So I find myself sitting here in front of my computer on the third official day of my vacation and needing to go to bed to get up at 730am to drive to Peachtree City to rehearse for the TV show Drop Dead Diva. I'm excited about working on a TV show but most excited to be working with people from my L.A. life again. Tyce Diorio messaged me the other day on FB asking about dancers and asked if I'd want to dance...immediately followed by "It's easy". Lol. I've known Tyce since we were both on Starsearch many years ago and I appreciate the amendment to the offer, considering I've seen his work many times and know it can be quite rigorous. I'm honored to be working with him. Also coming to town is my dear friend Marlon Palayo who is one of the most amazing dancers in L.A. and perhaps the world. I first met Marlon when I choreographed for Hysterica Dance Company and then had the pleasure of working with him on Cher's Vegas show as well. Talented, humble, and super dooper sweet. Other Atlanta area dancers working on DDD are the one and only Elysandra Q, Joy Spears, and Corey Willis, all of whom are half my age. Oye! what have I gotten myself into.

and now I rest

Koru is over and now I can rest, but notice the time of this entry and you can see that I'm still a night owl. I've taken the week off to recoup some of the sleep I lost while editing, rehearsing, editing, sewing, editing, making lists, and editing. The show was a big success playing to capacity crowds at the 14th St. Playhouse. The dancers did a great job as did the choreographers, staff and crew. I have gotten amazing messages, texts, and even hand written letters expressing beautiful experiences that people had during the process of making and performing Koru. The words written in these touched my heart so much it made my eyes leak. It has always amazed me how dance affects people. Whether watching it or doing it, it can move the human spirit, elevate it, challenge it, excite it... Making this show did all of these things to me but receiving these expressions of emotions on how being involved in Koru affected people sent me to another level of respect of how dance touches. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to create, collaborate, encourage and be inspired.

Long time no blog...

So I've been busy like nobodies bizness for sure. I am approaching the final week of production on Koru which marks my third annual production with dance 101. Can't believe it's been almost three years. Show is coming along...I just finished editing the opening video which I love. As I do editing. This time I'm dabbling in Final Cut Express version and have completed two videos on it with the rest of the stuff on iMovie. I got to know iMovie while on the road with Cher. It really help pass the time from city to city and is a fantastic mode of creative escape. I am accepting work as an editor...FYI. Also for connecting videos I've researched and downloaded some wonderful clips from the early 1900's of dancers and other vaudevillian acts and set them to various tunes of that era. It really ads a nice flavor to the flow. I am also choreographing two pieces for Koru, one a group dance derived from my Old School Jazz class mixed with my Latin Jazz class, the dance is set to a Jethro Tull song and goes into The Salsa Kings "Salsa Brava". My dancers range from mid 20's to mid "not 20's" and are of varying levels. I love my students and love seeing the smiles on their faces when they dance. It's coming together nicely and is lots of fun. My second dance is a contemporary duet set to Thom Yorke's "Atoms for Peace", love it. It shows a relationship growing, healing, rebirth...some fun partnering bits and playful energy. This show has a vast array of dance styles and should be really entertaining. I'm proud of the efforts the students are putting into this production, some of which have never been on stage before. How cool is that?! Lot's of life has been happening to. I've been surrounded by it and trying to keep it at bay without fully rejecting it for I am human and do pay attention to what others are going through. It's difficult to control my compassion, to not give so much energy to it and have none left over for myself. I'm successful for the most part, sometimes, and not at all....in varying degrees. At any rate, I am still breathing, still loving and still dancing.

Curious apples morph...

So last night I finally mustered the nerve to rent "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". You know, the three hour "curious case". I didn't start it til after 1am because I was working on KORU. I have to say that I've put off getting this movie also because I know several of the dancers in it and didn't want to get jealous watching them participate in the life I used to lead. Ok there I said it. Anyway, the movie started and I could not stop. I loved it. The story, the cinematography, the production design, Brad Pitt half naked looking like he did in "Thelma & Louise". My only criticism is that Benjamin didn't seem to be as young as he was supposed to be in the early years, so it was confusing some of the situations he would be in and not act more naive. But this did not keep me from loving the film. The three hours flew by and I didn't even doze off. Like I did tonight in "Robin Hood" which I almost walked out of. Anyway, "TCCoBB" touched me in a special way. I loved the final scene when he fully regresses. The story is amazing. Loved it.

