Landing - performance at green space
Here's our tech run for the Green Space Blooms festival, enjoy!
Labels: performances, the party project, videos
5.03.2009
4.28.2009
Upcoming Performances
The slinkys have landed!
Landing performs its debut on Saturday, May 2nd @ 8pm as part of the Green Space Blooms Festival. David will be performing along with three of our talented guest dancers, Lydia Bell, Christie Newman, and Angela Salvetti.
Green Space Blooms is an annual festival of contemporary dance (most of it from local companies and choreographers) produced by Valerie Green/Dance Entropy at the company's studio Green Space. Festival details and advance tickets are available here.
Green Space is at 37-24 24th Street in LIC, and you can get directions here.
We will be performing Landing again on June 5 at 8pm as part of the Queens Academy of Arts and Dance ([QuAAD]) Marathon at Queens Theatre in the Park (oi, that's a mouthful), so mark your calendars and keep an eye out for details next month.
And then on June 20 at 4pm, on the other side of the glass plate, she wore nothing takes over Socrates Sculpture Park. It will be a whole new experience from our previous showings of other side, so don't miss it!
Landing performs its debut on Saturday, May 2nd @ 8pm as part of the Green Space Blooms Festival. David will be performing along with three of our talented guest dancers, Lydia Bell, Christie Newman, and Angela Salvetti.
Green Space Blooms is an annual festival of contemporary dance (most of it from local companies and choreographers) produced by Valerie Green/Dance Entropy at the company's studio Green Space. Festival details and advance tickets are available here.
Green Space is at 37-24 24th Street in LIC, and you can get directions here.
We will be performing Landing again on June 5 at 8pm as part of the Queens Academy of Arts and Dance ([QuAAD]) Marathon at Queens Theatre in the Park (oi, that's a mouthful), so mark your calendars and keep an eye out for details next month.
And then on June 20 at 4pm, on the other side of the glass plate, she wore nothing takes over Socrates Sculpture Park. It will be a whole new experience from our previous showings of other side, so don't miss it!
Labels: other side, performances, the party project
3.23.2009
Seen at Composer's Voice
We're venturing out of Astoria into the big city... do join us!
Seen Performance is performing this Sunday, March 29, in Vox Novus's "Composer's Voice" concert, a series for contemporary composers to express the musical, aesthetic, and personal "voice" created in their compositions.
Our own David Morneau curated the March program and included Box Shy, the first work in our Party Project series, which takes performance out of the black box and into party environments, challenging where and how we see performance. This short work considers the dual function of frames to shape and contain.
So come visit with us and enjoy a great hour of contemporary music + performance!
Sunday, March 29 @ 1pm (it's free!)
Jan Hus Church - 351 E 74th St
Seen Performance is performing this Sunday, March 29, in Vox Novus's "Composer's Voice" concert, a series for contemporary composers to express the musical, aesthetic, and personal "voice" created in their compositions.
Our own David Morneau curated the March program and included Box Shy, the first work in our Party Project series, which takes performance out of the black box and into party environments, challenging where and how we see performance. This short work considers the dual function of frames to shape and contain.So come visit with us and enjoy a great hour of contemporary music + performance!
Sunday, March 29 @ 1pm (it's free!)
Jan Hus Church - 351 E 74th St
Labels: performances, the party project
2.27.2009
Seen Open - celebrate one year with us!
March 2009 will mark the one-year anniversary of Seen Performance's first performance together and our beginnings as a performance collective.
To celebrate, we will be gathering at Rèst Âü Ránt, a local favorite in Astoria, for drinks and cheer (which we could all use more of these days!). We'll perform a work from The Party Project (it is a party after all) and be open for questions about Seen Performance, our work and visions. We'll also be selling some artwork to help raise funds for our project These Walls Sing.
Please save the date and join us when it comes around!
Seen Open - Annual Anniversary + Benefit Party
Tuesday, March 10, 2009 7-10p
Rèst Âü Ránt
30-01 35th Ave in Astoria
Free with donations to support the creation of new work warmly accepted.
Rèst Âü Ránt has a rich wine and beer menu, and their food is fantastic. They'll be doing beer flights for us, so come ready to try 'em all!
We're looking forward to celebrating with you - see you March 10!
Seen Open is, you guessed it, open to all and free with donations warmly accepted. All donations support the creation of new work. Not in town? Show your love for Seen Performance with a donation of any size, here.
Seen Performance is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions in behalf of Seen Performance may be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.
To celebrate, we will be gathering at Rèst Âü Ránt, a local favorite in Astoria, for drinks and cheer (which we could all use more of these days!). We'll perform a work from The Party Project (it is a party after all) and be open for questions about Seen Performance, our work and visions. We'll also be selling some artwork to help raise funds for our project These Walls Sing.
