Jacob's Pillow. Day Five: Dance,Drive,Drinks!

the last show was great. william isaac taught class. it was also his last show in concert dance and got a bouquet of flowers during the curtain call.lovely. everyone was ready to hit it and quit it.which is exactly what we did(except for me blanking in the middle of one of my solo's.oops).had lunch after the show and began the 3 hour drive back to new york city.the drive was beautiful. the hills and flowers and the green of the grass reminded me of england. guess that's why it's called new england. right? got back safely,returned the car and hopped in a cab to brooklyn.stopped off at my friend ryans place and had a couple of well deserved beers.

so here's to a wonderful end to a wonderful week. i've had so much fun and felt so much during my time at the pillow. i've always felt that it's important to be connected to history. no matter what community you are involved in, it feels like there is a necessity to look over you shoulder and recognize those who have gone before you on a similar path to yours. wave to those people once in a while. those ancestors.

Jacob's Pillow. Day Four: Archive sandwich with show bread

ahhh the double show day. what an enigma you are. it always seems like the second show would be so much harder than the first. not the case...this time around at least. so the first show was a little rough and tough to get through. it was cool, however, to see the sunlight pour through the cracks in the rough of the theatre. especially in the black outs which turned into sort of grey outs. the days have been gorgeous here. that perfect summer weather. warm but breezy with short bursts of rain.

so after washing off the first round of dancing i went to the archives. you can see in the picture(which my friend luke found on the jacob's pillow facebook page.random.)the touchscreen which has a sample of the archives dating back to the 1950's. i looked through all the era's picking out people as i went. so much fun!

then the second show. like i said i thought it was gonna be really hard but it was actually quite breezy. there was a cast party after the show.it was nice to unwind and talk to some people and get out of the groove of the past couple of days. last show tomorrow!

Jacob's Pillow. Day Three: Car.Drama.Good show

starting to feel the wear and tear of doing a show over and over again. also feeling the satisfaction of getting to have a "do-over"(so to speak) every night so i can make it that much better. i woke up on day 3 to go out and get food.key in ignition.turning key.clicking.....then nothing. the vans we have aren't holding up that well. the first day i had to get a headlight replaced....and now this dead battery. there is also i mysterious grinding sound in the engine that is relentless and recently the roof has begun to leak. this is why i don't own a car. so the stage manager(joe, super nice guy) and i went to the jiffy lube in town and got a new battery put in. kind of a pain in the ass but i got to hang with him for 20 minutes and talk and get to know each other. so after that fiasco i got some lunch and watched a bit of this awesome documentary called the buddha. a little nap to boot and then up and out to the pillow. previously we had rehearsals during the day and then the show at night.today though we had all day off til 5:30. it made such a difference to my body and i was really geared up to have a fantastic show. it went really well. started playing with some things in my solos and honed my focus in on some different things during the peice. repetition. there's something about it. walking down the same path but today it's wednesday, or you're sad or red. i feel really lucky to be having the experience that i am and eagerly await every show.

i'm still grazing through the graffiti on the walls. i found a signature of a girl that was here with tanya perez salas which is the company i am going to mexico to audition for.oh, i'm going to mexico.......did i mention that. no? oh ok. i'm going to mexico.

signed my name on the wall. thinking of something poignant to leave behind as well. busy busy busy

Jacob's Pillow. Day Two: Feels like day two

i slept terribly. i had nightmares about the piece we are doing which somehow turned into someone trying to kill me. at breakfast some others from the company also talked about their weird dreams so i guess it's in the water. we had a brief rehearsal this morning. double checking some light cues and going over some notes. nothing too heavy. and then we had some free time so kris, emily, marlin and i went to check out the archives. it's a little cabin with three or four screens and dvd players with multiple headphones attached. we only got a chance to look at some old armitage gone stuff because it was already playing on the screen, due to the company being here. there is also a lois greenfield exhibit in the gallery, which is really beautiful. other happenings:

marlin lost his camera and then found it, masayo stepped on a bee which consequently stung her, and the show was taped for the jacob's pillow archives...which i thankfully forgot about during the show. it went well. it felt better than last night. i'm really glad we have 6 shows so i can continue to tweek and hone. it's beautiful here. i may buy a tent and stay on the grounds for the rest of my life.

