DCDanceBlog

wow, who would’ve thought i’d sort of fall in love with writing a blog? i used to put down the idea, thinking it was kinda pointless, a little like masturbating really. but now i see how addictive it can be. now i don’t just want to write about dance–i want to write about life! my thoughts on being alive, on meeting people and thinking about people, riding buses, living in dc, trying to find personal clarity, growing, learning, all that stuff. but maybe i should keep this blog to dance. if i want to write more, maybe i’ll start a new one.

what’s great about a blog is that it’s a chance to be creative, to stretch and exercise those creative skills, without high stakes, without needing to make money off of the act or having to get somewhere. it allows me to be totally free to do whatever i want, yet still try to craft it into something that might resemble art.

here’s a blog, gwadzilla, that i just came across this morning. i’ve run into the guy who does it several times–in fact he took my photo, so maybe it’ll appear somewhere. he seems extremely cool in person, and even cooler on his blog! i love how it’s about biking and life. like how this blog is about dancing and life–except that his is much more personal.

i’ve been thinking about jobs recently. the difficulty, that is, of finding a fulfilling one if you’re a creative person. man, think of the dancers in this town who make ends meet by teaching dance, or pilates, or yoga. or by doing arts administration work. sure, these things pay the bills, and they’re probably marginally interesting and are at least associated with something exciting.

but to move up even a step is tough, it seems. i know folks who are aspiring dance critics, and making any money doing it–and even establishing the slightest foothold–takes a lot of persistence, almost as much as getting anywhere as a dancer. we can all agree that actually making a living as a dancer is a ridiculous impossibility, at least in this country, but making money writing isn’t a whole lot easier.

i was talking with some friends recently about a couple of dancers–both guys, as it happens–who do seem to have found some success in cobbling together a mix of teaching, bodywork and dance production, and make a living doing it. the bodywork seems to have helped them find a niche, but they’ve managed to ensure that their unique perspective on movement–in a broader sense–is also included. my impression with these guys is that making this happen has required no small amount of persistence, as well as a pretty good business sense that has helped them  market and promote their “product”.

i’m a person with a lot of interests, and it’s conveniently allowed me to make decent money doing one thing while my more creative side is freed from having to earn its keep. but i’ve realized that if i wanted to actually make money doing something a little more creative, i’d have a hell of a time figuring out how to make that work. in fact, finding a way to get paid to do more creative work requires creativity itself, an openness of mind to brainstorming and combining potentially incongruent concepts. i love the idea of gradually developing a plan that is totally unconventional and unique to one individual, but figuring it out is a hell of a task.

about those guys i mentioned earlier, what’s funny is that they probably don’t have a lot of security, but they do seem to have interesting work lives that are multi-faceted and mixed, which hugely appeals to me. i’m told that at least one of them has been angling to get a university teaching job for a long time, and that surprises me: even though it would give him a lot more security (and prestige), it somehow strikes me as a lot less varied and dynamic than what he’s doing now.

so yes, i do think it’s possible to create a life of creativity that also pays the bills, but i think it requires a lot of persistence–and probably more than a little brains, talent and confidence. and that’s a pretty tall order.

i’d love some feedback on this; it’s an idea i’m grappling with personally and i haven’t made any headway yet.

Postscript

I just saw this morning that the sunday ny times had a great article about 5 theatre actors in new york that examines how they make a living and how much money they’ve made in the past few years. it’s amazing how little money they all make (often around $25k/year)–and a couple of the actors are actually fairly old (50+)! and yet it’s obvious that they all love what they do and can’t imagine giving it up. one guy in particular said no to the opportunity to make a decent wage as an understudy b/c he actually would have been performing very little.

i’m now feeling a bit self conscious about mentioning cool things going on in new york (not everyone wants to be compared to nyc, i know) but there seem to be so many that i can’t help myself. i’ll at least try to be inspirational.

a notice of this little event passed through my inbox this week. the event organizer, a former washington resident, wrote:

A couple of months back, I met a composer named Rob Voisey, who founded Vox Novus, a group dedicated to new music. He mentioned a festival called 60×60, for which 60 composers each create a new piece of music that is 60 seconds long. He said that he would like to collaborate with a dancer.
 
I, of course, replied A DANCER, WHY NOT 60?
 
