So Much to Talk About, So Little To Say

OR: Things I considered writing a blog post about.

1. The Amahl process.

2. The fact that I killed four pointe shoes in three days.

3. Teaching and why I love my kiddos.

4. Skater's Waltz and the process of that; or maybe the fact that the student company was voted "Best Dance Company in Katy" by a local publication (yeah!).

5. Blisters. Lots of them.

6. How I got stuck in a massive storm on the way home from teaching; ended up waiting out the storm at a hotel with a bunch of folks my age from a travelling Mag Crew (which has nothing to do with dance, but it's a cool story).

7. Why I want to make a dance to that song "Do the Barrel Roll." (Look, I don't know, okay?)

8. The two new ballets I'm creating.

9. How pulling a ten-hour day (and getting stuck in a storm) has completely eaten my brain, rendering me completely incapable of writing a coherent blog post.

Day four of Amahl week tomorrow. We're getting close!

One Crutch, One Shoe

While was showering this morning, I thought to myself "Wow, that underarm is feeling a little tender. Huh. Must be from the crutch."

That's right folks-- it's Amahl and the Night Visitors season!

Here's how my last two days have gone down: Ballet class at 9:30, then Frank and I drive over to the theater for rehearsals with P--- a long-time James Sewell Ballet dancer who is setting the ballet on us (I love working with P, she set the ballet on us two years ago and is fourteen kinds of awesome). LP and I are sharing the role of Amahl, and two new dancers are sharing the role of the Mother. I love them all--they're so wonderful to work with. I'm already feeling a wonderful stage chemistry with A, who plays "my mom."

The only dancers not double-cast are the three wise men wise guys kings and the page. Two of the Kings I have not worked with before, but they are beautiful dancers (and one of them looks exactly like Furio Giunta. And he's so great) _{(and he looks like Furio Giunta)}. I'm slightly incredulous as to how my body remembers choreography that my brain has forgotten-- it's been two years since I last danced this ballet, but something about hearing the music and being in the space with the other dancers helps bring it back into my muscles. Not to mention? It's so fun. SO FUN. I'm starting to think that if there's one role out there that's perfect for me, it has to be this one. I just love every second of it.

So, we're two days in and I'm loving this process. I'm getting re-acquainted with the crutch, the feeling of wearing only one pointe shoe, and the sign language. I've killed two pointe shoes in two days and I don't even care-- I threw a few extra pair in my dance bag and I'm ready for round three tomorrow.

"How far? How far, my crystal star?"

Let's Watch Movies: I Know It's Not Christmas Yet, But Work With Me, Here

Look, I know it's only September and thus nowhere near Christmas, but this song is stuck in my head so I'm going with it,

In the Butterfly Family, we have two Christmas traditions. The first is going to church on Christmas Eve, then going to someone's house afterwards and exchanging gifts. The second is Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol. Mama Butterfly and I watch it together every year, and our favorite scene is "The Plunderer's March." I recently found it on YouTube, added it to my favorites, and proceeded to get it stuck in my head for a week. So I'm posting it here. Enjoy!

Yet Another Blog Post About Dead People

(Wow, I am a HIT at parties)

Today's blog post is brought to you by the letters W, T, and F.

Pina Bausch died today. What the--? Are you serious? I told you, famous people, quit dying already.

(That said, it was pointed out to me that this was probably my fault, since my last post was titled "Rocks fall, everyone dies." Oh, whatever.)

Anyway, in honor of Pina Bausch/because I am a gigantic fan of Le Sacre du Printemps, let's watch a movie in her honor:

(Yay, awesome)

Also: my old dance company did a project that was loosely inspired by her Fur die Kinder von Gestern, Heute und Morgen. I don't have a copy of the video, but I assure you that it was both awesome and amazingly fun.

There's also this great video from dancemedia.com. Oh, and guess what? That music that they're dancing to at the very beginning? That was the music for my Caterpillar dance. Whee! And, while you're at it: Here's a great story about Pina from Guardian.co.uk.

