San Francisco and the Bay Area.
Thursday, 26 January, 2012 |
I have been back for almost a month now, and writing up a list of things that may interest dancers who are visiting the Bay Area has been on my to do list since my return. I am just going to write a big list of the things I discovered while I was out there...I am sure there are many many more exciting things that I missed!
Katie Faulkner - amazing teacher/choreographer/beautiful dancer and all round great person. http://www.littleseismicdance.org
Katie teaches at ODC, one of the dance schools to check out. They also have a theatre and run a number of choreographic/performance programs and opportunities. http://odcdance.org/
Kathleen Hermesdorf - teacher supreme. Awe inspiring performer and improviser. http://www.la-alternativa.us/www.la-alternativa.us/Welcome.html
Kathleen is a teacher/partner with the space KUNST STOFF, the place to check out for experimental performance and events, as well as great workshops and classes. http://www.kunst-stoff.org/
Yannis Adoniou - wonderful artistic director of KUNST STOFF, and he also teaches a regular class that I found incredibly helpful. Yannis made me feel at ease, allowing me really learn.
Krowswork - a small gallery in Oakland. Owned and directed by the lovely Jasmine Moorhead, who facilitates many interesting exhibitions. http://www.krowswork.com/
Oakland (across the bay from San Francisco) its self is worth checking out, it has a much more underground feel to SF and a lot of dancers live and create in that area. Check out the Temescal district and area between Krowswork and 19th. (I can only speak of these areas..I am sure there is more to explore!).
Dancers' Group - the hub of dance in SF, they promote, support, facilitate and advertise all things dance. You have to pay for a year membership, but you can access some of their website, such as the events calendar, even if you are not a member. http://www.dancersgroup.org/index.php
Another Other
Thursday, 26 January, 2012 |
Inspired by the psychoanalytic setting and the
concept of mimetic desire,
Another Other is a meditation on the nature of
human companionship and the physical subconscious.
A choreographic collaboration between Peter Dobey, Hannah Buckley and Jessamin Landamore the piece was performed at Krowswork gallery (krowswork.com), Oakland California, in October 2011. The work was improvised, following a 30 min structure which was looped continuously for 4 hours.
The audience were invited to stay for as long as they desired.
yogadownloads.com
Sunday, 22 January, 2012 |
For all of you who are like me - strapped for cash but wanting to stay active/connected check out this really useful site my sister told me about (she lives in NYC, hence the Americaness)...
There are a range of 20 minute free 'classes' you can download, and even paying for full classes isn't that expensive.
20 minutes is quite easy to fit in to your day to day routine, and for something longer you can always put two of them together.
I find using this helpful as it gives me a structure to follow - my mind tends to wander if I do my own thing, so thought I'd pass on the info.
A Conversation: Part1
Tuesday, 10 January, 2012 |
Originally commissioned to by Peter Lovatt (Dr Dance) of Hertfordshire University as part of the INSPIRED: Psychology Danced performance A Converstation: Part 1 was a response to three psychological studies looking at bystander apathy, obedience and what it is to be sane or insane. The piece uses spoken word and movement as a way of experiencing these topics.
To be developed in to a full length work in 2012.
Shake Rattle and Roll
Tuesday, 10 January, 2012 | Comments | Make A Comment
On Sunday I was listening to the Jarvis Cocker show on Radio6, if you have never heard this show click here to find out more, to listen and to enrich your life with the wonderful wisdom of Mr Cocker.
It happened to be Elvis Presely's birthday and Jarvis played a recording of him talking about his dancing, he said the following:
"I guess the first thing people want to know is why I can't stand still when I'm singing. some people tap their feet, some people snap their fingers and some people just sway back and forth, I just sort of do 'em all together I guess. Singing the rhythm and blues really knocks it out. I watch my audience and listen to 'em and I know we are all getting something out of our system, none of us knows what it is. The important thing is we're getting rid of it and nobody's getting hurt'.
For me Elvis pretty much summed up the reason for more dancing in the world. Social dancing, in clubs, with friends, dancing in your bedroom, with your family. Getting it out. A great memory I have is of me, my mum, my aunt, my cousin's wife and my three young cousins, all under the age of 6 at the time, dancing in my parents' dinning room to the Mama Mia sound track. I distinctly remember thinking this is great! We should do this more!
Sunday was also David Bowie's 65th birthday, and on the same afore mentioned Jarvis show is an interview with Michael Clark. A choreographer and dancer on the BBC radio?? Yes, thats right. Check it out.
That's The Way I See It, by David Hockney
Monday, 19 December, 2011 |
I am currently reading David Hockney's autobiography 'That's The Way I See It, and although what Hockney talks about is in relation to painting or photography I have been surprised how much his biography talks to me about dance/movement/choreography. He talks a lot about space and 'the edges'. He is referring to the edges of the page, or the edges of a photograph, but I also see it as the edges of the stage, or more importantly, the edges of the body:
'The edge has to do with movement and time and most essentially with the representation of space'.
