Ellie Leonhardt

Photos from Choreographing the "Fairy Dance" for Midsummer Night's Dream at Southern Oregon University

2012-02-15T16:05:00.000-08:00

First performance in Ashland!

2011-10-22T13:17:00.001-07:00

Ashland, OR

2011-09-30T14:24:00.001-07:00

Hello from my new home in Ashland, Oregon! It was my dream to live here. And, now I do! What is your dream once your dream comes true? I am learning the dream becomes a feeling and a need to keep the dream alive.

I type this from my new built-in desk inside of my new house where I look up and out a window to face north. North, from where I sit, there are mountains that seem more like California mountains. They call the high point GRIZZLY PEAK. Behind me is south: Mountains with lush green trees and a hike 15 min to a waterfall.

I found it surprisingly hard to leave Texas. How is it that when one finally gets to a place of peace with place- the place changes? I wonder if I will live in Ashland the rest of my life. I can see how people forget to look up and out - and the mountains become a blur or invisible. I hope that does not happen to me.

I feel freer here to be myself. I don't feel like I have a heavy weight around me anymore. It feels more like AIR here-- I can breathe. My dogs can hang their head out the back seat windows just like every other car in town. I think many people here have reinvented Jesus. He is on shopping bags and t-shirts as someone who symbolizes love and fun and kindness (as it should be). People are connected to Mother Mary because she is in the earth here -- not because someone else told them to believe in her. Everyone I meet here is creative, exercises, is understandable, and is relatable. This is a much better place to be.

I am teaching students that are much more engaged. The female students I have are decisively more mature than the male but everyone acts like adults. Maybe this will all change in a few weeks - but right now I notice a marked change in educational maturity from Texas to Oregon.

I think I have a lot to offer but I can't help but feel like I am NOT an expert on anything right now. I am a generalist: i know a lot about a lot. This has always been a hard thing for me to accept about my carrer. I am also trying to see my teaching as my job and not consume my psyche-- though it has been doing just that as I fall asleep at night. I think living here is the best shot I have at actually having a life outside of work.

Tonight I am going to a talk about "why father's leave". I am looking forward to that. There are so many interesting things to do here that make my mind feel more awake.

I'm trying to not be ashamed of my age, my body, my level of non-movement, and my self. I felt so ashamed in Texas. I couldn't unlock why or how or who was causing that feeling. But it takes commitment to not be ashamed, to not shave your legs, to wear what you want, to know that you will be loved by strangers, by students, by colleagues, by people in power.

This is how I want to live. I want to live being myself.

photos from FDC

2011-05-04T16:02:00.000-07:00

2011-04-14T12:42:00.001-07:00

Running

2011-04-14T06:40:00.001-07:00

This is the poem I wrote after the first spacing rehearsal of "The Well/Interruption". In this dance there is a lot of running and change of direction. I asked the dancers: Why are you running? Where are you going? The poem is my response, as the choreographer, to these questions.

"I'm running to get away and wrap underneath my sides

split sides, support sides,

sinking sides, surrounded around

and between or sometimes.

Sometimes there is strength

sometimes there is nothing.

I can't really tell and I can't

really understand what I'm running from:

It is oblique, opaque and understated and misunderstood.

I'm going here, right to where I am. Right to where I have been.

Wondering and wondering back to that place

that I always end up

up is where I always go and up

is where I am here and now and

never behind. How is that true?

How is it possible for truth?

So I go and go and catch and fetch

for you. I'm looking for you

around the corner of my body

around and around and around

looking..."

From Lau-Tzu

2011-04-14T06:35:00.000-07:00

"Men [and women] are born soft and supple;

dead, they will only be stiff and hard.

Plants are born tender and pliant;

dead, they are brittle and dry.

Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible

is a disciple of death.

Whoever is soft and yielding

is a disciple of life.

The hard and stiff will be broken.

The soft and supple will prevail."

-Tao Te Ching, chapter 76

Academic Symposium I am Directing:

2011-04-14T06:34:00.000-07:00

Teaching Yoga to Dance Majors at UNT

2011-03-31T17:13:00.001-07:00

Pixel Dances Reviewed by Mary Clark

2011-03-10T07:20:00.000-08:00

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Theater reviews part deux:

Out of the Loop Fringe Festival in Addison

by Mary L. Clark of John Garcia's The Column , Carol Anne Gordon of John Garcia's The Column

Ellie Leonhardt presents Pixel Dances/ Satellite-Dance Collective -- Reviewed by Mary L. Clark

I am admitting right here and now that I am not a dance expert. I have taken dance and know several specific techniques, and I definitely know what I like. My entire reason to review both Ellie Leonhardt presents Pixel Dances and Satellite-Dance Collective is because they both describe their work as a combination of dance, music, and video art.

For their productions at the Out of the Loop Fringe Festival, they both use computer technology as another art form within the pieces.

First, Ellie Leonhardt performs solo in both Caught.Catching and Encapsulating. Static movements and long holds interwine gracefully as a camera picks up her moves and immediately displays them on the large projection screen behind. Sitting onstage to the side, with computer and other technical devices at hand, composer and intermedia artist, David Bithell, captures Leonhardt's dancing and, as she moves, the computer (I assume) duplicates her, then pauses her as Leonhardt continues to dance. Later, the technology layers her movement, brings her in and out of the picture, and back again to present time. In Encapsulating, Bithell adds a metallophone, a beautiful Javanese wood and brass instrument. Like a small xylophone, it's low, gong-like sound blends mysteriously with Leonhardt's movement.

Pixel Dances' ensemble piece, The Well Interruption, combine eight women in duplication with Bithell's "vertical set design" - videos of the tops of different trees at winter; swaying, rustling, being still. Colors of ochre, dark green, amber and rust in their clothing further accents the natural setting and the entire piece illuminates calmness. I always love to watch dancers moving in unison and this ensemble easily meld together, fall away, join again and the piece accentuates their talent and ability.

Ellie Leonhardt has gathered a fine ensemble of young women who know their craft, perform with elegance and maturity and I look forward to seeing their future endeavors.

___________________________________________________________________

If you take Satellite-Dance Collective's name literally, it is a wonderful description as their work is collaboration between dance and interactive media – camera and computer. The first piece, The Eclipse Project, use two tripod cameras at each side of the stage with a V wedge projection screen at center. As the two women move from behind and around the screen and into the cameras, their images are distorted by both the computer and the screen. One camera did not seem to be projecting anything but it did not deter from the performance.

I hardly ever use press release text to enhance my reviews, but in this case, it will assist in describing the beauty of their second piece, Water's Edge. This work "is an intermedia dance infused with text, sound score, and projected water images ... illuminating a continuum of change." "Three women aboard a vessel (and)forage into the abyss of change ... pouring, drowning, climbing ... approaching the water's edge" ... "and resolve into freedom on the other side." These three are clothed in diaphanous tunics and pants of red, navy and gold. As they flow, battle and succumb to the water, gauzy color images are projected in the background. The piece is so ethereal, so delicate and beautifully performed.

Artistic Director and Choreographer, Mary Lynn Babcock, founded this company in 2009. While they are still young, the talent onstage is far from novice and has the richness and confidence of more seasoned dancers. I am anxious to see where this young company will perform next and am now intrigued to see more of this imaginative blend of dance and technology - human and machine.

http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2011/mar/10/theater-reviews-out-loop-fringe-festival-addison/

Pixel Dances Review by Margaret Putnam

2011-03-08T09:18:00.001-08:00

Loop Review: Pixel Dances
More on the weekend's dance at Out of the Loop.
by Margaret Putnam
published Monday, March 7, 2011

Dance and video make uneasy partners, but that doesn’t deter choreographers who think video gives them an edge. It does, as demonstrated Sunday afternoon at WaterTower Theatre as part of the annual Out of the Loop Fringe Festival.

At its worst, video can be distracting, even overwhelming. Sometimes, too, the video turns out to be more imaginative than the dance. At its best, it adds a fascinating new dimension, creating in effect a whole new art form. Going even further with video and to brilliant effect was Hans van Manen’s Live for Houston’s “Dance Salad” in 2003, where a camera followed every movement of two dancers and threw the images onscreen.

Most of the time, however, the effect of video falls in between those two camps.

In presenting “Pixel Dances,” dancer and choreographer Ellie Leonhardt skirted close to letting video overpower her two solos,Caught. Catching and Encapsulating. In the first, sound and video artist David Bithell provided low-grade noise comprised of whooshes and bell rings and a very grainy, black and white video. Wearing a chartreuse dress and maintaining an air of somber reflection, Leonhardt kept her eyes to the ground as she danced in a stolid, somewhat clunky manner. The clunky was no doubt deliberate, since it also included a striking image of her lying flat on her back, legs lifted and bent, and her head up. She stayed that way for a long time, like a helpless insect.

The video captured bits and pieces of her movement in a teasing manner, like whiffs of smoke trailing off. Leonhardt held her own, however, if only barely.

In Encapsulating, the tide turned to Bithell’s advantage. This time wearing a blue dress and curled up on the floor, Leonhardt gradually rose to change directions constantly, sometimes spinning with her head tilted back and arms stretched out.

She even repeated the helpless insect pose, and then grew wild and frenetic. And like Caught. Catching, the video danced too, but in very short spurts of even more filmy images. At times, it enclosed Leonhardt’s image in sliding panels, at other times cast out multiple images that faded away in a fog. Sometimes only her torso was visible, and at other times only her feet. The sounds were that of muted gongs, played byBithell on a xylophone.

While video and dance fit very well together in Encapsulating, you couldn’t help but feel that the most imaginative element was the video.

The program also included Leonhardt’s ensemble piece for eight dancers, The Well Interruption, that I reviewed last week when it was performed on the Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth program.

♦ Margaret Putnam has been writing about dance since 1980, with works published by D Magazine, The Dallas Observer, The Dallas Times Herald, The Dallas Morning News, The New York Times, Playbill, Stagebill, Pointe Magazine and Dance Magazine.

◊ These dance performances were only presented once. View a full Out of the Loop Fringe Festival schedule here.

http://www.theaterjones.com/outoftheloopfringefestival2011/20110302004250/2011-03-07//Loop-Review-Pixel-Dances

2011 - Out of the Loop Playbill

2011-03-07T06:15:00.000-08:00

Beautiful photos by Milton Adams of The Well Interruption

2011-03-03T12:04:00.001-08:00

Review by Margaret Putnam

2011-02-26T16:46:00.000-08:00

No End in Sight
As in the collaborative premiere from Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth. The rest of the program made up for that, though.
by Margaret Putnam
published Saturday, February 26, 2011

Close Up and Personal
presented by Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth

Hardy and Betty Sanders Theatre
Fort Worth Community Arts Center
1300 Gendy Street
Fort Worth, TX 76107
click here for a location map

Even the silly title was off-putting: iAm uAre. And that was just the beginning. Everything about this ridiculous piece—performed Friday night at Hardy & Betty Sanders Theatre as part of Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth’s "Close Up and Personal"—raised my hackles.

