You may wonder why I am writing about this on a dance website, but pcos effects millions of women, and in my, quite extensive experience, GPs are about as useful as a chocolate fire guard. Their usual answer for pcos, suspected or confirmed, is the contraceptive pill, which ultimately does nothing to help those suffering with pcos, except mask the symptoms by pumping your body full of hormones and giving you a fake period.

The more I talk to my friends about it the more people I discover have pcos, and the more grateful I am to dance. The main tool in my dancing is my body, and a need for it to be functioning at its optimum level has driven me to question and dig further for information relating to pcos. It also ensures I am surrounded by people who offer alternative (in relation to the social norms) ways of viewing the body.

I try to share the information I have learnt where ever possible, and it frustrates me greatly that many women are struggling unnecessarily because they are lacking basic advice. I was discussing this with a friend of mine recently who suggested I blog about it on Article19, his reasoning being that the large majority of dancers are women, a good point I think you'll agree, so here we are.

Its something I feel strongly about and I think most of this information can improve the general health of female dancers (and some of it male dancers too), so I hope you find this information useful.

Diet

Speaking to a nutritionist was the first time that I learnt that pcos is related to insulin. There for it is vital to give your body the best chance to balance itself by aiming to maintain constant blood sugar levels. The nutritionist recommended a book called the 'Patrick Holford Low-GL Diet Cookbook'. This explains a lot about which foods release sugars at a slower rate, and which foods to avoids. It works on a points system so you know how make better choices about what foods you can eat to have the least effect on your blood sugar, for example one large punnet of blackberries is worth five points, as is one date, highlighting which is the best snack to have to least affect your blood sugar.

Keeping blood sugar constant also means more energy, something very useful in dance! Since learning about this book I tell as many people as I can - dancers, non dancers, and those with or without pcos, I highly recommend it.

The nutritionist, who was treating me for suspected pcos, also advised me to take a herbal supplement called 'Vitex', or Agnus Castus know for assisting female health. I would advise you to check with a trained practitioner if this is right for you before taking it.

Recently, I read an article about a study in America researching the effects of flax seed to reduce the amount of testosterone (causer of acne and excess body hair) in women with pcos. It was initiated because a woman in her thirties saw her testosterone levels drop by 80% after a few months of taking flax seed daily, so if you are have pcos this maybe something you want to include in your diet.

Accupuncture

Through acupuncture, aged twenty four/five, my periods became regular for the first time in my life. I no longer have acupuncture but have since maintained regular periods, I believe, by aiming to follow the Holford diet (I am no saint when it comes to this..) and the supplements mentioned above. For female health regular periods are vital, and with the intense physical workload of dance, particularly in training, it can be hard to maintain. For women with pcos it is even more important help reduce the risk of infertility.

Listen To Your Body

An osteopath at the British School of Osteopathy told me what I thought was a strained psoas muscle from dancing was more likely to be muscle irritation caused internally by an inflamed ovary/hormones. When he told me this it was like a light had come on. It all made sense. Be sensitive to your body, make connections and when and where you can go and see different types of practitioners.

Skin Care

As I mention pcos can cause acne, and I feel the best chance you can give bad skin is by using completely natural (organic if possible) products. Weleda is a great range because they are 100% natural but very reasonably priced.

Also using natural oils to clean the skin can really help. I use a mixture of about 40% castor oil and 60% almond oil. I got most of my information from www.acne.org
(Note about oil cleansing: it make take a little tweaking find the right ratio of oils for your skin).

Non Hormonal Drugs

If you do have pcos and suffer from acne or excess body hair there is also a drug called spironolactone which is non hormonal. It is an anti androgen, which basically means it stops the testosterone (the cause of acne/hair) attaching to the skin and hair follicle. Talk to your GP about this, and be prepared to fight your corner. Generally, you have to see a specialist to get this drug prescribed.

I hope all of this helps those of you who do have pcos, and I hope those of you who don't have also gained some useful/transferable information.

Croctopus Teaser from The Arch of Starch on Vimeo.

I definitely think The Arch of Starch is a company to keep your eyes open for. Not only is their work original, entertaining and challenging, but also forces us to look at how we label and view work. Through various conversations with both Rebecca and Hollie I know they set out to make adult work, yet are finding people placing them in the box of 'children's theatre', due to their use of costume, theatricals and the absurd, despite the complex themes that drive their work.

According to The Arch of Starch website:

Our work is a response to the social issues going on around us. We embody different physical characters through highly expressive movement and rhythmic text. We design and build costume inventions, to find innovative ways of moving, whilst being fundamentally joined together. This is a crucial aspect of our investigation into social themes, with the aim to find alternative ways of bringing people together. The Arch of Starch constructs a surreal world, in which vivacious characters use the absurd to comment on our social desire

Personally I feel that The Arch of Starch is not, and should not be limited to one genre. And I am interested to see how they negotiate this challenge. I am sure it will be with skill and creativity.

I would also like to point out that the music for Croctopus was made by another talented UK artist, Tom Lumely, definitely one to watch in the world of experimental music. Tom performed in a installation/performance that Hollie and I collaborated on in our third year of NSCD, and we definitely couldn't have managed without him.

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

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.

yogadownload.com

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.

To be developed in to a full length work in 2012.

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.

'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.

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.

Spork trailer from The Arch of Starch on Vimeo.

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

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.

Last week I started interning with Katie Faulkner, a bay area artist/dancer/choreographer/teacher. She is a few weeks away from showing a site specific piece she has choreographed on around 20 dancers, performed in two locations in downtown SF, with specially commissioned music and projection. Katie is welcoming, generous and genuinely lovely. I am very excited to be involved in such a project.

Next step... dance dance dancing.

negotiationofspace is the result of a desire to understand the impact of what it is to be a twin upon the self and our interaction with the world around us. as we explore our individual artistic practices together we hope to build a body of image and movement based work that is personal to us, but at the same time shares with non twins an insight into a world they can never experience.

We see this as a life long project that will develop as we move through the different stages of our life. Its very exciting to have such a project, and I feel fortunate to have an artistic partner in crime.

Currently Amy lives in NYC studying at photography at Parson's New School, and the distance makes it hard to actually physically do things together, and probably hence the reason there is not much movement yet..but the distance, and how we negotiate that, is also part of the exploration....

So for a an idea of negotiationofspace and what we are about click here

I felt very privileged to know such a lovely, talented, creative bunch of dancers, and realised that one of the best things I gained from doing a degree in dance was a special network of people.