that’s slightly redundant, but it’s helpful to think of this as a chance for new things — especially among so many old familiar ones. Same place. Many of the same people. But hopefully a lot of the new and unfamiliar.

#1 in the new category is my first independent choreographic endeavor outside of Emory:

We begin rehearsals this weekend, so I’m busily brainstorming and getting the images out of my head and onto paper so I don’t forget. The space gets me more and more excited each time I walk into it. It’s so complex and beautiful. There are millions of possibilities

#2 in the new category is new jobs. I’ve started teaching dance for three schools/organizations in Atlanta. Classes have already begun at the Lawrenceville School of Ballet. The people who work there are great, especially the woman who now runs the Southern Ballet Theater (a pre-professional company housed at LSOB). The kids are full of energy and not badly behaved at all. My first year of teaching (with the kids program at Spelman) involved a lot of work on discipline and attention. My second year was at a “dolly dinkle” type of studio, which challenged me to try to give something more than they might normally receive while keeping the “dance is funfunfun” atmosphere that they prefer. But at LSOB I’m seeing a balance that I like. The kids respect their teachers are excited to be there, and I’m getting to do a nice balance of technique and fun with them. I’m teaching a group of 4/5 year olds, a group of 5/6 year olds and a Ballet I class. I’m most excited about Ballet I because I get to be the base to their ballet technique. When I say excited, I mean nervous as all hell…that’s a big task, creating a foundation for them (while keeping it fun!). But it’s a challenge I’m ready for. I know their future training will be solid, so I want to match this class up with that. I’m hoping to develop their vocabulary, give them the outside tools they need (worksheets w/pictures and terms, etc), and balance this knowledge with the physical knowledge of ballet as well.
I’m also teaching at a new studio in Eastpoint called the Phoenix Performing Arts Center. I am their main ballet/jazz instructor and am teaching Beg/Int and Int/Adv Ballet and Lyrical/Jazz classes. Totally pumped about that. It seems that a number of high schools (grady high school included) are having to cut their dance programs from the school curriculum, so the director expects to receive many of the schools’ dance team students.
And the last place I’m teaching has me doing Adult ballet and jazz classes up in Sandy Springs. Another new challenge. What a variety of classes!

#3 in the new category is new kittens!!!

Their names are Cletus and Sir Paul McCatney (we call him Paul). Cletus has no tail and is our little down home country bumpkin. He is famous for his squeal of death. Paul is a friendly attention hog and likes to give kisses. Both purr like there’s no tomorrow and wreck our computer cords.

And the rest of the “new” has yet to come. We’ll see…

I would have an in-depth gushy wrap-up post here, but seeing as I have no break in between the ADF and my search for monetary sustainment (i.e. please someone give me a job), this will probably happen in little snip-its.

Multiple choice time. The end of the festival was:
a) off-putting
b) a blast
c) spent internally
d) overwhelming
e) all of the above

As with many high school teachers, the answer is, of course, e. For now, I will remark upon answer b.

Tiffany, Caitlin and I finished our summer as SWS students with a bang. As part of the American Dance Festival’s first hip-hop class, we presented the choreography we had learned over the six weeks in a showing to ADF students, faculty, etc. Allison was kind enough to videotape:

Lashawn Jones’ choreography:

HeJin Jang’s choreography:

Over the six weeks, Lashawn and HeJin taught 3 weeks a piece, alternating. They had very different styles — Lashawn’s was usually more “thug” and HeJin’s more modern-inspired, though, as the video shows, they both work with a mix of styles. I lovedddd their classes (though they exhausted me many times…). I honestly didn’t think at the beginning of the six weeks that I could perform hip-hop with any real confidence (in the past I’ve just tried to fake it as best I could). But the class definitely helped with my goal of picking up material quicker and catching details (my memory is still a little weak, but such is life). And I definitely learned a thing or two about confidence (and how you often just have to pretend to be confident enough to think past that issue and focus on the movement). Once I got past the self-consciousness, the choreography fit into my body much more easily.

And the showing was fantastic. Such great energy and such a fab ending to the six weeks. Definitely the way to go out.

Watch out NappyTabs… (or maybe not.)

The ADF student concert was last night. I presented a section of a new work — a duet — that Caitlin and I performed (see a previous posting for my beginning thoughts about the work). Performing the piece was difficult in this space, as I see it in a more intimate space, closer to its audience and with dimmer lighting, but this was a very informal concert. I even had to beg them to let me close the curtains a bit, haha.
I also danced in a piece put together by one of my classmates, Josh Teal (video on facebook).

Here’s video of the performance…it’s a little shaky and pretty hard to see, but it’s better than nothing!

Please feel free to send me any feedback you might have (here or email: eelyle@gmail.com). I’d love to hear all thoughts, and constructive criticism is certainly welcome!! I plan to continue focusing on and developing more deeply the ideas and movement in this work. I want to manipulate my traveling section into a more set phrasing, investigating directionality, bring emphasis off the throwing of the arms and allowing more time within the movement. I also want to play with the specificity of movements around the book towards the end.

