Dance Docs

Jeremy Wade’s show “there is no end to more” recently closed at Japan Society.  Jeremy was kind enough to let me watch the dress rehearsal.  My intention was to have a conversation with him about the work, but we were unable to connect.  Instead I’ll link to a conversation he had with Mary Love Hodges for Movement Research’s Critical Correspondence. 

Jeremy Wade in conversation with Mary Love Hodges

Saturday December 5 at 8pm

Ishmael Houston-Jones’ Messie Awards: Dance Shouts at the World

Danspace Project, www.danspaceproject.org 

Located inside St. Mark’s Church, corner of 10th Street and 2nd Avenue

Hosted by Ishmael Houston-Jones

Performances by Monstah Black, Christine Elmo, Jack Ferver, Aki Sasamoto and Arturo Vidich, and Layard Thompson

SoloShow
In association with Performa 09
Thu, Nov 12 - Sun, Nov 15
Thu - Sat 8pm, Sun 6pm,
Late shows Fri, Sat 10pm
Post-show Party Thu, Nov 12
$20, $15 (students/seniors/Performa and FIAF members)

More info:
http://www.ps122.org/performances/solo_and_soloshow.html

Teenage Jesus and the Jerks

::Sightings

::::Drunkdriver

::::::TALK NORMAL

(9pm sharp!, I’ve been told)

$20, 8pm Doors

@ Music Hall of Williamsburg

more info 

*Couldn’t find Talk Normal video on YouTube, though I’ve posted one before on Stay. Sorry!

excerpt of a 16mm film by Miami-based artists Nikki Rollason and Clifton Childree

“A tale of a washed up girl and her postmortem adventure.”

My wife, Anna, and I have been collaborating since we met in 2002. I make music, videos, and interactive work. Anna is a choreographer. She typically begins a piece by improvising with her dancers, with a form emerging gradually, honed and distilled over several weeks. My role in our collaborations has generally been to create sound or video to augment or accompany the performance. With this project, we set out to integrate video more fully into the process. 

“Between Scans” is the product of five days well spent in residency at the Experimental Television Center in Owego, New York. After years of making videos with digital tools, it was freeing to return to the physicality of analog. We used synthesis (applying varying voltage patterns to the video signal), a seven-camera array, and a primitive video switcher to create states in which the effects of the image processing and of the captured movement amplified each other, states in which the humanistic presence was graphically abstracted or fractured while, simultaneously, the geometric nature of the imagery took on an organic quality.

-Peter Kerlin
Between Scans, Video, Courtesy of the Artists
Further info available via Triple Canopy

Nancy G.: Your gmail chat custom message reads, “there are no Sarah Palins in dance.”

Sarah Dahnke: Indeed it does. I lifted that quote from this week’s New Yorker, and it’s from an article about Rahm Emmanuel, who briefly danced at Sarah Lawrence College. The quote went on to talk about how there are not professional dancers who have faked their way to the top, only to get there and be missing quite a bit of knowledge. Those people are weeded out long before because there’s really no way to fake the fact that you can’t dance. I could probably argue on either side of that statement, but any quote that combines the words “Sarah Palin” and “dance” is definitely going to be a favorite.

NG: Yeah, I loved that Rahm was once pursuing dance. Did you know that one of his nicknames is “Rahmbo”?

SD: I didn’t, but I’m also not surprised. He seems like a tough cookie who gets what he wants. The New Yorker also mentioned how he’s very devoted to Judaism, and he attends temple with regularity.The internet taught me last week that Rahm means “thunder” in Hebrew. And Barack means “lightening.” Never have I been so fascinated with the minutiae of politics or the people involved in it. I think many of us are still trying to find ways or excuses to celebrate.

NG: Absolutely. I was completely wrapped up in the recent issue of Newsweek which discusses all of the “behind-the-scenes” of the Obama, McCain and Clinton campaigns. So maybe we should talk about what this change in the American federal government might mean for the arts?

SD: Oh yes, I loved that as well. I never got my hands on a paper edition, but I read most of it on the Internets. I wish I could sit here and say that I feel optimistic about the state of funding for the arts, given the election, but I just can’t. I know Obama is developing plans to turn the economy around as fast as possible, but it’s in deep shit right now.

