We had so much fun in Summer Stages. Nice energy and intimacy. Every relation seems personal in studio, in the dining room and in theater. Even the audience members who came to see the show joined the already established feeling of tribal friendliness.
It was also wonderful to get personal words from students about the class and performance. We were delighted that so many students and interns helped to find dry leaves and showed up cleaning the mess we created in the theater.
Lastly, staff, crews, Technical Director Tim, and Artistic Directors Amy and Richard are all very passionate and hands-on. We feel everyone there CARES deeply about art and dance and that is nourishing. It was a wonderful bonus to have spent some time with Dan Wagner and Sarah Rudner and share our work with them.
Please continue your wonderful Festival and summer training program. We thank you so much for your invitation.
love, Eiko
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Summer Stages 2008
Submitted by Cara Surico, Choreographers' Project Fellow, '08
I have come to Summer Stages 2008 as a choreographic fellow and I have to say that this opportunity could not have come at a better time. You see I amongst (what is it now over 8 million?) other New Yorkers am trying to make ends meet and more specifically pave my way as an artist. It seems at times that dance gets put on a back burner, yet new work is generated and performances have been accomplished. Before you know it, a year has come and at what point did you even get a chance to reflect and understand any sort of creative process?
Well so far here at Summer Stages Dance at Concord Academy, Amy and Richard have created a place where the possibility to do so not only exists, but is the driving force for this program. I find that I am surrounded by artists of every type all at different points in their career. Here, your artistic voice wants to be heard no matter what your background may be. Getting to know your very own process is integral to your work, and I am grateful that I have spent three weeks being constantly reminded of just that! I look forward to bringing back this experience here at Summer Stages to the hustle and the bustle of NYC!
I have come to Summer Stages 2008 as a choreographic fellow and I have to say that this opportunity could not have come at a better time. You see I amongst (what is it now over 8 million?) other New Yorkers am trying to make ends meet and more specifically pave my way as an artist. It seems at times that dance gets put on a back burner, yet new work is generated and performances have been accomplished. Before you know it, a year has come and at what point did you even get a chance to reflect and understand any sort of creative process?
Well so far here at Summer Stages Dance at Concord Academy, Amy and Richard have created a place where the possibility to do so not only exists, but is the driving force for this program. I find that I am surrounded by artists of every type all at different points in their career. Here, your artistic voice wants to be heard no matter what your background may be. Getting to know your very own process is integral to your work, and I am grateful that I have spent three weeks being constantly reminded of just that! I look forward to bringing back this experience here at Summer Stages to the hustle and the bustle of NYC!
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Summer Stages and Conversations Concerning Epistemological Kinesthetic Privilege
Submitted by Chris McMillan, Summer Stages '08
…Wrenching my turn out…pinched my back…hiked my hip…crunched my toes… Torqued my knee… strained my arms… and still I am working against myself… trading my true image for who I wish I was.
What do you do when you don't have the Ailey extension? What happens if you can't point your toe like a prima from ABT… You work with what you have. I am actively trying to abandon my preconceived notions of what I should dance like. I am killing the word "should" when it relates to my dancing like Jason killed the girl who was running up a hill and tripped, in the movie Friday the 13th. I am giving myself over to the ideology of "Epistemological kinesthetic privilege". For me it simply means that my body on a molecular level has all the necessary information to execute any task, if I work with in the system of my own body and not against it. So many times this week I have heard instructors here at summer stages say, "Work with what you have, not what you wish you had".
I am also interested in the movement vocabulary that exists in the very cells of my body. I have some understanding of what my body can do. I mean we learn how Martha would lift her leg, we know how Horton would lift his leg, but I guess the important question is how would you lift yours? How would I lift mine? I am in no way speaking ill of our dance ancestors (where would we be with out them), but if we don't keep moving, if we don't use the vastness of our own kinesthetic knowledge, we won't do our bodies, our gifts, or our crafts justice. I imagine that this justice means becoming more ourselves in spite of an industry that is based on achieving ideals. There is something special in imperfection and I am interested in dancing on and in the margins.
As I spend more time honing in on a more classical modern dance structure, I wonder if it is possible to create your own movement style while simultaneously having an alien movement style in your body. Is our own epistemological vocabulary the new personal revolution? What does it take to get sweaty and dirty and then in our own exhaustion meet the new us?
So, I leave this Blog with one question
WWMD?
What Would Martha Do?
…Wrenching my turn out…pinched my back…hiked my hip…crunched my toes… Torqued my knee… strained my arms… and still I am working against myself… trading my true image for who I wish I was.
What do you do when you don't have the Ailey extension? What happens if you can't point your toe like a prima from ABT… You work with what you have. I am actively trying to abandon my preconceived notions of what I should dance like. I am killing the word "should" when it relates to my dancing like Jason killed the girl who was running up a hill and tripped, in the movie Friday the 13th. I am giving myself over to the ideology of "Epistemological kinesthetic privilege". For me it simply means that my body on a molecular level has all the necessary information to execute any task, if I work with in the system of my own body and not against it. So many times this week I have heard instructors here at summer stages say, "Work with what you have, not what you wish you had".
I am also interested in the movement vocabulary that exists in the very cells of my body. I have some understanding of what my body can do. I mean we learn how Martha would lift her leg, we know how Horton would lift his leg, but I guess the important question is how would you lift yours? How would I lift mine? I am in no way speaking ill of our dance ancestors (where would we be with out them), but if we don't keep moving, if we don't use the vastness of our own kinesthetic knowledge, we won't do our bodies, our gifts, or our crafts justice. I imagine that this justice means becoming more ourselves in spite of an industry that is based on achieving ideals. There is something special in imperfection and I am interested in dancing on and in the margins.
As I spend more time honing in on a more classical modern dance structure, I wonder if it is possible to create your own movement style while simultaneously having an alien movement style in your body. Is our own epistemological vocabulary the new personal revolution? What does it take to get sweaty and dirty and then in our own exhaustion meet the new us?
So, I leave this Blog with one question
WWMD?
What Would Martha Do?
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