'The moment you acknowledge the surface, you also acknowledge the edge'.
'...in a photograph the time is of course the same on every section of the surface. In a painting [dance] this cannot be the case because a hand moving across it means time is involved and a line drawn: it has a beginning middle and an end and somehow this helps to make a space'.
I am not sure if the book is still in print, I found it in a second hand bookstore in San Francisco, but I would highly recommend it. Also, for students at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, and other North based folks, you can see some of Hockney's paintings for FREE in an old salt mill, in a village called Saltaire, a world heritage site, which is a short train ride outside of Leeds. Click here for a link to the Salt Mill website.
Random
Wednesday, 16 November, 2011 |
Last week I went to see Wayne McGregor's company Random Dance perform at Yeba Beuna Arts Centre in San Francisco. If there's a lot of hype around stuff I usually stay away, hence my never having been to see Random Dance in the UK, but seeing this is America it felt different. I had been considering going but the tickets were expensive, then my friend offered me her ticket as she couldn't make but didn't want it to go to waste, so it seemed like fate, I decided I should finally educate myself on all that is Random. Honestly, on the rainy night that it was I would have rather kept my shoes dry and stayed at home.
I'm not saying that McGregor isn't deserving of all the attention and money that he receives, some people like that kind of work, it just wasn't my cup of tea in the slightest, and I find it interesting, and frustrating, when thinking about the fact that some people get such a big slice of the pie and others, who are equally as talented, or more so, get a slither. In such a subjective thing as 'the arts', and in this case specifically dance, how is there a fair way to decide how the money is dished out? And why do we focus so much energy and resources on a handful of people?
In the case of Random Dance it was for me a classic tale of a regular occurrence in art - what the artist says and what I see do not seem connected. There was a post show discussion and McGregor is clearly a highly intelligent man, dedicated to his creative practice and exploration. The concepts he talked about, such as 'physical thinking' in terms of setting his dancers problems and informing his own choreography by using how they solve the problems, rather than what they create, all suggests to explorative and creative choreography, but there were times when, momentarily side stepping the highly trained bodies, I thought, 'am I watching and A Level dance piece here?'
One thing I found quite distracting throughout the piece were the dancers strutting on to the stage every time they entered and exited. I found it forced and unnecessary, and therefore was really interested to hear what McGregor would answer when during the questions and answers session a man commented how (I can't remember his exact words) unique the dancer's walks had been and asked how much input McGregor had given to this. McGregor talked about each person having their own signature in movement and said 'I like having these pedestrian moments when the dancers walk on stage'. What?! I shouted in my head, so I was very pleased to hear the man in the audience reply (thank god for super confident America) 'there was nothing pedestrian about their walks! They were like Samba dancers!'. McGregor replied that this was the dancers' 'natural' walk and joked that he should get them out to do a parade to show this. Before the show I had been flicking through the program and recognised one of the dancers simply from doing class in London. And he did NOT enter the studio like he did the stage.
As a follow on question a second man in the audience went on to comment that he had noticed an 'antagonistic glare' between the dancers as they entered and exited, and if this had been McGregor's direction. Again McGregor joked about it and said 'tell me which ones glared!' and then quite seriously went on to tell the man that the audience quite often saw things through filters - things they had heard about the company, what they expected, and they often see what fits their ideas. And that its hard for audiences to view things neutrally. The difficulty of being a neutral viewer is of course a given - we bring our own histories to what we see, but as a choreographer how much was McGregor applying his own filters to what he saw and what he did, or didn't want to hear?
As some one who has made a few dance pieces, and hopes to make some more, I found it thought provoking to hear a successful choreographer who, in my humble opinion, was a little bit blind to what was happening on stage. It was a good lesson to me to always be sensitive and aware to what I want to happen, what is really happening and what the audience sees.
The Arch of Starch
Sunday, 13 November, 2011 |
I would like to introduce The Arch of Starch, the wonderful creation of Hollie Miller and Rebecca Walker. These ladies rock my world.
Spork trailer from The Arch of Starch on Vimeo.
Some contemporary sense.
Thursday, 10 November, 2011 |
I am well aware that I am a little slow on the uptake to blog about the whole Beyonce-Stealing-Anne-Teresa-De-Keersmaekers-Moves fisaco, due to lack of internet it wasn't until a friend from England arrived three weeks ago (I am currently in San Francisco) that I became aware of it. Due to many guests and life I have only gotten round to looking it all up in the last few days.
What impacted me most was Anne dKT's statement about the whole situation. I thought it was a highly intelligent, rational and highlights some interesting considerations. For me the reflective tone, essence and generosity of her statement are a perfect examples of how we should be as artists.
Just in case there are people out there who haven't read it I wanted to share it..(taken from the Rosas website).
