Florida Dance Festival Performance

Last night at the Florida Dance Festival in Tampa we performed four dances that have been created over the past year. It was such an amazing experience to perform all of these dances together for the first time. Four different choreographers, four different dances, and four different worlds through which we move, an experience that stretched our bodies, minds, and imaginations. This has also been an experience that pulled us even closer together as a company. Everyone agreed that we had fun, felt one another's presence, and responded to each other in a way that we had not been able to do in rehearsals.  Sometimes it takes an audience to complete a performance.

Friday morning we performed a piece from STILL, choreographed by Sue Schroeder, on an NBC morning show, Daytime TV. It will be aired next Wednesday, June 26, on an NBC station near you. Company manager Patton White discusses the company with the hosts. Check it out!

We finished off the weekend with a master class at the Florida Dance Festival.  Sue Schroeder led the class and the company had the experience of working with some of the young dancers attending the festival. It's always a great experience as a dancer to reconnect to your body and muscles that you may have forgotten existed, a feeling I often get while taking Sue's class.

Thank you for checking in with us. We can't wait to get back in the studio and create some new work. We hope to see you soon.

We're Back and Florida Bound

The company is back in rehearsal this week. We are remounting four of the works we created over the past year. These works will be performed at the Florida Dance Festival in Tampa. 

Remounting works is an interesting process.  Not only do the dancers have to remember the movement,  they have to remember the process that led to the creation of the piece. They have to remember the intent behind the movement.   Each of these four pieces was choreographed by four different choreographers with very different processes, so we have a lot of work to do in just a few days. 

In addition to this process, we are also replacing two dancers in three of the pieces. Juana Farfan and Erik Thurmond will also be joining us for this trip. Juana, artistic associate and outreach coordinator for CORE, will be performing in Herd, choreographed by Leslie Scates. Erik, who is already performing in the Liberated Accident, choreographed by Amanda K. Miller-Fasshauer, will also be performing in STILL, choreographed by Sue Schroeder, and Web, choreographed by Becky Valls. 

If you're in Tampa, come out to see how our hard work has paid off as we continue to breathe new life into these beautiful works. We hope you're having a wonderful summer and we're looking forward to seeing you soon. Here are some photos from rehearsal today. 

Zumba Party with Dawn Stocks

Dawn Stocks loves teaching Zumba classes. The reason is simple: Every class feels like a party! Come join her classes here at CORE Studios you'll see. You don\t even have to know how to dance. Just move your body and follow Dawn's lead. It's easy! Come try it, we guarantee you will have a blast!

Dawn teaches Zumba at CORE Studios Saturday mornings from 10:00am to 11:00am. Check out her website for more information, http://dawnstocks.zumba.com/.

Get to know a little more about Dawn below:


What do you teach at CORE Studios?  
I teach Zumba at Core Studios!

What got you into teaching?   After having my son, I gained a significant amount of weight.  I tried everything to get it off, including crazy diets and every Saturday morning infomercial exercise gadget that you can think of.  I finally decided to try Zumba.  I wasn’t going to invest in a whole collection of DVD’s just to have them collect dust on the shelves.  Instead, I chose to try a live class.  That was the best decision I have ever made.  I’ve been hooked since!

How long have you been teaching?  I have been an instructor and actively teaching Zumba since June 2011.  Since then I have also become licensed to teach Zumba Toning (which uses weights) and Zumbatomic (which is Zumba for kids).

What two adjectives would you use to describe your classes?  My classes are high energy and addictive!!!

Tell us a little bit about what your focus is for your classes?  

The focus for my classes are for people to have lots of fun while relieving stress and burning a significant amount of calories at the same time.

Do you have any upcoming projects or events you are excited about? 

Absolutely!  On Saturday, June 29, 2013, I will be having a Zumba Party on the Square from 8:00-10:00pm.  The reason that I am so excited about it is because this  party will help with Zumba’s efforts to end world hunger.  In short, people get to help in 2 ways.  The first way is to donate burned calories to Zumba, and in turn, Zumba gives a cash donation to charities such as World Food Programme and Feeding America.  The second way is to purchase a Zumba Rhythm Rocker World Hunger Stopper shirt or outfit, and 30% of the proceeds will go toward these charities as well! As an added bonus if you are interested in saving 10% on your order, please use my Zumba Affiliate Code dress4less. For specific details on how to do both, please visit www.greatcaloriedrive.com.     

