Bay Area Dance Watch

Gorgeous Dance VIDEOS 2011 - S.F +

2012-01-20T00:24:00.000-08:00

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from the kitchen to the roof top & beyond
in the end, it's really about the solo...

#1 Arrow by Bobbi Jene Smith (with Christian Burns)
S.F. Conservatory of Dance - Tom Weinberger co-choreographer.

Arrow tells the story of two young lovers from America's heartland, danced in an almost tearful fashion. It's really two solos as much as a duet. The dancers never really touch and there is one moment when they don't actually kiss, but they creatively express one of the most beautiful kisses I've ever seen in a stage performance.

#2 Horses Never Lie Caroline Richardson

Ms Richardson is the uncanny embodiment of a horse through dance. Staged, for the most part, in an actual corral, this video demonstrates just how much she knows horses, their movements and loves them as much, if not more, than dance itself. Simply Gorgeous !!

#3 Kim; dancer: Morgan Nutt

"The piece was inspired by the life of an audience member who attended rehearsals during the course of creating the piece," per choreographer Cyrus Khambatta. In the beginning, Ms Megan Nutt is writing something with her toe in what appears to be imaginary sand. The music itself, with its melancholy, elongated pace, is one of the most sorrowful tunes I've ever heard. When the song and movements end, we can only imagine what her right foot is saying...

#4 Roof Bust by Kevin Williamson; Kdub L.A.

This spontaneous, exuberant dance takes place in between rainfalls on a rooftop in New York City. There is no camera man - Mr Williamson, moves and places the camera in different locations, filming himself. With images & symbols that have occupied theater, dance and movies down through the ages, his dance celebrates the joy of impromptu moments. In the end, we're watching Mr Williamson through his own eyes.

#5 3/4 Cup Dancer: Gina Marie Shorten. Filmmaker: Alise Anderson.
(Ms Shorten is one our young SF/Bay Area local dancers!!)

Ms Gina Shorten's lovely site specific dance leads us into her kitchen. From the floor to the counter top, she conveys her story through daily tasks of measuring and cooking. It's as much about inner turmoil as it is about her routine chores - a reminder that sometimes the mundane can save us.

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S.F. Top 5 Emotional Dance Moments 2011

2011-12-05T20:10:00.000-08:00

"Sometimes we dance for our Fathers..."

This thought occurred to me earlier this year, after a conversation with Natasha Carlitz as we stood in the lobby of ODC Theater, following her company's performance. I had been touched by an opening to one of her dances and she explained to me that it was a dance she choreographed for her father as he lay dying of cancer. I was moved even more by the gift she had created for her father and for herself. So, from time to time, throughout the year, my mind has wandered back to that evening with Ms Carlitz and her work of art. I realize now she started me on a journey that has brought me to this blessay: BADw's Top 5 Emotional Dance Moments for 2011. In honor of Ms Carlitz, her company of dancers, her father, the dancers mentioned below and the local dance scene in general, I dedicate this blessay.

#5: End Love by Saki Suto.
LINES Dance Center S.F.

From medical operation to the dance floor in a single leap: Ms Saki had a hip operation in January 2011, and by spring she was back on the dance floor. She returned so quickly by designing a solo which has her sitting in a chair keeping as much weight off her hips as possible. It's her dance from the waist up; with lots of arm and hand movements, she sways, spins and slides her strong, petite body in every direction - all of it deriving from her boundless energy. It's a solo where East meets West with some modern hip hop thrown in. BADw has had the good fortune to witness End Love on several occasions when Ms Saki performed as a guest artist at Kathy Mata's Ballet Showcases.

(To enlarge video to Full Screen - click icon lower right hand corner of video.)

#4: 7 Ways to Hide yourself from the World (ODC)
by Kelly Kemp/Leah Rybolt and Number9 Dance Company.

Sign Language as dance that's taken to a whole new level: This is not the sign language that is used by and for people who are hard of hearing, but a new language that comes from all of us, literally. Kelly Kemp sent her unique dancers out into the everyday world, on their own, where each was assigned the same task. They were to observe and memorize people's hands and arm gestures which were used while speaking. Ms Kemp then had her dancers team up in pairs to merge their respective movements - afterwards bringing the whole company together and mixing all the gestures into one long segment of dance. Leah Rybolt, while seated, danced this gorgeous, strange combination at Number9's January 2011 Home Season at ODC - another dance from the waist up. I remember joking with the dancers of Number9 that they would all make great gang members, since many of their gestures looked like gang signals, parlayed into dance. In the video below, Ms Leah is seated in the lower left hand corner.

#3: Six Years Dreaming by Gretchen Garnett
CounterPulse, S.F. (Haunting dream music by Brendan Berry - on FB !!)

Every dream has a center - a beating heart if you will: The center of Six Years Dreaming is a two minute segment of dance meant as a loving homage to five generations of female dancers - each dancing a solo, one at a time, then passing on, so the next may dance. It takes place under a spotlight on a darkened stage. Jackie Goneconti starts with a sitting solo. After a few moments, the next dancer, Leah Curran, walks up to the rim of the circle of light and waits patiently at the darkened side of the rim for her turn to enter. When Jackie is ready, the two women sync themselves in both posture & movements, as Jackie glides out of the light and Leah glades in. With Leah's new solo, the cycle of life begins all over again. It's a dance, a story of a daughter patiently waiting out of respect for her mother, and the mother, in turn passing on her knowledge and experience thru their synchronized movements. The dance ritual is performed through five generations of dancers - a reminder that the beauty of our mothers resides in their unique life solos, as well as in their transference.

#2: Tempus Fugit by Natasha Carlitz
(ODC Theater)

Ms Carlitz's dance begins in a darkened stage with three separate spotlights. Under each light is a lone female dancer lying on her back - with only arms and legs visible dancing in the air. Watching this dance for the first time, all I could think and feel was...if the opening of this dance were shown to all the young girls in elementary schools, every one would want to be a dancer when she grows up.. I shared my reaction with Natasha right after her dance at ODC and she described how she choreographed the dance for her father as he was dying of cancer. To which I asked, Did he see his dance? ...only the first part, Natasha explained. At that moment I realized, dance subjects don't get much better than when we dance for our fathers...

(Photo by Elazar Harel. Video to follow at later date.)

#1: The Woman Invisible to Herself by Mary Armantrout
(The Sunshine Biscuit Factory, Oakland, CA)

Some of the most moving autobiographical words I've ever heard on a stage form the very cornerstone of Mary's performance piece. She recites them to us inside a large bathroom in the abandoned Sunshine Biscuit Factory in Oakland, CA. Her words tell the story of a young girl, Mary herself, about 13 yrs old, whose father comes out of the closet and starts his new life. Young Mary wants to go with her Dad on his new journey. But how to do it? Does she need to create her own gay male side to accompany him? In the end, she realizes she just wants to stay the apple of his eye - remain the little princess to the first man in her life. This is an expansive site-specific piece that moves along bending hallways that are both wide & narrow. It takes us down stairways to the subterranian, thru covered alleyways and to the back of buildings with their chainlink fences. We are looking for the invisible part of Mary - the many sides of her. This could be titled: In Search of Mary - Full of Grace. From the bathroom to the rooftop, Mary leads the way, bringing Beethoveen along with his 7th Symphony. And once on the roof, surrounded by that unique bluish-tint Oakland light as it bounces off the Bay waters, Mary treats us to her creative use of Beethoveen's masterpice and shows us why the music is also named The Dance Symphony...

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Most Disturbing Moments 2011

(1) Megan Nicely: CounterPulse, 2nd Sundays. Ms Megan lying on her belly completely disabled, dragging herself by her chin, chasing a microphone being pulled across the stage in front of her by partner. A reminder: we all want attention & love, no matter how shallow.

(2) Raisa Punkki: The Garage/DMT. Solo dance Waiting - final image one part wedding dress other part suffering creature.

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Most Disturbing Subjects 2011

(1) Ashley Trottier: Mills/ODC: Good Morning. Attack on pornography using movie like images with feral looking dancers.

(2) Mary Carbonara: KUNST-STOFF: What does it feel like to kill someone? Killing in the form of rape.

(3) Samantha Giorn: CounterPulse: sex,love,money. Marriage as a battle ground.

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Most Elegant Dances 2011

(1) Deborah Slater: SFMOMA. w/Wendy Rein, Melissa Caywood, Kelly Kemp - all three dressed in black, dancing on the steel gray bridge, 5th floor, inside the museum.

(2) Liss Fain: YBCA. The False & True are One - words forming dance. Performed at a site specific but on a stage - four galleries built for dancers & audience to mingle together during performance.

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Most Surprising Dance 2011

LEVYdance: ROMP, Zspace. Everyone on stage! "Thank you for setting the table with dancers! We await the next course..."

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Most glorious tribute to our Mothers! 2011

Paris Wages: Z-Space. Google Woman. Our Mothers would be amazed to witness this performance, gifted to us on Mother's Day Weekend. God, I wish my mother could have seen this one Ms Wages!

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Most Creative Site-Specific Dance 2011

Wendy Rain & Ryan Smith: Orson's Restaurant. A Public Affair - dancing in middle of restaurant during dinner time. Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers who??

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Most "pushing the envelope big" 2011

Stacey Printz: Z-Space. Hover Space - 2nd dance floor floating above stage. At times looking like a boxing ring. Reminder, sometimes in relationships we have to be athletes.

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Most surprising dance at a festival 2011

Westwave - Joan Lazarus: ODC. Duets ...falling in love with dance for the first time, all over again...

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Most humorous performance-piece moment 2011

Lisa Townsend: 2nd Sundays, CounterPULSE. Lisa describing & mimicking beating up someone who asked for it - with 3 dancers duplicating her gestures in silence. Sounds of an individual fight, visuals of a gang fight. Ms Townsend is coming into focus & it's blurry! Hilarious. p.s. nothing is her fault...

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Most rewarding, visiting dance companies 2011

(1) Kibbutz - SFJCC (SPECIAL thanks Dana Raz - we dance in next lifetime!)
(2) Modern Garage Movement from N.Y. (Berkeley's Subterranean)
(3) Netherland's Dance Theater (Zellerbach)
(4) Wayne McGregor (YBCA)
(5) Kdub L.A. (CounterPulse)

BayAreaDanceWatch shares THANKS to the following for giving so much respect to me, despite my many shortcomings!!

Joe Kreiter, Joe Landini, Kathy Mata, Christy Bolingbroke, Jennifer Meek, Kat Worthington, Robin Anderson, Jessica Robinson Love, Jamie Wright, Travis Rowland, Michelle Fletcher, Amy Seiwert, Jackie Goneconti, Jodie Renaud, Frances Rosario, Kim Epifano, Dominic Duong, Gary Masters, Dalia Rawson, Maria Basile, Tanya Bello, Jaclyn Anku, Shamsher Virk, Randy Symank, Kat Cole, Eric Garcia, Stella Adelman, Noelle Durant, Stacie Powers, Krissy Keefer, Tanya Bello, Annebelle Henry, Katherine Wells, Julie Potter, Gina Marie Shorten, Raissa Simpson, Robert Moses, Bianca Cabrera, Bianca Brzezinski, Victor Talledos, Dudley Flores, Kerry Demme, Laura Sharp, Jenni Bregman, Christine Bonansea, Jennifer Mellor, Kelly Bowker, Nol Simonse (Nol, giving me the Biggest hug ever @DMT!), Afshin Odabaee, Christine Germain, Aaron Jessup, Antoine Hunter, Cindy Pop, Colin Epstein, Daniel Berkman, Dan Wool, Erica Rose Jeffrey, Evangel King, Hilary Palanza, Jamie Venci, Jennifer Raine Kostel, Joseph Copley, Julie Mahony, Krystal Harfert, Lynda Penados, Marina Hotchkiss, Mary Alice Fry, Milissa Payne Bradley, Norma Fong, Patric Cashman, Philein ZiRu, Scott Marlowe, Yuri Zhukov, SF Conservatory of Dance and the SF/Bay Area Dance Scene ALL.....not sure I deserve it, but I don't want to give any of it back...

And a BIG Special thank you to my "Three Musketeers"

Alyce Finwall: Giving me my best Film Noir moment in my lifetime!
Pearl Marill: Restoring life's smile & stretching my humor & creativity!
Kelly Kemp: 1st dance commission - my parents never would have dreamt!

See you at the dances...

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Raisa Punkki -- Dancer of the Month -- November 2011

2011-11-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

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"If you could see, what I have seen, thru your eyes,"

...is one of the more poetic modern day movie quotes uttered from the silver screen. It is even more poignant when we realize how impossible it is for anyone to see through someone else's eyes. Raisa Punkki, however, born and raised in Finland, and one of our leaders in the San Francisco local dance community, comes close to doing just that - allowing us to see her art the way she herself sees and creates it.

BayAreaDanceWatch is honored to present Ms Raisa Punkki as "Dancer of the Month" for November 2011.

BADw's doorway to Raisa Punkki is her dance piece entitled Waiting, and once inside the door comes the discovery of PunkkiCo with its world of shared collaboration.

Waiting is simply one of the most stunning, yet disturbing dance/performance pieces I've ever witnessed. The dance begins with a large expanse of dress-like material stretched flat across the entire darkened stage, a balled up figure hidden underneath, dead center. The ending’s final image is one part gorgeous wedding dress and the other part a suffering human creature. During the piece we experience some elegant music and lighting - both very haunting. With a restrained pace and so little motion, Waiting has the feel of a slow, Japanese Butoh performance.

Witnessing the dance twice, speaking with Raisa Punkki and looking over her website, I begin to see some of what she wants others to see. Waiting is her creation from the inside out: she had no idea how the final product would look. Instead, she lets her artistic process lead the way. Importantly, it's a piece that reveals the extent of collabration between Ms Punkki, her costume/set designer and lighting engineer.

"...she looks like an angel, but when she speaks it's like a race," are Claire Pasquier's words to describe Ms Punkki. Claire is PunkkiCo's costume and set designer, who upon arriving in the U.S. in 2006 from France, landed her first assignment with Ms Punkki and has remained with PunkkiCo ever since. She sees Ms Punkki as a “samurai” and thrives as a collaborator on the “strength and beautiful, feminine fragility” Ms Punkki brings to their dance pieces - all of which are evident in the visualization of Waiting.

When it comes to lighting, Ms Punkki wants it to make the dancers shine. That is exactly what her lighting designer, Christian Mejia, delivers. His lighting for Waiting is very sculptural, as if filtered through kirie - Japanese paper cuts. For Ms Punkki, that kirie lighting is such a critical part of Waiting, she will only perform the piece when he is available.

There are many more doors to traverse once inside PunkkiCo, one of them being her strong Finnish influence within the dance pieces. Polar Night, an ensemble, is a bright example danced by Jennifer Meek, Emma Steward along with Ms Punkki herself.

The dance portrays three women living and working in a harsh environment. A long wooden bench represents the setting. Our three dancers wear dark, loose fitting dresses of heavy drape-like material that go down to their ankles - working mumus almost. The contemporary dance steps are performed in front, behind, and on the wooden bench. At one point all three young ladies are together, shoulder to shoulder, sitting on the bench. Back and forth they go, leaning forward then returning upright; all the while hands/fingers are clasped on their laps with only their thumbs twirling in circles - a sign that even the required patience extracted from these working women, these Mothers, has a natural beauty all its own. It's hard not to see the dance movements, costumes and setting, as a celebration of the women's beauty in their strength and durability - not in their physical looks.

