Yesterday we had a great little performance at the Fourth Arts Block's FAB Festival. Outdoor stage, street fair style. Unquestionably an audience that was primarily not familiar with us, or maybe even unfamiliar with our physical vocabulary and ideas. There was a guy in the audience who seemed to be titillated by the "intimacy between women" aspect of the Head Dancing that we presented. But all in all, I think it went swimmingly. It felt good. And because of the street fair styling, I was not as bothered by the 3 minutes of this, 8 minutes of that kind of mixed bill set up that often drives me a little nutty. Because in a theater, when things sit back to back that are totally unrelated to each other, I as an audience member feel the need to either manually veer into new mindsets for each new piece, or I feel that I am unable to connect with works that are not aesthetically familiar terrain, and I am not well positioned to view each new work objectively.
Not so in this street fair/festival model. Already it is sensory overload. People are milling about, chatting, pausing to watch, and performing elsewhere down the block. Each new work is part of a chaotic collage. The Head Dance, I think, is ideally suited to this environment. It can be watched in a detailed way from start to finish, but if you pop in & out of it, you haven't necessarily lost your mooring in the meantime.
Performing the improvisation with more dancers, as well as having muddled the original text (I am For an Experience by Claes Oldenburg) with injections of Daniel Lepkoff's writing on Contact Improvisation and Virginia Woolf's writing on women served to recreate the chaotic collage within the work as well.
Video to follow soon on Vimeo.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
The Daily Grind
I've been thinking a lot recently about what gets my creative juices going. If you'd told me two months ago that the most consistent and satisfying part of my dance life would be ballet class, I would have laughed in your face. But here I am, moaning and groaning to myself about how my ballet teacher is going away for the summer! Whatever am I to do?!
It's not just the fact that I get all sweaty, or that there's something intensely satisfying about having a teacher give me critical and consistent feedback (though there is!). Maybe it's the ritual. All I have to do (not really but ... kind of) is show up. If I can commit to getting on that train in time for ballet class, I will have my juices stirred. And man - I feel more guilty for not showing up to ballet class than for any other class since I've been out of school!
Isn't it so true in so many ways, though, the truism of just showing up? If I get to the theater, I will see a dance. If I go to the gym, I will work out. If I show up at the studio, I will do SOMETHING ... it's not always clear what kind of something, but something nonetheless!
And I guess maybe that's why it's been so important to me to have a regular rehearsal schedule. To be able to book space a month in advance, and to know that dancers are showing up, waiting for me, whether we have a show date coming up or not! I know that "the company model is dead." I've heard that statement a thousand times. It's ingrained into my understanding of what it means to be a contemporary dance artist in New York the same way that wearing bare feet or clapping at the end of class are ingrained into me. But I've started questioning - is "the company model is dead" something we believe because it makes sense for the work we're making, or because the company model doesn't make financial sense in the arts economy (what arts economy?) anymore? I'm not saying that I want the old school choreographer-as-god, dancer-as-blind-follower dynamic. Not by a mile. But I can only imagine how creatively satisfying and productive it would be to have all of us in a room not just once a week, but twice a week, or three times a week, or five times a week! Imagine if I could pay my dancers enough so they could quit (at least one of) their day jobs and concentrate on being together in a room full time! I mean ... maybe we'd get tired of each other and grow to hate each other. But no one sends their kid to school for three hours a week and expects them to learn to read, let alone learn to write a book! So how do we expect to make the best work we can on three hours a week of rehearsal? I can't even IMAGINE working on a truly project to project basis - holding rehearsal for a few months leading up to a show, and then not seeing each other in the studio until the next show is coming up!
And I guess that my new ballet class addiction just serves to convince me that, at least for the time being, my gut instinct is right about this one. For me. I need the ritual. I need the consistency. I hate to admit it because I think that the way she portrays her life in The Creative Habit is kind of boring but, I think if I had the funds for Twyla Tharpian ritualization of my creative practice, maybe I could develop a Broadway hit, too!
