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DAVID HALLBERG |
Upon my arrival to Los Angeles, I spent some time with a friend in her stunning house in Beverly Hills.
The view, the house, and good weather. Three things I miss in New York.. but its still home.
(chatting on the phone, and posing for the camera.. always a good multi-tasker)
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KRISTIN SLOAN |
It was recently announced that Chris Elam and Misnomer Dance Theater succeeded in their quest for Ideablob’s $10K monthly giveaway! You can see more details on their idea here, but basically it sounds like they are looking to use the money to develop a web site with lots of new tools for dance companies to use in presenting and increasing access and awareness on the web.
From the IdeaBlob Press Release:
“Our goal is to create innovative ways to expand our fan base and at the same time bring dance to theater fans and supporters when they are not able to make it to the theater,” explained Elam. “Ideablob has proven to be a perfect, non-traditional way to get support for our non-traditional idea of promoting artists and their work.”
Congrats guys!
And on that note, I thought I’d let you know what I’ll be up to this weekend.
I am co-facilitating a workshop on online video for dance companies at Dance/USA’s Winter Forum. The Winter Forum’s focus this year is on marketing and the use of technology.
What makes this information relevant to this post is that my co-facilitators are Chris Elam and Jaki Levy from Misnomer Dance Theater. The conference officially starts tomorrow, although most people arrived in LA today (myself included) and there will be an introductory sort of get together tonight. Should be an interesting new experience.
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SUSAN KIM Ballet Student, Supporter Los Angeles, California USA BIO | POSTS |
This past Saturday, at co-founder (co-director, choreographer and dancer) Betsy Uhler’s invitation, I attended the inaugural performance of LA Unbound. Based on Ithaca College’s IC Unbound, a student dance company that Betsy was a member of during her college days, LA Unbound is a dance troupe comprised of dancers in Los Angeles who represent as many different backgrounds, styles, and levels as can possibly be imagined. The company’s primary objective: To hold performances featuring a diverse array of dances in a non-competitive environment.
When Betsy first described LA Unbound to me, the organization and the philosophy upon which it is founded immediately struck a special chord with me because it reminded me so much of the college dance group that I myself directed during my time at Amherst. There, like here, the group existed fundamentally to facilitate dance for dancers (and non-dancers who wanted to dance). The group’s sole demand/s: dance and, more importantly, have fun. LA Unbound’s philosophy is very similar.
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| Ithaca College alum Doug Hannah entertains the crowd with unusual juggling and balancing acts. |
Ithaca College alum Peter Verdell provides musical interludes in between dances. |
Because it is, in a way, a Los Angeles extension of the Ithaca-based IC Unbound, a majority of LA Unbound’s dancers are IC Unbound and Ithaca College alums. (Just as an aside: I never realized that so many Ithaca College alums live in Los Angeles. They must amount to at least half the city’s population! (Okay, I exaggerate…)) What a fantastic resource, though. Those Ithaca College alums who did not dance on Saturday helped out where they could, either selling tickets, passing out programs, queuing the music, setting the lights, performing in between dance numbers and, of course, supporting the dancers from the house.
Happy dancers.
What a great start for LA Unbound! Cheers to co-founders and co-directors Betsy Uhler and Elizabeth Tramontozzi for their hard work and for creating this special vehicle for dancers and dance lovers. And for keeping it fun.
Betsy and Elizabeth smile after a long day of rehearsing and performing.
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SUSAN KIM |
from Disneyland. Enjoying the park with Graham dancers Atsuko and Miki (our very own)! B-)
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SUSAN KIM |
Hurrah!! “Slow Dancing” has at last made its way (from New York) to Los Angeles. Especially after reading Matt’s first ever blog interview with David Michalek, I’ve been anxiously counting down the months, weeks and days until the screens completed their 3,000-mile trek closer to moi. (Pardon the excessive drama; we’ll blame the late hour, shall we?)
All drama aside, though, the exhibit is truly amazing and breathtakingly beautiful. The Los Angeles display is structured slightly differently than it had been in New York; we’ve two less screens that don’t hang from the theaters’ facades but that, together, encompass the fountains sitting in the center of the Music Center. Especially after (and, even, as!) the sun goes down, the spectacle is truly a sight to behold.
Janie Taylor stops a passing crowd.
Probably what surprised me most was the (intentionally?) clever juxtaposition of the images. At one point, Wendy Whelan and Omayra Amaya moved through a port de bras so similar and so in synch with each other that it seemed as though they had choreographed the segment.
Big screen role model? A passerby apparently thought so.
I might be alone in thinking this–it certainly wouldn’t be the first time!–but I found it oddly discomforting and strangely, well, weird to see dancers magnified on such monstrous screens. I’m a little old-fashioned, I suppose: I love that dance, traditionally at least, and its beauty relies solely on the size of the dancer’s movement (and not on the dancer’s (generally smaller) size or build) and on the power of projecting of such movement (and not on the power of projection tools), to deepen and/or strengthen the impact of his/her performance.
Desmond: He’s ready to take over Los Angeles. 
Until the 26th, you know where I’ll be!
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Here in (way too) sunny California, said sun is only now on its way to bed. (Can you sense my impatience?) The slow dancing images look faint and ghostly as all of us wait for the (natural) light to fade.
I can’t wait to see them in full!
