Archive for lifestyle
September 16, 2007 at 10:37 am · Filed under dance, friends, lifestyle, london, KATE, graham, contemporary, dance teacher, scottish ballet, dance studies, glasgow, the place, contemporary dance, martha graham dance company, summer intensive
I’m looking out of my window and trying to get some work done on a rainy Sunday morning. It’s really wet out there and the leaves on the trees across the street are starting to change colour and fall. This has been a rather sunless summer - not just here in Glasgow but my old friends in London have been complaining about it too. (We British DO talk about the weather, it’s not just a great big cliche…)
I find it very hard to believe we are nearing the end of September already. This has been the busiest summer of my life, and unfortunately it’s been almost all about work and not about dancing or anything else. However, it’s been good in the sense that I have learned a lot, especially since I have been working alone and for myself - both for my PhD and in doing some advertising consulting to pay the bills.
But it’s not all been about work and rain, oh no. At the beginning of August I went to London for a week, ostensibly to do some research but actually so I could hang around with some of my friends and do some of the summer intensive at the Place. The intensive was great. I did Graham Technique with Kim Jones from the Martha Graham Company - this was amazing. I was so happy to be doing the class again because it’s my favourite contemporary technique to do and yet it’s really hard to get a proper Graham class where I live. (Actually in London it wasn’t all that easy.) It made me sad that I wasn’t able to do more than just a week of class in the summer - because there’s no way I can ever be the dancer I want to be, because of money, time constraints, location, etc, etc. In Glasgow I can do a couple of good classes each week, and they are good, but they are not enough. But this is the way that people who love dance but aren’t full-time dancers live - we just have to make the most of what we’ve got. It’s hard to pop in and out of something like Graham, because during a week’s intensive it draws you in, like a life philosophy, and when it stops you feel bereft.
The other course I took was contact improvisation, which in the end I loved. I say ‘in the end’ because it was the first time I had ever done it, and to be honest for the first two or three days I felt completely lost and out of my depth. Not because it was technically difficult, because it’s not, but because it’s so much about trust and letting go. I had to let go of lots of preconceptions about things. For example, we were practicing lifts and I was scared that i would be too heavy, but our teacher said to remember that we are not as heavy as we think, and it’s much more about timing and trust. Having said that, I found it really hard to lift people who were shorter than me because the centre of their weight seemed to be so much lower down than mine. Over the course of the week I grew less scared about dancing with other people and by the end I was in love with it. I was also covered in bruises, because I did get dropped and fall down rather a lot. Unfortunately there’s nowhere I can do contact improvisation here, there used to be but it was discontinued because there weren’t enough people. Oh well.
The thing that I noticed when I was on the Intensive was how much better my alignment is and how much more movement I have in my back and my hips. This is because since May I have been taking weekly gyrotonics sessions with Penny Withers. Penny was trained at the Royal Ballet School and had a career with the Scottish Ballet, where she now runs the young associates training programme. Penny is a great teacher and I have learned so much from her.
Later on in August I went with some of my friends to a place in the woods which I love near Dumfries, in the south-west of Scotland. There we stayed in a reconstructed iron-age roundhouse, which had a thatched roof and a fire in the middle. There’s also an outdoor hot tub and sauna! The iron age people knew how to live. The fire was good because it rained all weekend and we were soaked, so at night we sat around the fire and dried off, drank rather a lot of wine and played games. It was really fun.
I’m now really excited because a) this week my favourite Glasgow contemporary class starts again (which is Graham/Cunningham style) and b) I am going to Greece for a week this coming Saturday.
Stand by for tales of sunshine and the seaside.
Recent Posts by kate bordwell
May 4, 2007 at 2:27 am · Filed under artists, lifestyle, art, chicago, new york city, MIKI, martha graham, noguchi, hubbard street dance
Posted by Miki Orihara
Thank you to Kristin for all the instructions but I am bit slow.
Graham company had splendid performances at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art in the end of March.
*Out side of CMCA
*At opening night reception with Julie & Andreas(Long time friends and Directors for Hubbard Street Dance 2)
*At the Garden, middle of Manhattan
We presented all Noguchi/Graham pieces, Errand into the Maze, Embattled Garden, Appalachian Spring. I had a previledge dancing all three ballets (of course not in one night). All 5 performances went really well and of course I had a great time.
Well now I am back in NY, spending some time to clean the community garden where I have a plot , and have some time to see some performances around the city.
I will write more about Graham, and at the same time, things I see in NYC.
Thank you!
Recent Posts by miki orihara
February 16, 2007 at 9:40 pm · Filed under tour, lifestyle, chicago, SANDI, musical theater, snow
| | Posted by Sandi DeGeorge
We had a great run in San Jose- and then we followed the blizzard across the US. Tour is so glamorous! (NOT!) We had a 6am bus call on Tuesday, and by the time we got to the airport, all flights to Albany were canceled (we were going there via Chicago to end up in Schenectady for a short week of shows). We managed to get on a flight to Chicago, where we had to attempt to land several times, because of what the pilot referred to as “Poor Breaking Action” reported by other planes- AKA: Sliding off the runway. It was blizzard conditions- but we managed to get on the ground safely.
The plane at the gate in Chicago after we deplaned:
we had to wait almost 3 hours for our bags to arrive on a later flight.
