Monthly Archives: March 2009

4 Mar, 2009

Conclusion: Whatever!

2009-03-04T01:32:20-08:00By |Categories: CounterPULSE|Tags: , , , , , , |

It is only a few days left to the opening of ANIMoid, the piece that Cathie Caraker and I have been working with for some time now. We think of it as a post-modern dance laboratory. The research we are performing in that laboratory started with the question: What might happen if two aliens came to earth and inhabited human bodies? In our work we take inspiration from things such as developmental movement patterns, perception and body systems, and use

9 Mar, 2009

ANIMoid: the final week

2009-03-09T08:52:18-07:00By |Categories: CounterPULSE|Tags: , , , , , , |

Chop wood, carry water, tape chairs and oh yes perform... 3/3 Night before the dress rehearsal. It's 11 pm and I'm still on on the sidewalk spray-painting my beautiful Mission-style dining room chairs a metallic silver, after spending way too many hours with Katarina covering their endless slats with gaffer's tape. Back aching, head thick from breathing paint fumes. It starts to rain again, creating splotches all over the wet paint. Someone from the contact jam comes outside, yells at

17 Mar, 2009

Gravity Presents-The Symmetry Project

2009-03-17T15:11:53-07:00By |Categories: CounterPULSE|

Dateline March 17th- Hello counterPULSE blog-o-sphere- We've loaded into the Theater over the weekend, turned everything white and are getting ready for Thursday's opening. Maria and Julie (Phelps, our admin. and CP's head house manager) have curated a really  beautiful gallery exhibit in the front hall.  Please check it out and leave us your comments here or elsewhere.  there is even a station with headphones where you can construct your own symmetry project. We are enjoying the process

18 Mar, 2009

A lovely space

2009-03-18T00:12:49-07:00By |Categories: CounterPULSE|

What a lovely intimate space and that long long stage!  Came in to counterpulse meet H. last friday in all that golden sunshine, and the wind!, "through the velvet leaves, the wind" and sign my papers for Rebecca's BN perf in the last week of June.  In large auditoriums, I always think, what a pity that one is so far far away.   And using opera glasses doesn't help at all.  I have tried that once while sitting at the back

19 Mar, 2009

Bharata natyam in the bay area

2009-03-19T21:38:44-07:00By |Categories: CounterPULSE|

As I train my student Rebecca for her june bharatanatyam performance, and when I see that there is a 'performing in the diaspora' series planned for the future at counterpulse, it seems to me that it might be nice if audiences knew more about the abundance of bharatanatyam here in the bay area.  After all, how can you appreciate a "departure from tradition" if you don't know the tradition to begin with.  And so, I would like to pass on

19 Mar, 2009

Contemporary World Dance: Napoles Ballet Theatre & Friends

2009-03-19T23:25:22-07:00By |Categories: CounterPULSE, Events|

Contemporary World Dance: Napoles Ballet Theatre & Friends presented a refreshing, powerful and culturally enriching affirmation this past weekend at CounterPULSE. Contemporary World Dance: Napoles Ballet Theatre & Friends brought together a fun and distinct mix of dance companies to produce an amazing piece beloved by all. Comment about the show below.

21 Mar, 2009

Symmetry Reviews Arriving

2009-03-21T20:17:33-07:00By |Categories: CounterPULSE|

Hey Gang, Here comes some of the Dance Discourse. Rachel Howard http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/21/DD3S16K77V.DTL&type=performance Allan Ulrich http://www.voiceofdance.com/v1/features.cfm/1708/Spellbinder-Jess-Curtis-Gravity708.html Allan somehow totally misses the fact that the piece is a co-creation by Maria and myself.  Hard to trust his reading of the piece (even when it's super positive) if he can't read the program. We're having a great time doing the piece.  Our crew are super and the audiences have been very supportive. We really appreciate it if people would try to come this

25 Mar, 2009

Save SF Japantown

2009-03-25T02:21:40-07:00By |Categories: CounterPULSE, Events|

 "Save SF Japantown" was on a sign held by a community member on the steps of SF City Hall in 2006 as we faced the devastating news that Kintentsu was selling 6 key properties.  We simultaneously celebrated the Centenial of SF Japantown, one of the last three Japantowns in the United States.  Japanese Americans have survived Internment Camps of World War II, and the removal of community housing from Japantown through SF Redevelopment in the 70's.  The sense of loss

25 Mar, 2009

Shimenawa and Pilgrimage

2009-03-25T17:19:32-07:00By |Categories: CounterPULSE|

Shimenawa is a beautifully crafted dance theater piece that showcased last fall at Counterpulse. This refined version has the classic feel of Kabuki and Noh theater with a modern overlay of sensibility and substance. It's ritual theater expressed in poetry, music and dance with a tight ensemble, Melody Takata has performed with over the years, including local treasure, Sensei Nakajima, the foremost sax player composer, Francis Wong, bassist and multi-instrumentalist, Tatsu Aoki, and myself, on poetry and vocals. Lenora Lee, a brilliant modern dancer who moves with the velocity of

31 Mar, 2009

Wide Time

2009-03-31T04:41:21-07:00By |Categories: CounterPULSE|

We are very excited to perform our first evening of work in San Francisco since relocating here from NYC in 2007.  We will be showing the new quartet "Wide Time", a collaboration with musician Jason Hoopes and video artist Loren Robertson, "Dark Matters" (premiered NYC 2007), "Veiling" (premiered SF 2008 with a sound installation performed live by Jason Hoopes), and the premiere of "E.I.D.S"   Saturday, April 11 @ 8:00pm (reception follows Sat. performance) Sunday, April 12 @ 7:00pm  We

31 Mar, 2009

Mantis Dance Collective April 10th at CounterPulse

2009-03-31T23:14:06-07:00By |Categories: CounterPULSE|

Most of the concepts for this show have been cultivated over the last year of my life. After moving to San Francisco from my grandparents house in San Diego I became overwhelmingly aware that I had been living a life in which I was mostly looking and trying to create happiness but very rarely experiencing it. There was a unauthentic feeling about the way I related to others and the way that I conducted myself. I was comfortable and content

Go to Top