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MIKI ORIHARA |
Saratoga Performing Arts Center
It has been a long pause since I posted my last entry…
“Water,water”, a dance that I did about 25 years ago, which we performed at LaMaMa Theater.
After LaMaMa, I went to join MGDC for our residency at the Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs to put MG’s master piece “Clytemnestra” back. Of course it was a residency so we had summer program dancers too. Technique classes, repertory, choreography and media classes are part of this residency. I ended up setting “Panorama”on these 37 dancers. They performed with us at SPAC on June 13. So it was a crash course of this wild dance…
Skidmore residency with Clytemnestra set desigh by Isamu Noguchi
Anyway, during this residency, yes we were putting Clytemnestra back together. But the students were leaning some parts, then making their own dance inspired by this piece. It was a very intersting process. and that process was captured on their blog at Clytemnestra Project.
Stephen Pier rehearsing his new ballet “Nameless Garden” in Nagoya
Then MGDC went to the American Dance Festival, unfortunately I was not cast for this so I went to Japan for a week. My husband Stephen was in Nagoya, Japan choreographing a new dance and setting a ballet on Ballet Studio M-deux. They also performed my new work, too. So I needed to see it. Stephen’s new piece “Nameless Garden” was inspired by his visit to Kyoto’s Moss Garden and Rock Garden. It is a beautiful piece with many images that I had too. I really wanted to see the perofrmance, all together with costumes and lighting, I am sure it was magical…
Berlin’s Staat Oper
Well my visit to Japan was just a week (5 days really) then off to Berlin, Germany for 2 weeks. We performed at the Staats Oper in Berlin. 5 shows in the first weekend, 8 in the second. Yes it was a lot of dancing…I am pretty beat…
Berlin’s Old and New, I like Berlin, it is an alive city…
Berlin in the evening…
So now I am back in NYC, rehearsing with Muna Tseng (Water,water) again, and we are going to Jacob’s Pillow tomorrow. We will have “Inside/Out” performance at 6:30 pm. It is a free performance so if you are close, stop by!!! We will perform a part from “Water Mysteries”, “water,water” and 2 new solos. I will dance one and Muna will dance the other.
Then I will go to Atlanta Ballet’s Summer Program. I will be teaching for 2 weeks. Some classes are 1 hour, so I am thinking this year I will teach more standing up and cross over exercise. Past years I tried to teach floor work, but it is very hard… I will not entirey cut the floor work but give them a little more moving in class than sitting on the floor in a cold studio… in the south, it is always cold inside since the outdoor tempture is pretty high. but that is so bad for your body. you have to have a lot of warm up clothes… I should pack them too!!!
After this, MGDC will be a part of a new festival in Chicago in August 17 . I should get more info regarding this. but I will be dancing ” Cave of the Heart” Legend of Media. It is a beautiful dance by MG with a set by Isamu Noguchi. I think we share a program with a few other dance companies. I will let you know when I know more about it… but until then,
HAVE A GREAT SUMMER!!!
