Archive for process
April 21, 2008 at 1:24 am · Filed under dance, performances, process, TAYLOR
As I’ve mentioned before, recently I’ve been dancing as an apprentice/understudy with Rebecca Kelly Ballet, a small contemporary company here in NYC. Their performances are this weekend at the Gerald Lynch Theater at John Jay College, so if you’re in the city try to swing by and see them! I’m not performing, but it’s sure to be a great program.
I wrote a full preview article for ExploreDance.com that should be up soon, but here’s a taste of what to expect from the thematic ballets…
(Therese Wendler in “Adirondack Elemental”)
“I always have much to say about what is on my mind that generates the energy for creation,” says choreographer Rebecca Kelly, whose 27-year old contemporary ballet company will present its theme driven spring performances April 24-26. “But my words are usually directed to the dancers to encourage them to go deep to understand the motivation behind the piece, to find something that rings true to them, or to find what they have to bring to the idea.” Rebecca Kelly Ballet distinguishes itself with a force of culturally significant issues behind the dancing. “Or just to help them be courageous,” she adds, “because it takes great courage to be a dancer.”
This courage is explored in the first ballet on the program, the premiere of “Writing in Water.” A metaphor for the ephemeral nature of dance, the work features 5 dancers intertwining in various combinations and phrases to music from Beethoven’s “Grosse Fugue.” The concept motivating the piece is that a performance is a moment in time you can never get back. Like trying to write in water, it is fleeting, transient, and gone almost quicker than it came. That feeling when you surface into the spotlight, out of the shadows of the darkness drowning you and into a state where no thought occurs but being alive – it can never be felt the same again. And if someone missed seeing you dance, that moment can never be returned. You are back in the endless stream of dancers in New York City wading desperately through to reach your dreams, resisting the tide of failure and rarely coming up for air.
This is the piece I have been understudying, and from my (admittedly biased) point of view it is amazing. The process was fascinating to be a part of, observing the development of relationships amongst the dancers onstage and their reactions to space and movement within context. If you’re a dancer you’d definitely be able to appreciate its message.
(”Long Time Passing” photo by Adrian Buckmaster)
Passionate about issues outside the world of dance, Rebecca will also present a heart rending work relating to the Iraq War, called “Long Time Passing.” Exhibiting particular cultural and emotional depth today, it is based on a series of letters received from Iraq from First Lieutenant Nolan Albarelli, brother of company dancer Kate Albarelli. “It was his words and his eyes, his bravery and despair, and his humanity that he was able to share with me that caused this dance to come into being,” says Rebecca, “back here, safely in the U.S.”
(”Tear of the Clouds” photo by Todd Bissonette)
The ideas behind her choreography are what she stresses most, and it is quite obvious from her extensive repertoire that environmental concerns are also at the top of her agenda. Timed for the celebration of Earth Week, the season’s program includes two ballets reflecting earthly themes. “Adirondack Elemental” is a ballet in three sections: Water, Earth (see excerpt here), and Air. Together the segments, through meaningful movement, bring awareness to nature’s beauty. “Tear of the Clouds,” her first environmental ballet choreographed in 1989 returns to complete the 2008 program, depicting the slow death of a forest from acid rain.
The program is ambitious in its tackling of such a range of hot topics, but Rebecca’s enthusiasm and the great dancers should make for an evening of deep thought within dance, an effective medium for expression of such important themes.
I’ve learned so much from understudying and working with them, and I’m looking forward to seeing the final result of all the work in rehearsals this weekend.
The details: The Gerald Lynch Theater of John Jay College (899 10th Avenue at 58th St, NYC.) April 24-26 Thursday at 7:30pm, & Friday and Saturday, at 8pm. For tickets call Ticket Central: 212-279-4200. (416 W 42nd St., 12-8pm) or click here. Student and Senior discounts are available, and student rush tickets - so take the time to go!
More Winger updates from my crazy life coming soon…
For now you can see some recent reviews I’ve written for ExploreDance here (Ballet Tech’s Mandance) and here (Stephen Petronio).