Quasi-theater-art that included the obligatory video projections, text (spoken in sophomoric intonations) and pedestrian dancing—called for "Edit! Edit!" No chance of that since it was a “collaborative” effort by choreographer (and company director) Kerry Kreiman and the dancers.

Even worse, it seemed to have no end.

As best as I can remember, here’s the gist of it: with a cello at her feet, Sara Donaldson explains how new technology allows her to hear her own music, and how it could also play with reality. As she sits at stage left, characters of her imagination appear, or rather, many alter egos. There is Jessica Thomas, in 17th century regal dress and a preposterous, towering headpiece of buttons, tinsel, star, do-dads and Velcro-taped cell phone who says sweetly, “I eat. I sleep. I breathe. I love my amazing, beautiful dress.” It’s just zany enough and expressed in the right, lilting tone, that she almost draws you in. Her other asset is that she dances with a languorous grace.

The rest of Ms. Donaldson’s alter egos include a warrior woman from Zeno, a belly dancer, a CIA agent and a Miss Manners offshoot in purple wig and flounced dress made of newspaper. They all have their silly things to impart, and do it in endless repetitions, both in movement and text (“I think, therefore I am”; “I Google, therefore I am”; “I eat, therefore I am.”)

Fortunately, iAm uAre was not the whole show. The best included four solos, a duet and an ensemble piece. In seenunseen, the barely visible figure of Thomas appears wearing a billowy red slip over flesh-colored shorts. Facing the side, she bends and sways, moving faster and faster. As she does, her strawberry blonde hair falls loose past her waist, giving her even more the suggestion of a mysterious creature tossed by the sea.

In Two, a dim light captures Courtney Mulcahy hunched over a bench. The light disappears, and next Ms. Mulcahy is stretched out prone. The dance continues in that way, with little glimpses of her body in changing positions. Eventually, the light stays steady, and Ms. Mulcahy leaves the bench to take on some of the same angled poses. At the end, the stage turns dark, and when the light comes on, the bench is bare. Simple, but effective, it works like a shadow-box of movement.

In Claroscuro, Claudia Orcasitas gets dressed in front of us, putting on a white blouse, taupe-colored skirt and apron, and then takes on the appearance of a field maiden in a painting. The rock she lifts is almost too heavy for her, but the water bucket that she dips her face into gives her fresh hope, and she leaves carrying it on her shoulders.

Blind Faith is just a snip of a dance, where choreographer and dancer Tina Mullone makes her way from the far edge of the stage in a diagonal path to the other side, using arms to initiate spiraling loops and plunging arabesques.

Against a video background of bare trees, guest artist Ellie Leonhardt’s The Well Interruption brings dancers together in a calm, almost Zen-like forest setting. A dancer rolls on the ground, flanked by a cluster of three and of four. Eventually, all fan out, and as the images on the screen flicker like leaves, the dancers curve their arms and sway. At one point, they group together to shoot out limbs at all angles, a striking tableau. At the end, one rolls on the floor, and comes to a halt at the feet of waiting friends.

What all these dances have in common is a hint of mystery and atmosphere and a clear sense of purpose. That atmosphere comes to the most beguiling fruition in Ms. Orcasitas’ Madre Luna where Jacqueline DePetris and Ms. Thomas—one dressed in a white top, the other in black—suggested lunar opposites that separate and reconnect without ever losing curiosity for the other.

◊ Margaret Putnam has been writing about dance since 1980, with works published by D Magazine, The Dallas Observer, The Dallas Times Herald, The Dallas Morning News, The New York Times, Playbill, Stagebill, Pointe Magazine and Dance Magazine.

http://www.theaterjones.com/reviews/20110225235939/2011-02-26/Contemporary-DanceFort-Worth/Close-Up-and-Personal

Review in the Fort Worth Star Telegram

2011-02-26T11:46:00.000-08:00

BY MARK LOWRY
Special to the Star-Telegram
FORT WORTH -- If you've been hankering to sample what North Texas has to offer in the way of modern dance, Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth's spring concert, "Close Up and Personal," is a great starting place.

It's a box of assorted choreographic chocolates, if you will. And if it doesn't always feel cohesive, that's not necessarily the point. The spotlight is on the variety of styles, ideas and forms of area choreographers.

Solo work is represented in Jessica Thomas ( seenunseen from 2010), Courtney Mulcahy ( Two, a premiere) and Tina Mullone ( Blind Faith, premiere). Whereas Thomas uses her long red hair as an expression of emotion and movement (reminiscent of Margie Gillis) and Mulcahy gives a dramatic look into the cyclical life of a woman suffering from a mental disorder, Mullone goes for something less introspective with a more traditional and athletic dance that is no less profound.

Comedy comes with Sarah Newton's delightful postmodern jig, (premiere), using kicks and head bobs with modern choreography in a fun duet with Mulcahy. On the sillier side is Lori Sundeen Soderbergh's Safe (premiere), with scenes that capture the absurdities and frustrations of the airport and airplane experience.

Denton choreographer Ellie Leonhardt's premiere of The Well Interruption is an exciting ensemble piece, using asymmetric groupings of eight dancers, sometimes working in unison, other times separately, with strong use of extended limbs to create angular geometric shapes. Perhaps the idea is for the dancers to reflect the swaying bare tree branches in the backing video (by Dave Bithell).

The evening's standout was Claudia Orcasitas, dancing the story solo Claroscuro, originally created for San Marcos Ballet. She enters the stage, puts on her peasant clothes and finds a love-hate relationship with a wooden pail.
Then, in the premiere of Orcasitas' Madre Luna, Jacqueline DePetris and Thomas give us an expressive, beautifully danced duet.

The program's final work, the company's premiere of iAm uAre, came too late in the program to be reviewed.

http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/02/25/2878508/contemporary-dancefort-worths.html#tvg

The Well/Interruption to be premiered at CD/FW show

2011-01-09T17:45:00.000-08:00

Friday February 25, 2011 at 8pm, Saturday February 26 at 2pm and 8pm
at the Sanders Theatre at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center, 1300 Gendy St., Fort Worth, 76107 (corner of Lancaster and Montgomery across the street from the Amon G. Carter Museum of Western Art)
TICKETS: $15 General/$8 Students & Seniors. Cash at the door or advance payment using PayPal here.

CD/FW company member Jessica Thomas will perform her solo "seenunseen"
photo by Milton Adams

The intimacy of the black box theatre at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center illuminates the motion, emotion, and energy of dance in a tangible way. This diverse repertory program reveals the dancers' characters in a variety of circumstances from the humorous to the deeply personal. Special guest Ellie Leonhardt (Denton) will premiere a new group work featuring projections. CD/FW company members Jessica Thomas (The Colony), Claudia Orcasitas (Fort Worth/Peru), Courtney Mulcahy (Euless), and Sarah Newton (Dallas) will present a mix of solos, duets, and group works. In addition, CD/FW artistic director will work in collaboration with the CD/FW company members along with photographer Milton Adams, costume designer Crickett Pettigrew, lighting designer Nikki DeShea Smith, and composer Sara Donaldson to create a new group work inspired by the increasingly fluid boundaries between fantasy and reality in our electronically-driven lives.

2010-12-13T10:29:00.001-08:00

Taboo You
It's too bad the National Performance Network's amazing Dallas showcase was one-time only.
by Ellie Leonhardt
published Sunday, December 12, 2010

photo: National Performance Network

Jane Comfort's "Faith Healing"

The National Performance Network held its 25th anniversary annual meeting in Dallas this weekend. As part of the conference, two performance showcases, called "Taboos in the Night," were given at the beautiful but in-need-of-renovation Majestic Theatre in downtown Dallas.

All of the pieces presented on Friday and Saturday night were recreations of projects/performances of dance and theater that will be remounted at theaters in 15 cities across the country. This showcase gives the presenters a chance to relive memories of these pieces as well as educate new presenters to the quality and style of work that NPN likes to support.

Pomo Afro Homos kicked it off Friday with a “remix” of Fierce Love: Stories from Black Gay Life. The lively, moving and entertaining stories of identity told by the black queer performance ensemble uses humor and dramatic pauses to help the audience ask deep questions about stereotypes, one’s first sexual experience as a definition of the self, relationships struggles, and death of a loved one. Many of the scenes are short vignettes of duets, solos and trios that use movement, sound effects, imagination and song to help support the script’s message. The piece closes by asking the audience to ponder why “people bundle up their pain and go silently into the night.”

The message is centered on the healing of one’s community and one’s acceptance and the embrace of one’s identity. The language and cultural references offer a poetic and often abstract window into the characters’ innocent struggle to find, accept and celebrate being a black gay man in San Francisco.

The second piece on the show was Elia Arce’s First Woman on the Moon. This piece was promising, but needs more editing and rehearsal as the transition between ideas took up as much time as the ideas themselves.

The last piece on the Friday was Pat Graney’s Faith (premiered in 1991). Graney is a choreographer based in Seattle who, for the past 15 years, has created an innovative program called Keeping the Faith (which brings Graney’s work to women and girls in prisons). It is clear that Graney is an artist who thinks deeply about life and art.

Faith is a dance split into four sections, inspired by Caravaggio and Michelangelo’s paintings, the writing of Roshi Juiyu Kennett, Francesco Clemente and the animation work of Rybczynski. All of the influences are evident in the work, but the most obvious reference is how the images of the paintings are transferred to the stage: The first of the four sections shows the cast of seven women frequently moving slowly to a new position on stage to stop and pause in the familiar Renaissance shapes.

Occasionally, women in dark velvet dresses would diverge into a solo against the group and then be lifted or carried across the stage to then softly, with a few subtle pauses, lie back down onto the ground. The phrase of the pausing coordinates with the breath of the singers in the choral style mass composed by Arvo Part. The use of levels, diagonals, and shapes with soft lines is repeatedly lush and soothing to the eye. The first section of the dance, choreographically, is by far the most successful and could stand on its own.

The second section of Faith involves the manipulation of small red physioballs. The dancers playfully manipulate the shapes and relationships made in the first section by using the red balls to add new elements such as sliding, rolling and running to the movement vocabulary. In the third section, the velvet dresses reappear with no sleeves as a soloist, downstage left, caresses and puts on a pair of red high-heeled shoes.

The dance continues to evolve the movement shapes from the first section, and the playful speed and momentum of the second. As the harshness of this section evolves, it is clear that the shoes manipulate the dancers in a uniform manner. The symbolism of the shoes suggests that the women feel a special power and sexiness by wearing these shoes (designed by men), yet as this section progresses it is also these shoes that cause the women’s neurosis. As the dancers break off from the unison striding, the women take turns lying on their backs shaking and writhing as if to try to get the shoes off or as if the shoes have an electric power over her body. At the end of this section the same soloist mentioned above presents a gesture of her right hand erratically touching the side of her face. The expression on her face is a cross between confusion, pain and delirium.