Please save the date and join us when it comes around!
Seen Open - Annual Anniversary + Benefit Party
Tuesday, March 10, 2009 7-10p
Rèst Âü Ránt
30-01 35th Ave in Astoria
Free with donations to support the creation of new work warmly accepted.
Rèst Âü Ránt has a rich wine and beer menu, and their food is fantastic. They'll be doing beer flights for us, so come ready to try 'em all!
We're looking forward to celebrating with you - see you March 10!
Seen Open is, you guessed it, open to all and free with donations warmly accepted. All donations support the creation of new work. Not in town? Show your love for Seen Performance with a donation of any size, here.
Seen Performance is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions in behalf of Seen Performance may be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.
Labels: performances, the party project
2.19.2009
Landing - rehearsal 2
Tonight we had a small Landing rehearsal, with Lydia, Angela, Danita, and myself.
Rehearsing with David's music is always a truer experience for the dancers (and me), but we did our best to work with the howling wind and some ambient Aphex Twin.
I failed to capture any video because I was wrapped up in watching -- and considering which nuances to take hold of and shape. The choreography component in this work is surprisingly fragile. It tinkers precariously between thoughtful and elegant and just a big ol' mess. While performing, the dancers make several choices within the parameters I've set up, and in rehearsal we get to see what works and what doesn't. They continually reinvestigate the movement for themselves, and I stay on the outside making notes on how things "read."
Today, for example, the dancers's choices kept spreading them out in space, which dilutes the effect of the cannon (they perform the base choreography in cannon) and makes the space feel alienating. Not to mention that they would have been falling out of the edges of the slinky "forest". We got the piece back to a tight, intimate spacing. The dancers start in the same triangle with roughly three-foot spacing, but with the focus on the small space, they navigate through each other as much as they do through the slinkys and this draws the eye into little moments of unison, intimacy, and solitude. It is delightful to see the choreography shape up in this way. There are definitely choices that work and choices that don't, nonetheless, we will continue to play with the choreography existing only as a structure to explore in performance, rather than a strictly set piece.
Rehearsing with David's music is always a truer experience for the dancers (and me), but we did our best to work with the howling wind and some ambient Aphex Twin.
I failed to capture any video because I was wrapped up in watching -- and considering which nuances to take hold of and shape. The choreography component in this work is surprisingly fragile. It tinkers precariously between thoughtful and elegant and just a big ol' mess. While performing, the dancers make several choices within the parameters I've set up, and in rehearsal we get to see what works and what doesn't. They continually reinvestigate the movement for themselves, and I stay on the outside making notes on how things "read."
Today, for example, the dancers's choices kept spreading them out in space, which dilutes the effect of the cannon (they perform the base choreography in cannon) and makes the space feel alienating. Not to mention that they would have been falling out of the edges of the slinky "forest". We got the piece back to a tight, intimate spacing. The dancers start in the same triangle with roughly three-foot spacing, but with the focus on the small space, they navigate through each other as much as they do through the slinkys and this draws the eye into little moments of unison, intimacy, and solitude. It is delightful to see the choreography shape up in this way. There are definitely choices that work and choices that don't, nonetheless, we will continue to play with the choreography existing only as a structure to explore in performance, rather than a strictly set piece.
Labels: the party project
1.19.2009
Landing - rehearsal
Here's our first full rehearsal with the dancers - Lydia Bell, Christie Newman, and Angela Salvetti. The noise of the heater in the space was so horrible, you couldn't hear David's playing on the video, so I put in a recorded sketch to accompanying the visual. In performance, he'll play live.
We'll be performing Landing on May 2nd as part of the Green Space Blooms Festival, produced by Dance Entropy to highlight Queens artists alongside the company. More info to follow in Spring!
Thanks for watching!
Labels: the party project, videos
12.14.2008
Box Shy - feedback
The choreography for Box Shy is new, so I asked David and Shana for some feedback. This short clip shows you a little bit of that. We also talked about how it can be challenging to jump into performing a work like Box Shy - our run-throughs felt gradually more authentic and refined each time. It will be difficult to find the right mood and energy when performing this at a party where we've been mingling and chatting rather than introspective. David suggested that I take a few minutes to listen to the music before hand, but then we both learned that it is in the performance of it that his music really starts to have that transformative experience, rather than just sitting and listening.
That's an aspect to performance work that excites us, me in particular. Performance asks for a different kind of paying attention (I am intrigued by what that different kind is and why it's useful to our interaction with the greater world around us). For example, other side is only worth watching if the viewer commits to it, meaning that you have to give over to the state of observation that it brings you into.
We'll keep bringing you notes from the field as we investigate how we watch, observe, and see differently.
Labels: the party project, videos
Box Shy - Esther + David rehearsal
Here's a clip from our recent rehearsal of "Box Shy". David's "on the stage" in this scenario --what's missing is the scroll that creates it.