Hey... remember how yesterday, I blogged about a possible Michael Jackson tribute? Well, it's going to take place this Thursday (July 2nd-- as in, two days from now) at Discovery Green Park from 6-8pm. My very-awesome friend and colleague LP will be teaching the "Thriller" dance. It's sponsored by Discovery Green, Dance Houston, DSH, and A Certain Dance Company that A Certain Blogger happens to perform with. If you live in Houston and are cool, I expect you to be there. Come on, it'll be fun!

That's all I have for today, folks; and I'm off to bed. I would appreciate it if nobody else died between today and tomorrow. Thanks!

My Week in Fifteen: "Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies."

It's been a pretty slow week here at Upstage Left, so there's not too much to report. Let's see:

1. First off: A lot of people died. Many were killed in a DC Train Wreck; and after that Farrah Fawcett/Michael Jackson/Billy Mays all kicked the bucket in quick succession. Every news station here is covering Celebrity Death Epidemic. STOP DYING, FAMOUS PEOPLE.

2. Our company director and one of my fellow dancers may be organizing a Michael Jackson tribute sometime in the near future. Stay tuned for details on that.

3. Also, that Fellow Dancer I just mentioned? She got engaged last weekend. Hooray! Congratulations, LP. :)

4. Had several fairly-good ballet classes this week (yay!).

5. Took up jogging. Promptly became the proud owner of Really Sore Calf Muscles. Ouch.

6. Used aforementioned Sore Calves as an excuse to not do pointework all week. Am lazy, y'all.

7. Dancehunter finally joined Twitter, and the twitterites of the Houston Arts Scene were happy.

8. Several dance blogs-- including Dance Outlook , Ballet Shoes and Pointe Shoes, Dance Advantage, and this very blog-- are are finding our posts duplicated at Choreography Blog.

9. I wrote ChoreoBlo an e-mail, saying "Look: if you want to repost my stuff, that's fine, as long as you link me or run my byline." They're still copy-pasting my stuff, but now they're linking back to this website. I can live with that.

10. Amazingly enough, I still haven't gotten a Cease & Desist Order for this. Whee.

11. Apparently, I'm going to (finally) (Finally.) (FINALLY!) set my piece called Last Night. I've only been trying to set this dance since 2004, so YAY!

12. As I write this, I'm watching The Simpsons on TV and-- in memory of Mike Jackson/because The Simpsons is awesome-- I feel that I must encourage all of you to "do the Bartman."

13. Am I the only one who routinely dances around to The Simpsons' theme music? What? I am? Good God.

14. You know it's been a slow week when all you have to report is dead people, Twitter, blog-plagiarizing, and The Simps. Now I feel lame, so.... here's your moment of Zen:

15. "ROCKS FALL, EVERYONE DIES."

That's all she wrote, folks. Have a great week!

Threat Down: The Dance Edition

If you're anything like me, you're all too familiar with The Colbert Report. And, if you're anything like me.... there are many little aspects of your dance life that annoy you to no end and eventually "threaten" your sanity. In grand tradition of merging those two concepts, I now bring you:

THE DANCE THREAT DOWN**

THREAT NUMBER FIVE: People who refer to a grande jete entrelace as a "grande jete en tourant." Those are TWO DIFFERENT THINGS, people.

THREAT NUMBER FOUR: People who costume their ballet pieces in pink tutus, pink pointe shoes, and....tan tights. Because really.....DEAR GOD, WHY?

THREAT NUMBER THREE: Stage parents. Now, I'm not talking about the parents who show an active and encouraging interest in their child's dance training; I'm talking about the kind who push their kids so far and so hard that their kids are having anxiety attacks over their "dance career" at the age of five. GAH.

THREAT NUMBER TWO: Dance Partners who don't shower. 'Nuff said.

AND NUMBER ONE ON THE DANCE THREAT-DOWN:

BEARS.

**Dancers, I plan to do a couple of these. Something bothering you? Send me your rants at MButterfly [at] Notesfromupstageleft [dot] com. You will be credited and (if applicable) linked. Give me your angry, your annoyed, and your huddled, threatened masses aching to rant!

It's the Weekend, Part One: Butterfly's tired, kids.

