February 2012
1 post
1 tag
January 2012
1 post
1 tag
August 2011
1 post
4 tags
July 2011
1 post
3 tags
Teachers and mentors
I’ve been slowly piecing together a series of posts about my teachers and mentors, because I think that our roots, our inspiration and our driving forces should be acknowledged and celebrated.
This morning the Art Biz Blog featured a guest post by Janice Tanton, entitled 10 Commandments of Teaching Art, and has reminded me that I need to finish off these posts and start sharing them. For...
June 2011
2 posts
What is choreography? | corpus →
I’m reading some interesting replies on the theme “what is choreography?” by 52 artists, theoreticians, curators and critics over at corpus. My favourite ends with
… I do not know what choreography is and refuse to spend any effort to find out.
Krõõt Juurak (choreographer)
I lean towards the simple idea of choreography being the conscious and deliberate arrangement of...
4 tags
Mayibuye
It’s been nearly a month since I started volunteering with Mayibuye, and I’m having a lot of fun working with them already. I’ve been working directly on two projects here in Melbourne, and am throwing as much support as I can behind everything else that’s going on here, and in the South African and Cambodian projects.
Stand Centre Front is a two day dance conference to be...
May 2011
3 posts
progress
Just a quick update, because there’s so much going on right now that it’s nice to have it all neatly written down.
I’ve finally put my hand up to volunteer with Mayibuye. I can’t wait to start working on projects and helping the organisation in whatever way I can. Find them on Twitter and Facebook and see how amazing they are.
Kumari from Mayibuye has also put me onto...
limbo
A few weeks have passed now and I’m still looking for work and a new place to call home for a while (oh, for a bicycle-drawn caravan!), so things have been a little slow. There are so many ideas spinning through my head for incurvation, and I’m making progress even though I haven’t really started. I’ve decided that although this piece will be based on body image and told...
2 tags
35 hours with Cera Byer
A week should be long enough to process after an intensive, right? My goodness, what a crazed mess my mind is at the moment. This intensive was amazing. Beyond amazing. I connect so well with Cera’s teaching methods that I’ve learned more from her in less than 50 hours of her classes than I have in my previous 20+ years of classes combined. She knows so much about the body and how it...
April 2011
2 posts
Decompressing
There will be a rambling update about the intensive as soon as I get my head in order. I’ve been through a lot of technique and conditioning, hip hop/waacking/contemporary/belly dance fusion, business strategies, goal setting, production timelines, choreography creation, emotional baggage, and my goodness, so much sweating and crying this week.
Cera and I are already talking about her next...
Registrations closing soon
Just a quick note to let you know that registrations for the Easter dance intensive with Cera Byer close on April 19. If you’re a dancer in Melbourne and would like to come and have your training shaken up over 35 hours of training, there are still a few places left.
Details can be found on the registration page, and I’m happy to answer any questions you may have. I can’t begin...
March 2011
3 posts
1 tag
Changes
I seem to have this constant, lingering desire to change and move, and whenever I try to suppress it, it ends up boiling over and exploding in my face. Creatively, I’ve been experimenting with minimalism; fascinated by the form of the human body unobstructed by costuming or makeup. Recently though, I’ve felt a pull towards the theatrical. Whilst rifling through the local newsagency,...
Inspiration
I’m trying my hardest to be grateful for being slapped in the face with inspiration last night, even though I have no time to explore these new ideas bouncing around in my head. Hopefully tucking them away in my note book until I’m ready for them won’t leave them rusty and inaccessible when I come back for them.
Slow and Steady
Work on incurvation is coming along slowly, as planned. I’d expected that working at such a slow pace would be difficult, as I work best with a looming deadline, but I hadn’t expected the silent choreographic process to be so challenging.
Reading Roman-Gabriel’s blog which mentions the same process has inspired me to stop distracting myself with work on choreography for our...
February 2011
3 posts
Letting go, and realising things I already know.
My choreography has been heavy and muscled, and no matter what I tried to do to loosen up, nothing was coming out the way I wanted it to. It wasn’t until last night when I danced in the dark that I realised I’ve been relying too heavily on the mirror. I’ve been editing my work as I create it, rather than letting it come out naturally and refining it later.
