:45:22.310 --> 00:45:34.380 Tommy DiMisa: through dialogue, through awareness and connection. Right? I mean, we weren't planning on going here, Valerie. But right? No, but actually this I would love to share something else. And this is sort of a good segue.
00:45:34.650 --> 00:45:43.909 Valerie Green: because II have a new work that I made I mean the Socrates Sculpture Park was a commission for the summer, that's, you know, happen and is done. But I made a new
00:45:44.250 --> 00:45:56.099 Valerie Green: work, and we'll continue to work on after this trip. And it's with 6 men. And this was sort of just starting with nothing, Tommy. I didn't know what I wanted to do.
00:45:56.180 --> 00:46:24.719 Valerie Green: I didn't have my full cast. I just started working with a couple of my male dancers, and my process was going into trance with myself in the studio and doing trans dance with me because I didn't feel like doing the technical dance. So I would just put on music I really liked, and I would just go into an altered state of consciousness. And then I had a backtrack to remember the movements that where my body, like I don't want to say got stuff, but where my body wanted to repeat something
00:46:24.970 --> 00:46:34.650 Valerie Green: and explore it. And so then I was notating the movements and videotaping so I could remember. So I started to mass a collection of like very odd movements.
00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:44.920 Valerie Green: And then I taunt 2 of my male dancers, and words kept coming up like Shaman and warriors very root. Chakra and
00:46:46.150 --> 00:47:01.640 Valerie Green: I was like, you know, this movement looks really interesting on, you know the men. I think I need more men. I had a whole addition for more male dancers, and brought in one other company members, and there was 3, and then I was like, I want 3 more men.
00:47:01.730 --> 00:47:16.689 Valerie Green: I had auditions. I got them, and you know it was assembling the dance, and I had, like some missing parts that I didn't know that were created, but I didn't quite fit. I still didn't quite know what it was, but you know the same words were, You know, present Shaman.
00:47:16.950 --> 00:47:24.710 Valerie Green: you know, warrior. And and then I was in Morocco last man. I said, I don't know, guys. I feel like this trip to Morocco is very
00:47:25.220 --> 00:47:38.540 Valerie Green: important to this dance, and it's connected to this dance, but I don't understand why yet, and I was in Morocco for about 2 weeks, and did a deep dive into ganala music, which is like a spiritual
00:47:38.620 --> 00:47:42.569 Valerie Green: music that is about healing and ceremony and trance.
00:47:43.200 --> 00:47:54.360 Valerie Green: So it. What I realized when I returned home is that the whole dance is actually a healing ceremony, and it's a ritual, and the missing parts that I didn't quite
00:47:54.860 --> 00:48:04.410 Valerie Green: like know how they attached or what they meant, like it all just sort of came together, and I was just sort of like like awestruck after that trip.
00:48:04.560 --> 00:48:17.690 Valerie Green: because the whole dance made sense. And there was a lot of real surreal moments of things that are in the dance that were happening there in their cultural dance and in these ceremonies, as if, like, I already experienced this.
00:48:18.250 --> 00:48:41.440 Valerie Green: And so the whole dance, like, I don't know, is very profound and deep. And I realize it's a ritual. The name of the dance is called right, and it's a lot of it's very powerful to see 6 men dancing together to see their you know, their masculinity, their vulnerability their connection, their community, their brotherhood. It's really beautiful and and very deep, and so
00:48:41.690 --> 00:48:49.059 Valerie Green: I put it away for a couple of months. What that means for me is like I need to step away from it so I can come back to it and see it clearly.
00:48:49.650 --> 00:49:03.760 Valerie Green: So we have a bunch of other shows in September, and then I'm gonna go back to in October, and I'm excited to see you know what this trip to Togo might inform, because a lot of these cultures are working with, you know, ritual and trance and possession
00:49:03.860 --> 00:49:10.080 Valerie Green: and altered states of consciousness. So you know, this is also part of the the Togoli's culture. So I'm hoping
00:49:10.240 --> 00:49:38.550 Tommy DiMisa: I'm getting the vibes. And I need to connect you with my friend
00:49:38.550 --> 00:49:40.460 Tommy DiMisa: Serena di Bianca.