*yawn*

Good morning, everybody!

Later on, I am going to tell you about an amazing performance I saw yesterday: Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, presented by Society for the Performing Arts in Houston. It was so awesome that it almost broke my Awesome Meter. But I'll have to give you the full recap later...

....because I have rehearsals in forty-five minutes. I love spending Saturdays in the ballet studio-- dancing is my favorite way to burn off a Saturday, though I'm sure you guessed that-- except that I'm exhausted. The effects of the completely-insane week that I just had are catching up to me. I swung by Sonic for my traditional Saturday pre-studio breakfast (orange juice and deep-fried 'taters slathered in ketchup), and that's helping a little (I also picked up a diet Rockstar the size of a nuclear firearm, just in case).

That's why I'm blogging-- if I want to sound like I have an IQ of more than, say, fifty; I have to activate my brain a little, get my thoughts going, and try and articulate them in a way that is at least mildly coherent. So when I go into rehearsal, I'll have my brain warmed up. Blogging: it's as good as coffee!

Speaking of warming up, I'm going to go do that. Peace out.

You choreographed WHAT?

Dance is art. Art is objective. When it comes to objective things, I try to keep an open mind...but once in a while I can't help but say "WHAT?" These are my reactions to some of those times (though I will never identify what it is I'm reacting to-- use your imagination. More fun that way).

You called that a "classical variation," [performed by women] but anyone can tell that it ain't Petipa, it ain't Ashton and it sure as shit ain't Folkine. And aside from that, I don't know of one "classical variation" out there that involves a switch leap, a layout, and a toe touch into a front split. The only thing "classical" about this is the music. Randomly throwing a glissade-jete-brise-pas de bouree in the middle of the choreography does not a ballet make, sorry. Next time you want to make a jazz dance to classical music, just save us all some face-palming and Jazz To Classical Music. Or call it Not A Classical Variation. Don't mislead your audience, dear; we get pissy when you do that.

Things I learned from my first Real Hurricane

I'm very happy to say that myself and all of my loved ones out here are safe. (Thank the Lord) We all sustained nominal property damage if any; none of us are hurt. I'm eternally thankful.

On Friday afternoon I started a list of What I've Learned From My Very First Hurricane™ and continued adding to it as things progressed. Before anybody jumps on me for being "insensitive," let me state that my flippant sarcasm was the only thing that kept me from absolutely freaking the hell out.

Without further ado:
1. An impending hurricane is apparently an undeniable reason to go out and drink with your friends. Aside from threat of potential impending doom, hardly anyone had to work in the morning. On Thursday night I heard "I Like Ike" more times than the people who were involved in the Eisenhower campaign.

2. It is a poor idea to garner your expectations of your Very First Hurricane from your friend that is reputably Full Of It. You will end up way more panicked than is remotely necessary.

4. An impending hurricane offers the perfect excuse to putting off housework and laying by the pool. You'll be stuck indoors for a few days after the hurricane hits, so take advantage of the sunshine while you can.

5. An impending hurricane is also the perfect excuse for slacking off in front of the TV/watching movies/surfing eBay. Enjoy all electronics-related leisure before the power gets knocked out; you're going to have ample time to read/study/clean out your closet by flashlight.

6. I spent a good portion of last night wondering what sort of pummeling the city/my loved ones/myself would get from Hurricane-Thug Ike. In the following nine hours, the entire city closed down due to the imminent weather emergency; then the sun came up, people walked their dogs, and we all got the day off to lay by the pool.
The real lesson came every time I checked a weather map and saw that even though Scary Gangster Ike wasn't upon us, it was still on the way, we still had to be ready for disaster. All the bad stuff and the good stuff will come to us- each on their own time. We've just got to be ready when they arrive.

7. There's a first time for everything, including frightening weather conditions.

8. The most frightening part of the experience was not the storm itself, but walking through the bottom level of my parking garage in the pitch- dark (I cannot remember the last time I've been afraid of darkness, yet something about this gave me major heebie-jeebies).

