the water processing plant dance

We decided to find a site outside in which to slowly develop a piece. The intention was to work with a space in which we could over time invite other dancers, musicians and audience to join in our weekly ritual of activating a particular space. I really was excited to work with transistor park it has so many quarky qualities and textures that I thought would lend nicely to a site relative exploration. We spent a lovely evening there brainstorming and jumping like dogs. Ophra agreed that this park would be a nice place to work. The evening of our first offical improvistation the park was closed. We arrived after the police said they just received order to chain lock it. Budget cuts probably? What a pity, where to go? Other parks in the area were locked as well. So after some tooling about on the bike and a flower petal ritual, in a round about way we decided to work in a construction site. The road was once the only way into the waterfront area at north 7th street. It was were the prostitutes waited for their johns, were artists climbed through the hole in the fence to be by the water and practice their instruments, where people that had nowhere else to go set up card board houses. The park at that time was over grown with burt out cars and different spots of industrial debris. Now the park is landscaped and maintained and hosts bands on a big stage regularly. This road separates the park from several newly constructed glass towers. The road itself is is under construction. At the end of the road is a water processing plant. The subway runs below it, the rumble is felt when standing on it. The road is in its own state of transformation. Transformation, a theme Ophra and I are often touching on in our discussions about dance and performance. Our first night of working there we felt the space as harsh of an environment it appeared felt very welcoming. Ater about an hour of running and jumping about a security gaurd appeeared and asked how long we had been there and what were we doing there. "Our exersices, we like to dance" He look from Ophra to me and back to Ophra and a few more words were exchanged something as he looked at Ophra about magic and then, "O.K. No problem, in Shala". So began several weeks of improvistions at site. We would bring fruit and chocolate for the security guard and he would wish us well. Our site brought up many questions for us because we had orignially intended to work somewhere public where we could invite people, and we ended up working at a space we felt luck if the two of us made it in. We had inteded also to work with a space that was more fixed and theat the dance could build upon its foundation. Instead each week that we returned to the water processing plant road we would be presented with a new environment- situation, it was constantly changing. But we kept going, curious what this new situation, outside of our intentions would lead us too. It was such a rare raw spectacular space to walk away from. Eventually the concerts and construction took over and our security guard friend could longer nod his head and touch his heart as we entered. The impovistation ran its course. What did we find....? A couple of very interesting themes to explore and some funny character with inus that the space helped draw out of the nooks and crannies of our bodies. For me the theme manifestation could not be ignored, for Ophra it was transition. Life is filled with manifestations and transitions. It became interesting to explore specific images and narratives that can arise from these more broad concepts. It was a dance with someone in which you are listening to the space and to them but doing your own thing but finding openings where interaction could happen with out necessarily physically touching the other. For me it was beautiful practice.

Improvisation, June 18, 2010

Entrance

Improvisations, June 11, 2010

Rust and Dust #1


Rust and Dust #2


Ophra's Defeat

Improvisations, May 21, 2010

Pile - Sliding


Pile - Tires


Fence - Crossing


Fence - Climbing

the first time ophra walks around the new site...5/14/10
the spot where I had done an improve the week before

Thanks Ophra for posting the rehearsal summery, nice, as well as Friday's action plan description, even though that turned in a different direction for both of us. After rereading all the elements that we intended to utilize during the improvisation, I think that, as a starting point, it contains too many elements. We weren't able to see how it actually felt because we were locked out yet again Even to Friday's plan b location. So that is three locations I have chosen that seem to be a bit unavailable at the moment. What's up? Instead we did individual improvisations. Ophra in her studio with a dress and a video camera. I am curious to see the dress dance of the day for that day... I ended up on a gravel road between the park and the shiny new waterfront towers. For me it was about the colors, dusk and the fact that the ground was actually welcoming. I didn't feel overtaken by the somewhat harsh terrain.

Ophra asked me to read over the notes and see what I thought and was comfortable with or thought was necessary. I don't want to analyze at this point why- but the only thing after reading the 5/5/10 post that sparked a feeling of overexposure or sensitivity was the personal intentions part. I am not saying just yet that we should take that part out just that I felt resistance to seeing that displayed even though it was what I said and holds truth.

5-5-10: Rehearsal Notes

Parameters for Friday's Action:
Meet at the lot on Driggs at 7:30PM.
Whomever arrives first starts the timer to 45 minutes.
Ophra will set up the video camera.
We begin immediately, with no talking.
We begin with walks, and return to them to center.
The walks focus on the sensations of whatever we are walking on.
Costume is white.
3 moments of tableau.
We engage in structural movement work at the same time.
The song Eli gets sung in a corner.
Each one is working with an animal.
Each one comes in with a recent dream in mind.
Today's conversations are at the root of the piece.