Jacob's Pillow. Day One:History, Community, Mosquitos.

i was nervous about driving. i mean not driving a car but rather driving a car in the city. when i say that it was raining the day we left i mean that it was RAIN-ING. think monsoon. so that didn't help but it turned out to be a really simple route on the westside highway that didn't really leave me any city driving so phew to that. the drive was pretty....pretty long. i digress, i shall try and avoid terrible jokes. so once settled in hotel and unpacked and washed and fooded and slept, we went to the pillow(as most people call it). it's so beautiful. there aremany barn like structures nestled around and cabins that house the people there for the school. we're performing in the ted shawn theatre which is above in the picture. it's a huge oldbarn. so awesome. it smells wonderful. a really great combo of that dusty theatre smell, all lights and curtains and the barn smell: wood and sun. the backstage area is my favorite part. first of all, it's like a maze. not that it's huge or anything but it feels like a rabbit hole. a network of dressing rooms, small hallways, doors and little steps. so that was entertaining. opening a door and being somewhere entirely different than you thought you were going to be. second of all, there are millions and millions of signatures, notes, pictures and quotes written ALL over the walls, doors, bathroom stalls and ceilings. so many people. all the performers that have been there. so i spent a good amount of time wandering around finding people that i knew and admired that had come there before me(even found one of my best friends, jeff, and his unmistakable signature complete a little cartoony drawing of himself). it was astounding! as i was perusing i got an overwhelming feeling of community and an even stronger feeling of actually being apart of it. i belong to something. something other than my self or my family or friends. it was such a revelation to feel apart of something that was bigger than me. it made me happy.....then it made me nervous. all these people were here before me. dancing their little hearts out. and now i'm here. to dance my little heart out.what if i screw up? it would be like all those people would be watching!! this also was a new feeling because i don't get nervous before i perform. so with that in mind i went through the tech rehearsal. we had dinner outside by the pillow, the famous rock. the sky was so blue and the breeze was so gentle.great.calm.now for the show. i literally went over everything at least ten times before i went on...which again is something new for me. and then i danced. i danced in an old barn where so so so so many dancers had danced before me, and it was fantastic. well.....a little shaky but fantastic feeling none the less. the audience were so generous. so that's that. the first day here. i'm going to try and check out the archives either tomorrow or friday."The Archives at Jacob’s Pillow has approximately 6,000 films and videos from 1894 to present, 45,000 historic dance photos and negatives, 313,000 pages of unique printed materials, 27 trunks of costumes dating from 1915, and 2,000 books."

that.is.some.serious.history.

this side of the blue

it's snowing in Alaska today. It's beautiful. a bit surprising to see snow again. i thought my winter days were over. i guess that's a little naive due to my location. oh and i saw three moose yesterday. they were just kicking it in someone's yard. i got really close and got some pictures. they are hauntingly beautiful. they kind of reminded me of camels(though i've never seen a camel up close), maybe they are from the same family?

i've been here a week and have been teaching and rehearsing for Intersections. i can't believe i've been here for a week. it seems to have flown by. or sprinted by.

the work is fun and the people are great. i've been spending a lot of time with my friends Sarah and Brian. i even did a line dance to hip hop music at a gay bar......oh and a drunk woman poked me in the eye whilst frantically dancing with me. a little painful but a lot hilarious.

i'm still trying to get used to the way life moves through here. haven't been feeling myself lately but i'm putting it all down to a change of pace and a fresh outlook on things. i finally have one of my guitars! i picked it up from the storage unit while i was in Chicago. so i'll be spending some time broadening my skills.

still on the hunt for a place to stay for the sabbatical in August. i think Ryan will be joining us so that's great. i'm looking forward to it immensely and can't wait to find the perfect place.....or perfect enough place.

if you haven't listened to the new Joanna Newsom album i advise you to do so. it's magical.

and so are you.

there are many jewels, and if you polish them they shine.

.....and we're back.

After Chicago i went back to New York for one day and then went right back to the airport to fly out to Orlando, Florida. I auditioned for Orlando Ballet which went really well. There were no cuts which is always nice and my friend Katia taught the class. Spent some time with Israel and Katia which was lovely. Israels movie is playing soon in New York. Some of my music is in it. GO SEE IT!!Good people. Met some great new people as well.......one in particular.

So, while i was warming up for the audition i got a phone call from an unknown New York number. They left a message. I checked it and it was Karole Armitage, who is the director of Armitage Gone!
She told me she had an opening in the company and she was interested in me taking it. So, long story short, i start with the company in May! I'm excited. We perform in New York and also at Jacob's Pillow between May and July. The contract ends in July but there is the possibility of it extending into the next season. jams.

