tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83210586503228115032024-03-04T12:23:54.168-08:00dancers in dialoguekatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11642932334557780110noreply@blogger.comBlogger110125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8321058650322811503.post-42903351664650945252013-07-03T11:43:00.000-07:002013-07-03T11:43:41.373-07:00making meaning<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU9iptLEbzW1uAlvk1-L_SLNIv_aVeLHSeKzVTKYFqfK9BKaQXK9gxy4dnoTaoFjylGKaZrLxXahkn6zczOt6tq_Tb6YYJ4rE2mGiNRVKdl40ixMB9w7KMqbpfkqCvhfoBHruR7Qmjsbgu/s1600/Performance350dpi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU9iptLEbzW1uAlvk1-L_SLNIv_aVeLHSeKzVTKYFqfK9BKaQXK9gxy4dnoTaoFjylGKaZrLxXahkn6zczOt6tq_Tb6YYJ4rE2mGiNRVKdl40ixMB9w7KMqbpfkqCvhfoBHruR7Qmjsbgu/s400/Performance350dpi.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">During the performance "The Trash Project" in Austin in 2009</td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px;">“Art-making
is an experiment in conjuring up the possibilities that are hidden in the
habitual and the familiar.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I
thought of this line from Harvard’s 2008 report called “A Vision for the Arts” while
watching the film “Trash Dance.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">A
documentary directed by Andrew Garrison and featuring choreographer Allison
Orr, “<a href="http://trashdancemovie.com/?page_id=175">Trash Dance</a>” takes its name from a project Orr created in 2009 featuring
employees and vehicles from Austin’s Solid Waste Services Department. Orr spent
a year with the men and women who collected garbage, dead animals, and
recyclable material. She accompanied them on their routes, asked them questions
about their lives, and learned about the multiple jobs they held and talents
they possessed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She wanted to both
learn about the people “who pick up my trash” and make a performance that shed
light on their unique lives, movements, and skills. Their show, called “The
Trash Project,” happened only one time on an abandoned airport runway in Austin for an audience
of a couple thousand people. Thanks to Garrison’s film, thousands more are now
viewing highlights of that evening as well as the poignant and at times
hilarious moments that led to its creation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This
is one way to describe the film I watched at the AFI Silver last week,
but it fails to capture the many ideas and questions that it set
in motion. Orr is both a gifted listener and a personable, charismatic leader,
traits that enrich her process and her creations. One of the first scenes shows
her interacting with the employees as she describes “The Trash Project” to a
large group of men. Orr’s enthusiasm and sincerity pose a stark contrast to
their suspicion and disbelief. As she perseveres, the men shift as well.
Ultimately her cast consists of 24 men and women and 16 of their vehicles. Before
we see their performance, Garrison’s cameras follow them through their routes
as well as their daily lives: we see a single father raising a
young girl, a woman’s passion for boxing, and Orr trying to explain to some
employees what contemporary dance is after they ask if she dances ballet. Her reply is, “It’s
done barefoot.” In a director’s statement Garrison writes: “</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Orr told me 90% of her job, at first, is to listen to people.
Not just observing their movements, but hearing their concerns—about their
family, about work and how they view the world. At this point I knew that if
she actually <i>did </i>that, there would be a film.”</span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiWSEgoAwKbe5Z3ALotBIyR2OAz6bubZxjH0u1zpC9QyjgfXHe4x1OybdvP_NgwEB9k3JXrNgE2dXRHRIXu2fNRhiobXOF9lbKoeGY5OjKtaqotlZpT8mV_slV_3L7snpHDyvk6uO-ia-H/s1600/HR_AerialBow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiWSEgoAwKbe5Z3ALotBIyR2OAz6bubZxjH0u1zpC9QyjgfXHe4x1OybdvP_NgwEB9k3JXrNgE2dXRHRIXu2fNRhiobXOF9lbKoeGY5OjKtaqotlZpT8mV_slV_3L7snpHDyvk6uO-ia-H/s320/HR_AerialBow.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">performers bow at the end of "The Trash Project"</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.5pt;">“Trash Dance” is a stunning film, and
the night in Silver Spring when I saw it, people in the theater spanned several
generations. In some ways the crowd the film attracts can be as eclectic as the
people in the movie itself. I started to wonder if this was one of Orr’s goals: to explore how a performance can open up different
ways of getting to know one another, of listening to stories, and of fostering
a sense of connection. As she writes in her choreographer’s statement: “</span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I
wanted to make a dance that offered a more fully human picture of the people
who work as ‘trash men,’ and I wanted the audience and the performing employees
to feel more connected to each other once the performance was over.”</span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.5pt;">There are moments in the performance
that are breathtaking: a crane that emerges from a vehicle operated by Don
Anderson rises like a snake emerging from a charmer’s basket. Anderson works
the machinery with the grace and precision of an origami maker folding a sheet
of paper. His duet with the vehicle transforms the apparatus into a flying crane,
stunning and dramatic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another
highlight of the performance is a solo by Anthony Phillips, a Litter Abatement
employee whose dancing fuses Fred Astaire with Lil Buck. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.5pt;">Orr discovers workers’ talents that go
far beyond physical dexterity: she incorporates a harmonica solo by Orange
Jefferson that nearly stops the show. In each of these moments – by Anderson,
Phillips, and Jefferson – I’m intrigued by the contrast between the strength of
the men (the film shows them executing their professional duties) and the
delicacy of these gems they perform in Orr’s event. As a choreographer, Orr
brilliantly sheds light on the multifaceted nature of these people who perform
with such virtuosity both on the job as they synchronize their routes and
tasks, and off-duty when they pursue other forms of creative expression. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.5pt;">In one of the closing scenes of the
film, after the performance has been seen by 2,000+ people, a truck drives
through a neighborhood and we see one of the workers, a performer from Orr’s
show, waving vigorously to some residents. Did the family recognize her from
“The Trash Project” or is this an example of the deeper appreciation for all sanitation
workers after attending Orr’s creation? Maybe the specific answer is not as
important as considering the broader impact of and traces left by such a project. In fact one of the last songs on the soundtrack of the film
is Graham Reynolds’ “We Left a Lasting Impression.”</span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.5pt;">What is a lasting impression? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.5pt;">Orr’s process challenges concepts of
public art that tend towards discreet and tangible objects, like a beautiful
sculpture placed in a neighborhood to uplift residents and visitors. Her
project makes me think about Thomas Hirschhorn’s current “<a href="http://www.gramsci-monument.com/">Gramsci Monument</a>” in
the Forest Houses development in the South Bronx. For a year Hirschhorn has
worked closely with residents to build and enjoy a plywood structure that will serve as a platform for</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px;"> lectures, concerts, and art programs</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px;">. In Sunday’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times</i>, Hirschhorn is quoted: “I tell them, ‘This is not to
serve your community per se, but it is to serve art, and my reasons for wanting
to do these things are purely personal artistic reasons.’ My goal or my dream
is not so much about changing the situation of the people who help me, but
about showing the power of art to make people think about issues they otherwise
wouldn’t have thought about.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.5pt;">Like Orr’s "Trash Project," Hirschhorn’s
monuments rely on commitment from participants. For the “Gramsci Monument” these
are residents of the South Bronx and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/30/arts/design/thomas-hirschhorn-picks-bronx-development-as-art-site.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0">the <i>Times</i> article</a> traces their path from “suspicious bemusement to grudging recognition
to near-wholesale emotional ownership of the project, even older residents who
initially complained that it looked like a shanty rising in their yard.” A
similar trajectory is seen in the film “Trash Dance,” from Orr’s initial
description of the project to a room full of employees who appear non-committal
at best to workers making suggestions about how she can choreograph certain
scenes they will perform.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.5pt;">But Orr’s tactics make her performance quite different from Hirschhorn’s work </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px;">(the “shanty” description is apt) </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px;">or that of other social practice
artists. Her performance is gorgeously presented, synchronized and harmonious,
with performers making planned entrances and exits that offer visually elegant
pictures. Aesthetically it is stunning, even if Orr says early on in the film
that making a precise and wonderful dance is not her main goal. She is more
interested in what this experience allows both performers and audiences to
consider about the people who serve and sustain their communities. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 9.5pt;">Unlike the performance, the film "Trash Dance" provides a glimpse into Orr’s
process: indeterminate, patient, thoughtful, and deeply invested in her
performers as people. We hear about and see the challenges they face:
assumptions and stereotypes about their work being mindless, disgusting, or
easy. These scenes made me think of other projects, like Living Dance Studio’s
“Dance with Farm Workers” or M</span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">ierle Laderman Ukeles’s “Touch Sanitation” of 1978. Scholar Shannon
Jackson describes in “<a href="http://www.artpractical.com/feature/interview_with_shannon_jackson/">Social Works</a>” how Ukeles </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px;">had conversations with sanitation workers and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px;">wrote down all the hateful
names they had heard. She then transcribed these on “long panels of two-story glass
windows,” and invited 190 guests “representing all sectors of society to wash
the names off” as sanitation workers watched. Dr. Jackson writes that Ukeles’s
role as an artist has blurred with “that of the engineer, the policy advocate,
the cultural administrator, the educator, and the curator,” a list that could
perhaps be applied to Orr as well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>While Ukeles’s tactics may be more direct, her project embodies ideas
that are similar to Orr’s: to raise awareness and present a more human picture of labor and laborer. Jackson writes about social
practice as a field:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">“It
is my contention that some socially engaged art can be distinguished from
others by the degree to which they provoke reflection on the contingent systems
that support the management of life.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">An artist’s
ability to provoke reflection – whether through a magnificent performance by
sanitation workers, a ramshackle building in a South Bronx development, or the
act of washing away insults – is the factor that distinguishes public art from
other projects. In “Artistic Citizenship” Randy Martin offers one definition
for the term public art: “a vehicle of connection, a means to realize and
recognize the commons, a medium for people to gather together to reflect on the
very idea of being together. In a world where privacy is typically bound up
with a sense of security and where going out in public is conventionally
oriented toward commerce, art would treat civic activity, the desire to be
critically engaged, as an end in itself.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This
seems to answer the question about lasting impressions: there are projects that
not only recognize the past or the present but also allow us to think differently
about the future. And this is what the Harvard Task Force on the Arts decided
in its report: art-making is essential because it opens possibilities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">“Art-making
is an experiment in conjuring up the possibilities that are hidden in the
habitual and the familiar. The practice of art is for this reason akin to
prophecy: however much it is embedded in the past, its rules and conventions
and traditions, its deepest commitment is to the future.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11642932334557780110noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8321058650322811503.post-7931182722155318262013-06-11T17:24:00.000-07:002013-06-11T17:25:06.211-07:00Last weekend: Ojai; This weekend: ADI<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Summer breezes wafting through a concert of music by Lou Harrison while scents of eucalyptus and gardenia hang in the air…</div>
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I cannot think of a place more idyllic than Ojai for a summer festival: it combines the climate, setting, and curiosity that make for a deeply inspiring and enriching event. Although this year’s Ojai Music Festival only lasted for four days its sensorial memories--acoustic, visual, kinesthetic, tactile, and olfactory--will last for years.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">photo from my seat in the Libbey Bowl during preparations for an afternoon concert</td></tr>
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T<span style="color: #1a1a1a;">he land </span>around Ojai is sprinkled with flowers and trees that infuse the air with delectable scents, and the weather is warm without being sweltering. In the evening, when concerts takes place in a partially outdoor venue called the <a href="http://www.libbeybowl.org/about">Libbey Bowl</a>, temperatures drop to chillier, but still comfortable degrees. The Libbey Bowl reminds me of a smaller version of Wolf Trap: most of the audience sits within the raked auditorium, but a lawn area is available--and ideal--for those with young children or those who prefer to picnic. The seating capacity of the interior and lawn areas of the Bowl is about 1,300 (Wolf Trap’s capacity is <span style="color: #1a1a1a;">7,028 total: 3,868 in-house; 3,160 lawn).</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Some of the audience members who come to the Ojai Music Festival, an event that has happened each summer since 1947, have been attending since the 1940s. Some are local residents, others come from nearby cities like Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. Still others are residents of the east coast and the Midwest who come for the change of scenery and distinct artistic programming (several events triggered the question: is there a “California” or “west coast” aesthetic?) Whether local, regional, national or international, these patrons ranged from lawyers to retirees, critics to producers, and philanthropists to professors. I immensely enjoyed a couple brief conversations with Dr. Susan Foster, author of 2010’s “Choreographing Empathy,” who is a professor a UCLA and a patron and supporter of the festival.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyRMDqa0QXjokrlOCfPla5TkKbEDED64P4R06HorrseOPg8uh2CxoXJvQud9KcoGcQVl8pGVq9u8hpJxoSEnTYPgQxg3t15exjdrXX9tcQvKk00Z4ohR47SjH2lB-CgFzXaIp-hz72rA0C/s1600/4+33.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyRMDqa0QXjokrlOCfPla5TkKbEDED64P4R06HorrseOPg8uh2CxoXJvQud9KcoGcQVl8pGVq9u8hpJxoSEnTYPgQxg3t15exjdrXX9tcQvKk00Z4ohR47SjH2lB-CgFzXaIp-hz72rA0C/s320/4+33.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">A late-evening concert in Ojai: John Cage's 4'33" performed by Yegor Shevtsov at a toy piano in the Libbey Park Playground </span></td></tr>
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This
summer marked a significant first: the choreographer Mark Morris was named the
festival’s music director. His appointment meant that his company, Mark Morris
Dance Group (MMDG), performed on stage during one of the evening concerts, and
he also added a solo called “Ten Suggestions” (originally performed by Morris
and here performed by Dallas McMurray) to the last day of events. From
listening to conversations with audience members it seemed that people appreciated
adding dancers to a festival that traditionally consists of composers and musicians.
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<a name='more'></a>Morris himself conducted on the last day, and during an arrangement of Carl
Ruggles’ “Exaltation” by Colin Fowler, he turned around to invite the audience
to join the singing (pictured here). <o:p></o:p><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirzYZMyQ1gC3QvfzPLX07oi2_uFWm0uearA6p3U0z2BG9ahekVBzOEP9ikhIQQSOiI00yF9BQH9QWTJBKnKPV1DTM6zQBsfWfAu-K7LYVSDmn49UnIzqeI2yselrp33U87tT-NnsXGN5gI/s1600/mark+morris.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirzYZMyQ1gC3QvfzPLX07oi2_uFWm0uearA6p3U0z2BG9ahekVBzOEP9ikhIQQSOiI00yF9BQH9QWTJBKnKPV1DTM6zQBsfWfAu-K7LYVSDmn49UnIzqeI2yselrp33U87tT-NnsXGN5gI/s320/mark+morris.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<o:p> </o:p>While
Morris’s multifaceted roles within this year’s festival were interesting, the
aspect of the last four days that most inspires me is the festival’s programming.
Even though dance history and criticism are the current focus of my teaching
and research, I’ve worked with three distinct festivals. The first was Jacob’s
Pillow Dance Festival where I was an intern the summer after I graduated from
Princeton in 1993. The second was Lincoln Center Out of Doors where I edited
program copy and worked closely with producer Jenneth Webster for close to a
decade, learning a wealth of information from her about what it means to design
events that are creative, innovative, fun, and completely free to the public.
The third was SommerSzene, a festival of contemporary performance in Salzburg
that I have attended for years, most recently serving as its 2008 dramaturg.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Attending
the Ojai Music Festival I realized not only that I know far more about dance
and dance history than I do about music, but also that music directors and audiences
approach their material in ways that are creative and thought-provoking,
perhaps giving dance programmers some things to consider.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Within
a four-day span—from June 6 to 9--events at Ojai included talks with artists,
site-specific events, documentary films, performances, plus participatory
gatherings like an evening of social dancing and movement classes with MMDG
artists. The events seemed to embrace multiple purposes: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>setting the scene historically and
contextually, generating memorable experiences, and deepening audiences’
awareness of--and joy—as they engaged with lesser-known works. Grounding and
gluing together the diverse array of events was a thick printed program of
artists’ biographies and essays about the concerts. This printed material
supplemented the talks that gave brilliant insights into artists’ lives and their
placement within broader cultural and political contexts. These talks were
beautifully moderated by Ara Guzelimian, Provost and Dean of The Juilliard
School. One of many memorable moments happened when Mark Morris’s recalled
visiting Lou Harrison’s house, and particularly his bathroom that contained a
nude painting of Tchaikovsky. Morris says Harrison called it “the Tchaikovsky
room.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The
movement class I went to at 9am one morning was a bouncy affair taught by two
MMDG dancers who introduced themselves as having multifaceted identities:
Chelsea Lynn Acree also worked as a personal trainer while Nicholas Wagner was
an apprentice with the company as well as a spin instructor. Their cues and
exercises were typical fare found in many aerobics and stretching classes, but
the respect and attention they commanded from the participants was
extraordinary. It seemed that the people who gathered—perhaps 50
participants—had seen MMDG perform the night before and were mesmerized by the
company’s grace and strength. If at first I was ambivalent about all the thorny
issues regarding dance-as-fitness and dancers-as-overworked-and-underappreciated,
I have to admit that by the end of an hour we were all smiling and sweating. I
also liked how the morning class gave the festival a casual and interactive
moment with artists and audience members.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Since
I know far less about music than I do about dance, every event introduced a new
sound or compositional approach. I loved hearing a score by Lou Harrison after listening
to Eva Soltes describe how she made her documentary “Lou Harrison: A World of
Music.” Throughout the festival, the programming was designed to show “family
trees” of composers and influences: John Luther Adams told a funny story about
wining a compositional competition and then meeting the judge (Lou Harrison).