This morning I went to meet a friend at Starbucks. I ordered my drink...Iced Venti Sweetened Green Tea and as I got it I noticed this handsome man, I know...shocker. He was sitting with his family. His wife and daughter were talking which didn't hold my attention so much but I couldn't help but notice his son playing with his fathers adams apple. The father had the most gentle smile on his face as if he was in future reflective thought of remembering that moment forever. It was so touching and real. I used to be in awe of my dads adams apple and wondered if I would ever have one. Well I do and I know that if I were that father today, I would remember the exact moment my son fiddled with it and how it made me feel, the unconditional love that can exist between a father and a son is a beautiful thing.

Later today I went out to Spelman College to witness the culmination of T. Lang's "Sweat Shop" summer intensive. There were about 8 dancers and they showed what they had been working for the whole week. These girls were amazing. T. Lang set an excerpt of the piece that she and Spelman Dance Theatre are taking to Lincoln Center in NYC, where they have been invited to perform next week, CONGRATULATIONS. In addition to that piece they ran through five others, one being full length at over five minutes and the others, more lengthened phrases. T. Lang's choreography is challenging, inspired, intricate, and something that she is now incorporating...gestural. I love seeing artists evolve and that is what T. Lang has done over the past year. The young dancers moved as though they had absorbed an alien energy and was using it as fuel to morph their bodies into different shapes with varying speeds and emotions. A great way to spend an afternoon.

Everything at once...

Wowzers...so many things happening I don't have time to take a moment unless it's early or too late. I'm gonna grab a quick one right now. So the show is in full swing now so that means I'm choreographing, editing video, editing music, making more lists, doing program stuff, teaching, and trying to stay sane and serene. This past weekend was the Urban Couture Senior Collection fashion show in which myself and Elaina Whitehead created something for. I also did the costumes for my piece and by do I mean make. 7 shirts made, 100 mirrors glued, one headdress revamped but it was all worth it cause it rocked the house. I mixed contemporary dance with hip hop set to a track by Brooklyn String Quartet, an awesome young ensemble. Then Elaina did her part to a mix of Sam Sparro and T Pain. By the end of the 3.5 minute piece the crowd was screaming, they loved it. Yay, mission accomplished. The audience was sprinkled with local celebs including Suchita Vadlamani host of Fox 5 Good Day Atlanta, Bill Hallman local clothing guru, and Dwight Eubanks from Real Housewives of Atlanta. it was a fun and exciting night with dance and fashion by the senior designers of Grady High School. These young adults led by Vincent Martinez really have amazing talent. The designs were sophisticated, edgy, well thought out and absolutely wearable. Fabulous work.

Tonight at the studio there were three rehearsals going on at the same time. David, Barry and Rachel and I must say that the dances are looking good. Some still rough around the edges but nothing that some good thorough cleaning will not take care of. My Old School/Latin Jazz dance is finish cept for the very end and I really like it. My dancers are working hard and really showing up for the piece. I'm doing a duet also set on my muse Ashley Lewis and a newbie Travis Barron. I love the dance and it's quirky style of budding romance. It's visual, endearing, and choreographically interesting. Starting to formulate the opening video montage that is going to be the most challenging to date and I'm super excited about it. Finally purchase Final Cut but probably am going to use iMovie cause I don't have the time to experiment and learn.

I have to say that my life is full at the moment and for that I'm grateful. I just need to get my sleep a bit more consistent and all will be well.

ergo needles and ruffles

Went to bed having sewn and woke up and back to sewing. If you went to see "Shorts" last night you would have seen my piece "ergo" half costumed. I did not use my very limited time management skills well enough to complete the costumes for the dancers in time for the dress rehearsal/preview Thursday night. So there I was Wednesday afternoon and part of Thursday morning running from the studio to Michael's to Hancock Fabrics then back to the studio then to my storage unit then to Gayle K then back to the studio. All of this in order to get these three tops made complete with ruffle bib. Well, two days of running around with one night and one morning of sewing and they were complete. Yay. They turned out nicely and looked great on the dancers and onstage. Tonight's performance of "Shorts" had something for everyone. Although mostly modern or contemporary the program had such a wide range of emotional and structural approaches that each piece had it's own thing going on. Stand out pieces for me were "Is That All There Is" from Adele Myers and Dancers which was mostly a solo with the incredible Diana Deaver then Adele joined her onstage for the second portion of the piece. This dance had most everything you can imagine. Humor, remorse, suspense, bewilderment, compassion. Ms. Deaver is an amazing technician with beautiful lines, incredible control and remarkable sense of timing. The other stand out piece for me was performed by Good Moves Consort lead by Annette Lewis. This group of five young dancers, and when I say young I mean 11 and 12, performed a piece that was structurally complex and was full emotion and energy with the maturity and focus of much older dancers. They did an amazing job and hold lots of promise for a future in dance. My dance "ergo" turned out nicely...my three dancers Rose Shields, Jena Kovash and Stephanie Johnson busted their butts. The piece was quite fast and extensive. "ergo" begins with a murder scene as we see Rose laying on the ground with a ribbon of blood flowing from her dead body and Jena standing still with her back to the audience as she reveals a knife from behind her body. As the music builds we see Jena's body produce a multi layered full body contraction of emotion. She drops the knife and falls to the floor and straight into a headstand showing complete confusion. Stephanie enters the scene to find a sight she never expected with one of her dead and the other upside down. As the tension builds we see Stephanie try to devour the evidence as Jena starts to come to and see what she has done. At this point I decided to reverse the story to show the scene that led up to the murder. I did this by having Jena pull the ribbon from Rose's body as Stephanie was in the process of removing the evidence even more by way of disposing the body. From this point on there was explosive dance involving rapid foot work, long extended lines and pattern changes onstage. We see the three exchanging aggressive control of passive martyrdom and then betrayal in that. By the end Rose and Jena are in a waltz duel for final destruction. The piece ends with Rose begging for mercy which is actually Jena begging for mercy from herself and ultimately killing herself using Rose as the martyr. Not sure if it all makes since but I found it interesting. I have to give it up to Joanna Brooks for curating this event. She is consistently active in and for the Atlanta dance community and Shorts is yet another testament that dance is alive and well in the city.

