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
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
Creating work means following feelings as far as one can as well as using accumulated technique to express those feelings. There is an interaction between the feeling and technique, and each feeds the other. Unless it is a set classical piece, learned technique may not match the feeling/meaning/expression that is desired. So, one has to experiment. For me, the starting point is in the classical training I received. Because the expressive range is so rich, I feel that it is
Sometimes I'm asked what village I grew up in. The answer is a little village of (what is now) 7.4 million people. The idea that I grew up in a ghetto area in one of world's largest cities seems to shock many people. How can the art that I learned and practice be from that environment and not from one of rice fields, palm trees, and poor but happy villagers? The deep origins of my technique are not from the
A Choreographical Investigation I am currently deep in the process of creating the piece to be performed in October. As I do this, I think about what my intentions are, what I want to convey, and what I use to embody (a good word for a choreographer) those intentions. Intentions exist on the level of creating and exploring themes, such as for this piece, the relationship between dancers and food. Intentions also exist on the level of wanting to create
Readymade Dance Theater Company's new piece was inspired by Don Delillo’s 2001 novel, The Body Artist. Director Zsolt Palcza listened it to by audiotape—a great one read by Laurie Anderson—while driving to Mexico one year. Her voice is mesmerizing; it puts one into a trancelike state, much like the 300 miles of carretera between Nogales and the Pacific Ocean. “He sat with the newspaper, stirring his coffee. It was his coffee and his cup. They shared the newspaper but it
Luxury Items was a super splendorific success. Besides being a fabulous production, this was also our longest running show to date, and garnered a ton of fantastic press! Go CounterPULSE, and hats off to Monique Jenkinson and everyone involved! Much love to all who came and hope you loved it as much as all of us on staff did! A few words from our awesome audiences: "Amazing. Fauxnique is awesome and the show "showed" her brilliantly. Great production. Every moment.
November. Thanksgiving. Well, Performing Diaspora was a thanksgiving feast of a sort, for sure. Dishes of quiet contemplative explosions and moments of mirth filled the platter, like when Sri did her nonplussed "boob dance" and her sexy "butt dance." With her back to the audience, she cocked her head as if to say, "I see you, watching me, watching you." There was Devendra's utterly charming and engrossing nautanki play, Yannis' virtuosic and athletic dance -- one moment in particular took
Last Saturday, artists and community members used the CounterPULSE stage not for dancing, but for discussion: participants in the Performing Diaspora Symposium took the day to explore the rich, challenging themes that the Festival explores. In three separate sessions, panelists and audience members articulate some of the ideas that each Performing Diaspora artists stirs up onstage. Give a listen here! Appropriation: Dilemma in Dance Panelists: Deborah Vaughan, Anne Bluethenthal, & Denise Pate Facilitated by Laura Elaine Ellis The subject of
Let the Festival begin! Last night, CounterPULSE opened its doors to Performing Diaspora artists and audience members -- check out some of the audience's reactions here!
Sri Susilowati is a Performing Diaspora Resident Artist at CountePULSE. See her at weekend 2 of Performing Diaspora, November 12-15. Buy tickets now! As an Indonesian choreographer who has trained in my own country and the U.S.A, I am interested in looking at a social relation from a third world perspective, and in particular a third world women's perspectives. When first I moved to the States years ago, my artistic mission/intention was to introduce Indonesian dance to Americans and to
Event Featured Image Output
Event Linkable Title
Event Start Date (Clean)
Nov. 23rd, 2024 @ 8:00PMEvent Detail Button
CounterPulse
80 Turk St, San Francisco, CA 94102
© Copyright 2024 | CounterPulse.org | Website created and managed by Fearless Digital Journey