Recent Posts by taylor gordon
January 23, 2008 at 4:36 pm · Filed under dance, guest, TONY, dance technology, interactive, research, sarah lawrence college, students, education, dance teacher, performance, project, choreography, discipline, pedagogy, process, learning, intelligence, fun, dance criticism, dance lesson, social network, improvisation, Julie Cruse, VICKI, choreobot
For the last meeting of my class last semester, 12-21-07, I had Julie Cruse of Ohio State’s EMMA Lab as a guest to share her research in developing Chorebot VICKI. VICKI stands for Virtual Improvisational Choreographer / Kinetic Instructor. She a virtual automaton who guides a dancer through a structured improvisation using randomly generated verbal cues. Upon initializing VICKI she describes her purpose.
She says:
Choreobot is designed to challenge a dancer’s movement skills, and asks the dancer to draw upon advanced improvisational interpretation. I am programmed to make dances using theme and variation as prescribed by my creator. I use textbook dance methods, but - I am unpredictable. The dancer will demonstrate as I begin my next new dance.
Read more of Julie’s description of the technology HERE at the project website.
Before the lecture demonstration Julie and I had to rebuild modules of the assembly so that we could get VICKI to talk off Intel-based Macs. Retooling software under time constraints can be terribly stressful but I am glad to report we patched things up in time for the class. Julie’s lecture/demonstration was wonderful. She took some time to explain her impetus for building the machine and gave the students a tour of VICKI’s inner workings. Next Julie fired up the choreobot and demonstrated how she danced under VICKI’s instruction. Next she invited the students to try. Watching the student’s improvisation was exciting.
The system forces the dancer to think on their toes and make quick decisions. With time I could see a dancer becoming expert at navigating in this environment. Julie has clearly taken the time to do this. For her it was the first time she was able to observe other people dancing inside her system. By the end of the class everyone was incredibly energized and immersed in conversation regarding future research using choreobot VICKI. Julie has left us with a copy of VICKI and has encouraged us to continue experimenting with and mutating the system.
Matt Gough has taken a good deal of time developing an analysis of this work. In particular Matt takes issue with the description of the work as an “artificial intelligence” simply seeing it as an automated version of Cunningham’s method of chance procedures. Julie has documented the critical discourse HERE.
I met Julie inside Sector 9 of the blogosphere. There she has made bold gestures regarding dance-technology as a field. Like Matt Gough, she has voiced discontent over the current state of dance-tech.
She writes:
When I hear dance and tech, I think - it better not be ANOTHER interactive audio/video environment. It better not be ANOTHER…
…dance contextualized by projected videos
…dancer controlled by robotics or sensors improvisation in real time that composes the score
…motion capture in real time translated to animated projections
…wearable technologies that do something with sound or video
…animated avatars in second life real time “telematic” improvising
I find such pugilistic remarks invigorating and am excited to see what trouble Julie stirs up in the future.
Recent Posts by tony schultz
November 28, 2007 at 2:29 pm · Filed under ballet, dance, tour, travel, architecture, projects, DAVID, american ballet theater, Repertory, cities, architects, opera houses, david hallberg, traveling, companies, process, san francsico, benjamin millepied, giselle, american balet theatre
As the City Center season winded down and ABT went on a week tour to Berkeley, CA, bringing some of the rep. that we did in NYC, the dancers then embarked on a four week lay off. My travels brought me all over the country, and then to Europe for a week of preparations for an upcoming debut.
The week in Berkeley was filled not only with performing repetoire that I enjoy very much, Ballo Della Regina and Benjamin Millepied’s From Here on Out, but also all the advantages that Northern California can bring. I had a wonderful meal at Chez Panisse, hailed as one of the best restaurants in the country, and soaked up some great art, the photography especially interesting, at San Fransisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA).
Outside my house, Camelback Mountain
With the tour finished and with the reason that I don’t get home to Phoenix as often as I would like, I spent a quick 48 hours being pampered by the ‘rents’ as only ‘rents’ could do. But most importantly, seeing my BEAUTIFUL GOLDENS, as I have shared with you in past enteries.
