Life as a Modern Dancer

Building a Dance Company: The Pre-Company Stage (Part 1 of a 3-Part Series)

 

Part One: The Pre-Company Stage

By Lauren Simpson and Jenny Stulberg of Simpson/Stulberg Collaborations

Around ten years ago, we each had the goal of starting a dance company, but that was long before we knew each other and had the wherewithal to take action steps to make it a reality. A whole set of experiences and factors, most of which we realize were out of our control, needed to align before we could consider being entrepreneurs in addition to artists.

We both moved to the Bay Area in the summer of 2014, and soon afterward we met in Christine Cali’s weekend workshop. A month later there was an opening in RAW Dance’s CONCEPT Series 16, so we collaborated on a short duet, which we also performed. From there we made several more dances, gradually beginning to recognize that our shared life experiences were adding up to something. In hindsight, we can identify more or less five main factors that added up to the emergence of our small dance company. They are collaboration, art making, time, community, and getting pushed off a ledge.

Collaboration- We are well-matched collaborators, but we don’t share the same strengths, which is to our benefit. Lauren does most of the grant writing and organization; Jenny does the videoing, documenting, and public relations. In the studio, Lauren is mostly concerned with a certain kinetic logic, compositional rules, and conceptual arc; Jenny is more instinctual and quicker to break the rules. What we share is an ambition for making dance a central part of our lives. We are in our early 30s, an age when we notice many of our colleagues (understandably) dropping out of the field. For better or worse, we have chosen to stay in it. We share a conviction to not waste our time or anyone else’s, to make the best work we can within our constraints, and to take our work seriously and professionally.

Art making- At this point in our careers we’ve made enough dances to hopefully have gotten the really bad ones out (also known as graduate school), though we are confident there will be future bad ones because the standards for what we do are constantly rising. We’ve also seen enough work to determine where we fit in the larger context, to be influenced by great dance makers and yet avoid imitation. The first dance we made was called Still Life for Two. We studied the composition and qualities of a 19th century masterwork still life painting and then based our choreographic approach on these elements. We enjoyed this process so much, we did it three more times and now we are in the midst of creating Still Life No. 4. Working with still life paintings has been a choreographically rich territory for us, as it has shaped our movement vocabulary in distinct ways. Taking this approach repeatedly (working in a series) forces us to deepen and refine what we’re doing. We no longer feel an obligation to make a categorically different dance every time because we have found a research topic that both focuses our aesthetic and allows for growth with each attempt. It’s not that each Still Life Dance gets better (No.2 has never felt fully satisfying nor finished to us), but each time feels worth the repeated investigation because we are motivated to make the next one. Like Ira Glass famously says, “It’s only by going through a volume of work that... your work will be as good as your ambitions.”

Time- We had both moved to San Francisco with a little savings and part-time work, and therefore had the extra bandwidth to spend quality, un-rushed time in the studio - a luxury we couldn’t afford in our twenties when we worked several jobs and hustled between performance gigs. Over the past year we didn’t once think about making a company; we only thought about making a dance. We did showcases, shared bills, got commissions, and whatever else we needed to do to avoid putting energy into production and administration. Time and space to work on the artwork is crucial, and it's a phase we anticipate going back to over and over again.

A Community- A few key people and programs in the Bay Area went out on a limb for us - hiring us, selecting our application, or writing letters of recommendation. Through these folks we have made other artist friends who want us to succeed. These people are crucial.

The Ledge- A few things happened at once - we received some grants to create an evening length work, Lauren got pregnant, and then we started hiring dancers and other collaborators. It turns out when you start hiring a crew of artists, you need to raise money, and in order to raise money it’s helpful to be fiscally sponsored by a non-profit entity. Once you are sponsored you can launch a fundraising campaign and apply for larger grants. Once you’ve done all of those things, you turn around to discover you have de facto started a dance company. Consciously avoiding all the hard work (administration) that goes into making the rest of the hard work (the dance), we were blissfully in the pre-company stage, until we weren’t. It was the ledge off of which we needed to get pushed.

 

To purchase tickets to our upcoming show March 31, April 1, and April 2, 2016 at ODC Theater in San Francisco, click here.

Find out more at: www.stilllifedances.com

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Related posts:

Blog Series: Building a Dance Company

About Fiscal Sponsorship

Artist Profile #113: Joan Woodbury (Salt Lake City, UT)

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The Playlist Project: Music for Preschool Dance Classes

 

By Tanya Chianese

 

Below is this week's creative movement class plan and music (3-5 year olds):

We warm up in a circle to my voice, which includes stories and songs.

I ask a question (this week - "What's your favorite bug?"), then one at a time we each answer and share a short dance. In my experience, this opens up the introverts early in class. This week the song is Suril Luril by Annlaug.

In a line on dots of tape we practice standing technique. I use Diamond Shapes and Tiptoes (plies), Tight Rope Walks (releve walks), and Brush The Floor (Tendues) from David Howard's Album "Pre-Ballet Music for the Young Child."

We then use Time To Say Goodbye By Andrea Bocelli for a ballon dance.

My most successful part of class, I use Small Jumps - Changements, Temps Leves- Delibes - 2/4 by Peter Helms (or other clear petit allegro music), for clapping/jumps and sometimes a Volcano dance (Erupt on count 1, melt the lava back in counts 2-8). We all count out loud together.

Next, I personally play a toy drum for a tempo game with the students, by far their favorite part of class.

For across the floor I mix up their favorite pop songs (which even at their young age, they often know all the lyrics) and other upbeat music. Currently: Stitches by Shawn Mendes, Shake it Off by Taylor Swift, Sing A Song by Earth, Wind & Fire, and Les Artistes by Santogold.

We always finish with improvisation stories or freeze dance. Currently, I have a beach story to the music Water From The Same Source by Rachel's.

Tanya Chianese is a performer, choreographer, and teaching artist in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is Artistic Director of the ka·nei·see | collective.

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Related posts: 

Blog Series: The Playlist Project

My Dance Week: Tanya Chianese

Becoming a Teaching Artist: Picture Books to Use in Your Children's Classes

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Artist Profile #127: Rosana Barragan (San Francisco, CA)

Hometown: Bucaramanga, Colombia

Current city: San Francisco

Age: 41

College and degree: Universidad Javeriana (Bogota, Colombia). Degree in Communications.

Graduate school and degree: Laban Centre, now called Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. MFA in Dance Studies (no longer offered).

