Movin' Easy Dancewear

Choreography that slices open the melon, exposing the intricate life of a growing pod.  The juices rise to heal the incision willingly offering seeds and pulp for nourishment and pleasure.

Choreography that splashes the taste of chocolate in explosive man and woman, I not only savor their melding of darkness and sweetness, I bounce with them over and against and through the bitterness of cigar.

Choreography that stuns me with possibility for union, the sweet burst in my mouth, the sound of rich chocolate folding and gushing over my tongue and into every cell with a pleasure of longing for this moment to never end.

And in this moment of longing, choreography points the way inside man and woman where pain envelops exuberance and births new life.

Thank you to:  Voice Dance Company, Gina Patterson choreographer  Dance Institute Austin 051910 

from: Tim Hurst

Fusebox Festival kicks off tonight with T is for Two Hundred Two-Steppers on the steps of the Texas Capital.  Choreographer Allison Orr and composer Graham Reynolds team up to bring Austin a unique dance experience with local, seasoned two-steppers showing off their moves on the capital grounds.  Spectators are encouraged to join in at the end.  Also part of the first day’s festivities is a performance by Japanese choreographer Kaiji Moriyama at The Paramount Theater.  Tonight is the U.S. debut of his newest work The Velvet Suite.  It was created for the 2007 Dance Venice Biennale: “Body and Eros” and includes live violin played by Koichiro Muroya.   Don’t miss this opportunity to see unique performances by acclaimed international  and local artists.

Watch Cult of Color by Ballet Austin on Time Warner http://www.balletaustin.org/newsletter/january10/cult.php

Extraordinary dance like Cult of Color takes me to another dimension.  Thinking becomes feeling, questioning becomes flying, sliding is definitely taking me toward a portal to the unknown.  Put Harry Potter in the satchel and get ready for a real ride.

Don’t miss Cult of Color the next time Ballet Austin Dance Company presents it live.

Prof. Alkis Raftis

President of the International Dance Council CID UNESCO, Paris, France  www.cid-unesco.org

1. The official Dance Day message is mailed to over 150,000 dance professionals in 200 countries. It is translated to dozens of languages. Please ask for a translation, or translate the message to the language of your country; send it to dance organizations and the media. You can find guidelines and previous messages at the CID web site.

2. Dance Day has been established in view of attracting attention to the art of dance, every year on the 29th of April. On that day, dance companies, dance schools, organizations and individuals, professionals as well as amateurs, are asked to organize an activity addressing an audience different from their usual one.

3. The International Dance Council (Conseil International de la Danse – CID) is the official umbrella organization for all forms of dance in all countries of the world.

- CID is recognized by UNESCO, national and local governments, international organizations and institutions.

- Its members are the most prominent federations, associations, schools, companies and individuals in more than 150 countries.

- It is the supreme forum bringing together international, national and local organizations, as well as prominent individuals active in dance.

- It was founded in 1973 within the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, where it is based.

- UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.   International Dance Council – CID – Conseil International de la Danse UNESCO, 1 rue Miollis, FR-75732 Paris, France

www.cid-unesco.org

Modern dancers explore into the depths of emotion.  In an extreme example, KDHdance company took on the theme of “Alone, alone.”  The journey is one of courage for the choreographer facing an empty nest.  Aloneness and lonliness are so charged in our culture that most times we accept it and refuse to find the time to look at it.  We usually react to”alone” with extreme journeys into therapy, meditation, depression, divorce, workshops, retreats, and multi-level marketing.

KDHdance tackles the job of jumping into water over our heads and exploring to find a way back to shore.  “Alone, alone” is an encyclopedic exploration of a hard look into the depths of the emotion, the turmoil, the demands of swimming again and again to the bottom and again to the top, winding and unwinding through entangling metaphoric weeds, shedding fear, gulping, and recommiting.

“Alone” is such a difficult theme because dance choreographers have taken as their territory a consistent theme of  the battle and struggle in relationships.  Aloneness and loneliness are a fact we accept and connecting with other people, our world, or a higher power we see as a job.

Making the job even more difficult, “Alone,’ works within the traditional relationships of Modern and other contemporary dance.  Aloneness is a major mode.  Dancers approach their own feelings and project them.  Connections between dancers are to direct, to assist, to join breifly before returning to an alone dance.  Unison dances are a series of lone dancers agreeing to make a statement together.  Even friendship or romanctic bonds are understood as a frame for being left “alone.”  Because all the relationships are characterized by aloneness, it becomes especially difficult to explore outside the  realm of the individual’s feelings and emotions.

Brilliant dancers again and again pull us out of our denial to look into the depths of aloneness and loneliness.  The entire show is book-ended beginning and ending with moving and somehow tender performances by Ryan Parent and Andrea Williams.

Ballet Afrique Contemporary Dance, choreography by Leah Smiley Tubbs  Preview 3/11/10 Salvage Vanguard Theater

“Through the Silence” dancer Danielle Martin, music Booka Shade

Palms spread on side of rock face.  Body bundle builds, broad stride, large roll.  Enter freefall, tall still, spun wilderness, spun into warbled threads of bread.  Fleeting eyes spreading yarns armed with elbowed pleas.