A few months ago, BayAreaDanceWatch was pleased to present Punkki Co at the annual luncheon for the SF Veteran's Hospital held at the Kabuki Hotel in Japantown. Ms Punkki, Jennifer Meek & Emma Steward performed three dances: Polar Night and two separate solos.

It was here, in the hallway of the hotel, where I experienced first hand the heavy Finnish influence on Ms Punkki's work. The three dancers with concentrated looks on their faces were lined up, ready to move into the ballroom and dance Polar Night. Just a few feet in front of them, I called over that it's time go. No movement. I called out again “Go”, as Ms Punkki slowly turned her head towards me and said in a steady, low and strong voice, "We wait for the music, Jim," her face returning to that original concentrated look. With the music cue, the three marched right past me, keeping within their perfect row. An enormous strength emanated from their bodies as they brushed by. It caught me by surprise, as they no longer felt like the three dancers I knew. They were strangers – three strong, determined women from some far off land - marching off to work, to do battle.

So, can we really see what others see through our own eyes? Jennifer Meek answers this question her own way as part of PunkiCo.

In order to dance for the veterans, Jennifer and Emma had arranged to take an extended lunch break from their work place, rushing back to their jobs afterward. Ms Punkki scheduled her solo last, so Jennifer & Emma could leave early. Yet Jennifer, running down the hallway on her way out, stopped at the doorway entrance to the ballroom. Despite knowing she was making herself even more late, Jennifer stood and watched Raisa perform her new work-in-progress solo. Jennifer had a look of a sister watching her sibling. As I watched Jennifer, Jennifer watched Raisa - all the while, minutes disappearing. It told me something about Raisa, that someone of Ms Meeks’ caliber would do that. I could not help feeling at that moment I was watching Raisa thru the eyes of Jennifer, and learning even a little more about Ms Punkki, PunkkiCo. and even Jennifer herself. And seeing, perhaps, that the final collaborators were those who come to watch.

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"Pick Cells" is PunkkiCo's 2011 home season of new works plus Waiting @Dance Mission Theater,
Nov 11-13th. For tickets and more info: www.punkkico.com

(Photo of Waiting by Rob Kunkle)

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Pearl Marill -- Dancer of the Month -- Oct 2011

2011-09-26T17:22:00.000-07:00

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There's an old saying, when you meet someone who has a great sense of humor, take a look at what they do - you will see that they are almost always good at whatever field they have chosen.

BayAreaDanceWatch introduces a new feature entitled: "Dancer of the Month." We are honored to have Ms Pearl Marill as our first dancer (October 2011). Also a choreographer and actress, she infuses humor throughout as she leads us through her stories, messages and beautiful dancing.

To paraphrase Ms Marill, ...acting, improvisation, choreography and dance are fairly balanced and I strive to incorporate these components into my work. Comedy is important to me because I think it's an entertaining and effective way to make your point of view accessible to a wide range of viewers.

Although 2011 is far from over, it's a great period for Ms Marill. A crowning achievement is her selection as a finalist in the national Joyce AWARDS competition held at ODC/SF this past January. Entitled, "Missed Connections," it is a humorous duet with her male partner Cason MacBride, filled with desperate, aching words over a perceived encounter. These scripts are taken directly from Craigslist where people hope to find some depth of feeling with a stranger. And no matter how small or one sided the encounter might be, they still post, not knowing if that certain someone will even read their recordings on invisible electronic plates.

Throughout the performance, both dancers use their bodies to form the letters M to W (male to woman); W to M; M to M or W to W, while reciting words from the ads and then repeating them as dance steps. Yet, beyond the words and movements, for her, comedy is "...achieved thru empathy and truth" - in this case, people's deep affections riding on tiny cyberspaces of hope. Within that humor, Ms Marill plants elegant dancing steps, solos, rooted in classical ballet, with demi-points, half flips, graceful turns and legs reaching up and back, towards vanishing points of our imagination.

It is most enjoyable when we see Ms Marill's humor as a roadmap - she starts with humor, moves us into her story, then ends with dance. It is this creativity that has built her career, and in the last couple of years she has received numerous awards. In addition to the 2011 Joyce AWARDS, in 2010 she was awarded "Best Actress" for her film "Ladycat," at the 48 Hours Film Festival. Earlier this year, she won "Best Choreography" award, at the same film festival, for her film "Killin it in Reno." This past summer, she was selected as one of the few dancer/choreographers in the 20th anniversary of Westwave 2011 - one of largest and oldest San Francisco dance festivals.

Recently, BayAreaDanceWatch was able to witness Ms Marill perform in a dance competition whose goal was, "...in one minute of dance, show us who you are!" Almost an impossible task. Ms Marill, however, true to her artistic process, starts off with humor then moves to dance. She sashays across the stage dragging a large black garbage bag and from it she pulls out a dummy that looks identical to her in every way - clothes, hair, weight, even the shoes. The excitement of finding herself is quite palpable. She dances with her double, laughs with it and even pretends to make love to it. It's a joyous 30 second recital of finding and being with oneself. With no seconds to spare, Ms Marill then gracefully moves into her lovely dancing solo - as if saying, I've shown myself who I am, now I'll show the world. And what a glorious performance it is - a study of contemporary dance steps, revealing her skills and experience. For that short moment, she projects a celebration of the female body thru dance - showing how much a dancer can reveal in the span of a minute.

Ms Marill just finished wrapping a video/dance workout film that will premiere next year in S.F. and is currently working on a dance improv comedy troupe series entitled, "Modern on Command" (MOC) that will also premiere in the City next year.

Gene Kelly and his umbrella are long gone. But here in San Francisco, we are truly lucky. We have Pearl Marill. She is versatile. Beautiful. And her umbrella is way bigger. Pearl Marill is our, Dancer of the Month, Oct 2011!

PHOTO: I love the photo at the top of this blessay that was taken by Tanya Constantine. Ms Marill is dancing on the rooftop of an old military bunker at Baker Beach; with a prop that brings to mind Hollywood/Broadway musicals - the umbrella. From military to musicals to Pearl Marill, with some humor along the way.

Pearl Marill can be reached at email: pearl.marill@gmail.com
She can also be found on Facebook and various rooftops throughout the City.

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When "sex,love,money" just isn't enough !!

2011-07-25T17:43:00.000-07:00

Actually the question may be, When is "sex,love,money" really enough? And the answer - when the subject is in the hands of local SF Choreographer Samantha Giron and her three female dancers - Jackie Goneconti, Ildiko Polony, Vivian Aragon. (The beautiful red photo above and below belong to Mark Andrew Wilson, Website: MarkAndrewWilson.com He can be reached at mark@markandrewwilson.com)

Ms Giron's new dance by the same name was performed July 22nd & 23rd, 2011 at CounterPulse. I even joked, beforehand, with some of the folks at CounterPulse that "...with a title like this - I'll be in the front row."

After attending opening night, I went right back Saturday night, like a fly drawn to a warm, deadly flame, because it truly is a dance well executed. And on the second viewing, I was conscious of how technical this dance is which is rare for me to think about during the actual performance.

The main component of this dance - relationships in marriage are hard work, for many reasons. And the main ingredient of that component - Ms Giron bleeds that hard work into and throughout all aspects of sex,love,money.

The solos, duets and ensembles consist mostly of slow, long drawn out contemporary steps with some ballet gestures mixed all about. At times the stretching out of the legs, with bandaged feet and pointed toes, seem like a hard grind. And really, all their movements, even their arms dancing in the air, circling their heads and faces, feel like difficult tasks, rather than dance.

And what's with the white medical tape around the balls of Jackie's feet and one other dancer? In dance performance this is distracting. In this dance, it is not. The white hospital tape is further evidence just how hard Jackie is working, struggling with her relationship, her dance.

In dance, women's hair styles are almost always beautiful and feminine. In sex,love,money, forget it. Our dancers hair is ratted out and forms what looks like a helmet. A stark look that makes us think their prime years are long gone; a heavy toll has been taken and plenty more is coming.

The women's outfits are simple: shiny gold colored blouses with ruffles down the front and back. For leggings, just muted gold sparkling panties. Jackie says the outfits were designed to be androgynous, since she and the other two women dance both male and female parts. To me they look like uniforms of cocktail waitresses working at a casino that's going out of business. Even the edges, where the sleeves have been hacked off, are jagged and frayed. Our waitresses/dancers are not getting any help even with the up-keep of their outfits. Nothing is coming easy for them.

One of my favorite pieces of choreography actually harkens back to military steps. Vivian is slowly walking from the front of the stage to the rear. Her hands down at her side and face looking straight ahead. Ildiko, keeping the exact same slow pace with Vivian, is walking side step, with her face pressed up near Vivian's right ear. With a stern look on her face, Ildiko is saying things to her partner as they move away from us. We can't hear what she is saying, but they have the look of words that are steeped in meanness. Once the two reach the back of the stage, they reverse roles and Vivian now walks side step, lips pressed near Ildiko's right ear and she now whispers the spiteful words.

These are the exact same steps, same tactic, used along with words, against new military recruits by drill sargents in basic training. Only in the military, the combination of steps and words are used to embarrass the recruit, while here in this dance-relationship the same steps and words are used to hurt the partner. Taking life's moments and small actions - turning them into art - only to have them look real again.

Even the hugs are demanding and desperate, as shown above, in sex,love,money. No, it's not the dancer greeting hugs that we all know in the local dance community. This is a dance move, demanding, "...hold me up while hugging me!" And Jackie, on the receiving end, is struggling with the task of keeping her partner afloat.

Below is a short video of an excerpt of Ildiko's solo in sex,love,money (video was recorded from an earlier performance by Ildiko). Her solo is a raw piece of dancing, filled with mixed feelings that are part passion, part pain. Partners come in and out for brief moments, but it's still a solo. In the end, she is on her own in this dancing relationship.

Aren't we all?

POSTSCRIPT 1

My favorite photo from sex,love,money is the one at the top of this blessay, with Jackie Goneconti. I love it. And I love the fact it's in red, blood red. Another symbol of somethings gone wrong. Jackie looks like she's at a campfire, staring into the fire with a far off look. It's an implied look that she is thinking about her relationship, her marriage and all the struggles and disappointments that have beaten her down. Wondering if perhaps the flames will tell her - where did it go wrong and where does it go from here. This could easily be a scene from a military campfire with a soldier walking by in the background. Suggesting that sometimes, marriage can be a battleground.

But whatever Jackie sees in those flames, she is looking at it with only one eye. The other one is covered. And it doesn't even matter. It's really too late...

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Mills Dancer attacks Pornography ??

2011-06-30T22:30:00.000-07:00

David Lynch's movie "Blue Velvet" opens with a tranquil and beautiful scene. A man is attending to his lawn and flowers, in front of his lovely, white picket fence home. Suddenly, the man falls to the ground, with what looks like a heart attack. Within seconds, insects are rushing up from underneath the beautiful grass and are crawling all over him, even into his ear. They're eating him. No mistake here - underneath the beauty lies horror!

And in a strange way, on my recent visit to that gorgeous campus of Mills College in the Oakland hills, I relived that Lynch scene. The grass and Victorian buildings were there - the surface beauty - but horror resided underneath in a package of dance/theater delivered by 2011 MFA student Ashley Trottier and
her dancers of dismay.

And as Mr Lynch misleads us right away with his cheerful title, Ms Trottier does the same with her title, Good Morning. From the very first musical notes and steps, there is no good morning - nothing even remotely close to it. She instead leads us down a path that is both disturbing and wonderful at the same time. And although later she explained to me that Good Morning is her attempt to "...try to understand my relationship to pornography as a woman/participant in society in 2011..." I somehow feel it is a direct attack on pornography. Ms Trottier accomplishes this with what is really not so much a dance, as a series of action scenes from a stage play or silent movie that are tied together with dancing.

The opening has young ladies stationary and moving only their arms and hands - gestures framing their faces with movements that are at times a little feminine and yet quite harsh. Their makeup and lipstick are grossly thick - signs of overly exaggerated sexuality. Their eyes completely circled in black powder - making them look more like feral creatures or woman with big black eyes. Their bodies look young, but their faces look old - just as we might see in the porn industry.

Even their costumes are a little off kilter. Although meant to play down their sexuality, they in fact do the opposite. They shape the body and accentuate the female form and look of ancient times - soft tunic in appearance, almost like classy bathing suits. I can imagine Helen of Troy wearing this costume. The color is of dark gray/silver, two colors which often look very attractive on women. Only the long, red stripe, up and down the back of the costumes jars the senses. These costumes looked perfect and help contribute to the feeling that something is amiss here.

The opening starts off with the first of many disturbing scenes with workers, men and women, neatly dressed in black and who look like banquet caterers, or bouncers, moving about the stage. These caterers pick up our dancers, from behind, in bear hug like grips around the dancers thighs and carry and deposit the dancers to new spots on the stage - all the while the dancers continue their modified form of dancing with their arms. As if we're seeing dancers moved about as statues - as things.

During another uncomfortable scene we see the dancers form a backwards triangle ensemble. The dancers are crouched low to the floor, knees and thighs bent, staring straight ahead, while they rock and sway left to right and back again. They look primitive, yet very strong in their young bodies. Another scene which is not really dance, but instead the women perform a duty, a mind numbing job. At different moments, one of them even falls down, only to get back up and rejoin the ranks of the employed.

The dancers stop swaying and come to attention and then run the back of their hands across their lipstick, completely smearing the red across their faces and wide open mouths. They look ghastly, disturbing and frightening. Only later was it explained to me, by a former Mills Theater graduate, that the smearing of lipstick can sometimes signify rape. Here it has that very look and feel.

In another scene we see the dancers all bunched together running backwards at half speed, with outstretched forward pointed arms and mouths wide open, with looks of both glee and horror on their faces. It's another silent movie image. Why aren't they going forward? Perhaps their actions, their very lives are taking them backwards. They're pleading for help!

The end is a "beauty pageant" run amok. All the dancers, while surrounding a lone female-winner, are spitting/spraying water all over her and slowly walking away. One of the caterers returns with a bouquet of flowers, handing them to her. While sopping wet and dripping, the winner stands, smiles and accepts her award, giving off a warped image of a new home coming queen or a ballerina on stage after completing her performance. Perhaps even a Miss America accepting her newly won crown. An ending that's funny and disturbing.

Good Morning, encased with it's tension filled, movie-like music, is one of the best dance/theater pieces I've seen in a long time. Some of its scene enactments capture the horror of it's subject matter more visually and artistically than most movie makers would dare hope to accomplish.

So with Ms Trottier, it may not be such a good morning after all.

POSTSCRIPT I:
I've seen dance choreographers incorporate David Lynch type scenes within their dances, but never as a whole dance, like Good Morning. Ms Trottier's dance, like movies such as Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive and Sunset Blvd, is a reminder that we live in California, but under all its beauty, there lives a disturbing underbelly.

POSTSCRIPT II:
I spoke with Ms Trottier at Mills College after the MFA show as I wanted to clarify one aspect of the piece with her. "Why more theater action than dance?" Her answer brought a smile inside me as it was the most perfect one. (Paraphrase) "I start out intending to choreograph dance movements, Jim. But thru the process I end up with this. And I have to be true to what's inside me."