As the lights go out on the soloist, the music begins to fade into a whispering man saying the Lord’s Prayer. Graney uses the prayer to segue to the last section of the dance in which the bodies of the women lay in a clump upstage left. The bodies are lit by a warm sidelight that slowly reveals naked curvy bodies moving in a meditative slowness. The movement vocabulary and pacing quickly reverts back to that seen in the first section. As the dancers face upstage the line made by the symmetrical shape of the torso is striking. The unique shape of the women’s hips shows how under the velvet dress and behind the sexy walk we are all unique, and it is in this beauty of the body that we are most connected to our spirit and faith.

With lack of traditional modern dance movement phrases, Graney presents several false endings and finally settles on bring the women in red high heels back onstage while one woman is left nude on the floor appearing to repent her sins by kneeling and gently touching her face. Graney pulls her audience through a narrative of subtle mazes, processes, and evolutions of women’s rolls and collective experience. Though this piece does not present a direct narrative, as do the other pieces on the showcase, I imagine that the women in the prison system are able to see Graney’s work and can relate deeply to the self-expression and thoughtful dance/art creation.

The Saturday night performance showcased two hybrid dance/theater works. Both of these pieces had an American theme. The first was Jane Comfort’s take and deconstruction of the Tennessee Williams’ play The Glass Menagerie. As the program note states: “it utilizes fantasies and movie scenes to underline the play’s subtext of desire and memory.” This quote, in a nutshell, sums up what was presented on stage.

The highlight of Comfort’s work, excerpts from Faith Healing created in 1993, is a movement scene between the characters of Laura and O’Connor in which the actors begin mouthing the lines of Lois Lane and Superman, as sound from the Superman movie plays over the speakers. The actors begin to reenact the part of the movie in which Superman takes Lois Lane flying.

The characters run around the stage in a large circular pattern, as if they were little kids trying to get up the momentum to take off. Eventually the pair lands center stage on their bellies over two stools. They have their arms and legs outstretched and because they have become static it appears for a brief moment like they are flying. The use of Comfort’s humor is evident with the next crescendo of the music―the characters lift the left sides of their bodies as if turning like an airplane would.

The audience can’t help but laugh in the delight and freedom the image provides. Even though Comfort’s deconstructions are often intelligent, the energy of any Williams’ text or concept could not stand up to the next piece on the program.

Word Becomes Flesh is a powerful performance written and directed by Marc Bamuthi Joseph. The recreation of this work from 2003 is defined as a “choreopoem.” It fuses text, hip-hop, music, gesture, dance, monologue, spoken word and autobiography. The version seen on Saturday is a one-man play transposed to a group of five young African-American male performers. The text, rich with poetry and breath, delivers Joseph’s diary told to his unborn son. The actors convey the transformative process with clarity and expansive emotion. Frequently, the unborn son’s heartbeat is heard as the actors speak over, around and through the sound.

The piece ends in a climactic moment when Joseph himself enters upstage and begins to move in the most magnificent way―slapping the floor, limbs flying, center strong and stable. (The other performers unfortunately do not match Joseph’s explosive movement quality). As Joseph dances, he tells the audience that his son is now 9 and reveals that his grandfather’s death is connected to his son’s birth. Joseph pointedly asks the question directly to his son: “Do you know who you are?” Joseph wants his son “to grow up like good music, I want you to last,” as one of the performers spoke earlier in the piece.

Muscle memory, myth, pain, change, transformation, what it means to be black in America, paradox, ignorance, hate, racism, cultural references are just some of the themes used to hit the audience with truth and identity of this honest and captivating story.

◊ Ellie Leonhardt is a Lecturer of Dance in the Dance and Theater Department at the University of North Texas.

http://www.theaterjones.com/reviews/20101212091733/2010-12-12/National-Performance-Network/Taboos-in-the-Night

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

2010-11-29T11:40:00.000-08:00

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

Aikido...

2010-11-13T13:10:00.000-08:00

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

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

caught.catching @ TDIF

2010-11-08T12:23:00.001-08:00

Dance for Life—and Death

2010-11-06T16:31:00.000-07:00

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

2010-11-06T16:27:00.001-07:00

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

caught.catching @ TDIF

2010-10-13T18:28:00.001-07:00

Heart Fire

2010-10-13T18:23:00.001-07:00

photos of me performing Encapsulating at the Dumbo Dance Festival

2010-10-06T18:39:00.000-07:00

This is a new poem that I wrote for Satellite-Dance Theater's new choreography, Vessel

2010-10-06T18:31:00.000-07:00

“The world is hungry, even the wind is biting” –Josh Ritter

Vessel

Scraping at the bottom
Feet crossed and legs lengthened
Under my weight is the curve
The curving steel and brass and bones

I am carving for a way out
Held down under the ship
under the ocean
Hovering right above where the earth begins

____________________

Oscillating and tripling out underneath
The way of the waves
I can follow through
I can’t find where to meet you
or where to turn to
One on top of the other – it keeps
happening, one on top of the other
one on top of the other

____________________

Where is this place?
(I think it is home)
crossing through
one against two
again and again
one against two
the next/ the next/ the next

____________________
Changing places
around me

everything falls to the right
everything falls to the left

The LAND is 3,999 feet high
(How will I get there?)
I am down below on this ship my grandfather built

The beginning is the ending to what you are giving me
(What are you giving me?)
____________________

In togetherness there is nothingness
____________________

Lines and space and curves and eights and nines and tens

Where one wave doesn’t line up with the next
Where the rhythms are off and struggle to circle back round

The rhythm pulls back and finishes the tarnish on the steel
rimmed
trim
of the boat

We are ALL on this boat
NOT just you, NOT just me
ALL of us
WHOLE body

Our feel tied to its mass as it sinks:
Get out of my hands
Get out of my hair
Get our of my back

I keep going/ keep going/ keep going
____________________

Not all at the same time

Circling for air…

Slowly moving down and looking up
to the edge of the cliff
where I sink, where I try to climb
from the water to the land
asking myself to be

crossed over or crossed under

or crossed off

gone forever…

Personal Reflection from CITE

2010-09-29T06:47:00.000-07:00

July 17, 2010

Reflections on Contact Improvisation in the Academy: An essay review of CITE

From June 17-20, 2010 I attended the Contact Improvisation Teachers’ Exchange (CITE): Contact in the Academy at Connecticut College with about 25 other teachers from around the US (most of whom were teaching in the academy). The following are some of the thoughts and questions that have stayed with me since that conference. I am eager to share them because I have found that, in teaching in academia, it is easy to be isolated and that CQ and CITE events are fantastic ways to reconnect to the truth of the form we love. What I explore in this essay is how the academy is changing my views of dance and teaching. Specifically, post-conference, I am left with these questions:

1. What is important about CI? What is the essential nature of CI that I am trying to teach?

2. How are the values of CI and the academy different yet, on the surface, similar?

3. How does this conflict in values affect me as a teacher? What is the most efficient way to navigate this conflict?

4. How does the form of CI change because the human experience of the teacher has changed?

5. How can the academy better support subjective subjects (such as dance and somatics)?

One of the most important reminders that came out of the CITE discussions was how contact improvisation prioritizes teaching people to be themselves. As those who are familiar with CI know, this idea of self is expressed through community, physical expression, and verbal/artistic sharing. As I travel away from the conference I wonder (perhaps idealistically): Why can’t these important aspects of contact improvisation be an integral part of how the academy functions?

On the surface the academy and CI have very similar goals. Both want to improve the lives of others through information, understanding, fairness/justice, and connection. But, the values and goals of how dance functions within the academy are often not as concurrent as they might seem from the outside.

One of the themes of the conference was framed by the organizers in the form of a question: Will CI be kept alive by the academy? In my opinion, the short answer is, yes, CI in the academy will survive so long as teachers are willing to fight for it. Because of budget concerns, dance is often encouraged to be a part of a larger department so as to not be cut. Thus, dance within the structure of the academy is often set up as a second class citizen to theater, physical education or, in some cases, kinesiology. With the right leadership these subjects can really work well together but the reality is that dance is a deep and intricate subject with several sub-subjects within itself. Therefore mergers and reorganizations (that often seem to benefit the “corporate” interests of the academy more so than the students) frequently can cause dance faculty to veer away from the inherent goals of the subject.

Many of us in the dance world already know that dance (especially dance improvisation) is not a priority to our culture but we keep doing it because it is essential to our way of being. It is easy for a dance teacher within the academy to find herself caught up in the cultural climate such that the ideals of dance and CI are no longer important. “The academy will kill the CI teacher” was how one member of the group from the conference put it. Although teachers are resilient in many ways, the question is clear: Does the form change because the teacher is no longer able to truly model the philosophical cornerstones of CI when forced to meet the corporate regulations of the academy? Again, from my point of view, the answer is still yes. The emotional skills of intimacy that are (hopefully) taught in CI, in the right environment, can transform the identity of the person teaching and learning the form. If these skills change because of the demands of the corporate academy, then the way the teacher teaches changes and thus the form changes.

Although I teach in a small department in a very large public university – where the corporate model is in full effect – I know this model can also have similar influence in a small liberal arts environment. Although on some level this challenge could be for the better (e.g. provoking creativity in the face of competition), it seems to me that it is frequently for the worse because of the human toll - often translating into oppression in the work place. This oppression, in turn, often creates a contradiction of values. It is important for the teacher to interact with the students in the same way in which she interacts with co-faculty and administrators. All to often, however, the teacher is not able to practice what she preaches in the classroom or in the conference room. To model the CI form, one must model community on all levels in order to make the work the in the classroom and the academy effective. Because the CI philosophy of being one’s self and investigating the unknown is the way I want to be and the way I want the world to be, I find the oppressive nature of teaching in an environment that does not prioritize the human effect of the operation very difficult to traverse and transcend.

I frequently ask myself these questions about the academy: How can we as teachers in the academy stay true to the form and survive such tense relations either with other faculty or administrators who have different values? As it was suggested at the conference, we can invite administrators to our concerts and to our classes but when they don’t show up (and often don’t even know where to begin to engage with dance as art) the cycle of hopelessness is easy to accept. We can educate the academy as well but do they know or actually really care about the value of the education that comes through a subjective form like CI? How do we as a CI community convince them?

For most contact teachers the form is personal and essential. The academy, including classical modern dance teachers, doesn’t always connect to something so subjective. This is why it is difficult to fight for improvisational dance in the academy and all the reason more one must try. The fight can ruin teachers and it can also save teachers.

The main CI personality trait that I see changing in people that go into academia, and a topic discussed at the conference, is generosity. Academics often do not tend to be generous toward each other. The ubiquitous in-fighting and political posturing creates an oppressive environment that can only be changed through proactive leadership. Even then, if one is lucky enough to have a proactive leader for dance, it is rarely a stable situation as administrators are often cut or resign and are tested unfairly through the bureaucratic system that leads most to a depleted spirit. How can a system of depleted spirits teach the true meaning and essence of CI?

The real question for me is how can I remain true to myself in this type of environment that does not prioritize the values that I see so vibrantly in most contact communities? How can I help change this type of environment in academia? Can I be one of the surviving contactors that still models the spirit of CI even if I am surrounded by situations that will take advantage of my generosity, courage, listening, vulnerability, and openness? Or, will these traits slowly change under this pressure forcing me to no longer be able to be the person I want to be?