He had his doubts - did I really know 60 dancers? Could we could really come up with 60 choreographers to volunteer their time and talent? Well, (by the skin of our teeth) we have…and now we’re ready for our closeup…

pretty cool! the idea of bringing together the choreography of 60 different people, all those flavors combined, plus of course 60 different composers–it’s exciting.

and even if it turns out to be jarring, overwhelming, and even just crappy, the idea got 60 folks choreographing something new, thinking about how to work with new music, how to combine with other styles…it still somehow furthers the craft, even if it’s just an exercise. right?

i went to a dc united game tonight. i haven’t seen soccer live in forever, so this was a treat in many ways. and so trippy–sports are so damn trippy! the fandom, my god–it’s utterly bizarre how into “their” team a lot of the folks were. kinda like nationalism in a weird way. in fact, every time dc united scored, a guy would run the perimeter of the field holding aloft a huge flag with an eagle on it, looking way too much like some german flag from the 1930’s.

then there’s the whole winning/losing thing–i can’t help but feel so sad for the losing team; it almost ruins things for me.

but being out at a such a “dc” thing was great, with an interesting mix of people–though almost everyone was white, surprisingly. we had great seats, high enough so that the whole field was spread below us, but close enough that we could watch the players’ moves well. it seemed to take them a while to warm up, but after awhile they were moving smoothly, passing across the field, faking out the guy guarding them, arching upward to greet the ball with their head. it was amazingly entertaining, like an enormous green stage upon which 22 guys gracefully ran and rolled and seamlessly shared that little ball, clustered on one end and then spread evenly across the field. lots of little details of action made the whole picture quite fascinating, like one of those flemish paintings from the 16th century where there’s always more to look at.

and i was thinking, “damn, dance doesn’t stand a chance!” of course, dance is great. but this soccer game, even for a non-fan like me, was so entertaining in the true sense of the word; it just grabbed me and pulled me into the action so that i forgot everything else and only wanted to see where that ball went. dance, in contrast, suddenly seemed painfully slow and serious and ponderous.

but then i had a new thought that i asked my friend: why was this game not dance? and we never came up with a satisfying answer. because ultimately it was about movement–yes, movement with a motive, but that doesn’t make it not dance. someone could’ve choreographed that whole game, including all the goals, so that nothing was actually random, and the “performers” weren’t actually trying to get the ball in the goal but were just performing choreography.

i don’t know why it matters. but it seemed interesting at the time.

Postscript

i just read a post about soccer vs. dance by doug fox on his great dance blog. it says this:

Soccer is similar to dance in that it’s at heart about the offensive team creating and using space in unpredictable and innovative ways to help push the ball closer to the other team’s net.

i love that idea of consciously using space in a certain way, but to be honest, i’m such an incredible soccer neophyte that there was no way i could have picked up on any subtleties of team strategy and how the players used space on the field. there was just too much going on. in fact, it was hard for me to imagine how even the players would be able to remember their strategies and play formulations while scrambling to keep track of the ball. but like with dance–like with anything–i guess it all can be learned over time.

i just came across this wrapup article about the american dance festival; it’s by a dance critic from my area in north carolina whom i know. adf (based in durham, nc) isn’t necessarily all that important to or symbolic of the dance world (though the staff and founders would probably disagree!), but it’s still interesting to see what they came up with for this year’s slate of performances, and how the shows turned out.

this reviewer is pretty negative about the state of things–he points out the older age of most of the american companies that performed at adf and of the pieces they showed, and wonders if there are some newer u.s. companies that are being neglected. on the other hand, apparently all of the foreign companies that came to adf this year were very young, and their work was generally weak and erratic.

curious what people think…

i’ll vote for wonderland ballroom. i’m not a complete fan of the place–something about it is just a bit too self-consciously grungy for me–but the music is truly terrific and the crowd really gets down! i was there the other night and we were comfortable boogying very hard, along with a good handful of others.

another thought: chief ike’s, on columbia road. the music selection isn’t quite as good, in my opinion, but it’s all danceable and the place is mellow and fun.

and my roommate likes the 2nd floor of bossa, in adams morgan, though i’ve never been there.

but where else? i like a place where you can get a bit of room on the floor, at least if it’s before midnight, where people are actually into dancing, and where the music is more than just one long repeating beat. and yet i can never think of anywhere to go when the idea comes up on the fly on a saturday night.

thoughts?

