CounterPULSE

4 Apr, 2011

The food chain is only as strong as the weakest link…

2016-03-18T22:35:28-07:00By |Categories: Amara Tabor Smith, Artists in Residence, CounterPULSE|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

The food chain is only as strong as the weakest link and other thoughts leading up to this monster called, “Our Daily Bread”   It has been a minute since my last post and sooooo much has happened. The artistic crew who are conjuring this work, Our Daily Bread celebrated the 100th anniversary of International Women’s day and Mardi Gras this year by having an Eat-In in the middle of the afternoon of Tuesday, March 8th. MJ’s Brass Boppers kicked it

31 Mar, 2011

Impermanence Made Visible

2016-03-18T22:16:34-07:00By |Categories: Artists in Residence, CounterPULSE, Dandelion Dancetheater, Video|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , |

My current favorite definition of the word "dance" is: "Impermanence made visible." That seems to cover the immensity and the minutia of this slippery form. I'm particularly in touch with impermanence as Dandelion moves into our premiere of Friend tonight. It strikes me as odd how performance is what I pour my most extreme efforts and longings and strivings into--and then it's gone so quickly after it arises. This is particularly true in the experimental dance world wherein we often

30 Mar, 2011

Entering the Temple of Tech Week

2016-03-18T22:16:47-07:00By |Categories: Artists in Residence, CounterPULSE, Dandelion Dancetheater, Video|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , |

I've come to love tech week--the week leading up to a performance run in which we have tech (technical) rehearsals, dress rehearsals and last minute scramblings to finish. I notice that during this time I am highly energized with a mix of anxiety, anticipation and joy. And I notice that the main thing that keeps me grounded is spending as much time as possible at the theater. I like to get to the place we're performing hours before each event,

29 Mar, 2011

Light the Fire

2016-03-18T22:11:34-07:00By |Categories: CounterPULSE, Kegan Marling|

I’ve never felt I fit in with what I believed was THE gay community, a culture that seemed to be marked by an ease and openness around sex that I did not possess. I've always felt a tension between the family-oriented grown-up part of me and this coy inner-child navigating an overtly sexual community. Over the past few years, as I’ve begun to explore multiple queer communities and identities,  it seemed important to understand what originally led me to thinking

29 Mar, 2011

Showings, Feedback and Protecting Clarity

2016-03-18T22:16:59-07:00By |Categories: Artists in Residence, CounterPULSE, Dandelion Dancetheater, Video|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

The showings that Dandelion has been doing as part of our residency at CounterPULSE have taught me a lot. Here's an incomplete list of insights, reminders, clarifying moments that I've gathered so far from the three monthly public showings of our Friend project: 1. Public showings are crucial to the development of the kind of experimental performance we create. They force us to get things together on a deadline, to try them out and then to retreat and re-tool. There

27 Mar, 2011

Art vs. Fundamentalism

2016-03-18T22:17:11-07:00By |Categories: Artists in Residence, CounterPULSE, Dandelion Dancetheater, Video|Tags: |

For Dance Anywhere Day this year we performed a minimalist movement structure in Frank Ogawa Plaza in downtown Oakland. Ensemble Member David Ryther led us in an improvised piece based on a street performer he had witnessed many times in Santa Cruz. We traveled slowly around the plaza, waving and looking back and forth with a highly exaggerated and slow motion smile. There happened to be someone shouting what sounded like Fundamentalist Christian doctrines on the plaza for a good

25 Mar, 2011

Falling Apart / Piecing Myself Together

2016-03-18T22:17:21-07:00By |Categories: Artists in Residence, CounterPULSE, Dandelion Dancetheater|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , |

It's been longer than I would have liked since my last post. I'm in the final stages of "birthing" our Friend project, and these past few weeks have felt like the major hump to get over. As I catch up with myself and the work, I'll be posting some eclectic reflections from the adrenaline-fueled final phase of this particular creation process. Here is a post I started two weeks ago, when I felt right in the middle of the fire,

14 Mar, 2011

Coming Home

2016-03-18T22:11:50-07:00By |Categories: Artists in Residence, CounterPULSE, Kegan Marling|Tags: , , , , , |

I've often thought about what it means to come home to someone. When you come home to someone, there's comfort and consistency. A dog's tail wagging, rich smells from the kitchen and maybe a kid slamming the screen door to escape outside into the air and wilderness and unknown. But coming home feels like too many slices of other peoples dreams. I get lost in them. They're flip books from another era and a different group of people sitting around

8 Mar, 2011

Humongous Hearts for CounterPULSE

2011-03-08T21:09:57-08:00By |Categories: CounterPULSE|Tags: |

Dear CounterPULSE Family, As many of you know, in light of the very exciting program and staffing changes taking place at CounterPULSE this season, I must announce to you that my time at CounterPULSE has come to a close. While I am very sad to leave the organization, I know that CounterPULSE will continue to thrive in the hands of this terrific team that literally keeps it pumping every single day; I am so happy to have been, for a

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