We were very lucky to get hotel rooms and managed to get famous Giordanos to deliver Chicago deep dish pizza!
Wednesday involved checking out of the hotel, lugging bags to the airport, checking in for another flight- which was then cancelled. 
Then we couldn’t get our bags back. We went back to the Crowne Plaza where we got more pizza.
Got up at 5:45 to get to the airport and try to claim our bags.. we were flying to Syracuse.. and miracle of miracles, we got there! Our bags- not so much.. most of us have at least one- but one of mine is still in Chicago and who knows when it will arrive… we leave for Indianapolis on Monday! Oh, and btw, our opening was cancelled for tonight (Thursday) and now we will only do 4 shows here in Schenectady, in 3 feet of snow. Crazy!
Recent Posts by sandi degeorge
February 3, 2007 at 12:29 am · Filed under ballet, travel, lifestyle, theatre, SANDI, musical theater, birthday, san jose
| | Posted by Sandi DeGeorge
Well, we are officially “On Tour” now- here in San Jose.Our “Littlest” tour family member is Liam, who’s traveling with his mom who is a prop mistress and his Dad who is our fantastic percussionist.
We have a great company, and the girls have made a pact to stay in good shape. The Dancers in the company do only one short number- and those of us classified as “singers” barely move. I don’t even break a sweat except for running up and down stairs to change. SO! We are going to go to ballet class! Our sweet dresser Lily works on wardrobe at Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley, and we went to an adult intermediate drop in class. The teacher is Yu Xin, who danced with ABT apparently.It was 5 Chorus girls and four of the regular adult students. They were all nice enough to post in this little recital picture.
We were extremely proud of ourselves for getting up for 9:30 class when our show ends at nearly 11, and we don’t go to sleep for quite a while after that. This is the after picture.
We’re all pretty sore!
Then last night was our “Swing” Joe’s 30th b-day. The Swing understudies all of the chorus parts-and he got to make his debut last night as Sir Lionel (who gets killed and resurrected in a swordfight-DRAMA!) So after the show we went bowling.
We have a 5 show weekend coming up and we are all looking forward to our “Golden
Day” (no show or travel)on Monday !I may try to venture to San Fran! Is the ballet dark on Mondays like we are?
Recent Posts by sandi degeorge
January 9, 2007 at 6:54 am · Filed under SLOAN, food, lifestyle, art, museum, brooklyn
![sloan_thumb]()
![USA_flag]()
Posted by Sloan
This Saturday we attempted to go to the Brooklyn Museum for the “Target First Saturdays”… a night when the museum is open late, it’s free, and in addition to the exhibits on view there are a variety of events happening throughout the museum.
[Me, at the Grand St. subway station. Doug was making fun of my mittens and making me turn them into bunny ears . Did I mention we’re a little weird sometimes?]
I say “attempt” because we really truly wanted to go see the Annie Leibovitz exhibit and the Roy Mueck exhibit, but the museum was so crowded that…
First the elevator wait was eternal, so we opted for the stairs - to the 5th floor. A true test for my slowly recovering hip. But what doesn’t hurt you makes you stronger right?
Once we got up there, we encountered sweltering heat and lines so long you couldn’t even see the entrance to the exhibits.
I think the worst part about not getting to see the exhibits was the teaser piece downstairs. A massive sculpture of a newborn baby. It was unbelievable. Needless to say we will have to return before those two close.
But we did get some Dippin Dots… aka “Ice cream of the future”. It’s ice cream in little balls, and it’s so cold when you first get it that it kind of freezes your mouth. It’s awesome.
Then we took photos with the funny water fountain thing outside the museum…
Afterward, we wandered around the area, sort of looking for a place I had found on the internet called Beast. (I had liked the name and the description… a cross between Freeman’s and Dumont, two of our favs). We actually managed to find it, but it was full.
We ended up bumping into an even better looking Italian place…
Sitting at the 3-stool antipasto bar, watching the owner make appetizers and talking to him about his previous career as a photographer in Italy. He said he shot many dancers. I asked him if he had hit La Scala and he said yes, and continued to describe this story which is amazing!
All in all a fun time in an uncharted part of Brooklyn (for me).
Recent Posts by kristin sloan
January 6, 2007 at 6:14 pm · Filed under family, home, lifestyle, SUSAN, los angeles
| | Posted by Susan Kim
While my other Winger friends are transitioning out of heavy Nutcracker schedules and into still busier performance schedules of different sorts, my usually quiet existence in suburban Orange County, California has taken an unexpected turn in a different direction.
Of course, interpret that last bit as literally as you would like. I am, indeed, moving out and northward. My destination: Los Angeles. A job change is taking me into the famed city of angels. I can’t even begin to describe how excited I am to explore the dance scene there!
So the last few weeks have been really busy and full of apartment-hunting nightmares and move preparations. (Actually, I think the whole process is rather fun and exciting, as twisted as it sounds…).
Lucky for me, my family were right by my side, helping me do everything:
My mom tidies up the kitchen area and my dad takes a break to take in the “view.”
Hard at work!
My mum takes a break to smile for the Wingers. : )
I have a balcony!
And, last, but most definitely not least, this is going to be my best apartment-chum for a while:
My super strange-looking vaccuum.
| | Posted by Susan Kim
Recent Posts by susan kim
·
Next entries »