POSTSCRIPT III:
At Mills, I kept Ms Trottier a little too long in conversation. She shooed me off with the wave of her hands and the words, "I have to get back stage Jim. Now go write!" At that moment, for me, things felt reversed again. I felt like a student being scuttled away by the teacher. Except the student was much older and the teacher very young !

...

Client Eastwood...meet Mary Carbonara !

2011-06-14T21:34:00.000-07:00

.

A few years back, the movie star Client Eastwood was interviewed on TV about one of his current films at that time. After one of the questions, Client visible shifted in his seat, while answering with, "Yes, it's quite something to kill someone." My immediate reaction was, "How the hell do you know?" Which, by the way, drew a number of hearty laughs from friends.

So with that in mind, I attended closing night of Ms Carbonara's dance creation titled, "What does it feel like to Kill someone?" (Kunst-STOFF, June 8th-11th 2011) Going in, I did not really believe that I would be experiencing what killing would feel like, but I knew something serious was unfolding with this performance from the title itself and after a few local dancers suggested I consider this piece. And although Ms Carbonara's subject is about killing and degrees of innocence and guilt, what I took away from this piece was quite different.

For me, the dance is about rape. And I am still stunned by the level of both emotional acting and dancing by all five of the dancers - who are some of our finest, most experienced local SF dancers. (Brendan Barthel, Kerry Demme, Erin Huestis, Arthur Prettyman and Laura Sharp.)

At the dead center of this dance piece is the most original rape scene that have ever seen, either on stage or in film. One of the female dancers, while standing upright, is artistically violated by two male dancers. Kerry Demme is the female and she is directly facing us in the audience, a few feet from front row. Lined up right behind her is the 1st male dancer, Brendan Barthelm, who is barely an inch behind her. Right behind Brendan, is Arthur Pettyman. All three facing forward, in a tight single column.

Then Brendon, while staying in place, moves his arm and hand around Kerry and begins to touch her in an unwelcome, lustful manner. He does so, not in slow motion, but something half way between normal and slow speed. And the look on Brendon's face is not one of pleasure or enjoyment. It is a facial look that is deadly seriousness - like a convict who has done this before and wants it again. With his look and slow moving hands, he conveys that the object in front of him is something quite beautiful, that he wants it and he's taking his time.

With her face full of fear, frustration and watery eyes of horrible anguish, Kerry is displaying all the emotions of being attacked and is helpless. She tries to grab and push Brendon's hand away, but to no avail. After a few moments, he stops, and the 2nd place male, Arthur, moves one of his arms right past Brendan and begins his lustful touching of Kerry. All three staying in place within their tight, forward looking column. And again Kerry brushes off her 2nd attacker, only to have the arm keep coming back at her. She can't stop either of them.

Back and forth the two males continue, at times, the two each taking turns with Kerry. It's almost as if she doesn't know there are two men behind her. And perhaps it doesn't even matter. It's an artistic display of gang rape.

Another dreadful encounter occurs later in the dance, with Kerry repeatedly thrown against the wall by her attackers. This time one of the attackers is a female dancer, Erin Huestis. As Erin slams Kerry against the stage wall, it looks and feels as if Erin is jealous and incensed by Kerry for being so beautiful, that men would want her and go to such lengths to have her. For Erin, it's all Kerry's fault. Kerry is more Erin's enemy than the rapists themselves.

Art imitating real life.

Jim Tobin...meet Mary Carbonara!

POST SCRIPT:
This dance was a double edge sword for me. I had a ticket for opening night and started driving up to SF Wed evening. I received a call and had to turn around at the last minute due to the fact my best buddy was dieing of Alzheimer's. He was 28yrs older than me and had been suffering from the deadly disease for a good 10 years. Alzheimer's is sometimes called the "Long Goodbye." This was the longest for me. My best buddy passed away early Friday morning. I was able to attend Mary's Sat evening show. And after watching Mary's dance I asked myself, "Who raped my best friend? Who took his memory from him?" Now that would be something I'd like to feel and know. To understand...

...

A "Pride of Lions" to "Portals of Grace"

2011-05-18T15:01:00.000-07:00

A "Pride of Lions" consists of a large den of female lions and offsprings, lead usually by one male lion. The males never really live beyond ten years due to numerous injuries sustained by fighting to protect and keep their females.

Copious' den of lions, in Portals of Grace, come charging out at the very beginning of their dance (Home season - May 13-15 at Z-Space/Theater Artaud). The pack of dancers consist of five females, lead by one male. All are wearing tight, bright, reflective solid gold unitards, actual colors align with those of a lions coat.

The music itself is unusual, regal and grand in scope - at times Mid-Eastern/Ancient Egyptian in nature, other times Celtic/Irish and still other moments cathedral/religious like.

The contemporary movements are also royal in execution and feel. They dance in solos, pairs or together in full pack - dancing for their leader and sometimes with him. Unfinished cartwheels, exaggerated push ups with one leg bent up backwards high in the air, or laying on their backs with knees bent upward while chests heave with desperate breathing - all help to paint the picture of living and dancing in a community of peers.

And as in the wild, another male storms upon the scene. A long fight between the two males traverses across all four corners of the stage. So close to one another that their high kicks and swaying bodies almost collide in an unusual dual because the two are showing off their power (to one another) as much as trying to win the fight. In the end, only one can win and lead.

This is Kat Worthington's dance, "Portals of Grace." The opening dance of WestWave last Sept 2010 where she was once one of the lionesses, but now a director off stage. This also was the door through which I discovered Copious.

In the end, dancers or not, we love and leave our communities only to face certain things alone. A reminder that through some doors there's no company. That's the heart of Secret's Lament: a dance on relationships - the joys and sheer agony of love. (Secret's Lament was the closing of Copious Home Season.)

This piece Kat dances and she is the star. Her lover gives her strength and she moves in new ways because of it. Her lover also stumbles and she executes some of the same moves but this time in anger. A few times, Kat moves to the side and in solo mode leans a bit forward, throws her elbows straight back behind her shoulder blades, so forcefully, shes almost unrecognizable. More creature than dancer with a level of fierceness I've never seen in Kat. As a dancer using some of the same movements to express opposite ends of the spectrum of emotions, she makes the segments work and are done quite well.

At another point, Kat and her lover are in complete embrace, he lowers himself down and out of her arms and slowly moves away as she remains, frozen in empty embrace. It's uncomfortable to watch - as if watching her secrets from within our own secrets.

At the end of the program, end of Secret's Lament, a huge doorway appears towards the rear of the stage. Kat and her lover turn to face it. We watch Kat and her lover walk thru that over sized door. Where are they going? And why can't we go with them? Will there be a second chance? Or even a 2nd season?

POSTSCRIPT I:
------------------
One of the best things about "Little Voice" (the 2nd dance of the program), is that unlike Secret's Lament, where we see Kat's fierciness, here we see the child in Kat. Little Voice is a woman's woman dance choreographed by a male, Rogelio Lopez.

Four female dancers, in woolen like swimsuits with a 1930/40s look, dance in and out of a lone, wide, centered spotlight, piercing the pitch black stage. The whole stage has the feel of an old boxing ring. It was errie and wonderful, to see such dated bathing suits, boxing ring, and women dancing such soft gentle moves and it all blending seamlessly.

The women roll, spin, jump lightly in the air - they touch, hold and guide each other with their turns and gestures. As one of the dancers husband said, "...the most complicated form of tag I've ever seen..." With all the soft moves, with the shoeless black bobby socks, one could not help but see the child in Kat. As she lowered herself to the floor to roll, that child was in her slumped shoulders, in her legs, around her socks. She looked of high school.

POSTSCRIPT II:
-----------------
The 3rd dance, Opus, is really Kat's tribute to the history of the spirit of stage performance: 16 white clad dancers with 16 white wooden chairs - they dance with, on and around those moveable chairs. They constantly come together forming "dancer columns" (d-columns) with the chairs - audience stage right, then left and then center. At times it had the feel of Eureopean theater, other times a Broadway play and of course dance.

One of my favorite chunks of choreography is early on when all the dancers formed a large circle/ball like with the chairs held up as shields - actually a symbol of an ancient battlefield position: warriors protecting themselves from the enemy and it's a last ditch effort on their part as they are surrounded and they are going down. So neat to see a postion of war turned into a postion of art, of dance!

Opus ends as a "movement choir" and why am I not surprised? Especially when Kat is involved. The choir is orchasted and moves through the music of Vavildi. One of the best uses of Vavildi in dance I have ever witnessed, especially with a movement choir.

BRAVA Ms Worthington - a tribute to theater, your dancers and you.

POSCRIPT III: Erin Huestis...
-------------------------------------

One of our lionesses goes down! On the 2nd night, about 30 seconds into the first dance, "Portals of Grace," Erin Huestis gracefully glided to the center of the stage following right behind Laura Sharp. As she began to bend and lay down with her peers, she jerked back, grabbed her knee, looked at Laura, then sat down with visiable signs of pain. Within seconds, she limped off stage. She had injured her knee. My first time seeing an injury on stage during a performance. My heart sank.

But my heart rises every time I look at the photo above of Ms Huestis. It is unusual with a pose seldom seen. It's almost impossible to tell if that's a dancer's mat she is balancing on or the surface of a calm blue sea. Regardless, Ms Huestis is a stalking creature - eyes zeroing in on her prey. She is a urban warrior. She is our wounded lioness, not to be forgotten!

***

Dancer, Muse and James Bond Villain moves to N.Y.

2011-05-07T19:00:00.001-07:00

Down thru the decades, all the James Bond women have been gorgeous, talented, a muse in one form or another, but always very deadly! The one common denominator with them all - they leave us.

And so with Copious Dance Theater's home season (Z-Space - May 13, 14 & 15, 2011) we will lose our own personal James Bond girl, Jennifer Mellor, as she moves to New York. But our James Bond girl is different than the rest. She is real. She is intelligent - one of the top in her graduating class at Stanford and a dancer who knows how to choreograph to women's femininity and strength. Like all good muses, Ms Mellor inspires and can make us think of things in ways we have not done so before.

It is by no coincidence, Jennifer Mellor danced her two newer pieces at The Garage last week (May 2011) and one of them is about muses, titled, "Les Muses." A dance about muses and how they have influenced literature, science and the arts all down thru history. (Her other dance "Duplexity," a solo piece about communication of messages and it unfolds in complete silence.)

In Les Muses, two female dancers weave their duet in cream color dresses - colors of earth and skin - that are quite fragile and feminine. Although made of linen, they're slip like in appearance, so any allure of hidden femininity is brought out in full view. At times the two muses mimic one another's movements while dancing about filling the air with gestures of reading, writing and adoration of being alive - pursuing the beautiful things in life.

The third dancer is male and he sits a good portion of the dance, watching his two muses and being inspired. And why not two muses? Balanchine had at least a half dozen throughout his life time.

One of my favorite parts of this dance has Ms Mellor angling her body and arms into what feels like a bowl and she dipping her right hand in and out of it. Yet somehow it feels as if she's playing a silent, elegant musical instrument. She performs it twice while sashaing across the front of the stage. Her creative process on this gesture alone is quite fascinating. She states:

"The gesture is one actually inspired by a woman my husband, Rick, saw performing/playing a water bowl in the middle of the dome at the S.F. Palace of Fine Arts many years ago. Even though it was only described to me the image has stuck with me..."

That's our local choreographer for you - creating a visual art piece from an incident years ago that she only heard about and did not see. Oh, the stuff muses are made of.

Another gesture has our muse riding on the back of the male dancer as he crawls along the stage on all fours. As he moves, she reads. She turns the pages so gracefully, that her hand brushes against her shoulder before the turning of each page. With him carrying her in such a strange, tough manner, it's a reminder, that he must work hard and suffer for the sake of having a muse.

I seem to learn alot with each turning of those pages by Ms Mellor. And with the help of our local dancers, choreographers, muses and especially our James Bond girl, I learned last week, that with their presence on our small performing art stages at places like The Garage and CounterPULSE, those same stages are as big as any of our largest stages in San Francisco and the Bay Area!!

Ms Mellor
allowing me to see things I haven't seen
allowing me to think things I haven't dreamed...

Postscript:

And the James Bond Girl? Well, the photo below of Jennifer Mellor is from her dance Duplexity. A dance where athleticism, sharp angles and silence rule. Seeing this photo, one cannot help but think of a beautiful James Bond adversary. A gorgeous, but deadly black belt expert, executing her moves. And the best of the best of muses have a sense of humor - our Ms Mellor is taking hers to N.Y.

...

Young Urban Warriors from San Francisco !

2011-04-30T18:05:00.000-07:00

In the military, soldiers often moved to surround themselves with the best. They knew they were heading into the valley of trouble, the valley of death - to increase survival, bring the best.

And so next month, 1st week May 2011, Alyce Finwall flies off to New York City with her theater company. A company composed of some of San Francisco’s finest young dancers. But they not only dance, they act. They are San Francisco’s young female urban warriors. From walled city to walled city, this band of dancers will travel, and with them they take, “Evenfall.“

Evenfall is their ritual of dance where many things seem in reverse. A dance that is performed mostly in the dark, where the light becomes the shadows. Where there are no men and so women fill all the roles, all the needs.

The lamenting of a lone chirping bird begins the play - the dance. That chirping is slowly followed by the sounds of splashing waves, ducks, geese and other night sounds that live and reside in the dark. Long exaggerated cricket sounds helped filled the darkened air. With a lone beam of a flashlight bouncing all about and partial figures of creatures crossing over and thru that small, moving illuminating light.

Those same partial human creatures were animals first, then morphing into full body dancers. They worked in solo, duets and small companion groupings. They helped each other with their movements; lifting of legs, twirling of bodies. Then they pushed each other apart, they even fought. At times they tear at each other's clothing. Then back once again helping and dancing with each other. Back and forth they traverse thru their night time of dance. Not everything is connected in the dark.

Towards the end of the dance piece two very tall dancers (Malindia LaVelle and Julia Hollas) stand toe to toe, a foot apart. Their communication of physical sign language is not the official sign language that we see from time to time - that sign language of the deaf that we recognize so easily but don't understand. No, this is a new language using original hand, arms and body signals. In this version, the two females use their own body and the body of her opponent. Not just weaving their signals about but actually hitting each other with their sign movements. During this whole occurrence, one of the two dancers (Malindia LaVelle) is backing up as the other marches forward, each threatening the other every step of the way.

At one point in this ceremony of communication, Malinda turns her head completely away from the "fight." And while looking to her right, into the far off unseeable distance, it made one wonder, "What is she looking at?" And perhaps the answer she makes is - she wants to be distracted. She might even want out.

I look forward to seeing this dance again. And maybe next time, I'll see what Malinda is looking at in that unseeable far off place.

Postscript:

Alyce Finwall Dance Theater will be appearing at the Joyce Theater in SoHo, NYC on May 5th thru 7th.

Can contact Alyce Dance Theater thru their web site:
http://www.afdancetheater.com/

or

Contact Joyce SoHo directly:
http://www.joyce.org/performancestickets/calendar_detail.php?event=379&theater=2

...

SF Dancers in Police Lineup !!