Today's Training:
Improvisation to the Flutes du Gasbah
Sing Eli, sitting facing one another
Sing Another Man Done Gone, standing and moving, near the end we play with harmony
Walks, together
Partnering: airplane, standing on thighs

Today's Books/Authors/Inspirations:
Wikipedia words on Metaphysics (Erin brings in)
Hegel
Jung
Hillman, A Blue Fire (Erin suggests to read)
Sam Sephard - Hawk Moon - Shark Moves poem
Tarkovsky - the image and poem Eurydice
Picasso - Demoiselles de Avignon
Kandinsky - Concerning the Spiritual in Art

Themes:
Metaphysics
Myth
Intersection of Myth-Religion-Psychology
Central Witness Personality
God
Gods
Ritual
Psychomagical Acts
Esoteric
Art as Filtration of Culture
Alter Egos
Archetypes
Manifesting a Real Experience
Following the Work
Making Each Other Nervous
Alchemy of Transformation
Sexual Energy
Animism
Good Art, What Art Thou?
Building Blocks
Interaction of Distinct Personal Narratives

In Search of Personal Transformation:
Development of Trust
Coming into Maturity as Women
Embodying our Higher Potential/Vibrating at Higher Frequencies

Looking Forward:
Create a Project Statement
Create an Artist Statement
Create a Company Name

Transmitter Park

Metaphysics and Marina

Hours at the Marina Abramovich exhibit at the MoMA this Wednesday, more than a couple. We come thirsty and leave parched: good thing Ophra always carries water in her bag. The brilliant pink tulips in the back courtyard listen as we try to make sense of it all. Most interesting are the questions:

So what's next?
What do people think/wish to get from sitting with her?
Is the guru stance acknowledged, intentional, imposed on her?

Ophra loves the Erotic Balkan piece best... why? It is true, speaks of Marina's personal history, of nature, love and the spiritual.

Here's what I want to write at this moment... it was in front of the tulips, I think that the questions led to this proposal: Most of the time Marina is dealing with the political body, even with Ulay, it is about relationship, yes, but the politics of. In her more recent piece, the erotic one, she approaches the spiritual. I'll risk saying that Erin and I are looking for the metaphysical body. How is that different from the spiritual body? The metaphysical is an expression of the spiritual, but the spiritual is much more than just metaphysical. Maybe the question is, how is the metaphysical body different from the political body? Yes, I like that question:

how is the metaphysical body different from the political body?

Locked Gates

Last Friday (4/23) the wild winds were blowing and women all around us were in tears. Erin lost her phone for a moment and Ophra landed for a moment, only just long enough to bring another's feet a little bit closer to the ground. We talked and drank tea and warmed up in Erin's space, surrounded by flowers and skeletons and explosive Bulgarian art. The time to head to the park presented itself, and so we hopped on our bikes, arriving at the exact moment that the cops were pulling away, having locked up not just for the night, but possibly for the rest of the summer.

So the project is an interesting one already.

Ophra considers jumping the fence, but follows Erin and the wind around the corner, to the pier just North of the park. We watch the water, Sweet Cherry Pie or something of the sort playing from the car twenty feet to the right, like a stage carpet for the working men with beers. We are mainly quiet, then eventually cold. What to make of it all? And yet the communication deepens.

Leonard Cohen

From Selected Poems
1956-1968

This Is For You

This is for you
it is my full heart
it is the book I meant to read you
when we were old
Now I am a shadow
I am restless as an empire
You are the woman
who released me
I saw you watching the moon
you didn't hesitate
to love me with it
I saw you honouring the windflowers
caught in the rocks
you loved me with them
On the smooth sand
between pebbles and shoreline
you welcomed me into the circle
more than a guest
All this happened
in the truth of time
in the truth of flesh
I saw you with a child
you brought me to his perfume
and his visions
without demand of blood
On so many wooden tables
adorned with food and candles
a thousand sacraments
which you carried in your basket
I visited my clay
I visited my birth
until I became small enough
and frightened enough
to be born again
I wanted you for your beauty
you gave me more than yourself
you shared your beauty
this I only learned tonight
as I recall the mirrors
you walked away from
after you had given them
whatever they claimed
for my initiation
Now I am a shadow
I long for the boundaries
of my wandering
and I move
in the direction of your prayer
for you are kneeling
like a bouquet
in a cave of bone
behind my forehead
and I move toward a love
you have dreamed for me

Stepping in to the vision

Dog Jumps

First day in the park, we fell in love with a dog's jump for a flying stick. Here are a few moments from our attempts: