Word on the street is that the Offshore Project are the ones to watch in Seattle’s dance world. Tonight they are taking their work to On The Boards A.W.A.R.D. Show Day 3. The Divas have heard so many interesting things from this company that we are going to stand in line to see if we can get some cast off tickets. The Offshore Project is in good company tonight with Whim W’him and SANDSTROMMOVEMENT.
The Divas have long been fans of Waxie Moon. Waxie has a really interesting background. They way most of us know him is as BoiLesque Extraordinaire performing at Bacon Strip, The Can Can and other burlesque shows around town. Our favorite memories of Waxie was at Velocity Dance Centers‘ Single Ladies Dance Off when he gave Diva Pal Tad a Birthday dance and of course our favorite holiday show – Land of the Sweets.
Tonight is your chance to see him in all his fabulous Diva-ness!
Raja makes his Seattle dance premier and end ups as a winner with ZoeJuniper
As expected zoeljuniper was the winner of last nights On The Board kicks A.W.A.R.D Show. Congrats to our very own Raja who made his Seattle dance debut. He was stunning and compelling to watch. The video work combined with some stunning dance pieces with Raja was really interesting. Poor Zoe broke her toe a week ago and the team had to scramble to re-stage their piece. They did it to a fabulous Seattle response.
Yesterday we mentioned that the Divas are huge supporters of Modern/Contemporary Dance here in Seattle. We are lucky enough to be surrounded by amazing Dance companies. Tonight is the kick off of On The Board’s A.W.A.R.D Show. All of our favorite dance companies on one stage competing for $10,000 prize money. The best of the best are competing this year. Take the time and see this show as much as possible.
Sat | Jan 29
Whim W’Him*
Lauren Edson
SANDSTROMMOVEMENT*
The Offshore Project (the rumor is that they kids are in it to win it)
Sun | Jan 30
This evening’s line-up will be determined by the winners of the three previous nights.
THE A.W.A.R.D. SHOW! was founded in 2005 by Neta Pulvermacher/The Neta Dance Company, Scott Kasen and producer Marisa König Beatty. (Source of info – On The Boards)
The Divas are huge supporters of Modern/Contemporary Dance here in Seattle. We are lucky enough to be surrounded by amazing Dance companies. Starting tomorrow, Thursday January 27, 2011 On The Board kicks off its A.W.A.R.D Show. We are so excited we can barely contain ourselves. All of our favorite dance companies on one stage competing for $10,000 prize money. How can we stay home when there is an event like this?
OK – who to watch for? Without a doubt Raja Feather Kelly is making his Seattle premier with zoeljuniper. Raja is fresh from our second favorite city, New York. Watching Raja’s musicality and fresh take on dance is stunning to say the least. His legs seem to go on forever and just when you think it stops his arms twist into a character from another dimension. WOW!
Below is a quick bio about Raja:
Before Graduating Raja joined David Dorfman Dance and began performing 2 hours after his commencement ceremonies. 4 days after graduating, Raja was mentioned in the New York Times as the ‘Extraordinary Raja Kelly’ for his NYC premiere with David Dorfman Dance. Raja continued to dance in New York city with Lisa Race, Colleen Thomas, IsadoraNOW and Kyle Abraham’s Abraham.In.Motion for which he received an Bessie award as apart of AIM’s NYC premiere of The Radio Show. Raja joined zoe|juniper in 2009 after returning from Vienna, Austria as a 2009 DanceWEB Scholar at ImpulsTanz Dance Festival- of which only 2 dancers from the United States are chosen. Raja is a Magna Cum Lade graduate from Connecticut College with a Dual degree in Dance English. Raja graduated, with the honor of serving as president of his class, executive director of public relations, and the head of the dance departments student board- Raja was awarded the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship nomination, Dean’s High Honors, Elizabeth Hood McAfoose ’60 Academic Honors, Martha Myers Dance Prize, and both the Sarah Ensign and Joan Connell Memorial Awards for is academic and leadership contributions to the College. Raja Kelly creates his own work under the name TheFeath3rTheory, which he started in college and had their company premiere in NYC October 2009 after he received the inaugural Jim Garvey Scholarship at NYC’s Dance New Amsterdam of which Raja also, the end of last year, accepted a position as Modern Guests Artist.
Recently we decided that it would be fun and informative for the divas to do a blog spotlight each month of fabulous Diva Dwellers and the hood they live in. Diva Dwellers Karen and Raymond were kind enough to kick off our spotlight for February. We met this fabulous couple at a New Year’s Day soiree at our pals Bernard and Jim’s house. We had a lovely chat about art, travel and green remodeling. Well – simply put – we hit it off instantly. The Divas were lucky enough to help Karen and Raymond buy a “cosmetic fixer” in Burien which they have transformed into a sensational Diva Dwelling. Here is their story!
How did you meet the Divas? We met the Divas para-sailing on the French Riviera, or in a little cantina in Tijuana in the 50′s… or it may have been at a mutual friend’s house. The Divas showed up at Bernard and Jim’s place on New Year’s Day, and the party kicked into a whole other gear. We remember people chanting, “Divas! Divas! Divas!”
