Day 18: A day full of surprises..

Today was really interesting and had a lot of unexpected events occur. So I woke up this morning, surprisingly feeling extra refreshed. Emma and I had our breakfast, got ready and made it on the bus to DSA. As soon as we arrive, we come to the door of the gym to see that DSA is on lockdown. Apparently the doors were locked and the fire alarm was going off. So we waited for quite a long time, outside in the hot sun ( even though it was only 8:00 AM...the temperature was probably in its 80's or 90's already.) Eventually, come 8:30AM, the maintenance people came to open the doors.  The alarm had stopped making sound, but the lights were still flashing. We came in and still had our usual lengthy warmup sequence of rolling, crawling, walking, standing, plies, tendues, partnering lunges, and across the floor sequencing. What made this portion of class nice was that we progressed through the entire warmup rapidly and all through the usage of our bodies and communication through body language. The entire class was asked to stay silent until we got through the whole thing. I really appreciated these moments. It really was a beautiful experience. Communicating with everyone just through the sensation of our bodies, it's really powerful stuff. It was refreshing to not have to speak to communicate. I wish that we could take more people to be a part of this experience everyday. 


Then we went into African, which we spent a lot of time today performing the Kassa, ( The Hunting Dance from Guinea). We practiced a new warm-up and spent time refining movements from Kassa as well as adding a few new ones in and stringing them together. I learned about putting accents on our dancing to help inform the musicians today. Something that I am admitting of making the mistake of doing is to follow the beat of the wrong drummer. In order to stay on beat- obviously you need to keep with the beat of the bass drum, instead of going along with the other individuals. Also, I learned today that it is unacceptable to follow off of the drummer. The drummer is often looking at the dancers to inspire the rhythms and beats. Kathryn and I also figured out that the only types of dance we need in our life are the ABC's... African, Ballet, and Contemporary! Haha. But seriously, we started thinking about the ABC's of ADF and decided to make one. As soon as I have put it all together I will be posting it- hopefully with some pictures!


Then we got to partnering after a lovely lunch with Vincent and Shanna :) I love Ming! He is great. He spent a lot of time on my trio with Raphael and Rachel today. It was excellent. I found myself really investigating and learning more about how to negotiate with my partners and their bodies. I just want to have a mini- sized Ming to put in my pocket and keep with me for when I have partnering issues. He is so great! We also decided our group name would be "the Swag Shop"...it used to be called "the Sweat Shop" because we were so sweaty...so this is definitely a step up. A lot of people in my group actually wanted the name Swag Shop mainly so that Ming would have to say Swag Shop anytime he wanted us to do anything! How funny. 


Then after Repertory, Shamar was nice enough to drive us back and get out of the HOT Durham sun. So Emma and I did a few errands and got Snowballs again! Delicious! And only $2. After we spent time getting ready we went to the Tobacco Campus with Vincent and Sam and ate at Cuban Revolution again- mainly because Tyler's Taproom was full and had a 20 minute wait...and because Cuban Revolution is super cheap with $3 drafts. After dinner we walked over to the Hubbard Street Performance and got an unexpected show.


We started the show off with Quintett, choreographed by William Forsythe. I was super excited before the show started for this piece, and as it progressed I got continually frusterated with it. The song was extremly repetitive and annoying. There were also props on the stage that the dancers barely touched or manipulated. In my opinion, if you are going to have props/set work you either need to forget about it and not acknowledge it or really build it in your repertory of movement to manipulate or pretend to manipulate. They failed to do so...it was just "eh". The movement however as beautiful and flowed together when the quintett was partnered up. But as far as being a quintett it really didn't feel like a cohesive quintett to me...maybe it wasn't supposed to feel that way- but the title is misleading, as well as the added props. 


Then we moved into a completely different piece. It was absolutely gorgeous and made sense to me. It was called Little Mortal Jump by Alejandro Cerrudo. It was brilliant. They actually used four square box walls that spin and move around stage and blend in with the background. The dancers in this piece utilized them really efficiently and well. It was a very thoughtful piece. I also appreciated the progression of the piece and the flow from group section to duet, so on and so forth. I also felt a connection to the music. Each piece, each duet, each group section..the movement in my opinion matched the musical sensation- which is something that I really want to try and capture in my work...so I think they accomplished that well. 