Check out some of our feedback to each other in the video to follow, "Box Shy notes".
Thanks for watching!
Labels: the party project, videos
12.09.2008
Landing - Party Project, #2
Here's a sketch of the choreography that will get developed with three dancers in a forest of slinkys...
more thoughts at http://seenperformance.org/blog
Labels: the party project, videos
11.30.2008
Box Shy - Esther rehearsal
Party Project #2 is on hold a bit, as we are preparing Box Shy (Party Project #1) for a party/performance.
After our test run of Box Shy, we worked on shaping up the structure and decided to let the unscrolling of Shana's painting occur in its own time, without me dancing in and out of the box as it was taking shape. This, and I got back in the studio to work with David's music some more, and the movement is taking a new shape. Here is what I choreographed today:
I wanted to retain the importance of the frame from my initial effort which kept me largely on the edges. There's also the confining nature of the box. I prefer to experience it as protective, and in that regard, I decided to emphasize details - small shifts of weight and gesture that can be absorbed from a few feet away.
A question I had for myself is whether there is something edges (I am thinking of 2D edges, but that doesn't limit the thought to them) that helps us see more clearly? More clearly or with more imagination?
After our test run of Box Shy, we worked on shaping up the structure and decided to let the unscrolling of Shana's painting occur in its own time, without me dancing in and out of the box as it was taking shape. This, and I got back in the studio to work with David's music some more, and the movement is taking a new shape. Here is what I choreographed today:
I wanted to retain the importance of the frame from my initial effort which kept me largely on the edges. There's also the confining nature of the box. I prefer to experience it as protective, and in that regard, I decided to emphasize details - small shifts of weight and gesture that can be absorbed from a few feet away.
A question I had for myself is whether there is something edges (I am thinking of 2D edges, but that doesn't limit the thought to them) that helps us see more clearly? More clearly or with more imagination?
Labels: the party project, videos
11.11.2008
Landing - PARTY PROJECT, #2
We our now at work on our second piece in The PARTY PROJECT series. Again, we're kicking it off with round-robin collaboration. David started by passing along the following clip to Shana:
Shana's responded with a slinky design, literally:
"The type of sound David is working with made me think of (man-made) mechanical objects. I wanted to create a set that would contribute to the musical atmosphere. I considered many options (including different floor surfaces) before deciding on the use of hanging slinkys. I felt that the slinkys would add interesting movement, as well as sound to the performance."
and right now I'm working on my part, to be posted here soon!
as always, thanks for watching!
Shana's responded with a slinky design, literally:
"The type of sound David is working with made me think of (man-made) mechanical objects. I wanted to create a set that would contribute to the musical atmosphere. I considered many options (including different floor surfaces) before deciding on the use of hanging slinkys. I felt that the slinkys would add interesting movement, as well as sound to the performance."
and right now I'm working on my part, to be posted here soon!
as always, thanks for watching!
Labels: the party project
9.15.2008
Box Shy and the PARTY PROJECT
We are back from a brief blog-posting hiatus (somewhat recovered from the hot and sticky summer if fall would only show up for REAL!), and though we were not online much, we've still been up to our usual mischief.
You can see in the previous post that I threw up video from our test run of Box Shy (the first in a series of works that comprise The PARTY PROJECT, see earlier posts under "the party project" label).
Well, we discovered a number of things that we still needed to address in polishing up Box Shy. Our lovely test audience gave us strongly voiced feedback, and we realized that we had skipped over some big steps in our performance making process - namely self-critique.
So, we convened over the feedback and our own notes and started beefing up our little piece into something with a more stable structure. We'll be working on those changes gradually and without too much reporting until we share the piece for the first time at our own party in December (a fantastic celebration of Seen and our supporters, keep an eye out for the date!).
As we incubate Box Shy, we are embarking on the second piece in The PARTY PROJECT. David begins this round of collaborative creation. Look for his stuff in a few weeks.
We're also making great progress with our larger-scale project (and some of the donations that have been coming in are helping us to plan for this! thanks everyone!), These Walls Sing. More on that in an upcoming post to follow very soon!
and there's more... so check in again soon.
You can see in the previous post that I threw up video from our test run of Box Shy (the first in a series of works that comprise The PARTY PROJECT, see earlier posts under "the party project" label).
Well, we discovered a number of things that we still needed to address in polishing up Box Shy. Our lovely test audience gave us strongly voiced feedback, and we realized that we had skipped over some big steps in our performance making process - namely self-critique.
So, we convened over the feedback and our own notes and started beefing up our little piece into something with a more stable structure. We'll be working on those changes gradually and without too much reporting until we share the piece for the first time at our own party in December (a fantastic celebration of Seen and our supporters, keep an eye out for the date!).