During the evening concert on Saturday, Adams’s “for Lou Harrison” followed
Harrison’s “Suite for Symphonic Strings.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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It
was enriching to read in the festival’s 124-page program (free to all
attendees) about the history of these compositions. At each event I thought
about how dance artists could benefit from this kind of setting: meaning both
the actual setting of Ojai and the theoretical material that supported these artists’
works. People I spoke with in Ojai were not craving music that was accessible
and easily-consumed, but were willing and curious explorers, delighting in a
newfound sound or deeper connection (seen, heard, felt, read about) between artistic
approaches. <o:p></o:p></div>
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This
is where I noticed the biggest gap between what I experienced in Ojai and dance
programming in DC, especially festivals that try to include “a little-bit-of-everything.”
For artists I imagine it is frustrating to create or condense works into
10-minute snippets, and as an audience member these shows feel to me either
like a whirlwind of drastically different genres or a popularity contest: who
is the most fun? Cute? Exciting?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Attending
festivals and events in DC I wonder if this attempt to include as many artists
as possible or to cater to every possible audience taste comes from a fear of
offending someone or excluding a certain genre. What the Ojai Music Festival
does so brilliantly is to have different music directors (this year it was Mark
Morris, but in previous years it has been Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, Sir
Simon Rattle, eighth blackbird). The music director works with the artistic
director (Thomas Morris) to create the festival’s programming. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiUt0kaUKRVkf_xqPdX5Kcj-E35u8FbSAW700gHqksBd445l_3N70fFPTGVtwuzZ2dRoNsvMsEmzspHjfXaixCd56x00o5KB0mCjL9gjj1V-Mbtfvys3yc6mS3mxf6AUJrOE6K8K3FaI_s/s1600/terry+riley.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiUt0kaUKRVkf_xqPdX5Kcj-E35u8FbSAW700gHqksBd445l_3N70fFPTGVtwuzZ2dRoNsvMsEmzspHjfXaixCd56x00o5KB0mCjL9gjj1V-Mbtfvys3yc6mS3mxf6AUJrOE6K8K3FaI_s/s320/terry+riley.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Twenty-six musicians bow on the stage of the Libbey Bowl after performing Terry Riley's "In C"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</o:p></div>
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Ojai’s
festivals delve adventurously into different genres of music and composition: they do
not abandon depth for inclusivity. This year there was a focus on American
music and musicians, but next year it will undoubtedly be different. The idea
is not to include as much as possible for fear of upsetting someone who is
excluded, but rather to thoughtfully present all the selected artists on their own terms. <o:p></o:p></div>
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This
is what Ojai Music Festival does so brilliantly: it honors and respects the
shared intelligence of both artists and audiences. It knows that <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/09/opinion/sunday/why-music-makes-our-brain-sing.html?_r=0">music is powerful</a> and conveys messages that are viscerally felt, non-verbal, and politically
relevant. And it knows that artists deserve to have their works placed in
contexts that speak to one another and that enrich our own awareness of the
interconnectedness of these aesthetic ideas. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The
one venue in the DMV that I see making this effort to engage artists and create
contexts for their work is American Dance Institute. ADI hones a curatorial
approach that selects current, rigorous, thought-provoking artists while
simultaneously developing programs that effectively nurture and catalyze creative
development. Its recent Festival of New Works offered a platform for artists
selected for ADI’s Incubator Program. I love doing the ADI pre-show talks that
discuss aspects of an artist’s career and how they fit into—and disrupt—notions
of what it means to dance, to choreograph, to perform. I am particularly
excited to be speaking <a href="http://www.americandance.org/ballet-adi/">this weekend</a> about a program of pieces by Runqiao
Du/Ballet ADI, Christopher K. Morgan, and Dance Exchange. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Last
weekend was my first time attending the Ojai Music Festival and it made clear
that audiences enjoy discovering a rarefied composer or esoteric composition. Undoubtedly
it helped that these events were placed in the bucolic setting of Ojai and its
summer breezes. But what really amazed me was the depth of the supporting
materials and events, the brilliant context offered by the festival’s
programming and printed program. Artists like Henry Cowell, John Cage, and
Terry Riley are not beyond our grasp. Just the opposite in fact: their
compositions connect us to sensations of creativity and beauty, and offer
answers to questions like what happens when we acknowledge a wider range of
artistic influences? Their works are generative because they can open our eyes
to the interconnectedness of a wide spectrum of artistic—and social--relations. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--EndFragment--></div>
katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11642932334557780110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8321058650322811503.post-67844053556153571582013-05-26T06:41:00.001-07:002013-05-26T07:12:21.234-07:00education and entertainment <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv8E-SIjjzH8r-yHN0v8HK2ije0VI8Qx7DhQyWAWSkMAgH-YAR264T6GCP7CohEywbCIkk4ewtu2_L2QdVZOxWBQ_z7RvOj0-OgOhU0AdA87thUnQnu1Lg7ipxI92Aydr6sHdrpNjxzFGQ/s1600/wsb+ladies.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv8E-SIjjzH8r-yHN0v8HK2ije0VI8Qx7DhQyWAWSkMAgH-YAR264T6GCP7CohEywbCIkk4ewtu2_L2QdVZOxWBQ_z7RvOj0-OgOhU0AdA87thUnQnu1Lg7ipxI92Aydr6sHdrpNjxzFGQ/s320/wsb+ladies.png" width="265" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kristina Windom, Kate, and Stephanie Walz backstage at THEARC</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Yesterday’s show by the
Washington School of Ballet (WSB) was both a trip down memory lane and a
depiction of how much the school has evolved. The performance took place at <a href="http://www.thearcdc.org/aboutus">THEARC Theater</a>, a venue that didn’t
exist when Mary Day ran the school, but Day’s incredible teaching and attention
to detail are still alive and vivid. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Several of the current WSB
teachers were students of Day<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>--
Kristina Windom and Stephanie Walz pictured above -- and preserve her legacy
while also preparing students for the changing landscape of companies today.
Kee Juan Han, the school director, does a stellar job of honing students’
abilities and producing dancers who fuse exquisite technique and breathtaking
excitement: when <a href="http://www.networkdance.com/Albert-Gordon"><span style="color: black;">Albert Gordon</span></a> is dancing it is hard for me to see
anyone else. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Albert possesses an uncanny
maturity considering that he is still a teenager. His calm demeanor belies his
extraordinary dancing. His turns are marked by his ability to effortlessly coast his rotations and then finish in perfectly
balanced positions. His leaps yesterday at THEARC caused gasps in the audience.
The fluidity of his lines and his impeccable phrasing make me </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">think a lot of David Hallberg (which makes sense since Hallberg's
teacher is also Albert’s teacher: Kee Juan Han.) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Even though I have never met
him, I have watched Albert’s dancing both at the school and at various
showings, and his performances are amazingly consistent for such a young artist.
My guess is that he has been as committed to his training as his teachers have been.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitj37XxYDLwOffwKQ_cuK9mjLDpl3sISDtpFBKQIb9TwNeDRWPO9hDAMqgRjpYQm6GDqoa7PTfyKPF9DhPYj3fe6qys8x6GyRP-NGY5Kdj1NJhbtBloA95g72UMBhyphenhyphenuzM_jXPVn5jCNi7y/s1600/Gordon_0033.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitj37XxYDLwOffwKQ_cuK9mjLDpl3sISDtpFBKQIb9TwNeDRWPO9hDAMqgRjpYQm6GDqoa7PTfyKPF9DhPYj3fe6qys8x6GyRP-NGY5Kdj1NJhbtBloA95g72UMBhyphenhyphenuzM_jXPVn5jCNi7y/s320/Gordon_0033.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Watching yesterday’s performance I thought
about Keesha Beckford’s letter about teaching that was picked up from her blog
and published by <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/keesha-beckford/a-letter-from-your-dance-teacher_b_3319783.html">Huffington
Post</a>. Her letter resonated for all the reasons that I enjoy watching a
dancer like Albert: he has achieved such technique and artistry through
the mutual dedication of student and teacher.</span></div>
<a name='more'></a><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">What Keesha addresses in her post is
that a lot of the ease and access we have to information today through
technology (and this is different from 10 or 20 years ago) mitigates a person’s
need to invest time and energy in learning and retaining details and
information. Dancing (and lots of other pursuits) don’t work with this type of
quick-and-easy approach. When Keesha asks a student to dig deeper or to stay
with a challenging step for a couple more days, this may seem impossible to a
student raised on “quick-and-easy.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">I think dance teachers today, for a
bunch of reasons, encounter parents and students who see their role as more
entertainment and service industry than education. This is unfortunate. Dancing
opens up our ability to encounter obstacles, to access different forms of
knowing and sensing, and to discover new ways of interacting with ourselves and
with others. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Even though I am not in a studio with
dancers, I am teaching undergraduate and graduate students and Keesha’s words
make sense: I have students who evaluate courses based on how “fun” they are.
This was not a word I used to assess my own academic or dance classes. I take
pleasure in discovering new material and figuring out an issue or problem that
appears confounding, but fun to me means an activity that doesn’t possess
difficulty or struggle. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">What Keesha’s article suggests, and I
agree with it, is that learning requires us to meet a challenge, and on a
deeper level, we are figuring out how we respond to challenge.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">What most distresses me about Keesha’s
post are the comments by people who would rather criticize her than consider
what she has written. In an ironic way, this is exactly what she addresses in
her letter by asking students to take responsibility for their training rather
than blame the teacher for a correction they don’t want to hear. It’s that old
conundrum of easier to blame the messenger than listen to the message. One
example of this response is a facebook post that says “</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Lucida Grande"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">the biggest thing I get from this is that she seems to have
suffered both at the hands of her past teachers and now the pain is revisited
by criticism of her students. It demonstrates how unevolved she is that she
can't consider a bigger picture. I was too when I taught ballet in my 20's.” This
reader seems to miss the point of the article: Keesha has met those teachers,
at one time was a student of that kind of teaching, and is now a highly
intelligent, aware, and generous teacher who sees big changes in how her
students (and her students’ parents) handle correction and criticism. </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt;">At the end of the
day we are all complicit in this problem if we tell people learning is always
“fun” or feels good. In a culture where ease and convenience reign supreme
sometimes it’s hard to remember why it’s necessary to bring awareness or steadfastness
or resolve to certain tasks. Seeing a performance by WSB students and dancers
like Albert Gordon throws the reasons into sharp relief. There are times when
learning involves challenges and obstacles: I believe we can only discover our
potential if we are willing to explore the unknown or unforeseeable. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11642932334557780110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8321058650322811503.post-1402276774263104242013-05-14T09:21:00.000-07:002013-05-14T09:21:04.759-07:00exploring a range of choreographic ideas<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVomz4F7wa7WMe4h8Ahy7wsJR7kEU4h8kRozYtYx_yquEQp5sY0jMYiGGeaaUmLGrROHA8mOxa1VJbzHA5S9K6Du9ka0ao2un2XSqlDqP4JWnHQ4o7v1GYMnkhIPOCyc0MpOTLvAp01oAX/s1600/maya,+ashley,+and+prentice.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVomz4F7wa7WMe4h8Ahy7wsJR7kEU4h8kRozYtYx_yquEQp5sY0jMYiGGeaaUmLGrROHA8mOxa1VJbzHA5S9K6Du9ka0ao2un2XSqlDqP4JWnHQ4o7v1GYMnkhIPOCyc0MpOTLvAp01oAX/s320/maya,+ashley,+and+prentice.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Prentice Whitlow, Ashleigh Gurtler, and Maya Orchin</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><br /></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13pt;">On May 2 I was in Brooklyn to see “Spring Movement.” One of the choreographers selected for this showing of choreography and performance was Maya Orchin, a student I met at George Mason in 2009 who moved to Europe after graduating from GMU in 2010. She shared some of these adventures abroad </span></span><a href="http://dancersindialogue.blogspot.com/2011/03/news-from-maya.html" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">here</span></a><span style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13pt;"> and </span><a href="http://dancersindialogue.blogspot.com/2010/07/fearless.html" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">here</span></a><span style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13pt;">.</span></i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 17px;"><i><br /></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"></span>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>I was particularly excited to see her recent work because she
was a wonderfully inventive choreographer as a student at GMU and I imagined
that her exposure to other ways of performing had enriched her singular approach
to dance-making. Her trio – performed by Maya with fellow Mason alumni Ashleigh
Gurtler and Prentice Whitlow was fantastic. Now, 10 days later, it remains one
of those pieces that I keep thinking about each day and enjoying all over
again.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>It began with a charge of energy, Maya and Prentice tumbling and
rolling, and even though there were fluctuations in this energy as the piece
evolved, there was never a dropped moment. My focus and interest were
steadfast.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>All of the creations on the program (there were 4 pieces) were
creative and distinct. All were exploring different approaches
and textures, but Maya’s used music in a more intentional way. When I asked her
about the development of this work and her influences from her college years,
she shared some answers that I think are worth passing on.</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Maya: When I think about GMU and what prepared me to
choreograph, I remember Dan Joyce's words of 'movement invention' and creating
unique phrase work that could have only been created by me. I felt really
supported by my professors that weird and funny was okay. I didn't have to make
an intense dramatic piece that copied someone else. My individuality was
celebrated.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Also, learning and talking in Susan [Shields]’s Senior Synthesis
class about being forward with our work, and being proactive in the dance world
gave me the confidence to apply for the different festivals. Why not? With each
application there is a writing component as well, explaining your intention for
the work; setting yourself a part and why they should produce your work.
Honestly, your [Kate’s] dance history class gave me crucial important
writing skills: being clear and concise, and having a unique point of view.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">While George Mason was great for many things--it gave me strong
technique and made me a well-rounded dancer--I missed the exposure to strange,
abnormal, dance performance. At our galas it was always David Parsons,
Paul Taylor, Mark Morris, and I didn't really fit that aesthetic and it was
always painful not getting chosen. But after college and seeing the whole
world of Sarah Michelson, Ishmael Houston Jones, Xavier Le Roy, Meg Stuart:
this gave me a refreshing realization about the limitless possibilities.