00:49:40.850 --> 00:50:04.589 Tommy DiMisa: who's an executive director with an organization called Siloon Wellness, outside of Philadelphia. She came on the show, and she talked about the experience she had going over to the Amazon and experiencing like these, life, altering changes in community. And I'm just again. That's the vibes I'm picking up with what you're saying. I'm also picking up the vibes about this other world. We've given this this quote unquote real world where we have to take a quick break. So that's like
00:50:04.590 --> 00:50:19.120 Tommy DiMisa: totally raining on our parade a little bit. But it's all good cause. It's part. We gotta play both roles when we come back. I want to talk about believe it or not. We're running out of time. I want to talk about how we can help. What's upcoming, how people can plug in. What do you need? What sort of connections in the community? How's that sound
00:50:19.880 --> 00:50:21.050 Valerie Green: sounds good?
00:50:21.300 --> 00:50:23.800 Tommy DiMisa: We will be right back.
00:52:24.490 --> 00:52:26.170 www.TalkRadio.nyc: Right? Here's my request.
00:52:27.690 --> 00:52:42.610 Tommy DiMisa: If there's something you want to do, there's something you want to try. Just go out and do it. Okay. Trial and exploration, trial and opportunity is something we just created today on the show. If there's no more trial and error, there's trial and opportunity trial and exploration, because
00:52:42.610 --> 00:53:03.260 Tommy DiMisa: I never in a million years, when I said I was gonna have a show and I was gonna interview nonprofits, would I find that somebody would shout me out and say, Hey, man, I'm playing Zelda Oracle of Ages while I'm listening to your show. I didn't know that people would be gaming while they were listening to philanthropy in focus. I just gonna be a bunch of nonprofit people. The quote is
00:53:03.260 --> 00:53:29.579 Tommy DiMisa: the you know, the in the game. It says you gotta save time to have fun right? No, I think you gotta just. I think the whole thing is play. I really really do. And I that's that's not to say I don't get stressed out because I do. But if we just realize that this is late time. It's a game, and it's have fun, and we don't get caught up in the acquiring more stuff, which I think that right here it comes gang. He's up on the soapbox I love in the attic, but I found one here in the Co. Working space.
00:53:29.610 --> 00:53:32.490 Tommy DiMisa: Listen. It ain't about getting more stuff.
00:53:32.510 --> 00:53:49.170 Tommy DiMisa: They want us to believe it's about getting more stuff. They want us to believe we need the new car, the new, this the new that the new jacket. It's nice to have nice stuff. You don't need it. I heard a song the other day at the Pool, and it was like it was a country song, and it was about this guy, and it it was called about a hitch.
00:53:49.240 --> 00:53:51.320 Tommy DiMisa: and it says, you never see
00:53:51.630 --> 00:53:56.000 Tommy DiMisa: a trailer hitched, or you never see a trailer hitch on the back of the hearse.
00:53:56.010 --> 00:54:13.809 Tommy DiMisa: and it was a country song. I don't know. II shazam that so so I'll get it, for you know time, but it would. You never see a trail hitch on the back of your hers because you can't take all that stuff with you, man, but you could take the memories and all that stuff. Let's talk good vibes. Let's do it, Valerie. This is sort of like.
00:54:14.170 --> 00:54:29.799 Tommy DiMisa: because I've been in vacation mode. I've done a really poor job about keeping time, because I did a really great job about having a conversation with you today. That was more important. What do you need? What can we help can we connect you with? If there's anybody, specific or general, that you want to know?
00:54:32.230 --> 00:54:46.859 Valerie Green: it's always great to meet other organizations. I love partnering. I love being really creative and brainstorming on how to organizations can work together, or 2 spaces can work together
00:54:46.910 --> 00:54:52.379 Valerie Green: dan's companies always need audience. We need people to come. Watch us.
00:54:52.440 --> 00:54:56.299 Valerie Green: We are always fundraising. We need people to support us.
00:54:56.500 --> 00:55:08.559 Valerie Green: We are always looking for board members. So you don't need to love dance to be a board member. You just gotta love what we do. And we do a lot in education. We work in the New York City schools we work with at risk youth.
00:55:08.710 --> 00:55:14.620 Valerie Green: As I mentioned, I work a lot with movement and healing and trauma. We're a lot of social service organizations.
00:55:14.730 --> 00:55:21.570 Valerie Green: We work with older adults. So some people are just inspired by all our educational outreach. Some people like dance. Some people just
00:55:21.600 --> 00:55:33.290 Valerie Green: inspired by me, and they want to support me because they see how much I'm passionate about this organization. So we need some new board members.
