Trolley People

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This weeks collaboration with David Morneau is a tribute to all the working people. I asked a bunch of people at work to help me out for this one.

David says "a coworker lent me some CD's of a band called Clutch (hardcore/grunge kind of band). When I heard the intro to a song called "The Mob Goes Wild" it seemed perfect for danceaday."

This was Jason's last day. Jason is the bearded fellow at the beginning and end of the dance. Good Luck Jason. Adam helped me out on camera and also danced along with Frenchie, C-Note, Michael and Sarah.

http://60x365.com

http://danceaday.com

Bumper Cars

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Upon discovering that I was on the wrong side of great falls for what I wanted to do with my dances I procedeed to the Maryland side but missed my turn and ended up at Glen Echo Park. I rehearsed here in for the first time in 1989 with Liz Lerman for several years. It looks much different now but mostly it is cleaned up and modernized.

Nureyev: The Russian Years

If I can stop dancing for a moment, I will tell you how exciting the documentary was. I loved that it was NOT told in the Ken Burns style or any style that I had seen before. The old footage blended with recent footage of Russia gave it a feeling that Nureyev could have still been alive today. I totally disagree with Sarah Kaufman's assertion in the Washington Post today that this footage was uninteresting and that the film need to provide something new to prevent frustration. Kaufman says "the complete, complex richness that was Nureyev does not make it into the picture" but why should a director try to do this. It was focused on the Russia years and that is what we saw done very well. Nureyev's passion is breathtaking. His dancing is devastatingly beautiful, and present. I want to dance in the street like I did when I was 16 and watching ballet for the first time. It was sad to hear how he was so unknown in Russia but it was good to have that perspective. It made me think of what it means to be home. He certainly gave up a lot to be a rich and famous dancer but if he didn't I would not be talking about him now.

Todd at Iwo

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In the shadows of the fallen, raise up, raise up

says Todd

We were at the Iwo Jima Memorial at night to see the moon. It is a  great place to look out at the city of Washington at night. 

Katariina's Birthday

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Today's dance takes place in front of the Finnish Embassy and it is for my friend Katariina who lives in Finland. Happy Birthday. Showing you some love.

The Watergate

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This dance is at the Kennedy Center but the Watergate building is in the background.

Chairs and Umbrellas

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This part of the Kennedy Center is new to me. It is a big open space with chairs and tables overlooking Georgetown and The Watergate.

Grand Foyer

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Today's dance is inside the Kennedy Center. The Grand Foyer is one of the largest rooms in the world. I was here late at night when all the patrons of the arts had left and it was just me and the security guards, who looked at me with a smile.

Kennedy Center Steps

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I was hanging out at the Kennedy Center and I saw these steps and I thought "make a dance." Todd gave me some good suggestions for how to edit the video and David Morneau used his musical talent to make a piece he calls "Phantom." Check out David's site 60x365 everyday for new music.

http://60x365.com

http://onanonproductions.com

http://danceaday.com

The Hunters

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Across time and with malice towards none, they found the branches and thrust forward....finding space in between....

says Todd.

I decided that I wanted Todd to help me edit this one since he is an EMMY Award winning director who is much of editing inspiration. After a few days of pleading and much yelling he finally agreed. Enjoy!

http://onanonproductions.com

http://danceaday.com 

Tee Pee Dance

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I was dancing in the Tee Pee and Todd was taping me.

Todd's Poem

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I asked Todd to come up with a podcast and in his Toddish way just started in on something. Oh how we laughed as I found moments to match his words, I guess it was all in his subconscious.

Tee Pee

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Todd and I were on the hunt for the Great Fall Tee Pee. We were traveling for days and we were hot on its trail. Once we saw it we observed its mating habits, tagged it and let it go back into the wild.

Amiti and Boris

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I was going out to do my dance with Esther behind the camera and out of nowhere Amiti comes running in. Can you see the big smile on my face. We dance together in bars and now for the first time on Dance A Day.

Painters Can Dance

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Scot and Rachel are at it again. I used part of their dance for the piece I put up last Friday but here is the whole thing, less edited. I love the woman who stopped to watch and how great Amiti and Esther looked near the end just standing there watching.

