Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Help us raise $7,000 in 30 days!

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!

Friday, November 11, 2011

Adult Dance Classes this November in Kildare

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 at the 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

On street parking available
   
Bookings:    http://www.riverbank.ie/workshops/adult-dance-classes  or ring 045 448 330  
                                          Photo credit:  Mary Hutton
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.
Go on, treat yourself!  For futher information on the evening and to book tickets check out,  http://www.riverbank.ie/shows/comfort-dance.
- Alicia

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

I don't do this often, but...

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...


http://vimeo.com/31158841


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

Enjoy!

- Rachel

Monday, October 31, 2011

A trip home, and a visit to Ré Órga


As many of you know, expandance celebrated 5 years in existence last week. To celebrate, I flew home to Ireland from my current digs in NYC in order to be with Laurie and Alicia, and to meet with a couple of venues we may perform in in 2012. (More on that soon!) It was lovely to be back in Dun Laoghaire and to be able to catch a performance and a ballet class at Dance Ireland while in Dublin.
One of the highlights of the trip turned out to be my visit to Alicia's Over 60s expandancers Ré Órga at the George Bernard Shaw Theatre in Carlow. Alicia speaks highly of this group - it's been going strong now with over 25 regulars in attendance for over a year - and I was looking forward to meeting them. What I didn't expect was their overwhelming welcome, nor their joyous and obviously solid rapport as a group.

I spoke with many of the dancers over their tea break and without exception they thought Alicia was 'full of enthusiasm' and great to work with, and enjoyed their weekly classes with her. I was also delighted to see them rehearse a couple of their fabulous, and quite beautiful performance pieces. 

Ladies: It was so lovely to meet you, after writing blog posts about you, hearing about you all for so long, and working with Alicia and GB Shaw on the administration required to get this programme off the ground. Thank you for such a generous welcome, and for your commitment to expandance!

- Rachel 



p.s. did you notice the new name? After months (and months!) of deliberation, Alicia, along with our Over 60's group has decided on a name: Ré Órga - literally translated from Irish it means "Golden Age" - but as our very own Donnacha MacAodhagáin explains, it's more than that: 'Ré is a lovely word - doesn't just mean an age, or period of time, but is an old Irish word for the moon, too - which they used to measure time, long long ago....'

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Dancing down South....

 Photo credit:  Maria Nilsson Waller

Alicia had a great day performing at the Fusion Dance Platform in Waterford yesterday.  Thank you to Libby Seward and Animated State Dance Theatre for the wonderful opportunity!  Alicia showed a solo excerpt of a new work she's developing in collaboration with Laurie.  The audience was interested, supportive, and full of feedback, which added to the success of the performance.  Alicia and Laurie will perform the piece December 8th at Riverbank Arts Centre in Newbridge as part of Comfort Dance, a shared evening of contemporary dance by expandance and Folded Productions.  Check out this link to book your tickets, http://www.riverbank.ie/shows/comfort-dance





Sunday, October 23, 2011

Happy 5th Birthday expandance!

Happy Birthday to us!
Laurie, Alicia and I managed to be in the same country, the same city AND the same restaurant this evening to celebrate 5 years together as a company. We had a good time, as you can see...




Thank you to all of you who have supported us over the last five years: to all our dancers, collaborators, families, friends, our teachers, our mentors, our supporters, our funders, to the people who showed up at performances even when it was raining, to those of you who helped us with technological things we didn't understand, with websites and lighting and music and costumes and marketing questions and everything in between.  
You're all amazing and we love you.
- Rachel Wynne, Laurie Schneider, Alicia Christofi-Walshe

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Upcoming Performance Sat Oct 29th

Alicia Christofi-Walshe performs a solo section of a duet currently being made with Laurie Schneider at FUSION - part of the Imagine Arts Festival this year.

Date: Saturday 29th October 2012 at 2 pm 
Location: The Large Room, City Hall, the Mall, Waterford.
Entry: €5

FUSION showcases original works by Irish choreographers in an informal setting, with audience Q&A afterward.

FUSION Choreography Platform is an initiative of Animated State Dance Theatre Company, promoting the next generation of Irish based dancers and choreographers. This dance platform celebrates collaboration, fusion and experimentation across all arts disciplines.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Culture Night is this Friday September 23rd

expandance will be holding a short performance and leading a talk on contemporary dance at Riverbank Arts Centre in Newbridge this Friday, September 23rd at 7:30pm.  The event is free of charge and is part of Culture Night 2011.

After our performance there will be a showing of the 3D dance film PINA by Wim Wenders. Here's the trailer:



We're super excited, for three reasons: We love to perform our work, we love to talk about dance, and we love love loved the late Pina Bausch.
See you there!

Monday, September 5, 2011

New Rock Om Rehearsal shots NYC

Some recent Rock Om rehearsal pics, from Gina Gibney's studio 6, and Anna Sperber's 'Brazil' studio in Bushwick!

 Brazil studioin Bushwick (Brooklyn, New York) - Clare, Hunt, Matt and Erica
 In studio 6 at Gibney Dance - Krista, Alicia (over from Ireland!), ChristinaNoel and Clare working on one of the Rock Om travelling sequences.
 In studio 'Brazil' - Hunt and Clare, Matt and Erica.
 In Studio 6 at Gibney Dance - Krista, ChristinaNoel, and Clare being creative on paper after an improvisation.

Brazil studio - Matt, Erica, Hunt, Clare and Krista our rehearsal director.







 p.s. Our apologies - our website will be down for a day or so while we do maintenance - Rachel