Website: My dance studio: www.calliopedance.com; Saint Mary's College: http://www.stmarys-ca.edu/mfa-in-dance

All of the dance hats you wear: Dance artist and educator, dance studio owner

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My 20s: Didn’t stop training everyday, and I traveled a lot performing in different venues and festivals in Colombia, Mexico, England, Ecuador, and Portugal. Went to graduate school. And in my late 20s started working at two universities in Bogota, Colombia - one with a dance degree already established, and the other creating a new dance degree. Started studying different somatic movement disciplines.

30s: Choreographed a number of site-specific dance performances; did research and published articles in journals and books in Colombia; moved to the United States and started working at Saint Mary’s College of California teaching in the dance undergraduate degree program and later creating a new MFA in Dance program. Became the owner of a dance studio for children in San Francisco and created a somatic based dance curriculum for children ages 3-12. Trained in different somatic movement disciplines and obtained a certificate as a somatic movement educator following the somatic system called “Dynamic Embodiment."

40s: Just started this exciting decade. Working at Saint Mary’s College of California as the Director of the MFA in Dance: Creative Practice program and teaching in both the undergraduate and graduate programs. Teaching children and running my studio in San Francisco.

Please share a little about growing up in Colombia, in a dancing household:

My mother was a dance teacher and had a school of dance in our home in the tropical city of Bucaramanga in the Andes mountains of Colombia. It was a big house for a family of 8 (2 parents and 6 children) plus two studios. So I grew up surrounded by dance everywhere. My mother was a Spanish classical dance and flamenco dancer as well as an expert in Colombian folklore. My oldest sister, after going through professional training experiences in modern dance and jazz, she specialized in flamenco. I was the youngest child and really wanted to be different, so I trained in a ballet conservatory from the age of 7 until the age of 17. And then I moved to modern dance, and later found my passion in studying dance as an academic field.

When did you move to the United States, and what was the impetus?

I moved to the United States in 2006 to work with my sister, who is also a dance artist. She is in Richmond, Virginia, where she has a dance non-profit organization called the Latin Ballet of Virginia. I worked there as the educational program director for 2 years, and then I got the wonderful opportunity to become a faculty member at Saint Mary’s College of California, so I moved to the Bay Area. I had a wonderful job teaching at two universities as well as choreographing and performing, and also a great life in Bogota, Colombia, but my husband and I wanted an adventure. So we decided to take on the opportunity for me to come to work with my sister in Virginia as the first step to see how life could be in the United States, and now we’ve been here for 10 years.

What is on your calendar for 2016? 

2016 is going to be simple with not much traveling but focusing on teaching, which is my main job at the moment. I enjoy the balance of teaching children and undergraduate as well as graduate students. I run my own studio and do a big production at the end of the year. I am trying to finish a paper for journal publication at the end of February, and hopefully more like this opportunity will continue to happen this year.

Please describe your most current project (as a performer or choreographer) and the questions you are asking yourself right now as an artist.

I have been working as a performer for Cathy Davalos Dance Company and her project “Oh The Moon,” that will be performed in Italy this summer. In terms of my own choreographic work, I don’t intend to choreograph this year except for children’s choreography. My main choreographic interests are in creating dance installations and site-specific work. I hope to return to this in 2017.

Current movement practices and care for the body:

Yoga combined with swimming are my favorite activities that take me away from my dancing mind, so they really give me a break from being a dance thinker and allow me to connect to my body in a different way. I am deeply invested in somatic movement practices and find that the Alexander Technique or the Feldenkrais Method or a session in Body Mind Centering or Body Mind Dancing, and especially if it has hands on work incorporated, can be extremely beneficial for the health of my emotional, physical and intellectual body.

Somatics are integral to your work. Which practices have you explored, and who have you studied with? What was your presentation in the Summer of 2015 about?

I got to know about somatics during my graduate studies at the Laban Centre between the years of 1998 and 2001. Contemporary dance training in London then was receiving a lot of influence from the somatic movement work and especially from the Skinner Releasing Technique. When I moved to Colombia after my graduate studies in London, I studied the Alexander Technique for 6 years with Bobby Rosenberg, a colleague of mine at Universidad Javeriana in Bogota. While I was studying with Bobby and creating a new dance degree that would have a strong influence of somatics, I received a scholarship to come to the Bay Area to study at Moving on Center. They had a program called “Participatory Arts” that had a strong component of social justice, the performing arts and somatics (Alexander, Bartenieff Fundamentals and Laban Movement Analysis, Process work and Authentic Movement). There I studied with Martha Eddy, Carol Swann, Peggy Hackney and Susan Bauer. I continued to study with Martha Eddy, and she is still my main teacher that I have followed and continue to study with. I trained in her somatic movement system called “Dynamic Embodiment” as well as in her “Body Mind Dancing” method for teaching dance to all based on Body Mind Centering as well as BF and LMA concepts. Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen has had a great influence in my work as a teacher and researcher. I have studied with her in group workshop settings as well as in individual sessions. I participated as a teacher in the most recent International Dance and Somatic Practices Conference at the University of Coventry in England last summer. My presentation focused on the concepts of “cellular consciousness” and the “place of space” from Body Mind Centering, exploring the sense of universal space that we can experience in our bodies through the awareness of the life and presence of our cells and the history that they have in the formation of our corporeal existence. As we allow our bodies to go there, we open the possibility for potential states of being in relation to flow and space and highly creative processes for dance practice.

When did you open a studio in San Francisco? How do you balance owning a business, teaching young children, being a college professor, and having a family?

It’s a crazy balance. When I moved to the Bay Area, a good friend of mine had just opened a dance studio for children. I started working with her, teaching about 12 classes a week at the same time that I was teaching part-time at Saint Mary’s College. A couple of years later, she had to move and asked me if I wanted to take over the dance studio, and I then became the owner. That was in 2010, so it’s been almost 6 years of a lot of work. I do administrative work, teach the dance classes in Spanish, manage the curriculum and create weekly lesson plans, organize the end of the year production with the children, and train and supervise the teachers. I feel very lucky because all of the teachers that I have at the moment are wonderfully aligned with the dance studio philosophy and curriculum. The dance studio has 150 students, so I communicate with 150 families. I am also full-time faculty at Saint Mary’s College, where I teach mostly in the graduate program and hold the title of the Director of the MFA in Dance: Creative Practice program. At Saint Mary’s I feel so supported by the most wonderful community of teachers and staff. We all work together, so in some sense the work feels “less” than running the dance studio all by myself. I love both of these worlds --- teaching in an academic setting where I can continue to do research and teach theoretical courses that I feel completely passionate about, and having the opportunity to dance with children who also teach me a lot as I witness them go through their developmental stages and see how they live in their bodies that naturally dance.