Annadroids in NY

I went up to see Anna and the Annadroids: The Clone Zone on Thursday and it was a great show. My videos were in the piece so it was exciting for me. Check out the review here. If you are in NYC and you have not seen them today at 7pm is the last show. Don't miss it.

I so wanted to make 100 dances in NY while I was there but somehow I felt that I needed to make a separate trip for that. I was more interested in seeing my friends because I miss them. I can't wait to go back. (Did I just say that) I saw friends from high school, undergrad and grad school.

Amiti and Esther

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This is the first danceaday for Amiti and Esther, two of my very good friends who live in NYC. We were hanging out at Clandistino's in the party mode and we took it to the streets. Believe that I will be back to do more dancing in the city.

http://modancer.com

http://esthermpalmer.com

Paris Hilton

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Whew. So David Morneau sent me an audio file with his Paris Hilton compliation of voice and sound and challenged me to come up with something interesting. Well, it was no easy task. I decided I had to do this one in New York City so I took the train up yesterday and tried to find Paris in NY. I did not find her but I did find some other people who you will be seeing on Dance-A-Day in the next few days. Thanks to Amiti Perry who helped me with the concept for today and to Scot Kaplan and Rachel Hoffman who also appear in the video.

http://danceaday.com

http://60x360.com

http://www.youtube.com/user/scotkaplan

http://rachelhoffmanstudio.com/

Thanks Crew

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Thanks to Lillian, Shawn, Adriana, Dave, Carrie, Daniel, Cathy, Cheles, Jessica and all the wonderful tech performers. I was lucky enough to catch the load out of Phantom of the Opera at the Kennedy Center the other night it was amazing to watch. We so rarely see the hard work that goes on behind the scenes as we make and watch art.

Arms

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Hanging out at P St Beach before it gets dark, cuz we know what happens there when it gets dark. These are some boris willis moves.

Heading to NYC

My friend Amiti has been trying to get me to come to NYC and I am so looking forward to it. I am going to see Anna and the Annadroids: The Clone Zone in the NY International Fringe Festival. I made a couple of videos for the show and I while it is not the first time my video work has been presented it seems more exciting because I am not dancing or choreographing, I am a the video artist. I will be there on Thursday and hoping to tape lots of dances for danceaday around NYC.

In other news I have removed my tongue ring. I put in 10 years ago as a memorial to my mother who was killed in a car accident in 1995. While I still miss her terribly it seems like a good time for me to transition.

I read an article in the washington post yesterday that made me a little freaked out. It was about a 38 year old who was unmarried and has no kids and felt like a ZERO. Oh how I hate reading things like that although not as much as reading damaged sperm in older men articles in the NY Times. The good part was that he made something happen for himself and may make a movie about the people who have the same name as he does. He found them by doing vanity searches on google. I did a dance workshop last year with Rachid Ouramdane using what he called "homonyms" meaning a person with the same name as you. He did a search on the internet and found people with the same name as the people who signed up for the workshop and we worked with their identities. Although there are a few more Boris Willis' in the world there is not much info about them. Anyway 40 is fast approaching and it is so eerie because I am not one of those 40 year old people and yet it is a label I will wear.

Kailei's Birthday

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Today is Kailei's birthday so I snagged some music from David Morneau at http://60x360.com cut it up and flipped it. I taped this a few weeks ago but I was saving it for today.

Happy Birthday Kailei!

House on Logan Circle

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I really don't know if this is true or not but the story I heard is that there were two sisters who were so jealous of each other that they constantly fought for their father's attention. Whenever one recieved something the other one claimed that the father playing favorites. The father attempted to resolve this issue by always giving them the exact same thing at the same time. This house was supposedly built for them and it was exactly the same on both sides. Still somehow the sisters found a way to feel that the other one got a better deal. As for me, I just dance in front of it.

Clone Zone/ 100th Video

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So my dear friends this is the 100th video of danceaday. It is a very exciting. Anna Sullivan is performing at the NY International Fringe Festival and I have a few videos in the show so for those of you in NY check her out and for those of you not in NY check the website to see when she will be in your town. I put together some stuff that did not make it into the show. Let me know what you think.