What do you love about CORE Studios? 

I am originally from Decatur, and there is no place like home! I love CORE Studios because it is in the heart of the square, and it embodies all of the positive high energy that I need to help make my classes optimally successful.

Our Spring Season Spider Webs

Having performed at the Tanz Farm two weekends ago with Amanda K. Miller-Fasshauer's The Liberated Accident, I can say that we have discovered and uncovered more beauty within ourselves. It is sure to be an ongoing process just as it is for anything that grows. We have also grown closer as a company through all of the amazing experiences we've had working in "Amanda-world."

Amanda & Erik Spider-webbing...












Here is a link to Andrew Alexander's ArtsATL review of our performance at Tanz Farm!
http://www.artsatl.com/2013/05/review-tanz-farms-the-liberated-accident-fleeting-beautiful-fast-bound-train/

Last week we got ourselves ready for a little break by rehearsing some pieces from our SHIFT show to keep it fresh before we head to the Florida Dance Festival in June. Anna reworks a lift with Erik.















Then we cleaned up the studio a little and made sure our shelves were tidy.
In the spirit of "Spring cleaning," Derrick says,

"You better check your shelf..."

"Before you wreck your shelf."

Diagonals, Lines, Shifting Space, and EnCORE

Today was another whirlwind day of creation with Amanda K. Miller at the Goat Farm. It's amazing how much material has been generated within just a few days. The material isn't the most important thing for the dancers and Amanda, however. It is more important to exist within Amanda's world, the way she sees images. It is those images that we have to see in order to perform the work. The work is about lines, diagonals, shifting space, and seeing the images we create when we shift the space. This may sound difficult to understand, but once you arrive in Amanda's world, you begin to see things in a different way. Everything around you becomes a part of the dance. The performances of Amanda's work will be at the Goat Farm May 9, 10, and 11.

And now to step away from the Goat Farm for a moment. I would like to shift back to our studio in Decatur. Tomorrow night will be the kick off for EnCORE, a social gathering for the arts. Imagine an open-mic night in which any artist can participate. You don't have to be a singer or a musician. You can sing, dance, juggle, read poetry, anything you've been wanting to perform in front of someone, you can do it here. Tomorrow night we will have performances by our very own company member, Joshua Rackliffe, Cicada Rhythm, d. w. Tanner, and the Imperial OPA Circus Bodystackers. Sign up begins at 8:45. All performances must be eight minutes or less. Show off your talent. We'll see you there.

First Day at the Goat Farm!

Yesterday was our first day in residency at the Goat Farm. We returned to our work with Amanda K. Miller on a new commission to be premiered as part of the Tanz Farm series presented by gloATL. Company classes will be held the rest of the week at nine in the morning at the Goat Farm. Take classes with Amanda and check out the show at the Goat Farm May 9, 10, and 11. Here are some photos from rehearsal.

Atlanta to Houston

We made it to Houston and got to work our pieces in the actual space at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. We are excited for Thursday's performance and can't wait for it all to come together --- lights, sound, costumes, dance, paintings, audience.
Our Picasso-inspired performance Monochrome in Black, White & Gray starts at 6:30 pm at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. If you're in town, you don't want to miss it! Admission is free and open to the public on a first-come, first-serve basis. See you there!

Getting ready for Picasso

Getting ready for Picasso....

We started the week with an awesome and very informative MELT class by Karen Wells .... melting on balls and foam rollers. Great start for a packed week.
This week was just loaded with work. Creating our work for the Picasso Black & White exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, TX, Teacher Training all day on Wednesday with the amazing Ann Law, and remounting a piece for Florida Dance Festival in June....
Not sure how we did it, but we got it all done!
We worked great together as a team, supporting each other with our creative minds in the process. Great time management and working super focused allowed us to finish the week with satisfaction.
Awesome Team!

PICASSO / AOPSICS?

