March 11, 2008

Your Water Use

Follow this link to see how much water your household uses each day...

http://www.owasa.org/pages/WaterCalculator.html

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March 2, 2008

The Daddy Challenge

I have been keeping a blog for a year and a half or so (now here, first here) that has mostly focused on the development of My ocean is never blue.  I've tried to show the development of the work through description, video and reflecting on the creative process. Lately I've found it difficult to focus on the process part. As I've mentioned recently I am a father - my daughter, Adelais, is almost 10 months old. And while I expected that my time would be less, well, mine, I did not expect that mainly the time I lost was time to reflect and process. I am responsible for her, by myself, about 25 hours a week - this is in addition to my normal teaching, Feldenkrais-ing, lighting design work and rehearsing. Plus the time that my wife, Andrea, and I just spend together with her. What time I have lost is two-fold, I have less times to write grants and pursue gigs as these don't pull in immediate money, which is obviously more important now. And, even more so, time to just sit and think about the work I'm creating. More than once I've thought, "oh shit, I have rehearsal in 2 hours - what the hell am I going to do today?" It is really frustrating, and I don't always feel at my height of creativity. I'm certainly not complaining because there is nothing, and I mean nothing, better than playing with Adelais, or having her fall asleep on my shoulder. But, it is making it more difficult to keep this blog up to date with the development of the work. I'm assuming this will get easier as she gets older... or at least I'm hoping it will.

Right now, as I write this Andrea is off at rehearsal, Adelais is sleeping and should be waking up any minute. I have rehearsal today at 1:30 and I think I'm prepared...

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February 23, 2008

I feel like this every once in a while

"All I know is I'm losing my mind," Franny said. "I'm just sick of ego, ego, ego. My own and everyone else's. I'm sick of everybody that want to get somewhere, do something distinguished and all, be somebody interesting. It's disgusting - it is, it is. I don't care what anybody says... I'm not afraid to compete. It's just the opposite. Don't you see that? I'm afraid I will compete - that's what scares me. Just because I'm so horribly conditioned to accept everybody else's values, and just because I like applause and people to rave about me, doesn't make it right. I'm ashamed of it. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody. I'm sick of myself and everybody else that wants to make some kind of a splash."  -- J. D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey

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January 24, 2008

Why TV dancing shows are bad for dance.

I haven't posted much lately, but I do have some longer posts I want to get out... just need to find the time. But, I ran across this stuff today and I can't contain myself. I have never really liked shows like So You Think You Can Dance or Dancing With The Stars because the few times I've seen these shows I always thought the dancing and choreography were weak - very superficial dancing with choreography-by-the-numbers. But other people have tried to point out to me that they aren't that bad, at least people are watching dance, it is an entry point for people to appreciate dance, etc.. Well, unfortunately I think it is working in the reverse affect - dance companies are forming that seem to be taking their cues from these shows. Case in point, Rasta Thomas, one of the "stars" in the ballet/dance world has his own company The Bad Boys of Dance - watch their demo video - it is like a bunch of out takes from one of these shows. And this company premiered at Jacob's Pillow last summer, a venue/opportunity that lots of deserving artists never get. And just so the "girls" aren't left out, Rasta's wife has now started The Pretty Girls of Dance...

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November 25, 2007

I'm an elitist, and so are you

Aren't we all elitists? I mean, not just you and me, but everyone?

As soon as we begin to acquire specialized knowledge and communicate with others with similar knowledge we begin to leave people out of the conversation. Individually or privately this may not be much of a problem, but when we present a performance and some members of the audience don't "get it", aren't we leaving them out? Could we have made it easier for them "to get"? But, if I go to a model train convention, or a neurology conference, I'm pretty much out of luck in both of these cases Are the people attending these events being elitist? Should they start from square one for me? Or, is it my responsibility to acquire knowledge if I'm interested? Both? How many entry points are necessary before a community has done its share to be welcoming? Is it everyone's job to be an entry point for a general audience?

