Best Thing about Touring: Gratitude.

One of the best things about touring, or heading to a new theater to dance is the little rituals each space has.  You have your rituals, your company has its own rituals and then the space has its own set.  It's very moving.  Rituals ground you, prepare you for what's next, and make you realize WHY, why you are there.

I recently closed a show at The Dance Center of Columbia College, Chicago with Mordine and Company Dance Theatre.  It was a trip that I couldn't have made without the support of family, friends and acquaintances who helped me so generously through my fundraising campaign.  So it makes it all the more meaningful for me to complete this little ritual...



I made it, I made it, I made it.  And now I'm there, on the wall, next to the names of all those dancers who came before me and struggled to get there just as hard as I did.

*ahhhh*

Heavy moment, and so lovely.

Thank you.

Show Week in Chicago: Itinerary

Show week for Mo&Co at The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago!

Tuesday: tech rehearsal

Wednesday: 10am workshop with Shirley at The American Rhythm Center and I'll be the 11:30am guest speaker for Chicago Semester in the Arts, then on to dress rehearsal.

Thursday: Opening Night at 8pm and post-performance talk!

Friday: Pre-performance talk at 7pm, Show at 8pm and Champagne Reception after!

Saturday: Family Dance at 3pm (bring the kids and boogie) then Show at 8pm.

Sunday: 9am I'll be teaching a Composition Workshop at Northwestern University!

Monday: Fly home to Washington D.C. and miss all of my Chicago friends terribly.

Post by Mordine & Company Dance Theater.

Working on Multiple Dances

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!

http://www.collective-dance.com/performances.html

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.

Then come see me dance, of course.

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.

September and October Events

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! 

Goal Met! I'm going to Chicago!

So, as some of you know, I have been raising travel expenses to get to Chicago.  Why?  Because when I was living there, I was a company member with Mordine and Company Dance Theatre, and right before I left, it was decided that Mo&Co would be one of the season openers on The Dance Center of Columbia College's 40th Anniversary Season.  As The Dance Center is one of the major places to see dance in Chicago, I was very excited.  

Then my husband and I moved.  

I talked to Shirley (Artistic Director of Mo&Co) and said, "If you'll have me, I'll be back to do my role in the piece All At Once" (I'm in the maroon v-neck t-shirt).  She said yes and everything was fine and dandy until...

My husband and I moved to D.C. and because of various misfortunes, went through our pitiful savings at an alarming rate.  After 3 maxed out credit cards and many familial loans later, I was facing calling Shirley and telling her to replace me unless I could fundraise enough money to get to Chicago.  

WELL, I am so happy to announce that with all of your help, I have raised enough to get my tush out to Chicago for rehearsals and the show!  

Thank you so much to my generous donors:
A big thank you to my generous donors on GoFundMe who helped me with travel expenses for the trip!  
Anonymous
Anonymous
Sarah Coffey
Mom & Dad Drake
Diego, Lauren, & Monica
Andrew Lomen
Paula Biasi
Brad and Megan Vollmer
Bart Griepentrog
Anonymous
Kelly Anderson

If you would like to see this exciting show in Chicago on October 3-5, 2013,  click RIGHT HERE for ticket information through The Dance Center's Box Office.  

If you're not in Chicago, then check back here as I blog my way through the rehearsals and show.

Thank you!

Help Send My Dancing Feet To Chicago

AAAAANNNNNNDDDDD, now it's my turn.

After staring, puppy-dog-eyed at so many artist's requests for funding, now I get to ask....

http://www.gofundme.com/3i38p8

Here's the deal: I just moved (for my husband's job - not my choice! But it was his dream-job, so we had to) to Washington D.C. and even though it will be a good move for the long run (thing 10-20 years) it has put my husband and I deeply in debt and me out of a job.

I JUST got a part-time job at the National Zoo, am sub-teaching at a local studio, and am commuting to Baltimore for my new company, but all of that means we're still not able to pay our bills and are leaning heavily on family to get us from month to month.

SO, before we moved, I got and signed onto the fantastic opportunity to go back to Chicago in late September through early October to perform with Mordine and Company Dance Theater and Mucca Pazza at The Dance Center of Columbia College for their 40th Anniversary Season.  This is a big deal.

Now I am faced with the challenge of getting back to Chicago to rehearse, tech, teach masterclasses for children and adults, and dance for one of the most discerning dance audiences I will ever face.

Please consider helping me get there.  I even made a nice little video to show you how hard I've been working over these last few years.

Thank you in advance (for donating OR simply sharing my GoFundMe page with your friends) and here's where you can help:

http://www.gofundme.com/3i38p8

Know Your Local Mid-Level Dance Companies

Know them and love them.

I move around a lot.  It's something I'm trying to change, but in this economy... you've got to be flexible or you might have to change careers.  That being said, the FIRST thing I do when moving into a new dance scene is familiarize myself with the local mid-level dance companies.

What is a local mid-level dance company?  Otherwise known as a regional, salon, boutique, or a limited-contract dance company, these local companies can range in talent and budget from newly-formed and relying on regular Kick-starter campaigns to a 40-year-old company that has a budget of at least $250,000 a year and makes one national or international tour a year.