You helped create the new low residency MFA program at Saint Mary’s College. What excites and challenges you about this?

The MFA in Dance Program at Saint Mary’s College was a very exciting project for me because I was able to dream about the type of graduate program that I believe in. I brought in ideas from the graduate program that I did and especially how much it was based on theory and research, as well as my interests in areas such as somatic movement studies, social justice and critical pedagogy as it applies to dance. These are the main disciplines that the MFA in Dance: Creative Practice program focuses on as they relate to contemporary choreography. Seeing how these ideas - that I once put on paper as a proposal - being materialized now in our current students and especially in those who are in their final stage of studies, is extremely exciting. I am referring to our first graduating class who will finish the program this coming June 2016. In terms of challenges, there are many, especially because it is a new program and both MFA in Dance programs (Creative Practice and Design & Production) are unique in how they are designed and what they offer.

Last performance you saw that inspired you:

Cloud Gate Dance Theatre Company from Taiwan. I saw them in January at Zellerbach Hall performing the work by artistic director Lin Hwai-min titled “Rice."

Final thoughts - Hope/belief/love of the profession:

My main hope for the field of dance has always been that we as dance artists are able to look outside of our own bubble of dance, that we are able to consider all types of thoughts and disciplines so we can look at dance with a broad – universal – mind. We don’t have to look at dance from the perspective of dance; we can be critical of our own practice and follow it based on multiple angles of thought (philosophy, politics, the arts, history, astronomy, science, ecology, justice…).

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Related posts:

Low Residency Masters Programs in the United States

Artist Profile #76: Cathy Davalos (Richmond, CA)

Tracing Our Somatic Lineage

Studio Owners/Directors

A Modern Dancer's Guide to.....the San Francisco Bay Area

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An Incredible Music Resource for Choreographers and Teaching Artists: Mike Wall and soundFORMovement

 

By Mike Wall

 

I am a composer, performing musician and faculty in The Department of Dance at The University of Utah. My family and I moved out to Utah 3 years ago and really love it out here. I was born in Mississippi and grew up in New Jersey, attending Rutgers University to study piano. At Rutgers, I first learned how to play for ballet and modern dance technique classes. I was inspired by the live collaboration with dance everyday and the rapid improvisational nature of accompanying dance. This process awakened a desire to compose and began to exercise that part of my artistic brain. Playing 3-5 dance classes, 7 days a week, is like going to the gym for a composer. Instead of brooding and reflecting for long periods of time about a musical idea, dance class allows you to go with instinct and immediately share that thought with a group of other artists and see how it plays.

I moved to NYC after college and began working for The American Dance Festival, Bates Dance Festival and for dance studios all over the city. This time period was full of new compositional work. The more I played class, the more work came my way as a composer. It was important to play for as many different teachers and styles of class as I could. The more experience I had with playing class, the more I was ready when a collaboration with a choreographer came my way. I wrote for hundreds of dances and played for thousands of dance classes over the next few years. As I met more and more musicians on the same path as myself, I started noticing a lack of distribution from our small community of composers. Here were some of the most prolific composers and improvisers and yet only a few of them had systems of distribution for their work.

I created, along with a good friend of mine, a website (asimplesound.com) that had 40 musicians for dance and over 3,000 tracks of our original music. It took years and a ton of resources to build this website for the dance community. Although it was praised and well used by the community, it became too much for one person to run alone. I began writing less music and was overwhelmed with the logistical demands of the website. Before moving to Utah, I decided to take a step back from the project and evaluate the benefit for myself and the dance community. I decided to completely redesign the concept of music for dance distribution and focus on the things I loved most about it. 

From what I learned from that experience, I started working on a new project, soundFORMovement.com. This website contains all of my music, over 400 tracks, and is different in one very key way. All of the music is available to everyone in the dance community for whatever price he/she likes, including absolutely free. At the core of the project, soundFORMovement serves dance students and educators, along with new choreographers, all who need all of the support they can get to learn how to start making work. Because of the ease and low cost of digital distribution, I found I could provide this support musically at a very low cost to myself and with huge benefit to the larger dance community. I also stopped requiring fees and licensing for all students and most beginning professionals, a practice that has really limited young dance makers the ability to work with original music for their work. The website is growing very rapidly, and I am so excited to keep developing it. You can contact me through soundFORMovement.com for any further information about my work and for any compositional/editing requests.  

 

 

Related links:

The Playlist Project: For PreK-12 Teaching Artists

Salt Dance Fest 2016: Roster of Teaching Artists

Spotlight on MFA Programs: University of Utah

A Modern Dancer's Guide to....Salt Lake City

 

 

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Artist Profile #126: Elisa Monte (New York, NY)

Hometown: New York, NY

Current city: New York, NY

Age: 69

Attended an arts high school? Not really, it didn’t offer any arts training but accommodated a young professional's schedule, touring, engagements and training - the Professional Children’s School.

College and degree: No degree, attended two years at St John’s and American College in Paris.

Website: elisamontedance.org

How you pay the bills: I always have managed to survive through dance.

All of the dance hats you wear: Dancer at first, then choreographer and then later company Artistic Director.

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Describe your dance life in your…. 

20s: I made a full commitment to dance, went at it fully. Worked with several dance companies simultaneously (among them, Pearl Lang, Richard Kuch, Richard Gain, Eleo Pomare) plus part time work at Capezio. Finally got into Lar Lubovitch's company and when he disbanded, into Martha Graham’s.

30s: Continued to work with Graham and with Pilobolus as well. Began to choreograph and started my own company with husband David Brown, all of this while I had my daughter at age 37. I also continued as a dancer in my own company.

40s: Continued to choreograph for my own company, as well as guest for other companies. There was much touring during these two decades. Saw much of the world and loved it. My daughter, Elia, toured with the company as much as I could manage to pull her out of school. I stopped full time performing at age 47.

50s: More of the same.

60s: More of the same.