I read a NYT article today about the types of programs that are being cut in state budgets, and basically nothing is safe, not even education. Until the U.S. is back on its feet, it’s hard for me to believe that there will be any extra grant money for artists or performing venues or cultural organizations. They simply aren’t priorities. The article also mentioned education cuts, and while it didn’t specifically mention the arts, I know for a fact (I work as a teaching artist in public schools) that arts are lowest on the totem pole when it comes to funding. I fear that the national deficit will not only fail to fund professional or emerging artists, but it will also cut programs that nurture and inspire young artists, not to mention failing to allow students to experience all of the fabulous things the arts can do for a young person, such as inspiring creativity, self-expression, confidence, group cooperation, problem solving, etc.I feel pessimistic about this one. Ask me again in 2011.

NG: Atleast the arts made it on to the “Issues” page of their website. It’s an “Additional Issue”. Maybe they’ll get to it in their second term, if there is one.

SD: Yeah, I agree. I was optimistic when the arts were presented as a part of Obama’s platform about a year ago. Then the economy started plummeting, and I had a feeling that would be the last we’d hear about that. I have good feelings about a second term, but I suppose that’s a bit premature. As a side note, I’m currently wearing this shirt. My friend Manuel told me I have to wait until January, but I don’t wanna.

NG: Nice! Nothing like sweet and short message tees. I wear this one a lot.

SD: I like that one, too, although I could never wear it and be honest. I hate crap! I was actually straying away from wearing t-shirts with messages on them over the past few years, but this election has re-inspired me. Now I want all of the propaganda. I also have one of Michelle Obama dressed as a superhero that says “Michelle Rocks!” It was my election night shirt.

NG: Let’s talk about your “This Dance is a Cliche” project. What initially drove you to develop this project?

SD: I actually just wrote an entry on the site about that because even though I’ve been hyping it to everyone I know/have ever met, I think the purpose of the project had been lost with some.

The idea came from me working in the studio alone, trying new movements and being continually frustrated that what I created was something I had already done many times before or was too similar to a thousand other phrases/concepts I’d watched before. The recognition of the cliché paralyzed me, making me unable to create anything at that moment. After having this happen one too many times, the idea for this project came to me. In a way, it’s reverse psychology: embrace the cliché to set it free from your mind. In another way, though, it’s a community project based on simple curiosity about what other people find cliché about dance. I know what I find cliché, as a dancer in New York who works with and watches modern or “postmodern” dance. But people who work with other genres in other parts of the country have completely different ideas. And those who aren’t professional dancers come at it from even another angle.The idea to make it this collaborative, community-based project was also inspired by Miranda July, who I adore. I’ve always admired the way she can inspire complete strangers to create and submit, and she provides such an open, accepting environment for each of her projects of this nature.Learning to Love You More and How Will I Know Her? are two of my favorite concepts on the Internet.

NG: You could just invite other people into the studio. Why use the internet? And how has the purpose been lost with some participants?

SD: I could, but I’d reach a much narrower audience. The Internet is amazing because … wait for it … YOU CAN REACH SO MANY PEOPLE. I’ve received submissions from people I’ve never met, who live in other cities, and that never would have been possible if the invitation was simply extended to people who could make it to a specific studio in New York at a specific time. Plus, I love the Internet. I wanted to incorporate that love into the project. I think with some of my more timid yet creative readers, they wanted to submit but were afraid of being ridiculed. But really, the point is to show that we are all cliché in many ways. Embrace it, celebrate it, then also find ways to move beyond that. That’s the true purpose, and I think it just needed a little extra explaining.

NG: Sounds like you’re at the initial stage of gathering submissions. At what point will you move to the next stage? What are your next steps?

SD: I am, and I’ve been trying to just let it be an organic process. However, I am debuting the piece as a work in progress for presentation through Movement Research’s open performances. (My slot is in February.) In the next few weeks, I’m going to start developing movement with the ideas I currently have for presentation in February. I hope the submissions continue to come in (and I’ll undoubtedly bug a ton of people a few more times for them).

My vision for the final product involves a combination of live performance and multimedia, incorporating the submissions. I’m still developing that idea, though, and I hope the open forum at Movement Research is also a helpful revision tool.

Sarah Dahnke will be showing a draft of “This Dance is a Cliche” on February 18th, 2009, at Movement Research’s Open Performance, located at Dance Theater Workshop (NYC).