Chicago is one of the best cities to find an ample supply of mid-level companies for dancers at any point in their career.  I find my perfect fit (for dancing or viewing) by dividing them into 3 categories:
1) For the young dancer just out of college.
2) For the dancers that don't want to leave the city, don't fit neatly into a large company here, and are forced to make or collaborate to make their own 'awesome'.
3) For the dancer that was tired of their demanding nationally/internationally-known touring company and transitioned into the role of choreographer so they could be their own boss.

These are surprisingly easy to figure out.  Just skim the artistic director and dancer bios: Where'd the director from?  How'd they get their start?  What's their mission?  How old are their dancers?  How'd their dancers end up in the city?  Then find your ideal company and start taking classes with them or see their next show.

For those of you interested in Chicago dance, these are the local companies I've seen in the last week:   I just caught Striding Lion Performance Group at Links Hall last weekend when they shared a show with Enid Smith Dance (former Cunningham dancer), this weekend I peeked into the Chicago Moving Company's 40th Anniversary Show at The Dance Center and regrettably missed THAW: A Night of Hot Ballyhoo, Link's big-ole' party and fundraiser.  But you take a look at their programs and you'll not only find dancers, but each of these events are populated with dancers who have their own scintillating side projects worth checking into.

If I weren't heading to Milwaukee to rehearse for my own side-project MKE FOLLIES taking place next Saturday, March 30th at Carte Blanche in Milwaukee, WI, I'd definitely go see the inimitable Canadian Compagnie Marie Chouinard at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.

Petronio at The Dance Center, Chicago

Okay, It's a little late... the show was last Saturday, but life happened.  Well, preparing to torture my students with Midterms happened, anyway.

So Petronio's Underland is the new top bar for my husband.  I've been dragging him to shows since 2006 and this is his favorite so far, although he did take issue with the music choice.

Nick Cave was the soundtrack for our journey through Underland and although I liked the music throughout the piece, my husband thought he just had too previous knowledge about Nick Cave to free himself of the spectre of it.

The thing that struck me hardest about Underland was how much the self masochistic perfectionism we imagine happens in rehearsal shows through in this particular performance.  It's magical.  You can imagine Petronio is the off-stage Hades, god of the Underworld, making his minions do his bidding whether they want to or not.  This compulsion to fall in line, the decision that is not ours to make, the idea that we are slaves to the dark world around us is illustrated in each song, each scene, each tightly regimented and belligerent phrase of movement.

I came out of the spell for "Stagger Lee".  That one didn't work for me (just too obvious).  But the rest... captivating.

Petronio

I have 2 tickets to the Petronio's Underland for tomorrow.  Now, as we all know, I don't do pointed feet, but every once and a while I make an exception for a well crafted show.

I happen to work at The Dance Center (big season and place for dance in Chi-town) and get my tickets for free in exchange for being the bright and smiling face full of snarky remarks every Tues-Thurs evening.  So I got a little preview since I'm putting in my hours this evening.

Let me tell you, there were screams and yells at curtain.  I guess Chicago approves.  See ya tomorrow, dancers.  I'll be in heels, so you know I think you're worth it.

Zoe/Juniper

Last night I saw Zoe/Juniper at The Dance Center of Columbia College.  65 minutes of dark, strange and intriguing visuals.  My husband didn't care for it, but he's no dancer, so I pulled rank on him and told him although he's normally free to have his own opinion, he'll have to agree with me on this one.

Were there lulls in the action? Yes.  Especially during the quiet moments when we could all hear percussion practice going on in the Sherwood Music School next door.  Someone should really make sure that on performance nights, no one practices the drums after 8pm.  Seriously.

There were also some Greek-chorus/baroque court dancing sections that went on a bit long with unending repetition.  This is where I would have cut at least 2 minutes off the end of each "chorus" section.

Some other comments I got from fellow patrons were that the scenes seemed disjointed and the piece was not cohesive.  I didn't mind the separate "scenes".  It felt like wandering through a gallery and looking at the individual pieces in a visual art show.  My only beef was that I wanted more of the fantastic video that appeared in the first third of the show.  Ghostly mirrored video images haunted each of the dancers as they appeared and disappeared from the stage.  The human-sized images danced as much as the real dancers and I wanted more.  I rarely feel such a connection from video in dance.

The vocabulary of the piece was low, feral, and glitchy.  You felt like you were watching a grainy video feed that intermittently skipped frames.  It was technically very difficult and quite unique.   Yes, legs went up to the ceiling and toes pointed (you should know that these things are loath to me), but all for the sake of attaining the praying-mantis/scorpion/gollum feel of the movement.  The dancers all embodied this so well, and then Zoe entered the scene and blew them all away.  Insect-dancing is clearly her specialty.  Entirely made of long limbs that are evidently able to rotate at least 270 degrees (yes, I had to look up the rotation of an owl's neck to get an accurate figure), Zoe is able to go anywhere and stop momentum to change direction at breakneck speed.

Did I mention the shiny floor that made each dancer look like they were avatars because of the light that seemingly shone up on them from the floor?  It's hard to describe, but it looked like a very specific follow-spot on each dancer... coming from underneath the floor.  Cool.  Cool, cool, cool.  Besides that, it made their footsteps sound completely different from any regular dance floor.

To wrap it all up, despite some quibbles on the editing, a desire for more of Juniper, and the drummers next door, I thoroughly enjoyed the collaboration of Zoe/Juniper.

I'd see them again.  For sure.