The final piece was tricky for me as far as feelings about it. It was called "Too Beaucoup"  or ( too too much). It was a piece with movements repreenting a "robotic" feel with everyone dressed in white unitards with different gels of light and patterns shining down onto their unitards. It was such a smart lighting/costume choice. I felt like the piece felt underrehearsed and oftentimes was rushed, sloppy in the footwork/speed, and was not in synchronization. I think that also this piece was extremely long and needed to be cut off in one of the six times earlier that I thought the piece was done. Ending the performance on that note was disappointing to me, especially since I was SO stoked to see them. But in all honesty the show was a good one- regardless of some of the choices they chose that I do not agree with. 




Anyways, tomorrow is a long day so off to bed I go! Yay for Forsythe....!

Day 17: The Rhythm of Life

Today was a pretty normal day. Nothing too exciting occurred. I had the hardest time waking up this morning though, I have no idea why. I have had a lot of sleeping problems while being here. I think a big portion of that has to do with the amount of caffeine intake I have been taking since I have been home. Every morning I have a cup, every night I have a cup of decaffeinated ( which still has some caffeine in it) and sometimes I have another cup during the day. Now I am drinking no coffee! It is a big change, my body really isn't used to it. Anyways...


So I woke up at 7:20 and hauled myself to the bus stop with Emma for Paul's class. The energy was especially low today. We spent 15 minutes doing our walking meditation. I tried really hard to focus more on the sensations of the feet rather than outside thoughts and plans. It was very therapeutic for my tired morning and overactive brain. I found that picking up the pace of my steps in my walk actually helped me to refocus my brain at times where it would wander. Another thing that we worked on was our combination phrase of the three combinations we had been working on. Today was our last day with the material. We worked on finding pliancy and working on the connection of "partnering with the floor", which is good mental imagery for making sure we stay pliant in our jumps and shifts of weight. I thought a lot about how I can still be dynamic but gently give my weight to the floor so that I am not tossing energy to the floor. 


Then we had African, which started out with a nice warmup stretch against the wall. At this point I was more awake so warming up became easier. I am somehow always being picked on by Sherone. I guess I am always right next to him right up in front, but he always finds something that I am doing wrong- which is great don't get me wrong, but the whole time I thought I was doing it right and then he comes up to me with a crooked smile. I need to think about having a closer relationship to the floor in my plie position and to find a way to bend farther down so that I can access my high knees more. The class as a whole is also still struggling with the rhythms and the counts. To be fair, a lot of times we miss the break in the music which is what informs us to when we should start a combination, but the acoustics in the room are terrible! Mainly because of it being a gymnasium and having weird shapes in the ceiling which don't echo back in an accurate way. However, a lot of people just can't even identify the "down" beat or the break in the music. I think that I know what it is, but I am having trouble identifying that within my own body, but at least I know what they are!


Then after lunch, I walked over to the Arts Warehouse in the hot Durham sun and had rehearsal with Ming. We started putting together the order of the piece based on the different trios, duets, quintets, etc. We spent a large majority of the time working on the trio between Raphael, Rachel and I. We clarified a lot of transitions and steps so it was helpful. 


Overall, it was a pretty standard day. Nothing too fancy or out of the ordinary. As soon as I got home I showered and fell asleep for like 4 hours. I think I am catching up on the lack of sleep I am getting at night. And I am for sure sleeping early tonight so that I can wake up tomorrow feeling refreshed instead of exhausted. Anyways, ttyl <3

Day 16: Brain Overload

Today was a very laid-back day, surprisingly. I woke up around 10:00, thinking that I had rehearsal at 10:15 at the Ark. In the WFSS schedule it didn't say we had rehearsal, but in the overall weekly schedule it said we did at that time. So, I showed up with Christina, waiting for rehearsal when in reality, we didn't have it. 


Then after a few minutes I left and went to Brodie Gym for a little bit to watch the Shen Wei Project audition. Shen Wei Dance Arts is doing a show at the North Carolina Mueseum of Art and was looking for 13 dancers to dance in the performance with the company. Because I am now in the Forsythe Project, I cannot be in the Shen Wei Project because of overlapping rehearsal times. My roommate, Emma auditioned but unfortunately got cut. The people from Shen Wei originally had said they were looking for 30 dancers, but all of a sudden, cut the number by more than half. And out of around 100 people auditioning, you have a 13% chance of making it in...not so good. Kind of disapointing though!


