Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Martha

It's the morning of the first work in progress showing, so it seems past time for me to weigh in:

Martha Graham is touted as The Mother of Modern Dance, she has a wide net of accomplishments and accolades trailing the legacy of her long art-making life. If you want to google her, you can learn all about them, and you can also see photographs of her tremendously intense face in grisly, dramatic poses... It's worth the effort. This powerhouse woman danced and choreographed for more than seventy years.

For me, Martha has a different flavor than The Mother of Modern Dance, she is the woman whose long arm reaches across the span of a century just to nail my life against the wall. All my successes and failures supernaturally detected and commented on by that keen director's eye. Her words have been running on a loop in my head for the past twenty-four hours, and they seem a great notion to carry with you into your first showing.

Martha, telling it like it is:

According to Agnes de Mille: "I was bewildered and worried that my entire scale of values was untrustworthy. ... I confessed that I had a burning desire to be excellent, but no faith that I could be. Martha said to me, very quietly,"

'"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. ... No artist is pleased. [There is] no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others"'
from The Life and Work of Martha Graham
and
"I have spent all my life with dance and being a dancer. It's permitting life to use you in a very intense way. Sometimes it is not pleasant. Sometimes it is fearful. But nevertheless it is inevitable."




Monday, April 20, 2009

today's string rehearsal:j-rock!

alex!
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clarinet score
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tonight's work station

Sunday, April 19, 2009

the sunday marathon


last night's work space

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amanda, paurl and my sunbutter breakfast kickin' it at the grand illusion: 9am on a sunday morning...

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the bag story on the big screen for the first time!!

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the first string screen prototype in action!!!

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beth and sam on break at today's 5 hr music rehearsal

Thursday, April 16, 2009

in the cave again


'the cave' is what paurl and i call the studio in our basement. tonight, we're working on the 'body parts machine' with hopes of finishing it up before my rehearsal with ezra in the morning...

recording vocals...

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

(handbill design by niterrant: www.niterrant.net)

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Here in the land of BRIDGING WOUNDS, we believe the human experience to be a great big experiment - our creative process is no exception. At our first work-in-progress showing, you’ll get a peak at what we’ve been up to and can opt to help us create the next phase by following directions like, “turn in a circle pausing every 90 degrees” and “chomp that gum into this microphone.” Think of it as a sort of ‘science lab of life experiences’ - we’ll give you a drum set wrapped in post-its and you give us a bit of your humanness.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

one week out

i was in a car accident last week. these gifts saved me.

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tonight, this is my work station. it moves a lot.

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this is paurl. he is working on the 'body parts' machine sounds.

this is happening...RIGHT NOW

we are working late into the night.

tick. tock. tick. tock. tick. tock.

Monday, April 6, 2009

crunch time

the first work-in-progress is 2 weeks from tomorrow and i'd be lying if i said i wasn't feeling a bit overwhelmed, though in an excited way (for now...). yesterday i went over to amanda's and experimented with the sand (now salt) bubble animation. after a few hours of failed attempts, we found our method and devised a plan. today i firmed up plans with jamie for what components she'll have done for the 21st, and spent the rest of the day organizing and putting out fires.

assembling the puzzle one tiny piece at a time...

Saturday, April 4, 2009

musical sleepover

that's right. i'm having a sleepover at my house tonight. beth fleenor, sam boshnack, and i are hunkering down in my little nest to improvise and work through some sketches i have for the body parts section of the piece (to be shown at the first work-in-progress at the henry art gallery on APRIL 21 AT 7PM). the thirteen year old in me is ecstatic.

(the twenty-four year old in me is too)

Thursday, April 2, 2009

an announcement

the amazing lasara jarvis has joined the BLOGland of bridging wounds and will hopefully be lending some of her observations/discoveries/thoughts/etc. on the human experience to our cause. i'm absolutely thrilled to have her along for the ride.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

it's time to get real (as crazy as it makes me sound)

why is it so damn difficult to just be where you're at? why does it pose such a battle within yourself and when interacting with others?

it can be difficult enough just to discover/navigate/maintain/be okay with/feel strong in who you are, where you're at, and what you need without any other factors (people) involved. that separation is so rare. and when other factors (people) are in the mix, you then have to assert and defend and stay strong in who you are, where you're at, and what you need while navigating who they are, where they're at, and what they need. multiply this by the number of people you encounter in any given day and add the level of intimacy you experience with each of them. i realize that this is the human experience, but i'm genuinely starting to feel like it's all just a silly game - a game we play to avoid doing the real work (and i'm not talking the 9-5 kind).

when one is lost, why not pull strength from oneself by facing those dark aspects of being...?