8
Feb, 2011
8
Feb, 2011
Ode to my Father and my brother…
I’m cooking as fast as I can! A week and a half ago, I found myself cooking for one food party after another and no sooner than I finish washing my trusty pot that I cook my stews in does Julie Phelps and Keith Hennessey call me and ask me if I can come cook for 150 people at the amazing marathon performance they produce at Dance Mission called, Too Much! What do I say? Hell yeah! I had a
27
Jan, 2011
In a recession, you gotta have stew…..
I have to say…there is so much going on, I’m having a hard time keeping up in these posts! For the last 2 weeks it’s been about recession stew. Recession stew is a creation of mine that was inspired by the way my mama would take random left overs and hold overs in the fridge and make magical meals. I’ve been cooking up my stew at various locales over the last couple of weeks; fed it to the beautiful young
18
Jan, 2011
Trying to hold on to the magic of Africa….
It’s been almost 2 weeks since I left Senegal..every day in Senegal I ate 3 meals a day. Everyday, 3 times a day, we stopped everything else so we could eat ( I say we because I never ate alone there). Whether it was Adama’s cooking that we ate everyday at L’ecole des Sables where I was studying dance, or with my brother and sister in law and their family’s house…I ate 3 meals a day
18
Jan, 2011
Injury as Teacher
I'm often able to tell other people when they are injured how much every injury can be a teacher. When it's not me having to hold back from moving with physical abandon, I see the benefit of learning about our limitations and our vulnerability through our injuries. When I have an injury, my vision is a lot murkier and I have to wade through a lot of resistance before I come to some kind of acceptance of what happened and
12
Jan, 2011
Public Showings
We have our first work-in-progress showing for my CounterPULSE residency this coming Saturday, Jan. 15th. Even though we're still at the beginnings of our creation process, I'm very glad we have this showing to work towards. There are many reasons that I find public showings of performance works in progress useful. These include: --forcing us as artists to make some decisions about what we want to show --giving a deadline to a particular segment of our creation process --encouraging everyone
10
Jan, 2011
Narass ak jamm (digest in peace)
Well, it has definitely been awhile since I last posted…I have been on a journey with this food project that has taken me to the Republic of the Congo, New Orleans twice (I may be going back), several food parties in and around the SF bay area and most recently to Senegal from where I just returned less than 3 days ago. This last journey has been the most profound for me in so many ways but what I am
9
Jan, 2011
Synchronicities
One of my favorite things about the creative process is synchronicity. I follow intuition above all else in my art making and find myself continually rewarded by the ways that relationships I never could have dreamed up appear all of a sudden. Until recently I was planning on making a piece called Don't Suck! Cycle II as part of a four month residency at CounterPULSE in San Francisco. The recent deaths of my close friend Sharon and my grandmother moved
9
Jan, 2011
The Best Laid Plans…
A particularly challenging and fertile aspect of being a creator of experimental performance is that I often have to describe a project in detail many months or even years before I start on it. When working with 10 or more ensemble members and needing to plan out schedules and spaces that are accessible for dancing, instruments, wheelchairs, props, sets and more, I have to do a lot of advance planning. I joke often with my husband about how I have
3
Jan, 2011
1/4 mark
When I think about my understanding of what it meant to be gay when I was 16, a handful of images come to mind. Walking down Stockton Avenue and trying to sneak a quick look into the old Renegades Bar when the door would swing open. I could never really see in, but stories unfolded in my head around the mystery of that worn-down pub with painted over windows and rough-edged leather bears occasionally outside inhaling a smoke. Quirky wall
5
Dec, 2010
Superheroes
When I was seven, I wanted to be a superhero. By the time I was 14, I had moved on to Broadway Star or Professional Nerd, but I still created stories of myself as a superhero as I walked home from school. The stories shifted, but in the end I always saved the day through some daring strategery. These narratives were never particularly violent - even though I was a superhero, I wasn't so delusional to think that somehow I
1
Dec, 2010
Beginning
Today is the first day of my very first CounterPULSE ARC residency. I'm excited and scared by what lies ahead. I'll be working with my Dandelion Dancetheater interdisciplinary ensemble on the next stage of a multi-year project exploring the ins and outs of competition. We began with a vision for creating a Reality TV program on experimental dance creation in collaboration with videographer Austin Forbord. Over the past year of initial experiments we have encountered a tremendous amount of emotional