Then after I ran a few errands, I walked to rehearsal in Brodie Gym. When I got there Elizabeth Corbett was showing everyone how to create the "Laban Cube" on paper. It was a day of learning William Forsythe's "Improvisation Technologies" and how to use a system with 9 points in space. Ideally the cube looks like such:

Basically, the idea is that you are imagining yourself placed in a cube, and from there are making diagonal and straight lines from each of the 9 points. Here is my cube: 

The idea is that between these points, one should think about the connection between each relationship developed between the 9 points and 9 lines formed and then add different layers to each relationship. After we discovered the 9 points on paper, we explored them through movement sequences that soon got added with a sum of layers to make it naturally occuring movement, as opposed to a scientific exploration or collection of data. The different layers we added onto the 9-points are as follows:

• snapping fingers at each point
• extrusion of arms from point to point
• rotation of arms to iniation of a new pathway
• video scratches ( retrograde/reverse of a pathway)
• classical ballet arms form in each pathway as opposed to relaxed/contemporary arms
• broken limbs, cut off lines from exclusion of part of a limb ( ex. using only your elbow as opposed to the entire arm from shoulder to fingertip)
• residual swings in the arms/legs/torso ( shaping)
• challenging fronts, using your feet to define the points in space as well as the pattern and facing of the upper body
• low and high curves for placement of the feet

We then moved into a exercise where we applied all these layers with a partner. One person thought about inscribing the space, and utilizing the 9-point method while the other thought about avoiding the other person however they pleased. Then after switching roles, space was created in between the inscriber and the avoider, but a relationship between both peoples' movement remains. Eventually, there came an awareness where both partners would trade off each role of being either an avoider or an inscriber and a constant communication was being given. 

Anyways, after this intense class, my brain felt crazy.

Then Kathryn and I walked over to the Ark for Elisa Clark's class. She taught us Lar Lubovitch Repertory as well as Robert Battle Repertory. I had asked her a few days ago if she could teach us some Lar Rep, and of course the Rep she taught was from North Star, which is first of all, one of my favorite pieces, but second of all she taught Jenna's solo- which she now performs, but is the solo I remember from seeing her last year. That solo was crazy from what I remember. It was a dialogue between the left and right brain and the differences between the two. I remember being in love with that solo. Elisa showed it to us briefly while demonstrating, and of course was amazing doing it. Then we all gave it a go. I don't think I did a horrible job with it, I actually felt pretty good about it- but at first it did strike me as being something I could potentially feel uncomfortable or vulnerable with. The first part is excessive shaking, with sharp vibratory movements- something I am not typically comfortable with. Elisa talked to us when we were learning it and about to show it and basically told us that it's okay to feel vulnerable. She made an excellent point. She said that all artists have to be vulnerable sometimes, but she thinks that Dance is one of the hardest forms of art that you can accept yourself with. Not only do you have to feel and be vulnerable when giving the world your work, but its something you cannot escape. You can be a fantastic writer, and write ridiculous things and send it off and hide from the vulnerability, but as a dancer, the skin you are in is your medium. Whether you like it or not, people will know more about you from the moment they see you dance and they will of course know it is you. But then again you think about that, and how powerful is that? No other medium in art will ever be as personal. You are basically using your own flesh to express yourself.

She also made it a point to explain that artistry is not something you can force...a statement I really appreciate. So often, I see so many people force the artistry within them, when really it should just come naturally to those who are comfortable enough with themselves and their own body to then test it out and show who they are as a person. 

Then, after learning Lubovitch Rep, we learned some phrase from Battleworks ,a work commissioned by Juilliard in 2001. It was difficult because it focused on the intense rhythm and beat of the music. I have really enjoyed Elisa's classes at ADF. She is such an amazing person also. I really appreciate artists that I look up to, who end up being such great people in real life. I am hoping to cross roads with her again in the future sometime soon.

After class, Emma and I went to the bank and then went on adventure to try and find Walmart, and instead found an AMAZING snowball place. They have over 100 flavors of snowballs, and the shaved ice literally feels like ice cream soothing on my tongue. Ah. I got Pink Lemonade and Cranberry- I might have to go back tomorrow. It was only $1.50 for a Kid's Size! 

Then we came home and ate pizza and food that was bad for us and chilled. I love ADF. I never want to leave, I am so content.

Day 15: I Love to Move.

Today I spent most of my day admiring movement.


Living in a world where I can dance all day long as my career, how lucky am I?
I had Paul's class today. We didn't spend as much time warming up. We started class with a quote from Hokusai, a famous Japanese artist:


At seventy-three I learned a little about the real structure of animals, plants, birds, fishes and insects. Consequently when I am eighty I'll have made more progress. At ninety I'll have penetrated the mystery of things. At a hundred I shall have reached something marvellous, but when I am a hundred and ten everything I do, the smallest dot, will be alive. (Katsushika Hokusai)

This really resonated with me. It made me believe that a masterpiece only comes from progression and from working hard every single day of my life. We spent some time with our walking meditation. I have been thinking a lot about my life, and after Paul talked about having a daily practice, the more I want to implement some sort of daily practice in my life. I am a very impulsive and random person sometimes, but I don't think it would hurt to add some sort of daily routine to my life. Some sort of constant. 