Hello Internet!
Here we are once again at the studio in Downtown Decatur! This has been an incredibly productive week at CORE Dance. In preparation for our upcoming visit to the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, we have been co-creating the work under the direction of Artistic Director Sue Schroeder. Our entry point to the work was developed after visiting Pablo Picasso's "Black and White" exhibit at MFAH. By using Picasso's intentions for the works, Sue guided our point of entry and allowed us to develop vignettes from pieces that resonated with us.
This is a show not to be missed! For those of you reading from Texas, we all anticipate seeing you at the show. The exhibit is absolutely stellar and we are so honored to be presenting work alongside one of the greatest artists of the 20th century.
The dancers are hard at work refining and digging, so if we don't hear the doorbell ring then just knock louder! Have a fantastic weekend and perhaps we will see you all at company class on MONDAY at 9AM! Love and light and deep plies!
CORE Dance

Painting Intentions With Dance

Today we pulled together as dancers and continued creating movement for our Picasso project. It was a full day of painting Picasso's intention with bodies in space in which we worked as a whole group, in two trios, a solo, a duet, and back as a group! With so much creative juices flowing, it was difficult having to close up the day come 4:30 pm.

I wonder how today's creations will change and develop in the coming weeks. Can't wait to do more on Thursday!

A few of Picasso's works that we are using in our project...

You can see more of Picasso's work from the Gugganheim's exhibition Picasso Black and White here:

http://web.guggenheim.org/exhibitions/picasso/

Fitness and Picasso

After our trip to Houston, we had a bit of a break on Monday and Tuesday. We started back with TTI on Wednesday. Our guest teachers were Patton White and Kevin and Megan from FitWit. We learned a lot about the importance of teaching fitness to those who need it most, those who don't have a fitness program available to them. After our class Juana Farfan, our outreach coordinator, thought it would be a good idea for us to work out with the FitWit team the next morning. These are some of the photos from our class on Wednesday and the workout Thursday Morning. After a strenuous workout on Thursday, we reconnected with the Picasso black and white paintings, sculptures, and prints we saw in Houston. We began to explore Picasso's intentions, what he was trying to get across in his art. This led to further research about Picasso's life and art which carried over into Friday. We began to take those intentions of Picasso and translate them into movement. I am so excited to be working in this way and I can't wait to see what we come up with for our performance in April.

We have arrived at the Menil Collection in Houston ! We finally got here to Houston this morning and went straight to the amazing Menil Collection to walk and walk and discover and walk and discover.... and discover! The place is huge and just feels endless in a way. It is so curious how the skylight changes as the sun moves and the colors of the fluorescent lights change when people move in the space. We worked on establishing our pathways and finding clarity in it, and within that there were lots and lots of new discoveries... We finished the day with a few costume alterations. Super excited about tomorrow's experience at the Menil Collection at 5:30pm and 6:30pm :-))

Thriving Thursday

Walking, lifting, looking, releasing, noticing, falling, exchanging, completing, driving, and thriving. Today was full of action and adventure for our creative process in our Menil piece. Can't wait to try it all in the real space next week!

Monday Funday

Happy Monday! We've had quite an exciting day in and around the studio today! We started off Monday funday with an invigorating class with the amazing Sarah Hillmer, where we took ballet to another level. After catching our breath from a couple runs of grande allegro, we revisited some of our repertory from our guest choreographers Becky Valls and Amanda Miller. It is always refreshing when we get to revisit the work even when the choreographers can't be with us. After lunch, we explored our minimalist work for the Dan Flavin installation and took it outside to the square to experience the essences of our walks using the actual distance (which happens to be double the size of our studio!) Here are a couple pictures from our adventures!

A Field Trip to the Woods

Today we were surprised with a field trip. We packed up our things and, without knowing where we were heading, took off on a journey. We ended up at a beautiful park not too far from the studio. There we played and created all while enjoying a gorgeous day. We allowed that open space, the trees, the earth, the sky to inform us in our creative choices. We made dances inspired by our surroundings. We could have been out there all day, creating, dancing, and allowing the space to move us. There was so much there to inspire. Our trip helped us to understand and deepen our work within the Minimalist aesthetic. Within a space like that, the smallest movement, the simplest gesture takes on so much meaning. Everything is intensified by the beauty and size of the space itself. It was a great experience that I'm happy to have shared with the company. Our task is to now take that feeling, that importance, that beauty into the performance itself. Here are some photos taken throughout the day as we journeyed through the forest. We can't wait to share our experiences with you in the space that Dan Flavin designed at the Menil Collection.

