First Drop

May 31, 2008

Skybetter's Cold House

So after many many drafts, Cold House You Kept, was a total success. This is the first larger group piece that Sydney has done, I think. Ever. Even with the TREMENDOUS difficulty in having everyone at rehearsal, somehow a finished product was shown at the MFA II showing at Tisch last week. I was shocked by how down right rigorous this dance turned out to be...usually Sydney churns out more polished, reserved, "active neutral" products. Don't get me wrong, his movement definitely errs on the physical side but Cold House seemed like a new direction. Pictures are soon to come!!

Posted by Bergen V Wheeler at 8:58 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

May 29, 2008

Somewhere Out There

So the Movement Research Festival is going on right now. Their theme this year is "Somewhere Out There". Go! Bring a friend! As far as I am concerned, they are far and away the most interesting, intellectually significant dance org in New York right now. Sorry if I just offended anybody with that.

Check it out here.

Especially check out the party at Judson on June 8th. The Cheapcake Dance Club will be performing, and they're pretty much the best improv/research/performance group that I've ever seen... er... been a part of. But seriously though, we're working with some very interesting issues, and i think very highly of my Cheapcake colleagues.

Anyhow, the "Somewhere Out There" theme is hugely relevant for me: as of last Saturday, I am an official inhibitor of somewhere out there. I've left New York after 22 years, and am making a go of it in Berlin. However, as of right now, I am left with a series of interesting new problems. I have left New York, but much of my work remains there.

Anna and I have 6 weeks until the Emerging Choreographers show as part of Zia Artists SummerDanz series at DTW. The question is: how do we develop and deepen our practice of the work in this period? How do we use our new perspective as an advantage?

Some thoughts:

--Re-examine the foundations of the specific work. As the piece that me and Anna are doing for this show is highly improvisational, that means returning to the initial improvisations. I want to go deeper and re-examine the breadth and the specificity of what we're working with, so that when I return, I feel very comfortable in the context of the piece.

--Use the new perspective as an advantage. Making work in which I will also perform is quite hard. It's not easy to get out of choreographer mind and avoid making choreographic decisions when you are wearing the dancer hat. I find myself trying to edit the piece from the inside, rather than only working on the frame and allowing myself freedom when I am dancing the piece. I want to use this time as an opportunity to shift that perception. The work is more or less set now. I got to free my mind, and the rest will follow, as some very wise women once said.

--Start sharing. I plan to share a couple clips of the piece online with mentors and collaborators to get some feedback. This will (hopefully) make me more comfortable with having it be seen, taking ownership of it, and will make the process of it going up less stressful and more fulfilling.

--Hold the questions. When you're rehearsing many times a week. You can sit with questions as you're going, but you constantly have to confront them as you're working. With the hard questions about the nature of the piece, you don't have time to distance yourself enough to get new vantage points. Sure, there is definitely an advantage to inundation, but there is also an advantage to having the opportunity to really meditate upon the central questions and problems of the piece.

Let's see if these things help me.

Also, I just want to take a moment to plug another long distance piece I'm doing.

My piece, "Im Bade Wohnen (Bath Living)", will be performed at the Tank on June 14th an 15th as part of a shared evening curated by my good friend and talented colleauge, Bryan Campbell.

Get more info here.

Or just buy tickets right now here.

More plugging of that to come.

Posted by Jacob Peter Kovner at 12:32 PM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

May 26, 2008

Video Episode Two: POWERSIZE!!

Videographer Ren Casey and Choreographer Jessy Smith do the "POW" thing once again. Warm up and get fit as the POW Girlies lead you through some deep stretching and strengthening powersizes. You can follow along to learn their favorite new dance inspired by the look and feel of the 1920's. <p>Warm up and get fit as the POW Girlies lead you through some deep stretching and strengthening powersizes. You can follow along to learn their favorite new dance inspired by the look and feel of the 1920's.</p>

Posted by Brittany Beyer at 6:50 PM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

May 24, 2008

Dancing Day

An Email Rap sent to collaborators on May 7th
The Outcome: some super nice pictures by Ramon Estevanell (www.ramonestevanell.com)

lady lady lady lady lady lady gent,
i hope that your weekend has been time well spent
rehearsal is tomorrow from 4-6pm at BAX.
my friend Ramon is coming to take some pretty pics.
look hot. no, kidding, just be yourselves,
be ready to pump your memory
and rock the choreography
to use this as an opportunity
to be a visionary just like a kennedy
in peace may they rest
jessy jams to all the rest
bless
party like the best.

All pictures by Ramon Estevanell, THANKS RAMON!
www.ramonestevanell.com

Posted by Jessy Smith at 4:46 PM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

May 9, 2008

New Work! Let's Go!

So once again a process begins :)

This time around I'm working on an all male piece.

I'm not too sure where I'm going with this right now. I have 5 wonderful dancers: Juel D. Lane, Telly Fowler, Donovan Herring, Keon Thoulouis, and Kevin Guy. It's really cool to be in the space with them because we're all friends :) They understand me and my process- which I sometime don't understand myself, lol!

I'm really interested in the theater aspect of dance, so I'm currently investigating the balance between dance and theater. In this new work, called Matchstick, I want the phrase 'dance theater' to really be evident in the movements and interactions of the dancers.

In this work, the dancers are placed in the space with a table and 5 chairs. Whenever I use props in my pieces, they are usually stationary. I want the look of my works to be very pedestrian. There might be simple movements here and there, but no too 'loud' where the props are propelling the dancers. I want the opposite to happen and give the audience the feeling of seeing real people interacting with each other.

We're all having a lot of fun and look forward to this new journey.

Posted by Camille A. Brown at 10:32 AM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

May 2, 2008

Volunteer Dancers

At play throughout this whole process has been the idea of "the piece doing you". I have often experienced being in some sort of time hold when I am onstage. I feel like I have stepped into an alternate world that is choreographed, has no relationship to my own life, where choices have been pre-determined. The piece dances me, and I just sort of experience. This seems to be a somewhat common experience. As a performer, I question how I can make every choreographed decision immediate and voluntary. Not pre-determined, but consistently chosen.

For the piece, Anna and I have developed a central, highly structure improvisation. The improv basically consisted of two elements: tableaus that express seminal, "landmark" moments in human lives and the transitions between them (which are just as important). We also have two additional sections that are a similar mix of choreographic elements with improvisational construction.

Now that we have established that we want to work in this world that is half choreographic, half improvisational, we are confronted with a very significant set of issues:

--How do you improvise and keep it rigorous?

--How do you work with composed aspects but make them integral to the improvisation that happens around those aspects?

Basically, our goal is to try and mediate the specificity and grander decision-making of choreography with the volitional, personal nature of improvisation. The goal here is to make a work that you very actively engage in every time you do it. That there are very clear tasks, and, in that sense, choreography, but the piece cannot do you. The choreographic moments are like pre-formed articles of clothing that Anna and I put on. It has its own shape and nature, and when we are in these moments, we become associated, but it retains its own identity and we retain ours. The choreography is something we experience or go through. Experiencing the choreography, is, on some level, an improvisational task. How do we come out on the other side? How does that change the choices that we make when we exit choreographic structures?

It's a bit like people's problem with musical theater: every time people start singing to one another the suspension of disbelief just goes. Thus people hate musicals. We must wrestle with the same issues in dance. How do we make the struggle between choreography and real time decision making rigorous, exciting and legible?

Posted by Jacob Peter Kovner at 12:12 PM - Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)