August 2009 - CounterPulse

31 Aug, 2009

Devendra Sharma for Performing Diaspora: “Mission Suhani”- Reflections from India!

2009-08-31T23:34:58-07:00By Devendra|Categories: CounterPULSE, Devendra Sharma, Performing Diaspora|Tags: Devendra Sharma, dowry, forced marriages, immigration, Indian folk music, Indian folk opera, Indian women's rights, Nautanki, Performance for Communication, Performing Diaspora, politics of immigration, Pundit Ram Dayal Sharma|

Hi friends! I spent last three months living in India, co-writing the new Nautanki performance script for the “Performing Diaspora” with my father-- the renowned Nautanki artist, Pundit Ram Dayal Sharma, I loved my time in India. It was so much fun, and a learning experience, working with my father on this script that focuses on the issue of Indian men living in the U.S., who go back to India to get married to young Indian women and receive huge

29 Aug, 2009

Cry into the song

2009-08-29T19:36:19-07:00By Adia|Categories: Adia Tamar Whitaker, CounterPULSE, Performing Diaspora|Tags: activism, african american women, Afro-Haitian, ampey, art, arts, avant-garde, children's games, community, counter pulse, CounterPULSE, Dance, diaspora, education, emerging artists, emerging arts, folkloric, gender issues, ghana, grassroots, mission, non profit, Performance, performing arts, Performing Diaspora, san francisco, sf, soma, theater|

The Ewe say " ... you must cry into the song." A man in the taxi said "... you are beautiful when you cry." ... But these things are not easy. To cry into the song when you are still so sad ... To let your beauty shine thru when you feel as though there is nothing to hold you up. Today "Ampey!" took it's first breath. It's a girl and a boy. A mommy and a daddy ... very

28 Aug, 2009

Koreni, making peace with the past to move forward as life gets in the way of ART

2009-08-28T15:09:33-07:00By Danica|Categories: CounterPULSE, Danica Sena Gakovich, Events, Performing Diaspora|Tags: Danica Sena Gakovich|

The very spontaneous nature of art rarely gives way to "schedules", ie. scribbling notes on a bathroom floor at 4am so as not to wake up the household, 2-hour rehearsals that turn into 10 hours, starting with violins and ending up with tambourines, constant breaking of commitments due to double-booking or financial constraints...and yet as performers, choreographers, collaborators we must adhere to some semblance of organization so as not to disappear into our microcosmic "bubbles". A famous Spanish dancer who

26 Aug, 2009

developing the script… the bare bones

2009-08-26T10:01:34-07:00By CONTRA-TIEMPO|Categories: Ana Maria Alvarez, CounterPULSE, Performing Diaspora|Tags: "Tangled Routes", CONTRA-TIEMPO, food, journey, Performing Diaspora, Salsa|

So I haven't been good with updating the blog regularly - I am the same way about my own personal blog - but when I do it is thorough! We have been traveling all summer and I have been very in my head about this work - working on skill building and movement material but not setting anything - that will begin next week - what I have been working on this summer is more the structure and 'script' of

25 Aug, 2009

Bihag, my choreographic take on the Hip hop Tinikling – part 2

2009-08-25T21:33:52-07:00By Dulce Capadocia|Categories: CounterPULSE, Dulce Capadocia, Performing Diaspora|Tags: Dulce Capadocia|

Archival Photo of Silayan Dance Company featuring dancers Sandy Mendez and Mandy Burgos from article on "Filipino Life", Los Angeles Times 1986 (Costume idea for Tikling Bird Goddess in "BIHAG" - look at male dancer in the back) I write in my pajamas in this late bright sunny afternoon wondering why I haven’t changed since the morning. I hesitate; feeling deeply exhausted from last month’s activities, I am slow to recuperating. I keep having to convince myself that being

21 Aug, 2009

Do You Have Those in Black?