After that i went to the Tri-Cities in TN/VA. I danced in a benefit for an old theater there. Everything went well. With out a hitch in the get along.....as they say.
Then it was off to Fort Walton Beach, FL. I was dancing the Mazurka in Coppelia. It was the first time i did a character dance onstage. First time for everything, right? It was tons of fun. Saw all my Florida Friends and spent some quality time with Ian and Eleanor. They are touring with their show right now, which is doing really well. Check it out!. Good people.

Let's see......what else. I'm going to Alaska on Friday. It's going to be great. Good people, lot's of dancing, guitar practice, bike riding and money saving. Money saving? what for i hear you ask.
Well. Jess and i are going on a sabbatical. We are going to go somewhere secluded for the month of August and have a creative fest. We're still in the brainstorming phase. Working out details of when and where and how much. It's going to be a wonderful summer. y'all.

Really looking forward to May when CocoRosie FINALLY releases their album.
s'bout damn time.

a book on a shelf

i'm in chicago. i got here yesterday morning around 11:30 took the train up to wrigleyville where my friend Becca lives. she's been kind enough to let me stay with her for the next couple of days.

we went to the Hubbard Street audition. i really enjoyed it(even though i got cut). when it started i said to tanya that i felt like i was at a party. i think it's just because i haven't been a "dancer" for a while and i was suddenly in a room full of 'em.

chicago feels strange. like a book i wrote awhile ago and put it on a shelf. complete. out of the way. now i'm picking it back up and re-reading it. perhaps a little to soon. i'm reading all these streets and saying hello to ghosts in familiar spaces. hello.

syke. STRIKE!!!!!

so i woke up at 3a.m. and got in to the car to drive to Nantes. once at Nontes we found out that the pilots were on strike and my flight to Paris was cancelled!!!!!

so....i jumped(tiredly stumbled) on to a train to Paris to make it for my 10:40 flight out of Paris.

it was unexpected but lovely to take a train through the country side. one last farewell to the beautiful landscape of France.

flight from Paris was a ok. although, that Paris airport is a doozy. tres confusing...but i managed.

after the long flight to Cincinnati i was really pleased to be back "home" stateside. however, once i got to immigration the officer looked at my passport and then my green card and said "so where do you live?"

me: New York

him: and where were you born?

me: the United Kingdom

him: it say's on your green card that you were born in the U.S.A\

me: no it doesn't

him: yes it does (pointing to my error)

me: oh

so it turns out that i knew there was a typo on my green card but had forgotten about it in the twirlwind that is my life. so i sat in the immigration waiting room for 45 minutes while they "checked it out".....and they seemed suspicious.

the whole time though i was thinking "hey fellas.......if i had been born in the U.S of A. i wouldn't need the damn card in the first place and thus making it a very silly forgery".

but whatev

they came back to me and told me that all the information was correct(duh) except for that pesky place of birth.

finally got to New York. beer and a little catch up with ry and cath. all packed up to head out to Chicago tomorrow and i'm thoroughly exhausted.

so there.

"waiting for it to embrace me"

c'est ca.

all done.

i'm running a bath and drinking delicious wine. the piece is finished and growing as we speak. the last rehearsal was good. the dancers were sore, tired, in pain, frustrated, enlightened, and alive. it was a beautiful site to see. wish you were here.

some things.

1)jules-theo drew a picture for me...i think i mentioned it. also when i had dinner at their house(severine,didier, jules-theo) jules-theo said that anytime a choreographer came to the house it was a holiday and a party....he then went to his play room and put on a xmas song cassette and proceeded to sing along out loud. precious.

2)the carrots. last night i had my last meal in the hotel restaurant(sans Lady Gaga) and ordered the Civet de Calamar. it came with a salad of squash and shredded carrots. when i was done i spelled out "merci" with the left over carrots. the next morning, when i had breakfast, the chef(who i have a crush on, but is unfortunately married) said(in broken english) "hey do you want to work in the kitchen and teach us your art of spelling in different vegetables?"

3) i'm a tad nervous about flying tomorrow. there is alot of snow in New York and i hope i am not delayed.

4) is my favourite number.

this is this.

i move on now to be a dancer for awhile instead of a creator.

looking forward.

merci. in carrots

it's my last day here. i leave tomorrow morning at 4a.m. and that's only the beginning. i drive to Nantes and then a 8:35 flight from Paris to Cincinnati(of all places)then finally to New York.