I think I am really interested in combining the two worlds - a highly
physical piece of work combined with more of a downtown theatrical
aspect. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The combination of technique and musicality that was emphasized
when I was at Mason plus the theatricality and absurdity of other types of
dance is what interests me now. One of the nicest comments I got from my shows
at CPR and the 92nd St Y was that my movement looked different, and presented
rhythmic patterns and energy usage that people had not really seen before.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Do you think exposure is important for artists who want to
choreograph and perform?</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">When I was exposed to other kinds of dance once I was out of
college I got really inspired to create my own stuff. Seeing dance in Europe
from Maguy Marin, to </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9YFaRN9w5w"><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">DD Dorvillier</span></a><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">, to </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kT4JaQaFYe0"><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Les Slovaks</span></a><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">, </span><a href="http://vimeo.com/8424140"><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Ultima Vez</span></a><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">, </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwPKDRxvBUw"><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">David Zambrano</span></a><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">, </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdWYZXf_x9Y"><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Peeping Tom</span></a><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">, and many others. My inspiration
comes from educating myself in the real world: seeing museums in Vienna and
Amsterdam, taking classes in Butoh, special Indian Folk Dances, wild partnering
classes. All of this helped me realize the type of work I'm interested in
creating. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Watching the
trio created by Maya made me realize what I like so much about contemporary
performance: there are no rules about what can or cannot be done. Music can be incorporated
as more than some vague atmosphere and technique can be celebrated. In Maya’s
performance her dancers’ bodies were incredibly articulate, with joints and
limbs moving in different and unpredictable directions, while the energy,
force, and release of the choreography mixed together to create a gorgeous and
captivating rhythm. It was wonderful to see what these three graduates from GMU
had accomplished with the tool kit they developed as students and how they have
deepened and expanded their kinetic explorations. University programs can
present a rich fabric of techniques and choreographic approaches without one
style needing to dominate or diminish the others. And it is wonderful to
reflect on the generosity and integrity of GMU teachers like Dan Joyce and
Susan Shields – artists and professors who performed with choreographers very
different from Maya – and who can be so influential and inspiring for this
emerging dance-maker.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11642932334557780110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8321058650322811503.post-40618997198109689122013-05-12T16:34:00.000-07:002013-05-12T16:34:19.403-07:00Today at the East Building<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBkd9a0w-AoW-yRJA9SLtEHNPtFPK5FLKpZHFJFnpDMge-_HPVHI2tupADCvpl-p7yZR_BdJqmQ9kz2fGnUehOI7UMJcJVxD-GAk4TOYCrvoAFXtIpiLgdfFstYiGcOTDY3XvqmL5Eyc_z/s1600/exhibit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBkd9a0w-AoW-yRJA9SLtEHNPtFPK5FLKpZHFJFnpDMge-_HPVHI2tupADCvpl-p7yZR_BdJqmQ9kz2fGnUehOI7UMJcJVxD-GAk4TOYCrvoAFXtIpiLgdfFstYiGcOTDY3XvqmL5Eyc_z/s400/exhibit.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Today
marked the opening of the Ballets Russes exhibit at the East Building and a
quick walk-through revealed that it is an impressive look at this
company, especially the artists and conversations that surrounded and
contributed to its innovative productions.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Today
also marked the closing lecture of a series called </span><a href="http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/calendar/lectures/mellon-lectures.html">“Out of Site in Plain View: A History of Exhibiting Architecture since 1750”</a><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"> by </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Barry Bergdoll, The
Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at The Museum of Modern
Art, and a professor at Columbia University. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Every week I attended, Bergdoll
delivered a talk that not only revealed a connection between the development of
design and techniques of display but also made me think about connections
between architecture and dance. In the first lecture Bergdoll spoke about the
impossibilities of “collecting” architecture: how exhibitions transfer designs
intended to be viewed in their environments to objects that are framed and
hung. The correlations with performance and choreography seemed clear: these
forms are often preserved or “collected” by being transferred to film,
photographs, and written words. When Bergdoll spoke about architecture being
exhibited through its simulations, I considered its resonance with dance. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">What made the
lectures by Bergdoll so brilliant was his constant acknowledgement that these
impossibilities did not mean exhibiting architecture was useless but rather
that these exhibitions transformed both our awareness of the role of architect
and construction of a history of architecture: “exhibitions enable
reflection.” During the last lecture of the series Bergdoll spoke more
personally about his role at MoMA, describing museums as not only mirrors but
also incubators, places that propose and generate ideas. In other words,
exhibitions are not only reactive but can also play an advocacy role. Recent
examples of these types of exhibitions are Bergdoll’s </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/category/rising-currents">Rising Currents</a></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/category/rising-currents"> </a>and</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"> <a href="http://www.momahomedelivery.org/">Home Delivery</a></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This brings me back
to the Ballets Russes exhibition taking place in the same building where Bergdoll
lectured. It does a magnificent job of gathering and displaying objects and
reproductions that tell the story of this incredible company, but where are the
exhibitions that reflect more recent innovations in dance? Or where are the D.C.
museums that not only reflect but also activate and catalyze innovative
concepts regarding dance and performance? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Perhaps the answer is
obvious: dance as an art form may rely on other systems and places for
reflection and generation. In </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/12/arts/dance/the-spectators-by-pam-tanowitz.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">the New York Times today</span></a><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"> choreographer Pam Tanowitz said, “</span><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 12pt;">Dance is really an oral history, and it has to get passed
down. There’s no product; all we have is our progress.”</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">This is why I view universities
as places that both catalyze and reflect: able to introduce students to current
choreographers as well as those who have shaped the field for today’s dance-makers.
One of the best performances I saw this year was George Mason’s Gala Concert which
included guest artists Camille A. Brown, </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Diane Coburn Bruning, </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Stephen Petronio, </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;">Kate
Skarpetowska, plus</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"> Mason alumnus Billy
Smith who is currently a member of Mark Morris Dance Group. GMU students were
not only engaging with a spectrum of choreographic ideas but also gaining
insights into different ways of working and making. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As Bergdoll reflected
today on the role of museums in the development of design, I find myself
thinking about universities’ roles in engaging with innovative ideas in dance
and performance. Do university dance faculty consider exposing students to a
spectrum of approaches to choreographing and performing important or even
necessary? Often dance department professors teach and create performances of
their own, and hire their company members as part-time faculty or guest
artists. Rather than expanding students’ awareness of innovative ideas, I see
these patterns as limiting exposure to other ways of choreographing and
performing. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The question “what encourages creativity?” occupies much of my
thinking about teaching. About a week ago I was in Brooklyn at <a href="http://www.cprnyc.org/">CPR</a> to see a performance that featured choreography
by GMU graduate Maya Orchin; I hope to write about her work and her path to
making this work in my next blog post. Her choreography inspired me the way
Bergdoll’s research inspired me.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Bergdoll’s lectures
were impressive: displaying his fierce intelligence and his rigorous
examination of the role of institutions in supporting and nurturing innovative
thinking. He did not hide his own complicity with a particularly powerful
institution in the history of architecture – MoMA – but currently engages the
museum as an instrument and agent, a place that shows a range of approaches
rather than defines a style. In Bergdoll’s words, he thinks of museums as
incubators. For students of dance, I see universities as places that can be
cauldrons of creativity.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11642932334557780110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8321058650322811503.post-88158708309528555652013-03-27T06:43:00.000-07:002013-03-27T06:43:50.195-07:00companies, colleges, and careers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6GtsO6ksct_juNi4vcakizt_76LFLcxHdo22l93uIE-QUOuHWZIK0JBqhxbzGxTM2hBq4vCnlxpPAfpywW4qD5mX5F5gsPr1NHRujigAbj5qoYx8if1wVU6JtxN-NrYZ2x7PpZ8u4aHq-/s1600/Scanned+from+a+Xerox+multifunction+device-13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6GtsO6ksct_juNi4vcakizt_76LFLcxHdo22l93uIE-QUOuHWZIK0JBqhxbzGxTM2hBq4vCnlxpPAfpywW4qD5mX5F5gsPr1NHRujigAbj5qoYx8if1wVU6JtxN-NrYZ2x7PpZ8u4aHq-/s320/Scanned+from+a+Xerox+multifunction+device-13.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">How do dancers navigate the multiple avenues available when they graduate from high school? There are decisions to be made about company auditions, college applications, and exploring a gap year before enrolling at a university. Last night <a href="http://www.washingtonballet.org/the-school/">the Washington School of Ballet</a> presented a discussion about dancers’ futures to a packed audience of students and parents. One of the first ideas offered was that it’s important for a dancer to demonstrate the difference between being assertive and being aggressive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">It was this statement of Septime Webre, artistic director of The Washington Ballet, that made me realize this conversation was going to be different. It was not about platitudes and clichés, not about following your dream and hoping for the best. It was real, informative, and eye-opening.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">The discussion was organized by <a href="http://www.washingtonballet.org/sitewide-bios/windom-kristina">Kristina Windom</a> and moderated by school director <a href="http://www.washingtonballet.org/sitewide-bios/han-kee-juan">Kee Juan Han</a>. Guest speakers included Webre and <a href="http://dance.gmu.edu/SusanShields">Susan Shields</a>, a choreographer, professor, and longtime partner to Mikhail Baryshnikov when she performed with the White Oak Dance Project. The thread that linked the speakers and audiences was the Washington Ballet, not only the school where Shields trained, but also a company now led by Webre and an organization that is spearheading ways of preparing dancers for careers in the 21<sup>st</sup> century. As Shields said candidly, 20 years ago there was a certain stigma about a dancer thinking about going to college, or a ballet-trained student considering a career in modern or contemporary dance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">Times have changed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">I was not only impressed by the frankness of the conversation, but also by the proactive nature of WSB’s students. Webre posed questions about what differentiated ABT from NYCB, Joffrey Ballet from Houston Ballet. His point was to encourage students to think about environments that were best suited to their skill sets and expertise.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">What made the discussion refreshing and inspiring was the shared responsibility: a dancer’s career is the product of knowledge and timing – knowing when and how to audition as well as the best places for their dancing and settings that cater to their strengths and interests. Some dancers may find fulfillment as professionals or trainees with a major company. Others may find pursuing a BFA at a school like George Mason the perfect match for their intellectual and artistic aspirations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">The evening opened with two personal statements–one by a female dancer and the other by a male–who faced difficult decisions about dancing professionally after high school or pursuing a college degree. </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">Alexandra Hutchinson</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">, a senior at Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School, talked about preparing both, college applications as well as </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px;">company auditions</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">. </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">Connor Werth</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"> spoke to being accepted at Princeton University and deciding to defer for a year in order to dance at Washington Ballet as part of the </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">professional training program</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">Both students were eloquent and realistic: encouraging their peers to pay attention to deadlines and to realize the difference between auditioning in person and sending a video of their dancing. Connor added that it may be vital to take a year off between high school and college in order to discover what really matters to you as both a scholar and a dancer. He also emphasized the importance of faculty and mentors who can guide a young dancer through this decision-making process.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">Webre, who attended to the University of Texas at Austin before embarking on his career as a dancer, choreographer, and company director, described the unusual path of Cheryl Sladkin, who served as an example of the importance of keeping options open. Cheryl trained at WSB before attending Princeton University where she maintained her ballet technique by taking classes at American Repertory Ballet, then headed by Webre. Princeton, like all Ivy League schools, does not offer a dance major and Cheryl chose to follow a pre-med path at the university, but danced professionally upon graduation, for ARB, then Washington Ballet, and then Suzanne Farrell Ballet and Karole Armitage’s company, Armitage Gone! Eventually she completed her medical degree through Cornell University and is now a pediatrician, as well as the wife of a Princeton graduate, Randy Altschuler, and the mother of two beautiful children.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">By including Cheryl in this conversation about career paths, Webre may have been highlighting the twists and turns that any career can take: one day students may envision themselves professional dancers, and then find that they crave academic stimulation and other career choices. He encouraged WSB students who were in their senior year of high school to audition for companies, to experience that “reality check” of placing your technique, your body, alongside other aspiring dancers. He described the differences between attending a public audition and trying out for a company by taking their company class.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">“Imagine auditioning for this company, Washington Ballet, by taking a class next to Brooklyn Mack,” Webre said. <a href="http://www.washingtonballet.org/sitewide-bios/mack-brooklyn">Mack</a> is one of the most gifted and versatile ballet dancers in this area if not this country. To be viewed in comparison to Mack or in comparison to a pool of young, aspiring dancers is a huge contrast. Webre encouraged WSB students to research companies that match their interests and talents, to understand the differences between top-tier companies and schools like NYCB and ABT, Harvard and Princeton, and those that cater to special genres and smaller class sizes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">Shields spoke to the benefits of a BFA degree as an environment where students can integrate mind and body, mental and physical knowledge. Her words came from decades of experience as a student, a dancer, a choreographer, and a teacher. She combines the different types of intelligence outlined by Harvard’s Howard Gardner decades ago, and understands their importance for a student’s well-being. Some of the differences between a program like GMU’s School of Dance and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts are the close-knit community fostered by GMU’s location in Fairfax, Virginia and the individual attention that is given to each GMU student.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">Having attended NYU’s Tisch School as a graduate student, after I attended Princeton University and was a room-mate to Cheryl Sladkin, I can attest to these differences. Some students may crave the stimulation of a major city like Manhattan; others may find its endless buffet of events and attractions distracting if not dangerous. Having taught at GMU I find their faculty world-class, combining knowledge, expertise, and experiences with our most acclaimed choreographers and companies.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">Adding to the tough choices faced by students today, a handful of higher education schools are becoming known for their ballet training. Some schools, like Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet, are developing partnerships that offer dancers BFA degrees through certain universities (King created his program with </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">Dominican University of California). As King says on <a href="http://bfa.linesballet.org/about/">the program’s website</a>:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">“Fierce concentration brings light to the mind, which brings clarity and the ability to see… One of the wonderful benefits of art study is that you develop intuition. Intuition is that knowing which doesn’t rely on inference and doesn’t need validation. It just knows. What parent wouldn’t want that for their child?” </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11pt;">As last night’s conversation drew to a close, Webre and Shields echoed one another’s ideas as they spoke to the young dancers: “please educate yourself.” Shields described the importance of “seeing, researching, and discovering your own movement preferences.” Webre advocated for young dancers plotting a plan A and a plan B, envisioning different courses of action that opened multiple options and varied paths toward personal fulfillment. </span></div>
</div>
katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11642932334557780110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8321058650322811503.post-17010646961467762902013-03-24T09:19:00.000-07:002013-03-24T09:19:47.320-07:00visceral or vicarious<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilsXgHU4hnc56v9KNBnHi0-o2nzMkarhtAIiaK01FvT1wlGu1yAuGwV1kNuqSoF0VeBQ4UJUE9B26cOnrmRsGpesqQQ5kMCmIC_J5xfJXJ36yEXWvHac2bKkalN31k1zH8qCMC33vJ4h5q/s1600/cherry+blast.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilsXgHU4hnc56v9KNBnHi0-o2nzMkarhtAIiaK01FvT1wlGu1yAuGwV1kNuqSoF0VeBQ4UJUE9B26cOnrmRsGpesqQQ5kMCmIC_J5xfJXJ36yEXWvHac2bKkalN31k1zH8qCMC33vJ4h5q/s400/cherry+blast.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">people gather to get into Pink Line Project's Cherry Blast in 2010</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hearing one of your own bones break is a sensation that’s not easily forgotten.<span> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It happened more than a decade ago when I was rehearsing with a dance company and landing from a jump. Called a Jones fracture, the break split the wider end of my 5<sup>th</sup> metatarsal from the bone’s shaft. When I tried to get up and walk, the sole of my foot felt viscous instead of solid. Recovery involved a year on crutches, an operation to insert a screw to keep the bone together, walking with a cane, and discovering a newfound appreciation for what it means to move.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> <a name='more'></a></span></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">During this year I was living in NYC’s
east village, close to the Village Voice, so I crutched over each day and sat
with dance editor Elizabeth Zimmer who showed me how reviews, previews, and
listings were organized. Deborah Jowitt, then the main dance critic at the
Voice, had been my dance history teacher as a graduate student: her wealth of
knowledge impressed me immensely, but it was the sensitivity and eloquence of
her reviews that made me appreciate criticism. By the time I could walk unassisted
I was thinking more about writing than dancing and started with short
assignments for the Voice, which grew to longer assignments for Dance magazine
and then features for the Voice and previews for the New York Times.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I realized that the shows I
was attending often consisted of 3 nights at 300-seat (or less) theaters. At
best, when they sold out, less than 1000 people saw them. A preview that I
wrote for the New York Times’ Arts & Leisure section was seen by quite a
few more. If readership a decade ago for the Times was about a million, and if
1 in 10 readers looked at the Arts & Leisure section, that was 100,000
people, far more than any of the downtown venues could accommodate. Writing
became a way of describing to others the creativity, innovation, and fresh
ideas I was witnessing in these tiny theaters. I experienced firsthand why
dance criticism was a driving force in the visibility of certain artists, and a
crucial factor in how dancing is recorded, documented, and turned into history.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">To now live in a city where
dance criticism vacillates between </span><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_dance/at-flashpoint-two-part-chemistry-of-lime-trees-is-striking-and-undercooked/2013/03/18/b9bd594a-8fd5-11e2-9173-7f87cda73b49_story.html"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">snappish</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> (how
dare this artist create an experience that makes me feel uncomfortable!) and </span><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_dance/dance-review-how-to-lose-a-mountain-blends-emotions-environmental-issues/2013/03/17/56138170-8f1d-11e2-9173-7f87cda73b49_story.html"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">uninformed</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> (does this critic care about who is performing and why they made this piece?)
is a strange turn of events. I’ve heard critics from the Post say they don’t
think their reviews have much impact on artists’ careers. I have a friend who
says she likes writing about dance in the DMV but not going to performances. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I turned to teaching because
I realized it offers a more immediate and generative way of connecting dancing
and audiences. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This week in one of my
undergraduate, non-major courses we were looking at forms of dance/theater in
Japan – Kabuki and Butoh – but my class began with everyone making an origami
crane. It was easy for a couple of the undergraduates, but challenging for most
of the students. Halfway through the exercise one student exclaimed, “My hands
aren’t small enough to do this.” He is a phenomenal athlete, one of the stars
of the GW basketball team. He made the class laugh as they realized that when
we engage with another kind of movement, another form of eye-hand coordination,
another type of artistic expression, we discover our own physical, mental,
cultural, and emotional predilections. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This Thursday, after everyone
had made an origami crane, or something somewhat resembling a crane, we watched
and discussed excerpts of performances of Kabuki and Butoh. Students were
curious, discussing and asking questions about what they saw and how it resonated
with other kinds of expression and communication. Totally absent were judgment
and accusation (“that’s not dance!” or “I don’t like it because it doesn’t fit
my criteria for a performance!”). My theory is that when we involve ourselves
fully, even momentarily, in another type of experience – perhaps something that
takes us out of comfort zones – we diminish the need to assess, judge, and
define. We relinquish a sense of control to gain a piece of knowledge: physical, sensory, emotional, intellectual, spiritual.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This brings me back to DC’s
Dance Criticism. Its tone may be influenced by this city being home to so much
commentary and analysis. People discuss and assess projects and politics, but
seem suspicious of encountering the unexpected, entering the unknown. It’s a
city that thrives on vicarious rather than visceral forms of knowledge.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This is one reason why I
admire Pink Line Project: it’s all about connecting people and events,
experiencing life viscerally, bypassing discussion in favor of direct encounters.