Tiffany Rea-Fisher and Elisa Monte

Can you talk about the process of transitioning the company and selecting Tiffany? What are your wishes and dreams for the future of the company? On passing the torch and the legacy…

Tiffany had been a dancer with the company for nearly a decade. She, at one point, decided to pull back from dancing and concentrate on AD of the company. She started with educational initiatives, and that continued to grow in responsibility as she gained experience. We worked on ensuring her respect from EMD’s board of directors, funders and presenters. There is a firm trust that was established in her abilities to both care for the works that exist and for growing the creative life of the company. I’ve given her reign to go artistically wherever she feels compelled to. Artistic vitality depends and is fed by daily mutable personnel choices.

I would like to see the work I’ve created continue as a living repertory as well as the company being a vibrant creative place, offering energy and vision to the art of performing dance. 

Photo by Matthew Murphy

As you head into the next phase, what are you wanting to explore (traveling, reading, writing, family, etc)? 

I will continue to choreograph. I have freed myself from the daily AD worries and return to the luxury and terror of just creating.

I’ve always loved traveling and will continue to. I’m not a writer, so don’t see that in the horizon. Always loved reading…and family forever!

On mentors and mentoring…..

Oh, the list is long; I’ll name a few. I’ve been very lucky with whom I’ve met and worked with.

Agnes DeMille - kind and generous - gave me my first job at the age of 10. Martha Graham - demanding and filled with joie de vivre - created works on me and entrusted me with dancing her roles. Great teachers trained me, among them Kathy Grant, Maggie Black and my first, Vladimir Dokoudovsky.

What does the phrase “teaching artist” mean to you?

This is what every artist is…no one escapes the inevitability of it. Simply presenting one's work is teaching. Then there is the obligation of passing the information on.

Photo by Roy Volkmann

Can you describe a few of the biggest changes in modern dance over the span of your career? What has really surprised you? Impressed you?

It’s all good. They are smarter.

Last performance you saw that really inspired you:

Mark Rylance in Richard 3rd

Would you be willing to share one composition assignment or choreographic exercise here for dancers? What is one of your favorites?

Create a unique vocabulary.

I create through improvisation that is learned and then codified into a vocabulary for one specific dance.

Three questions for choreographers to consider:

• How do I access what I want (need) to do?
• How do I share that information? That is, manifest it in mine and other bodies?
• Has what I’ve created touched others?

 Photo by Matthew Murphy

To purchase tickets for the 35th anniversary season in March 2016, click here.

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Related posts:

Six Questions for Tiffany Rea-Fisher of Elisa Monte Dance

Becoming an Arts Administrator: 5 Questions for Caroline Yost of Elisa Monte Dance

Dancing and Reflecting: Dancers in Their 60s

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The Playlist Project: Music for Elementary Dance Classes

 

By Valerie Gutwirth

I’m on sabbatical this year from my job teaching dance to K-5 students at John Muir Elementary School in Berkeley, California. Back in the fall, I almost unconsciously began compiling a list of music to use some way somehow next year. This list owes a lot to my daughter Sylvie, a high school sophomore. I’ve loved having the time to drive her to school this year and be inspired by her music choices. Here are a few of the songs, and my ideas about where to use them; not exactly a whole class. Here I list the song title, artist, and album name.

 

Soar: Christina Aguilara, Stripped

I’ve used this for a warmup for 4th and 5th grades; it’s especially lovely in the morning. Now I’m wondering about using it for a choreography project with the same grade levels, maybe for 3^rd grade too.  I’d use the lyrics as a jumping-off point, and hope to partner with a classroom unit on poetry. 

Sun Models: ODESZA, In Return

This is great electronica-pop. Definitely for everyone, going across the floor, for freeze dance, for games.

Thanksgiving Song: Mary Chapin Carpenter,  Come Darkness, Come Light: 12 Songs of Christmas

I heard this in my colleague Rosemary Hannon’s classroom this fall. It’s a wonderful window into stories of thankfulness, a way to start kids thinking in movement about their traditions and looking at others. A performance piece for K-2.

Concerto Grosso in G Minor, Op.6 No.6: GF Handel, Academy Of St. Martin in the Fields, Iona Brown, Conductor

On my way back from high school drop-off, I cleanse my musical palate with classical. This piece brought to mind a promenade. I teach a folk dance called Kings and Queens to the K and 1 students; this piece will be a jumping-off place for them to create their own dances for royalty.

Keep on Movin’: Soul II Soul, Keep on Movin’

From my teenage years, this is another good one to use anywhere, for almost anything, for every grade level.

Sorry: Justin Bieber, Purpose

For teaching step ball-change or salsa step (K-5), before changing music to -->.

Disco Azucar: Los Van Van, Estrellas de Cuba

Just a fabulous salsa song from a band with a great history. Could be a fun way to begin comparing salsas from different places.

Eye of the Tiger: Survivor, Eye of the Tiger 

Because my first grade colleague Debbie Rogers loves it, and her students will too. I can see many ferocious dances being made, probably as duets.

Unc: Trombone Shorty, For True

I like how the horn plays along the top of this so clearly. It will help introduce the idea of soloist and chorus in a freestyle circle or a choreographed dance, for everybody.

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Related posts:

Artist Profile #26: Valerie Gutwirth (Oakland, CA)

My Dance Week: Valerie Gutwirth

A New Book: Dance Education Essentials by Valerie Gutwirth and Jill Randall

Playlist Project: For PreK-12 Teaching Artists

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Five Questions for Malina Rodriguez of Dance Truck

 

Utilitarian

Raw

Portable performance venue

Beloved Atlanta tradition  

Egalitarian

Bringing Dance To The People!  

Photo by Karley Sullivan. Blake Beckham's American Muscle at PICA's Time Based Art Festival 2011

1. What was the initial idea/inspiration/impetus for the project?

Having worked in Portland as a lighting designer and technical director for contemporary dance, I was looking for a way to connect with the dance community in Atlanta - where I had recently relocated. I attended local dance festivals and showings, conducting research into which choreographers I wanted to work for. Meanwhile, I was working as a union stagehand at the Fox Theater, and had just unloaded the trucks for Alvin Ailey’s show. I noticed how the light bounced around in the truck and thought that the empty truck could become a jewel box for dance. A call for proposals came up for a neighborhood arts festival of “light." I saw this as an opportunity to test my idea of lighting the truck as a jewel box and finally introducing myself to those Atlanta choreographers! The very first choreographer to take the Dance Truck as a stage was Blake Beckham, with whom I later co-founded The Lucky Penny.

