Behind the Scenes @ Summer Stages Dance

SPECIAL EVENT!

2008-06-12T11:29:00.004-04:00

David Parker & The Bang Group
ShowDown

At Rialto Restaurant and Bar

Tuesday, July 8, 22, 29
7pm

”It’s over too soon." --Roslyn Sulcas, 6/9/08

Summer Stages Dance partners with award-winning chef Jody Adams of Rialto Restaurant to host dancer/choreographer David Parker & The Bang Group for a series of “cabaret” dinners. Chef Adams’ three-course regional Italian menu will be paired with Parker’s ShowDown, his all-dancing reinvention of Irving Berlin’s classical musical “Annie Get Your Gun.” As guests enjoy Adams’ dessert course, the dancing will begin with Parker and his troupe taking to the dining room floor.

Eiko & Koma Community Events!

2008-05-21T07:24:00.003-04:00

Summer Stages Dance is thrilled to announce two exciting community events with 2008 artists Eiko & Koma. The first of the two events will be a Media Talk with Eiko & Koma at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, on Monday, July 14th, at 6pm. The artists will present excerpts from their art video repertory and discuss the history of their collaboration. Summer Stages will also extend the opportunity for community participation in Eiko & Koma's unique Delicious Movement Workshop, in which participants will explore compositional and performance techniques, while incorporating Eiko & Koma's movement vocabulary. The workshop will take place on Tuesday, July 15th, at 11am, at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.

Both events are open to the community and free-of-charge. To reserve space, please email summerstagesdance@concordacademy.org or call 978.402.2339. Visit http://summerstagesdance.org/performances/meet.html for more info.

dance all day!

2008-01-20T10:52:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, January 19, Summer Stages Dance and the Concord Academy Dance program sponsored DANCE ALL DAY, a community event open to the public during which the many who participated danced the day away with classes in Tango, Salsa, Hip Hop and Break Dance. The workshops were led by the esteemed Latin and Ballroom dance Studio 665, Concord Academy dance faculty, and the renowned Boston dance group the Floor Lords.

Save The Date!

2007-12-03T09:57:00.000-05:00

March 30, 2008
for the much-anticipated Summer Stages Gala Celebration

Summer Stages Dance Joins Hands with the Baryshnikov Arts Center

2007-12-03T09:51:00.000-05:00

On Saturday October 6, fifty friends of Summer Stages gathered in NYC to celebrate the inaugural showing of an exciting new partnership between Summer Stages and the Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC). Chris Elam, the first recipient of the Summer Stages Dance/Baryshnikov Arts Center Artist Residency Project, performed works-in-progress that were created during a six week residency that began at Summer Stages in July and August, and culminated in September and October at the BAC. The completed works Too Late Tulip, Rock.Paper.Flock., and Zipper will premiere in NYC in March. [Photo caption: Following Misnomer's performance on the evening of 10/6, Richard Colton and Mikko Nissinen, Artistic Director of Boston Ballet,congratulate Chris Elam]

(iseea) Stephan Koplowitz Friday July 20, 2007

2007-07-22T18:23:00.000-04:00

(Photo credit: Jaye R. Phillips)

We are about to finish our second week of rehearsals/research at the ICA. It's been a long week, a true "hump" week in the sense of me having to finish a new section almost every other day, sometimes juggling two sections at once. I'm happy to report that after today's rehearsal (Friday), I've managed to get a "first draft" of the first seven sections.

It feels good to have gotten this far. My mostly Boston based company of dancers are really fantastic to work with, totally present and committed and everyone seems to have a healthy sense of humor which makes our time much more pleasant.

We are at the point in the process where all the creative "departments" are in full swing. Justin Samaha is burning the candle at both ends creating the sound/music score, Laura Coulter is getting ready for our Sunday costume "test" run and I am working on finishing the eighth section which is also the only section with more than 12 dancers (it will most likely have 22).