2011-04-11T17:57:00.001-07:00

If you did not catch Gretchen Garnett this past weekend, you missed her intriguing dance where she actually incorporated an image of a police lineup into her new piece titled: Six Years Dreaming. (Triptych: Apr 8 & 9, 2011 @ CounterPulse)

It may not have been Ms Garnett’s intention, but it was there and I witnessed it. About half way into the dance, all five of her female dancers backsides were pressed up against the white wall at the rear of the stage. The lights were dim and enshrouded the dancers vs bright lights on a real police lineup. Each dancers face was partially covered by one of her own hands. After a few moments and after the dancers turned their heads from one side to the other, they all broke rank and moved forward across the stage towards us - the audience. Each dancer went into their own individual and completely different movements - performing and acting out scenes rather than just dancing or so it appeared. One dancer, Leah Curran, kept touching herself in places that we were taught, as small children, were not proper actions in public. And that that touching was “bad” period.

It was a dancer’s police lineup where we did not get to identify the dancers by their faces, but instead by their crimes - or "supposed" crimes that they demonstrated via movements. One of the most fascinating police lineups I’ve ever seen. And if called upon, I would have identified them all guility as charged - of being creative, beautiful local dancers, at times acting thru dance instead of dancing.

The most beautiful chunk of choreogrpahy, probably my favorite, was the section where Ms Garnett used light and shadows almost the way the gifted Hollywood movie makers used the two visual elements in Film Noir (1940-1955).

The scene started off with the entire stage in blackout mode with a lone spot light located audiance right, towards the front. In the lit circle one female dancer performed her lonely, islolated solo piece - sculpting very personal lines and angles. After a few moments, a 2nd dancer appeared near the top of the circle, visible to all but remained in the darkness. Within seconds the two synchronzied themselves into the same posture and movements. The solo dancer gracefully moved out towards the rear into the darkness, while at the same moment the 2nd dancer moved into the vacated lighted circle. It was as if both dancers were tied to the same single rope or conveyor belt and were seamlessly moved alone the line, at the exact same moment. Like a changing of the guard.

Once the new dancer was centered, she started her own unique solo. In a few brief moments, a 3rd dancer appeared standing along the edge of darkness and again visible to all. This second pair repeated the whole process of replacement, but they used different posture and movements during their elegant exchange vs the first change over. And the whole ritual was repeated until all five dancers completed their unique birth and death of solo dances. It was simply gorgeous!

It was as if the beauty of transition was in the newness of different moves, different dances, different solos and not in the repetition of the passing on.

Postscript:

The photo above is one of many that was used in the marketing of Triptych and it includes the three women choreographers who showed their work at the performance: Ishaika Seth, Kelly Bowker & Gretchen. I love this photograph as it reminded me of the TV show "Mad Men." Which is amusing as I never watched Man Men. So these dancers remind us of things that aren't even part of our lives. I'm begining to think our SF local dancers and choreographers can do anything.

Also, on first viewing, I thought the setting of the photograph was way to modern and clean for a Bart Station and must be a shopping center of some type. But, Ms Garnett informed me that it was indeed a Bart Station, the Powell stop. She said, "...we were trying to spiff up the Bart Station, Jim." I say that the photo shows three reasons why we should be taking Bart.

***

Dancing Book with bare legs !

2011-03-27T23:43:00.000-07:00

If you saw a large, oversize book with bare legs,

would you turn and look?

Would you take a few moments and read it?

A number of us visitors to the Oakland Main Library did do so, on a bright sunny Saturday afternoon, Feb 26th, 2011. That oversize book and those bare legs, belonged to Christine Germain, a choreographer and dancer in the SF/Oakland local dance scene. And like a number of our choreographers, Ms Germain composes many of her dances around social issues.

That afternoon the bare legged book scene was executed right at the very beginning of the dance. A quiet dance beginning that grabs your attention, steals your consciousness and makes you wonder, "...what's going on here." It was the strongest of any quiet/gentle dance openings I've ever seen. Sometimes art is surrounded by silence.

Ms Germain's social issue tied directly into that oversize book: one in four people in Oakland cannot functionally read or write. They cannot read a doctor's bill, nor can they read a statement from the IRS. They cannot go places that reading and writing allows so many of us to travel every day of our lives. That ability to read/write allows us to enrich our lives, to be more fully clothed when facing the world. And those who cannot, are more exposed to an unforgiving world.

Ms Germain's book, her dance, was titled, "Writhing Letters," and it was a dance that began long before that Saturday afternoon in downtown Oakland. Her long, creative process included very successful "work in progress" performances at local Bay Area book stores last year. Those same performances lead to a search of libraries where the final, larger dance piece needed to stretch out and breathe. And like any artistic process, there were road bumps and humorous moments spread out along the way. One city library refused the project because "...it is not part of our mission." (Funny) Still another city library did not want to disturb their visitors. (Road bump) But alas, a public librarian comes thru like a angel doing works of good. Oakland's Main Librarian, Kathleen DiGiovanni, was such an angel. Working closely with Ms Germain, Kathleen allowed the main library, for one afternoon anyway, to become both a dance stage and working library at the same time.

The precision dance itself swept thru the library along the main floor. It began down the long corridor just inside the main entrance right behind the information booth. The dance moved towards the rear of the library and swung around to the north side and on back towards the main entrance. More than half the main floor became a dance stage that afternoon. And on that stage it seemed like there were at least a dozen dancers involved. They danced down the open walkways, thru the stacks of books and around the tables. Everywhere the dancers moved the patrons stirred and shuffled around these moving creatures of dance. The common look on the patrons faces were, "...what the heck is this??" The dancers would pause at certain locations and perform their rituals of dance movements. At one point they were dancing with newspapers and tearing them up at the same time - signifying the experiences of many people who, when newspapers ruled the day, would purchase a paper and go through all the motions of pretending to read. That need to have people see oneself in what looks like the act of reading, was a reminder of our complicated, fragile nature.

One of my favorite movements: the dancers pounded their chests, not with two hands but with one hand only. This was not a "Tarzan" pounding of the chest. It was a strong, muted thump, that said I'm here. I'm a human being and I have pride. There was a feeling of confidence in that gesture by the dancers - enacting it for the people they came to dance about. It was repeated in the dance and it was worth the echo.

The music was not far behind. And our young choreographer had books and a typewriter wheeled along with the dancers as musical instruments - supplying a low keyed music for the dancers. Ms Germain explained that her inspiration for the music came from the "...rhythms found in Gumboot dance, which was created as a way to communicate in the mining grounds of South Africa." Our young choreographer, world traveler, merging the sounds, music of South Africa with the plight of people who, for whatever reason, can not read or write - not even about South Africa or this dance by Christine Germain and Dancers.

In the end, this was a strong quiet dance with a very strong opening. Christine Germain and Dancers did not have the luxury of going all out with noise volume and movements like typical dances. It's a serious subject and Ms Germain hopes to take excerpts from her dance to school children and maybe use their libraries as the dance stages. What a wonderful path that would be for dance and for our children.

Ms Germain can be found on Facebook at: Christine Germain & Dancers. And she has been selected to attend Residency at Dance Ground Keriac, Scott Wells. She will be choreographing on the subject of marriage and immigration. This new performance will take place the weekend of July 15, 2011

Postscript:

Something surprising happened to me with this special library dance. As Ms Germain's journey to her dance began long before it happened, her dance has continued for me long after it ended. Since that Saturday afternoon, I catch myself thinking and reflecting on what life would be like for me or others I know if we could not read or write. My thoughts even wonder back to a fellow military veteran who has no one to talk to at the place where he lives. So he recently told me he writes journals to replace the conversations that never happen. He described in detail his stacks of journals piled high. I can only imagine what it'd be like for him if he could not write or read.

Below is a well executed 3 min video of "Writhing Letters"

***********

Kibbutz: Soldiers of Dance !!

2011-03-01T16:59:00.000-08:00

Ever seen a fashion runway conducted in a militarized style? How about five of them all going at the same time, on the same stage? Well, that's part of what Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Co provided shortly after the beginning and again towards the end of their pounding, in your face performance last Sat Feb 26th at the JCCSF.

Instead of modeling clothes, the dancers were modeling their power - in movement, serious intent, in conformity, non-conformity and in a few happy images and harsh predictions. I've seen fashion runways incorporated into contemporary choreography before, but never quite like this - not this harsh.

There were three dancers assigned to each of the five runway walks. Instead of one model/dancer doing a runway walk alone, five at a time marched to the front stage. At first they merely marched forward to the front of the stage and stopped, again just like runway model. There they turned and headed back to the rear. On other walks they performed dance moves while marching forward. On one of the walks the models/dancers held another dancer as a prisoner. Then almost dragging him/her to the front, threw their dancer/prisoner on the ground, then returning to the rear to begin all over again. The music mostly was harsh, machine like and apocalyptic in nature. The music matched the feeling of the military fashion runway as well.

The dance opened and closed with a chunk of choreography that also had a apocalyptic feeling all about it. The company of dancers were lined up behind one another in a single moving column. They shuffled along in small steps, their feet not really leaving the floor. It was the same column shuffle that was used in the famous Apple Computer Commercial "1984," where all the slaves filed along in orderly zombie-like obedience. (In the commercial the choreography was backed up with words/sounds. In this dance the choreography was backed up with machine like music.) One big difference between the commercial vs this dance march was here the dancers shrugged their right shoulders forward every few seconds and all in perfect unison - in perfect synchronization with one another and with the beat of their machine like music. This part alone was quite impressive and hypnotic to watch. This column shuffled all over the stage, turning at times at right angles. It alone was worth the visit to JCCSF in a cold Saturday evening.

The dance started before it even began for there was dancing to "find your seat by." Really. As the audience was allowed into the auditorium, the curtains were opened about 10 feet wide and a lone female dancer was performing in place w/her contemporary dance steps, rotating, bending her body all about. A lone spotlight, located on the floor, center stage, was shinning directly on her. She was dressed in a bikini like outfit but her entire body was covered in very large brush strokes/splotches of what looked like brown paint or oil/dirt. She never paused and I estimated she had performed her intro dance for at least 30 minutes before rushing back stage to join her company as the curtains opened wide for them to begin their struggle, their show, their dance. "Ekodoom"

This was not a lyical performance of dance and movement. Not alot of grace and elegance as one has come to think of them. This was more of a hard edged abstract piece, alluding with images to our past and future. Images hard to forget. I also noticed that there was not alot of real feminine feelings poring out from the woman dancers, not even in their presence. They seemed as strong and equal to the men dancers and this was evident right from the start.

I saw dancers who looked very solid and tough. They looked serious in appearence and they attacked their choreography. I saw Israelis Dancers attacking their dance like Israelis Soldiers attacking their military duties. That's what I saw. Israel Dancers, like Israel Soldiers, surrounded by conflict, with a few happier, brighter moments scattered about. It was on their faces. In their eyes. In their movements. This group was as much a "company of soldiers" as a "company of dancers."

I sat in the front row, but I believe most of the audience, further back anyway, gave a rousing, standing ovation at the end. I sat. I was unable to stand because I was still trying to absorb what I had just seen. In past history, there have been times when an audience does not give any applause, but remains silent instead. The silence of being so taken of what was witnessed. In other words, the audiance was a bit overtaken, just as in a military operation. That was my reaction with Kibbutz - "My gosh, what have I just witnessed?" And I only wish I could have seen this performance again, but that was not to be. There was only one performance and the dancers, like a compnay of soldiers, were moving out the next morning. And as any good company of soldiers/dancers know, get the job done, move on.

As I left the center, one of the female dancers was taking a smoke break out front in the cold air. I stopped and we spoke a bit. She seemed neither tired nor winded, not in the least bit. She spoke very little English and apologized for not knowing more of my language. I wish I had apologized for not speaking her language. Her name was Dana. Even her voice was low but strong, very steady. She told me she was very happy that I enjoyed their dance. I told her the first contemporary dancer (S.F.) I had ever met, was while that dancer was taking a smoke break under a SF freeway, between the overgrown weeds. She laughed. I mentioned that her paragraph bio in the program was quite small, especially compared to the other dancers. She explained that she is young (one of the younger company members) and that as she gets older, her bio will get longer. It was an encounter of an older military veteran sharing a few words, a few moments, with a young soldier - a young dancer.

I saw a Company of Soldiers as Dancers...
and I was moved !

__________

------------------- Waiting ----------------------

2011-02-15T01:54:00.000-08:00

Last weekend Feb 12/13th at The Garage - 975 Howard (San Francisco), Ms Raisa Punkki danced her stunning, one woman piece titled “Waiting.” And for her it was and still is more than just a dance. For me, a reminder that dance can go in any direction.

Waiting was about 5 minutes in length. The music by Joan Jeanrenaud was very simple, very haunting. The pace of the dance was extremely slow, Butoh slow, maybe even slower. A slightly transparent parachute like material was laid flat, spread across the entire stage. Before the dance started, the lights were out and Ms Punkki crawled under the chute and positioned herself dead center, rolled up in a small ball. Not the fetal position, but legs/arms on the floor and her back facing up towards the ceiling. Like a prayer postion of a Mid-Eastern religious person, only much much tighter, more compacted. At that very beginning, I thought her balled up figure was facing forward in the direction of the audience, only to see minutes later, that Ms Punkki had her position reversed. She was, right from the beginning, facing away from us, showing us her covered back.

The lights came up into a very dim life, making some question whether we were watching a real figure or a shadow of one. Ever so slowly, that covered figure began to rise. At first, our dancer was keeping within her small balled up form. But she crept out of that tight position and began her slight sculpturing of a more upright figure, all the while staying completely covered. The material itself began to stretch, like a long flowing skirt with no matching top. Ms Punkki, in her unhurried state, created a full figure, a creature sculpture, partially deformed that looked in pain in its upper torso - arms, shoulders and head. The creature then started to turn and rotate her upper body and arms. The material followed, twisted and actually fashioned exaggerated curving pleats from her waist down, shown quite accurately in the photo above.

Looking back, perhaps the chute material served more as a constraint, a prison rather than just a haunting/eccentric looking dress following it's owner.

In the end, the performance piece, the sculpture, had the feel of a wedding dress at the bottom and that suffering, deformed creature at the top. Ms Punkki told me later that she did not have the image of a wedding dress while creating her work. She went on to explain that:

"…My creation process with "Waiting" was inside out. I wanted to get the deeper thoughts out by slowing down and making the movement small. My wonderful costume designer Claire Pasquier and light designer Christian Mejia were a big part of creation. For me waiting is more than dance and not only because the amazing feelings it brings to people, but also because I took a risk in creation without knowing for sure where it will take me."

That first night’s performance, Friday, I was reminded that sometimes a whole dance piece, (choreography-dancer-music-costume-lighting), all of it, can steal one’s heart for a few moments. And since Ms Punkki told me she did not know when she will perform this piece again, I went back the following night. I ended up having to change my schedule so I could do my weekend dance with and around “Waiting.”

BRAVA – Ms Raisa Punkki - BRAVA !!

...

8 Million Reasons Why We Dance & Watch !

2010-11-21T14:34:00.000-08:00

A long time ago, when I was a kid, fresh out of Kindergarten, there was a great old black and white television series, called The Naked City. And I watched the program with my two sisters and brother back in Philadelphia. Each week the shows were about some people's lives in New York City. Some of the tales were pretty gritty, and a few humorous. But it was the ending of each episode that had this great over voice that proclaimed, chanted: "There are 8 million stories in the Naked City. This has been one of them." It took a little more growing up for me to realize the 8 million meant everyone had their own story.

