Exploring the Japanese Aesthetic

Diving into the Japanese aesthetic has brought a lot of fun to the studios the last few weeks.  We have been exploring the three different facets to the aesthetic: mono no aware, yugen, and wabi sabi.  The journey has taken us into some light and shadow play, charcoal drawings, and a little bit of film.  Because much of the aesthetic comments on the idea of impermanence, the process has consequently been quite meditative.  There is a deepened sense of concentration that has arisen in the studio from really delving into the understanding of this concept of impermanence and imperfection.  In the process of perfecting our craft, we are somehow also learning the importance and beauty of imperfection.  Below is a snippet from our rehearsal the other day, playing with this idea of imperfection through charcoal drawing and film.  

Studio Spotlight: Phit Chick Experience with D'Rhea Woods

 

D'Rhea Woods is bringing her Phit Chicks Experience to CORE Studios Wednesday nights at 8:30pm. D'Rhea is the Phit Mom. Her blog - phitmom.blogspot.com - provides an interactive forum for busy mothers where they can get feedback on their experiences in trying to maintain a  healthy lifestyle and be PHIT.  There she also shares ideas on managing time as a mother, a career woman, and staying PHIT all the while.

1. What do you teach at CORE studios?
   Hip hop aerobics wearing heels, using hand weights, and wearing tennis shoes.
   
2. What got you into teaching?
   My passion for being sexy and fit.
   
3. How long have you been a teacher?
   I have been training for a year and a half.
   
4. What two adjectives would you use to describe your classes?
   Sexy and fun.
   
5. Tell us a little bit about what your focus is for classes:
   My focus is to provide a unique and fun way for ladies to act fit. There will be lots of dancing and energy that will get these ladies pumped for losing weight and being healthy.
   
6. Do you have any upcoming projects or events that you are excited about?
   Yes. I am having a Seed Sowing Party to celebrate the revising, revamping, and rebirth of my Phitmom brand.
   
7. What do you love about CORE studios?
   The location, price, and the studio, of course!

D'Rhea's class takes place Wednesday nights from 8:30pm-10:00pm.  Contact her at phitmom@gmail.com for more.

Parallels On Love

Perhaps this pays a little tribute to my Czech roots...

I couldn't help seeing how Tom Stoppard's definition of Love from his play The Real Thing serendipitously parallels with our individual explorations of Love in our "On Love" work.

(Below was found from Maria Popova's article "The Greatest Definition of Love")

[In the second act, when the protagonist’s cynical teenage daughter probes what falling in love is like, he offers a disarmingly raw, earnest, life-earned answer:]










"It’s to do with knowing and being known. I remember how it stopped seeming odd that in biblical Greek, knowing was used for making love. Whosit knew so-and-so. Carnal knowledge. It’s what lovers trust each other with. Knowledge of each other, not of the flesh but through the flesh, knowledge of self, the real him, the real her, in extremis, the mask slipped from the face. Every other version of oneself is on offer to the public. We share our vivacity, grief, sulks, anger, joy… we hand it out to anybody who happens to be standing around, to friends and family with a momentary sense of indecency perhaps, to strangers without hesitation. Our lovers share us with the passing trade. But in pairs we insist that we give ourselves to each other. What selves? What’s left? What else is there that hasn’t been dealt out like a deck of cards? Carnal knowledge. Personal, final, uncompromised. Knowing, being known. I revere that. Having that is being rich, you can be generous about what’s shared — she walks, she talks, she laughs, she lends a sympathetic ear, she kicks off her shoes and dances on the tables, she’s everybody’s and it don’t mean a thing, let them eat cake; knowledge is something else, the undealt card, and while it’s held it makes you free-and-easy and nice to know, and when it’s gone everything is pain. Every single thing. Every object that meets the eye, a pencil, a tangerine, a travel poster. As if the physical world has been wired up to pass a current back to the part of your brain where imagination glows like a filament in a lobe no bigger than a torch bulb. Pain."

So as not to end in the dark, here is Agatha Christie's thoughts on Love:

"It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them."

~~~~~~~~~~~

P.S. - Info to see our performances of "On Love" this weekend can be found here:

http://www.coredance.org/atlanta/on-love-at-callanwolde-fine-arts-center-february-13-15/

We are working on LOVE this week and the upcoming weeks until Valentine's weekend at Callanwolde!
Learning phrases as a group brought us all together this afternoon. Then playing further with making Josh into this helpless fool of love... He is just doing everything to please us... From Superhero, to hot gangster, to Yogi and the devil... he is in for it all. Being rewarded with a beautiful red lipstick leopard print all over his body.

More fun to come!

Diagonals, Grids, and 9-points- OH MY!

This week the dancers are back in the studio with Artistic Director Sue Schroeder and Guest Collaborator Amanda K. Miller-Fasshauer to revisit their process of "a world too wide" As per usual with this work, the dancers are whisked away well beyond their comfort zone, abandoning old habits and inhabiting a new type of body intelligence. Although many of us left the workday not knowing whether to laugh or cry, one thing was certain: we are evolving as movers and performers and will present something that Atlanta has never seen from CORE.

"a world too wide" incorporates a variety of elements to construct a new reality, a new world in which the dancers traverse grids, follow diagonals, and work through a system of "9-points" to develop a uniquely expressive vocabulary of movement. Although the show is a few months away, the work requires a great amount of concentration for it to be authentic. 

CPC's newest company member, Kristin D'Addario, has jumped right into the process, utilizing her strong ballet technique and professional experience to become part of this world! Catch her and the rest of Core Performance Comapny in "a world too wide" on March 7, 2015 at the Rialto Center for the Arts. Also follow us on social media and coredance.org for more information about our other performances in Atlanta and Houston.

Until next time, keep moving!

CPC

CORE at Cucalorus

Thalian Hall

This week, CORE has traveled to Wilmington, North Carolina to participate in the Cucalorus Film Festival. The dancers have created a piece to accompany a film by Company Manager Patton White. Their work will be shown at Dance-alorus, which is the official opener of the Cucalorus Film Festival; during this event, dancers and choreographers will be presenting work that pairs film and dance, shown at the historic Thalian Hall.

Following the show is an after-party at the Bellamy Mansion, where CORE will perform a site-specific work for the guests of the soirée.

Company Member Josh Rackliffe on the steps of Bellamy Mansion

View of Masonboro Sound, as seen from the backyard where the dancers are being housed

Finishing up the first week of rehearsal after our break last week...

We are getting ready for Willmington, NC to participate in the Cucalorus Film Festival specifically the Dance-A-Lorus. Beautiful, intriguing, moving pictures are going to be paired with live movement on stage. We had a blast just playing and getting silly while finding movement structures and meaning for this piece. Letting go and diving into absolute ridiculousness brought lightness, laughter and a quite fun dance.