- In this edition of "Arteffects", dancing in the Streets of Reno.

- Where else do you get to dance or roller skate or party in the middle of South Virginia Street for a mile?

It's huge.

(upbeat music) I don't know how to do anything small.

- [Beth] A renowned flamenco dancer and teacher.

- For me it's really important the communal relationship between the music and the dance.

(Irene dancing) - [Beth] A new perspective on urban landscape.

(gentle music) - [Participant] I really find inspiration from just about everything.

I know that's such a broad answer, but I truly believe there's just like, there's nothing that's boring.

- [Beth] And a fashion designer's influence.

(bright music) - [Participant] When I do photograph these, I try and create a whole world, like a whole concept.

- [Beth] It's all ahead on this edition of "Arteffects".

(energetic music) - [Announcer] Funding for "Arteffects" is made possible by Sandy Raffealli with Bill Pearce Motors, Heidemarie Rochlin, in memory of Sue McDowell.

The Carol Franc Buck Foundation, and by the annual contributions of PBS Reno members.

- Hello.

I'm Beth McMillan, and welcome to "Arteffects".

For one afternoon and evening every summer, Reno's Midtown District transforms into dancing in the streets, a walkable feast of delights for the eyes, ears and taste buds all made possible by a community that welcomes everyone to enjoy the fun.

(energetic music) - Dancing in the streets is a celebration of culture and art and celebrating Reno for what Reno is.

- There's a lot happening in such a short amount of time.

You're not even gonna capture everything that's happening.

- We closed down a mile of South Virginia Street and we have nine stages that line the street all playing a different genre of music.

(upbeat music) We have the crazy '80s stage.

The rock funk stage.

(rock funk music) The '90s and 2000s stage.

(pop music) We have Afrobeats.

♪ You go kill e somebody - EDM and dance.

(EDM music) Jazz stage.

(jazz music) The indie rock stage.

(indie rock music) The Latin stage, and at the northern most point we have the country stage.

(country music) When else do you get to dance or roller skate or party in the middle of South Virginia Street for a mile?

It's huge.

I don't know how to do anything small.

- It's a really nice way to bring our community together with a lot of different diversity and aspects that everyone loves, food, drinks, dancing.

(energetic music) The music isn't your thing?

We have art or we have vendors.

- We're here to show what woodworking is all about.

We do a demonstration on how to use a wood lave, but we also promote people to join the wood shucks.

- [Participant] Midtown is the nerve center of Reno where we're very focused on local culture and the arts, and it's just a really cool place that welcomes everyone.

- This all started with the creation of an art walk 15 years ago that ran for 10 years.

Pulled a few of the key participants in the Midtown Art Walk and I just said, Hey, guys, I think I got a crazy idea dancing in the streets.

It's the business owners coming together and they're the ones funding it.

They're the ones paying for the artists and the stage.

So they're really curating a personal experience.

- It's super important for me personally and the Midtown organization to keep dancing in the streets free and then we ask the community to donate two, five, 100, whatever they want to give to help keep it free for those that can't afford it.

- It's the community working together, thinking about creating a neighborhood and a place that the community loves.

(upbeat music) - It really just warms my heart to see all these kids out here having a good time.

Typically I teach at the school, but here, you know, we have them walk up and they're just like, Hey, can I try strumming the guitar?

Watching them just have that fun, have that aha moment of like, I like music.

I like doing this thing.

And for some people, that could turn into a whole career.

For me, I loved it so much that now I'm going to college majoring in music education because of it.

♪ But here's my number - So this year, we introduced the new stage of '90s and 2000s music, with '90s, more like rave style music with different DJs.

♪ So call me maybe (upbeat music) - The Afrobeats stage has a lot of cool artists that come actually from the African continent.

- In Nigeria, they see Abraham Lincoln as a hero.

So they believe that the American Civil War is also part of the Nigerian and African history.

So that is what actually inspired my work to actually bring the African Nigerian perspective of how Africans view the American Civil War and Abraham Lincoln in general.

(Afrobeats music) ♪ I belong to you ♪ Oh baby you go kill e somebody ♪ - And they even had a artist coming from Jamaica this year?

