13
-
13 years ago you pressed on my belly, my ribs, my bladder
pushing your way out, demanding your time
Before
You hid from the world for months, waiting to make...
9 years ago
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008
Dance Bloggers
We are now on dancebloggers.com. Check it out for all of your dance blogging feeds and needs.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Wildstar
Check out my new movie Wildstar: A Karaoke Movie starting Sept 6, 2008 8:00 PM at Yo Darkroom in Philadelphia. The movie will be shown as part of Empty Orchestras: Art Meets Karaoke
Yo Darkroom
113 N. 23rd Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Alvin Ailey at LOC
I was surprised and delighted to find an exhibit about the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at the Library of Congress. I had no idea it was there. If you are in DC check it out. The exhibit celebrates their 50th anniversary. You will find it at the James Madison Building in front of the performing arts reading room.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Julie Taymor on theater
What I love about what she says here is the idea of revealing the truth. In concert dance so much of what we talk about stays in our heads and because we know the audience won't understand our movement vocabulary literally we don't investigate what we are really saying/communicating. I think we should have something to say and that we should say it so the audience understands exactly what we are communicating so they don't have to ask us in a post performance discussion.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
The Dinner Party
Last Tuesday I saw the third installment of the Dinner Party performance at the Warehouse Theater of new or experimental works in progress. It was a long show without intermission and it was hot in the back of the theater but it was nice to see so many people presenting work in this informal setting. I performed at the first Dinner Party and there were many more people there on Tuesday. Clearly this is something that is needed. I am happy to see this and the Mason/Rhynes adult themed Latenight being produced as a series.
In some ways the audience saw a lot of processes like setting up for a piece, starting over when it did not work out quite right, having the performers emerge from the audience. However in term of the actual work we were generally presented with what I call "shiny movement objects" which are like a ship in a bottle. You ask the question, how did they do that, arrive there, et cetera. When I talk about process I am reminded of a football game where you see the whole process of the game not just then end result. When I see dance I want to see more than the ship in the bottle, I want to see how you got the ship in there and why you decided to work that hard in the first place. There have been times in my life that I felt that dance was one of the few places that you could see abstraction so "save the abstract experience" was my motto. I am not so much interested in only seeing abstraction I want to know about a piece as I am watching it. I want to know the choreographer's intention and inspirations. I do not want to just be presented with a shiny movement object without knowing how it was made.
While I was sitting in the feedback session of the Dinner Party I was struck by how many times a choreographer was asked or found themselves describing the process of making their work. I was also struck by the fact that I always wanted to see the processes they were talking about. So many times I said to myself I don't know what is going on, the performers have intention but are not sharing it. The presentation was about where they had arrived and it was frustrating to me because I knew that they came form somewhere. The descriptions of how they created their works were so vivid and inspiring that I wanted them to be central to the work not an aside only to be shared when asked in a feedback session. When I first learned composition in undergrad I was told not to make a story, to be abstract and to let the movement speak for itself. Well now that kind of instruction is outdated and useless. In my 25 years of watching dance, I may have seen almost everything a mover can do with abstraction many times over and now I would like to see some stories.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
And now. . .
My next project is http://copycatdancemaking.blogspot.com Julie Cruse and I and maybe you too will be copying each other's work and posting it. You can read Julie's first post here http://copycatdancemaking.blogspot.com/2008/05/copycat-story.html
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Climbing Trees
Julie said why don't we copy each others work and forget trying to be unique and inventive so I said cool. Here you go.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Danceaday, the beginning.
In Candace Feck's Postmodernism class, I had the assignment to lead the discussion about David Gere's article on Joe Goode's 29 Effeminate Gestures. I was not sure if there was a video of the work so I recorded a series of gestures based on the article and that became my first dance on May 11, 2007. I was also taking a podcasting class with Dan Shellenbarger and up to that point I was making a somewhat uninspired blog about my life as a dancer using photos from my camera phone. In my dance composition class with Bebe Miller and Susan Rethorst I was making a new short dance every class and showing it. These were the magic ingredients that made danceaday a concept that was possible in my mind.