And there's the rub: people who already have success get the kind of resources that it takes to achieve one's best work. How do I convince someone that those resources are well spent on me if I haven't had that kind of success yet? How do I achieve the kind of environment that it takes to make my best work when I have no funding?
... How am I going to get through the summer while my ballet teacher is away and my dancers and I go on various uncoordinated vacations?! ...
It's not just the fact that I get all sweaty, or that there's something intensely satisfying about having a teacher give me critical and consistent feedback (though there is!). Maybe it's the ritual. All I have to do (not really but ... kind of) is show up. If I can commit to getting on that train in time for ballet class, I will have my juices stirred. And man - I feel more guilty for not showing up to ballet class than for any other class since I've been out of school!
Isn't it so true in so many ways, though, the truism of just showing up? If I get to the theater, I will see a dance. If I go to the gym, I will work out. If I show up at the studio, I will do SOMETHING ... it's not always clear what kind of something, but something nonetheless!
And I guess maybe that's why it's been so important to me to have a regular rehearsal schedule. To be able to book space a month in advance, and to know that dancers are showing up, waiting for me, whether we have a show date coming up or not! I know that "the company model is dead." I've heard that statement a thousand times. It's ingrained into my understanding of what it means to be a contemporary dance artist in New York the same way that wearing bare feet or clapping at the end of class are ingrained into me. But I've started questioning - is "the company model is dead" something we believe because it makes sense for the work we're making, or because the company model doesn't make financial sense in the arts economy (what arts economy?) anymore? I'm not saying that I want the old school choreographer-as-god, dancer-as-blind-follower dynamic. Not by a mile. But I can only imagine how creatively satisfying and productive it would be to have all of us in a room not just once a week, but twice a week, or three times a week, or five times a week! Imagine if I could pay my dancers enough so they could quit (at least one of) their day jobs and concentrate on being together in a room full time! I mean ... maybe we'd get tired of each other and grow to hate each other. But no one sends their kid to school for three hours a week and expects them to learn to read, let alone learn to write a book! So how do we expect to make the best work we can on three hours a week of rehearsal? I can't even IMAGINE working on a truly project to project basis - holding rehearsal for a few months leading up to a show, and then not seeing each other in the studio until the next show is coming up!
And I guess that my new ballet class addiction just serves to convince me that, at least for the time being, my gut instinct is right about this one. For me. I need the ritual. I need the consistency. I hate to admit it because I think that the way she portrays her life in The Creative Habit is kind of boring but, I think if I had the funds for Twyla Tharpian ritualization of my creative practice, maybe I could develop a Broadway hit, too!
And there's the rub: people who already have success get the kind of resources that it takes to achieve one's best work. How do I convince someone that those resources are well spent on me if I haven't had that kind of success yet? How do I achieve the kind of environment that it takes to make my best work when I have no funding?
... How am I going to get through the summer while my ballet teacher is away and my dancers and I go on various uncoordinated vacations?! ...
Saturday, November 20, 2010
More Rehearsal
We've been working now with duration. Apologies for the times we are out of the frame! Until we have a rehearsal videographer it's bound to happen . . .
Anyway, here's the shorter take, it runs just over 16 minutes:
And here's the longer run, over 35 minutes:
We would love any and all feedback! Particularly in regards to the difference in duration and in how you viewed it. Do you tune out at different points? Is there a rhyme or reason to when you tune out or to what brings you back in? What do you like or enjoy? What other thoughts or feelings enter your experience of viewing? What is this dance???
Anyway, here's the shorter take, it runs just over 16 minutes:
And here's the longer run, over 35 minutes:
We would love any and all feedback! Particularly in regards to the difference in duration and in how you viewed it. Do you tune out at different points? Is there a rhyme or reason to when you tune out or to what brings you back in? What do you like or enjoy? What other thoughts or feelings enter your experience of viewing? What is this dance???
Monday, November 8, 2010
Rehearsal
We're working on this structure. We actually started developing some of the movement ideas for this in the second half of June (so like . . . 5 months ago). The structure itself we've been working on for I guess about a month.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Big Newsletter!
