60×60

There is a really cool event happening at The Winter Garden here in NYC on Friday, November 14. 60 choreographers have each been provided with a different one minute original musical composition.  The assignment: to choreograph a one minute long piece that uses the music.  The 60 compositions will be presented back to back, on the stage of the Winter Garden at World Financial Center twice on the 14th of November.  Showtimes are 12:30 pm and 7:00 pm.  FREEFALL will be minute #13.  Should be fun, a little wild, and quite spectacular. Hope we see you there.

How do you define portrait?

A very different post today.  Lynn Marie and I would like to solicit some responses from anyone who comes across this blog.  The process of lie, lay, laid has sparked in us a curiousity about the experience of folks who had their photos taken, or who have looked at the photos on the blog.  The photos weren’t exactly intended as “portraits”. But looking at them together, we are struck by the information they contain.  That has us asking bigger questions, some of which I now pose to you, and I’d like to invite you to respond to any of these questions with your wise perspectives.  Or you can ask your own questions.  We simply request a response if you are so  moved.  Thanks.  Here are some questions, in no particular order:

What constitutes a portrait? How is a portrait different than a caricature? Is any representation of another an object worth attention, worth study?  What makes a portrait compelling?  Do we see ourselves in portraits?  For that matter, have you ever been the subject of a portrait?  What do we expect from a portrait?

That should be good for a start.  Thanks.

I’ll Crane For You: Scrapbook

I’ll Crane for You (or How I Spent My Summer Vacation)

I danced the month of August away:  first in London,
then in France,then I took my underpants to Findhorn,
Scottland to an intentional community--code for
communal living, Scot-style (organic wine and
whiskey; naked swimming in the North Sea).  I
lived in a caravan--code for trailer--with two
other dancers. 

I'll Crane for You is the title of Choreographer
Deborah Hay's Solo Performance Commissioning
Project.  It sounds very grand, but(is and)
isn't--DH's lofty ideas rooted in the reality
of the body in space.

Twenty performers were given one script. DH's
process is super-abstract and mentally unweildy.
She is looking for something very, very specific.
The pleasure is in groping to find it, of
opening to a process far away from daily life,
my usual way of handling things.  

With Deborah there is no new-agey, airy-fairy
nonsense, she's all strength, intelligence,
grace and vision.  She makes everything she
asks for do-able, even when your brain is on
warp 9.

At the end of the project we all sign a
contract promising to practice the solo for
at least three months before we begin performing
it.  I was lonely for everyone in the beginning,
but once I started practicing I could hear DH's
voice, feel my fellow dancers and it began to
feel quite companionable.

Look for the living room tour of my solo
adaptation of I'll Crane for You February 2009.

SLIDESHOW

I selected photos from our performances, photo booths, and benefit party to make a video slideshow that we hope you enjoy.  Big shout out to our photographer, Aeric Meredith Gujoun (check him out on facebook), and our composer on the project, Ljova (myspace might be best for him).  A big thank you to everyone who posed, supported the project, and support both Lynn Marie and myself.  Here’s the video: