Mom 2

This is the last day of the year and it has been great. I got my MFA, I turned 40, I have lots of great friends near and far who love me. However, I want to be aware of what and who is not here. A friend just lost her dad. It is truly a terrible time to lose someone but life makes no guarantees for perpetual happiness or appropriate times for bad things to happen. This video shows where my mom spent her last moments alive. The site of her accident 12 years ago is a very powerful place for me as it is just down the road from where she worked at a juvenile prison as a teacher. The lone car making a path that she did not have the good fortune to make. Live life to its fullest and don’t wait to act. Don’t sit in the fear of what if; making things happen is much easier.

Dad's House

When I was a kid I spent a lot of time playing on this street. This was my grandmother's house and now my dad's house. It looks different from when I was a kid, there seems to be less activity and everything is much shorter.

Nissa

This is my sister dancing. We were at my grandmother's house, you know how grandmothers are.

Grandma

was (home) for Christmas and before I left I had a dance with my grandmother. We call her Mu which is a form of mother without the other. I got the music from David Morneau as I have many times this week.

http://60x635.com

The Store

This is my home town of Raeford, NC. When I was in high school I would hang out with some of my friends behind this store and talk about stuff. There was absolutely nothing to do so we just hung out.

Happy Kwanzaa

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas. Kate and I dance by the Willard Inter-Continental Hotel and again I swiped music from David Morneau.

http://katejordan.net

http://60x365.com

Love You

It is Christmas Eve so I am spreading the love.

Going YouTubing

After many months I have decided to put all (most) of my dance a day videos on YouTube. I resisted for many reasons but mostly because blip.tv was (is) so very awesome but the tube has more traffic. Soooooo starting tomorrow,this blog will have videos from the tube and danceaday.com will host videos from blip. Happy Holidays Everyone.

Most Wonderful Time

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Hanging out by the National Christmas tree with Kate and Johnny Mathis comes on over the loud speakers. I loved listening to Mathis as a kid. In fact I got into chorus by practicing singing with his records.

Red Christmas Tree

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Kate and I walked into this building and saw this very nice red Christmas tree. As soon as we saw it, we knew there had to be a dance in front of it. Eventually we got kicked out. Sheesh, where is the holiday spirit. I went into the archives of David Morneau's 60x365 site and swiped some music since he is being all Christmaasy.

http://katejordan.net

http://60x365.com

http://danceaday.com

National Christmas Tree

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This week David Morneau and I pull out the old Christmas home movies for your viewing pleasure. This movie is when Kate and I did our first danceaday together back in 2007. Kate thought the bows on tree were hideous. I was impressed by the LED lights which were cool to the touch and energy efficient. David was manning the projector but broke the tape because he heard that a new version of Atari Combat was coming out for Christmas and rushed to the 52 inch plasma television to see it.

http://60x365.com

http://katejordan.net

http://danceaday.com 

Washington's House

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Psycho, noooooo it is the house the Washinton built, George that is.

Shed

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I found a shed out back and I did a dance. The Mount Vernon Shed dance.

Mount Vernon Farm

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Orr, Holliday and I took a look Washington's Farm. Orr spotted some slave quarters and I did a dance there. Washington was the only slave holding founding father to free his slaves when he died.

Mount Vernon Potomac

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The day was spent at Mount Vernon with Mr. Holliday and Mr. Orr. It was very different from the last time I was there. They expanded their resource center and museum but the basic grounds were the same. I made some dances as we walked around. This tree was prominent in the movie we watched about the life of George Washington.

Ode to Umeda

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When I was in Columbus the last time I saw a performance by Hiroaki Umeda called S20. He used music and projected patterns to great effect. I wanted to make a similar thing and though this video is nothing like his performance the movement is similar.

Twenty-Five 2

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This is another idea that I had for the 25th collaboration between David Morneau and I.

http://60x365.com

http://danceaday.com 

Twenty-Five

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This is the twenty-fifth collaboration between David Morneau and I. It is also the twenty-fifth hour of danceaday videos. This week we do Cunningham/Cage for you. We worked seperately and even now I have no idea what the final product is.

David says: I invoked my inner John Cage for this. There are 25 sound segments of various lengths, arranged randomly. Some are repeated. Some are filtered using randomly selected filters with random parameter settings.

I made several attempts at making 25 movements and I think I will show two one today and one tomorrow with the same music. I tried to do movement that was typical of the kind of movement that I like to do.

http://60x365.com

http://danceaday.com 

Botanic Garden

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I hesitated to put this one up for a while. It was, until a few moments ago, over 2 minutes long and that felt wrong. I was looking for color and thinking of a post by Amanda on the DC Dance Blog. So, I added some color and made the video shorter. I was at the Public Gardens exhibit at the US Botanic Gardens

Melvin

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Rob introduced me to Melvin who is from the Netherlands. We hung out for a while and visited the Lincoln Memorial, stood where MLK stood when he delivered his "I have a Dream" speech and walked along the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall. We also danced by the cherry blossoms on the Potomac River.

Real Goldsworthy

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A month ago I made a version of an Andy Goldsworthy piece. Today I am dancing in front of a real Goldsworthy, not the white piece in the front but the stones in the back.