Today, I got through a first draft of the seventh section on the grand stand (sort of look like stairs), it was slow going for awhile. I didn't want to repeat anything I had done in a previous work on grand staircases, Grand Step Project, so I made a rule that I couldn't have the dancers stand up and walk up or down the steps in any way...I want to use the grand stand as a two dimensional space, a more horizontal space. For the most part, I've managed to stick to the rule, except for the part where I have the dancers jumping. No one takes a step, they are simply jumping down or up, nary a step taken. This is a rather light hearted section, the jumps are fun to watch.

I also made a rather radical change to the last section in terms of where it will be seen by the audience. Originally, I had the audience standing at the very far end of the back area, in front of the cafe. Now, I have the audience sitting in the grand stand area looking out to the water and down towards the railing and the dancers. I am very happy with this change. It started when I had some of the dancers watch some of the material being made for the final section. Ruth Bronwen who was on the grand stand working with me on section seven, said rather vehemently, "the material looks so much better from the front, on the stands". At first I dismissed this comment, simply because I thought, "well, I'll make it look better from that vantage point...blah, blah, blah..." But later, I had the dancers do the material again and I watched it from the front, sitting up in the stands and yes, it WAS truly, MUCH better, so much so, that I realized there were other benefits. The audience will get to SIT DOWN at the very end of the performance, not something to gloss over. In addition, it gives the audience a wonderful view of the water, a view the architects exploit to great effect in the media room found inside the museum, the room that faces down into the bay (truly memorable). Anyway...I am glad Ruth spoke up, thank you!

Today, a nice photographer from the Boston Globe came to take some photos. At the end of the session, he wanted to take a "portrait" of me...and he asked to take a photo with several of the dancers positioned around me. I reluctantly agreed and the photos taken showed me in the middle of a sea of body parts...I'm not sure how I feel about it...I worry that it may come across that I'm surrounded by live "mannequins", not something I believe in or how I feel about my dancers....I could tell that the image is "eye catching" (we even got to look at it in his camera). It kind of reminded me of a photo one would see on an album/CD cover.....I did ask him to take a more conventional photo of me right afterwards, I have no idea which one they will use....although something tells me, the first one might make it to print

In any event....so much is going to happen in the next seven days, it is an exciting moment in the process when basically "god is in the details...". I'm excited to start putting everything together and see how things fit.

HEADLONG CO-DIRECTOR AMY SMITH ON THE MAKING OF "SHOSHA"

2007-07-21T09:58:00.000-04:00

I have loved the writings of Isaac Bashevis Singer for a long time. When I find a writer I like, I often just read everything they wrote, which I did with Singer when I was in my twenties. He wrote in Yiddish and English, short stories and novels, about life in rural Poland and life in New York City. Being half-Jewish, I always felt a little bit interested in Judaism and the struggle with Judaism depicted in Singer's books. But Singer was first and foremost a humanist, which is how I most strongly connected with him. Of all his books, "Shosha" stuck with me over the years. For one thing, I always pictured David (Brick, Co-Director of Headlong Dance Theater) playing Ari -- there is something about David's stage personality that is both sympathetically laughable and tragic the way Ari is in the book. And I always pictured Nichole (Cousineau, Company Member) as Shosha. Nichole'sexpressive face and "holy fool" clown character are perfectly suited to Shosha, who is childlike, and even mildly retarded in the book, though more spiritually connected than the others.

After a few years of talking about it, I got Andrew and David on board to think about how we would make the piece. First of all, everyone in the cast read the book, and we worked with Mark Lord as dramaturg to help us think about the framing of the piece and collect relevant images, text, and video. "Shosha" was written in the 1970s and takes place in the 1930's as World War II is engulfing Warsaw. Its original title was "Soul Expedition", which refers to the communal meditation on free-will free-love experiments undertaken in the fantasies of Ari's circle of intellectual friends. We tend to think of the 1970s as the time when people broke free from oppressive societal norms in favor of libertarian ideals, multiple sex partners, feminism. But the 1930s in Warsaw was also a time of such experimentation, at least according to Singer. The character of Ari
represents the struggle between tradition and modernity, and the uprootedness that can come from sudden freedoms.