The reality that a dance teacher (especially a female dance teacher) is replaceable and that arts are often a lower priority is a fact that makes one have to work extra hard to fight for his or her job, and/or live in fear that one’s department will be cut. Since higher education institutions are the leaders of the humanities and are the main cultural support and frequent promoters of subjective inquiry, it is surprising to me that the human (emotional/moral) impact of the academy on the faculty is not a top priority of operation. I have noticed in working at different schools that if teachers feel secure and supported in their roll by the institution then they often pass this way of being to the students. Since CI is about support and connection, CI can model an ideal way of operation for the academy, if they are open and willing to listen.

CITE gave me an opportunity to see that there is some hope that the academy is able to listen. The challenges will be ongoing as CI finds its place in the academy.

Audience feedback from my new dance presented at DNA

2010-09-28T13:40:00.001-07:00

These are comments from the audience at the premier of my new solo "Caught. Catching" at Dance New Amsterdam in NYC on 9/18.

"In the first section you looked like someone caught in a rainstorm, unsure of where to find shelter. The "ding" element to the music was synced well to your movements. When I saw your face on the screen, it was jarring an broke an illusion, or mirrored your physical presence, in a way, but I interpreted it as you thinking about your self."

"Precision is awesome = sound and movement, the little "tings" that match your action. More of this! Screen images are interesting but too much white space. I really like the moments when you face the audience. Great use of space and floor."

"Human movements to non-human sounds. Snooze button: in and out, off and on. White noise."

"Reminded me of sad/painful memories one would try to leave behind, but maybe that is just me. I liked the rain sound/image... it had some comfort in it..."

"The precise starts and stops of motion with the light/sound of light and the chime stood out and was so impressive. I could see more of those in the piece."

"Very intriguing- Was curious to see more on the screen so it kept my attention. The soft rain sound with the bell sound was unique."

"What's the connection between the screen and the dress? Really like the light and music noise."

"Alone in personal storm. Moments of stillness/reflection. Rich/vibrant. Made me want to breathe deeply to feel the moisture in air."

"I enjoyed when the images on the screen were more faint, ghostly. The beginning of the piece reminded me of a storm at sea, someone trying to gain control. The dress for me was reminiscent of the Wizard of Oz. I don't know why you left the stage at the end. I liked the interaction of the dancer and the sound/images person."

2010-09-22T12:05:00.000-07:00

2010-09-22T12:04:00.001-07:00

Texas Dance Improvisation Festival

by Nichelle Strzepek

September 20, 2010

Don't call it improv. Not only does it look like a typo in print but, as Leslie Scates, one of Houston's leading improvisational dance artists will tell you, “using "improv" continues to connote the work as casual.” In fact, it takes a particular kind of dexterity, vital to today's dancer, to go beyond auto-pilot in improvisation and the preparation that goes into pulling off a spontaneous masterpiece is anything but casual. It's no surprise then that The Second Annual Texas Dance Improvisation Festival (TDIF), to be hosted by Rice University October 7-9, is filling up with registrants from the widespread cities of Texas.

“Improvisational dance is a form that demands as much practice, intention and craft as any other dance technique,” says Rosie Trump, co-facilitator of this year’s event and Assistant Director of Rice University Dance Department. Addressing the need for a Texas-based event, she adds, “This is a legitimate form with a recognized lineage and secure future. Although TDIF is a relatively young festival, there are dance improvisation festivals that happen all over the country and internationally.”

The event, conceived by Jordan Fuchs, was facilitated in its inaugural year by he and Sarah Gamble at Texas Women’s University Department of Dance. As an attendant of that event, it was Scates who advocated for bringing the traveling festival to Houston for its sophomore assembly.

Funded in part by grants from the City of Houston Mayor's Special Initiatives Grant program of the Houston Arts Alliance, TDIF will kick off with an improvisation jam at 6pm on Thursday, October 7.

Two full days of improvisation classes will follow. Movers of all types and improvisational novices are welcome to register for the festival classes. “Because you define the physicality in your dancing while improvising, it can be very appealing to all levels,” says Trump. "We have a variety of sessions to suit registrants at different stages of experience."

Describing what even veteran performers and students have to gain from studying the craft of improvisation, Scates says, “Improvising teaches them to pay attention to choice-making in their dancing brain. It turns their bodies into 3D dancing instruments rather than instruments that constantly get and require feedback from a mirror or a particular ‘front.' It teaches them to craft movement for repeatable choreography, improvise with other bodies and vocabularies, and to see other people as source material providers and not competition." She points out that the related practice of contact improvisation "provides ample technique for creating partnering and becoming a versatile post modern dance machine.”

This year, TDIF will welcome Los Angles based dancer, improviser and arts activist, Meg Wolfe as its featured guest. “She is this visionary force in the LA dance scene,” explains Trump. Adding that “Southern California is a difficult place to navigate as a dance artist," Trump explains that Wolfe curates Anatomy Riot, a regular choreography showcase; organizes a master class series called DanceBANK; co-edits the L.A. dance journal, and is the coordinator for a new grant program in Southern California. "I am very excited about what she will be able to share with the Texas dance community, because so much of what she has initiated has been done without institutional or traditional support systems,” remarks Trump.

In addition to classes, two evening jams and a panel discussion will all take place at Rice University’s Barbara and David Gibbs Recreation Center, 6100 Main St, Rice University.

A performance and closing jam will be presented Saturday, October 9 at Barnevelder Movement Arts Complex, 2201 Preston, in downtown Houston.

Though the movement will be unplanned, Scates insists that there is no “phoning it in” during true performance, improvisational or otherwise. “Improvisers rehearse. Improvisers create scores so that the craft of improvising choreography has a setting, limits, definition and intent. Improvisers learn to capitalize on a brilliant moment and develop it.” The public is welcome on a first-come, first-served basis (with priority given to registrants) to attend the performance and jam at Barnevelder for an unrepeatable, "improv"-free evening.

Participants must register though the Texas Dance Improvisation Festival is completely free of cost.

Find more information or sign up for the full or partial event at tdif.rice.edu.

TDIF at Rice Univeristy

2010-09-09T15:18:00.000-07:00

daci day of dance at UNT

2010-09-09T13:09:00.000-07:00

Caught Catching at WIP at DNA in NYC

2010-09-08T12:12:00.000-07:00

I am performing a new solo called "Caught Catching" at DNA on Sept 18th at 4:30pm!

Works In Progress

Works In Progress provides choreographers the opportunity to expose new pieces to an audience for the first time and to receive written and oral feedback from the audience to take with them as they continue on in their creative process.
——————————————————————————————————-

September 18th and October 23rd

Works in progress is at 4:30pm in the Theatre

http://www.dnadance.org/site/

2010 Dumbo Dance Festival Schedule Announced!

2010-09-02T13:11:00.000-07:00

Alenka Cizmesija
Anabella Lenzu
Catch Me Bird
Cecilia Marta Dance Company
DemaDanceCompany
Enzo Celli
Jennifer Muller
Jeremy McQueen
JuMo Dance
Michael-Mao-Dance

WHITE WAVE presents the 10th Anniversary of the DUMBO DANCE FESTIVAL from September 23rd -26th at the WHITE WAVE John Ryan Theater 25 Jay Street, Brooklyn. WHITE WAVE’s Artistic Director Young Soon Kim founded the Festival in 2001, and presented the first event a scant month after 9/11. Now a decade on, the DUMBO DANCE FESTIVAL is a vital component of New York’s contemporary dance scene, featuring the work of young dance artists who have gone on to become important figures in emerging dance. WHITE WAVE has presented over 1200 companies and 5000 performers from over a dozen countries to an audience of more than 52,000 people... so far. Presented in conjunction with the 2010 DUMBO ARTS FESTIVAL, a multi-disciplinary celebration of the neighborhood’s diverse artistic community, the DUMBO DANCE FESTIVAL features exciting work from dance artists in Brooklyn’s vibrant contemporary dance scene, on a bill with rising choreographers from throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. There are no reservations or advance ticket sales, all seats are first come, first served and all Festival performances are presented FREE/pay-what-you-will.

Thursday, September 23rd at 7:00pm

GALA Performance

Artists / Company Name	Title of Work
Cecilia Marta Dance Group	Kush
Loni Landon	On The Fence
Michael Mao Dance	Weaving
Catch Me Bird (CA)	Anvil
Jennifer Muller/The Works	Aria (excerpt)
ENZO CELLI (ITALY)	IRRITANTE (VEXATIONS)
Christie Zimmerman/z3movement project (IN)	Untitled
WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company	Shanghai Dream

Friday, September 24th at 7:00pm - 10:00pm

John Ryan Theater at WHITE WAVE, 25 Jay Street

Festival Performances – Friday, September 24, 7:00pm - 8:00pm
Artists/Company Name	Title of Work
Jennifer Phillips	The Invasion
Inclined Dance Project	Train of Thought
Kristin A. Kapustik	On the Porch
Amos Pinhasi	Sans Saens
Sin Ae Park Project (KOREA)	The Story of Relationship
ELEA GORANA DANCE COLLECTIVE	Pas De EVE (solo)
BARKIN/SELISSEN PROJECT	Once
Summation Dance Company	Heat

Festival Performances – Friday, September 24th, 8:00pm - 9:00pm
Artists/Company Name	Title of Work
Loni Landon	On the Fence
Pascal Rekoert/ Flexicurve	Wash
Se-Yong Kim	Conflict
Natalia Mesa	MITOSIS
Christie Zimmerman/z3movement project (IN)	The Keyhole
ENZO CELLI (ITALY)	PARACASOSCIA
WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company	Shanghai Dream

Festival Performances – Friday, September 24th, 9:00pm - 10:00pm
Artists/Company Name	Title of Work
Tomomi Imai	Abyss
Spark Movement Collective	Timing
Thomas/Ortiz Dance	Frayed Ends
Allison Jones	I would Sing
Ilana Webber Dance	Go Zeo!
JuMo Dance (UTAH)	Prison of Form
Mise en Place Dance (MI)	Primary Conduit
Jackie O'Toole and Dancers (PA)	Second Star to the Right

Saturday, September 25th, 2:00pm - 4:00pm, 5:00pm - 7:00pm, 8:00pm - 10:00pm

John Ryan Theater at WHITE WAVE, 25 Jay Street

Festival Performances – Saturday, September 25th, 2:00-3:00 pm
Artists/Company Name	Title of Work
Hyung Ji Yu	Attonement
Christie Zimmerman/z3movement project (IN)	Untitled
JIL GUYON	Widow's Veil
Palindrome Performance Group (CA)	Reflect, Defect, Transfer
Noemi Di Gregorio	For Rosa
Blue Muse Dance	Maze of the Mind
Anne Burnidge Dance	Ascent
xodus dance collective	25th Hour

Festival Performances – Saturday, September 25th, 3:00-4:00 pm
Artists/Company Name	Title of Work
Anne-Marie Mulgrew and Dance Co.	The Big Dance
ANAHATA Dance	Pigeon City (excerpt)AprŽs Moi
Brittany Antle	Asslema/Beslema
York Dance Works	Scale in Grey
Elinor Harrison	Frank and Mamah
DeMa Dance Company	POEMA 15 (I Like For You To Be Still)
Rastro	Cancionero
Dawn L. Bohn	Exposed
Meredith Haines	Inc.