Anyways, we worked on combining three of the combinations we have learned in class together. Stringing them together has been harder than I thought it would be. I need to think about how I can change the dynamics and energy between each individual phrase that's connected to connect all three together to make it a cohesive phrase instead of a chopped off block of random dynamic qualities thrown together. Also, Paul adjusted the speed of the phrase, so now it is on hyper speed. A lot of people in our class cannot count the beats also- so they are always off the beat, which can at times become frustrating, but hey what can you do?

Then we moved into African. I am trying SO hard to be successful in African, and it is just getting increasingly harder. I am not used to the different rhythms being produced by the 6-10 drummers present drumming for us. They are all amazing musicians, but with a ll those drums, it can become quite intimidating as well as confusing when there are so many different sounds in the room. One point that Sherone made, was to make sure that we give as much energy in our dancing as the drummers to do their drums. Like dancers, drummers face the same types of hand injuries/callouses/soreness/pain, etc. So to not take advantage of them. Then we began to learn parts of a new dance today. We are currently learning the "Kassa", which is a dance originating from Guinea which is about hunting/gathering. 

Then afterwards, I had a meeting for Dorm Counselors which was long and not necessary to write about in the blog. But I walked over to the Arts Warehouse with my Rep Partner, Rachel. We got there and spent most of our time working on our trio phrase. We had Ming look over it to see if he had any suggestions on how to make the transitions smoother. We have been working a lot of finding ways to partner one another without creating stress in each other. Ming is such a partnering genius. You give him any challenge and he's got it. He knows exactly how to handle it and what to do. He gives great suggestions without changing your ideas and thoughts about how you want the dance to be portrayed. 

After Repertory, Emma and I got ready form Kyle Abraham's show, which was indeed incredible. The show was called, The Radio Show. Kyle wanted to highlight how the Radio Show was a huge childhood memory and the fact that Pittsburgh got rid of his childhood radio station affected him, along with memories of his Grandfather suffering from Altzheimer's disease as well as a general note on how people listen to tragedies happen over the radio and never really understand the context of the situation. His work is so pungnent. It is first of all filled with exceptional dancers with such beautiful technique, but also with such great performing ability. There was not one moment during the show where I was bored or waiting for it to end. I loved the movement choices Kyle made as well as the audience interaction. Not only did Kyle have a "Pre-Show" where he picked out people in the audience to dance with him briefly, but he also had someone walk around in the audience with a telephone in the middle of the performance and asked fellow audience members questions a radio station would ask. It was a really engaging performance. Even eliminating the audience interaction, I think Kyle has a talent of attracting to the audience that doesn't understand dance as well as to the group fo dance artists who understand and appreciate it more than anyone. 

After we returned, Emma and I were bad and ordered Domino's and watched the Domino's tracker the entire time. It was crazy. We had a Parot/island theme, hahha. 

Anyways, that was all for today. Deucessss

Day 14: Daily Practices

Today was a pretty standard day. Nothing too exciting happened today. I woke up, went to Matteson's class. We started our day the same way we always do...rolling across the floor for a few minutes, then crawling back the other direction, which eventually led into our walking practice. It was nice to get back into routine after a crazy weekend! In the beginning of class Paul was talking a lot about daily practices, and told us his adventures about his silent retreats- which were basically meditation sessions and workshops, where he would literally sit and walk all day long and then go to sleep. I can't imagine doing that for seven days straight without anything else! I bet you really learn how to clear your mind and focus in on certain details. 


I have been thinking a lot about daily practice and daily routines, and what I would consider to be daily routines worth adding to my day. I already don't like having the same schedule or routine in life, because I think that it's fun to mix things up, however some consistency in my day might not hurt? A lot of people do things such as yoga, meditation, a walk, a trip to the gym, etc...and as a dancer this might be something I should consider, considering I need to keep my mind, body, and soul healthy for when I get out there in the real world and all sense of consistency will have escaped from my life. 


We also worked on our combination from across the floor. I was apparently tensing up my jaw which seemed to have an effect on the mobilization of my pelvis, according to Paul..you know he might have a good point. I think also that because of the way I have been feeling all weekend my daily mood and personal life, really have an effect on the way I act throughout my day.. 