Improvisations and other movements

Friday and Saturday night I had the opportunity to create spontaneously in a show called Anthology. It was held at Studio 900 on Dekalb Ave. in Inman Park area of Atlanta. The studio is a photography studio and an art gallery as well with an amazing vibe. I collaborated with Travis Barron as he beat boxed I moved. Complete improvisation entitled "id"and a completely satisfying experience. We performed in a white corner usually reserved for photo shoots which served as a stark contrast for our mostly black clothing. Travis wore a tux and I wore black pants, black short sleeve t and had a mask that completely engulfed my head. I made this one so that it would look a bit like the outside of the Disney Music Hall in downtown L.A. with panels of black foam which began and ended with points. The back of the mask flowed up into a plume much like a sinister rooster and the front of the mask had spikes and a strip of human hair flowing down. Once I completed it it reminded me of a Stealth Bomber combined with a lobster. Very Dali'. The lighting for the piece was up light which forced shadows onto the walls that created another level of dimension which at times superseded the 3 dimensional action that was going on in the foreground. I love that people looked at it through different eyes and each experience was unique and valid without us telling the audience what to think or how to react. The first of two nights was cool but the second night I really felt a connection to Travis and he locked into my motion. I could almost anticipate his sound and felt like he was doing the same with my movement. I am planning to do this again as I feel like we only peeled the first layer off of what we could offer each other in inspiration and collaboration. Thank you to Zerina Serulle and Beth Del Nero for curating this event.

Tonight I went to see the Spelman Dance Theatre's Spring Concert. The concert was made up of choreography by student and faculty as well. Stand out pieces were the solo by Isaac Rose and of course the one and only T. Lang. Isaac began his piece laying face down as his fingers ran along the floor like separate creatures as the drug his body to the center of the stage. His movement was weighted at times then at others light an lifted. He has a super long body so that made the movement more pronounced in it's various manners. The finale of the show was a new work named "Wii Play" by choreographer extraordinaire T. Lang. The piece began with a single dancer in siloette center stage winding her right arm slowly. The music was "Year of the Dragon" by Osso & Sufjan Stevens a violin piece that had intensity and texture. As the single dancer was spinning her arm for a while the other 16 dancers entered from stage left claiming the space. They were wearing bright colored leggings and various shaped tops as they arrived to their positions and faced front staring down the audience with an invitation to play. The single dancer still spinning her arm began a phrase of movement that went shooting through the entire cast and began the game. Spelman dancers are strong, determined and engaged and attacked this piece with a vengeance. Structurally speaking the piece kept unfolding into new sections breathing a fresh breath into the dance with each new phrase. There was a long bench spanning the entire back of the stage which served as a launching point for much of the dance and which T. Lang used quite creatively using it as a backdrop for movement as dance phrases were performe downstage. "Wii Play" ended with an explosion of energy and color that personally drew me to the edge of my seat then propelled me to my feet with applause. This piece marked the end of 7 dancers involvement with Spelman and T. Lang which with roses and tears T. Lang introduced them one by one as they took their final bows on the Baldwin Burroughs Theatre stage. I got to speak with a few of the dancers afterward to see what they had in the future and whether they are going to New York, San Francisco, or Italy these dancers have amazing futures ahead of them and I hope that performing in Atlanta is part of it.