It wasn't long into the process that we realized that the group that puts on the dance play of "Shosha" needed to be characters other than our contemporary selves. Mark turned me on to the diaries of Judith Malina, who with Julian Beck started The Living Theater in the 1970s, and we watched videos of their work and the work of Peter Brook. In many ways, the experimental theater groups of the 70s were Headlong's philosophical and artistic predecessors (of course, the Judson Church movement was also hugely significant for us). So we started playing with the idea of setting the piece in the 70s and having Andrew (Simonet, Co-Director of Headlong Dance Theater) play the Director of this group, which is trying to put on the play-within-the-play of "Shosha". We watched videos and did theater exercises to get into "character" for these characters, at the same time developing the movement material for the "Shosha" sections, which more or less tell the story of the novel in a series of wordless scenes.

Another aspect of the piece that felt especially relevant to us was the "personal as political." In our contemporary time, there's a lot of struggle about how to be a moral person, a good person. If life isn't about he acquisition of wealth, or the pursuit of spiritual enlightenment, what is it about? Without religion to guide us, how do we make choices? In Headlong and in our community of friends in Philadelphia, we think about these questions a lot. And our opposition to the the war in Iraq feels relevant to the 1970s characters we play, who were meaning-seekers and political activists, and opposed the war in Viet Nam.

So all of these ideas were swirling around our artistic process, and all of these ideas are part of "Shosha". Singer's book was really a jumping off point for a series of characters, scenes, and visual pictures. I was reading an article in this week's New Yorker and a quote by Peter Brook really stood out for me -- it reminds me of "Shosha", and I hope a lot of Headlong's work: "A play in performance is a series of impressions; little dabs, one after another, fragments of information or feeling in a sequence which stir the audience's perceptions." I hope this piece induces that stirring.

Amy Smith
Co-Director
Headlong Dance Theater
July, 2008

The Making of a Dance: A Dancer's Perspective Part 2

2007-07-19T10:20:00.000-04:00

Rain and Railings
By Karen Krolak, Monkeyhouse Artistic Direcctor (photo credit: Jaye R. Phillips)

Rain may have botched up my commute downtown today but it did not interfere with our rehearsals at the ICA. (However, it should be noted that there is a downside to having a choreographer who knows everyone by name. When traffic makes you tardy to rehearsal, you feel much worse than usual…especially when you discover that today's session started with a polite request for more attention to promptness.)

The cast was divided into two groups to tackle sections 5 and 6 this afternoon. As someone in section 6, I spent the first hour flipping people and trying to figure out how to fly over Marjory Morgan's shoulder. Marjory is one of my favorite Boston choreographers. When Imoved back here a decade ago, I attended a concert that featured her piece about a Spammy Heart. It was clever and irreverent. Watching her sing through her liquid shape-shifting made me yearn for her creative maturity, Many moments from the piece remain indelibly etched into my mind. She and I have never had the chance to work together before and it was thrilling to swap suggestions with her on lifts and movement phrases.

Somehow our group switched from partnering with other people to slithering around the railing at the edge of the ramp on which we were working. We took turns scooching, twirling, and gliding over the banister. It was surprising how everyone encouraged each other. We generated a lot of material just by adding on to one another's ideas. Laughing at our own awkwardness made us more relaxed and helped us to learn faster.

When Stephen took a break from working on section 5, he checked in to see what we'd developed. He quickly teased out the movements that looked too much like tricks, and yet, it didn't feel personal when he pulled apart our phrases and found a few nuggets to focus on. At times his furrowed brow seemed to indicate displeasure at our creations but it became apparent later that I might have misread him.

During a brief break for our group, Jacqui kept jumping up to cling to the side of the stairs behind the railing. "Check it out. Check it out," she would shout. Her intense concentration to keep from falling was charming, especially because it caused her to unconsciously wiggle her tongue back and forth. Looking back at the events of the rest of the afternoon, I suspect that Stephen's forehead was actually a similar sign of clenched concentration. He must have been instinctively editing and splicing our sequences of movements because when he turned his attention back to us, it hardly took him anytime to stitch together the whole section.

So now, there are only two more sections to choreograph.