I think dance falls into that same category, that same refrain. Each dancer, and each dance lover, has his or her reason for being drawn to dance. And so, now, after all these years, and thousands of miles away from New York City, I can't help but say, "There are 8 million reasons why we dance and watch."

The video below leads to a beautiful ballet, a Pas de deux. And this ballet is one example of why I love dance. One reason why I watch.

It is a dance of two lovers, partners, perhaps. He is her gallant and she is so feminine, so petite. The dance is a contemporary ballet piece by David Dawson.

IT IS A GORGEOUS PIECE OF CHOREOGRAPHY AND DANCING

My favorite part of the dance, the key part, occurs at about 3:15. He's guiding her upright and suddenly he leaves her and runs away. Not dancing, running. He's now traveling alone and moving in a large circle, which at the end he stands tall, at a soldiers attention, facing us. She moves a shorter distance, a straight line, forced to dance backwards to catch up with him. She stands behind him and they are now back to back. We can't even see her anymore and he doesn't know she is there.

Again, suddenly, he stretches his arms upright, reaching for the heavens. Almost as if he is giving up. At that moment we see his ballerina gently reach her hand around his side waist, then we see her left leg come out from behind him. She is walking in that oh, so feminine ballerina walk, with toe pointed then heel down. She slowly moves around and across his front, while keeping her hand pressed up against his stomach, fingers outstretched. This is more than just a feminine hold. This is a hand of support, of strength, a helping hand. She is helping her gallant. She moves completely around his front and comes to stand next to his left side. They are no longer back to back, but side to side. She is at attention as well. She stretches her arm stright out and forward and looks her Gallant in the eyes. He follows both his lover's gaze and pointed arm, then slowly taking her hand. She is looking to him to continue on with their dance, their love. For a little while longer anyway.

And so they continue with their beautiful pas de deux and her most beautiful movements are when she uses him for her lifts, turns and jumps. She is at her most beautiful at those moments, when he is there by her side and they are together in movement. He is the podium on which the lectern stands. He is her gallant.

The music. Now the music. Like the dance, it is so so elegant, so serene but very melancholy - almost painfully sad. The music has a feeling of mortality about it. And the unusual part is that the first 1 and 1/2 minutes of the music piece is really the saddest. Normally it's the end or the middle of a music piece where that happens. It's as if the music is telling us, reminding us, right at the beginning, this dance will not last forever. And even more - none of us get to stay. Sometimes, when a dance piece and it's music are this serene together, it can crack your heart.

Yet, with all that, it is the final part, the final act of the male dancer that I do not like. What gallant would?

There are eight million reasons why we are drawn to dance.
This pas de deux is one of them.
,

Female Urban Warriors at Women's Building (SF Mission District)

2010-09-21T12:29:00.000-07:00

Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were one of the great popular dancing couples. Each brought something to their dance partnership that the other lacked. Ms Rogers brought sex appeal that he needed and Mr Astaire brought class that she needed.

Well something similar has been going on, for quite some time, with Jo Kreiter's "Flyaway Productions" and "Women's Social Issues." It's a dancing partnership that was on full display over two weekends in Sept at the Women's Building in the S.F. Mission District - celebrating 100 yrs of the building itself. (Singing Praises - Sept 2010)

In this partnership, Flyaway brings a certain "commerce" to Women's Social Issues and the Social Issues provide a "purpose/roadmap" for Flyaway. Flyaway opens the door to these women's issues for many who are unaware of them. Issues ranging from women building bridges, to the SF Women's Building, to working with and teaching young female girls from urban cities - giving them a voice. In such a unique way, through dance, Flyaway shines a light on these issues. Conversely, those same social issues provide a purpose, a road-map, for the young dancers of Flyaway. I could almost hear the dancers chant...

"This is why we are here. This is why we dance. This is where we make our stand. From here, we do not retreat!"

And this is why I call them my Female Urban Warriors!

And boy did they dance. Up and down the side of the SF Women's Building. At night. Thru the dark. Bathed by special choreographed lighting. And enshrouded in original music. They danced on the fire escapes, on the roof, thru the windows and down the building sides in their harnesses with cables. And hundreds of people stood or sat on the sidewalks below, mesmerized and even ready to catch the dancers should they fall.

I was an usher every night and at the one matinee performance for school children. I saw it all. Evey night, people of all ages crowded the small alley street next to the Women's Building and across the main roadway on 18th Steet. The alley street provided viewers a close up view of the dance and was especially perfect for small children. The 18th Steet spot was the best location to watch from per Ms Kreiter as she choreographed with that sight line in mind. And many adults expressed gratitude to have that important piece of information/tip, as most if not all of those folks moved to Ms Kreiter's preferred viewing location.

I saw neighborhood children coming back to see these dancers again and again. They were so giddy and so amazed and even shocked that the dancers didn't fall. There were many people watching from rooftops and windows of nearby buildings. Cars and fire trucks stopped in the middle of the road to watch. One fire truck was in the middle of a call with sirens blaring away. Yet they still stopped and they cut their sirens. I hoped no one awaiting them was hurt. I thought to myself, I could see the next day headlines, "Home burns to ground, as fire fighters watched dancers!" I also saw more taxis stop on those two streets than I've ever seen before, except maybe at the airport. My gosh, even people on bicycles were stopping all along the roadways.

People told me they were rushing off to have their meals and would hurry back to see the show. And just about all made it. On the last Friday night's performance, a very tall uniformed male police office, a lieutenant, and his young female intern from San Jose State University, stopped and asked about all the activity. Once explained, they wanted to see the performance. They were off to buy ice cream and "...do we have time?" "YES! Plenty of time," I responded and laughed. And the lieutenant asked if I would like an ice cream cone too? (Ice cream cones, instead of tickets! - Only during onsite dance performances by Flaway!)

Donations! Oh yeah. There were people coming up to me and making donations before dancing even began. That alone surprised and touched me. Some gave small change as that was all they could afford, but they said they wanted to give something. That moved me even more.

But in the end, it was the dancers themselves that moved me the most. Kelly Kemp and Jennifer Chien are the two dancers in the photo above which I took while they were practicing in daylight. Their cables were on a pulley system, so they helped one another move up and down the walls. The two working together signified black and white women coming together for the first time in the Women's Movement and creating the Women's Building in SF. One of my favorite moments is in that photo itself - when Kelly and Jennifer spin around together in a circle three times. So graceful, so aerial. Another favorite moment is when the two are holding onto the window ledge, legs bent up a bit, and using their hands, scampering along the edge back and forth, left to right and right and left. With that movement, the two looked so small. They looked like two tiny animal creatures holding onto the ledge for dear life. But at the same time, they looked so innocent, especially in their faces - and they looked as if they were having a ball.

There was another moment, my favorite, towards the end of the dance. All the lights were out except for one lone white search light pointed at the far rear corner of the building. No dancers were in site. An eerie silence. Then in slow motion, Kelly comes swinging out from around the corner, from the rear of the building. Back and forth she swung. Swinging into the search light, then leaving the light. Swinging back into our sights, then leaving again. Kelly used all three elements - the light, the far corner and the rear of the building to disappear and reappear. Repeating this aerial dance step over and over again. As if she were a moving sculpture or an astronaut floating slowly above us, without gravity. A moment of quiet amazement.

I told Jo, Kelly and a number of viewers that if I was a few years younger, I'd be up there with them, on the side of that building. And yet every night, as I stood on the ground below, I realized that thru their dancing, part of me was up there on the side of the building. And for a few brief moments, in the dark, the building belonged to us all.

Looking back, I now realize that "Singing Praises" is more than just a dance - a lot more. And I think it always is with Jo Kreiter and Flyaway Productions - with her band of Female Urban Warriors.

"This is why we dance!"
"This is where we make our stand!"
.
.

Dancers lead us to the love of Music - New & Old...!!

2010-06-29T00:41:00.000-07:00

I follow the dancers and they lead me to new music
that I fall in love with for the first time...

I follow the dancers and they lead me to old music
that I fall in love with for the first time all over again...

(Jim Tobin - 2009)

The photo I've found for this bog essay is really a fun one; with it's bright colors, eye catching background design and most important the subject matter. I really like it a lot! The picture is of a young female dancer, dancing on top of musical records. The foundation on which she dances is music. And that's what I feel about dance - dance begins with music. If I'm not moved by the music, or don't care for the music, than my emotional and imaginative response to the dance will be considerably muted.

One of the biggest surprises that I have experienced while attending the many dancing performances of San Francisco Bay Area dance companies is their MUSIC selections. The choreographers and dancers never cease to amaze and move me with their music.

What a wonderful surprise of music that really falls into two categories: New Music and Old Music. The "new" is music I have not heard before and I take to it right away. And the "old" is music I've heard many times, sometimes not really wanting to hear again, but somehow the dance allows me to fall for the music all over again. I never would have thought that the dancers have made music just as important in my life today, as it was when I was young boy attending high school in Oakland, CA.

Zoe Keating, a Bay Area and international known musician, told me that I "...use dance as a filter to music." and "...what a wonderful way to discover music." She shared this with me in our conversation at SFMOMA earlier this year. I thought then and now, what a neat way to describe my music/dance encounters. I really like her description and use of the word filter. And I also felt, "...only a person with both a computer and music background comes up with such a wording." I even told Ms Keating, I found her through dance at a choreographer's competition at San Jose State University. She didn't even blink, when I told her this, as she said alot of dancers use her music all the time. Lucky her. Lucky me. Even luckier dancers!

The list of dance companies that have given me music is a long one. Some of the dance groups are Yannis Adoniou, Post:Ballet, Kelly Kemp Dance Co, Spinning Yarns Dance Collective, Joe Goode, Pamela Z, Company C, Printz Dance Co, Smuin Ballet, Amy Siewert's im'ij-re, LINES Ballet Showcases, Edward Moses KIN, Katie Faulkner, Deborah Slater, Flyaway Productions, Bay Area National Dance Week groups just to name a few. And some of the music is commissioned by the dance companies themselves.

I, also, remember one Smuin Ballet dancer saying, "...I listen to music all the time, where ever I go..." And a close friend once said, "Dancers know music!" And because they do, "...dancers not only give us a visual gift, but a gift of sound..." And it allows me to take away from the dance that much more.

* * * * * * * * * *

The beginning of this essay blog on dancers and their music, starts with my simple poem dedicated to dancers. And below are some examples of that glorious and elegant music I have discovered over the past couple of years. If you are able to listen to only one song below: please listen to the first one by Rachel's, titled: "Water from the Same Source." You can click on any of links and they will lead you to the different songs. (Once you listen to the song, you can use the menu bar "BACK ARROW" to return to song list.)

New Music & Old Music

Rachel's: "Water from the Same Source"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcE8YWdGtnI

Rachel's: "Rhine and Courtesan"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkUi_NlBXs8

Dilada: "Paroles paroles"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ifJapuqYiU

The Section Quartet: "The Nurse Who Loved Me"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn14fxkbwds&feature=fvw

Zoe Keating: "Exurgency"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3qKvKypi4g

Art of Noise: Moments of Love (Quiet Storm Version)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knaGIOJNxTc

Massive Attack: "Angel"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbe3CQamF8k

Hans Zimmer: "Silence"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTt5BMYuGYQ

Ennio Morricone: "The Falls"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIMwEFAEld0

Georges Delerue: "Le Mepris"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqXh_QhypX4

Gershwin: "Rhapsody in Blue"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9nG2KyEp2A

www.BayAreaDanceWatch.com

Leap into the future, into the imagination ! (Liss Fain Dance)

2010-06-23T10:27:00.000-07:00

The athlete "...leaps into the future, into his imagination..." that's what mathematician and biologist Jacob Bronowski (Ascent of Man) once said about the athletic track runner as he's crouched at the starting line and once he hears the crack of the shot gun, he leaps and sprints off. And unlike an animal that would run from the gunshot blast for his dear life, the runner is taking off for the sheer exhilaration of exploring his physical limits.

Well dancers do the same thing. They experience the sheer exhilaration of pushing themself to their physical limits in their dance movements. And instead of the shotgun and track field, dancers use music and choreography as their playing field. And last weekend, June 2010, Liss Fain Dance group leaped, sprinted and danced while sharing their exhilaration on the stage at YBCA in their home season. And while sitting in the audiance, I really felt that exhilaration! I even felt my imagination dancing around with them.

Liss Fain Dance is a small company of six dancers, but last weekend they danced like they were a company of 15 dancers. They are made up of four female and two male dancers and all highly experienced dancers. Liss Fain looks for expereinced contemporary dancers who have had classical ballet training as well. And it showed on all the dancers. Liss Fain Dance is more than just a local dance company based here in San Francisco. They are involved with other countries where they perform and this year they are one of only four U.S. dance companies invited to perform at the International Tanzmesse in Dusseldorf, Germany. I call them a local/international dance company.

Their home program had two dances, choreographed by Liss Fain herself, and both were inspired by literature. The 1st dance was titled "How It Ends" and the inspirations derived from the ending of the novel "Out Stealing Horses" by Per Pettersen. Ms Fain was moved by the tale and as she said herself, "...It was the ending of the book that took me aback. Here, an elderly man reflects on his youth by reliving the summer when he was 15. I was struck by the fluctuations in energy between the teenager and the reflections of the character's older self."

I loved the fact "How It Ends," although inspired by literature, was not a narrative dance at all but really an abstract performance. I prefer the non-narrative dance, most of the time. And in this piece the dancers created so many wonderful images with their abstract movements. One that comes to mind, and I loved it so much, had the smallest female dancer pushing the tallest male dancer - they were face to face and she using her outstretched arm and body to push and he using his body reacting to being pushed. Yet they never touched one another. Like young kids playing thru dance. A few minutes later, both these same dancers repeated the pushing thru non-touch but in the second go around they were skipping-jumping into the air while pushing and reacting to one another. Their lines and shapes were so perfect, so youthful. It was very neat. Watching these two I realized that in abstract dancing the mismatched height of the male and female dancers can work so well with the movements. Unlike classical ballet, where mismatched height between the male/female partners is so noticeable, in abstract dancing it's not so glaring. Instead, the mismatch height becomes part of the abstract and I like that alot.

Another movement I loved very much had all the dancers spaced across the entire stage and each one leaned their upper bodies so so far forward and down, that their faces were a foot or so from the floor. Then each one slowly arched their backs slightly and extened their long bent arms and hands up and out away from their sides, like large bird wings, and at that moment they looked like prehistoric birds. Their faces looking downward. Looking for prey. While they were looking, they were looking oh so elegant and beautiful and strong in their momentary flight. Thank God for imagination. And thank God for dancers who water our imagination.

The second dance of the program was inspired by the poem "Debris of Life and Mind," written by Wallace Stevens. I think it's a poem of two who are intimate and are sharing memories of the past. The exact line that captures Liss Fain is, "Speak of familiar things for a while." Ms Fain is right. What a beautiful phrase. With this phrase, the dance is much more romantic than the first and is comprised entirely of abstract solos and duets. Thru memories, then words, then abstract dance - imagination weaving them all together.

Another aspect I love about Liss Fain Dance, is that they always seem to keep their costumes simple and elegant and very flattering to the body. As George Ballachine would say when he saw costumes so overdone and so built up, "...where's the body?" With this company, Ballachine's question never comes up.