Dear Friends, Family, and Dance Lovers,
There are so many exciting new things happening for JW/Motion Mix that we hardly know where to begin!
In the past 9 months:
JW/Motion Mix has performed at the Rochester Contemporary Dance Collective (February 2010), The Tank @ Dancewave (March 2010) and the Clocktower Gallery in the Bronx (September 2010)
The company developed material for Someone, I tell you, will Remember us through The Field's Fieldwork Summer Intensive and a space grant from GreenSpace (June -July 2010)
Janet joined The Adventure, curated and facilitated as part of Danspace Project's Platform 2010: certain difficulties, certain joy by Trajal Harrell (September-October 2010) See here for more info.
Here's what we're looking forward to:
Janet and her Adventure cohorts present something FABULOUS (and as yet TBA) as part of a mixed bill concert with Patricia Hoffbauer at Danspace Project @ St. Mark's Church October 28-30, 2010
The premier of Someone, I tell you, will Remember us as a full evening length dance performance at Triskelion Arts on January 28 & 29, 2011
JW/Motion Mix showing work in Dance Conversations @ the Flea on March 5, 2011
And finally, the moment you've been waiting for! This newsletter marks the official launch of the JW/Motion Mix website and online media storm! Check it out!! In tandem with our website, we're launching a full scale internet takeover with our spanking new Facebook Fan Page, Twitter account, photo gallery, vimeo video gallery, and JW/Motion Mix Blog! Also be sure to stay up to date with our calendar of upcoming events and get to know us all on our Company Bios page!
At this point, I'm sure you're asking yourself, but ladies, how do you make it all happen? The answer is: we get by with a little help from our friends! The budget for our upcoming show at Triskelion is $2,868, broken down as
follows:
Total cost of theater rental = $758
Programs, postcards, etc. = $100
Video documentation = $50 (a STEAL from the AOMC's benefit raffle!)
Rehearsal space costs approximately $10 - $20 per hour. $60/week (3-6 hours) from now until show time = $960
Paying 5 dancers $200/show = $1,000 (still less than $2/hour per dancer)
How can you help? Well thanks for asking! For a limited time only you can participate in our JW/Motion Mix QUICK CASH CAMPAIGN! We need to raise at least $279 by end of this month to finish making our deposit on the Triskelion space. So now, for a LIMITED TIME ONLY, here's how it works:
JW/Motion Mix
QUICK CASH CAMPAIGN
Donate through Paypal now through October 31st and get sweet
Motion Mix Gear!
Up to $25 = choose a JW/MM pin, fridge magnet, or keychain
$26-$50 = receive a small JW/MM tote bag
$51-$100 = choose a JW/MM ceramic mug or t-shirt
$100-$200 = choose a JW/MM travel mug or long sleeved tee
Over $200 = choose a JW/MM hooded sweatshirt or large tote bag
HELP US MEET OUR GOAL!
Donate Now
Of course, if you'd rather make your donation tax deductible, you can do that too! We're Fiscally Sponsored by Dance Theater Workshop. Donate Here! We've already received some very generous support and we'd like to say THANK YOU to our current donors for providing the costumes for this project. All donors (from either campaign) will be listed accordingly in our programs for Someone, I tell you, will Remember us at Triskelion.
And most importantly, SAVE THE DATE!
JWMotion Mix presents
Someone, I tell you, will Remember us
A full evening length dance theater work
January 28-29, 2011, 8pm
Triskelion Arts
See you there!!
XO,
Janet
Artistic Director, JW/Motion Mix
*Janet Werther is a member artist of Dance Theater Workshop, Inc., a non-profit tax exempt organization. Contributions in support of Ms. Werther's work are greatly appreciated and may be made payable to Dance Theater Workshop, Inc., earmarked for "the Dance Theater Workshop member project of Janet Werther." A description of the work and current project activities for which such contributions will be used are available from Ms. Werther or Dance Theater Workshop, upon request. All contributions are fully deductible to the extent allowed by law. (Note: A copy of Dance Theater Workshop's latest annual financial report filed with the New York Department of Stat may be obtained by writing to the N.Y.S. Dept. of State, Charities Registration, 162 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY, 12231, or to Dance Theater Workshop, 219 West 19th Street, New York, NY, 10011)
**If you'd like to be added to our mailing list, email us at info[at]janetwerther[dot]com or fill out our contact form at www.janetwerther.com!