Festival Performances – Saturday, September 25th, 5:00-6:00 pm
Artists/Company Name	Title of Work
Anabella Lenzu/DanceDrama	Ilusions de Percantas
Flamenco: Inside Out	In the Key of Rhythm
Nicole von Arx	Impact
Dawn Robinson	Phoenix The Rising
Yuka Kameda	Passion ( Tap X Japanese Instrumental)
Eunhey Jang	The Circle
Tzu-Ying Lee	The Land Between Us
Artis Smith	Chickadees Titmice & Nuthatches

Festival Performances – Saturday, September 25th, 6:00-7:00 pm
Artists/Company Name	Title of Work
MegLouise Dance (OH)	To Live is so Startling
Rainy Demerson	Ugly
Becca Alaly + Dancers in collaboration with Mike Donahue	THE PERFECT Little BOULDER
Ellie Leonhardt (TX)	Encapsulating
Barbara Mahler Makes Dances	Displaced Damsel
Yoo & Dancers	Catwalk
Lauren Elizabeth Panzica	Not What It Seems
Angelo Dance Project	Venia
Alenka Cizmesija	In Between Beneath and Above

Festival Performances – Saturday, September 25th, 8:00-9:00 pm
Artists/Company Name	Title of Work
Catch Me Bird (CA)	Anvil
Brittany Antle	...do us part
Otis Donovan Herring	Attempting to Reconcile
Mare Hieronimus	Spun
Mise en Place Dance	Primary Conduit
Mari Meade Dance Collective	Indirectly In, Directly
ENZO CELLI (ITALY)	IRRITANTE
Lyndsey Vader	A Shell of Herself
WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company	Shanghai Dream

Festival Performances – Saturday, September 25th, 9:00-10:00 pm
Artists/Company Name	Title of Work
Sasha Soreff Dance Theater	Shoelaces
Michael Mao Dance	Weaving
Nu Dance Theater	Elle d' Elles ( her from Hers)
Tap into the Soul (CT)	Man In the Mirror
Palindrome Performance Group (CA)	Dancing Larry
Jeremy McQueen	Lamentation
Kathleen Dyer/ KDNY	Evergreen (excerpt)
Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre	Passage

Saturday, September 25th, 11:00am - 7:00pm

Site Specific Performances – (Along the Pier 1 Waterfront)

Click for Site-Specific Performance Schedule PDF

Sunday, September 26th, 1:00pm - 2:00pm *

* Outdoor performances will take place in the Brooklyn Bridge Park (on the waterfront under the Manhattan Bridge)

Outdoor Festival Performances – Sunday, September 26th, 1:00-2:00pm
Artists/ Company Name	Title of Work
Meredith Haines	Inc.
xodus dance collective	25th Hour
Loni Landon	On the Fence
Sasha Soreff Dance Theater	Shoelaces
Ilana Webber Dance	Go Zeo!
Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre	Passage

Outdoor Festival Performances – Sunday, September 26th, 2:00pm - 3:00pm
Artists/ Company Name	Title of Work
Theodora Boguszewski	Communion
Simone Sobers	All She Can Carry (excerpt)
Mari Meade Dance Collective	The Dirt Belies Us
Dawn L. Bohn	Exposed
Blue Muse Dance	the maze of the mind
Angelo Dance Project	Venia
Cecilia Marta Dance Company	Kush

Sunday, September 26th, 4:00pm - 7:00pm

John Ryan Theater at WHITE WAVE, 25 Jay Street

Sunday, September 26th, 4:00pm - 6:00pm
Artists/ Company Name	Title of Work
Sue Bernhard Danceworks	Territory
Theodora Boguszewski	Corridor
Catey Ott Dance Collective	Midnight Potion
Sin Ae Park Project (KOREA)	The Story of Relationship
Ellie Leonhardt (TX)	Encapsulating
Allison Jones	Jaw Grind
DeMa Dance Company	POEMA 15 I like for you to be still
Simone Sobers	All she Can Carry (excerpt)

Sunday, September 26th, 4:00pm - 7:00pm

John Ryan Theater at WHITE WAVE, 25 Jay Street

Sunday, September 26th, 5:00pm - 6:00pm
Artists/ Company Name	Title of Work
Carley Eckert	Circumstance, Chance, Situation
Ebex Dance	I is for...
EDGAR CORTES	Unicornius (solo from full length piece)
Lindy Schmedt	Ambient Forms
Rainwater Dances	This is What I Think of Your Love
Carlos Fittante/BALAM Dance Theatre	The Melon Peel
JuMo Dance (UTAH)	Prison of Form
CPD Plus	Do Lord
Cecilia Marta Dance Company	Kush

Sunday, September 26th, 8:00pm - 10:00pm

Grande Finale Performances – Sunday, September 26th, 8:00pm at Fulton Ferry Landing

Artists/ Company Name	Title of Work
Sobers & Godley	Le Chord-on Bleu
Theodora Boguszewski	Communion
DeMa Dance Company	POEMA 15 (I Like For You To Be Still)
Jennifer Muller/The Works	Island (excerpt)
ENZO CELLI (ITALY)	Paracasoscia
Mana Kawamura/ Kawamura the 3rd	cloudburst
WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company	Shanghai Dream

Special Thanks to our supporters:

whitewavedance: Just added a new event on DNA World Link

The festival includes works by:

Alenka Cizmesija

Allison Jones

Amanda Hinchey & Dancers

Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre

Amos Pinhasi

Anabella Lenzu/DanceDrama

ANAHATA Dance

Angelo Dance Project

Anne Burnidge Dance

Anne-Marie Mulgrew and Dance Co.

Artis Smith

Barbara Mahler Makes Dances

BARKIN/SELISSEN PROJECT

Becca Alaly + Dancers

Blue Muse Dance

Brittany Antle

Carley Eckert

Carlos Fittante/BALAM Dance Theatre

Catch Me Bird

Catey Ott Dance Collective

Cecilia Marta Dance Company

Christie Zimmerman/z3movement project

CPD Plus

Dawn L. Bohn

Dawn Robinson

DeMa Dance Company

Ebex Dance

EDGAR CORTES

ELEA GORANA DANCE COLLECTIVE

Elinor Harrison

Ellie Leonhardt

ENZO CELLI

Eunhey Jang

Flamenco: Inside Out

Hyung Ji Yu

Ilana Webber Dance

Inclined Dance Project

Jackie O'Toole and Dancers

Jennifer Phillips

Jeremy McQueen

JIL GUYON

JuMo Dance

Kathleen Dyer/ KDNY

Kristin A. Kapustik

Lauren Elizabeth Panzica

Lindy Schmedt

Loni Landon/ Nomadic Dance

Lyndsey Vader

Mare Hieronimus

Mari Meade Dance Collective

MegLouise Dance

Meredith Haines

Michael Mao Dance

Mise en Place Dance

Natalia Mesa

Nicole von Arx

Noemi Di Gregorio

Nu Dance Theater

Otis Donovan Herring

Palindrome Performance Group

Pascal Rekoert/ Flexicurve

Rainwater Dances

Rainy Demerson

Rastro

Sasha Soreff Dance Theater

Se-Yong Kim

Simone Sobers

Sin Ae Park Project

Spark Movement Collective

Sue Bernhard Danceworks

Summation Dance Company

Tap into the Soul

Theodora Boguszewski

Thomas/Ortiz Dance

Tomomi Imai

Tzu-Ying Lee

WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company

xodus dance collective

Yoo & Dancers

York Dance Works

Yuka Kameda

Azul Dance Theatre

Front Street Dance Theatre

Jamal Jackson Dance Company

James R Atkinson

KALAMANDIR DANCE COMPANY

Kawamura the 3rd

Kuan-Yu Chen

Liz Piccoli

Movement of the People Dance Company

Neva Cockrell/ Raphael Sacks

Rebecca Patek

Sobers & Godley

Spark Movement Collective

Wan-Jung Wei

Yuki Nishiyama

MAC

2010-09-02T12:48:00.000-07:00

I am looking forward to teaching at the Greenwich Arts Council for the Moving Arts Collaborative (a multi-generational dance group) directed by the amazing Meryl Green.... in September.... Here is a photo from one of their classes.... Beautiful!

On September 21st, I'm excited to have Ellie Leonhardt coming to be a Guest Teacher. Here's some info about her and what she'll be doing with us...

Ellie Leonhardt, MFA, BA, is a Lecturer of Dance at the University of North Texas. Contact Improvisation, the Erick Hawkins Modern Dance Technique, Yoga, and Authentic Movement are some of the movement forms that have influenced Ellie's pedagogy and movement vocabulary. She will be in New York the week she comes to us mainly to perform in the Dumbo Dance Festival on Saturday, September 25th at 6:00 p.m. and Sunday the 26th at 4:00 p.m. http://www.whitewavedance.com/

Authentic Movement is a physical practice, a contemplative form, and a developmental tool for self-transformation whereby we gain access to personal movement material and inner knowing. It is this inner exploration that allows one to express a somatic reality that can inspire creative process and choreography. In this workshop, an overview of AM forms will be explored including moving spontaneously from outer and inner impulse, traditional dyad form and the long circle form. There will be time for writing, drawing, reflection and sharing.

http://www.greenwicharts.org/classes.asp

Citrine

2010-08-14T16:10:00.000-07:00

power animals

2010-08-01T19:04:00.000-07:00

http://www.mexfish.com/fish/schamshark/schamsharkrold.jpg
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1647012_1416760,00.html

moon goddess Diana

2010-07-27T10:20:00.000-07:00

http://www.howarddavidjohnson.com/Moon_goddess_Diana.jpg

2010-07-18T11:35:00.000-07:00

CQ Contact Improvisation Newsletter
vol. 35 no. 2, summer/fall 2010

Guest Editors: Dey Summer & Keren Ganin-Pinto
CQ Newsletter Editor: Nancy Stark Smith

NOTICE: Encounters with Contact
Dancing Contact Improvisation in College
a new publication

Don’t miss Encounters with Contact: Dancing Contact Improvisation in College, a new publication made this year at Oberlin College by Ann Cooper Albright and her students and associates, distributed by Contact Editions. Through a series of student writings and essays by established artists teaching in universities throughout the U.S., Encounters considers the unique experience of teaching and learning Contact within an educational institution. Included are sections on students’ first impressions, thoughts on the often-surprising effects of touch within the form, classroom exercises, the role of Contact in life after school, debates about institutional formats, a comic strip, and more. Limited edition. Order through Contact Editions.

https://community.contactquarterly.com/newsletter/view/notice-two

2010-07-18T11:32:00.000-07:00

CQ Contact Improvisation Newsletter
vol. 35 no. 2, summer/fall 2010

Guest Editors: Dey Summer & Keren Ganin-Pinto
CQ Newsletter Editor: Nancy Stark Smith

Brandon Gonzales in the mix at the Friday night Jam of the Texas Dance Improvisation Festival at Texas Woman’s University, Denton, Texas; October 2009. Photo © Lily Sloan.