(reggae music) - Hey, you killing it Reno, let's go.

Hey!

- And they also have an African-themed fashion show with garments from Africa to show the different styles over there.

(Afrobeats music) - When I came up with this event, I wanted to create something that's unifying, and the love of music and the arts is one of the ways that we do that.

- The first two years, the event brought in 10,000 people each time.

Last year we tripled that.

So I'm not saying a number this year.

I'm just gonna be pleasantly surprised for whatever it is, as long as one person shows up.

(upbeat music) - How'd it go?

- It blew my mind.

I'm excited.

You know, the community showed up, and I feel this is why I do it, right?

This is why the community is why we all do it.

(upbeat music) - To learn how you can dance in the streets, head over to renomidtown.com/dancinginthestr.

Up next, Irene Rodriguez is an internationally renowned flamenco dancer.

Residing in Tampa, Florida, she shares her talent through dancing, teaching and choreographing.

(Latin music) - [Participant] Irene is energy and light and creativity.

- Flamenco is an energizing form of dance, and Irene has a professionalism that is so precise and energetic, and it's really based on her personality, which is so determined to be that way, and she makes it come through in her performances.

(Latin music) - Since she was little, she was different to the other girls of her group.

You can see her over everybody.

(Latin music) - I started dancing ballet because my mom, she took ballet lessons when she was young, and I used to skip the classes because in the next studio, they were teaching flamenco style.

So I used to hear the music and the footwork and I used to escape to the other lesson.

So one day, the flamenco teacher took me by my hand and asked for my mom, and my mom said, "Yes, she's my daughter.

Irene is my daughter, but (indistinct) is a mistake.

Irene takes ballet lessons, not flamenco lessons."

She said, "That is what you think.

Irene has been sneaking my classes for three months now, so you owe me some money."

And it was the beginning of my relationship, the same with ballet and flamenco.

So I started studying both careers at the same time.

And I'm very happy because ballet is aesthetic and prepares the body for all the styles you really wanna face dancing, and flamenco is the passion.

Flamenco is the real expression of your soul through the movement, in my opinion.

(Irene dancing) (bright music) In 2012, I opened the Compañía Irene Rodríguez, Irene Rodríguez Company, and it became really successful in the country, and I already have 400 students for many years and an amazing studio of four floors in the Malecón of Havana until I decide to immigrate and you know, realize my career and develop my career here in the US.

- Tampa has a deep and rich history of connections to Cuba and to Spain.

So flamenco has actually been around the community, but we've never had a performer of the stature of Irene, and that's what's exciting.

- Her technique is above what people, some people can do today, in the same way Irene teach the kids like that.

So we are so honor to have Irene in this area.

It's just like a master class every time that the kids are get involved with Irene.

(children dancing and clapping) (Irene speaking Spanish) - One more time.

One, two, three and four.

(Latin music) (participants clapping) (participants chanting in Spanish) - As a teacher, what's really amazing about her is that often people choreograph or they teach.

They don't do both, but she does both extremely well.

And it doesn't matter what age or advanced level or not.

(Latin music) - I like it.

I like my teacher, I like the footwork.

I like, what I like about the footwork is the sound.

(participants dancing and tapping feet) - When you enter Irene's class, you enter in the knowledge that she is the profesora.

She's the professor.

You're going to respect her, you're going to give all your attention to her because the dance of flamingo demands it.

So she's very precise in her expectation of what we're going to give her in the class 'cause she gives everything to us.

(dancers tapping feet) - And.

(Latin music) Five, okay?

Don't think about the step.

Think about the power of the movement and the feeling you wanna express with that.

One more time, the same phrase that will continue to the end.

- She's tough.

We have a joke.

I don't know if she's aware of it or not.

We call it Irene one more time, 'cause it it's never one more time.

It's always more than one time.

(participant laughs) But she's very exacting.

(participants clap) (indistinct) - She spends a lot of time on the clapping, because you have to get the beat of the music correct, otherwise you can't do the footwork.

- I love the musicality.

I love being a musician.

At the same time I am the dancer because when you do footwork, you are creating percussion with your legs, and in fact, not only with your legs, we call it footwork, but in fact it's a complete percussion because we do palma, we do percussion in our body.