By recalling Jacob Bronoswki, then viewing Liss Fain Dance, I, like the athlete, "...leaped into the future, into my imagination."

Jim Tobin, June 2010

Women, Building Bay Area Bridges and Dance !!

2010-06-16T07:57:00.000-07:00

What do these three have in common: Women, Building Bay Area Bridges and Dance? Well, for one thing a dance tilted: "The Ballad of Polly Ann." That was a dance about the women who have helped build the Bay Area Bridges and it was performed last July 2009 in San Francisco by Jo Kreiter and her San Francisco based dance company Flyaway Productions. It had to be one of the most unique subject matters for a dance all last year and it won an Isadora Duncan special award earlier this year, Jan 2010.

Now parts of that dance are coming back next month July 2010, a one year anniversary. It will be performed for two days at CounterPULSE on Mission Street, San Francisco, July 21st & 22nd, 7pm.
If you can make it, GO!

It was such a special event last year and it is an equally special event this year.
It's titled:

"Bridge Builders & Other Unconventional Women,"
Flyaway Productions Arts and Activism Apprenticeship Performance.

Young women, ages 14-18, are selected from Oakland and San Francisco (Hunter's Point, South of Market, Mission and the Avenues) to attend this summer apprenticeship program. These young ladies will be trained by seasoned Polly Ann dancers: Kelly Kemp, Jennifer Chien and Alayna Stroud. The dancing will involve plenty of aerial, off-the-ground dancing as well. The young ladies themselves will be doing the dancing, bringing parts of the Ballad of Polly Ann to the public at CounterPULSE. What a great opportunity for the young ladies. What a summer for them. What a wonderful idea.

Earlier, I asked Ms Kreiter about this event and she wrote back,

"...the program is one of the most important things that Flyaway and I do. It is intimate, emotional, artistic and gives urban girls a vital forum to be heard, to grow and to realize their voice matters. I think this is manifested in both the activism and arts components of the program...it springs from the question, WHO DO YOU WANT TO BE A BRIDGE TO?..."

What a great question for the young dancers. And hopefully for any of us, no matter what age, we get involved with that question now and then.

Per Ms Kreiter, the young ladies in the program will also have three female guest speakers - who themselves are unconventional and are bridge builders within their chosen fields. The three speakers will be: Jewelle Gomez (writer), Audrey Hudson (bridge pile driver) and Fiona Ma (state senator).

What I love about Jo Kreiter and Flyaway Productions, is that they have taught me that it is important for cities to have large dance companies, but it's the local, smaller dance companies that make dancing complete within our cities and communities. And that's not a bad thing. (And it was The Ballad of Polly Ann that was the inspriation for me in starting my dance blog. Kinda like a first love.)

This performance will be held at CounterPULSE located on Mission St. S.F. It is a theater/studio that "...provides space and resources for emerging artists and cultural innovators, serving as an incubator for the creation of socially relevant, community-based art and culture." Gosh that's a lot. But I personally have seen some very moving, beautiful performances at CounterPULSE.

Please visit Flyaway Productions website: www.flyawayproductions.com
To visit CounterPULSE website: www.counterpulse.org

IF YOU CAN MAKE IT...GO !!

Questions can be emailed to me at jimtobin@yahoo.com

(If you would like to read more on the actual Ballad of Polly Ann, see my list of blogs to the left of this posting under 2009 September: titled Ballad of Polly Ann...in the Summer thats Past)

Raise High The Roof Beam Carpenters...here comes Amy Seiwert !!

2010-05-30T00:05:00.000-07:00

"Raise High the Roof Beam Carpenters..." and get out of the way because here comes Amy Seiwert and her choreography of dances along with her selected group of experienced ballet/contemporary dancers.

The S.F. International Arts Festival ended a few days ago, Memorial Day weekend, with a beautiful, pounding contemporary dance performance by Ms Siewert's dance company: im'ij-re. There were three dances all choreographed by Ms Seiwert and it was held at the Cowell Theater at Ft Mason. I knew before hand that I was going to see a good, solid dance program, but I was unprepared for the extent of my emotional response to her dances. Her 1st dance "End Quote" (2004) made me think and feel "Gosh, that's what I come to see when I attend dance performances!" While her 3rd dance "White Noise" (2010) made me think and feel "Man, I'm glad to be alive?"

Ms Seiwert's dances are filled with many classical steps and movements of ballet and fuses a good amount of contemporary steps and movements along with those classical steps. To me it looks like her dances derive from the classics first and contemporary second. And that's what I love about her choreography and it happens to be my favorite kind of dance. With many dances today it is the opposite with the ballet steps playing a secondary role and the contemporary the main role. Ms Seiwert said her dances have so much ballet within them because that is where she has come from. Her door into the professional world of dance was the door of ballet.

The 1st Dance "End Quote" was choreographed by Ms Seiwert in 2004 and the 3rd dance "White Noise" in 2010 - her newest work. It was such a wonderful surprise and opportunity to see two of her works that had about 6 years deference between them. And seeing them both danced within minutes of one another, it was so easy to see how much she has changed and grown in her choreography during that six year span.

The 2004 End Quote dance was so true to classical steps, lots of on pointes and pas du deuxs and some contemporary steps mixed between them. In the 2010 White Noise it was as if most if not all of the the dance steps and movements were each part classical and part contemporary. It just seems to me that End Quote had classical steps and contemporary steps working together side by side, one after another. While White Noise had the steps fused together. As if taking a classical step, breaking it in half, throw one half away, and take a contemporary step, break that in half and then fuse the two halves together. Forming a rather seamless, new step. Very beautiful. But I loved them both!

The music was so well chosen by Ms Seiwert for all three of her dances. White Noise, for example, had six pieces of music all composed by Zoe Keating. Ms Keating is such a favorite by dancers all over the Bay Area. As a matter of fact, that's how I discovered Ms Keating's music, thru dancers, at a choreographers competition a year and a half ago at San Jose State University. The winning choreographer used Ms Keatings music, "Exurgency." Oddly enough, it's one of the same exact pieces used by Ms Seiwert in White Noise.

A few months ago, January 2010, I meet Zoe Keating at SFMOMA and told her I found her music by way of the dances and that I find alot of wonderful new music by attending dance performances and rediscovering old music as well. She said I was "...using dance as a filter for music..." which she thought was wonderful. And I thought her description of my music filter was really neat.

Of the 13 dancers I recognized almost every one of them, save for maybe one or two. The dancers were from Sacramento Ballet, Oakland Ballet, Smuin Ballet, ODC, Robert Moses KIN, Lar Lubovitch and others. All solid experienced dancers. And that's so great when a dance is solid in all three areas: Music, Choreography and Dancers execution. All three Ms Seiwert brought together for a perfect performance.

Another main aspect of Ms Seiwert's White Noise is the international colboration part of the performance. The SF International Arts Festival is a 12 day festival that brings together bay area artists with international artists - in dance, theater, music, visual arts and more. Ms Seiwert teamed with German Frieder Weiss who is able to project graphic images onto the back stage screen wirelessly. Mr Weiss projected kaleidoscope type images, pass the dancers and those images changed and mimic the dancers movements. It was quite unique. But I did not really look at that part of the dance at all. Primarily because I was too busy watching Ms Seiwert's choreography, the perfect dancers and listening to that great music. Plus anyone siting in the first few rows, could not really see or appreciate Mr Weiss's graphics fully. I really believe that. So next time I'll sit in the back. I do apologize to Mr. Weiss.

The lead dancer was Katherine Wells and it was quite something to see her perform. I've seen her dance at ODC a number of times and always dancing contemporary steps and movements. Never seen her dance classical steps. So much so that I just assumed she did not like dancing classical ballet and I assumed that she was never really trained in any classical ballet. Well, her performance in White Noise cleared that up. I was wrong. She started her role that night dancing alone. She is so quick with the contemporary steps and blending them with classical, my eyes couldn't keep up. Her demi-pointes even seemed like full on pointes. (Ms Wells also does this one contemporary movement where she has her hands and arms flaying, whipping around all over the place, around her head, in front of her body, to the sides, around her back and she is so so quick and graceful that it looks like a live electrical cable that has snapped from a post on the street, in a storm, and the cable is bouncing all over the place on the ground. She's performed that at ODC in the past and then with White Noise she fused it with classical steps. Pretty fast and pretty neat!) And I also got the feeling in White Noise, that when she dances alone, it seems like she's not dancing alone. And when she danced with her partner in White Noise, the two looked like a perfect match. Reminded me of the likes of Suzanne Farrell and Peter Martins years ago at the NY City Ballet.

("Raise High the Roof Beam Carpenter..." is part of a book title from one of J.D. Salinger's novels on the Glass Family.)

Frank Sinatra vs LINES Ballet Spring Showcase !

2010-05-23T14:53:00.000-07:00

Frank Sinatra use to tell his audiences, "May you live to be 105 and may the last voice you hear be mine."

While attending the LINES Ballet School Spring Showcase a few weekends ago, I thought of Sinatra's declaration and in my mind I flipped it. I thought to myself, "May the last dance I ever see, be a mixed repertoire and if by chance it is performed by the young dancers at the Training Program of the LINES Ballet School that'll be just fine."

This was the Spring Showcase performed by the LINES Ballet School Training Program at the Cowell Theater, Ft. Mason.

Of the eight dances at the Showcase, three of them stood out for me in particular.

1) the 1st dance had strong, primitive-military like music & movements.
2) was a retro-futuristic fashion runway a la Project Runway, I kid you not.
3) the last dance was really a "movement choir."

#1) Primitive-military like in music & movements:
The 1st dance was choreographed by Robert Moses (Kin) and he also composed the music. It is not that often that we get to experience both the dance and music composed by the same person. The music was a loud pounding fanfare like a military march and the dancers were lined up towards the back of the stage in a single row facing the audience. Their bodies were moving up and down in place, heaving, while holding their closed fists tight, in front and close to their bodies waist high. Primitive movements almost. Military. Waiting for battle. If anyone in the audience was half asleep, no longer after the first few seconds of this dance.

The dancers moved towards the audience slowly, breaking formation and forming 3 separate columns of organized dancers, marching right at the audience. From there they started to dance more freely, but still keeping formations of circles and lines. At times the dancers were moving forward with their legs and lower body - yet while at the same time their shoulders and head kept jerking backwards. Then the dancers repeated that movement but doing it walking/dancing backwards - actually skipping backwards, again while their upper bodies, shoulders and heads continued to jerk backwards at the same time. So they danced forward - jerking their upper bodies backwards; then they danced backwards - again with their upper bodies jerking backwards. It was like watching new modern steps or older steps used in a new way. It was a marching, dancing force and it was the right dance to open the showcase. Both the dance and the music don't even have names yet. But Robert Moses promised me they are coming.

#2) Retro-futuristic fashion runway a la Project Runway
Yannis Adoniou choreographed the dance that was futuristic yet retro at the same time, titled "Lost Luggage." The whole piece was like a future modern Project Runway, a fashion runway, with plenty of dancing thrown in. I kid you not. The dance was performed in low light, with the back screen back lighted. At times all we could see were the silhouette of the dancers dressed in skin tight, shiny slacks that looked almost metal like. As if their customs were a mix of women's 1950's slacks and futuristic spaceship attire. Like models on a runway, the women walked from the back of the stage to the front and then returned to the rear part of the stage. But unlike a normal runway, the dancers moved towards the audience facing them and then moving backwards away from the audience but still facing the audience. Never turning their backs to the audience. At times the women struck poses that were exaggerated feminine movements. The best example was when the young female dancers held their chins up delicately with fingers of one hand and slowly turned their own heads from one side to another, gently, again with fingers pressed so lightly under their chins. So feminine yet so exaggerated. The music was a bit futuristic as well and was composed by Andrea Parker.

#3) Last dance was really a "movement choir."
Last dance was a hugh piece with all dancers involved, titled "Church of Nations." It was choreographed by the director of the training program, Karah Abiog. Ms Abiog actually turned all the dancers into a movement choir. No singing, just movements. Like a moving Esher drawing or synchronized swimming without the water. The music was by Ennio Morricone the Italian Composer who composed all those famous Clint Eastwood western themes, i.e. The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. This music choice was church like, very spiritual. Music that makes us feel there is something higher than ourselves. Morricone can do that with some of his music. The dancers, 24 or so, were spaced out on chairs in four rows, six chairs per row and each chair spaced quite a distance apart. Like a church service. From their chairs, the dancers moved and twisted from side to side, front and back, all in unionsion with one another and with the religious music speeding forward to a climax. It was praying with movements to the music, not with words. Very spiritual feelings coming from the choir. It's what a movement choir can accomplish.

I was so so taken by these dances that I went back to see the performance again. Seeing parts of the dances that I did not notice the 1st time around and seeing other parts that I loved from the 1st viewing.

I truly witnessed them all...

Dancing vs Digital: BayAreaNational Dance Week

2010-04-26T13:51:00.000-07:00

What did I see over the 1st weekend of our Bay Area National Dance Week?

I saw young people not twittering, facebooking or cell phoning. Instead these young people put those high tech activities aside and danced.

They danced for the love of it; they danced for their partners; and they danced for anyone willing to stop and watch, even if only for a few moments. Although there were dancers of all ages, a majority of the dancers were teenagers and college age students. There were even a few performances by small children around the ages of 5 and 6.

All this took place at two "major" (Cornerstone) events of our dance week - two marathons of dance. The 1st was on Saturday, "Dancing in the Park" in front of the DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park, S.F. And the 2nd event was Sunday, SanJoseDance in front of the San Jose Museum of Art. There were a combined total of over 70 dance companies, clubs and studios at both events. Nothing like a good museum to make dancers come alive! One static beauty and the other moving beauty.

Watching so many young people dancing, I couldn't help but feel a connection to the SF Film Noir Festival held in January earlier this year at the Castro Theater. I know - that's a bit of a stretch. But not too much of a stretch. At that festival, Eddie Muller (President of Film Noir Foundation) told us in the audiance that he felt so relieved and grateful that many young people were helping to keep alive the interest of the artistic film noir movies from the 1940/50's. That long after he and others are gone, "Film Noir" was in good hands and those films wont die because of these young folks - college students and others.

Watching all these young dancers in S.F. and San Jose, over the weekend, I could not help but think and feel that same sentiment Mr. Muller professed. That no matter how much technology builds up in our lives, there always will be people coming along and keeping dance alive in their lives and in lives of others.

What a nice thought...an even nicer feeling.

Just to give you an idea, for example, there was one dance group, Teen Dance Company (TDC) which is based in the South Bay. TDC performed four dances - two each in both Cities. They actually opened up the SanJoseDance on Sunday with a contemporary dance piece. In this dance all the young dancers were lying flat on the stage, lined up in a perfect row towards the front of the stage, as if they were asleep or not even alive. Then one by one they raised themselves up, and moved towards the back stage, in very slow motion, as if they just awoke or raised themselves from the dead. Then slowly they started to dance, again one at a time, then some joining and dancing in contemporary movements together. I thought the piece very moving and the title oddly enough was: The End is Where We Begin. Not bad TDC.

And one of TDC's dances in San Francisco was totally tap dancing that included about 10 of their members. Their tap dance was so well choreographed and executed that it looked like their mini version of Riverdance. It was some of the best tap dancing/choreographery I've ever seen by a group of teenage dancers.

