Classes at the Dance Factory for movers and groovers interested in all things modern...
Class meet for five weeks and cost $40.
Beginning Wednesday, May 13th from 6-7pm
Choreography/Improvisation
... time for exploration, play, and dance-making ...
Beginning Thursday, May 14th from 7-8pm
Modern
... welcome multiple levels for a reflective and energizing class ...
Mmm. Sweet dancing.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Saturday, May 2, 2009
slow dance
...In the midst of it all I am reminded what it means to move when the deadline is not fast approaching and the children are not waiting for genius.
There is quiet and the floor is malleable and grace is something innate in the way space succumbs to body. The answer comes in following the movement while it leads to the discovery of a new sense. In these moments, the ache of not being enough is cradled by the realization of that being just what one needs.
And this makes it easier, more necessary to love the day to day explorations in the company of ever-changing, ever-questioning young folks who don't let me rest too easy in my own understanding of what it means to move...
There is quiet and the floor is malleable and grace is something innate in the way space succumbs to body. The answer comes in following the movement while it leads to the discovery of a new sense. In these moments, the ache of not being enough is cradled by the realization of that being just what one needs.
And this makes it easier, more necessary to love the day to day explorations in the company of ever-changing, ever-questioning young folks who don't let me rest too easy in my own understanding of what it means to move...
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Picturing America: Dance Style
I enjoyed leading a workshop exploring art through movement at an event in Concord, NH yesterday exploring the possibilities for collaboration and interdisciplinary connections in a project called Picturing America. This event was sponsored by the above organization and it funding by the National Endowment for the Humanities, which the intention of helping students and citizens "gain a deeper appreciation of our country's history and character through the study and understanding of its art."
Check out the project here.
I enjoyed spending time with the following images:
Looking Down at Yosemite Valley, California, 1865
Albert Bierdstadt
American Landscape, 1930
Charles Sheeler
Fallingwater, 1935-1939
Frank Lloyd Wright
Cityscape 1, 1963
Richard Diebenkorn
Brooklyn Bridge, 1919-1920
Joseph Stella
... before leading this eclectic group of teachers, artists, historians, academics, and humanists in the following activity...
Main Activity: Time and Space Tableaux
Break into groups and share images - each group receives one image to focus their work, movement, and conversation on. Begin by asking participants to create a tableaux of some part of their piece of art using their bodies. They can attempt to represent a piece of the image or the whole image. Encourage group members to take turns viewing the tableaux from the outside to get a better idea of what their statues may look like to observers.
The second tableaux will focus on an artist’s earlier version of this image. What happened before the image we see now? Were the lines simpler, the space more open? Did the image start small and become bigger? Did the artist focus on one piece that developed into the image we see now? Did the image start as something completely different?
The third tableaux will focus on reinventing the form. What theme/element of this picture has your group focused the most on? How lines connect? The context of the image or the space the image exists within? Change it. Make it something different. Show us something new.
If time, participants can find ways to move through tableaux to tableaux. If not, each group will share in a sequence of their choice, their 3 tableaux. Allow for questions, comments, conversation after each group or after all groups have shared depending on time constraints.
Debrief: What, if any, nuances to these works of art did you have through playing with them kinesthetically? What did you learn about movement exploring it through the lens of art? What were the major themes that came up for you during these activities?
If only we were encouraged to experience interconnectivity more often...
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Moving Opera: Kids invited
Opera Theatre of Weston's January's performances of "Hansel and Gretel" included local kids as singers in the children's chorus and dancing as Angels and the Witch's cat, Safronia (remember Eliza from an earlier post?).
Check out the review here at the Rutland Herald.
Getting psyched for next year's "The Little Prince." You're invited too, you know.
Family Dancing
Anneka is 2 1/2 and Aria is 4. The bell sounds of their names are reflected in their whisper running straight to the big girl barres on the far edge of the dance studio, where their little girl bodies dangle, feet pointed, knees in action. Their mother Erica tilts her head and sighs, knowing that bringing them to the center of the room will happen only after they've played the parts of the older kids they find so awe-inspiring.
Today it is spring. We are greeted with sunshine and melting snow, even though the end of March, April, and perhaps even May could snow in store for us in our corner of southern Vermont. We celebrate by sharing our favorite spring things... jumping in mud puddles, pedaling around the airport on bicycles, watching things grow, and playing outside. We sculpt our bodies into flowers, bikers, and puddle-splashers, watching our statues come to life before dizzying ourselves with an extra run around the room.