On to Minneapolis, where I spent another 48 hours gawking at the architecturally stunning Walker Art Center, newly redone by Herzog and De Meuron, the same architects that completed the refurbishment of the De Young Museum in San Fran, as Sloan pointed out on a recent visit. I had a much anticipated meeting with a very well respected artist that might possibly turn into a future project. We shall see…
The Opera House in Amsterdam
I only stopped over in New York, to do a little laundry and re pack my bags, to go onto Amsterdam for a week. Guillaume Graffin, a former Paris Opera trained and 17 year principal/ballet master with ABT, moved to Amsterdam 2 years ago and joined the Dutch National Ballet as ballet master. When he was working over at ABT, we formed a certain bond in the studio… he having coached me in my first full length ballet with the company, Swan Lake. I have always wanted to go over there and work with him, continuing my desire to learn from him as an artist, and I finally had the free time to do so. I am going to debut Giselle in the spring, with none other than Stella Abrera, GORGEOUS dancer with the company, dancing the lead. One of Guillaume’s great roles was Albrecht in Giselle, and I found the opportunity of him passing on his expertise to a fresh Albrecht something that I couldn’t pass up.
Guillaume in Giselle
The week was an intense one, mainly just talking about the character of Albrecht, and dissecting what to portray through out the story. Guillaume is such an intuitive artist, that I can only try and absorb what he tells me ‘he did’ or chose ‘not to do’ when he was dancing the role. It will take much more preparation for the actual debut but it was really nice to break the ice with someone I respect so much.
And that leads me here… back home, working on more preparations for the Met Season, and at my computer, finally with internet service and The WInger.
Recent Posts by david hallberg
September 7, 2007 at 9:10 pm · Filed under ballet, dance, class, choreographer, choreography, contemporary dance, process, benefit, TAYLOR, college
Hey everyone! I’ve been without a computer for the past 2 weeks because my laptop crashed, so I apologize for not posting lately. You don’t realize HOW much you depend on technology until you are forced to be without it (I’ve been lost without it…I spend hours on end online!). Anyways I wanted to write about an article I saw in the newest issue of Dance Teacher Magazine (no I’m not a teacher but I read it anyway) and then give you a quick update because I have a lot of new stuff going on.
Moving Story Class
In the September issue of Dance Teacher there’s an interview with choreographer Christopher d’Amboise, a former NYCB Principal dancer and son of ballet legend Jacques d’Amboise (and sister of Broadway star Charlotte D’Amboise). In the interview he discusses his unique concept of choreography and “making steps your own” through is workshop class, “The Moving Story.”
He actually brought this workshop to us back in June at Ballet Academy East and so I thought I’d share my personal experience learning with him. We had worked with him back in the winter, when he choreographed an original piece, “On the Edge” for our Studio Showing. For most of us it was our first time working with truly contemporary choreographing and it was definitely a challenge to move in different ways while still maintain our ballet technique. One of the major things Chris emphasized while working with us then was that we had a freedom within the choreography to individualize it. At the time, it was confusing and a bit intimidating to have that task: To this point, I had always been taught to conform to a choreographer’s wishes and do things exactly as I was told. Here he wanted us to take his movements and manipulate them, however slightly, to make them comfortable in our bodies and personalities.
It wasn’t until he came back to teach the Moving Story class that I was fully able to grasp this concept. He began the first session without speaking a word. He demonstrated a series of steps and we automatically imitated them. After a while he began to repeat the steps one at a time while saying what appeared to be random words. Soon the connection was clear. Each step was supposed to look like the object or action he was saying. For example, “fly swatter” was a loud clap as if you were literally swinging at a bug. “Jump over the fence” was a Jerry Robbins inspired jump (think the opening number in West Side Story) where you pretended to be going over something.
