Well since last entry( July22) I went to teach at Atlanta Ballet School’s summer camp, Chicago Dancer Festival( MGDC danced “Cave of the Heart” in August( this was a beautiful festival!!!) I went to Metropolitan Museum in NY, visited my husband’s father in Laramie, Wyoming, saw “Democracy in America: national campaign” at the Armory, saw “A tale of Two Cities”, tour to Greece, saw “Burn This” at the Juilliard School Acting division. and more.
I had a lot…I will try to put pictures later.
And now we are getting ready for Beijin tour (11/24-12/1) Nothing worst that having birthday on the airplane…
I was thinking about for a new entry but had hard time downloading pictures, I don’t know why but this made me away from writing. Today, I saw Benny’s entry and I really like the idea of introducing your fellow dancers , and also David’s wonderful entry from Russia, Veronica’s beautiful young dancers…
so I thought I will try again. Not pictures this time but some thought about “dance” .
I have been thinking about why I dance, why I like dance… and these are some thoughts…
I like dance:
*that thraws challenges us to think about. ( Thinking about early 1920-1940’s. It was nesseccary. I don’t like to watach somebody’s satisfaction dance, I hope you understand what I mean )
*that gives energy. ( without energy, dance becomes dead movement)
*that makes you quetions ( To make us to think about who we are and what are we doing, and why we dance and waht for)
*that gives opinions.( to make us think and search our own ideas/opinions)
*that makes you wanting to dance. ( this is simply making us to want to dance)
*that is pure physical.( I love physical challenge. especially like MG,Merce’s work)
*that is “theater”.(even it is abstract, there is a story or theme and it is a total theater)
*that is very musical.( I love music, so dancing with music is must for me)
I like dancers:
*who search ( who you are as person —who you are in the work )
*who think ( some time too much thinking is not good but not thinking at all is not good)
*who watch other dancers dance ( you can learn a lot from it. And you can steal it from the best! too. as some masters quotes)
*who are honest about their being.( not pretending who you are and what you know. if you do, it will show anyway )
*who are sincere towards technique and works and what you do.( without technique, where can you go? Release movement works if you have some stable thing to brake from. For the works, I keep thinking works of Masters who passed away, how can we preserve their works. Their choreogrphies are like script for Play. Like Shakespear, actors have scripts and their interpretation may varied but words are same. How do you know or how do you find the intension of their works. Can we do that in dance? This is my biggest questions…I know this is a HUGE questions. )
*who are not selfish.( Unless you are dancing solos all the time, you are with other dancers. There are a lot of give and take in dance. Also selfishness really stinks on stage. Even you are dancing solos all the time, you don’t need to be selfish. )
*who are “real” not “fake” ( You have to fake it if you don’t have a good base, and that means you have to have a good training.But in the end, you can not really fake it…)
*who enjoy dancing.( See somebody having good time makes me simply happy)
*who are discipline and a hard worker.( I believe you have to be very discipline and wanting to become a dancer. even you have a nice body to dance, you have to work hard.Sylvie Guillem said it in her documentary too. Sometimes I see dancers who have beautiful body but no passion, those dancers dance are not interested in to watch…MG has a quote for this. I will find it and put it on later)
I am sure I have more to say but for now, this is just a thought that came up on my head now.
If you have some more, I would love to hear what you think about it…
and I will (try to) start my interview with my fellow dancers in MGDC… soon.
The company spent the weekend in PA at Silo (Lehigh Valley, PA) involved in a residency that was simply the company dancing, creating, exploring, and even playing a bit of charades.
We danced day and night in an exquisite surrounding, and truly got to be full time artists for the weekend… My oh my, I could get used to that! (Many thanks to Robin Staff and Dancenow NYC)
The company grew tremendously in many ways, and since I since I can’t really even explain how wonderful it was, at least I can post some photos and videos…
Chanelle Legace’ and Quincy Junor working on a duet created off a base phrase I had just taught them
Brigitte Mitchell and Jeff Lyon working on a duet, based on the same movement phrase.
Chanelle Legace’, Aleyse Bradford and Lynn Peterson try their best at charades…(the real gem was Aleyse trying to act out Jurassic Park, but I just couldn’t publicly humiliate her like that… maybe next time
With the change of climatic seasons and with a new home for the Joffrey, Chicago has been quite busy with events and performances happening since the start of our 08/09 season. I wanted to update you all on what’s new and exciting.
For starters, I made my choreographic debut on September 15th at the Ruth page center for the arts. “Dance Chance” a program sponsored by Dance Works Chicago is a free program which gives artists and budding choreographers the chance to choreograph freely in front of a public audience. The performance is free and anyone can choreograph–those that choose to, simply enter and are selected in a fishbowl at random during each “Dance Chance” performance, which are held once each month. Typically, there are three pieces on the program and performances usually are no longer than one hour. I selected two coworkers Britt Hillard and Abigail Simon, along with friend and former coworker Justine Humenansky to dance in my piece. Not only was it a success and a rewarding experience for me as a dancer, but I was so honored many colleagues and friends came to support me in the performance.
Justine Humenansky rehearsing.
Abigail Simon, Britt Hillard and Justine Humenansky rehearse at the Joffrey studios.