Philippa gets the importance of connection and engagement, plus she is
fabulously smart and fun. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Instead of living vicariously
through other people’s experiences, she creates encounters like Cherry Blast,
salons, and this June’s SUPERNOVA, a performance art festival in Rosslyn. Her
approach<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>– a mix of creativity and
courage – inspires me and make me realize what is missing when I read the snarky
and smug dance critics at the Post. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It would be hard for me to
invest the time, knowledge, and energy I give to dance if I didn’t care deeply
about this art form. I chose this path and am grateful that a bad break opened
the doors to my being so intimately involved, from
performing to watching to writing to teaching. I see the critics at the Post
disengaged not only from the artists and community here, but also from the
changes that are making contemporary performance different from modern or
postmodern dance. Maybe their writing would be different if they engaged more
openly and honestly in conversations, living a little more viscerally with
others rather than vicariously through their assessments and judgments.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>
katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11642932334557780110noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8321058650322811503.post-42980190318619974712013-02-04T08:05:00.002-08:002013-02-04T08:05:48.690-08:00I got a little riled up...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSn7a58QkkVgq4Hy1V8vVGYaa2VSO0kNMyZQXbR9alOdatSUeS_9RyWbivgB5vxBbqmUeZTm1joqtgakw90CfDI0DW2HWvfMnmLoePXvUjdLSN0NJOr3QQq2TESVdkgcRC1yZ-TFUZgOSN/s1600/ron.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSn7a58QkkVgq4Hy1V8vVGYaa2VSO0kNMyZQXbR9alOdatSUeS_9RyWbivgB5vxBbqmUeZTm1joqtgakw90CfDI0DW2HWvfMnmLoePXvUjdLSN0NJOr3QQq2TESVdkgcRC1yZ-TFUZgOSN/s320/ron.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ronald K. Brown teaching a master class at Strathmore<br /><br />
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<!--StartFragment-->
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">When a DC critic suggested
that Ron Brown’s work is shallow, I got a little riled up. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I had seen the performance
she reviewed, as well as a master class Brown taught the week prior (pictured above). His
artistry, generosity, and ability to merge and meld vocabularies and ideas are phenomenal.
I left the performance as inspired as I left the master class. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">So when I read <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_dance/ronald-k-brown-troupe-offers-balm-and-serenity-but-keeps-deeper-feelings-at-bay/2013/02/02/d7e99812-6d4c-11e2-bd36-c0fe61a205f6_story.html?wprss=rss_style&tid=pp_widget">The Washington Post article</a> I wrote a comment. The paper decided not to post my
comment so I share it below. I’m doing this to open a dialogue about what we
are seeing and saying. On Tuesday, tomorrow, I will be discussing this
performance and review with GWU students who were also there. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">I have some guesses about
what they will ask and wonder if anyone has some ideas about how to discuss
these topics: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">1. Why does a critic equate
Black artists’ work with “comfort food” and “porridge”? Does she do this with
ballet companies and white artists as well?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"></span></o:p></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">2. She writes as if she
expects to be served by these people and in all our conversations about the
role of dance critics through history – champions of the new, arbiters of
style, gatekeepers of certain forms and ideas, bridges between artists and
audiences – this critic introduces something unusual: she writes about what she
expects to see or wants to see rather than what she saw. Why is that?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">3. Her aesthetic approach
seems to be based on white artists and concepts – is this an example of what we
discuss in the course as “whiteness,"<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>meaning supplying norms and standards against which other groups are
measured?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">This was my comment written in response to the review and it was not posted:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Music visualization is the idea that if Stevie Wonder “howls” a
choreographer needs to find a movement equivalent. It’s an aesthetic idea
pioneered by Ruth St. Denis early in the 20th century and the fact that Kaufman
uses this approach to criticize Ron Brown’s choreography as shallow is
revealing. Brown’s concert was a breath-taking presentation of complexities and
beauties. Brown’s dancers do not mimic the music but find patterns and dynamics
that play and contrast with what we hear. This kind of duality or tension
brings to life the pulls and dialectics within our own lives and thoughts. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">To
learn more about his approach Kaufman could read Thomas DeFrantz or Robert
Farris Thompson. For instance, DeFrantz writes “…understand that the dance
responds to the drum, not solely in a reactive manner but within a
configuration of collaborative communication….” Kaufman treats dance
performances like food to be eaten and subjects them to her limited aesthetic
standards. She wants Brown to make stuff that can be easily consumed rather
than offer brilliant communication systems that allow us to imagine lives with
others that can sustain multiple viewpoints and perspectives. How unfortunate
that she not only misses the point of his performance, but also has the
audacity to suggest he “should” choreograph in another way. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">His “On Earth
Together” is a stunning testament to our lives in 2011: it’s a quilt of music
by Wonder and Brown’s deeply lush and polyrhythmic phrases. Watching it Friday
night I thought about other landmark pieces that take us on a journey through
different emotions and ways of gathering. Alvin Ailey did this more than 50
years ago with "Revelations" and it is still performed today. I bet
Brown’s works, in contrast to Kaufman's perspective, offer something so
valuable that they too withstand the tests of time.</span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11642932334557780110noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8321058650322811503.post-46988527619393602922013-01-22T08:52:00.000-08:002013-01-22T08:52:12.513-08:00departures from the staid<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtjay8ciQ-DVb53nfy4pbALti6BGhtxRATNLnF2MiKepR3QeDo3shSVUOMbSnx2BTZQWZv01TgHOON8Vadzj7S9kIvLbBcTJJL16_i3yTwt93y-wx9YaqYo7jjlZW5jMMYeDDIwXbMyZXZ/s1600/ian.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtjay8ciQ-DVb53nfy4pbALti6BGhtxRATNLnF2MiKepR3QeDo3shSVUOMbSnx2BTZQWZv01TgHOON8Vadzj7S9kIvLbBcTJJL16_i3yTwt93y-wx9YaqYo7jjlZW5jMMYeDDIwXbMyZXZ/s320/ian.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ian Svenonius</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Some thoughts on artists and events by Ellen Chenoweth:</i> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Inspired by Kate’s writing and with a number of performances
and experiences rattling around in my brain, I wanted to capture a few of them.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1. I’ve been noticing a welcome willingness to upset
traditional formats.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jack Ferver
in a work titled <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mon Ma Mes</i>, taking
place at the French Institute Alliance Française in New York as part of APAP,
opened the show by admitting that he had actually forgotten about this
performance, was running late because he had been teching for another show, and
was therefore going to open the evening with a Q&A session rather than
dancing to allow himself some time to get into the mood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was deliciously unclear how much of
this text delivery was real, and how much was just messing around with the
audience, likewise later stories involving crushes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The writer Junot Diaz must be drinking from the same
water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A couple of months ago, I
saw Diaz deliver an electric reading / performance / lecture at ARC’s Facing
Race conference.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Diaz came onto
the stage and announced that he was incredibly nervous, and was therefore going
to take questions from the audience as a way of warming up and dealing with the
nerves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This straying from the
traditional format sent a crackle of excitement through the assembled audience
of 800 or so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ferver’s
Q&A session was a stacked deck though.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<a name='more'></a>He had a collaborator weave her way through the audience,
while he would pick an audience member, and then have the collaborator pass the
selected audience member a question to read.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since Ferver had (presumably) written the questions, he was
then free to make fun of them, or give a cheeky or serious answer (or more
often, both) in a way that an artist would be hard-pressed to do with real
audience questions.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As I watched this brilliant tweak to the rote-and-boring, I
was also reminded of seeing DC musician Ian Svenonius’ reading / performance
art show at Politics and Prose a couple of weeks ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Svenonius told the assembled group in the bookstore that we
would be settling in for a nice, long traditional reading from his new book, <span class="maintext"><u>Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock 'n' Roll Group: a
how-to guide</u></span>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was
nestling into my seat when he asked for volunteers from the audience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brave participants came up to the
front, where they were given a script and participated in a séance that brought
back various musicians from the dead in an amusing set of scenes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I should have known better to expect
the expected from Svenonius, but I’m happy to see this upsetting of the usual
expectations, this departure from the staid and predictable.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
3. OK, clearly the Jack Ferver performance made a large
impression because I keep coming back to it, but even at APAP, where you’re
likely to have a number of starstruck moments if you’re an arts-lover, this
show was notable for the other artists in the room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Contemporary dance darlings Michelle Boule and Miguel
Gutierrez were there, but so were ballet stars David Hallberg and Megan
LeCrone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(“What can’t ballet
dancers do?” Ferver asked, after both Hallberg and LeCrone performed gracious
and unplanned cameos in his work.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I would love to see this level of support among the dance
and arts community in DC.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I want
to see Suzanne Farrell at a performance of DC choreographer Erica
Rebollar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I want to see Washington
Post dance critic Sarah Kaufman at a tiny DIY venue where audience members are
sitting on the floor instead of paying for expensive tickets at the Kennedy
Center.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I want to see Brooklyn
Mack or Maki Onuki from the Washington Ballet come take class with contemporary
dance-maker Jill Sigman when she’s a guest artist at the Dance Exchange in a
couple of weeks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Why not take it even farther and encourage more cross-genre
pollination in DC?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I want talented
local sculptor Mia Feuer to come see Jodi Melnick at the American Dance
Institute, or conceptual artist Wilmer Wilson to come see Kyle Abraham at Dance
Place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And when I go see 40 Under
40 at the Renwick Gallery, or “this is not a museum” at the Corcoran’s student
gallery (<a href="http://pinklineproject.com/event/31665">http://pinklineproject.com/event/31665</a>),
I would love to bump into some dance friends!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know time is limited and we have rehearsal and the metro
is expensive and there’s no place that tells you every arts thing that’s going
on in the city, etc. etc., but I think we can do better…</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If Wendy Whelan can dance with Brian Brooks, and David
Hallberg can dance with Jack Ferver and Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Dance
Company can merge with Dance Theater Workshop, then why not?</div>
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<br /></div>
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4. One of the few places where I’m starting to see this
happen already is with Eames Armstrong’s Soapbox series at Hillyer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I admire Eames for her voracious
appetite for performance art, her smart blog (http://dcperformanceart.tumblr.com/),
and her organizing ability.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
wasn’t able to attend but I was happy to see that Emma Crane Jaster’s recent
appearance at Soapbox included some members of the contemporary dance community
in DC and that attendance was high.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Let’s have more of this happy crossover in 2013.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
5. I’ve heard griping about the dance critics for the
biggest newspapers for years, but what feels new now is that the gripes are
turning into real alternatives, and seem to have reached a critical mass.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
D. Foy objected to the New York Times coverage of a recent
Deborah Hay performance, so he not only published a letter of critique on his
blog, he wrote his own review complete with tight word-count, to model his own
suggestions. (<a href="http://dfoyble.com/?p=1021">http://dfoyble.com/?p=1021</a>).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I love that he didn’t just let it rest
in a place of complaint, but put forward his own vision.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For myself, I still read the coverage in the Washington Post
and the New York Times, but for the meatiest and most insightful reviews and
thought pieces, I’ll turn to places like Culturebot and ThINKing Dance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s comforting to me that even if the
mainstream outlets insist on the old way of doing things, there are new ideas
and new methods that are rising to the surface.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
6.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I didn’t get
to see the performance at APAP, but I heard raves from trusted friends about
the Bill T. Jones and Anne Bogart collaboration that will come to the Clarice
Smith Performing Arts Center (<a href="http://claricesmithcenter.umd.edu/events/2013/bill-t-jonesarnie-zane-dance-co-siti-co-rite">http://claricesmithcenter.umd.edu/events/2013/bill-t-jonesarnie-zane-dance-co-siti-co-rite</a>)
in a few weeks and am excited to see these two visionaries together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I did get to witness a 30 minute excerpt from Kyle Abraham’s
work <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pavement</i>, graciously introduced
by Bill T. Jones and Carla Peterson at New York Live Arts, where Abraham is in
residence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Recently commissioned
by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and hotter than a firecracker at the
moment, I was glad to see that the work lived up to the hype.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Glorious dancers and inventive movement
kept me riveted, and I’m looking forward to seeing the full-length work at
Dance Place in April. (http://www.danceplace.org/dance-performances/kyle-abrahamabraham-in-motion-2/)</div>
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katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11642932334557780110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8321058650322811503.post-35367922836208247432013-01-20T08:43:00.000-08:002013-01-21T05:49:33.428-08:00the magnificent seven<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3uNJVDdh_xO2BLo3huLe7uVKSdXAIXW4GTzHQaVRb9MXQrB6w3O_ZNjCpRZMRzLD9kmnA0n92VMiR2ntPcSkgUHvMNyzwXTRc2cojy-Kbkmo2Knz3wgPB1X2E4BYYOEGmcvGn3PIg08MZ/s1600/mag+7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3uNJVDdh_xO2BLo3huLe7uVKSdXAIXW4GTzHQaVRb9MXQrB6w3O_ZNjCpRZMRzLD9kmnA0n92VMiR2ntPcSkgUHvMNyzwXTRc2cojy-Kbkmo2Knz3wgPB1X2E4BYYOEGmcvGn3PIg08MZ/s320/mag+7.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">some reflections on artists, curators, writers, and producers changing our cultural landscape</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;">1. Watching parts
of “How to Lose a Mountain” Friday night inspired me to think about moments and
people who enrich my thinking about art and artists. DC is a tricky place for
innovative ideas. Unlike other cities where I have lived and visited recently –
New York, San Francisco, Philadelphia -- it doesn’t have hubs for dancers and
performers to come together and share ideas. So when
I saw this work by Cassie Meador and her incredible cast, and listened to reflections
by those who gathered, I was deeply moved.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt;">Meador’s performers
--- Matthew Cumbie, Sarah Levitt,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Paloma
McGregor, Shula Strassfeld, and Zeke Leonard (who wasn’t present but who has
already established a strong role in the production) -- are deeply committed,
exhibiting a combination of strength and vulnerability that is captivating.
They are individuals who possess a deep sense of dedication to one another.
Meador incorporates their movement, thoughts, songs, into a multi-sensory
experience: the cast’s words and movement merge and meld with the music and
set. The showing took me through a journey of stories and images.
