Monday, November 29, 2010

Leading a traditional Marian Chace movement circle as a warm up for modern technique students






Photographs taken by Amanda Will. Dancers in photos: Jake Bone, Jessica Holt, Shannon Sauer, Tyler Patterson, Audrey Kennedy, and Katie Jennings

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Aikido...

Grasping at The Law of Attraction? Do This Instead and Enjoy Success

By Kristopher Raphael (Entries in the Handbook fro Planet Earth)

Wed, Jun 24, 2009

What is wrong with its seeking the pleasant and shirking the unpleasant? Between the banks of pain and pleasure the river of life flows. It is only when the mind refuses to flow with life, and gets stuck at the banks, that it becomes a problem. By flowing with life I mean acceptance — letting come what comes and go what goes. Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, I Am That


Aikido - In The Flow

Aikido - In The Flow

If you push someone what happens? Chances are they will push back. If you grab someone’s hand and pull them, what happens? They pull away from you. If someone is needy and is grasping at you for your love and attention, what do you do? Most people pull away. Grasping at something you want can actually stop you from having it. Repelling something you don’t want, can make it push at you even harder.

People grasp and repel in many arenas in life. They grasp at things they want. They grasp at receiving pleasure. They repel people and things they don’t like. What they don’t realize is that the constant grasping and repelling, not only creates the outcome they don’t want, but puts them in a lot of stress and drains their energy.

In personal development, grasping and repelling will stop you in your tracks. You can’ heal something you avoid looking at. If you avoid and deny that you have an alcohol problem, for example, the problem will persist, or get worse. It is only through shining the transformative light of awareness on something that it can heal and be integrated.

If you wish to manifest your hopes, dreams and desires and activate the Law of Attraction, the best state to do this in is being in the flow of life. You must allow what you desire to be, not grasp at it. Grasping at something implies that you don’t have it. If you don’t energetically have it first, you won’t have it in form.

When you allow both the good and the bad without grasping and repelling, you enter into the the powerful flow of the now moment that flows through self and all of life. You naturally move into a state of well being that is more aligned with your desires manifest, activating the Law of Attraction.

There is a powerful Japanese martial art form called Aikido. Ai means harmony. Ki means spirit. Do means ‘the way of’ or ‘the road to’. In other words, Aikido means ‘the way of harmonized spirit’. The key difference between Aikido and other martial arts is that you don’t repel or block a person attacking you, you flow with punch or kick, using the energy of their momentum for yourself.

Do this in your life and you will have more energy to manifest what you wish to manifest. Instead of resisting things you don’t like and pushing them away, simply allow them to flow through you and dissapate. This puts you in the universal flow of life as you move into living in the now moment.

Be aware of where you are grasping at things in life. Imagine having your desires manifest. Grow the sensation of your desires manifest in your inner world. Do this without grasping at them and you allow them to move from being to having. Grasping prevents the having. For example, if you wish more abundance in your life, imagine yourself being abundant. Imagine what you will buy, what you will do, and most importantly how good you will feel with your abundance. If you are grasping at it, it means you don’t yet have it. Let the grasping go and have it in your inner world (your thoughts, feelings and imagination). As you do this you open the door to having it in your outer world as well.

Living in the Flow has other advantages. One obvious one is that when you are not repelling or grasping at things in life, you have more energy, and less stress. You are more relaxed and because of this are able to get more done in less time. One can only surmise that living a relaxed, stress free life with more energy would be better for your health and longevity.

Want to increase your well-being and more powerfully activate the Law of Attraction in your life? Be aware of where you grasp and repel in your life. Consciously let the grasping and repelling go. Allow whatever is to be. As you do so, you begin to live in the Flow where all good things reside.

http://kristopher-raphael.com/grasping-at-the-law-of-attraction

Monday, November 8, 2010

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Dance for Life—and Death

Jose Zamora's CholoRock Dance Theatre explores it all in an energetic show in Denton.
by Ellie Leonhardt
published Tuesday, November 2, 2010

photo: Jennifer Fronczeck
La Fiesta Fantasmagorica

In a 60-minute show with energy that isn't bounded by the intimate Green Space Arts Collective studio in Denton, José Zamora’s CholoRock Dance Theatre opened La Fiesta Fantasmagorica 2010 this weekend.

Zamora, a recent dance graduate from Texas Woman's University, explores a sophisticated Mexican-American cultural blend of post-modern, folklórico, social dance, hip-hop, contemporary ballet and jazz. Zamora has created his own recipe of dance folktales and appears to have a hold on a strong, signature blend of dance fusion. La Fiesta Fantasmagorica goes beyond the actions of the dancers or the intricate rhythm of the steps and digs deep into cultural themes such as death, intimacy, sexuality, gender and culture.

It is pleasure to see a choreographer use group forms that support interesting movement vocabulary, made up of twisting, throwing, pulsing, pushing and dense rhythmic structures.

The form of the show is broken into seamless sections in which Zamora allows us to telescope into the solo life of a character, or the relationship of a duet. These vignettes, surrounded by larger ensemble pieces, give the audience a feeling that, by the end of the show, we tangibly know each of the abstract and whimsical characters.

It is through the solos at the beginning of the piece that the audience has a moment to contemplate the life and, with the help of haunting facial makeup, the death of Zamora’s characters.