::edit::

also, here’s the video from tech rehearsal. the beginning is a little easier to see. unfortunately the camera died about 4 minutes in, haha, but oh well.

Too tired to write much now, a good night’s sleep should be very helpful. We had a lovely weekend however, and I just wanted to share a few photos before heading to sleep.
Looking forward to many things this week: Beginning Miguel Gutierrez’s Composition class tomorrow, David Dorfman’s classes this weekend, Single Ladies with Mark Haim (leotard and heels required), working on choreography for the Student Concert next week, and a little tribute to MJ in hiphop later this week!

Vintage dress shopping~

Site-specific improv

Awesome Hat Guy

More site-specific

woo!

Fireworks!

It’s a beautiful, sunny day, and I feel very refreshed after a full day of classes. This place emphasizes for me the rhythmic quality of life — the ebb and flow — and today was a flow kind of day.

Today marked the end of week three, and the halfway point of the festival. I’m beginning to really feel comfortable in this environment, with the people, in the studios, around the campus. I feel like I’m allowing myself to fully take things in and to be open, which is the one thing I try to ask of myself. Just be open.

In Jesse’s class, we’ve now studied in depth ideas of rotation, sequentiality and volume. This week we talked about our bodies as volume bodies, full of these loops of energy, loops that help us relax, widen, and become available — available to our surroundings, to our impulses, and to new movement.

One of my favorite exercises we did involved working with a partner. One person closes their eyes as their partner begins to guide their body into movement, gently touching the inside of the knee, guiding a shoulder open, motioning the head up and over. It is the mover’s job to remain available — open to the outside guidance, aware of the places of initiation, and the places to which these initiations take them. As the experience goes on, we begin to play with multiple initiations, shifting quicker and quicker. The more volume that exists in the body, the more supple the mover can be and the more available to new information.

Our final combination weaved together many of these ideas:

——

In Jesse’s comp class today I was able to show a piece of a solo I’ve been working on. I was overwhelmed by the feedback I received, in a wonderful way. My classmates received very distinct, sensual images from the work thus far. One person said that he imagined the whole piece in sand, another felt that I was able to stand in water — another felt that, though we were very close in proximity, there was a glass panel between us, or a dome around me, and though we were separate, within the fullness of the movement she was very aware of each swallow I took. Texture was very apparent and important to how a number of people viewed the work. I really enjoy the specificity of the feedback that these individuals are able to give, and the lack of inhibition. It’s a very comfortable environment that’s been created.

And now, for the weekend! Caitlin, Tiffany and I are off to Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach for the 4th while Allison heads off for an interview Sunday! HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!

A sad email:

This morning, the dance community lost one of its legends. Pina Bausch passed away at the age of 68 in Wuppertal, Germany. A pioneer of the neo-expressionist form Tanztheater, Bausch created

 over 40 full-length pieces for her company Tanztheater Wuppertal

 Pina Bausch. Janice Steinberg wrote in the November, 2008 Dance Magazine, “Her passionate fans applauded the work’s courage, visual genius, and life force.”

Today in hiphop we paid homage to MJ by warming up to a mix of his musical genius. He is one man that will surely not be forgotten.

This week seems filled with deaths and births. I must remind myself that for every death there is a world of memories, joyful images and conversations to recollect. For every death there was a birth, and a life spent in celebration and honor of the ones who made that birth possible. I celebrate the ones who made my birth possible.

I’ve found myself in a place where the reality of a lifespan has come into view. The importance of family has become crushingly vivid to me. I reside in this tenuous garden where there is always growth and decay. –Lisa Race

 

Prayers for the families of those who have made the transition from life to that which come after. Prayers of strength, comfort, love, hope and understanding. and Peace.

This week’s theme for my composition class is beauty and virtuosity. We’re not finitely defining these by any means — that attempt would be both naive and in vain. Instead we discuss the different possibilities of what can be seen as beauty, what can make something virtuosic. We discussed the beauty of dance as revealing human capacity and, as Jesse said, thus showing hope for our potential. I could not agree more. We can make dances about healing the sick, providing for the poor — they may or may not have an effect on people. These are worthy endeavors. But we don’t have to save the world in one fell swoop. Virtuosity in dance can prove that the potential in our bodies is endless, that the potential of our minds is endless, that we just need to keep exploring. It can light a fire under us as viewers, or it can merely expand our minds a bit, an expansion which builds and motivates in itself.

A few beautiful things from the past week:

The view from my daily lunch spot outside Baldwin. Tiff and I tend to fall asleep sprawled underneath this beautiful sky

A birthday surprise from Caitlin Very lovely artwork, I must say.

Hiphop combo from Lashaun’s class

Celebratory bowling dance. We like dance in all forms.

yesterday was my turn at what some consider the yearly celebration of the day they were born. for me, it is a day that triggers a million different thoughts and emotions — all of which overwhelm me and none of which I can sort out or recognize. This day has never been so heavy for me. It brings up memories of my mother. It reminds me that somewhere out there in the woman from whose womb I arrived, that somewhere out there are 5 other people half like me…3 others who know her and have her constant love and care…2 others who wonder, like me, who she is. how she thinks. what she does. it confuses me why I react so strongly when I’m not consciously lining out these thoughts on paper as some sort of list of reasons to be sad or contemplative. but I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me. whether they are conscious thoughts or not, they are there and I can’t escape the truths of my existence. These are the things that make me who I am, and the things they cause me to feel distant from everyone I know and love. It’s noone’s fault, it just is.