Some of these are more tangible than others, but I savored those moments when
there was an idea that was suggested rather than stated. At times I was not
exactly sure where a person or scene was headed, but the material itself was so
rich that there was a sense of excitement and curiosity generated by the
interactions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt;">The staff of Dance
Exchange gathered a diverse group of people to see and discuss the work and
this discussion was similarly generative. Beautifully moderated by John
Borstel, the conversation followed Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process. There
was a huge range of ideas and reflections on the showing, and the conversation
kept exploring, going deeper and deeper into ideas about the work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt;">After two hours
of seeing and talking I recognized a deep sense of gratitude. I appreciated the
honesty of the discussion, the generosity of participants who shared ideas, the
willingness of the artists and moderator to relinquish ego or self-promotion in
order to bring attention to the work itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I looked for 6 other moments – both last week and upcoming –
that offer a similar sense of fulfillment and inspiration.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt;">2. Dance Exchange
and DIY: Julie Potter wrote a thorough </span><a href="http://www.culturebot.net/2013/01/15567/good-circulation-grassroots-exchange-connecting-communities-of-practice/"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">examination of artist-led initiatives</span></a><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt;"> for CultureBot last Saturday. Her article
called to mind all the reasons why I admire Dance Exchange: it’s an organization
that invests deeply in nurturing artists and creative processes. This line in
particular resonated: “</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">the artist-created platforms and exchanges ensure vitality
on an ongoing local level in areas that do not possess formal festivals and
organizations dedicated to experimentation and research. The exchanges are
vitamins for rich and progressive contemporary performance communities
nationally.” Thank you Julie Potter and DX.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt;">3. Artists
committed to making a difference: Christopher Morgan hosts another showing of
work by choreographers called “Dance and Dessert” this Wednesday, January
23. The last one I attended was a great glimpse into different approaches to
movement and performance and Morgan is thoughtful moderator who has a terrific
way of engaging artists and audiences. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt;">4. Writers
interested in doing more than reviewing dance: Rita Felciano wrote </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://www.sfbg.com/2013/01/16/new-steps">a preview</a></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://www.sfbg.com/2013/01/16/new-steps"> </a>of
the upcoming season at CounterPULSE that highlights this venue's curatorial approach.
Perhaps at some point a dance critic in DC will consider doing more than a
review or preview of a single production or one choreographer. There are so
many other players involved in the dance ecosystem who can be highlighted. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt;">5. Critics
willing to open their eyes to changing approaches to dance and choreography: Alastair
Macaulay is far from knowledgeable about contemporary performance, but at least
he had the honesty to ask Ben Pryor, curator and producer, to explain some of
its ideas and concepts. Pryor not only </span><a href="http://www.culturebot.net/2013/01/15731/to-alastair-from-ben/"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">wrote to Macaulay</span></a><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt;">, but the dance critic published sections of Pryor’s
response in his review. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">6. Artists writing about what it’s like to work with a particular
choreographer or creative process. One of the beauties of the Internet is the
multiple points of access for reading different perspectives. Jesse Zaritt wrote
about his work with Faye Driscoll for an </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://www.culturebot.net/2013/01/15698/jesse-zaritt-on-faye-driscolls-youre-me/"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">article on CultureBot</span></a> and one of
the great passages includes his linking of dance and identity:</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“In movement, I am unfixed, always different. Paradoxically,
I feel most like myself when I am moving. Dance teaches that the me I
think I am is not so stable, not so constant.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt;">7. Next month two
phenomenal artists based in New York are coming to the DC area: Ronald K. Brown
will be at Lisner February 1 and Bill T. Jones is presenting a collaboration with
Anne Bogart at UMD February 8 and 9.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11642932334557780110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8321058650322811503.post-83329722102587719872012-12-30T10:10:00.000-08:002012-12-30T15:45:54.385-08:00the mutable influences of life<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Visiting
Philadelphia to see the exquisite </span><a href="http://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/765.html"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Dancing Around the Bride</span></a><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"> exhibit brought into focus not only the rich
possibilities of artistic interactions, but also the ways that DC suffers from
a lack of informed writing about current ideas in dance and performance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">The
day after my Philadelphia trip I read </span><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_dance/from-anna-karenina-lessons-for-the-ballet-world/2012/12/27/26e9b094-4adb-11e2-b709-667035ff9029_story.html"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Sarah Kaufman’s article</span></a><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"> about the film <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Anna Karenina</i>. Ignoring for a moment her
didactic tone--the way she situates herself as a critic who advises companies
and choreographers on how to behave and create—I was struck by her confusion
about current dance-makers. She describes the film’s choreographer, Sidi Larbi
Cherkaoui, as an “experimental choreographer.” She cites his use of arms and
hands in the film’s ball scene as unique and innovative. If she were familiar
with his 2005 performance with Akram Khan called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">zero degrees</i>, she would know that this vocabulary--viewable in the first 30 seconds of </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g5fLgsSQWU"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">this excerpt</span></a><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">--is part of an aesthetic approach he has honed for years. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Does
Kaufman use “experimental” to imply he is working on the fringes, using new or
different ideas? If this is the case, she exposes how unaware she is of current
trends in dance and its interdisciplinary influences. </span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Cherkaoui is well-known
in other cities, described as “renowned” by the Avignon festival where he
presented a huge production this summer (viewable </span><a href="http://liveweb.arte.tv/fr/video/Puzzle_Sidi_Larbi_Cherkaoui_Festival_d_Avignon/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">here</span></a><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">), and was commissioned to create a new work on Cedar
Lake Contemporary Ballet in New York in 2009. He has been around for a while
and is exploring ideas that are recognizable if not predictable to audiences of
contemporary dance and performance. One of his most recent projects was a music
video for Sigur Ros, viewable </span><a href="http://vimeo.com/53394874"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">here</span></a><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">It
may seem unimportant that a dance critic be aware of ideas and approaches
that resonate with current audiences. Perhaps Kaufman views her role as more of
a judge or arbiter of style, commenting on topics she likes: ballet, particularly
story-ballet, and dance that is obvious and borders on pantomime as in the case
of Synetic. But a crisis for DC artists and audiences occurs when Kaufman, who
has the biggest and most-accessed platform for dance criticism in DC, has
neither the ability nor the interest to write intelligently about today’s
artists. When <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_dance/voices-of-strength-allows-african-women-to-express-themselves-in-movement/2012/10/05/b3115e92-0f20-11e2-bd1a-b868e65d57eb_story.html">Kaufman</a>
wrote about the contemporary dancers who performed in October as part of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Voices of Strength</i> program at the Kennedy
Center she stated: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light"; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“</span><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">In
both pieces, the emotional tension was only fitfully maintained, and they cried
out for a director’s discerning eye.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Unbeknownst
to Kaufman, in much of contemporary performance artists play with ideas of
duration and indeterminacy. Their works are not meant to be easily swallowed
like a story-ballet or pantomime. Shifting states of being that emerge from
repetitive movements, singing, and speaking are part of their works’ impact. To
see a far more insightful—and more </span><a href="http://www.artsjournal.com/dancebeat/2012/09/out-of-africa/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Pulitzer-worthy review</span></a><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"> of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Voices of Strength</i> program--read Deborah Jowitt. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Kaufman’s
myopia makes me think of a great scene in the </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light"; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">documentary <i>Free to Dance</i> when dance
journalist Zita Allen reads part of a review of Katherine Dunham written by
John Martin. Martin describes Dunham’s work as: “It’s not designed to delve
into philosophy or psychology but to externalize the impulses of a
high-spirited, rhythmic, and gracious race.” Allen says “I asked Katherine
about her feelings about John Martin’s take and she said in this lady-like,
subdued way, ‘He was trying to be helpful.’” Allen adds “The man’s not trying
to be malicious, he just doesn’t get it.”</span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">In
her “</span><a href="http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-12-07/entertainment/35673423_1_contemporary-dance-dance-productions-dance-place"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Best of 2012</span></a><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">” article Kaufman notes “our city of international
crossroads should roll out the welcome mat” to artists like Khan as well as Hofesh
Shechter, who also worked recently with Cedar Lake. But where are her articles
about these artists? Doesn’t she have the resources to travel and write about
out-of-town productions like she wrote about this year’s </span><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/theater_dance/rudolf-nureyevs-art-and-style-are-gorgeously-revived-in-calif-museum-exhibit/2012/11/06/e8d215c0-2790-11e2-9972-71bf64ea091c_story_1.html"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">Rudolf Nureyev exhibit</span></a><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"> in California? Aren’t contemporary
approaches visible in the programming at Rockville’s American Dance Institute? If
this type of work matters to Kaufman why isn’t she writing regular previews of
ADI artists to supplement her (occasional) ADI reviews? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">“Collaboration
is the word of the moment in the arts,” Kaufman writes in her <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Anna Karenina </i>article. When does the
critic become part of this collaborative effort? When does writing enter into
the ecosystem of dance in DC as a vital and necessary component in sustaining
new ideas? When does Kaufman step out of her preferred role as judge and
arbiter of style and recognize the importance of criticism as building bridges
and introducing newer artists? With all the discussion of the 50<sup>th</sup>
anniversary of Judson Dance Theatre, how often have we heard about the role of
Jill Johnston? If Kaufman is not comfortable writing about current trends in
performance does she have the grace to give the print space to someone who
does?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">There
are terrific performances that continue to happen, as well as reviews of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dancing Across the Bride</i> if you cannot
make it to Philadelphia. Here is </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/07/arts/design/dancing-around-the-bride-at-philadelphia-museum-of-art.html?pagewanted=all"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">one by Holland Cotter</span></a><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">, art critic for the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times</i>, as well as a line from
the catalogue (which includes a brilliant essay by Johnston) about
relationships among the artists, Duchamp, Cunningham, Cage, Johns, and
Rauschenberg:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">“It soon became clear that these
relationships unfolded as a constellation that, like Cunningham’s memorial, was
characterized more by the mutable influences of life than by a neat set of
events so often recited in retrospective accounts.”</span></i><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt;">from “Openness and Grace” by Carlos Basualdo and
Erica F. Battle, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dancing Around the Bride</i>
catalogue, published by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2012<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11642932334557780110noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8321058650322811503.post-19313552879785810032012-12-22T13:13:00.000-08:002012-12-22T13:14:47.823-08:00yoga and performance art<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKjsIyAC0ny_2Qb4Ha4Tmqfu9x0Ke8KDaNzaAQNIksUzWni5vFyYVJIvBgWPFNl5JcF3C_6qyjoUKxd9D5vpfTdnOJt28FH6HcEMEjte9nx7vXSHyNw97wd7NMJ7kyCnJKLrpIE-V552m2/s1600/Colony_CapFringe12_080.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKjsIyAC0ny_2Qb4Ha4Tmqfu9x0Ke8KDaNzaAQNIksUzWni5vFyYVJIvBgWPFNl5JcF3C_6qyjoUKxd9D5vpfTdnOJt28FH6HcEMEjte9nx7vXSHyNw97wd7NMJ7kyCnJKLrpIE-V552m2/s320/Colony_CapFringe12_080.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kelly Bond and Melissa Krodman in "Colony" at the Capital Fringe Festival<br />
<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Each
Saturday when I roll down my yoga mat and begin a practice with a teacher in DC
I do not know where I will end up. Of course there are familiar poses/asanas
and certain patterns that link my movement and breath, but I also enter into
unexplored territory. I savor a sense of discovery when I notice places in my muscles--and my mind--that are resistant and tight. Every week there's different information and some days the practice ends with a feeling of exhaustion,
other days exhilaration. Daily shifts in the way I feel and how my body
responds make the journey indeterminate, its outcome uncertain. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Recently I've been enjoying practicing next to a friend
who shares my interest in performance and the arts, particularly relational
aesthetics. Our conversation this morning touched upon ways in which visual
artists and theatrical performers are tapping into similar trends: a current
interest in immersive theater coincides with a resurgence of events in museums
and galleries that make interaction a vital component in the realization of an
artist’s creation. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">This blog post brings together some of these ideas… <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">“Breaking the
fourth wall, and involving audience in a piece of theatre, has subsequently
been used in ways that have different social poignancy to <i>The Shining</i>,
and sometimes in ways that do not push against dominant values. Some shows have
now achieved commercial success in New York by capitalizing upon the excitement
of participation as a selling point. Yet even while it has become more common
to position the audience as something other than passive spectators,
choreographers have nevertheless continued to find critical tractions in
different ways of engaging an audience. This has included working with the
social values that are relevant to local contexts beyond the East Village
scene.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Reading these
sentences by <a href="http://www.newyorklivearts.org/blog/?p=2474">Doran George</a>--shortly after seeing Deborah Jowitt’s review of <a href="http://www.artsjournal.com/dancebeat/2012/11/wilding-through-euripedes/"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dionysus in 69</i></a> and attending a <a href="http://www.shakespearetheatre.org/events/details.aspx?id=296&source=l">symposium</a> on immersive theatre in Washington DC--triggers my interest in "social poignancy."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">The more I see approaches to performance that reconfigure artist/audience relations–David Zambrano’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Soul Project</i>, Punchdrunk’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sleep No More</i>, National Theatre of
Scotland’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Strange Undoing of Prudencia
Hart</i>–the more questions emerge. Does the incorporation of audiences into
performances acknowledge the ways in which we interact with our technologies
today, meaning frequently engaged, constantly available? Or does it speak to a
desire for connection and intimacy in a time when screens are a primary source
of communication and interaction?</span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">As George
points out, it is nearly impossible to put such a diversity of events – from
Yvonne Meier’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Shining</i> to
Punchdrunk’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sleep No More</i> to Third
Rail Project’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Then She Fell</i> – into
the same category as “immersive” or “environmental” or “participatory”
theatre. Each artist--and each event--negotiates its own strategies and purposes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Nevertheless
during the symposium in DC at Sidney Harman Hall a couple weeks ago, presenters
and artists spoke about their concerns and intents and the conversation was generative.
There was a brief history of the form in a Western context, its investigation
of the audience’s role--namely a shift from invisibility to visibility of
spectators—and the subsequent questions of personal and communal relationships.
There was acknowledgement of the inadequacy of labels or categories: is this
site-specific work? Environmental theatre? Interactive performance? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Although the
symposium at Harman Hall focused on theater productions and producers, their
ideas coincided with questions that have intrigued and inspired dancers and
choreographers for decades. It would have been interesting to include artists
working with movement in immersive environments--thinking here of Nancy
Bannon’s <a href="http://pinklineproject.com/article/walk-through-cornfield-transformer">recent work</a> at Transformer Gallery or Kelly Bond and Melissa Krodman’s <a href="http://pinklineproject.com/article/taking-process-truly-transformative-place"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Colony</i></a> at the Capital Fringe Fringe
festival. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">The language used
at the symposium to describe productions and processes ran parallel
to terms and concepts in dance: “ensemble-based devised theater,” “the audience
completes the work,” the “intentional incorporation” of audiences, “inviting
disruption and creating conditions for it to happen,” “site responsive work
created in found spaces,” “using film techniques in live theater settings,” and the
“doubleness of space – both theoretical and practical,” which refers to the
identity of a site as a warehouse or bar and its transformation into a performance
venue that does not replace or make invisible its other functions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Artists who
spoke at the DC symposium included Kathryn Hamilton, artistic director of
Sister Sylvester, Rachel Grossman of dog & pony dc, Ryan Holladay, a
musician and the New Media Curator at Artisphere, Liam Kaas-Lentz of Sojourn
Theatre, and Kate Fleming, who worked on props for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sleep No More</i>. Producers and presenters included Julianne Brienza of
Capital Fringe and Chris Jennings, general manager of Shakespeare Theatre Company,
and their acknowledgement of the complexity of presenting performances for audiences
of 20 instead of 2,000 was refreshing and insightful. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">But it was the
artists’ perspectives alongside these practical—and economic--considerations
that made the symposium valuable. When artists spoke about “expanding and contracting
space,” “creating structures that allow environments to be elastic and adaptable,”
and “managing audience expectations to allow the real and imagined to operate
simultaneously,” I found their concepts</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;"> intriguing. I also appreciated how they spoke about the journey of a production, and the ways in which its unfolding changes
relationships between audiences and actors. The sensitivity they brought to understanding
differences between invitation and expectation, particularly when incorporating
audiences, gave their words particular resonance.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">There was also
mention of appreciating the quality of liveness, which becomes visible “when
things go wrong.” I love this phrase because it made me think of a fundamental
component of the arts as experiences that open us up to the unknown or uncertain. Maybe this
is one reason why these explorations have such a hard time in DC, a city where
image and status are particularly--and politically--important. But it is
through these encounters with a theater piece or visual artwork that we
discover aspects of ourselves, our resistances and values. These are the moments that are both different from and similar to
discoveries made on a yoga mat. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #273037; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11642932334557780110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8321058650322811503.post-36756330000826374632012-10-29T11:36:00.001-07:002012-10-29T11:36:33.340-07:00Talking about talking about work<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQqse8oeJsJJLT0yW90owa3aK7KuMHm-RJLDJ64GhekrAQqrC-8IeX8EydaaCJ41EtqH-JgrbUQ8uF4T1I2NQuhOophKOXAMSdSFnMTH90pjLDVs-6veEIWxfZW42PnOeZLDbLxJqMc6jk/s1600/croce.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQqse8oeJsJJLT0yW90owa3aK7KuMHm-RJLDJ64GhekrAQqrC-8IeX8EydaaCJ41EtqH-JgrbUQ8uF4T1I2NQuhOophKOXAMSdSFnMTH90pjLDVs-6veEIWxfZW42PnOeZLDbLxJqMc6jk/s320/croce.jpg" width="229" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 32px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 32px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Another post by a choreographer/performer enrolled in the MFA program in Dance at GWU: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 32px;">part of the course I teach asks students to read different critics and analyze their perspectives. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 32px;">Here Dawn Stoppiello addresses a seminal piece in dance criticism.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; line-height: 32px;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Arlene Croce was the dance
critic for The New Yorker from 1973 to 1998. She founded Ballet Review magazine
and was a film critic prior to her career as a dance writer. Croce has written
several books on dance but this article, “Discussing the Undiscussable,” is an
important part of her legacy and recognition. Her audience includes the large
readership of The New Yorker and many dance enthusiasts and professionals.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">As a “newbie” in New York
City in 1994, I remember vividly when “Discussing the Undiscussable” came out. With
this piece Croce started an extremely important and controversial conversation
on art and criticism, one that had been waiting to be had. Already somewhat
identified as an old-school uptowner, with this article Croce exposes herself
as a brave journalist even if (and precisely because) her expressed opinions were
not in line with everyone’s. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Surely it is agreed that
the quality of an artwork is subjective, but what Croce is arguing is that it
is impossible to formally <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">critique</i>
something that is, first, and foremost a “being of something” rather than a
“theater of something.” I mean to say that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">being</i>
a terminally ill person and not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">acting</i>
as one has no formal perspective from which to be critiqued. How does a critic
critique a real person’s unscripted and unrehearsed real <a href="" name="_GoBack"></a>story?