The First Annual Texas Dance Improvisation Festival
Denton, Texas
October 9–11, 2009

An idea first mentioned in casual conversation several years ago came to fruition as Sarah Gamblin and I hosted the first Texas Dance Improvisation Festival at Texas Woman’s University in DENTON, TEXAS, this past fall. More than 115 dance improvisers from throughout the state of Texas, some driving more than ten hours each way, came together to share, inspire, and challenge each other in a weekend festival celebrating improvisational dance in Texas.

The festival included classes, jams, and an evening of improvisational dance performance. Classes were taught by our guest artist, the wonderful K.J. Holmes, as well as by Texas-based dance artists Ellie Leonhardt, Emily Morgan, Leslie Scates, Lauren Tietz, Jordan Fuchs, Sarah Gamblin, and the inestimable Nina Martin.

The festival was a great success, with many wonderful memories, images, insights, new friends, and colleagues, as well as an expanded and strengthened community of improvisers. There is good momentum for repeating the festival next year, in the fall of 2010—I think our optimism in calling it the “first annual” dance improvisation festival was warranted!

I also wanted to report on the wonderful improvisational dance community that has been developing here in Denton. Thursday nights, we have weekly jams cohosted by the departments of dance at Texas Woman’s University (TWU) and the University of North Texas (UNT). The jams have been well attended, with frequently more than twenty dancers, and a wonderful live music component provided by TWU and UNT musicians committed to experimental sound explorations.

[Jordan Fuchs; Denton, Texas; jfuchs@twu.edu]

https://community.contactquarterly.com/newsletter/view/first-annual-texas-dance-improv-fest

Genesh: remover of all obstacles

2010-07-18T11:25:00.001-07:00

2010-07-18T11:22:00.000-07:00

A Zero-Circle

Be helpless and dumbfounded,
unable to say yes or no.

The a stretcher will come
from grace to gather us up.

We are too dulleyed to see the beauty.
If we say Yes we can, we'll be lying.

If we say No, we don't see it,
that No will behead us
and shut tight our window into spirit.

So let us not be sure of anything,
beside ourselves, and only that, so
miraculous beings come running up to help.

Crazed, lying in a zero-circle, mute,
we will be saying finally,
with tremendous eloquence, Lead us.

When we've totally surrendered to that beauty,
we'll become a mighty kindness.

-Rumi

Photos of me teaching and dancing and thinking at the Contact Improv Teachers' Exchange at Conn College

2010-07-02T19:26:00.001-07:00

Joanna Mendel Shaw's Performance in Texas!

2010-06-14T18:41:00.000-07:00

THE EQUUS PROJECTS

Texas Hillside
A photo essay

OX Ranch
Aubrey, Texas
May 2010

Photo, Andi Bedner

On May 29th we premiered a 50-minute piece for 6 riders and their horses, 3 Texas dancers and our company joined by two guest dancerss.

The Riders and Horses
Susannah Cord (Gainesville, TX) on Gypsy King and Gusto
Kris Fulwiler (Green Bay, WI) on Wouter
Jackie Redish (Whitesboro, TX) on Sparkey
Jeannette Wright (Aubrey, TX) on Rasa
Caren Ruthven (Whitesboro, TX) on Twilight
Kenny Partlow-Shelton (Fort Worth, TX) on Turbo

Photo, Janet Johns

The Dancers
The Equus Projects Dancers ~ Marcel Dou, Laurence Martin, Rebekah Morin
Guest Dancers/ NYC ~ Tal Adler, Kylee Maupoux-Moats
Guest Dancers/ Texas ~ Andrea Burghart, Whitney Boomer, Amie Davis

Photo, Terri Cage

The piece begins with a solo for Tal Adler that created a choreographic bridge between task and dancing. Tal's tossed stick invited an unexpected addition to the cast, the Jack Russell, Tipper!

Photos, Terri Cage

From behind a hillside stand of trees, a line of women enter all dressed in red evening gowns.

Photo, Terri Cage

Horses and dancers create patterns on the hillside, concluding with a solo for Laurence and Susannah on Gusto.

Photo, Terri Cage

Photo, Terri Cage

Enter the men, fully engaged in alpha negotiation.

Photo, Andi Bedner

Photo, Andi Bedner

Photo, Terri Cage

One of our favorite sections is the bunji cord Round Pen with Kris Fulwiler's Freisian horse, Wouter.

Photo, Janet Johns

Photo, Terri Cage

Our friend, Cirque du Soliel performer Kylee Moats, added fantastic physical feats to to our movement palette!

Photo, Janet Johns

Our Finale was a running pattern that traversed the hillside, ultimately drawing the horses into the water !

Photo, Janet Johns

Photo, Andi Bednar

Our bow took place in the sand pit.

Huge Thanks to ~
Our fabulous equestrians and their horse
Our amazing Texas dancers
Jeannette & Lance Wright
Mardi & Scott Farrier
Ken Shelton & Family
Susy Wilbanks, Janet Johns, Mary Williford-Shade, Sarah Gamblin, TWU Dance Department, NTU Dance Department, Ellie Leonardht, Kristen McCurdy, Patricio

Our awesome Equus Projects' On Site Coordinator, Kristen Schifferdecker.

All of these amazing collaborators made the making of Texas Hillside possible !

jms

Genesh is FRESH!

2010-06-14T10:19:00.000-07:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganesha

Contact Jam in Warner Main Space at Oberlin College Photos by John Seyfried

2010-06-03T06:57:00.000-07:00

Jaimie Sheive performed encapsulating in Austin!

2010-06-01T18:35:00.000-07:00

2010-06-01T18:22:00.000-07:00

Oberlin Reunion Contact Jam

2010-05-31T17:55:00.001-07:00

Yoga Shala in Tulum, Mexico

2010-05-21T16:10:00.000-07:00

White Bed

Ocean

Balance Pose

Crystal Blue

Yoga Shala

Inversion

Guadalupe

Coba Ruins

At the top of the Coba Ruin!
http://www.yogashalatulum.com/YogaShalaTulum/Welcome.html

2010-05-10T16:48:00.000-07:00

Photos of Not withStanding by Leslie Scott

2010-05-08T11:33:00.001-07:00

Photos of Not withStanding by Adam Chamberlin

2010-05-08T11:26:00.000-07:00

Notwithstanding at FDC

2010-05-08T10:34:00.000-07:00

Ellen Chenoweth's Review of FDC

2010-04-30T22:04:00.000-07:00

Art&Seek Blog for North Texas and beyond
Guest Blogger Review: Jumping Jacks of Joy – Dance at UNT
Posted on April 30th, 2010 by echenoweth
Mary Lynn Babcock's Eclipse Project Part II. Photo credit: Kenneth Verdugo

Guest blogger Ellen Chenoweth is an arts writer and administrator based in Washington, DC. She maintains a blog at Widening the I and received her M.A. in Dance from Texas Woman’s University in 2009.

Contemporary dance has a hard time with happy. Sometimes you’ll see movement that could be cheery, but the dancers are performing it with completely blank faces, perfectly devoid of emotion. Or, even more painful to witness, the dancers will revert to studio dance training from childhood and display a wide pasted-on smile, as if showing teeth equals happiness. Which is why it was especially gratifying to see undergraduates from the University of North Texas perform renowned postmodern choreographer Bebe Miller’s work Blessed with what read as pure and sincere bliss. If you can imagine a giant jumping jack of joy, extending throughout the whole body and elevating you from the ground, you’ll have a good starting place for imagining the work. The stage was bathed in a warm, red light as the cast of six women and two men bounded around the stage to the gospel music of the Australian group Cafe of the Gate of Salvation. Ideas of community were explored as dancers provided perches for each other on their bodies, slapped their thighs, and propelled themselves backwards with glee. Standout performers included Emily McNabb, who was so radiant I think she might actually have a light source in her body, and Tina Jefferson, who wasn’t afraid to put her own individual stamp on the movements. Sarah Gamblin, a former Bebe Miller company dancer, reconstructed the work and Teresa Cooper served as rehearsal director.

Choking the Earth? Just Take Off Those Clothes and Join the Water in D-Flat, choreographed by Shelley Cushman, provided a more sobering note and opened with a tableux of trash. The trash slowly came into focus as the lights came up and the theme from “2001: A Space Odyssey” played as one leg suddenly splayed from a creature in a trash bag. The dancers were oddly restrained as they threw newspaper-trash around the stage. The booty seemed to be the focal body point throughout the work: the dancers wore white unitards that covered their whole bodies with blue blazers accentuating the butt. Choking the Earth offered an overload for the senses, between the trash on the stage, the flock of white dancer-birds, the soundscore filled with aural flotsam and jetsam, and a video projection of indiscriminate bits of nature scenery. The gorgeous ending tied some of these strands together, as the video projection finally linked with the movement as the dancers transformed the trash into an ocean, and they became waves that were part of the sea, throwing up a handful of newspapers as the tide rolled out. The sounds of the newspapers being thrown were eerily reminiscent of the sound of ocean waves, conjuring up some apocalyptic imagery.

Watching choreographer Ellie Leonhardt’s offering Not WithStanding (Part I and II) felt like being transported to an alien land where women were frozen at will and often treated as objects to be carried, draped, placed, and re-arranged. Seven female dancers wore frocks of blue or green and shimmery black, giving a vaguely science fiction atmosphere. The ethereal solo cello music composed by Kaija Saariaho and solemn poetry recitation in French added to the sense of being in a strange environment. The pace was slow but never boring; instead all of the stillness meant that to see the dancers spring into viscous movement was all the more satisfying. These beings had their own language to communicate with each other, which was a softly whispered shoo-shoo as a thread through the piece. The lighting design by Adam Chamberlin did wonders, as I found myself continuing to marvel at the stage as a whole. As the piece worked into its climax, there was a dizzying amount of pairings and re-pairings, sudden disappearances and reappearances. I don’t know who these women warriors were, with arms that could transform into pincers, but I’m glad to have witnessed them.

Alien landscapes were also invoked with Mary Lynn Babcock’s Eclipse Project Part II as images from the cosmos were projected on two large rectangular orbs that dominated the stage. Three dancers played among the objects, two would peer from the right as one would dash out from the left. The lines created by the women’s arms would echo the geometry of the objects and carefully crooked legs were left like a question mark as the dancers balanced on their shoulders. In the end, the dancers left the stage completely for long seconds and the audience was left to ponder the visions of space before the dancers came back for one last dash against a blackened stage in a breathtaking moment.