Lunchtime in the Studio, Walking, and Dan Flavin

Today was Lunchtime in the Studio, which is always such a great experience. Lunchtime in the Studio is a time for sharing part of our creative process with the public and getting the audience's feedback. Today's Lunchtime in the Studio focused on the work we are creating for the Dan Flavin installation as a part of the Menil Collection in Houston. For those of you who don't know, Dan Flavin was involved in the Minimalist movement, so our process is focusing on how he created work with a Minimalist aesthetic. How does one go about exploring Minimalism? We started off with the basics, walking. Over the past week we have been examining walking, how we walk, why we walk, the mechanics of walking, etc. We've learned a lot and noticed a lot just by walking. It's almost meditative. It's not only meditative for us to walk in this way, it can be meditative for the audience as well. I was surprised by just how much the audience noticed as we walked across the space, what people gathered from such a simple, minimal movement. We are asking the audience to notice just as much as we have noticed. It's easy when there are no extraneous movements to distract you. As we continue to explore this work, I can't wait to see what other beauty will be made available to us in the minimal. We can't wait to share this work with you in Houston.

Food for Thought

In our work for our site specific piece to be performed in Houston, TX for the Dan Flavin Installment, we are given moments for stream-of-conscious writing to inspire and inform our decisions to create walking patterns.

Minimalist in movement maybe, but full of patterns that may cross, meet, and pass one another with strong purpose.

I leave a thought from each of our stream of consciousnesses to start your week:

"Why not let fate be a loyal dog that loves?" ~Josh

"The world is round and that round can roll if there is an impulse to make it roll, perhaps I am that impulse." ~Rose

"Ich rolle mich vor lachen." ~Stefanie

"Green grass is all that covers the Earth." ~Deedee

"It will roll like a cat warming itself by the fire, you are the fire." ~Derrick

Wednesday. Wahoo!

It's Wednesday, the middle of the week and we are in the midst of lots of projects in the making!

We started this week in the studio with ideas of minimalism as we explored what the minimalist movement meant in the various forms of art. All this research is informing our creation for Sue's site specific work at the Menil Collection museum- specifically for Dan Flavin's installation at Richmond Hall in Houston, TX. Check out these two links below!

About Dan Flavin's installation: http://www.menil.org/visit/flavin.php

About our site specific work: http://www.coredance.org/houston/mar-21-performance-at-the-menil-collection/

We have also been working on a performance series facilitated by us dancers and are excited to say that our kick-off for this series starts Friday, April 26th! Check out the details of our project entitled EnCORE here:

http://www.coredance.org/core/april-26-encore-open-floor-kick-off/

And to bring us to today in the studio, Amanda Miller returned to work with us on a piece she is creating for Tanz Farm in May. We moved and explored and played in nine points in space while Amanda helped us to understand that we have always been in these nine points and will continue to be. In fact, I am in them right now as I type. I'm not sure how you, the reader, is understanding this concept, but I hope it gets you pondering.

Whew! We stay busy and loving it, so a big shout to wacky Wednesday. Wahoo!

Friday's Heart of the Matter

Hello internet!

Greetings once again from CORE Performance Company. Today, we had a delightful improvisation class with Company Manager Patton White, in which we began to utilize tools and tricks for improv-based composition. What began as a deeply internal warmup soon evolved into a full-on group spectacle of weight sharing, partnering, and contact improvisation.

After a brief lunch break and regroup, we headed over to Toomer Elementary School in the Kirkwood neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia to perform Heart of the Matter for grades 3-5. In addition to the enthusiastic audience of young learners, we had some very special guests from the Horizons School, Kaiser Permanente and representatives from the Atlanta Regional Commission. We are honored to share this work with our audiences, as it gives a physical and lighthearted look into the dangers of bullying and emotional eating. Remember- when in doubt, sadness, confusion or whatever it may be, exercise is always a viable option for uplifting your day.

Overall, another successful week here at CORE Studios in Downtown Decatur. We hope to see you all next week at CORE's Salon. Have a fantastic weekend!

Love, light, and movement.

CORE Performance Co.

Our Teacher Training (TTI) experience expressed through paper.

Thrilling Thursday

Hello again from everyone at CORE Studios in downtown Decatur! Our Valentines Day began with an awesome ballet class led by the wonderful and talented Nicole Johnson. Post class we switched gears, had a bite of delicious homemade valentines treats made by Derrick, changed costumes and prepared to join the rally downtown. We were thrilled to "Break the chain" at One Billion Rising in Woodruff Park! The rally was organized to put an end to violence against women. Our participation involved helping to lead the massive crowd during the flash mob. CORE Performance Company is delighted to have shared that experience with the energizing crowd of One Billion Rising!