2. What were the logistics of getting the truck and setting it up, plus permits, drivers’ licenses, etc?

We rent a different truck for each performance. We’ve often rented 26’ box trucks from Ryder, or the flat bed truck from Home Depot. My favorites have been classic pick up trucks loaned by friends, and the 49’ trailer TC Smith gave us for our show at the TBA Festival in 2011. Despite the spontaneous feel of the shows, we maintain high production values for our choreographers. We have a full day of load in and tech rehearsals the day before a show. We hire a full crew, including overnight security, electricians, a stage manager, lighting designer, even a DJ who also serves as sound board op for the dancers' music cues. Typically, the presenter acquires permits for any street closures, noise permits, etc. We rent a generator, and we have been supported by the local theater and visual arts community for lighting, sound, projection and other production equipment.

Photo by Aubrey Longley-Cook. Choreography by Hez Stalcup and lighting design by Dylan Phillips.

Left to right: Morgan Carlisle Thompson, Hez Stalcup (Choreographer), and Anicka Austin perform at Elevate 2014

3. What is your next event?

Dance Truck will be presented by Emory Dance at the American College Dance Association Southeast Conference on March 10th and 11th. We placed our first ever “Open Call for Proposals” to students attending the Southeast Conference. We accepted student proposals from University of South Florida, Houston Community College, University of Georgia, and Emory University. The programs for each night will also include work by faculty and professional choreographers including Kristin Hapke from Coker College, Daniel Gwirtzman from Kennesaw State University, and Kristin O’Neal, Okwae A. Miller, and Beacon Dance (all from Atlanta).

Photo by Aubrey Longley-Cook. Impromptu dance party with DJ Santiago Páramo and Dance Truck audience

4. How can people get involved this year - as audience members or performers?

After the show at ACDA, Dance Truck will retreat into our residency time at The Lucky Penny’s Work Room. Dance Truck is just one of the projects produced by The Lucky Penny. Folks can Like and Follow The Lucky Penny on Facebook and keep an eye on Dance Truck’s website to see photos from our March show.

http://www.theluckypenny.org/work-room/

https://www.facebook.com/The-Lucky-Penny-134942346580202/

www.dancetruck.org

5. What do you love most about the project?

I love the community that rallies around the performances and the culture of contemporary dance production. Our audiences and supporters have proven that dance is for everyone…and I have to give a shout out to anyone who has joined the spontaneous dance parties in the truck post show!

Photo by Bobbi Jo Brooks. Dancer: Corian Ellisor 

Photographer Bobbi Jo Brooks developed a series called "Portraits of Mystery" featuring Dance Truck choreographers. This photo features Corian Ellisor, who has been commissioned by Dance Truck 6 times, including the original Dance Truck performance (September 2009).

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Related posts:

Artist Profile #118: Kathleen Wessel (Atlanta, GA)

Mike Barber of Ten Tiny Dances

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My Dance Week: Teaching Full-Time in a K-12 School

For the past year, we have shared dancers' schedules and all that they entail - teaching, training, rehearsing, performing, commuting, and finding down time. In Fall 2015, I asked members of NDEO (the National Dance Education Organization) for dancers with full-time positions within a K-12 school to share their weekly schedules. This series will feature eight dancers from around the country working in a variety of settings.

Today you will read about Minneapolis dancer Kristin Blatzheim, who teaches full-time at a public school. The "My Dance Week" column offers a great window into the work done over a week - the scheduling of classes, rehearsals, prep time, and more.

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My name is Kristin Blatzheim, and I am the dance teacher at Apple Valley High School in Apple Valley, MN, a suburb of Minneapolis/St. Paul (about 30 minutes south of the cities). I have a BA in Dance from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, a MN K-12 teaching license in dance I obtained conjointly through online coursework at Bemidji State University and a Minnesota Department of Education portfolio program, and I am currently working on a M.Ed. in Professional Studies through the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. 

I moved to Minneapolis from Lincoln, NE in 2003 after finishing my undergrad, in search of a city with more dance opportunities that was still a friendly drive to home. Since relocating, I taught at several dance studios in the metro area and danced professionally with the Eclectic Edge Ensemble for 8 years. In 2006, I became interested in teaching in the public school realm, so I went back to school to get my license. Since 2008 I have taught part-time at several high schools in the metro area before landing firmly at a full-time job at Apple Valley High School in 2012. I am the only dance teacher at my high school, and one of three dance teachers employed in my school district. I became tenured this year!

Apple Valley High School serves 1600 students in grades 9-12 and offers a comprehensive dance program with 125 students currently participating. Students start in Dance Tech 1, and then progress through the program to Dance Tech 2, Choreography & Media, and Advanced Dance Company. All of our classes are full year classes, offering units in jazz, modern, ballet, hip hop, composition, improvisation, and two department main stage performances a year. Some students who start in Dance Tech 1 have never danced before, and others have had previous training at a dance studio in the area. My classes reach a diverse population of students, some who have never performed on a stage before. I focus on self-confidence, commitment, and community in my classes in addition to dance technique, choreography, and history. Apple Valley High School has a strong tradition of performing arts and a supportive administration that sees the value in dance as a component of the curriculum.

Show Schedule/Extra Contracts:

Fall Musical: I rehearse after school 2:30-5:30pm and on Sundays 1-3pm, 1-3 days a week during the end of September and October. The show runs the first weekend in November.

Fall Dance Department Show titled Just a Glimpse: The show is at the end of November; most rehearsals are done during class. Only 1 tech rehearsal happens outside of the school day and we only do one performance of this show.

Winter Performing Arts Department Show titled Broadway (band, choir, and dance collaboration):  I rehearse every day after school 2:30-5pm, December through February. There are two weeks of tech leading up to the two weekends of shows the last two weekends of February.

Spring Dance Department Show titled Danceworks: I rehearse or supervise guest choreographer rehearsals 2-3 days/week after school from 2:30-5 during April and early May. The show runs 3 nights the third weekend in May, and we do a week of tech rehearsals beforehand.

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Related posts:

Blog Series: My Dance Week

The Playlist Project: For High School Dance Classes

Teach dance in a high school? 14 reflection questions as you grow and develop your program

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Artist Profile #125: Pamela Quinn (New York, NY)

Hometown: Darien and Waterford, Connecticut

Current city: New York City

Age: 61

Attended an arts high school? No, but had a wonderful dance teacher named Pat Peterson at my school - Emma Willard 1972.

College and degree: B.A. Inter-Arts Oberlin College 1976

Website: http://pamelaquinn.net/

How you pay the bills: Lecturer, teacher and private coach for people with Parkinson’s disease

All of the dance hats you wear: Choreographer, dancer, teacher, coach, speaker, Parkinson’s disease advocate, writer,  and administrator.