The show title, “Closer to the Earth and Sky,” promised to explore the tension between the two directional pulls. But on balance, after visiting extraordinary worlds and being uplifted and moved to tears by Blessed, I think the sky won this one. The show will be performed April 30 at 8:00 pm, May 1 at 8:00 pm and May 2 at 2:30 pm at the University Theater in the RTFP Building on the campus of the University of North Texas.

http://www.kera.org/blogs/culture/2010/04/30/guest-blogger-review-jumping-jacks-of-joy-dance-at-unthttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif/

From the Denton Record Chronicle

2010-04-30T21:58:00.000-07:00

Movement afoot
‘Blessed’ be the upcoming faculty dance recital
11:04 AM CDT on Thursday, April 29, 2010

The music for Bebe Miller’s “Blessed” is unabashed, a cappella gospel, with praise to God belted out toward the heavens. But dance professor Sarah Gamblin said the moves fired up by the music are spiritual food for Everyman.

Photo courtesy the UNT Department of Dance and Theatre
Dancers perform a portion of “Migration,” by UNT dance teacher Ellie Leonhardt, at the faculty dance concert in 2009.

The piece for eight dancers is one of four works in “Closer to the Earth and Sky,” the faculty dance concert opening at 8 p.m. today and running this weekend at the University of North Texas.

“The music is beautiful,” said Gamblin, an associate professor of dance at Texas Woman’s University and an alumna of the Bebe Miller Company. “It makes you want to sing. It makes you want to move.”

Miller, an Ohio-based dancer, choreographer and dance evangelist, set the piece to songs by the Cafe of the Gate of Salvation, an Australian a cappella gospel choir. For Miller, the chorus was a soundtrack to put bodies in flight. For Gamblin, the music is but an ingredient of the piece that asks dancers and audience to let go of restriction and restraint — both spiritual and physical — and reach for the stratosphere.

UNT lecturer Ellie Leonhardt invited Gamblin to teach UNT dancers “Blessed.” Gamblin danced the piece herself with Miller’s company, where she was a member from 1993 to 2000. Miller visited Denton for two days to join Gamblin in setting the dance on the students, rebuilding the dance from two videos.

“The movement flows from the chest, and the arms, moving from the heart — not just the chest, necessarily, but from the heart. Bebe choreographs dance by asking where the dance comes from, and in this piece, it’s the heart — to above. That’s what the whole concert is trying to do, explore the connection we have to the ground to what’s above,” Gamblin said.

Miller’s choreography is informed by contact improvisation, a dance form that demands each performer connect with another’s body — be it hand to hand, torso to leg or hand to foot — and follow where the body wants to go. It’s a playful form of choreography and lends itself to visual fireworks, with dancers colliding or propelling one another.

Gamblin said Miller’s piece affects a universal appeal.

“It is gospel music, but this isn’t a religious piece at all. It is spiritual, though. At least I think so,” she said. “There’s a lot of warmth and care. Its lush and sensuous.”

The concert also features: the premiere of “The Eclipse Project Part 2” by UNT professor Mary Lyn Babcock; “Not Withstanding” Part 1 and the premiere of Part 2 by Leonhardt; and “Choking the Earth? Just Take Off Those Clothes and Join the Water, in D-Flat” a revision of the 2009 premiere by UNT professor Shelley Cushman.

Performances are 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday in the University Theatre in the Radio, Television, Film and Performing Arts Building, located at the corner of Welch and Chestnut streets. Tickets cost $10 for adults and $7.50 for students, UNT faculty/staff and seniors. Call 940-565-2428.

—Lucinda Breeding
http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/drc/entertainment/dentontime/stories/DRC_Movement_afoot_0429.c587652.html

Bebe Miller's Visit to UNT

2010-04-24T15:35:00.001-07:00

Taking class:

after lunch with sue collins, bebe miller, claudia howard queen, teresa cooper
Jake, rehearsing Blessed
bebe and the cast of Blessed in the UT after spacing
bebe and the cast
bebe and the cast
after dinner with: sarah gamblin, bebe miller, teresa cooper

My choreography class is having a show!

2010-04-21T19:38:00.000-07:00

2010-04-17T09:50:00.000-07:00

FDC coming up!

2010-04-12T16:19:00.000-07:00

Encapsulating at the MEIT

2010-02-23T11:40:00.001-08:00

Not withStanding Part I

2010-02-02T19:36:00.001-08:00

Not Withstanding from Ellie Leonhardt on Vimeo.

Encapsulating at the DMA

2010-02-01T15:46:00.001-08:00

encapsulating from Ellie Leonhardt on Vimeo.

National Dance Educators Conference at New Mexico State University

2010-01-19T12:09:00.001-08:00

Nina Martin Improvising: Ellie Leonhardt, Nina Martin, Rebecca Bryant, Emily Morgan and Sandy Mathern:

AND

Emily Morgan performing my dance The Lament: What if Beowulf Was a Woman? at NMSU:

Come and see....

2010-01-13T14:47:00.001-08:00

Not withStanding
Dallas Museum of Art
"All of the World's a Stage" exhibit
Sunday January 31st, 2010 2pm.
Choreography by Ellie Leonhardt
Music "Sept Papillons" composed by Kaija Saariaho
Danced by: Cassie Farzan Panah, Rebeca Gamborino, Emily McNabb, Megan Morgan, Jaime Schieve, Carissa Topham, and Kandice Stehlik

Urban Bush Women @ UNT

2010-01-10T19:11:00.001-08:00

January 30, 2010, 8:00pm
University Theatre
RTVF Performing Arts Building

UBW’s Community Engagement Projects partner UBW with local presenters, area artists and community residents to bring the untold and under-told histories of their communities forward through performance art.

Ticket Information
General Public: $30
Faculty/Staff/Seniors: $15
Non-UNT Students: $15
UNT Student w/ Valid I.D.: Free

I'm ready for Valentine's Day!

2010-01-10T19:03:00.000-08:00

THE EQUUS PROJECTS
VALENTINE'S DAY DEMO & CELEBRATION
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Demo at 11:00
Followed by a reception

Meet JoAnna Mendl Shaw
Equus Projects Artistic Director

Experience the magical partnership of dancers and horses

Firehawk Ranch
11952 FM 428
Aubrey, Texas 76227
RSVP - flow@fastmail.net

The Equus Projects will be producing a large performance project
in Aubrey, Texas on May 29, 2010 at the OX Ranch, Aubrey

Our Demo Party will give you a taste
of what you will see in May

*JoAnna Mendl Shaw teaches on the dance faculty at The Juilliard School
She has been creating performance work for dancers and horses since 1998

More Love!

2010-01-05T14:50:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

2010-01-03T21:16:00.000-08:00

Blue Moon!

2009-12-31T17:24:00.000-08:00

Oahu

2009-12-30T19:41:00.001-08:00

Beautiful!

2009-12-24T10:14:00.000-08:00

2009-12-14T20:21:00.000-08:00

Monday, Dec. 14, 2009

Modern dance revue puts a new spin on the holidays

A new classic? On Saturday the Barefoot Brigade presented "The NOTcracker" at the DMA.

By CHRIS SHULL

Special to DFW.com

Teachers and students from Fort Worth’s Dancing Outside the Box perform a dance named Questions during "The NOTcracker."

DALLAS — It’s not only classical ballet companies that are busy this time of year. On Saturday the Barefoot Brigade, a coalition of modern dance companies organized by Kerry Kreiman of Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth, presented "The NOTcracker," a free hourlong concert at the Dallas Museum of Art.

Against the backdrop of tall windows accented by the colorful cascade of Dale Chihuly’s glass flower-bowls in the museum’s north atrium, nine contemporary dances were presented. Performers wore sporty warm-ups and rehearsal togs. Moods ran from serious to sentimental to silly.

Questions was danced happily by six teachers and students from Fort Worth’s Dancing Outside the Box, with Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ in the Wind sung by David Tipps.

The Eclipse Project by Denton’s Satellite Dance Collective was an essay of orbits and attractions by Kihyoung Choi, Ellie Leonhardt and Leah Perison. In Loris Beckles’ Celebration for Kwanzaa, Tiffani Furlough, Tina Mullone and Christie Sullivan were poised and precise in unison, their ballet movements set to Abbey Lincoln’s Afro Blue.

Seven girls from Dallas’ Lisbon Elementary School were perky and pretty in traditional dresses dancing a gospel-African version of choruses from Handel’s Messiah.

Most performers were barefoot. Movement was personal and emotionally charged. Andrea Sheridan was taut in her psychological solo Reluctance. In her solo Close to the Bone, Sunghun Lim mimed an animal’s gait, her back arched with hands and feet pawing the floor. To the caressing phrases of Bach she kicked and torqued her body around; she stretched upward in graceful athletic lunges.

The audience sat at tables on the sides of a performance area on the polished concrete floor. People came and went as the show progressed.

In comic numbers, Contemporary Dance/Fort Worth’s Sarah Newton made a sexy nuisance of herself in Stand Next to You. Phase 2 Dance Ensemble presented a holiday household drama. And in a sendup of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite by Dallas’ DeKaDance, the Chinese dance became a kung fu fight. Kate Walker was pulled around by a fan with a mind of its own during the Spanish dance, and as the Sugarplum Fairy she decided to hoard candy canes instead of passing them to children in the audience. http://www.dfw.com/178/story/210778.html?story_link=email_msg

2 more pics from Mary Lynn's camera!

2009-12-12T19:24:00.000-08:00

The Eclipse Project Part 1

2009-12-12T15:22:00.000-08:00

www.satellite-dance.com

The Eclipse Project Part 1 - Choreography by Mary Lynn Babcock- Graphic Design by Kenneth Verdugo - Dancers: Kihyoung Choi, Ellie Leonhardt, Leah Perison - Performance Saturday December 12, 2pm - Dallas Museum of Art, Cafe Atrium.

I'm performing tomorrow in Mary Lynn Babcock's Eclipse Project with Kihyoung Choi and Leah Perison!

2009-12-11T09:23:00.000-08:00

The NOTcracker: A Barefoot Brigade Dance Festival of Modern Dance, Contemporary Dance, and Performance Art
Saturday December 12, 2009 2pm
Cafe atrium at the Dallas Museum of Art
ADMISSION FREE

Just when you thought you couldn't stomach another Nutcracker, The NOTcracker brings a variety of holiday treats for visual consumption in a free performance at the Dallas Museum of Art on Saturday December 12 at 2 pm. The members of the Barefoot Brigade coalition, and guests, will present an eclectic show of modern dance, contemporary dance, and performance art in the Café atrium of the museum. The performance is family friendly and admission is free. This popular festival returns after a one-year hiatus, bringing seasonal relief to North Texas dance audiences.

2009-12-09T15:00:00.000-08:00

Aimless Love

This morning as I walked along the lakeshore,
I fell in love with a wren
and later in the day with a mouse
the cat had dropped under the dining room table.

In the shadows of an autumn evening,
I fell for a seamstress
still at her machine in the tailor’s window,
and later for a bowl of broth,
steam rising like smoke from a naval battle.

This is the best kind of love, I thought,
without recompense, without gifts,
or unkind words, without suspicion,
or silence on the telephone.