2009-08-21T19:31:38-07:00By Andrew|Categories: CounterPULSE, Images|Tags: construction, CounterPULSE, Risers|

Ok so we aren't quite finished but we are nearly there. We had to use the white because in the entire Bay Area it is apparently the only color in which they make Fire Retardant paint. Patrick Simms and I slapped the first coat of black on before we left yesterday and I think they are going to look great. We are looking for a big push over the weekend to bring this puppy home, so come lend a hand

20 Aug, 2009

Approaching the Feminine – Prumsodun Ok for Performing Diaspora

2009-08-20T04:41:20-07:00By Prumsodun|Categories: CounterPULSE, Performing Diaspora, Prumsodun Ok|Tags: Cambodian Classical Dance, Gender, Khmer Arts Ensemble, Multidisciplinary Art, Prumsodun Ok, Samba, Sim Thaina, Sompeah Kru|

"He, who is described as male, is as much the female and the penetrating eye does not fail to see it." - Rigveda It is 4.06 AM. My eyes tell me that I need to sleep but lying in bed is proving useless as thoughts race through my head. I was in Cambodia for ten days, just two days ago and have brought so much back with me. New knowledge, new costumes, new energy, and the pop song that currently

19 Aug, 2009

Towards Chicano Dance

2009-08-19T13:33:23-07:00By Gema|Categories: CounterPULSE, Gema Sandoval, Images, Performing Diaspora|Tags: Gema Sandoval|

When you choreograph folk dance and work to transfer movement from its natural habitat to the stage the considerations are: : Is the representation accurate? Am I being true to the spirit of the dance? Have I accurately reflected the integrity and idiosyncracy of the music, dance and people of that area? As important as these questions are, they are also the very elements that discourage creative evolutions from that dance. Additionally, I have always been keenly aware that ,

19 Aug, 2009

The Memo

2009-08-19T10:19:12-07:00By Adia|Categories: Adia Tamar Whitaker, CounterPULSE, Performing Diaspora|Tags: activism, african american women, Afro-Haitian, ampey, art, arts, avant-garde, children's games, community, counter pulse, CounterPULSE, Dance, diaspora, education, emerging artists, emerging arts, folkloric, gender issues, ghana, grassroots, mission, non profit, Performance, performing arts, Performing Diaspora, san francisco, sf, soma, theater|

I didn't get the memo. You know the one that breaks down the ways in which descendants of enslaved Africans have a different (but just as post traumatic stress disordered psychosis) than the descendants of colonized Africans. To be fair, I looked completely different when I've traveled abroad before (I had long hair), AND there is no pronoun for "he"or "she" in Ghanaian language. Word. My bad. Yet and still, I was expecting some kind of Haiti-ish/Southern American Negro/Caribbean stratification

18 Aug, 2009

Introduction to My New Work”From Beijing to San Francisco”

2009-08-18T02:27:29-07:00By Fei|Categories: CounterPULSE, Performing Diaspora, Wang Fei|Tags: guqin chinese music beijing san francisco China|

My project “From Beijing to San Francisco” at CP is a newly commissioned musical piece, bringing the guqin, a Chinese scholarly art, into an innovative, multidisciplinary stage performance, and introducing the ancient, living tradition of the guqin into modern life. It uses a guqin player’s own story to illustrate the fate of the guqin, an ancient Chinese art form, reflect on what has happened in China during the last 30 years, and interpret the period of the Cultural Revolution (1960s to

15 Aug, 2009

Live from Riser Rebuild

2009-08-15T16:37:06-07:00By jez|Categories: CounterPULSE, Video, Volunteers|Tags: CounterPULSE, Risers, Volunteers|

Hi friends, This is Jez here, Board Prez of CounterPULSE. Last week Lily wrote a blog post about our exciting new riser rebuild. If you're interested in helping out, contact Julie at 415.626.2060 or via email (julie [@] counterpulse.org) to find out more! I just got back into town and decided to stop by and join the volunteers to help with the rebuild. Here's some quick photos I took to share with you. But first, an introduction by CounterPULSE Board

13 Aug, 2009

Riser Rebuild

2009-08-13T17:39:10-07:00By Lily|Categories: CounterPULSE, Images|Tags: riser rebuild|

Last weekend, a small group of volunteers, including yours truly, carefully demolished the old risers at CounterPULSE. Having never used a power drill before, and in the company of those who have, I faked my way through the day, unscrewing, de-nailing, and generally having a blast. Apparently, I have a knack. The cool part of deconstructing the risers was seeing how much care had gone into building them in the first place! Everything was carefully put together, thus making it

Monthly Archives: August 2009

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