Of course I knew all...
Dance intensive with Cera Byer - Online Event... →
Registrations are now open for Cera’s intensive in Melbourne. Schedule and performance details to be released soon. Please contact me if you have any questions.
I’m so excited to be introducing Australian dancers to Cera’s approach to dance, and Cera’s looking forward to meeting and dancing with us over here.
Unlearning
I’ve been working on choreography of incurvation for a couple of days now, and have found that I’ve been thrown back into that familiar process of unlearning. While the movements look a certain way in my head, my body has other ideas. The section I’m working on calls for soft, light movement, but with all the drilling and technique-heavy work I’ve been doing, everything is...
January 2011
3 posts
Adventures, opportunities and a whole lot of work.
I’m settling in to my new home and new dance space, and next week I get my butt back into the gym and get stuck into my new project. I’m busy planning for Cera Byer’s intensive in April, and will be opening registrations very soon. There are also a few other opportunities that haven’t been confirmed yet, but it’s looking like this year is going to be extremely busy,...
2 tags
Adelaide Fringe
Fringe tickets have gone on sale, and because I won’t be in Adelaide for the Fringe, I’ll just recommend that you go and see these shows in my place…
Dirk Darrow: NCSSI: I’ve only ever seen Tim’s street shows, but he’s a great performer and I have no doubt that this show will be worth watching.
Tie: Jade’s a beautiful dancer and a clever and interesting...
1 tag
Inspired by National Choreography Month (Nachmo), I’ve started making dances for the sake of making dances, without any goal other than to exercise my choreographic abilities. It’s a lot of fun, and just what my body and mind had been begging for. I need to give myself permission to play more often.
December 2010
2 posts
This year has felt much longer than most others I remember. I don’t mind at all if time keeps lazily stretching out ahead of me like this. It’s been a crazy year filled with more dance adventures than I’d anticipated, allowing me to connect with some amazing dancers all over the world.
I did struggle to find balance, despite training and performing fairly evenly, then I realised...
New project!
Today I set the wheels in motion for my new project. I have so many ideas, and I’m wanting to get a whole lot of people involved in my development process. I think I may have even settled on a title, but I’m going to sit with it for a while to make sure I’ll be happy to carry it around with me for the next 18 months (yeah, I’m pushing myself out of my comfort zone and...
November 2010
2 posts
Almost there.
I’ve been a little quiet online this month, but I’ve been working away and planning something fun and exciting and slightly terrifying. I have a few more details to sort out before I can start announcing things, but for now I can tell you that I’m hosting a week-long dance intensive in Melbourne over the Easter break next year. I’m heading out to inspect a venue next week,...
Balance and Connection.
I’ve had a tough week, and a long month of drilling and conditioning. Sometimes my mind gets so caught up in the details of the technique, that I forget to actually dance. My mind is racing with far more ideas than I can possibly be working on, and I’m finally allowing myself to forget about them all for short moments and just dissolve into the music.
This has been such a long year,...
October 2010
3 posts
Planning for 2011
It’s been two days now since I received the news that I haven’t been awarded the scholarship. I’ve been a little slower to get on top of things than I’d hoped, but plans are slowly coming together, even if the details are still waiting to be worked out.
Firstly, I’m seeking out ways to get the training I’d wanted, and may have found a much cheaper option to get...
The Perfect Fit
I’ve always wanted to like yoga, and tried so many different styles, teachers, dvds and books in the hope that I’d find a form that I enjoyed, but have always come away disappointed. It didn’t make sense. I love stretching almost as much as I love dancing, but yoga just leaves me wanting more.
Two weeks ago I started taking contortion lessons, and I think it’s safe to say...
After much procrastination, this thing is finally online. I’m planning a few projects at the moment, and there’ll be updates here and on facebook as soon as things start moving ahead.
I’m in Melbourne planning my second solo dance production, training in tribal fusion with Giselle and contortion with Circus Oz. I’ll be back in the studio within the next couple of weeks,...