The love of the chestnut,
the jazz cap and one hand on the wheel.

No lust, no slam of the door –
the love of the miniature orange tree,
the clean white shirt, the hot evening shower,
the highway that cuts across Florida.

No waiting, no huffiness, or rancor –
just a twinge every now and then

for the wren who had built her nest
on a low branch overhanging the water
and for the dead mouse,
still dressed in its light brown suit.

But my heart is always propped up
in a field on its tripod,
ready for the next arrow.

After I carried the mouse by the tail
to a pile of leaves in the woods,
I found myself standing at the bathroom sink
gazing down affectionately at the soap,

so patient and soluble,
so at home in its pale green soap dish.
I could feel myself falling again
as I felt its turning in my wet hands
and caught the scent of lavender and stone.

~ Billy Collins ~

(Nine Horses)

http://www.panhala.net/Archive/Aimless_Love.html

Shelter

2009-12-02T06:56:00.000-08:00

Shelter from Ellie Leonhardt on Vimeo.

New Solo "Shelter" being performed by Jamie Schieve tomorrow night at the...

2009-11-30T16:09:00.001-08:00

Concert Choir Concert
University of North Texas
Alan McClung, conductor
Winspear Performance Hall
Murchison Performing Arts Center
12-1-2009 @ 8:00 PM

Ann Cooper Albright gives an inpsiring lecture to the UNT dance students and faculty!

2009-11-25T14:07:00.000-08:00

Aunt Wendy visits Denton!

2009-11-25T14:04:00.000-08:00

Hawkins 100th celebration!

2009-11-25T06:20:00.000-08:00

Ann Cooper Albright is in DENTON!

2009-11-19T19:13:00.000-08:00

Workshop with Ann Cooper Albright (my former Professor)

University of North Texas

Stovall Hall 177

Friday, November 20th 7-8pm

All are welcome!

Photo: Ann Cooper Albright and Rafe Cohen

A performer, choreographer and feminist scholar, Ann Cooper Albright is Professor of Dance and Theater at Oberlin College. Combining her interests in dancing and cultural theory, she is involved in teaching a variety of dance, performance studies and gender studies courses which seek to engage students in both practices and theories of the body. She is the author of Traces of Light: Absence and Presence in the Work of Loie Fuller (2007); Choreographing Difference: the Body and Identity in Contemporary Dance (1997) and co-editor of Moving History/Dancing Cultures(2001) and Taken By Surprise: Improvisation in Dance and Mind (2003), all from Wesleyan University Press.

Final weekend at the DMA

2009-11-16T11:37:00.000-08:00

Photos by Mary Lynn Babcock and her iPHONE!!!

Diana Adams and her crew from Dallas Capoeira visits Survey of Dance!

2009-11-15T18:53:00.000-08:00

http://www.capdallas.com/

Photos by Alex Braveman

2009-11-03T15:41:00.000-08:00

C 2009, Alex Braverman
http://michelangelo-project.com

First draft of Save the date cards- Wow they are BLUE! and excuse the comma in the text.... still working out the kinks!

2009-10-31T14:38:00.000-07:00

Fussy Dance Photo from Nina Martin's Class at TDIF

2009-10-25T14:33:00.000-07:00

photo by Brandon Gonzalez

World Fest in Addison, Texas

2009-10-24T18:48:00.000-07:00

University of Ege Conservatory Folk Dance Group from Turkey:

Italian Folk Dancers (DFW):

Larissa, far left in last two photos, is my student at UNT -- it was so wonderful to see her dance!

TDIF at TWU

2009-10-18T16:54:00.001-07:00

we're all dance teachers....
:warming up before the performance -- rolling around on the floor
:my co-worker and co-performer, mary lynn, who teaches at UNT
:my new texas friend, emily morgan, who teaches at U of Texas-El Paso
:my hard working friend, sarah gamlin, who teaches at Texas Women's U

RESTORATION performed in the exhibit "All the World's a Stage" as a part of Late Nights at the Dallas Museum of Art

2009-10-18T16:00:00.000-07:00

Restoration from Ellie Leonhardt on Vimeo.

www.dm-art.org/

2009-10-09T11:21:00.001-07:00

Making contact
Dance festival teaches improvisational partner dance 10:06 AM CDT on Thursday, October 8, 2009

A Saturday night performance will be open for the public during the Texas Dance Improvisation Festival 2009 this weekend.

The festival kicks off on Friday night at Texas Women’s University with an improvisational dance session and will last until midday Sunday.

Jordan Fuchs, assistant professor in the department of dance at TWU, said he hopes it is the first of an annual festival the school hopes to hold each year.

He said TWU and the University of North Texas already have a weekly improvisational jam session every Thursday.

Jams are practice sessions for these dancers.

Fuchs said that Denton musicians are getting involved by playing at the weekly jams.

He said he is interested in seeing involvement expand with the festival.

He said people attending the festival are coming from all over the state, including El Paso, Houston, Austin, and Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.

Improvisational dance is instant composition or choreography, Fuchs said.

The festival will explore the different varieties of improvisational dance, including contact improvisation, which is the main form the dancers use at the weekly jams.

Contact improvisation is a partnering form of improvisational dance.

It is described as “a cross between ballroom dancing and wrestling,” Fuchs said.

The Saturday performance will be held at 7 p.m. in the TWU Dance Building, 304 Administration Drive.

The event is free, but space is limited.

It will include performances by K.J. Holmes, a dancer from New York, and Nina Martin from TCU, as well as Fuchs, Leslie Scates, Sarah Gamblin, Ellie Leonhardt, Claudia Queen, Brandon Gonzalez, Lauren Tietz and Pat Stone.

For more information, visit www.twu.edu/soa/dance or e-mail dance@twu.edu .

—Rachel Mehlhaff

http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/drc/entertainment/dentontime/stories/DRC_Making_contact_1008.1f7e57f55.html

New iARTA Faculty presents creative work...

2009-10-06T08:31:00.000-07:00

My friend Bonnie's Beautiful Art!

2009-10-02T09:45:00.000-07:00

Contact Improv combined class with Mod I/II/III

2009-09-30T15:23:00.001-07:00

Eclipse

2009-09-29T17:21:00.000-07:00

Inversed in the upness
The scissors cut my long hair
With interconnected webs of life long beyond
Where I am
Stuck in
Changing from one to the other
Going out to begin to be in

The sky is there all night long
The shining through my windows
makes me believe I am not dreaming
Differently our eyes burn
We can’t believe our eyes
Sun to moon, moon to sun
The air disappears and the nostalgia fills in my blood

I abide and wait gently
For the moment to pass
For normalcy to return
For the magic to replace my surrender

Surrender my magic
Return to normal
Pass the moment by gently abiding, believing
Moon to sun, sun to moon

My eyes burn in the deity of the bright day
I awake on the earth
Going in to begin again
Retracing the web

Interconnected to my downness into the ground
Into the Earth, to the moon, to the sun,
In a straight line my long hair dresses the earth

-ellie leonhardt

Contact Duet between me and Mary Lynn! It makes me smile!

2009-09-24T20:20:00.000-07:00

UNT and TWU Contact JAM at UNT

2009-09-24T19:19:00.001-07:00

UNT DANCE IMPROVISATION JAM

2009-09-20T08:40:00.000-07:00

Video of Thirst

2009-09-16T12:24:00.000-07:00

Thirst from Ellie Leonhardt on Vimeo.

Ellie Leonhardt

Photos from Choreographing the "Fairy Dance" for Midsummer Night's Dream at Southern Oregon University

First performance in Ashland!

Ashland, OR

photos from FDC

Running

From Lau-Tzu

Academic Symposium I am Directing:

Teaching Yoga to Dance Majors at UNT

Pixel Dances Reviewed by Mary Clark

Theater reviews part deux:

Out of the Loop Fringe Festival in Addison

Pixel Dances Review by Margaret Putnam

2011 - Out of the Loop Playbill

Beautiful photos by Milton Adams of The Well Interruption

Review by Margaret Putnam

Review in the Fort Worth Star Telegram

The Well/Interruption to be premiered at CD/FW show

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

Aikido...

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

caught.catching @ TDIF

Dance for Life—and Death

Flight On Time

caught.catching @ TDIF

Heart Fire

photos of me performing Encapsulating at the Dumbo Dance Festival

This is a new poem that I wrote for Satellite-Dance Theater's new choreography, Vessel

Personal Reflection from CITE

Audience feedback from my new dance presented at DNA

TDIF at Rice Univeristy

daci day of dance at UNT

Caught Catching at WIP at DNA in NYC

I am performing a new solo called "Caught Catching" at DNA on Sept 18th at 4:30pm!

Works In Progress

2010 Dumbo Dance Festival Schedule Announced!

Alenka Cizmesija

Anabella Lenzu

Catch Me Bird

Cecilia Marta Dance Company

DemaDanceCompany

Enzo Celli

Jennifer Muller

Jeremy McQueen

JuMo Dance

Michael-Mao-Dance

Thursday, September 23rd at 7:00pm

GALA Performance

Friday, September 24th at 7:00pm - 10:00pm

John Ryan Theater at WHITE WAVE, 25 Jay Street

Festival Performances – Friday, September 24, 7:00pm - 8:00pm

Festival Performances – Friday, September 24th, 8:00pm - 9:00pm

Festival Performances – Friday, September 24th, 9:00pm - 10:00pm

Saturday, September 25th, 2:00pm - 4:00pm, 5:00pm - 7:00pm, 8:00pm - 10:00pm

John Ryan Theater at WHITE WAVE, 25 Jay Street

Festival Performances – Saturday, September 25th, 2:00-3:00 pm

Festival Performances – Saturday, September 25th, 3:00-4:00 pm

Festival Performances – Saturday, September 25th, 5:00-6:00 pm

Festival Performances – Saturday, September 25th, 6:00-7:00 pm

Festival Performances – Saturday, September 25th, 8:00-9:00 pm

Festival Performances – Saturday, September 25th, 9:00-10:00 pm

Saturday, September 25th, 11:00am - 7:00pm

Site Specific Performances – (Along the Pier 1 Waterfront)

Sunday, September 26th, 1:00pm - 2:00pm *

* Outdoor performances will take place in the Brooklyn Bridge Park (on the waterfront under the Manhattan Bridge)

Outdoor Festival Performances – Sunday, September 26th, 1:00-2:00pm

Outdoor Festival Performances – Sunday, September 26th, 2:00pm - 3:00pm

Sunday, September 26th, 4:00pm - 7:00pm

John Ryan Theater at WHITE WAVE, 25 Jay Street

Sunday, September 26th, 4:00pm - 6:00pm

Sunday, September 26th, 4:00pm - 7:00pm

John Ryan Theater at WHITE WAVE, 25 Jay Street

Sunday, September 26th, 5:00pm - 6:00pm

Sunday, September 26th, 8:00pm - 10:00pm

Grande Finale Performances – Sunday, September 26th, 8:00pm at Fulton Ferry Landing

Special Thanks to our supporters:

The festival includes works by:

MAC

Citrine

power animals