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Describe your dance life in your…

20s: I was working with colleagues at Oberlin College - Brenda Way, Kimi Okada, and KT Nelson. There we started a group – a consortium of artists - called the Oberlin Dance Collective, which evolved into the dance company ODC/San Francisco after we moved west. In San Francisco we choreographed, performed, toured, opened a center where dance classes were taught, sponsored a performing arts series and published a journal called New Performance.

As an original member of ODC, my most significant contribution to the company  was the athleticism of my personal movement style. I choreographed, danced and performed with the company for 10 years - 10 very formative years.

30s: I continued to work with ODC in San Francisco and then forged out on my own to collaborate with actor/writer Michael O’Connor on dance-theater pieces. We moved to NYC and performed in the downtown dance scene for ten years. Eventually, we also married.

40s: We had two children. I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

I was in shock. Whenever I went to class I was faced with a body that couldn’t do what it used to be able to do; it didn’t respond to my commands. Dancing made me face my disease every day in a way that deeply saddened me. I would never be the same, and the path that lay before me was only one of deterioration. I stopped going to class; I stopped moving. I retreated from the dance world in order to figure out who I would now become. It was a difficult time for me. I was quite alone. I didn’t want to tell anyone about my disease because I didn’t want any pity.

Yet, I found that dancing did give me some tools. As I struggled to hide my disease from all those dancer-trained eyes, I used my knowledge of the body and my kinesthetic awareness to circumvent my physical problems and to live a life of physical secrecy. (It’s kind of ironic that the very tools I developed to help me move were developed in order to hide my condition.) Eventually the pressure of hiding my disease worsened my symptoms – like my tremor would get really big if I got nervous, which happened sometimes when I was trying to hide my shaking, so I finally became public with my situation.  And I found as I experimented with different strategies, that music was my elixir…my most dependable partner. Indeed, it was my medicine. It allowed me to move…even to dance, which I did in the psychological comfort and privacy of my home.

I kept experimenting with different ideas - also thankful for the fact that dance training had instilled in me the practice of rigorous work habits and the mental freedom that comes with creating. As I discovered certain ways of thinking and moving that allowed me to move, I thought, maybe I should teach these techniques to other people with Parkinson’s. I approached a woman named Olie Westheimer. She was head of the Brooklyn Parkinson Group that had started a dance class at the Mark Morris studio in Brooklyn. I told Olie that I wanted to do a dance class with music, but I also wanted to be able to experiment with any crazy idea I had that might help people with Parkinson’s. She said, come, and I did. I called the class PD Movement Lab.

Over time my relationship to the dance form kept changing. It had gone from totally defining me, to being something I figured would fade into the distant past as part of a former life,  to becoming my very helper and savior. I returned to it with deep thanks and respect for the form rather than with regret and defeat.

50s: PD Movement Lab developed and grew. A drug company wanted to make a video. We did. Olie told me of a worldwide conference for PD that was having a video competition. I decided I would try and choreograph something  - it had been at least 10 years since I had made a dance. I made a dance piece about Parkinson’s called "Welcome to our World" (see pamelaquinn.net). It won the competition!

In a way, in my own way, I could be a dancer again. My history with dance – my love of movement, music, the culture of being a dancer, and the practice of always striving to improve your body -  gave me an advantage over others that had PD. My disease didn’t progress as fast. I kept teaching, both privately as a one-on-one PD coach, and group classes at Mark Morris for the Brooklyn Parkinson Group and at upper Manhattan’s JCC where they had a program affiliated with NYU’s movement disorder center (thanks to the Safra Family Foundation).  And, last but not least, I got to be Christopher Walken’s movement coach for the film A Late Quartet in which he plays a cellist diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

60s: I have become well-known in the field of Parkinson’s as a teacher, speaker, advocate, and creator of videos. I have presented my work around the country and in Europe, and have recently been profiled in a book called Brain Storms by the BBC journalist Jon Palfreman. Neurologists in most movement disorder centers here in NYC refer many of their patients to me. But what gives me the most satisfaction is to be able to make people with this disease enjoy the beauty and soulfulness of dancing while they courageously cope. These PD “dancers” are quite beautiful and inspiring in their own way.

What is on your calendar for 2016?

I have been chosen as one of two patients from around the world to be interviewed for a podcast that leads up to the next World Parkinson Congress, an international meeting of scientists, doctors, researchers and patients that happens every three years. I am making a video for their video competition (my 2010 video, “Welcome to our World,” in which I dance and speak, won in 2010; my video, “With Grace," was selected to be among the top 12 in 2013). I will be presenting my work at various universities, sometimes with David Leventhal, who runs the Mark Morris Program called Dance for PD. I have many projects in mind but am frustrated by the unevenness of life that PD brings; you can only function well at certain times. I also have a health clock ticking. How long will I be able to do what I do?

Current training practices and care of the body:

I take yoga occasionally, run around the park, play tennis, teach and go on the elliptical.

Have somatic practices influenced your work as a dancer and teaching artist?

No, but I have just befriended Martha Eddy, and I suspect she will have an influence on my own training.

How can people connect with you and your classes? Do you take interns? 

They can get information about me and my teaching from my website, pamelaquinn.net; they can contact me at pamelag.quinn54@gmail.com. I do have interns helping in my classes.

What do you love about teaching? 

I love defying people's own expectations about what they can do. I love teaching them about their own bodies, which they’ve lived in but haven’t known for many years. I love them experiencing the joy of moving and the community that comes from moving together.

On balancing a dance career and raising a family:

Difficult but doable and totally worth it. Having children deepens your wonder of life and the world and puts things in perspective. Even if you think you can’t afford it, have a family. It’s one of the most meaningful experiences in life.

What would you say are some of the biggest changes you have seen in modern dance over the span of your career?

The economics of survival and how difficult it is to live and work independently in a city like NYC or SF.

Last performance you saw that really inspired you:

Meredith Monk at Dancespace. Her total commitment through her voice and body and her willingness to explore unusual and even comic territory was wonderful.  She’s a fabulous performer.

Final Thoughts: Hope/Belief/Love of the profession:

Dancers don’t realize the talents they have and what hard workers they are. I hope that in the world of health that dancers' knowledge - how body mechanics work, how to use rhythm, how to transform yourself through imagery and how to communicate through movement - will be understood, valued, used and appreciated for all that it has to give. It is neurologically complex, and one of the most beautiful things to experience.

