This is a blog about what it's like to find Contemporary Dance in a new community. I have lived, taught and danced in Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Miami, Chicago and now Washington D.C. As a teacher and performer I am always interested in finding out what people are interested in artistically and technically. Follow me as I discover Contemporary Dance performance, writing, critique and pedagogy in the various places I travel and teach. Aaaaand, I'm sure I'll let you know what I'm up to too.
Getting work done! While I'm hanging out in Chicago for the next 2 weeks, I'm often between rehearsals. The big Mordine and Company show is next weekend at The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago and it's shaping up very well. We're performing with members of Mucca Pazza, and having musicians in the room while we dance is creating much electricity.
In the mean time I'm (of course) working on the next piece I'm setting on The Collective in Baltimore for their performance on 11/16-17 at The Theater Project. I've just finished editing the music and re-recording a couple of monologue tracks (my 2nd favorite thing to do).
If you want to see how fast I can talk and how tongue-tied I might get while dancing, come to this show!
NOW, if you want to dance with me while I'm in Chicago, come to Company Class with Mordine and Company at Extensions Friday, 9/26 10-11:30 for $10. I'm teaching an advanced modern class focusing on easy, easy hips. We'll open them up and see what we get.
And if you're a Northwestern University student, I'm teaching a Laban-based Composition Masterclass on Sunday, Oct. 6th in the ballroom of the Marjorie Ward Marshall Dance Center.
I am gearing up for two performances that I'm very excited about:
The first is a free event on 9/15/13 in Baltimore, MD with The Collective as a part of Akimbo Baltimore at Metro Gallery from 2-5pm.
The second is on 10/3/13-10/5/13 in Chicago, IL with Mordine & Company Dance Theater at The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago. I'm so so so proud to be on the same season as Susan Marshall, Cloud Gate and Bill T. Jones among many other talents. My feet will touch the same stage theirs have and will touch. Giddy!
My first performance as a new resident of the east coast is coming up!
I'll be performing in the show Summer SHORTS with The Collective in Baltimore, MD on August 9th.
This is The Collective's annual show filled with short performances by company members (limited to 5 dancers and five minutes) along side guest artists Christopher K. Morgan & Artists and DishiBem Contemporary Dance Group. It's the perfect little dance version of hors d'oeuvres. Small, varied and a taste of what modern dance has to offer. They'll be serious, funny, fast, ponderous, strange, ordinary, and certainly different than your typical friday night fare.
I'll be performing in 2 pieces. One of my own and one as a dancer for someone else. A nice little introduction to my new dancing family and community.
If you'd like to join me, or spread the word, Summer Shorts will be:
Friday, August 9, 2013 at 8pm Creative Alliance at the Patterson
3134 Eastern Ave
Baltimore, MD 21224
Tickets are $15/adults, $10/students, seniors , and CA members
call 410-276-1651 or purchase online at www.creativealliance.org
So, I just moved. Again. This time to Washington D.C. and I am starting once again to figure out where the dance is, who is doing it, how they're doing it, and why they might think I could be a good fit for their company.
I, of course, tapped all of my Chicago sources before my move to see if they had any advice. They mentioned Dance Place, Dance Exchange, Danny Burkholder, and checking out what Baltimore might have in store. Baltimore? Isn't that, like, in a whole different state? This was my first lesson about the DC area. I'm not in the midwest anymore. Going from state to state is really nothing when they're only a few miles apart.
So, I headed on over to the Dance Exchange for Friday class with one of the rotating cast of company members. This Friday, it was Sarah Levitt and her gentle, body-psyche-friendly style of teaching. We started with a partner exchange of skin/muscle/bone-level touch from stillness into movement, warmed up further with a unison phrase mobilizing the spine and some undercurves, traveled across the floor in a simple structured improvisation (which always makes me work the hardest) and ended with a more complicated unison phrase which you can see below (yes, I am the one in black... I wish they would've shown Sarah just a bit to the left, then you'd see what the phrase should ACTUALLY look like ;-)
This was a lovely way to end a week full of unpacking heavy boxes. Another bonus was that the class was mixed ages, so I was able to see a variety of takes on the improvisation work.
Next up was an audition for The Collective, a Baltimore based dance company whose members work collaboratively to create dances. The drive took me about an hour and twenty minutes, but it was my first time driving out of DC, and I am especially cautious when approaching an interview or audition. Well, I got there in the knick of time, which was a miracle considering that The Collective is based in The Bryn Mawr School which is tucked into a residential neighborhood whose dance studio is wickedly difficult to locate.
The Collective's audition process was a Bartenieff-based class filled with structured improvisations. I'm starting to see a trend here in this area. I'm not complaining one bit, since I'm improv-trained, and I'm interested to see how many other classes are going to feel like this.
Overall, the process was pretty darn painless considering the hatchet cuts and cattle calls I got used to in Chicago. The audition was populated with The Collective company members which helped give you an idea of what kind of mover they were looking for and it helped make the 10 of us auditioning feel the flow of a company class. Then they wrapped it up with a personal interview with the company and away we went! I'll get an email next week sometime.
Up Next: Audition at the Dance Exchange on June 18th. Hopefully I'll be dancing again soon!