The Making of a Dance @ The ICA: Week 2

2007-07-19T09:29:00.000-04:00

ICA Site Project
Stephan Koplowitz
July 18, 2007

Yes, there's been quite a gap in entries. This has been due primarily to having too many things outside of rehearsals to deal with. I've been occupied with working on sound/music, costumes, press, creating a title and other things.... It seems the closer we get to the performance, the shorter the days become.

The title: (iseea)

I didn't want the title to be metaphoric, refer to any one image. This title is a play on the "name" of the building (which is how we are "playing" with the building) and is visual, which is what the work is. Putting the brackets around the title refers to how the building brackets each section of choreography and there's also a slight reference to a math equation, which refers to our numbers (performers) and how we relate to the design of the building. It's a not title one can easily refer to verbally, but most people will see the title in the program on the day of the performance.

Choreographically, I'm now working on sections five and six, hoping to be finished with section five today (which takes place on the long expanse of the area in front of the grandstand). Unfortunately, the weather, which has cooperated beautifully until now, has decided to turn towards the wet--so, I'll just have work around this. One hopes that rain is short lived.

We have rehearsal at the ICA today and I'm hopeful that if it is raining, I can still manage to see something without getting the dancers too wet. If there's water on the ground, then it's too dangerous to do anything. But I may be able to simply see how the bodies are in the space even without doing the movement full out. I worked on section five in the studio, so I am anxious to see something, anything on site. We are under a large roof at that end of the building. My big concern is not necessarily getting wet, but also the temperature. There is always much wind and any dip in the temperature is augmented greatly.

Earlier this week, I met with Laura Coulter who will be helping me design the costumes for this work. My ideas for costumes are again, simple. Given that the work is abstract, we are working with mostly form fitting tops (like t-shirts) and pants. She found a supplier of different tops and bottoms which are cotton/lycra and cut in different forms, all white. Laura will dye them colors we feel are complementary to the site and work. We also plan on having the dancers wear different tops at different times, depending on what section they are in.

David Parker & The Bang Group Return to Summer Stages

2007-07-18T20:32:00.000-04:00

"His work retains a sense of beauty even in the ridiculous. Serious and funny, David Parker & The Bang Group let you have your fun, and feel it, too. A cabaret evening of high intensity." -- The New Yorker

What's all the noise about? It's David Parker & The Bang Group's unique way of making dance, seeing the world, and, often, laughing about it. They're celebrating with a 10th Anniversary Retrospective at Summer Stages Dance on Saturday, July 21 at 8pm.

A contemporary dance company which offers strikingly innovative rhythm-based dance theater, David Parker founded The Bang Group in 1995 as a choreographic laboratory in rhythm, rigor and humor. Using dance rhythm as a new dramaturgy, he draws his movement from high and low art, comedy and tragedy, vaudeville and concert dance, creating a fusion style all his own. The Bang Group has developed a solid reputation in both Europe and North America for its uncompromising wit,innovative movement and ribald approach to gender and sexuality.

"Parker might be an unusually brainy entertainer or an unusually entertaining brainiac. Either way, he and his handsome performers have wrought one of this seasonís most satisfying productions. 'Hour Upon the Stage' can be enjoyed for its gush of novel, witty movement and dancer-generated sound or for the pleasure of watching people and guessing at their private stories." - Eva Yaa Asantewaa, Dancemagazine

Here's a short video from New York's Dance Theatre Workshop to get a sense of what all the noise is about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXENvEAPnx8

Visit www.summerstagesdance.org or 978-402-2339 for more information.

The Making of a Dance: A Dancer's Perspective, Part 1

2007-07-18T07:47:00.000-04:00

Getting Down to Dirty Work - July 16, 2007
by Karen Krolak, Monkeyhouse Artistic Director

It's about 5 minutes in to my first rehearsal for Stephen Koplowitz's piece at the ICA and already I am impressed. He remembered my name after meeting me briefly a week ago. I had dropped by to his first rehearsal here and then dashed off suddenly to catch a flight to the Midwest for a funeral. As a choreographer and teacher, I know that identifying everyone by name can be one of the most daunting tasks of working with a new group of dancers. Having been born in Nashville, though, I usually resort to calling everyone ambiguous terms of endearment like "darling," "peaches," or "you."

