Tuesday drawing: A pencil sketch from my notebook. Possibly/probably inspired by finishing the incredible Stacy Schiff’s Cleopatra: A Life and seeing video footage (playing in the ODC Commons while I was volunteering) of Ruth St. Denis, a pioneer whose life and work has always inspired. I found the image from the video that really stayed with me, in this lovely post by asecretforest. It’s the first picture in the post.
Mr. Matt and I are working on a collaboration. I am creating a dance and in turn, he will weld a metal sculpture based on the dance.
We decided to limit the space (no larger than my yoga mat) and time (no longer than 30 seconds) of the piece. Here is the 1st draft.
Also, photos Matt took while I was choreographing.
There’s no way around it. When you work at a one-of-a-kind trampoline park in San Francisco’s Presidio, you say it a lot.
“I work at a very cool place.”
But I’ll let the images speak for themselves. Here are pics and a video from an event I had hoped and dreamed of since starting to work there:
Our very own, the very first, staff jump night!
We had so much fun! Let’s do this every month!
There are several projects I’ve completed over the last couple months that I’d like to showcase. So I’ve decided to write about one every day for the rest of the week until they’re all up.
Pistachio Thief was in the making for over a year. When I was living in Japan on JET, my good friend and fellow Kameokan (Kameokanite? Kameoka-liver? Kameoka… oh never mind – we lived in the same town!), the irrepressible Ms. Laurel Ryan with whom I had made Love Love, wrote a script for a short film and asked me to help make it happen. She wanted a mix of psuedo noir, “old timey,” silent film era slapstick-esque, and needless to say, over the top.
So a few weeks before I was set to leave Japan, we filmed it on a very warm July weekend in Kyoto in Umekoji Park. Despite our best efforts, I could never get a clear frame. I don’t know why we even bothered having extras*, because lots of folks were dead set on being in our movie, whether we wanted them to or not. A soccer team, several innocent passersby – my favorite being the granny with the umbrella who even bowed to us in a sort of apology/hello.
The shoot was very fun. Sometimes, I get nervous being “in charge,” but everything went smoothly and there was lots of laughter and frivolity, of course. Those Kameoka-peeps are a grand lot, it’s true!
Before departing for the States, I was able to do the first round of editing and we even had a mini-premiere night. I sent the movie off to Laurel’s brother, the talented Barron Ryan, who was to create the original musical score.
And then the long wait (on my end, at least), began. Pistachio Thief kept showing up on my to do list, but it wasn’t until mid-June this year that things got rolling again. I got the music, did the final round of edits, sent it back, got the final music, and BAM! It went online. So my tiny, aging Sony Handycam pulled off another project! And despite continuing to feel like a complete newbie with my friend Final Cut, I’m really pleased with the final project.
I’d really like to go back to Kyoto and film Pistachio Thief Part 2 with Laurel and who knows, maybe it will happen! Until then, I’m going to focus on my next video project, a new dance for camera I’m producing with Brendan Behan.
I’ll stop expounding now and give you what you want, via RBC, Inc. on Youtube:
* Actually, I think the whole reason for having extras is so your friends can get involved and it’s more fun!
Update: And now with behind the scenes photos from the shoot, courtesy of Dara Han!
There are several projects I’ve completed over the last couple months that I’d like to showcase. So I’ve decided to write about one every day for the rest of the week until they’re all up. (Oi… this one’s a little late, sorry…)
Up until May 2010, I was a member of Loose Change Dance Company. My last shows with them were in April. The weekend of April 17th, I performed with both the main and training groups of the company at the City Dance Spring On Stage show at the Cowell Theater, Fort Mason, here in San Francisco. It was a really fun show and I loved both pieces I performed! I also performed the main group piece, Sleepwalk, again on Friday, April 30th, in Fairfax at the opening of the new RoCo Dance studio and as a part of the Bay Area National Dance Week 2010 festivities. I had to learn Sleepwalk very quickly before the first performance to fill in for an absent dancer, and then for the 2nd performance, I had to learn it again, but for a different dancer! Talk about mind-blowing… In the end, this was one of my best performances with Loose Change.
Video!
Touring, even locally, is always a good chance to bond with your fellow dancers. Hanging out after the show in Fairfax, a conversation between myself and 3 other Loose Change dancers who also identify as “contemporary” or “modern” dancers produced an idea that became reality. For an upcoming “works in progress” showing that Loose Change was hosting at City Dance Studios in July, we decided to make a piece together. We chose Brendan Behan to be the choreographer, as his idea was the strongest one presented. We originally only had 6 weeks slotted for rehearsals, but the show was pushed back and I think in the end we rehearsed for 9 weeks. I’m really proud of the work and development we put into this piece and I LOVED working with these dancers. They made the process so wonderful. It was great to be a part of that process, especially when I was just starting to go through some major decision making and changes which led me to where I’m at now. I felt so supported in rehearsals. The showing was a really fun event, too. It’s always interesting to perform in an intimate space with the audience right there with you! And a lot more people came than we expected. It was great to see Loose Change and the other guest performances, too.
Enjoy!