It's like you with your body are playing this music.

So you always try to convey that because for me it's really important, the communal relationship between the music and the dance.

And never be over.

- Dance is just so lovely because it is that human interaction, and I think she shares a lot of her history and stories very generously with people and the transitions that she's been forced to make for herself and she brings that into the room and I think it's very inspiring to the people that she works with.

- We really get right now one of the best international dancer in Flamenco ever.

(Latin music) - To learn more, visit irenerodriguezcompania.com.

And now it's time for this week's art quiz.

The Fluxus Movement was comprised of artists, poets and composers during the 1960s and '70s.

Their work was often characterized as being in a state of flux and emphasized the creative process over the final product.

Who is considered to be the founder of this avant-garde movement?

Is the answer A, Vladimir Tatlin, B, Henry Van de Velde, C George Maciunas, or D, Hugo Ball?

Stay tuned for the answer.

Artist Kelley Booze wears many hats, scholar, preparator and instructor to name a few.

Her paintings explore the relationship between the manmade and natural world.

She creates urban landscapes that urge the viewer to experience what's familiar but underappreciated.

(bright music) - As a painter, I am interested in our relationship to the spaces around us and our immediate surroundings, how we relate and interact with places that are familiar to us.

So a lot of my work for several years has been really about these areas that are quite empty or quiet, things that you might easily pass by that don't receive a lot of attention, but I find those to be areas that are quite peaceful and places for introspection.

Being in those places allows for careful attention, noticing and just the act of seeing and looking and using imagination to think of maybe a different future for that space or imagine the history of this space.

My process usually involves first just experiencing a place or a space that I'm interested in or that's familiar to me.

Really if I just see something that I am curious about or stumble upon something that maybe I haven't noticed before in a place that I've been many times, that act of noticing is intriguing to me.

So I'm usually compelled to either just take a photograph, a video, do a drawing.

A lot of times an image will strike me as just seeing something and thinking, I want to paint that.

So it kind of evolves from there.

I've always just loved drawing.

Drawing feels like my first language rather than even speaking or writing.

I do a lot on site and then a lot of times I'll come back to the studio and kind of piece together images or memory or those sketches or thoughts that I had, like combining all these fragments to kind of collage together for like a unified piece.

(gentle music) A lot of the areas that I paint or the images that I'm interested in feel silent and they feel still.

So I want that sensation to pull the viewer in to be more introspective of their own interpretation of maybe their own surroundings or their experience of the work that is present in front of them.

And a lot of the images are either obscured or they're kind of ambiguous, so there's this underlying familiarity that I think is nice for other people to relate to.

Some of the public art projects that I've done in the past have been a result of more of a collaborative community effort with organizations or partners here in Springfield.

I do like being part of a larger project that's just not my artistic vision.

It's a group effort, and that way, it's more representative of us as a community rather of just an individual as an artist.

(calm music continues) I really find inspiration from just about everything.

I know that's such broad answer, but I truly believe there's just like, there's nothing that's boring and no matter what small detail you happen to come across, you can drill down into kind of the inert energy of whatever that thing is.

For inspiration, I mean, a vacant parking lot, I focused on painting, vacant parking lots for a very long time, or just something I see when I'm walking to my studio.

(gentle music) I think the art making process for me is quite analogous also to like a meditation practice.

And in that sense, art making is a way of thinking, a way of just being and experiencing the world around us.

I think even just viewing or appreciating it is similar in that way that you are creating meaning, you're making interpretations that connect to your lived experience.

I don't have everything figured out at the beginning.

I almost never do.

(gentle music continues) Right now that I'm in graduate school, I work with a lot of undergraduate students, and one thing I see for a younger generation of artists that I think would be helpful is just the understanding that it is a practice.

It's not kind of a finish line that you get to, it's an ongoing process.

It's a, it's kind of a lifestyle, it's a way of thinking, it's a way of just being in the world.

- To learn more about Kelley's work, find her online at kelleybooze.com.

And now let's review this week's art quiz.

The Fluxus Movement was comprised of artists, poets and composers during the 1960s and '70s.

