"Dear Friends..."

Disclaimer: I'm not dead. Just juggling many many projects, the combination of which has put a dent in my blogging mojo. One of those projects was Letters You Wrote...

...which we performed last night. It was really a nifty and fun experience from start to finish-- our choreographer and myself are the only dancers left from the "original" cast (of the ill-fated December performance); the second time around we were joined by P (whom I hadn't danced with before) and A. Since most of the show was solo work, we didn't all work together at first...until it was time to block out the scene for my letter (affectionately known as "The Christmas Dance"). Once we all started rehearsing together, though; we had a blast.

A, P, and S played my character Beth's "children," and for being three adult women they were astoundingly good at being children. We played up the physical comedy aspect where we could-- I think our favorite "bit" was when I had one of the kids "blow her nose" into a tissue, which I then unceremoniously tossed at one of the actors on stage left (Later: "Hey man, thanks for letting me throw my fake-kid's fake-snotrag at you.").
There were also some segments where they would interrupt my solo dance with typical childlike antics-- trying to get Mom's attention, horsing around, harassing each other-- which would always disrupt Beth's otherwise-cheerful disposition. It was the choreography's way of contrasting the perky-perfect tone of the letter with the more realistic stresses of....oh, I dunno, HAVING SIX KIDS.

Cut to: Yesterday! We were performing downtown in the Magnolia Ballroom, which is A) a pretty popular destination for weddings, and B) HOLY HELL MICHIGAN GORGEOUS. We were performing with the windows behind us.....making our backdrop a view of downtown Houston at night. S gave us a warm-up class in the performance space, we walked through my scene, did our pre-sets, and disembarked to our hairspray tent dressing room to get ready (the most complicated part of that? Getting my hair up. I had to wear it piled on my head in a 60's-style pouf, which...is not easy when you have astroturf-thick hair like I do).

Cut to: Showtime! I wasn't on until the very end, so I kept myself moving and helped the other girls with quick-changes. Once it kicked into action, the show went amazingly fast...the next thing I knew, it was Christmas in 1961.

The kid scenes all went really well. I felt pretty good about my solo stuff, for the most part. There's a section in the middle where I do a lot of jerky, frantic movements standing in one place that...well, let's say it didn't feel as strong that night as it had in the past.

We had a lovely reception afterwards, and we all got some really wonderful compliments and feedback from audience members. I chatted with a lot of buddies from around the arts scene, met a very famous former ballet teacher from Houston, and one of my students came with her mom! That was pretty special (always is). I introduced her to S and the other dancers; she and her mother said they really enjoyed the show.

Before we went on, the four of us had a group hug and S told us that we were "so fun to work with." We all concurred that this project was-- in the interest of not mincing words-- fun and awesome, all the way around. I'm so glad to have been a part of it.

Escaped from the 60's and Dancing Through The Crowd

About last night...

We had a wonderful turnout at our Cultured Cocktails event. I saw a lot of faces from the Houston arts scene, including people I danced with in a previous dance company and in the Fringe Festival. I even got to meet one of the women who contributed a letter.

We dancers were milling around in our period-specific costumes the entire time, mingling with the crowd and getting people excited about the show. We began dancing at 7:30. Though we had space in the front to dance, we were encouraged to use the rest of the space as well, dancing through the crowd and interacting with patrons. S and P were completely adorable together, making the crowd laugh with their cutesy 1950's duet. A was absolutely beautiful dancing to her 1961 love letter, and did a hilarious "drunk" bit in the middle (her letter mentions something about attending a cocktail party). I was second to dance, and I had a great time. I used mostly balletic movements, and played up my character like crazy, which the audience loved. I also interacted with people as I moved through the crowd-- my character is a mother of six(!), so I'd wag my finger at people, or pretend to adjust someone's hat or pat someone on the head. Even though I was a little on edge going into to it, once I got up there I just had fun.

I met some wonderful people last night as well. I had a long conversation with a guy who works for a film and video studio-- I told him about a project I'm thinking of creating, and he told me to call him if I decide to take it forward. I chatted with some people I worked with last summer, and Frank and I had a long conversation about dance and our careers. All in all, it was a great night.

Thanks to all who came out and supported us. We enjoyed your company, and we hope to see you in March at our show!