African was good to get back into. We had felt like we didn't know what we were doing anymore because we had the whole weekend without African, so getting back into the steps felt sort of like a foreign language to us...but we made it through it. 


and Repertory was the usual except now we are located in the Arts Warehouse- which really sucks...we worked on our solos and then Ming gave us an assignment to put a trio together with Raphael and Rachel. He gave us instructions to manipulate my movements as I individually perform my solo. We made a lot of good choices, it was frustrating at first to figure out..but we even got some intense partnering moves in! I think we just need to go over it a lot. I am really excited for the showing!


Anyways, it was a good first day back after a long weekend- looking forward to what the rest of the week brings! 

Day 13: Forsythe? Oh Right, Forsythe.

So unexpectedly, after auditioning for everything and not getting into anything but a Repertory piece, an opportunity arose. 


Last night at the Improvisation Jam, my friend Johnnie came up to me and asked me if I wanted to be in the Forsythe project. Um of course! Who wouldn't, was my response. He was in the project currently, and apparently a few people dropped out. So, Johnnie and four other people in the project were asked to bring one person to replace people in project, and Johnnie picked me. How honored am I, that he would choose me to replace the people who weren't committed enough!? Such an honor. Of course I wanted to be involved. This just proves my point that auditioning is such a horrible process that isn't even effective, because most jobs don't come from auditions! However, I still need to improve my auditioning skills ( because like test taking, I suck at them.)


Anyways, After taking Amanda Miller's ballet class, which was an experience, let me tell you...I went straight into Forsythe Rehearsal from 2:00-5:30...and we got out early! We were supposed to go until 6:30. And I had to learn 3 days worht ( about 12 hours) of material that they had gone over previously. I learned a ~5 minute solo in 4 hours. Good experience. i love William Forsythe's movement. He is so ingenius. I am hoping to get more exposed to Forsythe and his style and intentions in this project. I am super excited. I just have a lot to catch up and learn about. We learned from a student who is performing this solo as part of a project or experiment for her studies, Ondine Geary. She was great. She really helped with the mental imagery for each step and the intention behind each step. I am happy I got the opportunity to work with her before she left ADF- which was literally right after the rehearsal ended. 


I am really enjoying my experience here at ADF. I couldn't ask for a better way to get exposed to all angles and aspects of dance. I am loving it. I really want to come back next year, and I wish I had been coming earlier in life.




<3

Day 12: Invigorating

Today was a lot of fun. It was a reminder of why I do what I do. 


I woke up and went to the Scottish Dance Theatre's Master class with James McGillivray. It was in Brodie gym, and although I absolutely HATE Brodie Gym, the class was not bad and I was pretty content even with the horrible atmosphere. To start, we had partners massage our bodies. Ryan was my partner, and it was a great way to wake up in the morning. Then we did a few center warm up combinations to release the spine and wake up the whole nervous system. We spent a lot of time thinking about our awareness with others in the room, which to some may not seem like a big deal- but in actuality, as a performer its a huge deal. Connecting with others around you, either in class, with your rehearsal director, or the audience- the people you perform for- making that connection is everything. He made such a big point about this that he actually made us do a few combinations in the center where we had to hold a conversation with the people around us. It was interesting how much we all loosened up when we became regular people doing dance moves as opposed to dancers trying to be perfect. 


Then afterwards I went to Elisa Clark's class, also in Brodie. It was her standard class warm up in the beginning, but halfway through class we started learning this Robert Battle phrase from Rush Hour. It was so much fun! I loved that piece of Repertory. It was all about being precise with the movements and counts ( what Robert Battle piece isn't about that). It was also a depiction of Robert's feelings when coming to New York from Florida. Elisa is such an amazing person. She is so genuine and she is so knowledgeable about dance, I mean she's practically danced for everyone out there. I'm glad I have the opportunity to learn more from her here at ADF.


Brown University Performing Rush Hour:

Then after Elisa's class, we had a break and then I headed over to the Improvisation Jam at the Ark. It was PACKED. I got there 30 minutes late, and there were so many people there. The fans were on, if they weren't on, I'm positive it would of been some sort of "heat hazard" to everyone. I watched for a few minutes and then got integrated with the rest of the group. However, it was a lot different from the Improv Jams that I participate in with Deep Vision Dance. Because there were so many people there it became a little overwhelming for me. Sometimes I felt out of place, or felt like I needed to step back, but I also however made a lot of great dancing connections with those around me. Improv Jams to me are just so soothing. I love the feeling I get after just doing whatever it is I want to feel without judgement of others. It's such a liberating environment. I wish everyone in the world could participate in an Improvisation Jam.