Dance is specialized knowledge, whether your a student, performer or audience member - so is model train building, neurology, plumbing, interior design and hip hop music. People come to it, or not. Are interested in it, or not. And, when is enough enough? If they love Dancing with the Stars do they have to become fascinated with Merce Cunningham's choreographic procedures? If they enjoy Mark Morris', or Rennie Harris', or Pilobolus' work is that enough? Must they enjoy Joe Goode, Bebe MIller or David Dorfman as well? Not to mention Phffft Dance Theater, Mansurdance, or Joe Kreiter. If they like dance that is pretty and exciting if that enough? Or must they be fascinated with post-modern explorations of audience/performer relationships and the connection of movement vocabulary to structural form?

Of course, there is a range of interest - both visceral and intellectual. I will, most likely, always have a smaller audience than the Washington Ballet, and that is fine. One could say my work is more elitist than their work because it doesn't follow as familiar norms. But, Riverdance has a larger audience than the Washington Ballet. And more people watch So You Think You Can Dance than go see Riverdance. And, most people don't see any of these dance performances.

Boo-hoo. If you're a dancer, your elitist. If you're an artist, your elitist.

I invite everyone to be an elitist with me.

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November 2, 2007

snickered

In Lisa Traiger's recent post, What's Wrong With Modern Dance?, she describes watching the Metro DC Dance Performance at Carter Baron last August, and specifically the reaction to my work by a couple sitting in front of her. The gist of it is that it started with a snicker and ended with them leaving the performance during our work. Lisa isn't criticizing our work - in fact, she says she likes it, but is using it as an example of how some modern dance is difficult for people not familiar with it. Amanda Abrams of DCDance Blog writes about the same thing, more or less, as does Matthew Gough here at quodlibet. So, this whole idea of dance and its accessibility is an issue people are thinking about and talking about - at least here in the blogsphere.

But, what I really want to write about is my reaction to hearing that I was snickered at... It is an interesting experience having someone laugh at or walk out of your performance. A number of years about I presenting a work in conjunction with a theater company, The Theater Alliance. The work, Buried in the Sky, was a one act dance that followed a one act play at the H Street Playhouse here in DC. It was a work that I understood was difficult, abstract and dense and, in the end, not the best match for the play. The work was presented with the audience on 3 sides, and the only way out was to walk onto the stage and leave. Well (you know where this is going..) one night a nicely dressed couple decided they had had enough and go up, walked across the stage, while we were performing and left. It was such an interesting moment of thinking, "they're leaving...you got to be kidding me...fuck you...keep dancing..." After the show I was more amazed at their audacity than anything else. But, you feel like you've missed an opportunity to reach someone, in some way. Of course, that isn't always the case - it is also likely that their lack of experience with dance or aesthetic preference or daily exhaustion level brought them to leaving. But, you can't help but feel like you've fallen short.

I guess this is especially true in work that you think is pretty approachable. I think My ocean is never blue is accessible because of the straightforwardness of the text, the movement is fairly full bodied, there's lots of people to look at, it moves from section to section at a clip and for Carter Baron it was pretty short at 13 minutes or so. It is true we don't point our feet alot, or dance is formations, and all the women aren't size 1s and the guys slim and buff. We aren't doing obviously impressive moves nor are we dancing "to the audience". Certainly, if you were looking for a light evening under the stars of So you think you can dance "routines", then you were certainly disappointed. Now I'm feeling defensive. Maybe they love challenging, aggressive, "down-town" art and just thought we sucked.

In high school when a student would complain about how the novel we were reading was too long, or boring, one of my english teachers, Ms. Masters, would respond by saying, "not all books are as boring as their readers"...