Janet Werther - Artistic Director
Liz Cramer - Company Manager
JW/Motion Mix
info@janetwerther.com
www.janetwerther.com
There are so many exciting new things happening for JW/Motion Mix that we hardly know where to begin!
In the past 9 months:
JW/Motion Mix has performed at the Rochester Contemporary Dance Collective (February 2010), The Tank @ Dancewave (March 2010) and the Clocktower Gallery in the Bronx (September 2010)
The company developed material for Someone, I tell you, will Remember us through The Field's Fieldwork Summer Intensive and a space grant from GreenSpace (June -July 2010)
Janet joined The Adventure, curated and facilitated as part of Danspace Project's Platform 2010: certain difficulties, certain joy by Trajal Harrell (September-October 2010) See here for more info.
Here's what we're looking forward to:
Janet and her Adventure cohorts present something FABULOUS (and as yet TBA) as part of a mixed bill concert with Patricia Hoffbauer at Danspace Project @ St. Mark's Church October 28-30, 2010
The premier of Someone, I tell you, will Remember us as a full evening length dance performance at Triskelion Arts on January 28 & 29, 2011
JW/Motion Mix showing work in Dance Conversations @ the Flea on March 5, 2011
And finally, the moment you've been waiting for! This newsletter marks the official launch of the JW/Motion Mix website and online media storm! Check it out!! In tandem with our website, we're launching a full scale internet takeover with our spanking new Facebook Fan Page, Twitter account, photo gallery, vimeo video gallery, and JW/Motion Mix Blog! Also be sure to stay up to date with our calendar of upcoming events and get to know us all on our Company Bios page!
At this point, I'm sure you're asking yourself, but ladies, how do you make it all happen? The answer is: we get by with a little help from our friends! The budget for our upcoming show at Triskelion is $2,868, broken down as
follows:
Total cost of theater rental = $758
Programs, postcards, etc. = $100
Video documentation = $50 (a STEAL from the AOMC's benefit raffle!)
Rehearsal space costs approximately $10 - $20 per hour. $60/week (3-6 hours) from now until show time = $960
Paying 5 dancers $200/show = $1,000 (still less than $2/hour per dancer)
How can you help? Well thanks for asking! For a limited time only you can participate in our JW/Motion Mix QUICK CASH CAMPAIGN! We need to raise at least $279 by end of this month to finish making our deposit on the Triskelion space. So now, for a LIMITED TIME ONLY, here's how it works:
JW/Motion Mix
QUICK CASH CAMPAIGN
Donate through Paypal now through October 31st and get sweet
Motion Mix Gear!
Up to $25 = choose a JW/MM pin, fridge magnet, or keychain
$26-$50 = receive a small JW/MM tote bag
$51-$100 = choose a JW/MM ceramic mug or t-shirt
$100-$200 = choose a JW/MM travel mug or long sleeved tee
Over $200 = choose a JW/MM hooded sweatshirt or large tote bag
HELP US MEET OUR GOAL!
Donate Now
Of course, if you'd rather make your donation tax deductible, you can do that too! We're Fiscally Sponsored by Dance Theater Workshop. Donate Here! We've already received some very generous support and we'd like to say THANK YOU to our current donors for providing the costumes for this project. All donors (from either campaign) will be listed accordingly in our programs for Someone, I tell you, will Remember us at Triskelion.
And most importantly, SAVE THE DATE!
JWMotion Mix presents
Someone, I tell you, will Remember us
A full evening length dance theater work
January 28-29, 2011, 8pm
Triskelion Arts
See you there!!
