December is nearly here and we have a lovely event, Comfort Dance, coming up to start off the holiday season! This will be a shared evening of contemporary dance work with Folded Productions at the Riverbank Arts Centre in Newbridge, Thursday, December 8th.
Laurie and I will be performing our new duet tomorrow in Birr, County Offaly as part of Mamuska at I.F.O.N.L.Y. (International Festival of a Necessarily Lonely You).
Photo Credit: Maria NilssonWaller
This is a work we've been developing over the last two months and we'd love to have your support and to hear your feedback. The event is free of charge and is comprised of a programme of short diverse work by various artists. You can find out further information about the festival here.
When: Saturday, November 26th (Tomorrow!)
Time: 8pm
Cost: Free of charge
Clare, Matt and I worked on one of their duets today, and on Matt's solo. We were at the Center for Performance Research in Brooklyn. A great rehearsal, we definitely worked off tomorrow's Thanksgiving turkey :)
In related news: THANK YOU to everyone who has supported our Rock Om campaign so far - we are over the $1k mark in our fundraising! Keep telling everyone you know - we still have 6k to go before December 19th! Thank you! Rachel.
We need to raise money to bring the evening length work Rock Om, which we've poured our hearts (and personal funds) into for the last 12 months, to Boston in January. Please help us!
This campaign runs from Nov 19th - Dec 19th 2011 only.
How you can help:
1. Right now, bookmark this page: http://www.indiegogo.com/Rock-Om
2. Set a reminder on your phone for this Saturday Nov 19th, to log on and donate.
3. Share! Tell your colleagues! Tell your high school drama teacher! Tell your investment banker!
Remember: we're nearing the end of the year - do you need to get any Tax Deductible Donations out of the way? We can help with that!
In return for your support, we have some great rewards lined up (see the indiegogo page) and our eternal gratitude and love is just ONE of them!
The next few months herald a huge step in our performances as a company and our audience reach. We've been invited to perform at larger venues than ever before, and we're more than ready to step up to the plate. In one significant area - funding - we need your help.
Gone are the days of studio showings, where we could get away with dancers performing in rehearsal clothes, where 'studio lights' could be rationalized with "it's a work in progress." With Oberon in Boston holding an audience of 300, this 50-minute, high energy, high quality piece now requires of us higher production values - our own music, actual lighting design, and costumes that aren't held together with twine!
The last 12 months have been a labor of love. We have torn the skin on our feet, spent precious rehearsal hours mopping flooded studio floors, and sobbed into our partners' arms. We have marveled at all the little choreographic miracles that sometimes happen when we thought we'd hit a wall. Now, we've reached a point where cannot continue making this piece with a ''New York budget - i.e. zero'' (as our composer so eloquently put it).
Thank you, in advance, for your help!
- Rachel, Krista, Hunt, Clare, Matt and Erica.
If you'd like a reward that's way more immediate, we're having our launch party for this campaign THIS SATURDAY Nov 19th
8pm - 11pm at
The Producer's Club lounge 358 West 44th Street; New York, NY 10036
(at 9th Avenue)
There is no cover charge and no drink minimum. We will have a raffle ($2 tickets) where you could win some awesome prizes - including: 3 free guitar lessons with the composer of Rock Om, free private yoga and Pilates sessions, a 1/2 box of artisan chocolates from the lovely people at Li-Lac in New York, and many other awesome things. Come and meet the dancers, choreographer, lighting designer, and composer! Come and experience our excitement for this piece! Come and get some hugs (if you're feeling Om) and some bum-slaps (if you're feeling Rock!) No RSVP required - See you there!
Are these long winter's evenings getting you down?Looking to get fit and challenge yourself with a new activity? Well then get yourself moving and grooving down atthe Riverbank Arts Centre in Newbridge and join me for a series of contemporary dance classes for adults!
Learn contemporary dance techniques, methods to develop choreography and re-ignite your creativity all in a relaxed and social environment. Throughout this series you'll gain physical fitness, flexibility, strength, balance and co-ordination. All levels welcome and no experience necessary. All exercises can be adapted to suit your physical ability.
Dates: Wed 16th Nov / Wed 23rd Nov / Wed 30th Nov / Wed 7th Dec
Time: 7pm - 9pm
Price: €15 per session or €40 for entire workshop series
Also, while you're at it...why not book your tickets TODAY for Comfort Dance? Join us for a shared evening of contemporary dance, mulled wine, and mistletoe with Folded Productions at Riverbank Arts Centre, December 8th.
I'm putting a video up on the blog that's not ours.
It's not a video with choreography, or dance, or theatre. It's not a video by expandance. It doesn't even have one of us in it.
But it shows one of nature's marvels, the one that happened to be the inspiration for expandance technique: Birds flocking. And boy, these starlings flock the flock out of flocking...
The expandance technique is based on this premise: Birds / fish / animals move in sequence with each other all the time, without thinking about it, talking about it or planning it. They don't bump into each other, they just move together, completely harmoniously. If we were to get out of our human intellects long enough to let the infinite intelligence of our bodies be in charge, perhaps nature would allow us to move in close proximity to each other without injury.
(Here's a secret: it does! And soon we'll be improvising more outside of the confines of the rehearsal studio, so you can see what we mean when we talk about ''improvising from our centres instead of our heads'')
"Murmuration"
A film by Liberty Smith and Sophie Windsor Clive
