4th Avenue Exposed

BreakOut Studio's "4th Avenue: Exposed" event was a huge success!  Tickets sold out, the performances were all top-notch and well-received, and the audience left smiling.  This won't be the last one, so add yourself to our Facebook Page to stay up-to-date with future events!

Your Wednesday Inspiration: Ernestine Shepherd

by Jolie Roberson

I don't think I'm alone when I say I want to be like this woman when I'm her age. What an amazing story!

Your Monday Inspiration

BreakOut Studios Presents: 4th Avenue Exposed!

This will be an opportunity for artistic and creative types to display their talents, abilities, genius and for the community around them to support different ventures that these individuals are involved with. You will experience a night of art, music, dance, culture and so much more. Get involved with your community and open your eyes to the magnificence this city has to offer you.

June 9th, from 7pm-9pm.

$5 entry at door or online.

BreakOut Studios:

522 N. 4th Ave

Tucson, AZ 85705

Facebook Event Page

For more information contact (520) 670-1301 or 4thexposed@gmail.com.

Take a look at just a few of the phenomenal local acts we have performing!

The Missing Parts

Facebook Page | Website

The Missing Parts are an acoustic instrumental quartet featuring violin, lap-steel guitar, cello, and guitar. Written collaboratively, the songs journey through an odyssey of dreamscapes, always arcing back and forth from the source: One Madly Dreaming Mind. Their influences are literally all over the map: tango, Roma, Turkish, a wide range of classical composers and styles, folk music from old time to new-grass, and too many more influences to list without sounding like a world music textbook. They particularly like soulful instrumental music (and, hence, the movie scores of Rota, Morricone, Hermann (Bernard, not Pee Wee), and to a lesser extent Badalmanti). The Missing Parts feature Oliver Blaylock on violin, Douglas Francisco on lap steel, Brian Hullfish on cello, and Paul Wright on guitar and percussion.

Nica Statman

Facebook | Bandcamp

The Boogie Pimps

Facebook | YouTube

Janet Hermalik

Janet Hermalik is an extremely talented poet.  You may have seen her work on the sidewalks around downtown Tucson.  She will be doing poetry readings during this event, but you can preview some of her work by visiting her website, Web of Whys.

Bruce Gulick

Bruce Gulick of The Magic Fun Store Gallery and Tattoo Parlour will be showing some of his incredible paintings.  

Stroke of Insight: Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor's First-Hand Experience with a Stroke

I had another post planned for today, but I watched this and couldn't wait a second longer to share it.  There's nothing that I could say to better explain it than Jill Bolte Taylor does in this TED talk, so just watch!

Heart & Soul: Workshop with Tadd Gadduang (SYTYCD8)

by Clayton Ashcraft

Wow, how can I explain the workshop this last weekend with Tadd Gadduang?! Heart and soul would be the two words to define his class, the knowledge shared, and the feeling of the room. I take from not only my conversations with him to and from Tucson, but what he had to say about being an artist in everything. Tadd said,"As artists or whatever form of artistry you do; singing, dancing, painting, anything…anything that you do that expresses in a sense you're giving something to those who are engaged who are committed to what you are projecting on stage. Sometimes I am guilty of this…I would just move to music…I wasn't giving or sharing. I try to draw from experiences in my life and express it through what I do." The heart and soul of the dancers, ranging from kids to adults, that attended the workshop left the studio with a better idea of what being a 'true artist' is all about.

Part of my mission for Step X Step Dance was featuring talented dancers in small communities that don't normally have a large voice like other dancers, studios, or crews may have! The mission I set to achieve and the artistry of Tadd's class fused together to create a force of progression, happiness, and motivation for the future. No one should be left out of the equation that makes up this beautiful lifestyle and culture, which is something that I feel Tadd hit up very well in his explanation of 'artistry.'

After a very successful master class with Tadd, he spent another hour or so talking with a few of the dancers from the workshop outside. I could see him giving one on one time with many dancers who were itching to pick his brain on street dance culture, So You Think You Can Dance, making the leap to L.A., and many other subjects. Outside while talking to a few studio dancers he mentioned how the real important part of a class or workshop is the knowledge that is taught about the art, the culture, the foundations, the founders, and how it relates to our life. I look back now and wish I had really got that on camera because we all felt like we had the most nourishing meal for our minds, bodies, and spirits!

Big Thank You to Todd, Janna, Jolie, Garrett, and everyone at BreakOut Studios! Tadd absolutely loved the dancers, his experience and wants to come back! Thank you to everyone that came from others studios in Tucson and supported, we would love to support your studio as well! From the bottom of my heart, it's people like you that help make this dream of mine, Step X Step Dance, come true! Slowly, but surely we are "uniting dancers worldwide step by step!" Please make sure to check us out at StepXStep!

Here is the video link to the workshop recap with Tadd:

Your Monday Inspiration: John Cleese on Cultivating Creativity

by Jolie Roberson

I have grown up on John Cleese.  My mother was a huge fan of "Fawlty Towers" and "Monty Python" so, of course, I am now a huge fan.  I find these videos below to be inspirational not just because I adore John Cleese, but because I have a reference now of what it took to create all that he has created.  It's so disheartening to try and try to create and get nowhere, I know I've been there my fair share of the time, but what he says specifically about tolerating the discomfort of not having an answer in order to come up with the most creative solution made my day.  "Look, baby-cakes, I don't have to decide 'til Tuesday."  Enjoy, be inspired, play!