I have a history of creating long projects like this one. When I was in college at the North Carolina School of the Arts I made audio recordings inspired by Ken Nordine's Word Jazz. I loved doing these so much that on my breaks between classed I would run back to my room to record. Later when I was dancing with Liz Lerman and Jacob's Pillow's Men Dancers I rejected the camera for audio recordings of our adventures. I have over three hundred cassette tapes. Doing danceaday was a bit more of a challenge because of the time factor but it is rooted in my experiences with audio recordings.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Moving on
I did not shoot, edit and post a new video everyday. This was not my intention and I never thought that it was possible, which it wasn't. The first month and a half I posted at least two videos a day one at danceaday.com and here. I was able to post a video everyday for a year. Sometimes I had to arrange for someone else to make sure they got posted because I would not be near a computer on a particular day.
It has been a performance that I have done everyday for a year. I have that post performance depression. It is 10pm and I don't have a video to post. I have not done a dance that needs to be edited. I feel some loss but I have many encouraging words from friends that make me smile. David Morneau dedicated his 60 second composition to danceaday. Along the way my HDV camera broke, my 500GB hard drive failed, a quicktime update broke my version of Premiere Pro so that it could not export in any format. Still, my computer stayed intact and my creative spirit remained although there were days that I did not feel like editing a video.
I am moving on to other projects. I am satisfied but feeling a huge empty place in my soul.
National Cathedral
Artist Gerry Hofstetter had his work projected on the Washington National Cathedral so I took advantage of it for my final danceaday dance. Todd was on camera duty while I worked my way around the building dancing in the light. Todd being Toddish decided to ask one of the people on the projector if the light would stain the walls if it was on all night. She was stunned by the question as you will hear. At the end you can hear me talking on the phone to Kate about the end of danceaday.
Thanks to everyone who has joined me on this ride. It is hard to believe that it has been a year and that now it is over. This blog is now an archive but please visit
http://boriswillismoves.blogspot.com or http://boriswillismoves.com for my next move. You can see a video of the Cathedral slideshow below if you have windows media player.
http://video1.cathedral.org/wmv/ltu080509.wmv
I will be writing about my experiences soon and will be describing my challenges and talking about why I wanted to do this project.
Peace,
Boris
Saturday, May 10, 2008
OSU Reunion
This video was taped by both David Morneau and myself and it is what happened before and after the previous dances. I dance with Amiti and then we see a few current and former Ohio State dance students some of whom dance and some do not. Coco and Amiti, Colleen, Katherine, Yari, Keren, Peter, Kate, Jaclyn and me. It is an OSU reunion at Judson Church.
Friday, May 9, 2008
Judson Church
Colleen had a show at Judson church and many Ohio State Dance people came out to see her. She performed with Jaclyn and Coco who you see on the balcony. Peter and Katherine dance with me while David Morneau taped this dance and layered the organ music on top. Sadly, this is our last collaboration. Bittersweet. His daily project continues through June so be sure to check him out.
http://60x365.com
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Kate Triple Solo
As danceaday is in its final week I can't seem to help using David Morneau's compostions. I keep making work that is 60 seconds long and in need of sound. Today I went to Rockville MD to tape Kate at Strathmore.
http://60x365.com
http://katejordan.net
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Ashley A. Friend
At Judson Church with Ashley we go round and round.
http://www.youtube.com/user/AsertyDances
We've lost that Loving
Mildred Loving died yesterday. She was a shy pioneer in the history of race in America. With her husband Richard she won the Loving vs. Virginia case that made interracial marriage legal in every state although Alabama was the last state to remove these laws from their books in 2000. In 2003 I made a work that included the Lovings called "Enter Race" and I have been wondering when or if I should revise it. It was originally a duet but when I went to grad school I reworked it as a solo with help from my fellow classmates. With Obama and Clinton racing for the White House now seems like a good time.