And so I enter into my next choreographic exploration. A duet. Two distant characters. I challenged myself at the beginning of this festival to begin with a title, then to create movement. I did not think a theme or narrative would intrude so strongly into the two, but it did. We began working in my composition class on a project to address an “urgent theme.” This was suppose to be “the dance that would speak to and change the world.” Of course, we laughed while saying that, knowing how ambitious and naive an attempt that would be. Jesse asked us to bring in images of such a theme which we felt drawn to address. My image was of an adorable little girl with dark brown bouncing ringlets and oversized glasses. Her father held her over the produce scale at the grocery store, bananas in her hands. Her smile was bigger than her face. I thought of how many children there are in the world who don’t have the opportunity to smile at bananas. Who don’t have the support of two arms.
I then began a debate with myself — of how I can be so concerned with the children in the world who have no stable family, be so concerned with the need for parents to adopt, when I myself was a neglect of those children. It scares me, but I don’t deny that sometimes I think surrogacy is selfish. I don’t want to criticize my parents’ choice to go this route, because I know their wishes were genuine and loving. To have such a strong maternal and paternal calling is admirable and a blessing. I can’t resolve my debate, but I can dig deeper into that which brought me into the world. Sorry Jesse, I’m avoiding the assignment. This may not be an urgent theme for the world, but it’s a step for me towards getting to that urgent theme.

The images of surrogacy for me are pressing, and they are the pictures from which I can now shape the movement. I’m not very far along in the process, but I’m already fully immersed. For the moment I’m exploring one character, one dancer. I’m curious to see her as a soloist before the duet comes into play, as that is only fitting for this process and situation. I don’t know this other character. She is only assumptions, and she can only be viewed for me from the perspective of the first dancer.

Listen to: Loscil – Cotom

My sad attempt to relate this posting to dance… though the mussels we consumed this fair night were dancing in their shells prior to being boiled in those same shells. Ah, there’s that Biblical connection between dancing and death again (see: Psalm 30).
Just wanted to post a few photos of a necessary aspect of the American Dance Festival: rest, that is. We made a lovely feast of mussels in a red sauce with italian bread and a good ol’ corona (or two).

Photos to prove:

The Finished Product, Picnic-style

the eating process

when the little buggers were still alive and biting (literally, my fingernails)

the plate

This morning I took class from Kate Jewett, the rehearsal director for Shen Wei Dance Arts. The class was 2 hours of sweat-dripping, spine-sequencing, joint-bouncing, center-shifting bliss. She explained and demonstrated the concepts of Shen Wei’s movement in a way that was so clear and manageable, despite the incredible level of difficulty. 

We began with breathing techniques (by the way, I was already drenched at the end of these). In Re- (Part I), there is this shuffling backward movement the dancers do through the confetti mandala on the floor. Their feet make a very distinct, parallel pathway, and they sink backwards from their cores, effortlessly, curving along the floor. The type of breathing involved in this simple movement starts at the base of the pelvis and travels up the back of the spine. The fingertips engage before the upper arms, leading the arms in breath upwards. 30%. 40%. 50%. All the way to 80% at which point the fingertips led toward the sky, the feet were pulled onto relevé, and in exhaling down the spine, the pelvis shifted backwards and took the body on a light descent backwards. This breathing took more lung capacity than I quite had, but it was calming and expansive.

From there we moved into some walking exercises, considering a sort of magnetic relation to our neighbors, bouncing off of or being drawn to one another’s energy, using the most efficient response to their proximity and being.

We worked a good bit on the sort of bouncing that is utilized in Shen Wei’s “Rite of Spring,” a piece I saw at ADF two years ago. It involves a sense of rebound, and finding a rest in the joints that leans and connects, but does not fully sink. It was interesting to see this jolting movement within a repertory that I think of so much as being constantly fluid and sequential.

A floor exercise took a good 30 or 45 minutes and a whole lot of stamina. I will post a video excerpt of it once I upload from my camera. Leg swings emphasizing heaviness,placing the weight forward in between to not strain the back or abs, and sequencing through the back and arms. The combination worked with gravity and momentum, reaching and extending.

We did a few quicker exercises for movement in the limbs, emphasizing feet like hands and circular motions — figure eights of the hands and arms, flat inverted feet rond de jambe-ing along the floor. 

Our final exercise was one in full spine movement and initiation, beginning small, side-to-side motions dragging the spine and then arm along, extending out and out. We then moved into floor transitioning and more center-shifting. Also a combination of which I have a video. The undulation through the spine was both satisfying and therapeutic. To feel the roll through the natural curves of the spine reminded me of my body’s anatomy and how it requires me to nurture it. I was also able to use knowledge gained so far in Jesse Zaritt’s class about rotation and sequencing — it’s nice to be able to use this base of knowledge within varying class experiences.

Class grade: A+