The most dynamic of these solos is danced by principle dancer Kasi Kirkpatrick, who appears in a yellow girlish dress, at first waving her arms and moving through the space like a bird with an arrhythmic skip. Her solo is made up of quick direction changes and level changes that grow to an eerie climax. The climax comes when a smile emerges on her face and she begins to giggle and then―as if out of nowhere―act as if she is being chocked to death. Zamora is a master at skillful, genuine character development that gives the audience a feeling that we are witnessing the dead vibrantly dancing on their last-lived day.

By the end section of the piece, Zamora has his dancers wearing surgical masks and dancing a traditional couple dance―bodies pressed together. The juxtaposition shows Zamora’s ability to play with irony and intimacy, all in the same breath. The collage of visual and sonic elements and the abstract narrative performed by a physically diverse and unique cast (including a notable performance from co-principle dancer Juan Pablo Montes) allows Zamora’s choreographic intention to be clearly communicated.

Groupings of dancers merge and emerge organically, with a strong sense of character and motivation, as every inch of the small stage is used and devoured by the dancers leaping, rolling, running, spinning and lifting each other. These dynamic movements are made even stronger by the use of interwoven spatial formations, attention to choreographic details and technically efficient dancers.

It's described as a “bizarre and fantastic combination,” and it is. The themes explored—including sexuality, death and life—ultimately blossom into one of humanity.

There is one more performance of La Fiesta Fantasmagorica, and you'll have to witness it for yourself.

Ellie Leonhardt is a Lecturer in Dance at the University of North Texas, and lives in Denton

http://www.theaterjones.com/reviews/20101101214533/2010-11-02/CholoRock-Dance-Theatre/La-Fiesta-Fantasmagorica

Flight On Time

photo: Marty Sohl






Flight On Time
DanceTCU flies into fall with a showcase of classical and modern.
by Ellie Leonhardt
published Saturday, November 6, 2010

In the faculty and guest works in DanceTCU’s “Flying Into Fall” showcase, classical and modern dance are on display, with every performance representative of the confident dancers that Texas Christian University produces. Even when the works tend to more modern, a classical body type is exhibited: young, skinny, agile, flexible, dynamic, sharp and serious.

One of the highlights of the show is Elizabeth Gillaspy’s Vigil (2005). This contemporary ballet presents a heightened use of musicality, spatial relationships and gesture to portray three women who are lost and searching for solace. Interestingly, the solace they are looking for is not in themselves nor in each other, but in something that exists beyond the stage.

The dancers start out in a formation of a wide triangle. As they move out of this formation, with an inner focus, they do simultaneous variations of each other’s movements. The trio never comes into unison until the climax of the dance, in which all three young women stand downstage left and scan the horizon, out into the audience, with their eyes and faces. This external use of focus is echoed when a solo dancer repeats the unison gesture of the visual scan in synchronicity with the last climactic note of Arvo Part’s haunting music (frequently used by many choreographers). Although the dancers are proficient in the technique, one wonders if these young women really understand the anguish they are portraying in Gillaspy’s poetic work.

The last piece on the program is Scorching Bay, by former Battleworks, Mark Morris and Ailey II dancer Kanji Segawa. This piece is the most polished and cohesive on the concert and plays with alternating phrases and spatial formations of bounded lines and free-flowing curves.

In it, many interesting uses of group forms catch the eye. The dance begins with a man standing stage left and a woman running toward him and jumping into his arms (as if to quote Esplanade by Paul Taylor). After several runs, each of the dancers on the floor lift up one arm in rapid succession as the woman runs past. This cannon allows the dancer to move through an abstract architectural environment that creates a visual separation between the principle dancers and the audience (the lighting by Roma Flowers and the costumes on loan from the Ailey School help this effect).

Another interesting moment comes in the middle of the dance, when most of the cast is spread across the stage, holding a group shape made up of duets and trio. This crowd moves seamlessly off stag eright while holding the group shape―like a finger swipe on a giant Iphone. Behind this image, a trio emerges that focuses on another male/female duet. The two highlighted female dancers, Elizabeth Alvarez and Alexa Moore, are sharp, clear, grounded, risky and confident in attacking Segawa’s movement style and vocabulary. The dance ends with the first female soloist running in a circle downstage center, as the lights fade.

The ongoing backwards running throughout the last half of the dance suggests that the woman by the end of the piece is trying to return to where the dance started―jumping into the arms of a man. Or, perhaps now that she is by herself, no longer in a duet, she is running for her freedom, with the pulse of the music supporting her escape. Choreographically it seems as if the end of the piece could easily segue right back into the beginning, and the whole dance could be on an endless loop cycle.

Because there is no linking theme or stylistic connection to the pieces on "Flying Into Fall," the programming leaves much to be desired. While much of the inquiry and creative exploration does not dig terribly deep, the classical body of ballet and modern dance is showcased with confident technique.

The remainder of the program includes works that highlight this confidence, choreographed by John McFall, Jenny Mendez, Susan Douglas Roberts and Heinz Spoerli (re-staged by Li-Chou Cheng).

◊ Ellie Leonhardt is a Lecturer in Dance at the University of North Texas. She lives in Denton.

http://www.theaterjones.com/reviews/20101106164250/2010-11-06/DanceTCU/Flying-Into-Fall