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Related posts:

My Dance Week: David Leventhal

Dance for PD® - Information and Training Opportunities

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Strangers Become Flowers - A Window into the Work of Dancer Nadia Oka

Nadia Oka photographed by Tony Nguyen; photo courtesy of Paufve Dance
 

Paufve Dance presents its latest work - Strangers Become Flowers - on February 6, 7, 13, and 14 in San Francisco. 

Tickets: https://odc.secure.force.com/ticket#details_a0Sj0000000EYr1EAG

Nadia Oka is a stellar soloist as well as ensemble member in this evening length work. She brings a fire and power as well as subtlety and fluidity. Nadia wrote one of the first artist profiles for Life as a Modern Dancer back in September 2012. While a few years indeed have passed, reading the full profile again today still offers a window into the work of this artist.

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Artist Profile #3: Nadia Oka (Oakland, CA)

September 2012

Hometown: Oak Brook, IL

Current city: Oakland, CA

Age: 34

When you started to dance: age 5

When you first took a modern dance class: My first year of college

College and degree: Haverford College, BA in History and Latin American Studies

Graduate school and degree: Mills College, MFA in Choreography and Performance (age 27)

How you pay the bills: Yoga instructor, restaurant server, ergonomics consultant

All of the dance hats you wear: Dancer, choreographer, teacher

Talk about your skills set and many movement interests - modern dance, yoga, Aikido, and LMA: 

I love all things related to movement and the human body. I’ve meandered down many paths to examine movement from varied angles and approaches—from ballet and figure skating as a kid, to modern dance, yoga and Aikido in the present day—much of which is framed from the context of my studies as a Certified Movement Analyst from the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies. I am also fascinated by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen’s Body-Mind Centering approach, in its examination of our inner and outer movement lives. 

I am in a constant state of awe at the varied and complex nature of our bodies. It seems that the more familiar and knowable movement is, the more mysterious it becomes, which of course makes me want to know more. My studies in LMA have given me important tools with which to examine and delve into the myriad expressive ways we move in relationship to the world and to each other.

I came to Aikido because as I entered into my 30s, I felt the need to be a beginner at something, to go into a space in which I knew absolutely nothing and start from scratch, and here is this martial discipline that spirals and dances but approaches movement and partnering from a different expressive perspective. I also love the vocal outlet (it’s so fun to kiai—aka exhale and yell!) and falling and rolling and moving from your center and connecting with your partner—it’s the best kind of release technique I’ve found.

Can you talk about the role of waitressing in your life? Has it been your bread and butter since college? How does a non-dance job support or hinder your dancing? 

I attended and graduated from college with no intention of pursuing dance. Throughout my young adulthood, however, I kept finding myself in class, fascinated by all that modern dance had to offer to my burgeoning artistic interests. And still, even when I moved to New York—the mecca of the contemporary dance world—I actually went there to be a community organizer, of all things. Dance was my “hobby” while I pursued more “legitimate” pursuits, like going to law school (which I deferred and then decided that was not the path for me). I wandered into the LMA world with the idea that I could become a movement therapist, and instead became fascinated so wholly with movement, dance and its potential for its own sake as a form of expression, that eventually, finally, I decided to dedicate myself to it fully. That’s when I found (read: lied my way into) my first job waiting tables in New York as a way to have the days free to take class and have a flexible schedule for rehearsals. In that way, it has been invaluable to me to really follow this path. The older I get, however, the more my body feels the effects of being on my feet for six hours straight, often working right after/before teaching or rehearsing. There is a definite trade-off between flexibility of schedule and the achiness of my poor joints. I have been fortunate in the last couple years to have to rely less on waiting tables and more on teaching to financially support myself.

What draws you into a dance project? 

The choreographer, her strength of vision and a collaborative choreographic process.

What’s ahead for you in terms of dance (performing, choreographing, teaching, etc)? 

I’ll be starting a new project with Peiling Kao, whom I admire so deeply as a performer and am excited to be a part of her choreographic vision.  I am determined to get into the studio myself and dig into some ideas that have been knocking around my head for a while. I will continue to teach yoga, both group and private classes.

Name/list 1-3 performances in recent years that have really inspired you. 

These are not all performances but I have found inspiration in the following works recently:  

-InkBoat’s performance The Line Between (ODC)

-Janet Cardiff’s sound installation 20-part Motet (P.S.1)

-William Kentridge’s sound and video installation The Magic Flute (SF MoMA)

Advice to young dancers: 

Even if you find yourself wandering in and out of the dance world, yet you find yourself returning to it in some form again and again, trust yourself and dig deeper to find what moves you about dance and dance-making and then dig even deeper to follow it to its illogical ends. 

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Paufve Dance presents its latest work - Strangers Become Flowers - on February 6, 7, 13, and 14 in San Francisco. 

Tickets: https://odc.secure.force.com/ticket#details_a0Sj0000000EYr1EAG

Nadia Oka is a stellar soloist as well as ensemble member in this evening length work. She brings a fire and power as well as subtlety and fluidity. Nadia wrote one of the first artist profiles for Life as a Modern Dancer back in September 2012. While a few years indeed have passed, reading the full profile again today still offers a window into the work of this artist.

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Artist Profile #3: Nadia Oka (Oakland, CA)

September 2012

Hometown: Oak Brook, IL

Current city: Oakland, CA

Age: 34

When you started to dance: age 5

When you first took a modern dance class: My first year of college

College and degree: Haverford College, BA in History and Latin American Studies

Graduate school and degree: Mills College, MFA in Choreography and Performance (age 27)

How you pay the bills: Yoga instructor, restaurant server, ergonomics consultant

All of the dance hats you wear: Dancer, choreographer, teacher

Talk about your skills set and many movement interests - modern dance, yoga, Aikido, and LMA: 

I love all things related to movement and the human body. I’ve meandered down many paths to examine movement from varied angles and approaches—from ballet and figure skating as a kid, to modern dance, yoga and Aikido in the present day—much of which is framed from the context of my studies as a Certified Movement Analyst from the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies. I am also fascinated by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen’s Body-Mind Centering approach, in its examination of our inner and outer movement lives. 

I am in a constant state of awe at the varied and complex nature of our bodies. It seems that the more familiar and knowable movement is, the more mysterious it becomes, which of course makes me want to know more. My studies in LMA have given me important tools with which to examine and delve into the myriad expressive ways we move in relationship to the world and to each other.