Strange flight patterns, no?

i finished the peice!! still no idea for a title. i kind of don't want to title it....but i fear that "untitled" is a tad pretentious.

i went to the soiree(one of my favorite french words, d'accord being an other one) the other night.

whoa. like whoa.

there were people from the municipality there(although someone said later they were just there for the free food and wine!)a newspaper guy, a translator, and the board members and dancers.

They gave me two presents(box's of wine) and a little package from the city(maps, stickers, a pin etc). The president of the board spoke and the translator translated for me. she is French but has lived in Yorkshire(England)for the past 30 years. she had this amazing accent....and when i say amazing i mostly mean amusing(yet endearing). it was an excellent blend of a French sing songy, lilting, poetic accent and.....well.....a Yorkshire accent. her name is Martine.

i was really overwhelmed. they invited me back...hopefully this summer if i have time...i had to say something which was difficult because i was gobsmacked...i had been expecting a little do with wine and cheese "hi how are" and then go home.wrong.

i don't even remember what i said. i'm sure it didn't make any sense which was alright because they didn't understand me and i think Martine just paraphrased for me.

so that was lovely. great food(as usual). finished of with profiteroles that Didier's(husband of director Severine)mother made. amazing....just amazing.

so that was a good night. unexpectedly. ain't always the way?

there was something else i wanted to say but now i can't remember and i have to go and work in 5 minutes. so more later.

oh right!!! the carrots.

later

Alouette

ok. so there's this radio station called alouette here that is played pretty much everywhere. It's in the hotel, the restaurants, peoples cars, the supermarket.....you get it. now i haven't listened to commercial radio in any language for quite some time, so now that it's all around i'm pretty receptive to it. and i can tell you this.....after waking up singing Paparazzi by Lady Gaga for the third day in a row it makes me understand why commercial radio exists. i have listened to Paparazzi every morning for breakfast in the hotel restaurant and every evening for dinner in the hotel restaurant....Lady Gaga is now one of my food groups. they ingrain the songs in your head so you'll go out and by the cd....or blog about it. other songs that are on the constant loop include a terrible quasi metal song that is in english with the lyrics"fame will not destroy us, we will be victorious". a terrible song by an american girl called tik tok...i think her name is keesha or something like that. and then there is the french stuff which tends to just sound overly sentimental(that's pretty funny coming from me!) or like i'm in a rave from the 90's. so needless to say....i love it. i'm particularly fond of one of the ravey songs that has an accordion solo in it.

so after bracing myself for Paparazzi this morning i was pleased to be greeted with Ode to my family by the Cranberries. my day is already going well

i'm almost finished with the piece. more on that later.

there is a soiree tonight. i have to sign some copyright papers and meet board members etc.

tra la la.

after this comes that.simple

it's monday and the second day of creating the second piece. it's a bit amorphous at the moment. something about dreams and the otherside of things. mirrors etc. i don't know. i'm still hunting.

i had dinner at the directors house last night. i had fois gras for the first time and have decided to eat it everyday of my life til i die. amazing.

i love the pace of life her. every moment follows the next with no stress or haste. sequential. perhaps i shall "accidentally" miss my flight home.

i feel strange today. like something huge is looking over my shoulder.

marc and the flock of birds

You know those nights, when you're sleeping, and it's totally dark, and absolutely silent, and you don't dream, and there's only blackness, and this is the reason, it's because on those nights you've gone away. On those nights, you're in someone else's dream, you're busy in someone else's dream. - Laurie Anderson

one down

it's saturday. my only day off. the internet at the hotel is finally working. i'm at the breakfast table with the last of my coffee and the entire day to myself. we were supposed to go to La Rochelle today however Severine(the director) is 6 months pregnant and i could sense she was tired from the first three days of me being here. i said i would spend the day by myself so she could rest the little bebe. it's been blue skies and bright sunhine. the air smells of the sea.

i'm going to walk around here and take some pictures.find my way to the ocean somehow.

i finished the first piece yesterday. i'm quite pleased with it. the dancers have such integrity for their young age. they work hard and have an intelligence about themselves that is completely different from their American counterparts. lovely.

having not had access to the internet, i've gotten used to it not being a part of my everyday life. which is quite freeing.....and then to come back to it and read all the inane things people share through various networking sites is baffling. c'est ca.