XO,
Janet
Artistic Director, JW/Motion Mix
*Janet Werther is a member artist of Dance Theater Workshop, Inc., a non-profit tax exempt organization. Contributions in support of Ms. Werther's work are greatly appreciated and may be made payable to Dance Theater Workshop, Inc., earmarked for "the Dance Theater Workshop member project of Janet Werther." A description of the work and current project activities for which such contributions will be used are available from Ms. Werther or Dance Theater Workshop, upon request. All contributions are fully deductible to the extent allowed by law. (Note: A copy of Dance Theater Workshop's latest annual financial report filed with the New York Department of Stat may be obtained by writing to the N.Y.S. Dept. of State, Charities Registration, 162 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY, 12231, or to Dance Theater Workshop, 219 West 19th Street, New York, NY, 10011)
**If you'd like to be added to our mailing list, email us at info[at]janetwerther[dot]com or fill out our contact form at www.janetwerther.com!
Janet Werther - Artistic Director
Liz Cramer - Company Manager
JW/Motion Mix
info@janetwerther.com
www.janetwerther.com
Thursday, September 23, 2010
It's been almost a month since our performance at the Clocktower Gallery in the Bronx. We haven't rehearsed since. Time's been flying, so on the one hand, it doesn't feel like it's been so long. On the other hand, as I start to think about it, it feels like forever since we've been in rehearsal! Especially, I think, because the rehearsal process that we've developed - the explorations, and questions, and trial and error over a luxurious amount of time - is so different from the "ok, this is what we're gonna do in front of the audience" sort of mindset that goes into preparing for a performance.
I've been trying to book one -on-one rehearsals with each of the dancers before we get together as a group. I haven't really put a lot of thought into why doing that feels so crucial to the process, but I know that it feels important. I'm really looking forward to those times - two hours of talking and dancing with one friend at a time, communicating questions and ideas through the body, developing a vocabulary, and a syntax, and a particular kind of intimacy . . . it's like a coffee date for the body!
I guess that's why I don't feel compelled to find studio space alone for myself - the whole communal aspect, the "coffee date" part couldn't possibly translate. I mean, how often do you go on a coffee date by yourself? =>As soon as I started typing that thought I realized that what I'm saying is somewhat false; I'm on a coffee date by myself right now! Maybe I should book some space for myself by myself.
I wonder what it will be like to go back into the material after an entire month. I have so many questions about context and image . . . it's been such an open process - in that it's an open field, without the mandate to "say" something or fulfill a particular kind of structure. But now, as I start to feel the need to organize, it's scary! If I make the kinds of decisions that will lead to structure or "content," will I lose that openness? I keep trying to remind myself that no decisions in this process are irreversible, but that just making the decisions will help me see something, so that I can decide whether that something is interesting to me or not. But if I don't see something other than the very open, somewhat nebulous rehearsing, I can't make value based decisions at all. The problem, I guess, is that there is SO MUCH that is interesting. How do I say no?
I've been trying to book one -on-one rehearsals with each of the dancers before we get together as a group. I haven't really put a lot of thought into why doing that feels so crucial to the process, but I know that it feels important. I'm really looking forward to those times - two hours of talking and dancing with one friend at a time, communicating questions and ideas through the body, developing a vocabulary, and a syntax, and a particular kind of intimacy . . . it's like a coffee date for the body!
I guess that's why I don't feel compelled to find studio space alone for myself - the whole communal aspect, the "coffee date" part couldn't possibly translate. I mean, how often do you go on a coffee date by yourself? =>As soon as I started typing that thought I realized that what I'm saying is somewhat false; I'm on a coffee date by myself right now! Maybe I should book some space for myself by myself.
I wonder what it will be like to go back into the material after an entire month. I have so many questions about context and image . . . it's been such an open process - in that it's an open field, without the mandate to "say" something or fulfill a particular kind of structure. But now, as I start to feel the need to organize, it's scary! If I make the kinds of decisions that will lead to structure or "content," will I lose that openness? I keep trying to remind myself that no decisions in this process are irreversible, but that just making the decisions will help me see something, so that I can decide whether that something is interesting to me or not. But if I don't see something other than the very open, somewhat nebulous rehearsing, I can't make value based decisions at all. The problem, I guess, is that there is SO MUCH that is interesting. How do I say no?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)