August 18, 2008 at 3:22 pm · Filed under dance, dancers, KATE, choreographer, dance theater workshop, contemporary dance, dance culture, dance companies, improvisation, dance spirit, KATE-M, SYREN, kate mehan, SYREN modern dance, dtw, dancenow NYC
Lynn and I have been back in the studio… Just “jamming” right now. Doing a bit of barre together, then she teaches me some new class excercises and combinations she has been creating…which feels great to be told what to do a bit! This week we did a pretty long imrov together to some Brahams mostly (Sonatos for Cello and piano Opp. 38, 99 and 108… and some work by James Newton Howard). Felt AWESOME to just move that BIG and free! Can’t believe we will be in studio with new company members in a few weeks re-staging “Pelleas” and getting “Abravanel” back up and running (we just booked a gig at Ethel Walker School in CT for November) and “Dig” excerpts ready for DanceNow Festival at DTW. Oh and somewhere in that I am starting a new piece for the company that we are trying to have the Artemis Chamber Ensemble play live for!!! So so excited.
And, I have yet to see a copy, but I hear there is a little mention of us in Dance Spirit Magazine for September. Page 150 to be exact!
Lots of really great stuff… But for the 3 hours in the studio, it sure did feel good to forget about running a company and remember where this whole thing started… Just dancing in a studio with Lynn…
Just doesn’t get much better than that.
www.syrendance.org
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July 23, 2008 at 6:05 pm · Filed under dance, dance theater workshop, city center, KATE-M, SYREN modern dance, dtw, auditions, dancenow NYC, residency, greenspace
SYREN held its first open call last month at City Center. It was alot of fun, we taught phrasework from “Abravanel” and “Dig” as well leading some improvisation. Lynn and I met a TON of really talented dancers. We were blown away by ther talent and joked about how we need to start making work for 100 people!
As it stands, we only needed five! After quite the week of auditions and callbacks, we hired the lovely and talented Aleyse Bradford, Heidi D’Alessandro, Chanelle Lagacé, Brigitte Mitchell, and the very handsome Quincy Junor.
We are really excited to get back into the studio! The first thing on the calendar is the Dancenow NYC festival. We are performing excerpts of “Dig” at DTW, so the company will be back in the studio beginning in September. That gives Lynn and I some more time to keep going with these grant deadlines and foundation proposals. Its a tough nut to crack… funding from the city and state. But with the help of some outstanding feedback from a few different sources, we are hoping that this is the year we break though a bit more from a grant perspective.
We are thrilled to begin our residency next month awarded by DTW. The Outer Space Grant allows us to rehearse in Long Island City’s beautiful Greenspace studio for a generous number of hours for free. WAHOO!!!
Pentacle also approached us recently about representation in their Gallery, which is really great for the company. More visibility and more possibility…
One step at a time.. For the moment we are just thrilled with the new talented dancers on board for the journey!
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