As we incubate Box Shy, we are embarking on the second piece in The PARTY PROJECT. David begins this round of collaborative creation. Look for his stuff in a few weeks.
We're also making great progress with our larger-scale project (and some of the donations that have been coming in are helping us to plan for this! thanks everyone!), These Walls Sing. More on that in an upcoming post to follow very soon!
and there's more... so check in again soon.
Labels: the party project
9.08.2008
7.29.2008
An update
Hi friends, after all the videos of our process we've been posting here's a quick update on Box Shy, our first piece in The PARTY PROJECT.
We started this piece layering ideas on one another's through media we could put online. To remind folks, I started the round, sending to Shana without commentary a video that explores themes that I often return to when I don't know where to start with a piece -playing with being seen, being still, playing with taking charge of a limited space.
Shana ran with the idea of "graphic" representation that we're using in our process for These Walls Sing - transforming my movement in the video frame into lines --frozen and alive at the same time.
David worked from Shana's animation (without the video) to create a score that he can perform live, making additional composition choices in the moment.
So with the "piece" at this stage we came together to discuss how to turn this into a performance off the internet, since the idea is to bring you into it at the next party you invite us to!
The conversation kinda started all over the place and suggestions and solution and new problems were tossed about until we had scrolls of paper and a studio date. The clip in the previous post is from our rehearsal where we put it all together. What you don't see here are the audience (you) giving shape to our performance space and unrolling 50' of Shana's drawings as David and I also play with time and moment.
Thanks for watching!
We started this piece layering ideas on one another's through media we could put online. To remind folks, I started the round, sending to Shana without commentary a video that explores themes that I often return to when I don't know where to start with a piece -playing with being seen, being still, playing with taking charge of a limited space.
Shana ran with the idea of "graphic" representation that we're using in our process for These Walls Sing - transforming my movement in the video frame into lines --frozen and alive at the same time.
David worked from Shana's animation (without the video) to create a score that he can perform live, making additional composition choices in the moment.
So with the "piece" at this stage we came together to discuss how to turn this into a performance off the internet, since the idea is to bring you into it at the next party you invite us to!
The conversation kinda started all over the place and suggestions and solution and new problems were tossed about until we had scrolls of paper and a studio date. The clip in the previous post is from our rehearsal where we put it all together. What you don't see here are the audience (you) giving shape to our performance space and unrolling 50' of Shana's drawings as David and I also play with time and moment.
Thanks for watching!
Labels: the party project
Box Shy rehearsal
Here's an excerpt from our rehearsal for Box Shy of The PARTY PROJECT. We added an "audience" since the full set up for this piece has the audience surrounding a box performing area --with four volunteers unscrolling Shana's painting (which you don't see here - check out the "Shana adds a layer" videos for her sketches). David and Esther are both making their performance/composition choices live, though the structure is set.
Labels: the party project, videos
7.18.2008
Box Shy - the video version
Here David adds the third layer in our round robin collaboration to make the first work of our The PARTY PROJECT. From here we go to the studio to turn this collaboration into a performance.
Labels: the party project, videos
7.11.2008
shana adds a layer - B
Shana brings some animation to our first piece in the PARTY PROJECT. Here is, you guessed it, version.
Labels: the party project, videos
shana adds a layer - A
Shana's layer to our first piece in the PARTY PROJECT. Here is version A.
Labels: the party project, videos
7.06.2008
Box Shy - The Party Project, #1
While we like musing in the big comfy chair at shana's place (see the what is performance? video), we value showing just as much as talking.
And so... our latest project is PARTY GAMES. And it's in your neighborhood (or your backyard -- invite us to your next party and there we will be!)
We are developing a piece round-robin style, each of us getting 5 days to add a layer and develop the work before we polish it together just in time to share it during a local house party, putting performance into social mingling like any other conversation.
Esther started this round:
I was working in the studio and decided to play with the edges of the frame, using 4 $20 bills to mark the camera's space. I edited this down to draw attention to entering, exiting, and being in the frame. I added voice over to bring out the inner thought process that can go on when I'm making stuff up in the studio.
Thoughts? Questions? Leave us your comments and we'll respond!
And so... our latest project is PARTY GAMES. And it's in your neighborhood (or your backyard -- invite us to your next party and there we will be!)
We are developing a piece round-robin style, each of us getting 5 days to add a layer and develop the work before we polish it together just in time to share it during a local house party, putting performance into social mingling like any other conversation.
Esther started this round:
I was working in the studio and decided to play with the edges of the frame, using 4 $20 bills to mark the camera's space. I edited this down to draw attention to entering, exiting, and being in the frame. I added voice over to bring out the inner thought process that can go on when I'm making stuff up in the studio.
Thoughts? Questions? Leave us your comments and we'll respond!
Labels: the party project, videos