Gary Marshall, who puts together and runs the SanJoseDance event, summed it up correctly, a summary coming at the beginning no less, when he said, "...every few minutes the stage will completely change with each dance group." Mr Marshall was right, there were dances of ballet, contemporary dance, ballroom dancing, hip-hop, belly dancing, ethnic heritage dancing and many others.

It truely was, Weekend One of the Bay Area National Dance Week 2010...!!

A RockClimberDancer in Berkeley..!!

2010-04-08T00:52:00.000-07:00

Isabel Van Rittberg is quite a young lady. She has created a dance group that combines Music/Rock Climbing/Dancing and all performed on a stage with real/artificial walls of rocks in Berkeley at Ashby Stage.

I love her simple but elegant story, (listed above - click mouse pointer to enlarge) of how her group came about. The path to her group of rock climbing dancers began a long time ago in Germany where as a young child she loved listening to her older brother playing the piano. There she fell in love with the music of life that is in all of us. Next came dancing lessons again at a very young age. Then later in life, rock climbing became her passion.

As she herself says, she did not know where her passions were leading her to, but dispite living in her van on the streets of Berkeley for awhile, she arrived at her creation of AscenDance Project. All her members love music but they are rock climbers first and dancers second.

I also love what she has to say about movement and dance. How they help bring us into the present moment; whether dancing or watching dance. I like that alot.

I attended the final performance last month March and it was sold out on a Sunday afternooon and standing ovation at the end. They all deserved it. Bravie....!!!

S.F. Dancers besides U.S. Battlefields

2010-03-10T07:56:00.000-08:00

That's right! Today as you read this, we have SF Dancers dancing along side of US Battlefields in San Francisco. Who would have thought that ever possible..??

Between the SF Opera House and Herbst Theater (Veterans Building) is a beautiful grass lawn surrounded by hedges, with tall ornate iron gates on either opening along Van Ness and Gough Street. The dirt under that grass has imported dirt from all the major battlefields starting with WWI and up to the Iraq War.

That is why you don't see people playing soccor, or baseball, or frissbee on the lawn. It's a memorial to our soldiers, men and women, who sacificed so much, so we can continue to dance. And actually, security guards will stop folks from playing on the lawn.

I learned this while standing in a light drizzle, in the dark, on a Monday evening last month (Feb 2010). I was just completing the SF Ballet 101 Class for Adults: a class of lectures, discussions, Q&A, performances and one actual dancing session.

On the tour of the Opera House, we learned of the batttlefield dirt and it was shared to us by a retired Opera House Mgr.

It was the highlight of the Ballet Class for me!! And who would have thought a simple ballet class would have taken me (or anyone) to the battlefields of our US soldiers? Not me.

I even told the Mgr that night, while we stood in the light rain:

"...our dancers dance safely on stage inside the Opera House while our soldiers dance outside on their stage of dirt, a few feet away..."

"I read and slept where our soldiers gave so much." (while laying on the grass reading)

"We dance, because our soldiers danced first."

Quite amazing! Jim Tobin

The Endless Nights: A Valentine to Film Noir

2010-03-10T07:46:00.000-08:00

The link below is one of the most unique compilation of film clips with modern music. It is a six minute video of Film Noir clips titled: The Endless Nights: A Valentine to Film Noir.

Please watch it. It's quite amazing. A different kind of human dance, but a dance none the less.

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=xOgBa2Oij1A

It was created by a young female college student (Bay Area) on her own personal computer. She had no help. Kind of a reminder that sometimes one individual, alone, can accomplish more than a committee of folks.

Hope you take a moment to watch and enjoy!!

What is Film Noir??

It is an artistic style of American film making that lasted for 15 years between 1940 to 1955.

The movie (film) itself is made of up of two unique parts: visual and story. The two parts together make a movie film noir.

Visual: black and white film, dark images, shadows. Influenced by black and white silent movies, German Expressionism.

Story: True American Tragedy - bleak stories where protagonist, not heroes, make decisions that are not heroic but are the best they can make. And sometimes the protagonist makes the morally right decision, even though he himself may be amoral.

Jim Tobin, March 2010

What the heck is a "Movement Choir"...??

2010-01-19T21:16:00.000-08:00

...
Well, here it is only two weeks into the new year and already I'm amazed at the San Francisco dance scene for 2010. Actually floored would be an even better description...no pun intended.

Have you ever seen or experienced a "movement choir," especially when it is part of a dance performance? Well this was the first time for me and I can tell you a movement choir does not sing. That's right - no singing. This choir is all about movements, verbal sounds and direct hands-on with the dancers.

The performance was titled, "The Illustrated Book of Invisible Stories," and this large scale dance presentation was performed at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco over the Martin Luther King's Holiday weekend. Due to popular requests, Invisible Stories was an encore performance from last year. The whole show was quite remarkable and I went back to see them again on their final performance, Sunday evening. If for nothing else just to see this movement choir again. Looking back, I feel there were four major parts to this dance. And all four parts contributed to a very wonderful and enjoyable show. The four parts were:

1) 6 highly experienced contemporary dancers
2) 9 well established musicians
3) a "movement choir" of 18 women
4) and the venue itself

I want to zero in on that "movement choir" because that is the part that caught me by complete surprise. After some quick research on my part, movement choirs have been around for about 100 years. I guess it takes me a long time to catch up to some things in life. But the catching up can sometimes be a lot of fun and well worth it! It was last weekend.

This movement choir had 18 woman dressed in solid black fitted sleeveless blouses and slacks. They took their positions on a three layer bleacher platform: 6 women on each level (row), each row about half a body+ higher than the previous row. The bleacher was centered and slightly towards the back of the dance floor. There were a few moments in the darkness when all you could really see of the women were their bare arms and faces. Those, oh so, quick visual peeks were reminders of how beautiful the body really is.

There were about 12 or so invisible dances i.e. stories and the choir was involved with every one of them. Some dance stories were short and a few others were quite lengthy. As I write this, I can still picture some of the dancers and that movement choir.

The first story was accomplished with the movement choir moving very fast, in place, on the bleachers. Using different hands, arms and upper body gestures and twisting their bodies slightly back and forth. The gestures and movements were as precise as a military group. A couple of the gestures reminded me of upper body ballroom dancing movements. Other movements were primal in nature, like beating of the chest and occasional noises were thrown in among the gestures. At first all 18 women were in complete sync on their movements, then all of a sudden, each row was doing their own separate movements. Then after a short period of time, all three rows were back together again in sync with their movements. What was also amazing, was that you could not really tell when the rows broke apart from one another and then when they got back together again. The movements during this story seemed like a moving Escher drawing. Now that's a first, at least for me it was.

Another story had the entire choir standing on their bleacher steps, leaning forward in unison and blowing from their mouths as if they were blowing out candles on a giant cake, turning from left to right and back again. But what they were really doing was blowing the singular dancer back and forth across the stage from left to right. As the choir stopped blowing momentarily to regain their breath, the dancer stopped as well. Once the blowing started up again, the dancer was pushed back across the stage yet once again and again. It was so imaginative and hilarious at the same time.

Another story had one of the dancers lifted up into the air by the choir members-while the choir members were were standing on their bleacher rows-and the dancer was passed from one end of the group to the other end, hand over hand, and then back again. All the while the dancer was almost frozen, looking upwards, in an outstretched Jesus Christ like crucifixion pose. Still another story had all the dancers leave the bleachers and formed 4 smallers groups and each group carried a dancer, again in the Jesus Christ pose, moving the dancer across the dance floor. As the groups moved the dancers in rhythm to the music, the group of women would lower the legs of the dancer and the dancer would take a few steps on the dance floor, then the dancer was hoisted again up into the air and the group of women continued the march of the crucified. It was all very very moving...sorry...emotional.

The beginning of the final dance story had the movement choir sitting on the floor in a large oval shape formation, like a ship out to sea. Their backs were towards the main audiance and each woman was moving like in a exageratrated rowing motion, moving their upper torso up and down, back and forth. It was like they were both a ship and rowers at the same time. Amazing. Only dancers could pull this off and so beautifully.

The end of the final story closed with the entire auditorium in darkness except for one lone spotlight. The women of the movement choir had their backs turned towards the audience - and we saw their black silhouetted figures with bare arms, their arms stretched upwards towards the lone light that showered down on them, like a giant skirt, as if coming from heaven. Their arms were reaching upwards towards that search light, that eternal heaven, perhaps even reaching towards God, who really knows.

Afterwards, reading the program, I could not help but notice that these women in the movement choir had trained and studied at schools from all across the United States and overseas: from San Francisco to Texas to Pennsylvania; from Africa to Europe. They came from all over and here they were, together, at our YBCA. A movement choir of women, who came from near and far, to bring their movements and their gestures for us in the audience to see and enjoy and for themselves as well. Turns out I was wrong - the movement choir does sing afterall. And this movement choir sang for us with their beautiful bodies, their unusual moves and their sounds of life.

*****************

One final thought on the dance itself. The dance venue was very important as well. The fouth part. It was not staged at the main theater at YBCA. Instead it was in the smaller theater next to the YBCA Museum. So it was more like a beautiful large gym like setting, where three sides of the room had bleacher seating for the audience. The audience was on three sides, almost as if the dance performance needed to play out as if on a peninsula. The audience really needed to wrap around three sides of the dance/choir/music performance. On a regular stage, this large scale dance performance just would not have been as effective.

*****************

The choreographers of this amazing piece were Janice Garrett and Charles Moulton. They are currently working on a piece in Africa with about 75 African Children preparing the young dancers for their own African Festival.

The six dancers are well know in the SF Dance scene and beyond. They all have performed for a number of dance groups and events, including ones like ODC, Martha Grahm Company, Joffrey Ballet, Western Ballet, Mark Foehringer Dance Project, Prints Dance, Bay Area National Dance Week to name only a few.

Wow - Those Trolley Dances...

2009-10-21T16:03:00.000-07:00

Wow, those Trolley dances! That just about sums up many of the comments by people who attended last weekends San Francisco Trolley Dances. They wrote these glowing reviews in the comments field of the surveys and many even spoke up and voiced their pleasure at the end of their dancing tour.

These people not only came from all over San Francisco but from all over the Bay Area and beyond- just to attend this event. It's amazing that folks drove or took public transporation all the way to S.F. for Trolley Dances. I spoke with two young students who came from San Jose State University. There was a couple who brought their grandchildren from Marin County. There was also a young lady, by herself, who took Bart over from the East Bay and a number of out of state (and out of country) tourists who wanted to see at least some of the Trolley Dances if not the whole route.

I not only had a great time speaking with attendees but it was such an honor to volunteer as a tour guide and perform other duties during all three days of the Trolley Dances. The first day, Friday, was for high school students and it was a dry run for the dancers and event organizers. Saturday and Sunday were the days open to the general public - the heart of the Trolley Dances. I have to say, I loved every minute of it.

The strongest points of this years event were Diversity and Vision, followed closely by the dancing. Last year (2008) I thought the strongest points were the Choreography and Dances themselves.

VISION: This year the Trolley Dances was set to the theme of "Park to Park," (Dolores Park to Balboa Park). That meant attendees used the J Church Muni Trolley for transportation from park to park. There were three dances in each park and one dance along the way on Church Street half way between the parks. The street dance was performed for the trolley riders to view from their seats as the torolley rolled by. The performance on the street was ballroom dancing by a professional couple who also teach dancing. I know they could teach me a few steps - even more than a few. In addition to all seven dances, each tour ended with a beautiful performance by the SF Merionettes Synchronized Swim Club at Balboa Park in their newly renovated swimming pool.

There were six tours each day Sat and Sun and all the tours booked up within an hour or so after registration started each day. We had to turn folks away, although we did give them alternate ideas on how to get to Balboa park for the remaining dances.

DIVERSITY: The dances started in Dolores Park and the first dance was a Mexican piece with live Mexican Musicians. The dance was performed by Rosamaria Garcia and Jorge Rodolfo De Hoyos in traditional Mexican Costumes. What a great wasy to start especially in the Mission District. Next up was Deborah Slater Dance Theater and they performed a whole piece back and forth across the bridge in Dolores Park. Oddly enough, that is a bridge that crosses over the trolley lines. It's also a bridge that was used as a romantic setting in the movie, Sweet November. Keenu Reeves and Charlize Theron stood in the middle of that bridge and embraced, actually doing a different kind of dance you could say. A sad romantic dance that we all know so well. Worth seeing the movie. Attendees at the Trolley Dances really got a kick out of this nugget of information.

Deborah Slater's dance was a contemporary dance in progress. It was so well done by something like 18 dancers. The main dancers were business like people with brief cases and others were young maidens all dressed in white, holding potted plants. These young maidens even attempted to give their plants to the business workers during parts fo the dance. It was a timely piece considering what people are going thru with the economy and family issues revolving around that today. I think the dance is suppose to be in final form later this year or early next, so I will look forward to seeing the complete dance.

Deep Waters Dance Theater and Kathleen Hermesdorf also danced each day giving audiences messages with food for thought regarding "time" and infinite possibilities that we all have within ourselves. The audiences really got into this message.

The final performance was the only one staged inside and that was the Synchronized swimming by young students whom the audience really responded to.

What a great great event that Epiphany Productions puts on and all those wonderful folks who organized the whole event: Kim, Chris, Randy, Tina, Chi Chi and all the other dancers and support staff and volunteers. And of course the audience themselves were great.

All aboard for Trolley Dances 2009

2009-09-23T17:03:00.000-07:00

My favorite and most enjoyable dance I watched last year (2008) was the Trolley Dances in S.F. Another one of those dance productions that took me by complete surprise. So you can only imagine how excited I am about the return of Trolley Dances next month for two days, Oct 17th and 18th, 2009. The little kid in me is all giddy and ready to go, and the adult in me has no say for that weekend - none what so ever.

Epiphany Productions puts this dance together and it will be their 6th annual San Francisco performance next month. (Trolley Dances originally started in San Diego about 11 years ago and continues today and six years ago the idea was executed up here in the City.) For both cities, this is site specific dancing at a very high creative level, both in concept and in dancing execution.

The whole concept itself of trolley dancing is really simple but elegant. Each year Epiphany picks one trolley line in S.F. and anyone can purchase a ticket for that line and then band together with other ticket purchasers, as a small group, and then use the trolley to get to all the different dances set up along the trolley route. Once a dance is over, the group boards the next trolley and continues on down the line to the next site, the next dance group.

Some of the goals of the event are to (1) keep the event free, except for the trolley ticket, so anyone can attend, (2) encourage folks who may not attend performing arts events to come out and (3) to get people to visit parts of the City that they would not normally travel to. And I think these goals really work. They did for me. Since Trolley Dances was at the T-Line down near the CalTrain Station on 3rd Street last year, I have gone back to that area about a dozen times and have even taken a few friends there as well. This year, the Trolley Dances will be performed along the J Church line.

There were five dances set along the trolley line last year and this year it looks like there will be seven sites/dances. That's a 40% increase over last year. Now if only we could get our economy to improve like that, we'd really have something to dance about. In our dreams right?