9. Two words: Hurricane Party. Wherein I was told "You want to be sound asleep when this thing hits. Drink up."

10. It's a wise idea to wear something with pockets the night of the hurricane/hurricane party: You won't need to carry a purse, and you want to have something in your pockets to keep you from blowing away when the 30-mile-per-hour winds pick up.

11. It is very difficult to light a cigarette in 30m.p.h. winds.

12. After a storm of this magnitude, your power is going to be out for a while. I'm from up north, where thunderstorms knock out power for a few hours at most. I am a little spoiled by this, and couldn't believe that the power could really be out for more than 24 hours, right? In a big city like this?Hahahahaha. As you can imagine, I was in for a rude awakening.

13. It is amazing how much you take things like electricity for granted. It's equally amazing how quickly living Flinstones-style gets old when you're used to living the spoiled cushy spoiled life.

14. When you have no electric and no cable, your new source of entertainment is walking around the neighborhood looking at the damage and asking everyone else if they have power yet. Call it community bonding, if you will.

15. You probably do not want to check your stocks just yet. I haven't. I don't want to know.

16. Rule of thumb for your first hurricane: If you think you're prepared enough, you're probably wrong.

I am currently staying in the home of my amazingly generous and awesome employer and her family. They live in a suburb thirty-ish miles west of the city; and while public schools are closed until Wednesday they town is mostly up and operational. They have electricity, they have air conditioning, they have showers with water pressure (and internet, as you can see). Needless to say I am eternally grateful. On the off-chance they're reading this: THANK YOU! (if they are not, know that I make it a point to say this verbally as much as possible).

In other words, I did not exactly stroll through My First Real Hurricane™ with flying colors; but you live and you learn and hopefully I'll do better next time. I'll leave you with this: A storm like this comes once every twenty years. In the grand scheme of things, it's still better than having snowstorms every winter.

Tales of a Rookie Dance- Ensemble Director

Today I received the one Freebie that God grants to every choreographer: I had a dance happen by accident. The choreography finished and cleaned itself. I think that happens once in a lifetime every dance- maker, and I'm eternally thankful that I got mine today.

In all seriousness, I'm happy with Building Nothing 2.0. In my mind, it's not finished-- there is so much more that I want to add to it, choreographically and conceptually-- but time got away from us. Still, I love the changes that were made, the footage from today looks great, and we're excited to present this newer version of our piece this coming weekend.

Our fundraiser and rep showing is three days, and I'm knee-deep in last-minute preparations. Although we're looking to fund our upcoming performances both in Houston and on the road, the director of Butterfly Dance Ensemble (e.g. yours truly) is accepting any and all donations of sanity. We're a new company, I'm a rookie director. I'm still learning the ropes and I finished a major show barely three days ago, so you can guess where this is going: THINGS ARE CHAOTIC.

As much as I'd like to tell you more about Life In The Process, most of my brain cells have already jumped ship and I need to quit blog-stalling and get back to work. I'll make this quick: Here's what my office looks like right now:


P.S. Here's your Lesson Of The Day: The words "Windows Vista" and "film-editing software" should never be used in the same sentence unless you want to spend two hours head-desking. I learned this the hard way.

Update: the Right Now

It's been a while since I've really updated, here's what's been going on:

The Company that I dance has been off all month, after we finished a series of performances at the end of March. I have missed it-- a lot. We are resuming this coming week, and I'm super excited.

The studio is closing in on Zero Hour-- that is, the big show is thirteen days away. I should be panicking hard-core, but I actually feel pretty good-- better than I have before most recitals, anyway. It's just a matter of pounding the pavement in cleaning all the dances during these last few rehearsals. Props and costumes are all set for the story ballet, and I feel pretty good about the dances (that's not to say they don't need more cleaning, of course, but that they are "close" enough to keep me from freaking out). Yesterday I finished the finale AND the curtain call for the story ballet, which I had been worrying about all week- and they look pretty good. Now I just need to edit music. Editing music, heaven help us all, will be the death of me. It ain't rocket science... but I suck at it anyway. Oops.

My dance ensemble is back in rehearsals. Speaking of which, I have one in thirty minutes, so I should go get my butt in gear. See you later!