Over the following sessions we developed a “movement language” as a group. Every step we did had a name that we established together. Similar to the ballet vocabulary, every step led to something else and the connections and in between steps were important as well. The hardest part of all this was that not only did we have to work our way through the foreign choreography but, as we danced it, we had to speak the names of the steps out loud! It was truly a challenge, especially for me because I am quiet. I remember he actually made me dance and speak alone the very first lesson. He pointed to me and made me go first, and all I remember was that my mind went blank. I did the steps and said the words without even thinking about it, and all of a sudden it came so naturally. It was a very odd feeling - dancing and speaking without thinking. I don’t know if that was the intention, or even if I did the sequence correctly, but from that moment I knew this technique was something I wanted to explore and incorporate in my dancing.
As the workshop progressed we learned how to convey different emotions through movement and eventually how to create short stories through dance. It was very specifically not an acting workshop - the point was to create feelings through our bodies. For example, if you do something sharp and strong it might mean you’re angry, whereas a slower, legato movement might convey exhaustion. He had us create “emotional maps” and use them in his choreography to make the combination “our own.” The result was 15 very different interpretations of the same movement and a clear example of the point of the workshop.
(my “emotional map” and the long list of emotions to convey)
He also spoke a lot about back phrasing and front phrasing, namely playing with the music to decide which particular steps are “important” or emphasized. Already I did a bit of this naturally, but after hearing his explanation of this I found myself considering new ways to hear things, even just in ballet class. I can honestly say that since taking the Moving Story workshop I have implemented some of the concepts I learned about movement analysis and it has added a whole other dimension to interpreting choreography and even basic steps in class.
On another Note…
An Update
September is always exciting and full of new beginnings, but this years seems to be exceptionally busy. Here’s a few things that I’ve been up to and that are coming up soon:
-Last Semester of College!
This week I started my final semester at Marymount Manhattan. I really can’t believe I graduate in just a few short months. It went by too fast (only 2 years!) and in some ways I don’t feel like I’ve even had the college experience. I’m taking an overload schedule to finish all my required courses. I’m also working as the Features Editor of our school paper, The Monitor, so we’re getting set up for a new issue.
-Starting Grad School!
My school has this special program where you can take graduate courses in your last semester that will count for credit as both undergrad and grad school, so I’m also taking courses in Magazine Publishing at Pace University. We had orientation the other day and I’m really excited about the program. It lets me really focus in on what I want to do after dancing.
-Benefit Performance
Details for this are still in the works, so I’ll post more later…but on October 24 I’ll be dancing in a benefit performance for the Tyler Dunne Foundation. More on that soon…
-Nutcracker, already?
Next weekend I start rehearsals for Nutcracker with the Albano Ballet Company in Connecticut. Performances are in December at Mohegan Sun, one of the biggest arenas in the northeast!
-Ajkun Ballet Theater
I also officially start as a Trainee with the international company Ajkun Ballet Theater in a few weeks. Not sure what that will bring, but it’s an exciting new beginning!
Recent Posts by taylor gordon
June 9, 2007 at 10:56 pm · Filed under Uncategorized, friends, dancing, movement research, new york dance, process, nancy
Posted by Nancy Garcia
I was planning on making my first post an interview of the choreographer Anna Sperber. I have the interview, but she never approved that I could put it online so I never went ahead with it. Too bad, because her answers were pretty interesting.
I attended two classes at the Movement Research Festival, one with Ann Liv Young and another with Eleanor Houlihan. I performed in one of the festival’s performances, “Populous,” curated by AUNTS (aka. Jbird/Jamm/Jean Marie Leary). More on all the MR Festival activity soon. You can become a member of the MR forum here and read the discussions surrounding this year’s MR festival:
http://movementresearch.org/publishing/forum/
AUNTS/Jbird Leary hosts Alligator Mondays
“at 8pm, ALL MONDAYS, but really no one comes until 9pm and we go until 11 or midnight or whenever. anyone, bring anyone… Alligator Monday was started April 2, 2007 to talk about dance, drink beer and eat pizza. you get a free wood oven personal pizza with every drink. Alligator Lounge, 600 Metropolitan @ Lorimer Williamsburg, Brooklyn G to Metropolitian L to Lorimer http://www.alligatorlounge.com/”
(from the the Alligator Mondays forum post on the MR forum)
This week (starting tomorrow) I’ll be attending Helen Pickett’s Forsythe workshop. More on that soon!