00:55:33.600 --> 00:55:35.680 Valerie Green: and yeah.
00:55:35.760 --> 00:55:44.860 Valerie Green: you know, I think we're we're like, we're stronger together. We're stronger when we're connecting. I think you know, doing. I know for myself. When I'm out
00:55:45.100 --> 00:56:05.540 Valerie Green: in the world teaching somewhere, it leads to something else. So it's not by just sitting at home. So you know, we met at the Queen's Chamber event. It's not because we sat at home because we're out in community and relating to people. So I invite people to, you know, find me and relate with me and my dance company. Come see us
00:56:05.560 --> 00:56:11.870 Valerie Green: follow me. I don't know. Call me email me happy.
00:56:12.350 --> 00:56:15.729 Valerie Green: The website dance entropy.org.
00:56:15.790 --> 00:56:23.980 Valerie Green: the studios website, Greenspace studio org on all the social media. It's either at green space or at dance entropy.
00:56:24.010 --> 00:56:27.770 Valerie Green: My, email, the phone numbers on the site.
00:56:28.050 --> 00:56:33.319 Valerie Green: yeah, I love, you know, creating something that I'm very.
00:56:33.530 --> 00:56:39.839 Valerie Green: I'm very playful and strategic and brainstorming. And we may even have
00:56:40.000 --> 00:56:55.810 Valerie Green: this performance right? Shown in a in a cemetery space, because cemetery is a sacred space, a solemn space. And so is a right. So I'm gonna play with this idea of even doing like the performance there in their in their hall.
00:56:55.940 --> 00:57:04.100 Valerie Green: Beautiful hall they have, and then having the audience do a right, a ritual, and make an offering in the lake. So like he, here's an example of
00:57:04.100 --> 00:57:27.099 Tommy DiMisa: that's exactly right. That's what my brain was doing. What you just did with shifting your arms back and forth.
00:57:27.100 --> 00:57:55.870 Tommy DiMisa: That's what I dig. That's where I live, man. I'm excited because I have a new idea that I'm gonna go out on site. I've been doing 60 days of service 2 days left to hit 60 days of service. But I have this whole new idea. I'm just gonna go out and spend like a day. But I need a I need a videographer. And I my budget, for this is very low. But I need a videographer to come out and play right again playtime and watch me. I'm going up to a milk bank in Valhalla, New York. I want to come out to the green space with you, Valerie, and play and just play and like. But in playing.
00:57:55.900 --> 00:58:03.119 Tommy DiMisa: create something that will help tell the story for other people, and share my little reach what it might be. And it's not little
00:58:03.320 --> 00:58:15.619 Tommy DiMisa: but my reach and the connections I have to to expand other people's opportunity. And that's what this is about. And that's what philanthropy and focus is about. And we are a lot of time because there are the programs coming on the network right now.
00:58:15.620 --> 00:58:38.350 Tommy DiMisa: So now I have to go. Do what a nonprofit sector connector does off the shelf can't tell you what that is Valerie Green. This has been really special. I when you get back from West Africa, I'm coming for the tour. We're gonna do some videos and do some fun. Stuff, I promise. I know I probably threaten out in the beginning we first met. But now the interpretive dance, Tommy D. It's very.
00:58:38.490 --> 00:59:01.939 Tommy DiMisa: It's like what goes on inside the world of, you know, a nonprofit sector connector. I would say this, I usually say now and stay in the attic, but I'm not. I'm stay on the road. So listen, Valerie. Thank you. Have an awesome trip. Make it a great trip, and when you get back I can't wait to see, and I want to see this thing right, and I'm scared to go to cemeteries, so I will tell you this. I will challenge myself when you're performing right. Can we do it in the daytime, though? Can we not do it at night?
00:59:02.200 --> 00:59:09.380 Valerie Green: So this is a stepping stone to the premiere which will be in Manhattan eventually, but I like to show it in process so
00:59:09.430 --> 00:59:20.590 Tommy DiMisa: alright awesome we got. We will make it up. We gotta leave it there, everybody, Logan. Thank you. Cerebral win. Thank you, Mick Collins. Thank you. Valerie Green. Thank you. Make it a great day. Thank you, Tommy D. For being Tommy D. I'll see you later. Bye.
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