Wind

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This dance is brought to you by the Smithsonian Castle, wind and leaves. Remember there is no Smithsonian Museum but the Smithsonian Institution which has many museums and a zoo. It is called the Air and Space Musuem not the Aerospace Museum and don't be alarmed that the Museum of the American Indian is not called the Native American Museum.

Sylvana

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It was an early morning because Sylvana had the great idea of doing a sunrise dance, the only problem was that it was raining. We did not see the sun but that did not stop us from dancing across the streets of historic Mt Rainer. Gael is gonna watch this one over and over and who knows maybe one day he will do one.

Russia House

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I was hanging out with Jessica and Marty in Dupont Circle. Marty suggested that we try the Russia  House. I had always wanted to know what it was like to go there but I was intimidated by the place. I am not sure why. We go in and I had the best time that I have had in a long while. Jessica took a moment to do a dance while we sat at the bar drinking shots Imperial Vodka. So smooth! Michael was the friendly guy who took care of us and we appreciated that.

Capitol Christmas Tree

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This year the Capitol Christmas is from Vermont, (Thanks Tiffany and Marty). Todd, Delante and I had dinner at Rosemary's Thyme and then we headed over to the National Christmas Tree but it was dark. I was there earlier for the lighting but I had to leave because I was at work. So we headed over to the Capitol Christmas Tree and as soon as we got there the police car that was there circled around us, which scared us, and then took off. Delante agreed to do a dance by the tree and here it is. David Morneau took a look back at our first collaboration which you can see and hear here.

http://60x365.com

http://danceaday.com 

The First Snow

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It finally snowed here. Not that I was waiting for snow mind you. I enjoy dancing when things like snow happen because it gives me a different environment. I was working and I jumped off my trolley to dance in the snow. I gave my camera to Margo whose voice you hear. My trolley guests clapped when I returned. That was very nice!

Kicking Leaves

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Happy Hanukkah!

I made a similar video for my video dance mid-term. For this dance I kick some leaves and stomp.

My New Pre-Futurist Obsession

I found this dance clock while visiting the video dance forum. I love it. I know it is connected to a site that sells clothes and that is their main business but four things I really love about it are:
1.The movement is simple enough to learn but changing camera angles and number of dancers keeps it interesting.

2. There are services (the time, performances) being provided.

3. Lots of variety depending on the time of day. On the hour instead of seeing women dance for 5 seconds, you see two men dancing for 30 seconds.

4. The music is fun.

I watch it all the time. I love that they dress simply and do other things besides dance but the dancing is just very nice to see. It is very pre-futurist because it puts dance in the culture. It is not a dancing clock but a clock that shows people dancing on the internet. You can get it for the clock or for the dancing but you are still seeing dance every five seconds and repetition is nice.

http://www.uniqlo.jp/uniqlock/

I am a tree

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Sometimes when people imitate dancers they become a tree. I am not sure why, in fact it makes little sense. Trees may sway but they don't locomote. Their movement vocabulary is limited. I was playing around with some sounds and Todd came over and yelled at me for some unknown reason and made me put the sound with this video which he had not even seen and. . . it worked. I banished him from my room and but decided to post it. I am a tree. Watch me sway.

The Ohio State University, Dept. of Dance- Big Ten Network

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Profile of the Dance Department at The Ohio State University, featured on the BIg Ten Network

Dumbarton Oaks Park

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At the back of Dumbarton Oaks is a staircase that leads into the park. The gate is locked. You have to pay to walk the grounds in this place where the United Nations Charter was created in 1945. You can enjoy the park for free and dance.

This is tennis

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On the court and across the net- I lobbed, reached love and returned what came at me. I played until it stopped bouncing

OpenSpace

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Ok so as time goes on the solo dance in a new location is becoming less interesting to me. I have done many that I just could not post because I felt that I have just seen it too many times. However, it is not possible for me to make what I call double solo's everytime or at least not very interesting. But then again I am not sure. Anyway I will work with effects when I have solo dances. Today's effect is called noise.

Lying in the Leaves

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I was in Montrose Park and I saw a guy with a boomerang. He was kicking the leaves and walking with his girl and I thought: I should lie down in the leaves and knock them around a bit. David Morneau made some music to accompany me. We will be doing our 25th collaboration in two weeks. Any suggestions on what we should do? http://60x365.com http://danceaday.com

Swings

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When I was a kid we had a swing set in the back yard and around 14 I would do all kinds of tricks on the set. My favorite was to hand upside down by my toes off the cross bar and drop to a handstand. I also loved swinging upside down by my toes. In this video I swing the old fashoned way.

Bench and Tree

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After a long day hiking in the woods I just needed to sit down and relax. I was beside myself. I was walking in Dumbarton Park in Georgetown.

Blowing Wind

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I was walking along the trail by the Potomac River and the wind started blowing the leaves around so I stopped to dance.

Raining Leaves

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I took a drive down the George Washington Parkway and stopped at the first scenic overlook. The leaves were falling.

Two Benches

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I love the fall leaves. When I saw these benches I thought it was a good place to sit and watch the leaves so I sat there twice while I did a dance for you.