Animation: Brent Haley

Additional Footage: James Pryor

http://anatomicalscenario.com/

http://danceaday.com

Anna and The Annadroids: Clone Zone

August 15 - 19, 2007
The New York International Fringe Festival
VENUE #13: Linhart Theatre @ 440 Studios
440 Lafayette Street, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10003
Take the 6 to Astor Place
The theatre is located just south of Astor Place,
across the street from the Public Theater
Wed 15 @ 3
Thu 16 @ 7
Fri 17 @ 5:45
Sat 18 @ 10
Sun 19 @ 7
$15
http://www.fringenyc.org/basic_page.asp

The Stairs in the Woods

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I felt like a kid playing in the woods like I used to do so long ago. There were these woods behind my house in NC where I picked plums and blackberrys and smoked and read dirty magazines. I was so in love with Marina "Taco" Bell. In this this dance I imagine the fun I would have with my kid, when or if I have one.

BWM 100

This is my 100th post on the BWM Blog and while it is exciting it is not as exciting as the 100th video that will be posted on Sunday on Dance-A-Day. In truth I have done more than 100 because the first month I was posting videos both here and Dance-A-Day but still it is a nice milestone. Yesterday I felt like a kid again as I was making my dances for the week. I did my usual dances in public places but I also went to the P St Beach and danced in Rock Creek and I found some stairs and danced in the woods and I did cartwheels and round offs for the first time in a very long time. I thought "not bad for someone who is about to turn 40." It made me think about kids a lot and how much I want one. I am not around kids much but when I am it just rocks my world, I love it so. I guess once I figure out what I am doing with my life I will look into adoption, although I fear it is not so easy for a single man.

Diba

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The lovely Jessica was in town, we did the Tryst thing, we did the Trolley thing and as you can see here, the Dance-A-Day thing. David Morneau added his special musical sauce, did he know she was dancing in front of the Hard Rock Cafe? She was also in front of Ford's Theater.

http://60x360.com

Renwick Gallery

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Sunset 2

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I find this sunset so beautiful that I am posting another section of the dance I did by the FDR memorial.

Ted Shawn

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Many years ago I dance with Jacob's Pillow's Men Dancers: The Ted Shawn Legacy. Today's dance is a tribute to Ted Shawn's signature work Kinetic Molpai. See the men in action here.

Brass Band

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On some nights at Dupont Circle an amazing brass band plays and people gather around and dance the night away. This was one such night. Zane, Todd and I were hanging out and we could not help ourselves.

http://danceaday.com

Manly Dance

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Swan Lake Samba Girl has had some interesting posts about men dancers lately and being a male dancer I wanted to add my 3 cents but not in a conversational way but a presentational way. She was also recently mentioned in the Wall St Journal. Go Samba, go Samba. My friend Zane Booker was in town and Todd and I hung out with him and had a great time. I asked Zane to be my manly partner and Todd used my phone to tape the whole thing at night on K St.

http://onanonproductions.com

http://danceaday.com 

Sharon

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Sharon was just back from teaching at Wild Meadows and we hung out and talked. She showed me pictures from her trip to Benin, Africa and I asked her to do today's dance. We were in front of the Phillips Collection the nations oldest modern art gallery.

http://mansurdance.com 

Sunset

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For this week David Morneau of http://60x365 sent me the sounds of bats for our collaboration. I am not sure if there are bats or birds in the back ground but lets just say they are bats anyway. I loved the sunset by the Potomac river so I made a bat dance.

White House

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I was very nervous about this one. I had just witnesses a guy who seemed to be lost around the White House back on to H st and get surrouned by police and he was there for a long time.  Of course I don't really know what happened but it was enough to make this dance feel a bit uncomfortable.

Before the CNN/You Tube Debates there was this

My Friend Ashley http://www.youtube.com/user/AsertyDances
asked the youtube community to submit videos for her show at the Joyce Soho. I just watched them and wow what a great show.

George Mason Memorial

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The George Mason statue is not so stately. He is sitting crossed legged and leaning to the side so I leaned the video to the side and discovered the spirit of Isadora Duncan and Isadora Duncan's evil ballet dancing twin.

DANCE-A-DAY