dno dances

Matthew Gough discusses the difference on his blog.

I’m currently stoked on this guy’s writing.

quodlibet.tumblr.com

This is a video of my new solo-in-progress “An Unfolded Place.” It’s from a showing at the Cunningham Studios on Dec. 16th.

What I know so far: I’ve created this goofy, cowgirl-esque character and I’m trying to set her loose in a kind of barren, wind-swept space. There is a sense of memory, or passage of time. As a performer it feels as though I have been dropped into a strange abandoned town and am left to try and shake hands with ghosts.

I’m not entirely done with the middle yet.

The New York Times ran this article about Dance on the Web yesterday. I’m glad to hear that institutions like DTW are thinking in terms of online networking. The idea of making the membership directory interactive is exciting. Yay for new infrastructure! The primary role that DTW has played in my artistic life so far has been that of a real-life social hub… but that is generally limited to performance nights or occasional workshops, this is much broader.

Further, I like the idea of an online network tied to a physical place… maybe my mind just isn’t expanded sufficiently, but something about the disembodied vastness of myspace or facebook makes it harder for me to translate virtual “contact” into real-life physical activity. That transition is essential if these tools are going to be used to facilitate the creation of live performance.

Ideally, though, I’m not sure that a tightly curated theater space, is the ideal location for a network to be tied to. The theater itself provides extremely limited opportunities to present work… the essential end point of this dancemaking dialogue. I’m wondering if an expanded Studio Showing program is in order… perhaps choreographers could be blogging and posting videos of their process, and other members can vote to request a showing of the work? Half-baked idea at this point…. I’ll think about it some more and get back to you.

So, this morning I recorded a superquick video appeal from the office. Arin and Susan were kind enough to offer to send it out to the Four Eyed Monster’s subscribers. Hopefully this will help with a last push for votes!

I have been working on a video blog series for Misnomer. The idea was conceived over the summer, and the first episode was posted in September. In true video blog form, I’ve been slow to get a second post up, but I have material for another two episodes, and I’m hoping to get them up sometime in the not too distant future.

The concept for the series is to provide a look into a dance performance from the performer’s point of view. I’ve been interviewing the company’s dancers about what it feels like, sounds like, and smells like onstage during specific pieces. Chris’ work is so much about embodiment and being fully present in the work, I’m interested in unpacking exactly what the elements of this “presence” are.

Here’s episode one:

My friend, filmmaker Susan Buice wanted to do a test shoot over the summer for a future video project. She invited me to run backwards through the streets of Brooklyn. Here’s the resulting footage (shot and edited by Arin Crumley):