Last year the first dance group was Scott Wells and Dancers and they were terrific. Dancing along the waterfront, this group of about 5 dancers, combined impromptu dancing with some choreographed parts. At times they seemed to be dancing alone then they merged together for their choreographed parts. At least that's what I saw. A couple of times during the dance, the dancers, as a group, were directly facing us in the audience and had their arms bent out in front of themselves, very regal like, standing up tall and kicking their right legs straight up in the air almost touching their faces. At those very moments of their dance, I just had this image of strong matadors dancing in front of me. Their power just radiating thru the air. When I asked the lead dancer about those steps and mentioned matadors, she explained to me that I was close. That those steps were some very unusual marital arts steps that they mixed into their routine. Don't you just love it? I do.

I was so taken by Trolley Dances that I even volunteered to help lead groups on the Sunday performances this year. Either way, I hope to see you there.

For more information go to web site: http://www.epiphanydance.org/performances.html

Jim Tobin
"The Gift of Time:

What's in a name? Even a dancers name.

2009-09-21T11:27:00.000-07:00

Jill Echo and Jessica Touchet. What do these two names have in common, besides being names that belong to dancers? Answer: they have such neat, wonderful names! Even for dancers. I don't think names get better than these two.

By the way, Jill Echo use to dance for the Paul Taylor Dance Company in New York City and Jessica Touchet currently dances for the Smuin Ballet based in San Francisco.

Recently, a good friend of mine, Bob Stephens and I, talked about these two names because we both really loved their names so much. Bob is currently retired, but he was a well respected writer, reviewer of both dance and movies for such publications as S.F. Examiner, SF Ballet Magazine and other national publications.

Bob and I both joked and laughed, that as young boys growing up, it would have been so great to have had friends with names like Jill Echo and Jessica Touchet. They are both fine dancers as well.

Jim Tobin
"The Gift of Time"

The love of Ballet begins...via Michael Smuin.

2009-09-21T10:13:00.000-07:00

I first fell in love with Ballet because of Michael Smuin and his works in 1978. At that time, his ballet Romeo and Juliet, performed by the S.F. Ballet, was broadcast live on PBS as part of the "Dance In America" TV Series. As millions across the nation watched this ballet, I was hooked right from the start, especially with the role of Romeo's best friend danced by Attilia Ficzere. I had never really seen ballet before and afterwards I started to attend different ballet shows on a regular basis in S.F. and Oakland.

After a number of years I stopped going and did not attend another ballet for 17 years. I stopped primarily because most of the dancers I followed, retired and second I did not realize it at the time, but I was not really that interested in seeing classical ballet. I was more eager to see contemporary ballet. I just didn't realize it at the time and it would take more than 17 years for me to comprehend that taste. Plus, in that time period, I took up ballroom dancing myself and that filled my need for dance.

A few years ago, around 2005, I lost someone close to me in my personal life and decided to start attending ballet again, mostly for solace. As luck would have it, I attended another ballet by Smuin Ballet and it was "Symphony of Psalms," one of Michael's last major choreographed ballets before he passed away. I was hooked all over again. I enjoyed the Psalms Ballet so much that I attended a number of performances. And I still do that today. When I see a ballet or any dance I really enjoy, I will go back and see it again and again. I always see so much more in the dances with each viewing and I encouage others to go back as well. A well choreographed and performed dance with the right selected music, is like a fine art painting. A moving painting!

When I look back on this, it's a little amazing to me, that the same person (Michael Smuin) who brought me into ballet and made me fall in love with the dance for the 1st time, also brought me back into ballet and fall in love with it all over again - 17 years later.

Since then, I have been a faithful attendee of the Smuin Ballet, as well as other groups of course. This past season for Smuin Ballet, which ended in June 2009, they performed a great piece titled, "The Naughty Boy," performed to music by Mozart. The story was about cupid, as both a boy/girl spreading love about. The dance was choreographed by Trey Mcintrye and he set up the lead role for Jessica Touchet a lead ballerina for Smuin Ballet. (Today, Trey is considered a very hot choreogapher. And he has some of his work that will be performed at the San Francisco Jewish Community Center on California Street late in October 2009. )

Whatever one says about that dance, Jessica took the dance to a very high level. She "attacked" the role as the artistic director of Smuin Ballet described her performance so accurately. Jessica's jumps and turns throughtout the The Naughtly Boy were so quick and sharp, I wasn't sure if I was watching an athelete or a dancer and I wasn't sure if her movements were classical steps or more modern steps. I think both were in play. I think I was watching a dancer/athelete executing both classical/modern steps. And that "wicked" smile Jessica used in the dance really captured the flavor of the story and I'm sure that smile alone hooked alot of us folks in the audiance. It hooked me.

What surprised me about The Naughty Boy was that it was the first time I went back to a dance a number of times to see the performance of one dancer. In this case, one ballerina, Jessica Touchet. I have always gone back to see a particular dance again, or a whole group of dancers in a particular dance again, but never have I gone back just because of one dancer. It was such a pleasant surprise.

Jim Tobin
"The Gift of Time"

Sexiest Tango ever - while bare foot..!

2009-09-18T14:59:00.000-07:00

Yes. You read the title correctly. I saw the sexiest and most sensual tango I've ever seen and the female dancer was barefoot and the male partner spent most of the dance on the floor. Amazing. Where do these dancers get their ideas? How do they pull this stuff off?

The dance was performed by the Lublin Dance Theater (from Poland) at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts as part of the Liss Fain's Home Season - last weekend of August 2009. Liss Fain is a contemporary dance company in S.F. and they have like some kind of dance exchange program with Poland. So they travel back and forth and Poland sends dance companies over here. What a great idea, huh?

The name of the dance is "Towards the Good Silence," and the two dancers were Anna Żak and Ryszard Kalinowski. The dance is really a story about a relationship between a man and woman. How they are so near to one another and yet far part. It's about the male artist and his muse, whether she. the muse, be real or imagined. Some of the movements are so unusual, like when Anna stands upright on top of a book and turns and wringles the pages with her bare feet. I've read alot of books, in my time, but never using this method.

It's towards the middle of the dance that it really turns into a tango, as I saw it. The music was spot on with it's wonderful, forceful tango beat. Anna dances around and pushes her partner across the floor with her bare feet. I've never seen this kind of tango before.

Another part of the tango, Anna uses her head and pesses it up against the body of her male partner and in a moderate pace moves her head all around his upper body, under his arms, accross his back and so forth, always keeping her head in rubbing contact with his body. Never uses her arms, just her whole turning head and moving of course with her feet. It was like something we see cats do with humans quite a bit. Anna was able to move that cat dance, that they do, to her human tango dance.

Anne wore a simple, loose but form fitting black dress. And I couldn't help but think during the dance that sometimes a woman/dancer, no matter how plain looking, just oozes with sensuality and sexiness. That's what Anna gave off, from the stage all the way to us in the audiance. It remained me of a quote from the Impressionist painter Paul Gauguin who said, "...the ugly can sometimes be beautiful, the pretty never!" Well, let me tell you, this is the first time I've really seen Gauguin's words in action. And I have always loved that quote of his, but seeing the words, the idea of it, in real life, I like it even more now.

A dance step is worth a thousand words..!

Jim Tobin
"The Gift of Time"

The Ballad of Polly Ann...in the summer that's past.

2009-09-15T17:36:00.000-07:00

Before summer fades away too far, I want to share a few thoughts on one of the most unique San Francisco dancing events held so far this year (July 2009). That dance was titled, "The Ballad of Polly Ann," and it was a dance about the women who have helped build the Bay Area Bridges. Yes, that's right. Building bridges. Women. Is that a neat story or what?

The dance was performed by seven women from Flyaway Productions, the arial dancing group (dancing while suspended from ceilings on cables) based in San Francisco and its founder/director is Jo Krieter. Only about 1/3 of the Polly Ann Dance was arial, though, while the rest was traditional, on floor or stage dancing. Polly Ann was held at SOMarts center. A great dancing venue as it's an old steel working plant and looks about 3 or 4 stories high inside. Perfect for the Polly Ann sets that represented bridge roadways, steel towers and had to be at least 40ft plus high.

The music was composed by a woman who has worked with Jo Krieter many times in the past. And the composer mixed in words directly into the music - words taken from interviews of the female bridge builders from their oral history interviews conducted by Harvey Schwartz, oral historian for the International Long Shoreman Union. (Harvey was my professor at S.F. State University back in the early 1980's. He and I use to run marathons together and we use to run along the streets of Oakland, while Harvey pushed his baby in his baby carriage and while Mrs. Schwarts was working - but not on bridges. I have not seen Harvey in 25 years.) Sometimes, we get more out of these dances then we ever image.

The dance itself was broken down into 10 phases of Polly Ann. Most of the phases came directly from the words and ideas of actual women who have or still work on the bridges. Some examples of the phases:

1st phase: Polly Ann in a beautiful "summer" dress that she sheds for working cloths, because her husband had taken sick and she needed to "drive steel like a man" in order to replace her husband on the bridge work.

Another phase: the women dance with wallets, to represent the inequality of pay for the female bridge workers. The wallets at times are used as such things as cell phones, makeup kits w/mirrors and of course as money holders.

Another phase: early on two of the female dancers perform an arial dance, about 40ft up on a roadway. The road way eventually turns into a wall, and the two dancers are suspended and perform a beautiful air dance, spinning, and sailing thru the air, around, over and pressed up against the wall/roadway. Somethings they help one another and some moments they are executing their moves alone. Just like life, huh. Just like work. Just like bridge building. At one moment, during the air dance, one of the dancers moves and gives off the image of an astronauts slowly moving thru space, thru gravity. I wish the space and gravity could have gone on longer.

Late phase: All the dancers performed a great choreographed piece each with their own push brooms. These brooms were included because one of the female bridge workers said that women were forced to push brooms early on, before they were allowed to do some of the same jobs the men were performing on the bridges. In the dance, it's clear these brooms are tools and not a partner like in the Fred Astaire broom dance. At the end, all the female dancers throw the brooms away in the direction of the audiance. A couple of brooms came close to me. But I wasn't afraid. I trusted these Flyaway women...!! And I still do.

Late phase: Kelly Kemp, dancer, performs a solo arial dance and simply guides herself around in a perfect, large circle, suspended on her cable, about 2 or 3 ft above the dance floor. The music is serene and includes words from a female worker who talks about working 150ft above the BAy waters on a steel metal beam. Cold but oh so lovely up there. And Kelly catches that moment so beautifully, it's like at times she seems like a fish gliding effortlessly thru water, or a bird sailing smoothly and quitely thru air, just inches above ground. Kelly added just the right amount of femininity to her piece. She did not over due it, which I think is not that easy to pull off, considering the setup for this phase. I even had the wonderful opportunity to tell Kelly about my reaction to her solo piece.

I was lucky enough to attend a few of the 10 performances of Polly Ann as well as the open panel discussion with the female bridge builders that was held before the 1st Saturday night's performance right at SOMarts Center.

A number of evenings the Polly Ann dancers received yelling and standing ovations. I certainly was one of them. I do hope to write more about this wonderful dance. It certainly was one of the highlights of my summer.

Now, here we are moving thru Sept and I have to admit I still miss this dance. I miss my moments with Polly Ann. I miss the visions of that dance.

Jim Tobin
"The Gift of Time"

Dancing over the Labor Day Weekend

2009-09-10T11:26:00.000-07:00

Well there certainly was some wonderful dancing over the Labor Day weekend. Boy was there!

The event was at the James Howell Studio on Sanchez Street in S.F. just 2 blocks off of Market. Great remodeled studio with its long and narrow dance room, beautiful brick walls and stately wooded beams. Definately worth checking out.

I attended the Sunday 3:00pm performance over the Labor Day Weekend and was so surprised at the wonderful dancing that I returned that same evening for the 8:00pm performance. The program was RAWdance's Concept Series #5. Also on the program was Printz Dance Project as well as some other individual dancers.

One dance I identifed with and really moved me was titled "Heart" (of course, what else?) and was choreographed and danced by Bob Webb. I've never seen anything quite like it. I was really blown away and as usual I never seem to be prepared to be blown away. Who knows, maybe it's better that way.

The bottom line is that it was a dance about love (love affair) and it was danced in three parts, the three general parts of love and each part had it's own music. Each of the music selections really set the tone for that part of the dance - that part of the love story. The music was as well selected for its part of the dance, as any I've heard before.

The 1st part used mellow music by Tchaikovski. Bob, dressed in a white toga robe, stood still and very very slowly raised his right arm extending it outward towards his new found love, while slowly a smile crept upon his entire face, almost no movement is detected. This was the slow falling in love stage.

The 2nd part had music by a group I was not aware of called Corvus Corax and this group uses Bag Pipes in a very modern fashion and I love bag pipes. The music was quite striking and alive and Bob removed his robe and danced lively modern and Japanese dance steps. This is where the love is lived fully.

The final 3rd part used beautiful hunting music by E.S. Posthumus. Very sad, mortality like feeling music as Bob was knocked to the floor a number of times, arms and body flaying around, getting beat up by love. Getting back up and moving forward again and again, but losing ground all the while with each fall with each disappointment. Almost being thrown on the floor by a bigger force then the dancer himself. This was the end of the love affair. "The Big Knock Down," as they would say in Film Noir.

I spoke with Bob Webb after the evening performance and I told him I related to his love story, his dance, but that I wished I did not. To which Bob laughed and said we all wished we did not. He also explained that his performance was a form of Japanese dancing and performance (Butoh) that aims to have the audiance viewer see not so much the dance steps, but sees and feel what they bring from their own experience to the dance. It's works.

One final note: generally the best years of a dancer's physical dancing powers are between the ages of 15 to 30 yrs old. So it was nice to see Bob Webb up there dancing as he is closer to my age, middle-age plus.

Gosh was I glad I went to this performance. I want to write a bit more on the other dances later.

Jim Tobin
"The Gift of Time"

Dancing all summer long in San Francisco..!!

2009-09-09T19:28:00.000-07:00

Hello Fellow Blogger.

Thank you for joining me at my Bay Area Dance Watch Blog. This is my first posting.

Below is an email/letter that I sent to the editor of the Pink Section of the S.F. Chronicle last week, around Sept 1st. I dearly wanted to point out that there was dancing all summer long in San Francisco and surrounding area. My letter was a followup on the editor's comment that there wasn't much happening in the arts during the lazy summer season. As of today, the Chron has not printed my letter.

However, I've received several passionate feedback responses from a few folks in the dancing community, who have seen the letter. Thank you to those dear dear folks.

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Dear Sue Adolphson, Editor

Just wanted to followup on your comment from last Sunday's Datebook (08/30/09) that there wasn't a whole lot happening in the arts over the lazy summer (paraphase). Actually in dance alone there were events every week in San Francisco from June thru Aug.

Right in the middle of summer, there was one of the most unique dancing events in S.F. this year: The Ballad of Polly Ann by Flyaway Productions, a dance about women who have helped build the Bay Area Bridges. How neat is that? Right after that was Joe Goode with a creepy beautiful dance at one of the strangest buildings in S.F.- The Old Mint Building.

Before and after these two great performances, there were dances by Printz Dance Project, Smuin Ballet, City Ballet, Westwave, Zhukov Dance Theatre, Liss Fain, S.F. Dance Center/LINES Ballet, Mission Dance Center and many many others.

At a lot of these performances, by the way, the dancers received partial or full audience standing ovations. I think many of the viewers felt the dancers were up there dancing their hearts out during these "lazy" summer days.

These dancers deserve our recognition and whatever support we can give them!

Sincerely,
Jim Tobin
"The Gift of Time"