"Birds they fly and birds they rest.
Which pretty birdy do you like best?"
We practice flight, exploring different wing shapes as we glide through space, and then find ourselves resting in different positions on the dirty marley floor. Our birds quickly morph into other animals as we perch ourselves on a tree to end our poem dance, which we repeat over and over again, finding rhythm in repetition.
As Erica and I rub our hands together and place them on different body parts, quieting our bodies, little Anneka and Aria use their mother as a jungle gym. Erica tells me this is the most practical part of class - learning to find calm in the midst of chaos.
Today it is spring. We are greeted with sunshine and melting snow, even though the end of March, April, and perhaps even May could snow in store for us in our corner of southern Vermont. We celebrate by sharing our favorite spring things... jumping in mud puddles, pedaling around the airport on bicycles, watching things grow, and playing outside. We sculpt our bodies into flowers, bikers, and puddle-splashers, watching our statues come to life before dizzying ourselves with an extra run around the room.
"Birds they fly and birds they rest.
Which pretty birdy do you like best?"
We practice flight, exploring different wing shapes as we glide through space, and then find ourselves resting in different positions on the dirty marley floor. Our birds quickly morph into other animals as we perch ourselves on a tree to end our poem dance, which we repeat over and over again, finding rhythm in repetition.
As Erica and I rub our hands together and place them on different body parts, quieting our bodies, little Anneka and Aria use their mother as a jungle gym. Erica tells me this is the most practical part of class - learning to find calm in the midst of chaos.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Contra thoughts at 1:14 am
Although the rest of the 20-something world is perhaps enjoying the peak of their evening at this time, I am returning home, tired and riding a coffee high from my drive back to Springfield, VT from Greenfield, MA, where three teenagers and a 7 year old enjoyed one heck of a contra dance with me. Usually this type of adventure would end with me curling into bed, my deepest thoughts concerning whether the below zero temperatures require me to wear a hat to sleep or not, but tonight my inside's burst not only with the tingling effects of caffeine but also sweet joy.
You see, tonight I watched three girls emerge from their existences as mill-town observers to find themselves surrounded by and active participants in a world where men wear skirts to feel air rush between their legs when they turn and no one says no when asked to dance unless there is a bathroom emergency. I messied myself in attempts to remember steps and follow after months of leading, feeling very much a peer to these teenagers I may have eyed at a distance even recently. There is comfort in this western MA world for me - this is where I spent my undergraduate years and I know these people - and yet being here is a good reminder of how quickly we adapt to the places we live in. The sparkle in my eyes matched Eliza, Shena, Kamryn, and little Shanikwa.
I danced with my lady friends and with another child, El, who at 8 could have taught most people there how to dance in lines, changing partners, twirling and coming together. I also sat and held the head of the child I brought with me, the rest of her body bundled up in a sleeping bag as the night grew late, and I imagined what it would be like to have a child grow up with such comfort in this social, free space. Eliza, Shena, and Kamryn bring a little of this dance home with them, which may be seen in sparkley shoes and vocal attempts to convince their male counterparts to join the party next go around. And I bring home another reminder of happiness found in the firm hand of another pressing against my lower back, relaxed and smiling.
You see, tonight I watched three girls emerge from their existences as mill-town observers to find themselves surrounded by and active participants in a world where men wear skirts to feel air rush between their legs when they turn and no one says no when asked to dance unless there is a bathroom emergency. I messied myself in attempts to remember steps and follow after months of leading, feeling very much a peer to these teenagers I may have eyed at a distance even recently. There is comfort in this western MA world for me - this is where I spent my undergraduate years and I know these people - and yet being here is a good reminder of how quickly we adapt to the places we live in. The sparkle in my eyes matched Eliza, Shena, Kamryn, and little Shanikwa.
I danced with my lady friends and with another child, El, who at 8 could have taught most people there how to dance in lines, changing partners, twirling and coming together. I also sat and held the head of the child I brought with me, the rest of her body bundled up in a sleeping bag as the night grew late, and I imagined what it would be like to have a child grow up with such comfort in this social, free space. Eliza, Shena, and Kamryn bring a little of this dance home with them, which may be seen in sparkley shoes and vocal attempts to convince their male counterparts to join the party next go around. And I bring home another reminder of happiness found in the firm hand of another pressing against my lower back, relaxed and smiling.
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