</span></div>
<a name='more'></a>Her term “victim art” provides a category to describe works by artists who were
blending real life with theatrical life in the 1980s and 1990s, specifically
those talking about disease, death, and dying. She also throws in anyone who
might be complaining about his or her oppressed position in society. While
making her distaste for this kind of work clear, essentially Croce is
questioning the role of the critic in the late 20<sup>th</sup> century. She is challenging
the criteria for critiquing a work that is made up of tragic life experience.
Can the critic put aside emotion and find the aesthetic and/or formal angle
from which to address the work critically? <o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Joyce Carol Oates’
response to the article includes a litany of artists throughout history whose
work incorporated passages, images and other elements of “real life.” She also mentions
several times that some of these artists works were not appreciated or even experienced
in the artists’ lifetimes Oates’ list demonstrates the longevity of the tense
relationship between art-criticism and art-opinion, and by extension
art-survival. By reminding us that highly regarded artists were not recognized
by the critics of their day reinforces the idea that a positive response from a
respectable critic raises the artist into the light and that the informed
critic has the universal say on quality, even posthumously.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The power of the “formal”
critic as the only means to anoint an artist as worthy has been under fire ever
since the definition of art has been debated. The complexities of new art
categories and artists who overtly challenge the elite concept of art feverishly
flame this debate. The expertise needed for a critic in the 20<sup>th</sup>
(and now 21<sup>st</sup>) century has become more and more difficult to define.
Since so many art movements blew the lid off what is regarded as dance, as
theater, as art, the critic might now have to specialize in a particular type
of expression <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">within</i> their medium of review
in order to give it “formal” critique. If “formal” stands in for educated and
literate in a particular field then a kind of specialization would surely be in
order in today’s cacophony of hybridized art mediums. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The Internet age has unleashed
a chorus of “uneducated” bloggers and commenters, regular folks whose opinionated
voices are chiming in. Croce believes that formal and publicly presented discussion
amongst critics is crucial for the evaluation of art. This elevated discussion
is an important one however, online reviews from writers with lesser status
than Croce, writers from the “blog-o-sphere,” count in an artist’s grant
application folder today. There is less and less “elite” criticism in the age
of the Internet but more and more voices are included in the conversation. The
expansion of mediums and the expansion of art audiences brought upon by
personal computers and digital communication has changed the playing field. Access
equals inclusion. Inclusion equals change. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Joyce Carol Oates aptly
describes “victim” artists through the centuries. In so doing she points out
that neither art nor criticisms of art are singularly defined positions that
remain static through the ages. As our cultural values change so do our
perceptions and emotions about art. Most critics throughout history, as Oates’
observes, cannot see the next art wave while it is happening. Steve Jobs
famously said that people only know what they want after you’ve shown it to
them. Marshall McLuhan believes that the artist has a unique relationship to
time by being so firmly inside the present moment that they can predict the
future. He says, “</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: JA; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">Art at its most significant is a distant
early warning system that can always be relied on to tell the old culture what
is beginning to happen.” </span><span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Here I will share a personal example of this phenomenon. My company
Troika Ranch and other early users of video and computer technology in live
performance all received reviews in the mid-1990s that included a variation of
a statement like “the group almost pulled it off but were not able to fully
integrate the video with the live performers” or “the video overwhelmed the
dancers.” Had ALL of us really got it wrong? How interesting then that the NYU ITP
(New York University Interactive Telecommunication Program) students who came
to these shows, and loved them, saw the integration. In fact they didn’t even
see it because for their eyes real life and video/computer life were already
integrated. Who then is educated enough to say if these art works got it right
or not? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Finally, Susan Sontag’s
response to the Carol Oates response perpetuates the circular conversation. None
of the three writers Croce, Carol Oates or Sontag directly discuss the Bill T.
Jones’ work <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Still/Here</i>. No one is
talking about the work. They are talking about talking about the work. They are
trying to settle on the role of criticism as a “formal” means of discerning the
“rightness,” the value, the non-obscenity, and the good of an artwork (or essay
about an artwork). Critique is defined in the dictionary as “a detailed
analysis and assessment of something.” The question continues to be whether one
needs to be formally literate in a medium in order to analyze and assess it in
detail? Another question would be what defines a medium? The argument around
what actually makes something art simply gets more complex over time. When a
worldwide definitive description of art, especially “good” art, is agreed upon
then this discussion may cease. But until that day we endure, even encourage
the conversation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11642932334557780110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8321058650322811503.post-25785168406229539272012-10-27T12:52:00.000-07:002012-10-27T12:53:20.915-07:00Dracula, the ballet<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFZ-mv2xELBR2ZLP0SZokfSONAV-LxV-QO3n595MMXCQjU2SxZqW3oTT0JTEIrdrDTCMyZB1i82WPnprhwGw0Zf5NF0a75wqnbxmLdnhX6i-uK1zBvjNxc9cZ1r97PkCmQ7vS83sdkp1kt/s1600/dracula_1992_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFZ-mv2xELBR2ZLP0SZokfSONAV-LxV-QO3n595MMXCQjU2SxZqW3oTT0JTEIrdrDTCMyZB1i82WPnprhwGw0Zf5NF0a75wqnbxmLdnhX6i-uK1zBvjNxc9cZ1r97PkCmQ7vS83sdkp1kt/s320/dracula_1992_2.jpg" width="227" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is a poster from the Dracula film. The ballet on view at the Kennedy Center is much better.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A cross between romantic ballet and the Twilight Saga, the
newest production to enter the repertory of The Washington Ballet is evocative,
gripping, and utterly spectacular. Performed by a phenomenal cast on Friday, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dracula</i> featured Emily Ellis in the role
of Mina and Jared Nelson in the title role. They were a scintillating couple:
transforming Michael Pink’s choreography--which features long lunges, diagonal
lines, and wing-like arms--into statements about desire and delusion. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The entire cast contributed to Pink’s nightmarish visions,
both horrifying and believable at the same time. Their dancing was enhanced by
their sumptuous outfits and sets--original costumes and production by Lez
Brotherston—which Atlanta Ballet loaned to Washington. The contrasts
between the light-hearted mood of the Tea Dance that began Act II and the abbey
scene that closed the ballet created a sensuous and emotional journey; as
bizarre as a ballet about vampires may be, these performers made the tale captivating. The score by Philip Feeney enhanced the spooky atmosphere:
sounds of banging on a door, water dripping in a bucket (or maybe in some dark
basement), and pulsing heartbeats conjured scenes from an Edgar Allan Poe
story. Dracula’s bold and sinister demeanor made visible his allure and his
cruelty, and carried through to the bows when Nelson strutted on stage, slow
and majestic, a dignified commander of other realms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This production is a Dionysian delight, enriched by Pink’s choreography
that the cast so beautifully inhabits. </div>
<a name='more'></a>Circuitous and slinky, Pink’s vocabulary
speaks to feelings and emotions coursing through the veins of the characters.
It stretches the classical steps to create angles that are distorted, skewed,
excessive. The entire production, as my friend mentioned on the way of the theater,
is an extravaganza. Multi-sensory and engaging, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dracula</i> brought attention to detail and craft: the bed in the final
act slanted dramatically, its headboard reminiscent of a Gothic arch. Daniel Roberge
in the role of a madman, Renfield, transformed anxious jitters into an
incessant convulsing and shaking that was terrifying. <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dracula</i> depicts a
spectrum of carnal cravings--from love to lust to hunger for blood—and unfolds
in a tantalizing manner with some scenes unraveling quickly and others using
slow motion disintegrations to show fear and paralysis. The Washington Ballet has
a brilliant way of revealing characters’ human and supernatural traits
simultaneously: suddenly the lure of <i>La Sylphide</i> 180 years ago
is much more understandable. At the same time, my fascination with Robert Pattinson
and Kristen Stewart pales in comparison to my admiration for these fantastic
artists. The nether-worlds tap into questions about life and death, desire and
longing, and the ending of Pink’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dracula</i>
is both stunning and ambiguous. But I’d rather not give too much away since
it’s a performance that lasts one more week and it’s the perfect way to
celebrate Halloween. </div>
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katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11642932334557780110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8321058650322811503.post-28728436250323359882012-10-25T10:52:00.001-07:002012-10-25T10:52:55.435-07:00The Contact Improvisation Solo<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjb38gSyaWoBaY7XOcFGBpd2dS24zuZV_LWqcPXTg43hdA4GZ83inlR-EMSSMNIA52J7a15PNS1GuHOQ3GyYH0jh7-DWSxrm1MK1O9UCl-VCjuDb4KlmxXkTrYVl3tnjfJQ_HuZ6zXI7E2/s1600/benno.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjb38gSyaWoBaY7XOcFGBpd2dS24zuZV_LWqcPXTg43hdA4GZ83inlR-EMSSMNIA52J7a15PNS1GuHOQ3GyYH0jh7-DWSxrm1MK1O9UCl-VCjuDb4KlmxXkTrYVl3tnjfJQ_HuZ6zXI7E2/s1600/benno.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Benno Voorham. Image from his website: bennovoorham.com</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This is a guest blogger post by Ilana Silverstein, a DC choreographer and performer who is also pursuing her master's degree in dance at George Washington University. As part of a course I teach in Contemporary Performance and Dance History, Ilana wrote this reflection on an event by Benno Voorham at Dance Exchange:<br />
<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 32px;">When a distinguished
dance teacher like Benno Voorham spends a weekend in town, it is time to rise
to the occasion and present his work, whether you identify as a presenter or
not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Walking into the Dance
Exchange studio in Takoma Park, MD, I noticed wall to wall black curtains and
crisscrossing diagonals of light directed upstage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The setting and audience of thirty people transported me
into performance mode. Two simple wooden chairs were set facing away from each
other splitting center on a diagonal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>My program offered little information about the piece or Voorham.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Benno Voorham </i>by Benno Voorham.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Luckily, I already knew some basic information: that Voorham
is a contact improvisation teacher from Sweden and that he was going to perform
a twenty-minute improvisational performance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Voorham entered the space, wearing only red plaid pants and
a belt, and sat down in one of the chairs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The opening image of Voorham sitting lasted for the entirety
of the first piece of classical music as if we were invited to join in on a
sitting meditation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Voorham
left the chair, I was immediately drawn to his bare back and feet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the second piece of music, we
watched his back and hips giggle as if he was rolling a marble up and down his
torso.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The classical music and the
unexpected back-dance created a bit of humor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was not prepared for the isolated movement and therefore
wanted to laugh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 32px;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><br /><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 32px;">The piece built
from there as his focus lifted and his body traveled through space.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His dancing began to mimic the rhythm
of the music with sharp head turns and direct walks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While Voorham remained on stage left, I was aware of the
chairs and curious as to why they were there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The one most distant from him seemed to represent a goal
that he would eventually reach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As
I wondered about the props, Voorham physically altered the space, pushing one
of the back curtains halfway across, revealing a white wall, windows and a
ballet barre.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His dancing shifted
to full body extensions, reaching his limbs to the edges of his
kinesphere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The dance developed
into a study on shadows growing from simple to complex.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still limiting himself to half the
stage, each pivot, roll and jump was accentuated by his shadow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At this point, the dance was enjoyable
to watch, but not original in execution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 32px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 32px;">Choreographers frequently make use of shadows in performance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 32px;">Voorham took the
shadow idea one step further by removing a filter and revealing the shadows of
the chairs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At this point, the
chairs morphed into shadow architecture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The lines of the chairs created an environment that the, now two
shadows, of Voorham glided through.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>His chorus of “dancers” now accompanied him causing some movements to
pop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These moments relied on exact
positioning in front of the light source, and I wondered if Voorham set these
moments to achieve a specific image or not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One moment that took my breath away was the duet of shadows
spinning on the ground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With the
introduction of the chair shadows, Voorham ventured more into stage right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was not sure whether to focus my
attention on the live body or the wall of shadows, but I did not mind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 32px;">At one point he
acknowledged the untouched chair, as if to foreshadow that more chair
interaction would take place later on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As predicted, he was making his way toward the second chair, dancing
close to it but not touching it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He dragged his lower body on the floor pulling himself forward with his
hands, he crawled, he reached his head toward the chair and he waved his hand
around the chair.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The piece ended,
as I expected, with Voorham sitting in the chair.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Throughout the work, the sound score alternated between silence
and eight of Beethoven’s 33 Variations On A Waltz In C Major.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This frequent change in sound provided
a chance for me to catch my breath and reflect on the movement that I
witnessed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 32px;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 32px;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 32px;">Contact
improvisation (CI) seemed to inform Voorham’s dancing. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As he transferred his weight from one
foot to another, I felt his body grounding into the floor like he might control
his weight in a contact duet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
soloist almost had an invisible partner at times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He seemed to construct “ledges” with his body by folding to
a flat-back position, providing surfaces that could perhaps support a dance
partner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since he gradually
developed themes or repeated movement, I had time to notice the ledges and
visualize another body in the space.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I walked away with an appreciation for the low-tech interactive solo
improvisational performance.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 32px;"> </span></div>