Photo: Todd Clark
Monday, May 5, 2008
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Zack and his Sax
I went down to the Alexandria Waterfront to hang out and I met Zack who is from NC like myself and we had a nice conversation. I asked if he would play for my danceaday and he was nice enough to do so. I also ran into Kim who I performed "I Can Stop On A Dime And Get Ten Cents Change" with, it was a good day.
Tulips Tiptoe
I taped this dance on the campus of George Mason University. Of course I hear Tiny Tim when I watch this video but I got the music from David Morneau.
http://60x365.com/2007/07/july-31-2007.html
Friday, May 2, 2008
David's Birthday
Today is David Mornau's birthday so he remixed a song that his uncle made for his 13th birthday. It is also JulieAnna's birthday. Todd did a big feet dance for me.
http://60x365.com
Thursday, May 1, 2008
National Harbor
I was at the new National Harbor a few days ago for work. There is not much there at the moment except for the Awakening which looks totally out of place. So here I am at the Alexandria waterfront across from the Harbor in MD.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Central Park
Everytime I tried to live in NYC, central park was my refuge. The city eventually bore down on me and I would come to the park so I could look up and see the sky without buildings. Watching this video makes me think of all of the decompression I did here.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Movement does not speak for itself
I have been thinking a lot lately about the role of dance in my life. A thought has been forming in my head for a long time and it has to do with my idea of pre-futurism in dance. This is to say that dance does not need to stand alone in a theater. I saw the play Lord of the Flies at the Round House Theater choreographed by Kelly Mayfield and what she did with movement in the play was quite inspiring. What I liked about Lord of the Files was that there was a solid story, the acting was good and they moved well. The choreography made sense to what they were communicating and it was not over done but it was intricate and relevant and resolutely dance! The set, the costumes and the suspension of disbelief were all integrated in a well executed performance.
So often someone makes a dance about a subject and in the end the dancing is the least important part of the work. Why do we feel like we have to put movement to something that does not require a display of movement? You know what I mean, you look at a work and wonder why this is not a five second piece or done as another art form. Why not just make a work that does just that, a 30 second commercial. Is that not how our minds work? Why ramble on for 20 minutes saying nothing or saying the same thing over and over without using other non-dance devices to go deeper into the subject. Movement cannot say everything, so for all of you who repeat the line that movement speaks for itself, wake up, it does not.
My skills as a dancer and choreographer are valid skills that transfer to theater and visual arts. Dancers have skills that they just do not use and they put movement where something else would work better. Collaborate with yourself!
Close to the Glass
More dancing at Lincoln Center this time with Chuck Close and Phillip Glass. I was struck by the 40 years because that is how old I am.
Monday, April 28, 2008
SUPA
SUPA
Neil Greenberg Susan Rethorst John Jasperse Jeanine Durning
WORKSHOPS BY CHOREOGRAPHERS FOR CHOREOGRAPHERS
July 7 - August 2, 2008
Intensive yet relaxed working situation - small groups - affordable -
located on the campus of Wilson College in Pennsylvania
Studio Upsun* in Pennsylvania - SUPA - is designed to provide
opportunities to engage in in-depth investigations of choreographic
practices. We have looked for rigorous and sophisticated choreographers who
are also interested in teaching and its relationship to making. We have
given them an entire week to work with a limited amount of students (max
14) via composition, repertory, mentoring, or any combination of practices
they feel useful. It is our hope that these workshops will result in a give
and take of knowledge and practice that is rigorous, personal, intense, and
intensely pleasurable.
*Upsun: (noun) the period between the rising and setting of the sun.
One week $330 plus room, discounts available.
For more information and/or to register, write to
susanr@ahk.nl, or visit www.wilson.edu/supa .
Damrosh Park
This was another refuge for me while I was in NYC. I saw performances and did swing dances here all summer long. Wow, I really did not like living in NYC but I would like to visit more often.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Gallery Doors
Todd and I were hanging out in front of the National Gallery at night and after the security guards left we engaged in a little dance game.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
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