Monthly Archives: February 2013

6 Feb, 2013

“Can a mere cloud bear such a message?”

2013-02-06T09:43:12-08:00By |Categories: CounterPULSE, Nadhi Thekkek, Performing Diaspora, Performing Diaspora Events|Tags: , , , , , , , |

I was first inspired by Kalidasa’s Meghadhuta (The Cloud Messenger) in 2009. At the time, I was exploring the role of the messenger in Indian texts and poetry. Often times the role of the messenger was simply stated – a person carrying a message from one lover to another. In dance, in some of the more commonly performed pieces, the messenger was often a sakhi (dear friend) of the nayika (heroine), and the nayika was usually desperately trying to convince

7 Feb, 2013

The Ginzburg Geography: Welcome

2013-02-07T15:36:36-08:00By |Categories: CounterPULSE, Jewlia Eisenberg, Performing Diaspora|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

What sustains people in severely oppressive situations? How do you hope when hope seems beyond possibility? How do you unify and inspire when organizing is punishable by death? These are the central questions explored by The Ginzburg Geography, a music performance by Jewlia Eisenberg and Charming Hostess. The Ginzburg Geography is based on the life and work of Natalia and Leone Ginzburg, Italian Jews famous for anti-fascist resistance and intellectual brilliance. Natalia was raised in an atheist and socialist environment

8 Feb, 2013

Otto and Emmett Ramstad, A Biography

2013-02-08T14:00:24-08:00By |Categories: BodyCartography, CounterPULSE|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |

Emmett and Otto were born twins in Norway in 1979, the year of the blizzard. You know, the blizzard of 1979 that wiped out all the power to the entire country and left folks cross-country skiing to neighbors’ houses for weeks. Anyhow, when Emmett and Otto were born the electricity had just turned off in the hospital. The hospital was small with wood panels and the electricity turned off at the moment of their birth. Darkness. The Ramstads’ mother, a conceptual artist living in

11 Feb, 2013

Journey to the Kongo — The Creation of Kimpa Vita! A Solo ChoreOpera — Blog #1

2013-02-11T04:20:45-08:00By |Categories: CounterPULSE, Muisi-kongo Malonga, Performing Diaspora|Tags: , , , , , , |

I am not sure I can ever recall feeling such an urgent and bone-deep calling to tell a story, or a desire to delve deeply into myself in order to craft a new work in dance, music and theater. Of course, like any other artist, I have experienced both sudden shudders and slow simmers of inspiration, but my latest work, and first venture into the realm of solo performance, falls outside of the aforementioned experiences. This new creation, Kimpa Vita!

11 Feb, 2013

DEMONS FOR HOT TEA, please.

2016-03-18T22:48:34-07:00By |Categories: Artists in Residence, CounterPULSE, Miriam Wolodarski|

Feb. 10, 2013 The crew of ‘Of Limb & Language’ travels to Earthdance today, to the E|MERGE residency, for two weeks of retreat. In the TSA line at SFO, my elation and gratitude is mixed with apprehension. Distance affords politeness: how will we survive two weeks of non-stop abstract somatic investigation into the production of meaning and the nature of language? In the cramped gangway leading to the plane, Rosemary reminds us that it’s the Chinese New Year. In Beijing,

12 Feb, 2013

Rhizozygotic twins beat the frozen odds

2013-02-12T07:58:57-08:00By |Categories: BodyCartography, CounterPULSE|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

  Scientific American, 14 June 2007 Emmett and Otto Ramstad present a fascinating glimpse into the diversity of biology. They are rhizozygotic twins. Rhizozygotic twins are an extremely rare form of multiple birth, enabled by the wonders of assisted reproductive technology. On September 20 1975, an egg, or blastocyst, was harvested from the Ramstad twins’ mother Josie Winship and cryogenically frozen. Four years later, in January 1979, Ms. Winship decided to have the frozen egg thawed to try for pregnancy.

13 Feb, 2013

Symptomatic (Writing the Movement)

2013-02-13T11:10:39-08:00By |Categories: BodyCartography, CounterPULSE|Tags: , , , , , |

He’s going to say something. He moves his lips in front of the microphone. He adjusts. He adjusts again. At the back of the space the other dancer is moving in position. He stands up, walks to the front. Then they are both standing alert. Still. Breathing. Then break. Shadows against the white paper. Copy me. I’ll do what you do. What am I doing. I know, I’ll follow you. What are you doing. No, you follow me. No. Yes.

15 Feb, 2013

Twinship, Sameness, Biology: A Hypothesis

2013-02-15T10:27:13-08:00By |Categories: BodyCartography, CounterPULSE|

Watch me. Watch me. In your imitation is the attention I crave. “He’s going to feel watched.” “He’s going to seek my approval.” “He thought about how space is anything but neutral.”   What does it mean to be identical to someone else? Oskar Stohr and Jack Yufe are identical twins who were separated shortly after their birth on the island of Trinidad in 1930.[i] The brothers grew up in very different backgrounds and finally met each other as middle-aged

18 Feb, 2013

Why dance?

2013-02-18T16:33:54-08:00By |Categories: CounterPULSE, Joti Singh, Performing Diaspora|Tags: , , |

As I tackle multiple projects at the same time, feeling the anxiety of deadlines, reaching for my own expectations of greatness, and fighting the apprehension of failure, I have come back to the fundamental question for me: Why dance? Why the heck would anyone give up luxury, money, fancy job titles, and above all laziness and give everything to dance? Why dance? My answer, in short: Transformation.Dance is transformation. I am in the lucky position to see this on a daily

19 Feb, 2013

Chinese Classical Dance VS. Peking Opera

2013-02-19T16:07:38-08:00By |Categories: CounterPULSE, Jia Wu, Performing Diaspora|Tags: , |

Peking opera is a form of traditional Chinese theater which combines music, vocal performance, mime, dance and acrobatics. It arose in the late 18th century and became fully developed by the mid-19 century. At the beginning of establishment of Communist China in 1949, China is alike an old and tattered house in which all basic industries could not be operated. After undergoing eight-years of the World War Second and a four-year civil war, every institution needed to be rebuilt in

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