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Winding Down

Posted on: May 14th, 2012 | No Comments

The first year of the MFA adventure is winding down. I have many thoughts. Too many to get into this fine California morning. I enjoy the bird sounds in the morning and the clean and crispy air.

A graceful conclusion to the first year.

I feel positive and optimistic which I’m excited about. I look forward to returning to my other life this summer as I teach, perform, choreograph, and digitize. I am lucky to be spending time in NYC, Boulder CO, Seattle X2, North Carolina X2, Cleveland, Buffalo, and Becket MA… There will hopefully be time to reflect on this first year and image the second.


The Butterfly Trio

Posted on: November 15th, 2011 | No Comments

Created for choreographer/composer class.

  • Music by James Tatti
  • Performers are Jordan Bell, Mersiha Mesihovic, and Olivia Goldberg
  • Video by Daniel Charon

In it

Posted on: November 10th, 2011 | No Comments

Right in the middle of things now. One might call it the grind. Mostly things are smooth and it is so hard to complain because I am so fortunate. I continue to make stuff. That is really the focus. There is a lot of writing now too. I have to make sure to chip away at that and not leave it until the end. I have really nice MFA colleagues. We are all very different and can really look to each other for support and to laugh.

Not sure what I want to do when this is all said and done. I think I want to make things more than I want to teach things. Did I mention that I am fortunate.


Structureless Form

Posted on: October 7th, 2011 | No Comments

One of my intentions is to structure this dance piece without structuring it. Normally I choreograph with form and structure on my mind. How do I structure it? How do I put it together?

In this project I am trying not to make those decisions with my intellect but actually more by chance. The problem is once you establish anything that relates to anything else, it seems to have form and structure. Once any decision is made or nixed based on aesthetic, a conscious choice has been made on how to structure it! It’s a good challenge. I’m really trying to let the vocabulary live together in the same space to let it structure itself.

 


Exposure

Posted on: October 3rd, 2011 | No Comments

I have a class every Monday night that is part of my Integrated Media concentration. It’s called Conversations on Technology, Culture, and Practice. Each week a visiting artist comes in and talks about their work. They all share a strong involvement in community and interactivity in their work. They all seem to really connect to and influence the people that interact with their work. Some of them talk about moving their work out of a gallery so it can be viewed and interacted with.

Sometimes I feel like I’m right on the edge of understanding or not. Sometimes I marvel at the smartness of my classmates, sometimes I don’t. I’ve decided that for me, it about exposure and becoming aware of possibilities.


Work Ethic

Posted on: October 3rd, 2011 | 1 Comment

In a dance technique class work ethic plays a huge role. Being engaged, staying focused, concentrating, asking questions, listening, hearing, trying, and watching all contribute to these ethics. Do everything and be there.


Directing

Posted on: October 3rd, 2011 | No Comments

I’m finding there is an area where it is hard to tell the difference between choreographing and directing.


Choreographer/Composer

Posted on: September 16th, 2011 | No Comments

This is a course with about 30 dancers and musicians/composers.

Day one resonating thoughts:

  • A linear piece of art versus a cyclical piece of art. Linear takes place in time with a beginning and an end. Cyclical happens in a theoretical endless loop, the audience enters and exits but the work keeps going.
  • What’s the closest common origin of an idea? The beginning of ideas? In terms of collaboration… not two ideas that already exist and then merging them, or the idea of commissioning a score to choreograph to. How far can the moment of origin be traced back. Both collaborators beginning at the furthest back moment of origin. Origin of ideas.
  • How do ideas emerge?
  • The core of dance is how it is perceived by the eye. The core of music is how it is perceived by the ear. How do you make something that is perceived by both?
  • Improvisation… a planned unplanned event.

Word for the day: Aleotoric


Everything is Something

Posted on: September 12th, 2011 | No Comments

Good lesson today in the first day of comp. Things seem so obvious in retrospect but it’s good to have them pointed out again.

Essentially, the task was to take three verbs and make up a short phrase with each part of the phrase motivated by these verbs. I realized as I was doing it that I was suspending a lot in between moves. These suspensions really weren’t the three words and therefore was not the assignment. They really were arbitrary ways of getting from one task to the next. Colin, my teacher, pointed this out as we watched people dance their phrases and encouraged us to not dismiss things by settling for,  “Oh, it’s JUST a transition”… Everything is something.


From the Inside Out

Posted on: September 8th, 2011 | No Comments

Choreography 101b… graduate school.

I think my first effort will be choreographing from within. Exploration of movement invention as it is inspired by what is inside. What does it feel like or sound like rather than what does it look like. No intellectualized structure or repetition. I don’t know anything going into this.

I’m not sure how to do all of this.