Welcome to the Improv

I'm heading out the door to go teach in a few minutes, but I'll be leaving the studio a half-hour early tonight-- I've got to get to the [Good Times] Dance Theater's Cultured Cocktails fundraiser at Boheme.

Since our dancing space is limited, we won't be performing our exact 'Letters You Wrote' choreography. Instead, we'll be performing dance improvisation that is loosely related to our 'Letters' dances.

To be frank, I'm a little nervous-- I've always had a bit of a mental block when it comes to dance improv, especially in a performance capacity. That hasn't always been in the case; In the past I worked a lot more in modern dance and improvisation. However, I've spent the last year and a half with my brain set exclusively to "classical ballet choreography," so now I'm a bit rusty when it comes to modern/improv. I was a bit edgy going into our rehearsal yesterday; the first run-throughs of our improv stuff did not feel good to me at all. I collected myself and gave myself a little mental pep-talk, and the second run felt one hundred times better.

So: In about five hours I will face down my fear of performing improv once and for all. I think it's all gonna be okay, and our company is going to have a great night. Here we go.

Letters We're Writing

Hello, folks! It's been a while, no? Sorry, there just hasn't been a whole lot to write about--well, until this week, that is....

This blog will no longer cover my adventures with the [Awesome People] Dance Company. So, say hello to your mid-season replacement, the [Good Times] Dance Theater. If you blog-stalk me enough, you might remember that I started working with them in the fall....but then, the day we were supposed to premeier the work (on an outdoor stage), Houston actually had snow (I know, right?). The show is now re-scheduled to premier in March, and the first rehearsals of the year just started.

The great thing is that I get to dance with some great people whom I've worked with before-- including A, the great gal who played my Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors. And Frank is also working with [Good Times] Dance Theater (but in a different piece), so I saw him yesterday at rehearsal and we got a chance to chat and catch up. I miss dancing with that guy, he's wonderful.

I was really surprised at how quickly the material came back to me, and the movement seems to "flow" better in my body this time around (if that makes sense to anybody). SD made some modifications to the choreography and gave me really great feedback. I explored a few different ways of interpreting of my character, and I feel so much stronger in the role than I did last time. I can't really explain it, but the choreography seems to jive a lot better with my body, compared to two months ago. It was really, truly an awesome rehearsal.

Rain, Snow, Go Away.

First off: I swear to God, this happened last year.

Last December, the contemporary ballet company was supposed to perform our Christmas Program (Song of Mary, Emmanuel, In the Bleak Midwinter et al) at an outdoor ceremony. Because, hey, this is Texas, it can't get too cold in early December, right?

It ended up being fifty degrees that night. We did not perform.

Fast-forward to now: We're preparing to perform Letters You Wrote this Friday evening at a lovely outdoor performance space called The Artery. And of course, the meterorogists have been calling for cold weather/rain/possibly snow (I just checked Yahoo! Weather, which is currently predicting "Rain/Snow and a High of 47"). D'oh!

I'm really hoping for a weather-related miracle, because I so want to perform this show. The other day we worked the other dancers into my letter (they play my children, and they are so hilarious and delightful in doing so). Today we ran the whole show-- and man, is it going to be incredible. I love to watch the other dancers-- C dances to a letter from a soldier who visited Nagasaki during the aftermath of Hiroshima. The words are so sad, and the accompanying choreography just adds so much to it; makes it so deeply-felt that by the end of it I was in tears.
L opens the show with a lovely, soulful solo; our director dances using a coat as a prop. It's really inventive-- it starts out as Just A Coat, and throughout the piece it becomes a great many other things.

So, cross your fingers, folks-- send up prayers to the Gods of Good Weather. And then, come see us dance.

Letters.

Tonight's post will be short-- because let me tell you, internet, I am EXHAUSTED.

Yesterday I began rehearsals for Letters You Wrote. It's to the text of a Christmas letter written in 1961 by the wife of a minister. I'm having a great time with the character, and I already feel the movement becoming more natural in my body. It's modern-- and I'm a ballet girl-- but I'm adapting. And our choreographer is wonderful. She's got such a positive, patient, and all-around humanitarian way about her. She's so great to work with.

I'll write more later. Until then--I'm worn out. Catch you later, internet.

Edited to add: I'm really feeling for my neighbor right now. Here's the link to the KRPC news story (he came over last night and today. Poor guy!).