Like so many people, I was extremely surprised when I got a message on Facebook about the special appearance of my two choreographies - Rosas danst Rosas (1983) and Achterland (1990) in Beyoncé's new videoclip Countdown. The first question was whether I was now selling out Rosas into the commercial circuit.
When I saw the actual video, I was struck by the resemblance of Beyoncé's clip not only with the movements from Rosas danst Rosas, but also with the costumes, the set and even the shots from the film by Thierry De Mey. Obviously, Beyoncé, or the video clip director Adria Petty, plundered many bits of the integral scenes in the film, which the videoclip, made by Studio Brussel, gives a taste of juxtaposing Beyoncé's video and the Rosas danst Rosas film. But this videoclip is far from showing all materials that Beyoncé took from Rosas in Countdown. There are many movements taken from Achterland, but it is less visible because of the difference in aesthetics.
People asked me if I'm angry or honored. Neither. On the one hand, I am glad that Rosas danst Rosas can perhaps reach a mass audience which such a dance performance could never achieve, despite its popurality in the dance world since 1980s. And, Beyoncé is not the worst copycat, she sings and dances very well, and she has a good taste! On the other hand, there are protocols and consequences to such actions, and I can't imagine she and her team are not aware of it.
To conclude, this event didn't make me angry, on the contrary, it made me think a few things. Like, why does it take popular culture thirty years to recognize an experimental work of dance? A few months ago, I saw on Youtube a clip where schoolgirls in Flanders are dancing Rosas danst Rosas to the music of Like a Virgin by Madonna. And that was touching to see. But with global pop culture it is different, does this mean that thirty years is the time that it takes to recycle non-mainstream experimental performance? And, what does it say about the work of Rosas danst Rosas? In the 1980s, this was seen as a statement of girl power, based on assuming a feminine stance on sexual expression. I was often asked then if it was feminist. Now that I see Beyoncé dancing it, I find it pleasant but I don't see any edge to it. It's seductive in an entertaining consumerist way.
Beyond resemblance there is also one funny coincidence. Everyone told me, she is dancing and she is four months pregnant. In 1996, when De Mey's film was made, I was also pregnant with my second child. So, today, I can only wish her the same joy that my daughter brought me.
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker
October 10th, 2011
SF update
Thursday, 13 October, 2011 |
Not having access to internet sure messes with my blogging abilities! I am currently making use of the free wifi at ODC, one of San Francisco's dance schools. Although I have been in California over a month I feel it was only last week that I REALLY arrived in San Francisco as for the past month since my last blog I have been living in with a friend San Jose whilst I looked for something in the San Francisco.
There is not much dance in San Jose, but one thing that kept me in the loop, actually dropped me right in the middle of it, was assisting the choreographer Katie Faulkner with her site specific piece 'We Don't Belong Here', a collaboration with multi media artist Michael Trigilio. It was performed in two different locations in downtown San Francisco over two consecutive weekends, and consisted of an original score, numerous projections, lights and twenty dancers.
It was a great project to be involved in, for many reasons, most importantly everyone involved in the project was generous, friendly and supportive. Katie and Michael made me laugh so hard, and I was greatly touched by the warmth they showed me.
Then of course there is the wonder of site specific works/performing in public spaces. When I am involved in projects that move in to the general public's domain I am always reminded about how little art people have in their lives, something which saddens and astounds me but also makes me grateful for the art and creative people I am connected to.
The majority of rehearsals were onsite and I got asked all sorts of questions, but the one that threw me the most was 'Is she an artist?' directed at one of the dancers who was siting on a chair, in a bush, surrounded by a table, oil painting and lamp.
For some reason, to me this was a very complicated question, I didn't want to answer yes, because I felt like at that moment in time being 'an artist' was not the point of Maggie sitting on a chair in a bush, but it was interesting to see how people try to understand by giving labels to things.. girl in bush..weird behaviour..artist.
My favourite questions was from an arabic looking young man, who watching with wonder, confusion and a smile, asked, in broken English 'this is not normal?' There is however, nothing better than seeing a business man stop in his tracks, watch some dancing and then say 'that made my day'.
For more information about the piece click here
Being in San Francisco properly also means that I can get myself to class. This week I have taken Kathleen Hermesdorf's class, which to put it mildly, is bloody amazing. I knew she had rock star status but now I KNOW why.
I saw her perform at Ponderosa, a dance festival about 1 hour from Berlin, about four years ago and it had a strong impact on me. She performed with Sarah Shelton Mann and I was very inspired by the impact of these two women on stage and the experience and self knowledge they radiated, so Kathleen's class was on my list of things I had to do whilst in San Francisco.
If you ever get chance to do her class do it. She scared me but I felt safe. I was in awe but in an attainable way. Her movement challenged me but it made sense. She is a woman with an incredible amount of knowledge in her body, and who shares it.
Katie's project finished on Sunday, and I am not sure what's next on the cards for me. We will see.