Sun Dial

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There is a big sun dial by the Washington Harbour so I decided to do a dance there, at night. hmmmmm.

Black Friday

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David Morneau sent me some music in honor of black friday. I really wanted to tape some stuff in a mall but really, you can't do that. So I found some stores and snuck my camera in. I got what I could without getting the attention of security. Happy Black Friday. I hope you got some good deals.

Happy Thanksgiving

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I did not actually make a Thanksgiving Day specific dance but I want to wish you all a happy Thanksgiving day.

Boris 

House of Sweden

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There are some big chairs by the House of Sweden. I believe this is also the Swedish Embassy. I found a musical piece that I created in my music technology class to accompany my leg swings.

Senate Garage Fountain

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So this is the 200th day of continuous videos on Dance-A-Day. I set out to gather 200 people for this dance. There were notices on blogs, dance metro dc, myspace, facebook and I talked to many many people. Some were on their way, others could not find it and some had performances and other things going on thank you for thinking of us. Daniel, Adelais, Rob, Delante and I danced on camera, Todd was behind the camera and Fani was there for support. According to Daniel the rest of yall went to the bathroom all at once so I know there was a long line. I had to leave after about 15 mins so I missed you but here it is the 200th Dance.

Tidal Basin

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I am finally getting to dance with some fall leaves. They are just starting to blow away in the wind and luckily I had a day off so I could dance in the daytime. I went out by the tidal basin because the Cherry Blossoms are quite lovely in the Fall with their red, yellow and orange leaves.

Fog

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It was a foggy day and I so wanted to dance by the fall leaves in the fog during the day but I was working. So I went to Georgetown and danced in the night fog instead.

In the Street

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I decided to dance in the street. There was a demolition happening on K St so I figured it would be safe there. Since it was a night there was no wrecking ball over my head.

Einstein

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I went to the Einstein Monument for today's dance cuz I'm smart. David Morneau says

"Einstein likes Bach. I like Bach. Today's music is created from samples of Glenn Gould's recording of Bach's Two-Part Invention no.2 in c minor"

 

http://60x365.com 

 

http://danceaday.com

IMF 1

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This is for Dan. I saw the fountain in front of the IMF and I thought was a cool fountain. I should dance there, so I did.

My Car

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Oh Joy. Quicktime is back, yeah! I have been using Premiere Pro CS3 for the past week because 2 is broken, hopefully it will self correct. I also used h.264 for the first time to compress the video and it does not look like total crap which is also very nice. This dance includes my car which I think is the coolest car in the world. I so wanted this kind of car when I was a kid and was very dissapointed when they made it curvy instead of boxy in 1991. This is a dance for my boxy car.

Hands Back

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After performing this weekend I have the energy and the desire to keep dancing. I was delighted when I actually left the house after a day at work to go and tape some dances. iTunes and Quicktime are still not working grrrrrrr.

Sevens

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This is a small section of a dance by David Dorfman that Sharon Mansur and I commissioned called Depth of Perception. I used motion capture to animate the model and added a wooden background. I was using Alias Motion Builder software to create the visuals. Before you say anything about the model, it was the only one available for free.

Blue Poles

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Karen and I performed last night then had a great time hanging out with Allison and Bobby at Bus Boys and Poets. We have another performance today at 3. We taped this dance as we left the restaurant. It was cold but not as cold as it will be someday before it is all over.

Performance Today at Gunston One

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Today I am performing with Karen Reedy in Jane Franklin's Dance Sampler. Come and check it out.

Don't miss Karen Reedy and Boris Willis perform "Path of Attraction" at Dance Sampler this November!
Gunston Theater One
$20.00

November 10, 2007
8:00 pm

November 11, 2007
3:00 pm

Directions

Class
as part of Dance Sampler
November 10, 07
12:30-1:30
taught by Karen Reedy
for more information visit Jane Franklin's website at janefranklin.com

Directions

Song of Darkness

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Ok iTunes and quicktime are still not working and neither is Premiere Pro. I downloaded a trial version of Premiere Pro CS3 which expires in a month. I am using windows media to compress the files before the get converted into flash which means they don't work in iTunes.

Karen taped me doing one of my singing dances. 

Soft Shoe

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OMG it has been a terrible technology day. iTunes failed to update properly and quicktime has been unavailable as a result. I attempted to uninstall it but it still has not worked. David Morneau sent me some good shoe sounds at the suggestion of Lillian and I had Delante and Todd do a little dance.

http://60x365.com

http://danceaday.com 

Reeeeedy

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I am performing with Karen this weekend and after a long rehearsal I got her to (finally) do a danceaday. She is quite lovely don't you think.

Sail Away

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I made this for a video art class. It is getting cold and I have been thinking about doing a dance in the snow here in DC well here is some Ohio snow for you.

Cloudy Day

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I was feeling anxious all night because I did not have a dance for today. Well acutally I have hundreds but I wanted a new one for today. In a way I would like to get back to making and recording a new dance daily but don't count on it, recording is not always an easy task. Any way I woke up this morning, went outside and recorded this dance, enjoy.