Dear Adoring, Fawning Public -- Lend me your ears!
BLERG! Yes, i have been introduced to 30 Rock and the world of BLERG!
And here I sit, in coffee shop heaven, almost literally, at Cafe Helios on Glenwood Ave in Raleigh, NC. Local produce, shade grown coffee, personable chefs, modern interpretations of PoP Art on the walls, economy flush toilets....the works! Cara Hagan, my illustrious collaborator extraordinaire, and I are conducting our Artist Residency at NCState working with the Panaramic Dance Project. We are workshopping our performance piece, Common Threads, on the ladies and gentleman this week. It is a larger group than the original structure of the work calls for so we are making adaptations and stretching the piece and ourselves. The dancers would tell you we are stretching them as well...
Two weeks prior we sent a homework assignment out for every dancer to bring a letter written to a significant female figure in his or her life. At our first meeting/rehearsal, we shared our letters and then extracted word phrases to pair with original seed movements generated by the dancers themselves. There was sharing and teaching and learning of the collective lyric that we formed by piecing together the different thoughts and phrases. We are taking the result and creating introductory and transitional compositional material for common threads involving whispered voices, musically realized and embodied monologues, and woven moving lines of bodies throughout Common Threads. I call the results "Whispered Words and Letters" and I'm quite excited with the sonic experience. The sound is haunting, lively, and ghostly -- invoking the past with the energy of the present. The work continues to refine itself through the collaborative process and Cara and I grow in our relationship as well. Nothing says "close" like finding out you are sharing a bed with your collaborator in the Resident Artist Apartment!
Meanwhile, I continue to dust off my dancing shoes and get moving. Last night we hosted our Performative Painting workshop, co-created with Goddard College alumna Ellen Greenblum. The class of 20 or so moved and groved, painted and postured, ripped and shredded, drummed and hummed. It was fantastic! We finallyl drew it to a close after an hour and a half of "Play Time" although I think the group could have gone all night! No one wanted to leave. What a measure of success.
All in all, my collaborations have all resulted in just that: a happy, satisfied audience who's ready for more! Nothing is more satisfying than knowing you hosted that kind of party. Man, I really love people. And making Art.
Hope you are all equally satisfied or are taking steps to become so,
Still shakin it!
MB Disco