in other news.....i have a new friend. his name is Jules-Theo. he is seven. he is the son of the director, Severine. he drew me a picture in which i had a very tall building with my name on the top of it, another house(which is the same house i met him at in America when the dance company was visiting last summer), a trampoline we jumped on, various other people, and fireworks. he also showed me his playroom and i played with his cars. he taught me how to say police and church in French. amazing.

it's getting a bit frustrating to not understand anyone and to not be understood. it's igniting inspiration for me to learn French. we shall see

"...by your skinny white ankles"

bonjour!

i landed in Paris on time but was delayed and got into Nantes an hour later than scheduled. i was picked up and had an hour drive to L'Aiguillon sur Mer. it reminds me a bit of England here. it's something about the colour of the sky and the feel of the air. reminiscent.

i checked into the hotel which is modest and novel.....and a bit cold. i slept with my hat and gloves on. everyone is friendly and willing to navigate around my lack of knowledge of the French language.

i taught three classes today. the first was for 8-12 year olds. they were so open and naively sweet. they corrected my French and taught me how to say "left" and "right". after this first class we ate at the city cantine(cantine municipal). it's a little cafeteria in the middle of town which is(to the best of my knowledge) run and funded by the town or municipality(Vendee).then i taught two more classes. the first was for intermediates and the second for advanced.

it's like a dream teaching for student who speak another language. i constantly feel like that we are holding secrets from each other....i guess we are......the secrets of our own languages.

i start the first piece tomorrow. i'm calling it "youth is wasted on the young". the music will be by cocorosie. the songs are "Sunshine" from The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn, and "Spirit Lake" from Coconuts, Plenty of Junk Food.

I had some issues with getting on the WiFi(pronounced wee-fee) at the hotel. so i buckled and bought the the municipality WiFi. one euro a day. not to shabby.

it feels good to be here. it's so different from America. more wholesome some how.

the internet is slow and patchy so forgive me if my correspondence are also.

Looking Forward

what is that tiny voice?

11:33 p.m.

laundry done. packed and ready. i've been asked if i'm excited to travel, and i am....it's just a lot of work.

my new obsession is RuPauls Drag Race. it's a great reality competition show that houses love and encouragement, which i feel like others are lacking. in the last episode of the first season Ru goes of on a rant when a contestant says that they felt like they weren't appreciated and didn't receive enough praise. Ru goes on to talk about how one learns that when someone has something negative to say about you it actually has nothing to do with you and everything to do with them.....she has many quotable things to say but one that stuck with me was that you have to walk through the fire yourself and experience your life and constantly be processing what is happening around you. the thing that is happening to you(with it's judgements and supposed point values) is not as important as how it equates to your journey.

it's thoughts like these that i have been exploring recently. the idea of code is prominent also. this thing that you are doing or saying or being is just a piece of the puzzle that has to be completed so that you can move on to some other unknown task. maybe this is where beauty lives?

thoughts welcome.

i leave for France tomorrow. my flight leaves at 1 p.m. and i land in Paris at 8 the following morning.

i have only been to France once.....well i drove through it.....well i didn't, a bus driver did.

we(my family and i) took a vacation to Italy i believe(perhaps Menorca) and we had to drive part of the way on a bus. i remember waking up in the night on the bus and looking outside and seeing the miniature version of the Statue of Liberty lit up in the distance.

memorys.constantly changing.

i'm looking forward to working. interested to see how it shapes out.

looking forward.

New York 02/11/10

On the upper east side. On a couch. Next to best friend Ryan.

It snowed and snowed yesterday. Today the sky is clear and the snow is frozen.

I leave for France on Monday. I'll be teaching two workshop classes and setting two pieces.

I'm working with two different age groups. The first group is younger and i have no idea what that means. I'm thinking of using one of two Cocorosie songs: Happy Eyez or Spirit Lake

For the older group i'm working with the idea of code. An entity that is functional by itself but represents something else.

I'll be going into more detail about this in the future and would encourage your feedback.

Musically i'm using Fever Ray and possibly some The Knife.

In other news i was recently accepted to Springboard and just finished applying for financial aid.

Looks great. Can't wait.

Stay tuned. After two weeks in France I'm going to Chicago for an audition then Orlando for and audition then VA/TN for a show the Florida for a show then back to New York for a few days of rest then of to Alaska for a one month residency and a one week show.