Spread bold yarns, told through toes into rolled threads passed beyond.  Tales told brushed across forearms and bottoms of feet.  New born cloth run, threaded, and bundled.

“At Play”  danced by Company, music Bobbie McFerrin

 Sister Sister, oogoogah wa bah.  Sister Sister, bah bah oogawa boobahwa  Sister Sister, Hop plop straddle rattle prattle, not to settle, not a saddle, Sister Sister hide a gaggle, glide to spec-tacle, Whee a raffle.  Sister Sister Lather gallop, ripple back, flying knees, shina slap a mattle, Sister Sister Mamma shees, fall and giggle, kickie slapping napping rolling crawling,  Whee Mamma come play with me.

 “Thoughts of You” dancers Stacey Baldon, Danielle Martin, Leah Tubbs, music Ahn Trio

 Three voices meet around an arabic campfire.  Three pairs of eyes stare straight into the flames.  Each brave body comes from the ends of the earth.  All songs sung right here.  All visions flung, all dances begun, all courage to see right here, right here, right here.

 In one voice, one body, pelican perfection meets choppy waves for the catch.  In voice two, one body, propeller spins desert air reaching for flight.  In voice three, one body, funky forest sounds capture ear, heart, imagination.  All songs sung, all bodies flung right here, right here, right here.

“Circles”  dancers Sade Jones, Stacey Baldon, Danielle Martin, Adrianna Ray,  music Bobby McFerrin

 LOOOk  ooah, spin me into the shooom, show me the truth, LOOOk ooah, show me falling into the sheenda.  Ooah, confidence, balancing here.  Show me turning my head to the light, turning my head looking into the night floor.

Splash me into a yoga sunrise.  Careen me flat into an arabic carpet.  Spread my back carved into a mosque calling.  Stop action my knees bending into water.

“Reset”  dancer Stacey Baldon,  music Moby

Deepest night, sleep disturbed, twisted limbs bristled twigs, sprouting then retreating deep into nutrient earth before sending standing shoots seeking cliffs edge with toes. Crackling icy winds, reaching precipice, spreaded wings hide eyes in the cross hairs of life.

Deepest blinding night, bamboo bent takes the blast, crashing into the cracks of the earth.  Only toes can find the heels to guide ascent and descent.  Only bamboo can rattle enough, shaking arms to break free so that spine can speak.

 “Nina Remixed”  danced by Company,  music Nina Simone

Break the spell of history’s kneeling bell.  Nina’s flowering culture captivating new nurture.  Swan shoulders beat below sweet sun’s heat.  Each succulent pulse surges beyond mammas and poppas rowing below decks hiding tears for suffering children.

Afrique’s throbbing gaze, vigilant species on journey’s return into the heart of God’s loving palms.  Slowly spreading toes forever extending legs to break open the horizons beyond the sea’s edge.  Committed grooves brush aside fears, kick the sides of earth, finding life rustling out of tight rib cages, shattering old vocabularies swung from trees and leaping through broken twig nights.

Nina Simone bursts through to the other side of love taking us with her.  Smooth ocean velvet raisins into the spinning sunshine, finding the ripples to touch foot palms.  Fresh lines of horizons bleeding sweet blood spreading tartness of butter on life’s swinging hips, spinning the long awaited breeze into the stillness of new seas, fathoms deep willing to receive.

Boom chi chi chi ah.  From deep forests, from long deserts, from mountains, and sea shores.  Drums sing.  Gut speaks.  Thighs bend.  Pelvic thrusts.  Toes come under solid frame.  Woman of reaching.  Woman of seething.  Woman of standing.  Woman of commanding, all turn together and sing their bodies through their very bones.

Music takes me for a walk on these lonely streets, yes  my elbows choose their own way, my rotating arms state what finally needs to be said.  I stand.  I see.  Yes, I swing into the power of the heartful falling seasons.  Now I look into the spring within me where I am not hurt, where I feel my toes under me.

Right from my heart, I give everything I’ve got.  From here I see.  From here I open my heart.

Ballet Afrique Contemporary Dance  Preview 3/11/10 Salvage Vanguard Theater

Second piece “Through the Silence” by Leah Smiley Tubbs, dancer Danielle Martin

Palms spread on side of rock face.  Body bundle builds, broad stride, large roll.  Enter freefall, tall still, spun wilderness, spun into warbled threads of bread.  Fleeting eyes spreading yarns armed with elbowed pleas.  Spread bold yarns, told through toes into rolled threads passed beyond.  Tales told brushed across forearms and bottoms of feet.  New born cloth run, threaded, and bundled.

@Ballet Afriquehttp://bit.ly/dCHA0J  see the pulse of Austin giving life blood to African American dance

Book signing for Site Dance: Choreographers and the Lure of Alternative Spaces at BookPeople Austin, Texas Feb 27. Meet Austin’s own co-editor Carolyn Pavlik and featured artist Sally Jacques.

Gold’s work is an exquisite mélange of gleeful humor, captivating images and finely etched movement detail, all eliciting a meditative dream state if you can stop laughing enough.  – The Austin Chronicle  http://www.deeplistening.org/heloise/Home.html

See my poem at http://www.movineasy.com/blog/heloise-gold-and-now-what-poem