embracing the unknown & come see us dance!

here's the thing.  everyone likes to think of the dance world as a series of auditions, directors falling in love with the girl in blue, and getting the job.  and yes, there's plenty of that.  but 99% of the work i've done -- both as a dancer and as a choreographer -- has been through friends and colleagues.  i most often create work on people i've danced with before.

so when the opportunity presented itself to choreograph for The Tank's xyz nyc, i had some butterflies.  the whole schtick is that you create a piece from nothing, in one week.  i didn't even get to meet my dancers until last thursday.

there's also both a theme and a challenge.  the piece's theme is to be "an oasis in the desert."  and the challenge is to include "imperfect repetition," or phrases that the audience recognizes, but something has changed.

interesting, right?

first of all, i love this stuff.  i love being given a prompt, and i love a structural challenge.  it feels a little like school, but i'm down.  i think creativity within unusual constraints allows artists to make choices they might not otherwise make.  i knew i could create something in a week.  i just wasn't sure whether i'd want to tell anyone about it.

but here i am!

i have two wonderful dancer-collaborators who were willing to dive into this with me -- letting me email rehearsal locations mere hours before rehearsal, improvising with me after barely learning each others' names, and taking my movement onto their bodies with grace and openness.  what a gift!  and how interesting, for me, to see how articulate i am when i show and explain my movement... these dancers have literally zero context around me and my movement, and i have to make it clear, fast.  concision and clarity are of the essence!

also, let's talk for a minute about last-minute rehearsal space in new york city.  it gets sketch.  but there's something about meeting with artists you barely know in weird little spaces you've never been in that feels very... new york.  and the unknown is magic, don't you think?

because i always love feedback, i crowdsourced some thematic inspiration.  i asked the question "what do you wish you could get a break from?" on my facebook page, and let the masses (of my friends, heh) do what they will.  every response made it into the piece in some way.

if you want to know how, you'll have to come!

thursday, march 26th 2015, 8pm
the tank
151 w 46th street, 8th floor
$10

...and you can even vote for me.  i could win!