As he greeted the other newcomers, (Gloria, who is from Austria, Hannah, who is from Canada, Jacqui who performs with Rebecca Rice, Cristin, who works with Prometheus Dance and Cat, a Summer Stages Dance alum) Stephen noticed that one of us had arrived in flip-flops causing him to announce that anyone who dances for him needs to be prepared to "get dirty."Now, before you leap to any conclusions about what that means, I should warn you that it has nothing to do with soaring into a lift above Patrick Swayze's head. Most dance forms require specific shoes or lack there of. Apparently, when you are sliding off rocks, rolling into windows, and crawling around rock gardens, you will need a sturdy pair of sneakers. As we watched section 4 unfurl before us, we all understood why we had been asked to bring knee pads and windbreakers as well.

In his explanation of "getting dirty," Stephen emphasized the importance of discovering the technique of working with the site. When you see all of us crammed into the tiny crook in the wall underneath the stairs, you will know what he means. Our movements are limited by many factors, but those limitations open up a very specific physical vocabulary. The choreography is an honest response to the shape of the space. While you can apply skills derived from other dance forms, you ultimately devise new methods of moving with gravel, cement, and whatever else lurks in the crevices of those stones.

My first day was mainly focused on studying the other dancers, gleaning bits of advice from their bodies about how to interact with the architecture of the ICA. I am eagerly anticipating Wednesday, when I willhave my own chance to get grimy.

The Story of "Fist and Heel"

2007-07-15T08:12:00.001-04:00

REGGIE WILSON/FIST & HEEL PERFORMANCE GROUP
in The Tale Npinpee Nckutchie & the Tail of the Golden Dek
Thursday, July 19, 2007 at 8pm at Summer Stages Dance at Concord Academy.
www.summerstagesdance.org

"Fist and heel is clapping and stomping, shouting and hollerin'" explains Reggie Wilson. "It is a continued manifestation of the rhythm languages that provoked, appeased, and controlled spirits." Denied their drums, enslaved Africans in the Americas reinvented their spiritual dance traditions as a soulful art form that white authorities dismissed as merely "fist and heel worshipping." This tradition kept the culture alive.

Story and Song, Body and Breath

2007-07-15T08:12:00.000-04:00

REGGIE WILSON/FIST & HEEL PERFORMANCE GROUP
in The Tale Npinpee Nckutchie & the Tail of the Golden Dek
Thursday, July 19, 2007 at 8pm at Summer Stages Dance at Concord Academy.
www.summerstagesdance.org

Reggie Wilson/Fist & Heel reinterprets the ritual movement idioms of Africa and The Diaspora in a postmodern context to make "Post-African/Neo HooDoo Modern dance." Founded in 1989, the Brooklyn-based troupe uses body percussion and voiced breath rhythms that enslaved Africans utilized when denied the drum: so called ìfist and heel worshipping. Choreographer Reggie Wilson received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002, as well as a BESSIE award for "The Tie-Tongued Goat and the Lightning Bug Who Tried to Put her Foot Down". The group has received support from major foundations and corporations and has performed in the US and abroad at venues including Dance Theater Workshop, Central Park Summerstage, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, and Festival Kaay Fecc in Senegal. In 2003, Fist & Heel collaborated with performance groups from Zimbabwe and from Trinidad and Tobago for the New York premiere and national tour of "Black Burlesque (revisited)," a work also drawing inspiration from the deep well of the African experience.