I came to Aikido because as I entered into my 30s, I felt the need to be a beginner at something, to go into a space in which I knew absolutely nothing and start from scratch, and here is this martial discipline that spirals and dances but approaches movement and partnering from a different expressive perspective. I also love the vocal outlet (it’s so fun to kiai—aka exhale and yell!) and falling and rolling and moving from your center and connecting with your partner—it’s the best kind of release technique I’ve found.

Can you talk about the role of waitressing in your life? Has it been your bread and butter since college? How does a non-dance job support or hinder your dancing? 

I attended and graduated from college with no intention of pursuing dance. Throughout my young adulthood, however, I kept finding myself in class, fascinated by all that modern dance had to offer to my burgeoning artistic interests. And still, even when I moved to New York—the mecca of the contemporary dance world—I actually went there to be a community organizer, of all things. Dance was my “hobby” while I pursued more “legitimate” pursuits, like going to law school (which I deferred and then decided that was not the path for me). I wandered into the LMA world with the idea that I could become a movement therapist, and instead became fascinated so wholly with movement, dance and its potential for its own sake as a form of expression, that eventually, finally, I decided to dedicate myself to it fully. That’s when I found (read: lied my way into) my first job waiting tables in New York as a way to have the days free to take class and have a flexible schedule for rehearsals. In that way, it has been invaluable to me to really follow this path. The older I get, however, the more my body feels the effects of being on my feet for six hours straight, often working right after/before teaching or rehearsing. There is a definite trade-off between flexibility of schedule and the achiness of my poor joints. I have been fortunate in the last couple years to have to rely less on waiting tables and more on teaching to financially support myself.

What draws you into a dance project? 

The choreographer, her strength of vision and a collaborative choreographic process.

What’s ahead for you in terms of dance (performing, choreographing, teaching, etc)? 

I’ll be starting a new project with Peiling Kao, whom I admire so deeply as a performer and am excited to be a part of her choreographic vision.  I am determined to get into the studio myself and dig into some ideas that have been knocking around my head for a while. I will continue to teach yoga, both group and private classes.

Name/list 1-3 performances in recent years that have really inspired you. 

These are not all performances but I have found inspiration in the following works recently:  

-InkBoat’s performance The Line Between (ODC)

-Janet Cardiff’s sound installation 20-part Motet (P.S.1)

-William Kentridge’s sound and video installation The Magic Flute (SF MoMA)

Advice to young dancers: 

Even if you find yourself wandering in and out of the dance world, yet you find yourself returning to it in some form again and again, trust yourself and dig deeper to find what moves you about dance and dance-making and then dig even deeper to follow it to its illogical ends. 

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Hometown: Oak Brook, IL

Current city: Oakland, CA

Age: 34

When you started to dance: age 5

When you first took a modern dance class: My first year of college

College and degree: Haverford College, BA in History and Latin American Studies

Graduate school and degree: Mills College, MFA in Choreography and Performance (age 27)

How you pay the bills: Yoga instructor, restaurant server, ergonomics consultant

All of the dance hats you wear: Dancer, choreographer, teacher

Talk about your skills set and many movement interests - modern dance, yoga, Aikido, and LMA: 

I love all things related to movement and the human body. I’ve meandered down many paths to examine movement from varied angles and approaches—from ballet and figure skating as a kid, to modern dance, yoga and Aikido in the present day—much of which is framed from the context of my studies as a Certified Movement Analyst from the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies. I am also fascinated by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen’s Body-Mind Centering approach, in its examination of our inner and outer movement lives. 

I am in a constant state of awe at the varied and complex nature of our bodies. It seems that the more familiar and knowable movement is, the more mysterious it becomes, which of course makes me want to know more. My studies in LMA have given me important tools with which to examine and delve into the myriad expressive ways we move in relationship to the world and to each other.

I came to Aikido because as I entered into my 30s, I felt the need to be a beginner at something, to go into a space in which I knew absolutely nothing and start from scratch, and here is this martial discipline that spirals and dances but approaches movement and partnering from a different expressive perspective. I also love the vocal outlet (it’s so fun to kiai—aka exhale and yell!) and falling and rolling and moving from your center and connecting with your partner—it’s the best kind of release technique I’ve found.

Can you talk about the role of waitressing in your life? Has it been your bread and butter since college? How does a non-dance job support or hinder your dancing? 

I attended and graduated from college with no intention of pursuing dance. Throughout my young adulthood, however, I kept finding myself in class, fascinated by all that modern dance had to offer to my burgeoning artistic interests. And still, even when I moved to New York—the mecca of the contemporary dance world—I actually went there to be a community organizer, of all things. Dance was my “hobby” while I pursued more “legitimate” pursuits, like going to law school (which I deferred and then decided that was not the path for me). I wandered into the LMA world with the idea that I could become a movement therapist, and instead became fascinated so wholly with movement, dance and its potential for its own sake as a form of expression, that eventually, finally, I decided to dedicate myself to it fully. That’s when I found (read: lied my way into) my first job waiting tables in New York as a way to have the days free to take class and have a flexible schedule for rehearsals. In that way, it has been invaluable to me to really follow this path. The older I get, however, the more my body feels the effects of being on my feet for six hours straight, often working right after/before teaching or rehearsing. There is a definite trade-off between flexibility of schedule and the achiness of my poor joints. I have been fortunate in the last couple years to have to rely less on waiting tables and more on teaching to financially support myself.

What draws you into a dance project? 

The choreographer, her strength of vision and a collaborative choreographic process.

What’s ahead for you in terms of dance (performing, choreographing, teaching, etc)? 

I’ll be starting a new project with Peiling Kao, whom I admire so deeply as a performer and am excited to be a part of her choreographic vision.  I am determined to get into the studio myself and dig into some ideas that have been knocking around my head for a while. I will continue to teach yoga, both group and private classes.

Name/list 1-3 performances in recent years that have really inspired you. 

These are not all performances but I have found inspiration in the following works recently:  

-InkBoat’s performance The Line Between (ODC)

-Janet Cardiff’s sound installation 20-part Motet (P.S.1)

-William Kentridge’s sound and video installation The Magic Flute (SF MoMA)

Advice to young dancers: 

Even if you find yourself wandering in and out of the dance world, yet you find yourself returning to it in some form again and again, trust yourself and dig deeper to find what moves you about dance and dance-making and then dig even deeper to follow it to its illogical ends. 

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