School of Dance graduate Maya Orchin has spent the year traveling Europe, seeing performances, creating work, and experiencing classes with varied teachers and artists. Here she reflects on performances and an exhibit in Berlin while feeling "very sore" from taking class with David Zambrano, a choreographer who pioneered a technique called "flying low" that is intensely physical and breathtaking - to do and to watch (an interview with Zambrano is above). Maya noticed that being in Berlin - which she describes as "a city rich with a history of misused power" - has led her to think about power and her brief summaries of performances and an exhibition reveal ways performers negotiate relationships on stage and with their audiences.
"In Xavier Le Roy's piece all the performers started the piece with a casual conversation towards the audience and then while nude portrayed different animals in different social settings - lions socializing, bird noises in darkness, and quirky seaweed. The piece was mesmerizing and developed in a very smart way. Andy Holtin had an interesting exhibit at a great art space. In order to view his work of 7 tv screens you could either watch outside the circle of screens or enter into it. The screens portrayed two dancers walking, running, and falling towards and away from each other and themselves. The way the screens were set up was really clever and I found myself hypnotized by the constant chase of the dancers. In Xavier Le Roy's piece he mentioned 'power' and how he was intrigued by who inherits power and who falls victim.