"Infectiously joyous" -The Village Voice

FIST & HEEL PERFORMANCE GROUP debuts @ Summer Stages Dance

2007-07-15T08:07:00.000-04:00

REGGIE WILSON/FIST & HEEL PERFORMANCE GROUP
in The Tale: Npinpee Nckutchie & the Tail of the Golden Dek
Thursday, July 19, 2007 at 8pm at Summer Stages Dance at Concord Academy.
www.summerstagesdance.org

African tradition meets postmodernism via the Black Bottom and Electric Slide in the Boston Premiere of a new work by choreographer Reggie Wilson. "The Tale: Npinpee Nckutchie & the Tail of the Golden Dek" combines ritual
and music from African traditions with contemporary urban social dances performed by a company of dancers and singers from the US, Africa and the Caribbean. Wilson riffs on the traditions of the blues, slave and spiritual cultures of Africans inthe Americas to create what he calls ìPost-African Neo HooDoo Modern dance.î His work is also influenced by travels in the Mississippi Delta, Trinidad and Tobago, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, Ghana, Cameroon, Senegal, Mali and Chad.

Here's what the New York Times has to say about the work - "The raw and tender lie deep in the experimental choreography that Reggie Wilson creates with such freshness in his view of the African Diaspora."

The Making of a Dance: Day Two

2007-07-11T13:43:00.000-04:00

ICA site project, DAY TWO
by Stephan Koplowitz, July 10, 2007

Today's rehearsal was off-site in a studio in downtown Concord.

We spent most of our time working on the very first section, creating raw material based on a specific choreographic task I gave the dancers on Monday. I asked them to "read" their individual rock in three different ways: looking at the top surface, the side surface the 3-D shape of the rock. By "reading" they were use the surface of the rock, its patterns and shape as a "score" for movement. This is actually a variation of a Bill Forsythe technique from Improvisational Technologies where you "trace or read" a body part to generate movement. Each dancer created three 8 count phrases (24 total). I then selected six phrases and began to alter and edit them in response to the site and to what I think might work in an overall movement narrative.

We ultimately finished with several phrases that were prone, standing and horizontal, all of which will be used tomorrow when we are back at the ICA.

Towards the end of rehearsal, we perfected our rolling techniques which will be used for the beginning of the "GLASS" section, happening inside the front lobby and to be seen from the outside. We then experimented with two count and one count canons using a simple eight count phrase. Both proved difficult, but with with rehearsal should be doable if in fact I decide to use them.

Working off-site is always beneficial because we can focus on pure physicality without the site to "distract" us. The downside is that, in the case of the rocks, it was difficult to know at all if any of the material we were generating will ultimately "work" on site...the answers will come quickly tomorrow and my hope is that I can finish a first draft of the first and second sections of the work.

Carolyn Brown @ The Concord Bookshop

2007-07-10T14:40:00.000-04:00

Title of Event: Carolyn Brown 
When: Sunday, July 15, 2007 3:00 PM @ The Concord Bookshop, Concord MA 
Join us at the Concord Bookshop as we welcome Carolyn Brown, who will discuss and sign her new book, Chance and Circumstance - Twenty Years with Cage and Cunningham.

The long-awaited memoir from one of the most celebrated modern dancers of the past fifty years: the story of her own remarkable career, of the formative years of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, and of the two brilliant, iconoclastic, and forward-thinking artists at its center--Merce Cunningham and John Cage.

From its inception in the l950s until her departure in the l970s, Carolyn Brown was a major dancer in the Cunningham company and part of the vibrant artistic community of downtown New York City out of which it grew. She writes about embarking on her career with Cunningham at a time when he was a celebrated performer but a virtually unknown choreographer. She describes the heady exhilaration--and dire financial straits--of the company's early days, when composer Cage was musical director and Robert Rauschenberg designed lighting, sets and costumes; and of the struggle for acceptance of their controversial, avant-garde dance. With unique insight, she explores Cunningham's technique, choreography, and experimentation with compositional procedures influenced by Cage. And she probes the personalities of these two men: the reticent, moody, often secretive Cunningham, and the effusive, fun-loving, enthusiastic Cage.

Chance and Circumstance is an intimate chronicle of a crucial era in modern dance, and a revelation of the intersection of the worlds of art, music, dance, and theater that is Merce Cunningham's extraordinary hallmark.