What type of home did you purchase? One with turquoise carpet, a black toilet and an aluminum foil backsplash behind the stove. So in other words, one requiring much elbow grease, TLC and fresh carpet. House code name: “Super Happy Fun House.”
What was your first “OMG” house moment?Raymond: My first oh-my-god moment, that I am willing to talk about, that didn’t involve vodka, was seeing the new carpet installed. It made say to myself, OMG, this is our house now. We can do whatever we want.
What is your greatest home extravagance?Karen: The indoor pool. No, the yacht garage. No wait, it’s the airplane hangar. Definitely the hangar.
What is in your junk drawer? Why do you ask? What have you heard? (The sound of Raymond getting of the couch to see what’s in our junk drawer. Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle.) Napkins, lip balm, sunglasses, keys, saxophone, binder clips, coasters, oven-mits, time-travel machine, matches, post-it notes.
Would you rather: Raymond:
mow lawn / paint the fence – painting chain-link, not my thing. Mowing the lawn is actually pretty good exercise.
untangle computer cords / sort socks – highly organized in the computer department, like a military-action figure, but socks take a couple of minutes to sort.
test the smoke detectors / fix squeaky doors – since a hammer won’t fix the squeak, I’ll test the smoke detector
plunge the toilet / clean out the refrigerator – what kinds of questions are these? Am I supposed to do these things
clean the gutters / take down holiday decorations – ah… yes, take a holiday. That sounds great.
Karen:mani-pedi? Is that a choice? Do I have to do that other stuff?
What is your favorite Hood hangout spot? It’s not quite a hangout, but for really great food we go to Bistro Baffi, which Kim and Chavi introduced us to. Lovely little Italian joint near Burien Lake. Damn! I wish we were there now.
What is your favorite local organization/non-profit?Artist Trust – As an artist and a writer, their support with growing our careers has been invaluable.
What do you love the most about your house?Raymond: That my wife lives there. At the end of the day, there is nothing better than coming home to her!
Oh and did we mention that Karen and Raymond are both artists? Well they are cause that’s how we like them. Check out Karen’s blog Karen Ussery Fine Art Photography. Raymond is a writer and we are very excited about his upcoming tour de Artist Trust. Catch whats going on with Raymond at his blog RaymondUssery.
Last weekend Team Diva Real Estate saw the market wake up from what seemed like a deep six month slumber. Some would say its built up demand. And others will note that Venus (ruler of the home in the Divas opinion) is no longer retrograde. Regardless of the reason we are excited. All three Divas will be out this weekend and are excited to see our fans.
2010 was definitely a mixed bag when it came to housing prices and number of closings. Some neighborhoods showed an increase in sales (over 2009) and others are still finding their footing. In Single Family Residences, Montlake showed a 19% increase in the number of closed sales and an 18% increase in home prices. Capitol Hill condominiums made the strongest gains in value in 2010. Although the number of closings were down, prices showed an increase of 22%.
480,000 sf net absorption of office space during third quarter in 6 Washington commercial markets tracked by CoStar. Is Washington state have an expanding business strategy? We think so!
$248,900 Median home sales price in Washington, 2010:Q3
$16.83 Average retail rent per square foot (annual) in 6 Washington CoStar markets.
23,600 Increase in Washington employment October 2009 to October 2010.
9.4% Average of Industrial Vacancy Rates in Greater Seattle, 2010:Q3.
65,100 Population growth in Washington from 2009-2010.
6.43% Proportion of Washington home mortgages seriously delinquent, 2010:Q3. National average is 8.70%.
All stats stated above come from the Winter 2011 issue of the Washington Realtors magazine.
Team Diva Real Estate notes on this weeks round up of news. First off we were appalled last week at the shootings in Arizona. Our hearts go out to everyone who was impacted. From a global perspective, we really hope people will take the time to increase their civility to those with opposing views. Who knows what we can learn?
On a local level, the Divas have seen a crazy increase in the number of requests for rental properties. This goes back to our note from last week that Seattle is seeing super low vacancy levels in apartments. Specifically, we are seeing this in core neighborhoods like Capitol Hill, Central District, Ballard, Wallingford, etc. Our own Swedish FIUTS exchange student is getting ready to pay close to $500 a month to rent a very small room up on Capitol Hill. So I ask all of you – Is it time to buy rental properties?
Green Built inventory is also at record lows right now. The demand rate in the Central Area is hovering around 1.8 for Green Built homes (anything less than 2.5 is considered a Sellers market). In West Seattle there are only 3 properties on the market for the Admiral/Alki area that are Green Built and in an affordable price point. Expect to see resale and new Green Built fly off the market this Spring!
Zillow: Seattle’s one of the worst markets to invest in. Diva Pal Tad sent this article over. The interesting thing is that if you make the right buy right now this is a seriously good opportunity to get into an investment property. Low rates + the masses have yet to return to the market + low rental inventory = Profit!