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katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11642932334557780110noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8321058650322811503.post-15234028852882253812012-10-13T11:11:00.001-07:002012-10-13T11:14:36.901-07:00words and action<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVavLskXb9WKw_45znLsoBGFX-ELawDbiMKboeAuGst3lWA9FT2kC6QjtTFHBj6qwBMVkIYnQCw18vwSStHjeqWA6W2QMOXFRpH4MJvTya_ObaJvrbDyVMVzkVwnlwf5Tbwfy48DffpZzS/s1600/Lucky+Plush.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVavLskXb9WKw_45znLsoBGFX-ELawDbiMKboeAuGst3lWA9FT2kC6QjtTFHBj6qwBMVkIYnQCw18vwSStHjeqWA6W2QMOXFRpH4MJvTya_ObaJvrbDyVMVzkVwnlwf5Tbwfy48DffpZzS/s400/Lucky+Plush.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">photo of Julia Rhoads' company Lucky Plush by Cheryl Mann</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Over the last 10 days I have been to 8 different performances, films, and talks but one event stands out from all the rest. And it’s not <i>Black Watch</i> at Harman Hall or <i>Voices of Strength </i>at The Kennedy Center – although both of those were excellent – it’s something on a smaller scale that left a deeper impact. On October 2 choreographer/director Julia Rhoads spoke at Dance Exchange about a model she has created to generate stability and sustainably for small to medium sized arts organizations. It’s not only a brilliant and innovative structure, but the MacArthur Foundation has already recognized her concept with a quarter-million dollars. That’s not a typo: the MacArthur Foundation gave $250,000 in funding for multi-year support of Rhoads' proposal called, aptly enough, Creative Partners.</span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 17px;"></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 17px;">Rhoads conceived of this system for supporting for arts administration after considering how “90% of my job is administrative, 10% is artistic.” She wondered how she could change this paradigm (which is not unusual for successful, smaller-sized dance companies). Several keywords popped up: the structure needed to be collaborative, collective, sustainable, interdisciplinary. In many ways the structure of her newly designed organization reflects the values that drive her stage work. It's based on pooling resources of three smaller arts organizations to generate enough funding to pay one director of development and associate to find financial support for the three organizations. The organizations Rhoads chose to partner with are like-minded, but not dance-specific. She selected eighth blackbird, a new music ensemble, and Blair Thomas & Company, a puppet theater troupe. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 17px;">By joining together with two other organizations and pooling resources to pay for their director of development and associate, Rhoads will diminish the paperwork that makes her more administrator than artist. Perhaps most inspiring about this model, her partners are not fellow choreographers, but a musical group and a puppet-theatre company. This interdisciplinary element points to a shift in the cultural landscape of the 21st century, and makes Rhoads’ organization one of the first to possess the flexibility and adaptability that will keep her artistically and administratively nourished. She spoke candidly at DX about the emphasis today on funders seeking artists who can double as educators and said this is not her. There are magnificent teachers who excel in the “arts-in-ed” paradigm and she is not interested. She wants to make great, evocative, powerful contemporary performance that merges dance and theater, and this is exactly what I saw last Friday at UMD’s Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGghLMK_L7bpdz0f9gKGK81fwM7BODekrDOnEKALZdBUrYCJRgYDqx_TWMs9hhyphenhyphenIjaN5Uz_7RNIiv6A8QAdYoKj-QD6ZXZvm4cwO18iCct4vjRDCcOTJ1pxky_qM7AdttxQgRqmw1YUFt9/s1600/julia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGghLMK_L7bpdz0f9gKGK81fwM7BODekrDOnEKALZdBUrYCJRgYDqx_TWMs9hhyphenhyphenIjaN5Uz_7RNIiv6A8QAdYoKj-QD6ZXZvm4cwO18iCct4vjRDCcOTJ1pxky_qM7AdttxQgRqmw1YUFt9/s400/julia.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">photo from the performance <i>The Better Half</i> by William Frederking </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 10px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"The Better Half" was phenomenal. Rhoads, in collaboration with Leslie Buxbaum Danzig, has made one of the most inspiring and clever works I have seen this year. Although it’s billed as “a reworking of the classic melodrama Gaslight (1944),” Rhoads’ “The Better Half” is a merger of dance and theater performed by a cast of top-notch performers: Rhoads, Fancisco Avina, Adrian Danzig, David Lakein, and Meghann Wilkinson. They are captivating masters of melding of emotion and motion/people and performer, which is a focal point of contemporary performance. “The Better Half” addresses questions that form the crux of the art form: what does it mean to perform? why is dance relevant to conversations about communication and interaction? How does theater fundamentally involve movement and bodies? </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 10px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">“The Better Half” is a depiction of people and psychology that’s thought-provoking, poetic, and poignant. Choreographically Rhoads designs gesture and form in ways that are stunning. I saw her years ago when she presented her “Punk Yankees” in Chicago and continue to marvel at her ability to press against boundaries between artist and audience, as well as her proficiency with presenting a type of theater that’s both entertainment and social engagement. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 10px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Listening to her development of Creative Partners I realized Rhoads is both artist and administrator. And where was the rest of DC’s dance community when she talked about her innovative ideas at DX? It was the same night the DC dance service organization planned their DanceTalk for local artists and audiences. For a community that is relatively small, DC seems to have trouble with communication and collaboration. </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 10px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Rhoads’ event at DX was deeply inspiring: her thinking is clever and clear, her ideas are smart and sustainable. She recognizes the ecosystem of dance, its structures and systems of support, what works and what does not. It was a conversation that reminded me of the power of honoring artists and their ideas, before considering the audience or a final product. Left to their own devices, artists like Rhoads are not only making great performances but also figuring out how to nurture their own ways of making for years to come. And she’s looking for a uniquely-equipped director of development: <a href="http://www.chicagoculturalalliance.org/files/documents/380_Creative%20Partners%20Director%20of%20Development%20-%20final%20-%208.8.2012.pdf">posting here</a>.</span></div>
</span></div>
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katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11642932334557780110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8321058650322811503.post-2375471539688284872012-09-17T08:21:00.000-07:002012-09-17T08:57:38.776-07:00letting go<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0Am-bMyxQ_qdxNrmwY5pbZgNdW44ygSXYdLI2hKtCkWQz1-JyCgiRJ5HA-91qGh7rQ3rl2BaMOajtQeX1Oax52d_rsCHXz2584Um-SCxxhv-cj88-fRRFWcM8QBaKJPCb01AbPmxVX0z5/s1600/September-2012-Edgeworks-by-Sardar-Aziz-650x250.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0Am-bMyxQ_qdxNrmwY5pbZgNdW44ygSXYdLI2hKtCkWQz1-JyCgiRJ5HA-91qGh7rQ3rl2BaMOajtQeX1Oax52d_rsCHXz2584Um-SCxxhv-cj88-fRRFWcM8QBaKJPCb01AbPmxVX0z5/s320/September-2012-Edgeworks-by-Sardar-Aziz-650x250.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">photo of Helanius J. Wilkins by Sadar Aziz </td></tr>
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Once in a while there is a performance that grips me, takes
me by surprise, and leads me into unexplored places that both inspire and
challenge. That performance happened last night at Dance Place when Helanius J.
Wilkins presented /CLOSE/R.</div>
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What made this experience even more powerful was that I had
seen different iterations of this work since I serve as his thesis project
advisor at George Washington University. I met Helanius a year ago when he was
a student in a MFA course I taught at GWU called “Contemporary Performance
& Criticism.” Instantly I was drawn to his thinking: perceptive, critical, creative.
</div>
<a name='more'></a>I went to Berkeley for a year and explored ideas about how knowledge is
generated through sensation – using this to examine everything from flash mobs
to Carrie Noland’s theories in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Agency and
Embodiment</i>. When I returned to GWU in the summer of 2012 Helanius and I
were once again on similar pages, intrigued by ideas about indeterminacy in
creative process and performance and jostling the structures that insist on
choreographers creating neat products that fit into showcases and mixed
repertory programs. How can we as artists and scholars move dance away from the
spectacle it has become on tv shows and competitions where value is measured in
terms of glitz and audience satisfaction?<br />
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/CLOSE/R is a journey. It took me through places of joy, uncertainty,
and disclosure. I entered the theater and saw Helanius already there, grooving
and flowing, his back to the audience for much of the beginning of this piece, as
music filled Dance Place. I entered into his ritual, a word that came up during
the post-performance discussion, and resonated with the transformation and arc
of /CLOSE/R. Ritual is a word that I also use when I teach courses in dance
history and contemporary performance: ritual as antithesis of spectacle, or on
a spectrum of approaches to performance, ritual as experience that takes us
into uncertain territories and changes us, transforms us. Spectacle is candy;
ritual is nourishment. In /CLOSE/R Helanius took me to places where I saw my
own vulnerability, fragility, surrender, and existence. Existence as it
connects to being, to surviving and thriving not facades and pretty faces. The
performance oscillated between moments of presentation and invitation, showing
us the charm and charisma of Helanius, then asking us to think about our own
thresholds and boundaries.</div>
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Throughout /CLOSE/R Helanius was honest, generous,<span style="color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;">
gorgeous, </span>and courageous. During the vibrating, shaking section that reminded
me of images by Francis Bacon and performances of butoh -- as Daniel Burkholder
suggested in the post-performance discussion – Helanius revealed what some
people may consider ugly or grotesque. This uncovering not only shifts definitions
of dance and theater, but also changes our ways of seeing the world.</div>
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Another comment during the post-performance discussion that lingers
came from <a href="http://www.american.edu/cas/faculty/mgeorge.cfm">Melanie George</a>, Dance Program Director at American University, when she asked about the adaptability of this piece to a
shorter format. Can /CLOSE/R be excerpted? To me this performance is not a
product but an experience. It is not something to be packaged into a sampler of
DC dance artists like VelocityDC: it is a work that places demands on its
audiences, that asks us to go deeper into our own awareness and reflective
processes, that takes us through layers of shedding. Why is it so rare for an
artist in DC to be given the space, time, and support to create and present
such a work? Why is much of dance presenting in this area focused on pleasing
audiences rather than nurturing artists?</div>
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I am grateful for the bravery and risk-taking I saw last
night. Grateful that Helanius carved out a way to make this journey happen.
Grateful that he is so bold and brilliant. Thank you Helanius.</div>
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katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11642932334557780110noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8321058650322811503.post-57514638458954448932012-08-01T19:05:00.000-07:002012-08-02T12:25:35.825-07:00Mason SummerDance<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZHlbYLugpUPtOZFkFTgwt59fbHPNioTGrxkSSksVv1K63gO8CepHCYUXwAgzuoL5YENuHfAD3SHDhafeBnTKmV3HltfnWedGO6FHRkjhJuDHXLiVNLrDO5ITbABhCuOvJSp1fRhT0xEil/s1600/summer+intensive.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZHlbYLugpUPtOZFkFTgwt59fbHPNioTGrxkSSksVv1K63gO8CepHCYUXwAgzuoL5YENuHfAD3SHDhafeBnTKmV3HltfnWedGO6FHRkjhJuDHXLiVNLrDO5ITbABhCuOvJSp1fRhT0xEil/s320/summer+intensive.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Watching the performance of George
Mason's first summer dance intensive I was struck by how vital this program is
for teenaged dancers. They not only gain access to the aesthetics and
approaches of a college dance program, but also -- and what really blew me away
Sunday -- discover in two weeks what will be expected of them as students as
well as performers. Talking to the summer intensive's co-director Karen Reedy revealed
some of the priorities - and unexpected outcomes - of this new initiative.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Kate: Why did you decide to create the summer
intensive?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Karen Reedy: The George Mason
University School of Dance had been considering beginning a summer program for
a while. Heritage Professor Christopher d'Amboise developed the initial
vision for this program. He wanted to expose students to the techniques
and approaches taught in the School of Dance, while placing emphasis on the
development of each student's artistry and individuality. Mason
SummerDance students trained daily in ballet and modern technique classes,
taught by members of the School of Dance faculty. During the afternoons
and evenings, students rehearsed with choreographers for solo work and group
dances. </span></div>
<a name='more'></a> In rehearsal, the dancers utilized the techniques practiced
earlier in the day, and were also challenged to stretch beyond the steps in
order to find the meaning and intention in the movement.<o:p></o:p><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Kate: What was the biggest surprise?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Karen: Being that this was our first
intensive, there were a lot of unknowns. While the program looked good on
paper, we needed to set it in motion! The biggest surprise for me had to
do with the students' openness and fearlessness. Out of the forty plus
students, there was not one who didn't embrace the two week experience with
open arms. It can be scary to be asked to try new ways of moving and
thinking about dance. Our students jumped right in and supported each
other every step of the way. This created an environment ripe for tremendous
individual growth and FUN!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Kate: Do you see differences in terms of
training between the classes at competition dance studios and what students
encounter in a program like GMU's School of Dance?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Karen: Yes, I believe so. The
competition dance community is one that I don't know very much about, however
interactions with SummerDance students led me to believe that our focus
at the intensive differed from such studio training. Specifically, Mason
SummerDance focused on developing the dancer's overall technique and artistry,
as opposed to training for a desired product or skill in performance. While I
can't speak for competition training, I can say that at Mason we strive to
develop versatile dance artists through rigorous technical training. This
training happens separate from rehearsals for performance. For some
students that were new to our approach, the emphasis on technique and "the
movement between the steps" was an adjustment. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Kate: How did you create a performance in
such a short amount of time that was so polished, creative, and a joy to watch?
I was especially impressed by how you pulled together such a range of
choreographers. There was a great spectrum of dance on view...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt;">Karen: Thank you for such a high
compliment! I too was greatly impressed by what the dancers and
choreographers accomplished in just two short weeks. The dancers worked
hard and put in long hours, but I have to say that the performance quality was the result of the high commitment of faculty, students, and choreographers to our program. The passion for dancing (and learning)
was palpable throughout the intensive. As for the variety of
choreographic styles, we very much wanted to expose the students to a wide
range of movement and choreographic approaches. The mix then led to
variety for the audience as well!</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm9jrtM5tSBOJyXRR7cqf_kFwMQHImg7E5AZk9Wq9B-WlApoVSs1d5mydrYh_1qcBmWPVg4NZQEpwxTitcQmjwBBllyFmBLAaBQZ9iumIZo6UR4jitc6sWSbMjatZ2D2wCpPIIvaLOAwfJ/s1600/susan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm9jrtM5tSBOJyXRR7cqf_kFwMQHImg7E5AZk9Wq9B-WlApoVSs1d5mydrYh_1qcBmWPVg4NZQEpwxTitcQmjwBBllyFmBLAaBQZ9iumIZo6UR4jitc6sWSbMjatZ2D2wCpPIIvaLOAwfJ/s320/susan.jpg" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Susan Shields teaching SummerDance students at GMU</td></tr>
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</div>katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11642932334557780110noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8321058650322811503.post-14804077375428207312012-07-28T14:50:00.000-07:002012-07-28T15:27:00.988-07:00at the Washington School of Ballet<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEier8uPVDs0AgPrFeA0zMsHpBYGu4-ux2bwhGtVVZAh8Rx2X-6_wxDac_ahXKlCMg1rBXR4slzkwgTFuWHwWtMsLZ1Fzjk23gpCJ2jo8U6Q7PBDPr1ORgz_V2znXp2akjvpDtPJSl-ybOte/s1600/choo+san.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEier8uPVDs0AgPrFeA0zMsHpBYGu4-ux2bwhGtVVZAh8Rx2X-6_wxDac_ahXKlCMg1rBXR4slzkwgTFuWHwWtMsLZ1Fzjk23gpCJ2jo8U6Q7PBDPr1ORgz_V2znXp2akjvpDtPJSl-ybOte/s400/choo+san.jpg" width="266" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">from left to right: Kate, author of blog post below, Stephanie Walz, and Jenifer Ringer in the 1980s before a performance of choreography by Choo San Goh performed by the Young Dancers of the Washington Ballet.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Two years ago I attended a
performance of students at the end of their summer program and wrote <a href="http://dancersindialogue.blogspot.com/2010/07/onstage-today.html">a post</a> that
still holds true today. The presentation by these young dancers at the
culmination of a 5-week program is phenomenal. This year there were surprises
added to the afternoon that reinforced the ways in which students at WSB’s
summer intensive gain unique access to living histories.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Yesterday’s performance began
with the presentation of the faculty, including former NYCB principals Nilas
Martins and Monique Meunier. When school director Kee Juan Han then introduced
teacher Kristina Windom she paused to acknowledge her own teacher in the audience:
Julio de Bittencourt, a teacher at WSB in the 1970s and 1980s. </span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;">This respect for
knowledge and legacies is one trademark of a quality school. Teachers invest in
students who are inspired to carry on their ideas, and who continually acknowledge
their influences and mentors. I vividly remember Mr. de Bittencourt’s classes:
exact, meaning precise, and exacting, meaning demanding. When we spoke for a
moment yesterday before the show began he smiled mischievously when I said I
was a student of his in the 1980s. He knew this comment meant I had encountered
what discipline is all about: insisting on a particular way of doing things. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">This may sound harsh, but it
is an essential part of learning or maybe, more broadly, any kind of growth or change.
What ballet continues to give young people, and this was on view beautifully in
the performance, is an aspiration towards something greater. Perhaps this is
ballet’s signature characteristic: it’s an art that is not about being content
with mediocrity but striving toward a form of beauty that involves grace,
strength, flexibility, and joy. The students’ facial expressions – from
furrowed brows to playful grins – marked their commitment to and enjoyment of
this process. It was wonderful to see their progression from the youngest
dancers who at times struggle to hide their efforts, to the older performers
who master the difficult steps with a sense of ease and assuredness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Several works during the program
stood out as highlights: the staging of Petipa’s<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Raymonda </i>by Kristina Windom as well as the choreography by Elaine Kudo, Nilas Martins, Luis Torres, and Edwin Aparicio.