Their work was often characterized as being in a state of flux and emphasized the creative process over the final product.

Who is considered to be the founder of this avant-garde movement?

Is the answer A, Vladimir Tatlin, B, Henry Van De Velde, C, George Maciunas, or D, Hugo Ball?

And the answer is C, George Maciunas.

For our final segment, we head to South Reno to meet artist and social media influencer Sarah Hanley.

With a love for pop culture, she sews a wide range of couture garments that she shares online for her followers.

Take a look.

(gentle music) - Hi.

My name is Sarah Hanley, and I am a social media content creator slash internet influencer.

So a social media influencer is basically like a marketing team slash personality online.

So I do everything from getting a brand deal to setting up all the products, to taking all the pictures and then pushing it onto an audience that would enjoy it.

So my art form that I create in is I sew on the internet.

I teach DIY tutorials.

I make things from really beautiful fabrics and I make things from bedsheets or bags.

(gentle music continues) I got into sewing in a really kind of roundabout weird way.

I have my degree in photography.

I was working as a photo editor in Los Angeles and my dad passed away really suddenly.

It was suggested to channel my grief into something totally new, you know.

So I didn't just go to work, come home, cry type of situation.

So I picked up sewing through that.

The conception of the project starts with usually finding inspiration either in my mind or from like a television show or from movies, and then it goes down on paper.

Sometimes the idea is so clear that I don't need to put it on paper, and then comes a process of like, do I already have a pattern that I've made that I can modify to make this dress, or do I have to start from scratch?

Most dresses that I create can be anywhere from a few hours to many months.

This one behind me, this was three or four days to do mostly because I had to really accommodate the bead work on there.

So it really depends on like the complexity level of what I'm doing.

(upbeat music) My social media journey is kind of your typical like overnight type situation.

I wanna say October, 2019 is when I like really started to focus on posting the dresses I made, 'cause before then I wouldn't share them.

A friend of mine got me into TikTok filming the process and everything, and it just kinda snowballed from there.

(upbeat music) Around March, 2021, the pandemic started.

I had a lot of free time as most people did (laughs) and so I decided to try and remake Ariana Grande's Grammy dress that she wore that year.

And I thought that'd be really fun to like attempt to remake.

So I did part one and I ended up with 35 million views pretty much overnight and went from like 100,000 followers to 1.5 million.

(upbeat music continues) The impact of social media these days is huge.

I didn't realize that it's its own industry.

I used to sew for other people.

I used to do commissions and wedding dresses, and I did Miss Nevada Rodeo.

When I started posting on social media and gained a following, I gained a new career.

(bright music) This dress here was inspired by what's called Royalty Core, which is an aesthetic online.

(bright music continues) I was really inspired by like the whole concept of like flowing gowns and running through castles and those kind of, you know, imagery that you get in your mind.

When I do photograph these, I try and create a whole world, like a whole concept.

So it's not just the dress, it's like props.

It's the backdrop.

I will do like photo shoots around Reno and I'll go to like parks or I'll go and like hike a trail and I did one down in Davis Creek Campground area where I had like a girl on a horse in the dresses and people just loved it.

(bright music continues) I think we live in a really beautiful, unique ecosystem here, having the ability to share both the desert and the mountains within relative posts online.

So like I could go and do something in the desert and then post something in the mountains, and I've only driven an hour.

That's fantastic.

There's like no part of the day where I don't feel like the world that I'm in is inspiring.

- To keep up with Hanley, find her on TikTok or Instagram at Official Hanley.

And that wraps it up for this edition of "Arteffects".

If you want to watch new "Arteffects" segments early, make sure you subscribe to the PBS Reno YouTube channel.

And don't forget to keep visiting pbsreno.org to watch complete episodes of "Arteffects".

Until next week, I'm Beth Macmillan.

Thanks for watching.

- [Announcer] Funding for "Arteffects" is made possible by Sandy Raffealli with Bill Perce Motors.

(bright music) Heidemarie Rochlin, in memory of Sue McDowell, the Carol Franc Buck Foundation, and by the annual contributions of PBS Reno members.

(bright music continues) (energetic music)