The Making of a Dance: Stephan Koplowitz/Summer Stages Dance at The ICA/Boston

2007-07-10T10:14:00.000-04:00

In conjunction with his residency at Summer Stages, acclaimed choreographer Stephan Koplowitz will direct the creation of a site specific performances to be viewed outside the new ICA. Koplowitz is known for taking dance out of the theater and placing it in the world. Dancers will move around the entire exterior of the ICA, responding to the design by intimately exploring the visual rhythms and patterns of the architecture. Sound score is being created by film and television composer Justin Samaha. (You can hear some of his music at JustinSamaha.com). This is an unusual coming together of the New England dance community. This may be the only time when so many companies (10) ever dancing together in one piece. This is a first for Boston - a larger-scale (24 dancers) outdoor "in the street - on the harbor" dance experience in Boston. Continues Summer Stages Dance's commitment to mentoring new choreography and New England companies.

ICA site project, DAY ONE
by Stephan Koplowitz July 9, 2007

This project with Summer Stages and the ICA began for me like no other site project I've been involved with. The big difference is that prior to today's rehearsal, I only knew two of the dancers involved in the entire project. I've relied (and trusted) Richard Colton's eye and knowledge of dancers here in Boston. I mention this only because, I have to say, my anticipation, prior to today's rehearsal was pretty high, not just because I was starting a new work, but because I was quite curious to meet the dancers I would be working with as my Core Company. Most directors and choreographers are, at varying degrees, control freaks. Selecting one's cast is definitely high on a list of things one does so, this was a great experience in trust and being Zen-like, although I must confess that had I any doubts with having Richard be, in effect, my eyes, I would have insisted on a different method (the old fashion audition!) so thank you Richard for doing such a great job—this is a wonderful group.

The other difference is having many members of different local companies involved, which is a nice aspect, especially because already with just 13 dancers, very few know each other, and as we grow to over twenty, this gives everyone a chance to not only get to know people who live in the same town, but work with them as well!

My first week here will be spent creating as much choreographic material as possible with the 13 dancers I have. My aim is to "sketch" out the entire work, and at least get a start on each of the eight sections if possible. By the second week, I’ll try to finish the first draft of the entire work, and hopefully before our first performance, be on version 2.0 or even 3.0...

Before the rehearsal, I met with Justin Samaha, who will be creating the sound score, and we discussed a couple of ideas I had as to how to disseminate the sound. I'm thinking of having up to ten audience members carry "wearable" lightweight speakers, with each person broadcasting one track that Justin would create to interlock/interact with the other tracks making an ambient score that follows the audience as they walk through the space. This would continue until the last two sections of the work when we would then switch over to a more conventional sound system. We'll see if this works. I'd like the sound to seem part of the environment...and not felt as if it is intruding on either the space or competing with the quite present ambient sounds found at the water front.

I'm starting the piece on the twelve rocks located directly in front of the museum's entrance, the ones across the service road which are actually in the parking lot. These rocks caught my eye because they reference the rocks found near the river. I have no idea if the ICA architects ( Diller Scofidio + Renfro) had anything to do with the placement of the rocks (probably not, but you never know), but I find them a nice transition to the ICA building, a reminder of the natural setting this very modern building finds itself. They also serve as a "prologue" making the audience start the work by turning their backs to the building, giving them a chance to "clear" their vision of the building, in essence, clearing the "palate" before embarking on their "journey" through the mostly, exterior spaces.

I felt this was a good first day in terms of getting the dancers introduced to the structure of the work, to what I've been thinking about, and to my method of generating material. (We will be making one work that is divided into EIGHT sections, each section taking place in a different location.), We spent our time between me giving the dancers material to work with, and then having them generate movement based on some specific instructions. Towards the end of the our time together, we visited several of the sites where I quickly placed them in the space and gave them some broad "brush strokes" of choreographic material...simple things that would give me an indication as to what might or might not work in terms of scale and design. The two photos are taken from the end of our rehearsal time, where I just placed dancers in the space to look at scale and how I may want to begin those sections.

Tomorrow, we work in the studio and based on our research today, we have much to do.

I'm definitely inspired by both the cast assembled and the site....

Misnomer Dance Theater @ Summer Stages next week!