In each the young dancers inhabited the dancemakers’ movements with a sense of
musicality and poetry. Either coached beautifully or made for individual
dancers, steps turned the students into stars, displaying prowess and poise.
It was also wonderful to see the students perform a part of George Balanchine’s “Who
Cares?” a piece that demanded speed unlike the other works, and that gave the
students a history lesson through physical sensation rather than reading about
this master’s creations in a book. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">I loved seeing the students’
own choreography – like I did two years ago – and this time noticed how much
more sultry, flashy, and acrobatic the students’ movements were when given a
chance to express themselves. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Last memento of a memorable
day: the students’ introductions of each piece. For each part of the program,
one dancer came forward to tell us their name, their home city, plus the
choreographer, title, and composer of the next performance. These moments made
me smile as each young artist was not only discovering the challenges and joys
of performing, but also understanding what respect and composure entail, physically,
mentally, and verbally. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11642932334557780110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8321058650322811503.post-79074352708148180322012-07-08T05:38:00.000-07:002012-07-09T09:52:31.649-07:00generosity<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxRGMYUEdHnLbkEhz_MMIw7W8ovYP-SiuriPfmIEFEEXmag6cV9PDZdyQCZ8Qs1ZiP6hihiVwY8dNwE0LLUIO01QvkBDbyR6r5Oz97umCymsc5at8ytdEE4wX18U1IPF598baQhaorGcbo/s1600/Edgeworks_iOboka.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxRGMYUEdHnLbkEhz_MMIw7W8ovYP-SiuriPfmIEFEEXmag6cV9PDZdyQCZ8Qs1ZiP6hihiVwY8dNwE0LLUIO01QvkBDbyR6r5Oz97umCymsc5at8ytdEE4wX18U1IPF598baQhaorGcbo/s1600/Edgeworks_iOboka.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jamal Ari Black & Nkosinathi "Natty" Mncube. Photo by Isaac Oboka</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">One of the pleasures of
coming back to a city after being gone for a year is the discovery of places
and events that have emerged during the time away. Sometimes it’s not clear if
this spot had always been there or if it’s a new addition to the cultural
landscape, but either way what happened Friday night made me happy to be back in
DC. Near the Brookland metro and next door to Colonel Brooks’ Tavern, Dance Place hosted a performance by dancers, a program of four solos, that was one
event within <a href="http://www.danceplace.org/events/artland/">three months of free offerings</a> that encompass dance, poetry,
music, and visual arts. How fantastic to come back to the city and see that
there are opportunities to engage with artists in settings that are not
expensive or standoffish, but rather generative and conducive to conversation.
The program of solos, all made and performed by current or former members of <span style="text-transform: uppercase;">EdgeWorks</span>, offered a glimpse into the
diversity of perspectives embedded in this troupe. The small, unadorned
performing space was surrounded by chairs filled with 25 or 30 attendees. The
solos were eloquent and provocative; the performers’ words and gestures
lingering long after they exited. The evening made me notice how valuable it is
for choreographers to have colleagues with whom they can share their creations
and engage in conversation, as well as how inspiring it is for audiences to
come into contact with artistic processes within settings that are casual and
open to feedback. As I left the showing I smiled when I realized how often
distance actually helps us see a little more clearly: when we take a break from
a place or a scene – both spatially and temporally - we notice what makes it
distinct and move closer to appreciating its distinct characteristics.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</div>katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11642932334557780110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8321058650322811503.post-81565206789124893242011-05-13T10:37:00.000-07:002011-05-13T10:37:09.722-07:00Congratulations class of 2011!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Listened to the speeches of the graduating seniors at GMU's School of Dance yesterday... Fantastic!<br />
<br />
Such beauty and eloquence... I am still savoring their stories about lessons learned, changing definitions of success, and remarkable plans for the future. Faculty member Susan Shields prepares the graduating class for the event through her course called Senior Synthesis and I cannot put into words how much I admire her work and can see her attributes in the ways the students present themselves: poised, confident, reflective, and generous. All in all, a magnificent event.<br />
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Many students talked about plans to move to New York, several dancers already have projects and positions in place. In NYC they will join other GMU alumni, like Maya Orchin who just sent an update about a recent audition: "I had a really positive experience auditioning with Trisha Brown. I have always been inspired by the company and her work. <br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
I remember seeing<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syjmdSaUOb8"> 'Spanish Dance' </a>when I was younger and impressed with how simple and brilliant her concept was. Before the audition you had to apply and fill out an application form. I found the form really personal, and it was a great way for me to explain what I liked about the company and why I would be a good fit. There were about 15 questions we had to answer. I have done auditions before where its like a cattle call and you have a number and it feels extremely impersonal. At the audition it was nice since I recognized a few faces but there were 4 groups of 30 people (insane). In the studio at City Center the whole company was there and they all sat in the front while one taught the phrase. We were lined up and it was slightly difficult to move but after the first cut we had a lot more space. It was really nice how all the dancers were there and everyone had a really positive vibe. Although I did not get the job, it was a good experience auditioning for a company I have long since admired and met some great people at the audition. On a side note, I saw the premier of the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGKzXUWAjnI">Pina Bausch movie </a>by Wim Wenders in Brussels and I'm not sure when it comes to the U.S. but when it does SEE IT! it's amazing. amazing. amazing."<br />
</div>katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11642932334557780110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8321058650322811503.post-76913715959727849042011-04-13T15:33:00.000-07:002011-04-13T15:33:43.143-07:00from Shanleigh Philip, GMU class of 2010<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: Verdana;">1. Can you describe a typical day in your position at The Joyce Theater assisting executive director Linda Shelton?</span></i> <i><span style="font-family: Verdana;">What are the most exciting (and least exciting?) parts of your job? </span></i></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">A typical day for me begins by quickly glancing through my emails, checking voicemails, and reviewing my boss's schedule for the day. When she arrives, I update her on any changes that have been made or things that have happened overnight that she should be aware of immediately. She lets me know of anything on her end as well. Once we are caught up, I spend about 90% of the day coordinating her schedule for the upcoming days, weeks, months, and even years! The Joyce not only operates their theater in Chelsea 52 weeks out of the year, but also runs Joyce SoHo and DANY Studios. Aside from The Joyce, my boss is very active in the local, national, and international dance community, so it is important for me to help her balance her many lives as efficiently as possible! Because there are so many people she needs to meet with inside and outside of The Joyce, it is my job to make sure that nothing slips through the cracks as well as prioritize her commitments, meetings, etc. It amazes me everyday how busy she is, and one day seems to be busier than the next. I also plan all of her business travels. Since June I have helped in planning trips to San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, Baltimore, London, and Cuba. I also help organize materials for our weekly staff meetings and speak with our Board of Trustees on a regular basis. Anytime my boss is unavailable, I usually speak to people on her behalf. The most exciting part of my job is that I am in a theater where dance companies are in and out every week. I get to meet all of the staff, artistic director, and dancers. I still become a bit star-struck! I also get tickets to any performance that is here, and even better, I usually get to bring Chrissy as my date. Since January, we have seen 13 companies here. I would say that the least exciting part, or most frustrating part, is finding enough time in the day for my boss to get everything done. I find that is where my creativity comes into play - sometimes she covers more of the city, going from meeting to meeting, than any tourist could even dream of and it is my responsibility to chart the best course.</span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: Verdana;">2. What was it like to come back and see the current GMU students performing in the Gala in April?</span></i><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">It was such an incredible feeling to see the current GMU students perform. Chrissy and I were quite giddy the whole way down to DC and back to NYC. I felt really proud to go back to a place that gave me the foundation of my career. I kept thinking to myself how excited I am to be associated with GMU's School of Dance. It was fun to come back to The Joyce and tell my boss about the pieces that were performed in the Gala; she was quite impressed! I definitely think the School of Dance instills commitment, passion, and endurance into its students and those are qualities that are useful no matter where your career takes you. </span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: Verdana;">3. What is the most important advice/suggestion you can pass on to someone graduating this year?</span></i><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Similar to what Chrissy said, it's okay not to have it all figured out just yet. I will embarrass Chrissy a little and say that she has helped me so much with this. I'm not sure what I would do without her constant support and optimistic advice. I am someone who wants a backup plan for their backup plan, and sometimes that's a good thing, but uncertainty and spontaneity have brought a lot of excitement to my life over the past 11 months! <a name='more'></a> </span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">It is much easier to find a job, find an apartment, and budget for city living once you are here. If you are committed to working hard, you will find a way to make it all work. There are tons of GMU alums in NYC who are all very eager to offer help and advice (and their couches!).</span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><i><span style="font-family: Verdana;">4. Are there classes or experiences you had as an undergraduate that prepared you for what you are doing now? or looking back on your college years do you wish you had taken a class or experienced something that would be useful for your career today?</span></i><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0.1pt 0in;"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I think that the commitment that the School of Dancer requires certainly prepared me for my career. I also believe that writing about dance, whether it was for a technique class or a class for my Arts Administration minor, helped me to realize my feelings about dance, and also that I have a lot of passion and hope for this field, artistically and administratively. </span></div></div>katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11642932334557780110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8321058650322811503.post-35267718530827295012011-04-06T09:59:00.000-07:002011-04-06T09:59:15.364-07:00from Chrissy Tully: "Communication is key."<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJkPdd6muHZDXTgHmao_mUHNfbI0BxRlrcnygXsUJ0dudjXiLUhMJBuMDI9Kp3oKbcek3ytBI1p1iXxSYHBfGOjRQU0-XgcyLzynU-cq7c2h-cjBx8Dc7qoqprEpApv-7_NEkjxR7F2Lw0/s1600/Chrissy%2526Shan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="292" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJkPdd6muHZDXTgHmao_mUHNfbI0BxRlrcnygXsUJ0dudjXiLUhMJBuMDI9Kp3oKbcek3ytBI1p1iXxSYHBfGOjRQU0-XgcyLzynU-cq7c2h-cjBx8Dc7qoqprEpApv-7_NEkjxR7F2Lw0/s400/Chrissy%2526Shan.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Hearing about the adventures and accomplishments of students who graduate from GMU's School of Dance is without a doubt one of the best parts of teaching. When current students presented the School of Dance Gala last weekend, Shanleigh Philip (in the photo above on the left) and Chrissy Tully (on the right) from the Class of 2010 were in the audience at the Center for the Arts. Their current positions with <a href="http://joyce.org/">The Joyce Theater</a> (for Shanleigh) and <a href="http://www.ejassociates.org/company.html">Ellen Jacobs Associates</a> (for Chrissy) give them an insider’s perspective on how choreographers and companies survive and thrive. I asked Chrissy to answer some questions about her day-to-day life, and also to offer advice to students graduating this semester…. Here are her replies:</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
<em>Can you describe a typical day? What are the most exciting (and least exciting?) parts of your job?</em><br />
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Chrissy: I know it sounds a bit cliché, but there is no typical day in my position. However, there are standard procedures, such as editing press releases, archiving press on clients, drafting press kits, respecting deadlines, etc. It's the unexpected part of my day that is the most exciting. When I get the opportunity to attend a photo call and see a work the day before its premiere, and when I get to interact with choreographers and artists one-on-one, that's what makes it all worthwhile. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><em>What was it like to come back and see the current GMU students performing?</em></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Chrissy: It was a unique experience coming back to GMU and watching the current dance majors. It definitely seems much longer than a year ago that I was on that same stage. While watching the Gala, it was clear that the students in the School of Dance are outstanding--they're strong, versatile, and above all, powerful movers. That being said, power isn't always art. I know there are students who were not chosen to be in any of the selected pieces in the evening's program, but that does not mean that they are any less of an artist. Some of the greatest works I have seen since living in NYC had little to do with technique. I know from being in their shoes, or lack thereof, that the competitiveness can be discouraging. Some people aren't meant for the most well-known companies out there, but that doesn't mean they don't have a shot at pursing their passion.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><em>What is the most important advice/suggestion you can pass on to someone graduating this year?</em></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Chrissy: Some advice to pass on to someone graduating this year is that you don't always have to have "it" figured out. Life can take you in all sorts of unexpected directions and you just have to go with it and make the most of every situation you're in. A suggestion I have is to see and read about as much of the arts as you possibly can. The more you immerse yourself in the arts world, the more exciting and fascinating it will be. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><em>Are there classes or experiences you had as an undergraduate that prepared you for what you are doing now? or looking back on your college years do you wish you had taken a class or experienced something that would be useful for your careers today?</em></div><br />
Chrissy: 9am dance classes Monday-Friday were definitely a preparation for what I am doing now!<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Office hours aside, I would not take back the education I received as a B.F.A. dance major. I do, however, often wish I could have done more. There are so many interesting classes offered at GMU in the music, theater and art department that were simply impossible to explore while fulfilling the required credits. Even though other general education requirements were relevant to what I do now, I think all dance majors need to take an accounting class, especially if they are planning to move to a city as expensive as New York. The cost of living is extremely high, and if not properly planned/prepared, it's very easy to lose your love of what you do.<br />
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I wouldn't say friendships were extremely significant as part of my education, but they definitely play a big part in networking. Rarely will I go see a performance and not recognize at least one person in the audience, on the staff, or on the stage that I have never interacted with at some point. Communication is key and it's extremely important to be knowledgeable about the field you're in. For that reason, I benefited from Dance History in ways that are crucial to what I am doing now. Daily modern classes aided in embodying some of the history and exploring the creative aspects of dance.<br />
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</div>katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11642932334557780110noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8321058650322811503.post-29713914077787617522011-03-18T08:38:00.000-07:002011-03-18T08:38:58.615-07:00News from Maya<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="295" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/qwPKDRxvBUw?fs=1" width="480"></iframe><br />
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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<a href="http://www.davidzambrano.org/?p=15"> David Zambrano</a>, 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. <br />
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"In <a href="http://www.xavierleroy.com/page.php?sp=69caa2510bce2be93732e5c2739db89ba96ccaaf&lg=fr">Xavier Le Roy's piece</a> 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. <a href="http://vimeo.com/18476844">Andy Holtin</a> 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.<br />
<a name='more'></a> In Ann Liv Young's work it was a very clear 'war-power' of violent verbal attacks that made me truly enraged. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/06/arts/dance/06cinderella.html">Ann Liv Young</a> portrayed a disturbed Cinderella character who verbally attacked the audience, defecated on stage, surrounded herself by knives and enraged people so much they stormed out of the theater." <br />
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</div>katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11642932334557780110noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8321058650322811503.post-27615491344797677622011-01-30T14:40:00.000-08:002011-01-30T14:44:32.577-08:00Hans Op de Beeck<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Saw a magical film today at the Hirshhorn: Hans Op De Beeck’s <a href="http://www.hansopdebeeck.com/videos/Staging_Silence.htm">“Staging Silence.”</a> The write-up in <em><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/21/AR2011012104276.html">The Washington Post </a></em>last Sunday was dismissive -- calling the film “little more than a soothing, innocuous diversion” – but the photo that accompanied the article made me curious to see it for myself. <br />
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I think there's a lot to be gleaned from these 22 minutes, particularly for people who are curious about choreography and culture. How can arrangements turn tiny pieces of material into fantastical landscapes? How do we, every day, endow gestures with meaning? <br />
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What is particularly eloquent in Op de Beeck’s creation is the way he keeps the hand of the artist visible – I see the fingers pick up and change the scenery, but I still feel transported by the results. The film becomes a path through a city street, a theater, a garden, an office, a park, and then a winter wonderland.<br />
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I found myself thinking of choreography even though there are no people, no bodies in the film (only occasional hands rearranging pieces). The brilliance is in the simplicity: the specificity in the arrangements transports me to other places. I thought of powerful performances where each movement was a vital part of a whole. Nothing extra, nothing extraneous.<br />
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The film also makes me consider the role we play in the worlds we create, when we press so much importance into some actions and events while virtually ignoring others. The details in the film are crucial, changing simple objects into gorgeous settings, yet making clear that this transformation occurs within us as the artist exposes the construction of each scene. I'm reminded of a line from <em>Dance, Rituals of Experience</em> that says: “Dance changes biology into a metaphor of the spiritual body in much the same way poetry changes words into forms that allow meanings that words normally cannot convey. The most curious thing about any human gesture is its power of insinuation, born of the ability of the body to overcome its inherent materiality.”</div>katehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11642932334557780110noreply@blogger.com0