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October 27, 2007

Video Highlights: Wild Meadows 2007

Last summer I co-organized the Wild Meadows Improvisation Intensive with founder Cyrus Khambatta. The two of us, plus Nicole Bindler and Sharon Mansur, led a week long study of diverse approaches to improvisational exploration and performance. The participants were other colleagues and professionals from Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Ohio and the mid-atlantic region. Two of our main themes were exploring authenticity and awareness, which we did through a number of structures and points of view. We touched upon Laban work, The Feldenkrais Method, 6 View Points, Contact Improvisation, meditation as well as performance scores and lots of late night jamming in the barn. Here are some hightlights:

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October 11, 2007

Drought

Water is everywhere. Well, kind of. Earlier this week on the Kojo Nnamdi Show (DC/NPR radio program) had a discussion about the state of the Chesapeake Bay. Today on the front page of the Washington Post in an article about the lack of rain fall in the DC area. On the Kojo Nnamdi show it was mentioned that Maryland would be the third most impacted state due to rising oceans after Louisiana and Florida - mostly likely because of the bay. And, some counties are starting to put restrictions on water use because their reservoir are low. It will be interested to see what happens if water becomes more of an issue in the DC region. Adding drought to the fact that the Potomic and Anacostia Rivers are incredibly polluted, it just might get some people's attention. There is nothing like having an international crisis all of a sudden in your backyard - as when all the senators and congresspeople can't water their lawns... I'm not saying this would be a good thing, but it might get things moving. 

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October 9, 2007

Breathing Together

Last weekend (Fri & Sun) we began rehearsing with the new members of the company. It is always interesting to have new people and their energy in rehearsal. These first couple of rehearsals are more about getting to know each other than about creating work. I try and take time to just move together, to establish a language and a sense of one another. Rushing to quickly into trying to be productive always seems to be counter productive. So, for these first rehearsals we really just worked on different improvisational skills, structures and concepts. We started each rehearsal doing some Contact Improvisation and moved into solo and group scores. On Sunday we went through some scores that focused on the breath. Here is a brief description of the solo and groups scores:

Breath Phrasing: First just breath. Follow the inhale and the exhale. After a time, begin to move - doing only one movement with each breath cycle. One movement that spans the inhale and the exhale. Continue like this for a while. Then begin to do one movement with the inhale and one movement with the exhale. Two movements for each breath cycle. Continue to do this for a while. Begin to change the number of movements per inhale, per exhale. Maybe do 3 movements during the inhale and 2 during the exhale. Or, 4 during the inhale and 1 as you exhale. Keep playing with the number of movements during your breath cycle. Let movements overlap from one to the next. Continue. Breath Coordination: Standing in a circle, one person begins to coordinate their breath with a simple plier - inhale and straighten the legs, exhale and bend the legs. As the rest of the circle coordinates their breath with the first person they add in to the plier. All breathe and plier together for a time. Gradually dancers can begin to explore their breath phrasing while staying in breathing coordination with one other. As the phrasing develops, let the circle dissipate, move through the space, all the time keeping the intention of being in breath coordination with one other. Continue to let it develop.

These scores, which are such a nice way to connect inner to outer and individual to group, were inspired by my music for dance teacher at Sarah Lawrence College, Norma Dalby.

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September 29, 2007

Starting Again

For the last year I've been working on My ocean is never blue - a 3-year project exploring our mythological, personal, ecological and political relationships to water. Also for the last year I've been writing a blog about the creation and performance process of this work, as well as posting video of rehearsals and performances to YouTube. As I start this second year of the project I'm moving my blog here to be a part of the Great Dance community, and I'm going to be moving most of my video posting to blip.tv. With the move to GD I will be opening up the content of my blog - now titled "act/re/act" - to include posts beyond just My ocean is never blue, though this will stay the main focus. The move to blip.tv will hopefully give me better quality videos to share.

At the same time I will be beginning again to dive into the research mode of creating work. Last year our research culminated in our performance at Dance Place in April. This year I have 3 new dancers, in addition to 4 returning, and lots of new topics to dig into. Last year we focused quite abit on larger political and ecological issues with the work, this year we'll be taking some time to examine more personal and spiritual aspects - including baptism and the Japanese Tea Ceremony, among others. I am excited to get back into the studio and start working.

Everything new starts this week, as we begin again. Digging in and seeing what reveals itself.

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