i showed up at the contact jam yesterday even though i wasn’t feeling all that great. i thought i’d try it out, maybe just move on my own for a while if that was all i felt up for.

but i actually danced a lot. after a first fantastic dance with someone whose body and movements i’m quite familiar with, i wound up with a gentleman who i haven’t always connected with physically. this time, though, i thought i’d just stick with myself, try to stay present and find our point of contact, even if it meant we didn’t do much more than lean against each others’ shoulders.

what surprised me was that being patient, staying with him and where we were in the dance–rather than purposefully trying to create something more impressive–really paid off. slowly my pressure against him led to his clear and firm response, and eventually we were dancing in a way that felt very new between us. it was nothing “impressive,” necessarily, but it felt good and true.

later, i danced with a relative newcomer to contact who is not particularly aware of her body or injuries she could cause, and who doesn’t have a strong sense of contact etiquette. again, though, i felt grounded, and allowed myself to do what i wanted to do, rather than what i sensed that she wanted me to do. so when she held a certain position, hoping i’d climb on top of her, i didn’t do it if i didn’t feel like it. i stuck with what i felt like doing, but tried to remain as connected with her as possible the whole time. and it felt very satisfying.

this all sounds very abstract, but i’m writing about it because lately i’ve been thinking about what an amazing analogy dance can provide for life, and how it can give some lovely insights into what’s going on inside us. i think contact provides a particularly apt metaphor, but all dance and physical movement can parallel how we’re experiencing life and ourselves and our relationships.

right now i’m reading a book by a buddhist nun that my boss lent me. it has honestly caused a small revolution for me, and i find myself becoming more present and grounded, and not trying quite as hard to make everything work out the way i want it to. it’s showing up in my dancing–in my ability to just give pressure to my contact partners and see what arises, without aiming for anything; in giving, but without giving myself away. when i danced yesterday, suddenly i wondered if i could be totally engaged in the dance while still “seeing the room.” an analogy for trying to be fully in a relationship or engaging situation while still remaining present in the world? maybe.

even the ambiguities are similar. when i meditate, i still wonder sometimes how much effort i should put into letting go of my thoughts and focusing on my breath. if i don’t try at all, i won’t get anywhere, but if i try too much, then i’m not being truly present. simultaneously, i find myself wondering about my body–if i should really make an effort to get my sacrum under me, keep my core strong, shoulders back, head up, or if i should just let my body do what it wants while i’m focusing on my breath.

there aren’t any answers; in fact, maybe learning to handle the ambiguities and lack of clarity, in body and in mind, is the point.

yes, spam. it’s gotten out of control; i think the spammers have recently found some new way to get around the spam filters built into this blog, because i’m suddenly deluged, truly deluged, with offers for phentermine and hoodia (what are fentermine and hoodia???), among other things.

so if anyone reading this has expertise about how to install “plugins” that filter spam, your assistance would be very much appreciated. i know the idea of doing it myself is a bit daunting, though i can’t speak for my co-writers.

thanks.

man, i saw some good breakdancing yesterday in dupont circle. wonder who else caught it…these guys didn’t look like dc types–they just seemed too tight, too good, really. the folks i’ve seen around town otherwiwse have been ok but still in training. these guys were strong as hell, flexible, innovative. and each one bowed after doing their short solo, very cool. loved it.

apparently breakdancing is big overseas–the ny times had an article recently on its growth in europe and asia.

just had to share this. i talked to amanda about choreographing objects some time ago, and i thought of the convo again when i saw this video.

i watched it twice and it’s amazing how (if you’re slow like me) the structure hits you the second time; the black/red, the half time, the ending, the movements of the cubes, the cubism, the coloring, the everything.

and also, if you think about it, the structure of the song is not typical for billboard songs. the refrain doesn’t really happen until the end, and there’s an instrumental part in the middle. and believe it or not, this is top 1(!!) in britain as we speak.
i also love how the role of the singer in this video is different from many female singers today. it’s andrygonys but still sexy and interesting, far away from the commercial style many ladies fall into in the music industry.
but really, it’s the choreography of the cubes and cylinders with the simplistic walking of robyn that gets to me.
it’s almost like a futuristic ingmar bergman film.

ok, i would be totally skeptic to see something after praise like this. but if you wanna, here you go (promise to have the sound on). (and watch/listen to the whole damn thing before you judge me.)