holy thursday!!!!

is anyone else noticing how the month of january has just flown by? i can hardly believe it is thursday! tomorrow we have 3 school shows of Loco-Motion in Woodstock, GA. we have to be up and at patton's condo by 7 in the morning and then we leave by 7:05 (did i mention i'm not a morning person?)! so today we had class with "the Schro" (or Sue), followed by a run of Polly Motley's piece "Charmed Romantics," then we ran the school show with all the recent additions. i'm learning that the longer you keep things in rep, or keep dances in rotation, the more difficult it is, because you have to keep making it new and fresh every time. it definitely keeps you on your toes...hehe, did i just make a dance joke? any-who, maryjane left us halfway through the day...she may be working with gloATL...or maybe she is out finding a way to make world peace happen...she was missed...so we did more "Point" work without her.





corian and i revisited a duet that Sue started working on back in october...you can check out the video of the duet from the last blog in october...the halloween edition of the blog! so while we were busy putting that together...claire and blake began working on a "stop and freeze" assignment. i believe, they had to invent various lifts and then hold them. when it came time to show Sue the progress thus far, she informed us that we would be putting these two duets together and making a quartet; however, we would be combining the two assignments (of the duet phrase-ology AND the stop and freeze). so within the structure of this duet, we have to find moments to make contact...so we will see how that shapes up.

so that is just a snippet of what blake and claire's stop/freeze work was...with some direction/input from Sue. i always find it fascinating to watch contact work, because it is truly a skill to do partnering and make it look effortless and smooth. that is the trick of doing partnering: fooling the audience into thinking it is just a "walk in the park." so here is the beginning stages of getting partnerwork to that point...haha, another dance joke...point, get it???

oh and just for kicks...here is a video of an adagio taught in one of blake's classes...i found it while downloading videos from the camera. hope you enjoy...this is an oldie, but a goodie! peace out...alex

for the children part 2

so change of plans....due to maryjane not being here we have changed the agenda for the day. we are postponing "point work" until tomorrow. now we are watching the video of the MFAH (Museum of Fine Arts Houston) Corazon performance...there is a more recent phantom video that has up to date edits, so that we have Corazon material ready for our residency in North Carolina, and for our intense Corazon work period. we have so many school shows to gear up for...the North Carolina residency is mostly for high school kids, so we have to find, revisit, and remount things that we have in rep (such as polly, corazon, and maybe some tus pasos work). unfortunately our brains only hold so much choreography! that is when we turn to modern conveniences to help...

video watching is a good tool when collectively we cannot remember all the changes to a particular dance...i will say, that it makes me sleepy. especially since i'm already sleepy. i think it is the wednesday energy. however, this is the life. sometimes we have to rely on technology to jumpstart your brain. what did dancers, choreographer, etc do when they didn't have video, or dvds? i guess that is where Laban Movement stuff comes in handy...or just having an amazing photographic memory.

hehe...there is talk in the studio that maryjane organized the videos, hopefully she knows where this infamous "recent recording" of the Corazon material is located. now...it is time for a meeting...just like a regular job.

happy wednesday folks!

for the children

hello again my internet friends (hopefully we are also friends in real life)...it is alex here again as the blogger for the week. as we know, last week was our first official week back here at CPC...and this is now our second week back, and i for one am already tired and drained. many of us performed in The Dance Project this past weekend and in the I.C.E. showcase (referenced in last week's blog). the shows went well...but when you perform 6 times in the span of 4 days...it takes a toll on your body and energy level.

that being said, we are gearing up for a performance this coming friday in Woodstock, GA to perform our children's show Loco-motion! the past two work days (monday and today), we have had a guest director, Priscilla Smith, come in to give us some outside feedback to help with the flow of the upcoming performance. each of us really dug deep to find a character that would better suit the mood of the children's show. if you have ever performed for children, you know that it is a tricky situation. kids are brutally honest, and it is our job as performers to keep them engaged, entertained, and learning...and that is no easy feat!

now we are on our lunch break...i'm still a little hungry, i think i'm craving a cookie (like claire)...mmmmmm, a chocolate chip cookie would be ideal...but anyway, we are one company member down...maryjane had another obligation, so we will continue rehearsing The Point this afternoon. i'm excited to see what kind of assignments we will be given today to help "point" us in the right direction (i love my cheesy jokes)...

workshop with allen pittman

well hello there. it is friday and we are getting back into the swing of things after coming back earlier this week from a winter break. today we are running rep and working in the studio with sue on our work in progress, the point. but yesterday we had a guest, allen pittman, come to our studio to give a workshop. he integrated concepts about human and animal evolution and development of motor skills from infancy through adulthood. allen also thought us some egyptian yoga postures, breath work, and mediation techniques. we explored the context and power of social gesture and body stance as performers. it was a wonderful, varied, and comprehensive workshop open to the public as well.

in addition to the work we are doing in the studio with Several Dancers Core...many of us are performing this weekend at 7 Stages in The Dance Project presented by Staibdance and Greg Catalier (George Staib and Greg Catalier are both Emory University professors). Corian, Alex, and Claire are in the performance...and they are also involved in the Independent Choreographer Exchange (I.C.E.) at 7 Stages as well. The Dance Project runs tonight (Friday) and Saturday at 8, and Sunday at 3...and the I.C.E. showcase is Saturday 3 and Sunday evening at 7pm. for more information call 7 Stages at (404)523-7647.

Mary Jane is also working with gloATL on their upcoming project Bloom, a site specific performance at Lenox Mall February 12th at 7, and the 13th and 14th at 4 pm. This is a free event...so please come support dance in the atlanta metro area.

also, other projects the company members have coming up are more choreographic endeavors by Blake Dalton and Corian Ellisor....but more on that later.

back to business and rehearsal....
soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ttyl

Weeee're BAAAAck!

After a month-long hiatus, CPC started back with class and rehearsals for the remainder of the 2009/2010 season.



Company Manager D. Patton White taught class this morning (yes, I did just refer to myself in the third person), and structured the class to encourage a fair amount of improvisation both at the individual and partner levels. We had a visitor, Terry, who was one of our Fieldwork participants last Fall.



The company jumped back into development work on The Point, with Sue Schroeder directing the dancers through many more improvisations.

During Checkouts, when everyone shares what they have experienced during the rehearsal, Alex shared that he really enjoyed a particular improv moment when he was cradling Claire's head in his hands.