2007-07-06T14:35:00.000-04:00

Here's an entry from Misnomer Dance Theater who performs this Thursday, July 12 at Summer Stages. Named one of the Top 10 Dance events by The New York Times, they'll be blogging next week from Concord.

This summer, we're going places - literally! As part of a 6 week residency program, we'll be putting together workshops, shows, and other events. Don't miss us this July.

Misnomer is in residence at Summer Stages Dance at Concord Academy as the first time winner of the Summer Stages Dance/Baryshnikov Arts Center Artist Residency Project.

As part of the residency, we will be teaching workshops, performing, rehearsing and developing our presenter partnership. You can see us perform live on July 12 or catch some of online at misnomer.org.

In July and August, we will be in Concord, MA (as well as Marthaís Vineyard at The Yard) developing new work. As the second part of the residency, we will be working at the Baryshnikov Arts Center this Fall. We can't wait to meet so many new people and share our work with you!

Check out the full details of our Concord, MA appearances at www.summerstagesdance.org.

Picnic at Summer Stages this July!

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This season, we are joining The Concord Cheese Shop and La Provence to offer our audiences a picnic supper. Pick up your boxed meal in town and enjoy a picnic on the lawn before any of the Thursday performances! Orders will be taken by phone at 978-402-2339 the Monday before the performance date or sooner. A portion of the cost helps Summer Stages continue to offer the highest standards of training and performance.

LA PROVENCE, 105 Thoreau Street Cost/box $12
Both options include bread and butter, a can of soda, plate and utensils
Box 1 Chicken Provence, Three Bean Salad, Pasta Salad, Tomato-Mozzarella-Basil Salad
Box 2 Artichoke Salad, Three Bean Salad, Pasta Salad, Tomato-Mozzarella-Basil Salad

THE CONCORD CHEESE SHOP, 29 Walden Street, Cost/box $13
Both options include bread and Pellegrino water, plate and utensils
Box 1 Greek Salad, lemon herb roasted chicken, eggplant bruschetta, hummus, fruit salad, chocolate chip cookie,
Box 2 Fresh Garden salad with goat cheese, beef kabobs, humus, pasta salad, fresh fruit salad, chocolate chip cookie

Please pick up your picnic dinners at their respective Concord locations by 6:30 pm on the night of the performance.

This Season @ Summer Stages Dance

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At Behind the Scenes @ Summer Stages Dance, find out what it's like to be a choreographer or dancer. Explore the art of dance. Get inside tips on how to best enjoy the show.

Here ís who will be performing this summer: Misnomer Dance Theater in "Throw People"on Thursday, July 12; Reggie Wilson/Fist & Heel Performance Group in "The Tale Npinpee Nckutchie and the Tail of the Golden Dek" on Thursday, July 19; David Parker & The Bang Group in a Tenth Anniversary Retrospective on Saturday, July 21; Headlong Dance Theater in "Shosha" on Thursday, July 26; and the Choreographersí Project Showcase on Saturday, July 28.

The New York Times calls it, "intelligent and thought-provoking," and The Boston Globe has said that Summer Stages "offers some of the most provocative, high-quality programming around." All performances are presented at 8pm in Concord Academy ís Performing Arts Center, 166 Main Street, Concord, MA. Contact: (978) 402-2339 or visit www.summerstagesdance.org.

As a SPECIAL EVENT, Summer Stages Dance, in collaboration with the Institute of Contemporary Art, presents free outdoor performances directed by acclaimed choreographer/director Stephan Koplowitz on Saturday, July 28 and Sunday, July 29 at 1pm, 2pm & 3pm on the HarborWalk in front of the new
ICA/Boston.

Sumer Stages Dance at Concord Academy is a prestigious three-week performance and workshop series that has earned a distinctive reputation for its emphasis onmentorship and on the creation of new work, and for presenting leading contemporary dance artists in an acclaimed series of public events. The workshop, July 8-28, takes place in a 2,500 square foot state-of-the-art dance studio and performance space designed by award-winning architect Graham Gund on the campus of Concord Academy, an
independent secondary school where the per-forming and visual arts are a central part of the curriculum.