Recent Posts by nancy garcia
May 13, 2007 at 7:58 pm · Filed under dance, dance event, dancers, friends, TONY, science, space, sarah lawrence college, choreographer, performance, community, project, sara rudner, process
Posted by Tony Schultz
Happy mother’s day! Today my dance-mom, Sara Rudner, is presenting an afternoon of music and dance in Dancing-On-View (Preview/Hindsight) at the Baryshnikov Art Center from 5 - 9 PM. Sara describes the work as a “marathon installation in non-theatrical time and space in a celebration of dance and dancers. The audience, free to come and go throughout the event, is invited to stand or sit, and determine the length of the experience.” I went to an open rehearsal this past Wednesday. Tonya Plank went this past Friday. Her account of the work can be read here.
Sara invited me to a rehearsal of the project back in March. The work, first shown in 1975, presents dance as a practice more than a performance. For Sara moving is something worth doing more than seeing. In this way the rehearsal has as much meaning as the final performance. I felt joy in knowing many of the dancers. The dancers included Rocky Bornstein (Kristin’s physical therapist), Megan Boyd, Linda Cohen, Erin Cornell, Erin Crawley-Woods, Laurel Dugan (who I have introduced to you before), Maria Earle (friend and former graduate student of history with my mother Priscilla Murolo) , Liz Filbrun, Peggy Gould (Sarah Lawrence friend and faculty), Anneke Hansen, Patricia Hoffbauer, Rachel Lehrer, Merceditas Manago-Alexander (Sarah Lawrence friend and faculty), Sara Rudner, Vicky Shick (who presented Plum House at DTW), Maggie Thom (daughter of Rose Anne Thom, Sarah Lawrence friend and faculty) and Lori Yuill.
At the March rehearsal Sara Rudner had been kind enough to explain to me some of the compositional processes going on in the work. Much of the choreography is manifest through performing variational operations on phrases of movement. These compositional variations can be considered as transformational mappings of movement in both space and time. Reversal, for example, maps the right side of the body to the left side of the body. This can be thought of as reflecting movement across the sagittal plane of the body. Inversion generally maps the front side of the body to the back side of the body, in effect,a reflection of movement across the frontal plane of the body. Retrograding a phrase of movement runs it backwards in time, creating a reflection across the time axis. Many more kinds of operations can be used to transform movement, including moving it in space (translation) and changing the facing (rotation).
As Sara described these techniques I was struck how theories of physics used these same ideas. When physicists build theories of the world they characterize these theories by their symmetries in space and time. For example, to theorize the behavior of particles we want that behavior to be independent of where we perform the measurement. Smashing two electrons together should have the same effect so matter if we do it here or there. This is called translational invariance. The effect should also be independent of how our system is oriented in space. This is called rotational invariance or isotropy. The symmetry of a system in mapping right to left and left to right (as Alice does as she goes through the looking glass) is called parity invariance. For simple particle theories reversing a physical system in time yields another physically realizable system. This is called time-reversal symmetry.
The lesson in this way of thinking is that when we know a dance we automatically know all of the dances that can be manifested from this dance through these variational techniques. In physics we know that for a theory to be “good” its mathematics must obey the same symmetries that we observe in the physical phenomenon we are trying to characterize.
In watching the rehearsal/performance of Dancing-On-View one is struck by great deal of thinking being done by the dancers. This recasts the dancing (female) body as no longer just an object to be studied but as the site of the production of knowledge. Sara Rudner’s work and creative approach invites one to see dance as a research practice very close to science. The knowledge produced from this work cannot be fully translated to the viewer. These physical insights are things that must be experienced. In this way Dancing-On-View is much more than a mere performance, it is an invitation to dance physical theory.
Recent Posts by tony schultz
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