As well as choreographing, I have been gaining more experience with my photography. I will be contributing to “On Center” Magazine for their 4th issue. “On Center” is a dance publication consisting of photography established by two coworkers of mine, Michael Smith and Sasha Fornari. Their work continues to inspire and amaze me with its ingenuity and groundbreaking ideas. I chose to photograph DanceWorks Chicago in rehearsal. DanceWorks Chicago is six member company directed by Julie Nakagawa, former director of Hubbard Street 2. I t was such a pleasure not only to photograph but observe their amazing talents and superb professionalism in the rehearsal process. I look forward to seeing “On Center” in print and check out for further details!
Sayiga Eugene Peabody and Rebecca Nizoil in rehearsal.
Former New York City Ballet Principal Dancer Damien Woetzel gives Mo Rocca a ballet lesson, and together they make a new ballet about WMD….. or cookies.
MR: “Do you think if our world leaders studied dance, there’d be greater peace in the world?”
DW: “I do think the ability to waltz, is very conducive to being even-tempered.”
This week i start working again on a new project that i am developing. Without giving any details away, i can say that i am in a modern frame of mind concerning the movement. The concept involves very human elements that calls for a departure of the way that i would normally work. Over the past couple days i have been watching some old material of mine while i was still a student for giggles and kicks. One piece that i re-visited titled “Chasing Ghosts” reminded me of an interesting experience that i had a couple years ago watching a performance. I am about to take you down memory lane.
Every Year at The North Carolina School of The Arts all senior modern students are to put on a concert in the spring. It is called “Emerging Choreographers”. The students work on a piece for two semesters with all of the training that we have received in “Comp Improv” class (choreography) over course of 4 years. What makes it so special is that we are given freedom to choose our dancers, music, costumes, lights, sets and whatever else. You then get a full week of having the works performed at the Demille Theatre on campus. Its a right of passage for all of us.
Its common knowledge that i hated for the most part “comp improv” classes throughout the years because i felt too restricted within the confines of the curriculum. “Emerging Choreographers” i was excited about though. I could finally be the captain of my own ship. The process for “EC” helped me establish my own working style while boosting my confidence thinking that “maybe im not so bad after all?” Working with the dancers was a pleasure even when everything that could have gone wrong went wrong for me. The year my class (2004) was up to bat new rules had been impleminted concerning a music lists. Of course “Mxyomatosis” or “Like Spininning Plates” were not included. My dancers were falling out like flies for every reason under the sun. Not too mention that the girl that i was dating was seeing someone else. But even then i was having a good time in the studio cause if not i think that i might have had a mental breakdown (or two).
The work I was producing, I was very proud of cause it came from a personal place. There was something in me that needed to get out and i was able to use the techniques that i had learned almost as a theraputic tool. The last week we had before we had to show our final product my adviser and teacher Brenda Daniells had caught wind that the music that i had selected was not on the list , so she gave me an entire catalog of music to choose from. There is a going joke in my class that if you cant find music “Phillip Glass it is!”. Naturally, i selected the music of Phillip Glass.
What drew me to the music was the haunting score and the subtle arrangements that perfectly matched the mood of the movement. What i had been using before with the music was very hard and driving. Once i switched music i told the dancers to keep the same intensity as before giving the movement a new weight that did not exist before. The new music had set up an atmosphere that takes you into the piece and im allllll about atmosphere. After the piece went up i was pleasantly surprised that it ended up being an audience favorite plus appeasing the faculty. It took long enough for me to get to that point but i had learned so much along the way. I never imagined that i was capable of turning out a product that i would be happy with along with everyone else cause i have such a unique taste.
Fast forward a couple years later:
I am in the War Memorial Opera House getting ready to watch the San Francisco Ballets mixed rep of Jerome Robbins. The piece that i had really wanted to see was “Glass Pieces” because i remember reading about “Glass Pieces” in my dance history class back in school. After the lights dimmed and orchestra started to play i was really excited because i had used the same music for my emerging. This is where things got weird. I thought that i had bit Mr. Robbins style for the first couple minutes! Anyone who has ever seen or performed in the ballet think about the beginning. The corpse dancers walking out silhouhetted on a blue back back drop. Once the solo flutes comes in the ballet introduces a duet. After watching the ballet I was talking with Garen who had just got done performing it about the beginning and how i did the exact same thing without ever even seeing the piece. He agreed because he had seen “Chasing Ghost” and danced in “Glass Pieces. My intro had dancers walking across the stage in silhoutte with a blue back drop and a moon that i was stoked on. It reminded me of “Where the Wild Things Are”. We both found it to be super random that the music of Phillip Glass had inspired two completely different people to have the same vision. I guess that is the power of music that it allows you to not only have an audio experience but you also get the visceral.
Watch below and if you have ever seen the ballet or performed it ,think about the opening intro. Uncanny.
Something that i had find interesting was that no one at school told me that i had created something very similar to “Glass Pieces.” Maybe they thought if i knew i would have changed it. Who knows? Not me. Still I am proud of the product and now the title has a new meaning to it that i would have never thought of.
ps. Please excuse Tom Cruise at the start of the tape. The piece was taken from an old VHS.
