recently, preparing the ginzburg geography, i have been deep in italian partisan music. i learned a lot of these songs, probably too many… i am all set to do a program for very old men in bologna.  anyway, after thinking about this a lot, i concluded that you can divide the songs  in a variety of ways. [...]

For me, creating work is often an outward presentation of a very personal journey. In reading Kalidasa’s Meghadhootha, I initially drew inspiration from many different translations, and literary commentaries. In reading the epic poem over and over again, there were certain verses that leapt out from the pages. These lines were coaxed by my own [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Sunrise, one morning in June 1997: Students were readying themselves for school, workers for their jobs, merchants for their businesses in the city, in the markets, peddlers were at their usual occupations, the many unemployed, graduates with or without hope, were looking for work, students were on their way to school, and that’s when everything [...]