CounterPULSE

Shimenawa is a beautifully crafted dance theater piece that showcased last fall at Counterpulse. This refined version has the classic feel of Kabuki and Noh theater with a modern overlay of sensibility and substance. It's ritual theater expressed in poetry, music and dance with a tight ensemble, Melody Takata has performed with over the years, including local treasure, Sensei Nakajima, the foremost sax player composer, Francis Wong, bassist and multi-instrumentalist, Tatsu Aoki, and myself, on poetry and vocals. Lenora Lee, a brilliant modern dancer who moves with the velocity of

Hey Gang, Here comes some of the Dance Discourse. Rachel Howard http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/21/DD3S16K77V.DTL&type=performance Allan Ulrich http://www.voiceofdance.com/v1/features.cfm/1708/Spellbinder-Jess-Curtis-Gravity708.html Allan somehow totally misses the fact that the piece is a co-creation by Maria and myself.  Hard to trust his reading of the piece (even when it's super positive) if he can't read the program. We're having a great time doing the piece.  Our crew are super and the audiences have been very supportive. We really appreciate it if people would try to come this

As I train my student Rebecca for her june bharatanatyam performance, and when I see that there is a 'performing in the diaspora' series planned for the future at counterpulse, it seems to me that it might be nice if audiences knew more about the abundance of bharatanatyam here in the bay area.  After all, how can you appreciate a "departure from tradition" if you don't know the tradition to begin with.  And so, I would like to pass on

What a lovely intimate space and that long long stage!  Came in to counterpulse meet H. last friday in all that golden sunshine, and the wind!, "through the velvet leaves, the wind" and sign my papers for Rebecca's BN perf in the last week of June.  In large auditoriums, I always think, what a pity that one is so far far away.   And using opera glasses doesn't help at all.  I have tried that once while sitting at the back

Dateline March 17th- Hello counterPULSE blog-o-sphere- We've loaded into the Theater over the weekend, turned everything white and are getting ready for Thursday's opening. Maria and Julie (Phelps, our admin. and CP's head house manager) have curated a really  beautiful gallery exhibit in the front hall.  Please check it out and leave us your comments here or elsewhere.  there is even a station with headphones where you can construct your own symmetry project. We are enjoying the process

The Burning of the Ancient Library of Alexandria brought down the house at CounterPULSE this past weekend. The cast made use of many different forms of media and brought a fascinating evocation of ancient philosophy to life with their enthusiasm and commitment on the stage. Comment about the show below.