Video stuff

Hey everyone, check out a video of my new piece, Witness. This is a rough draft/sketch of the full piece, which will run about 25 minutes long and will premiere at the TANK, NYC on March 4th and 5th, 9:30pm.

Choreolab and my new favorite word

Kathleen here.  So for the past 5 months, I have been taking a weekly choreography class at Dance New Amsterdam. I registered for the course for several reasons, the main one being that I just want to be exploring my choreographic voice more.  I’ve made enough dances to start to see some patterns, some of which I love, and some of which I think are useless to me and are baggage.

Now I am in the final part of the course, Choreolab.  Jeanine Durning is our facilitator, and she is another one of those game-changing kind of thoughtful artists.  In her own work, she is trying to create dances whose structure mirrors that of her imagination.  That kind of intuitive understanding and (even bigger) acceptance of one’s own creative topography is something that can be hard for me. My brain’s love of systems, patterns, logic, explanations, etc. can overshadow my brain’s imaginative, associative, semiotic, pre-verbal, intuitive gut.

P.S. Wikipedia semiotics and you will discover my new favorite word: denotata. Say it. It’s fun, I promise.

So what do you do to access this gut?  I am writing more–I am doing free-association journaling every morning.  Jeanine has had us do “moving without agenda” exercises every class as well. Essentially it is an unstructured movement improv for 20 minutes, with no music, no outside impulses.  I am also trying to explain less. I really don’t need to know how everything works, and I don’t need to be able to illustrate it all in bullet point structure.

So however you stumble upon this blog post, please share your ways of getting cozy with your right brain!

Internet Magic

The performance at Dumbo this coming weekend marks the third time I’ve created a dance with far away dancers. Thanks to that crazy thing we call You Tube, I’ve managed to work with dancers in Kentucky while I was in New York, Kentucky while I was in Minnesota, and now New York while I keep my booty stationed in Minnesota. It’s fantastic. I can have my work performed all over the country for the price of a video camera and the occasional priority mailed costume. I can also have my choice of dancers as long as they reside in the same place as each other. There are a few drawbacks, however.

I really enjoy feeding off my dancers during a rehearsal. I love to say, “I’m thinking of some sort of swirly movement in which you hold her like a koala zombie,” and seeing what I get in return. I can, of course, still do this but I may not get my answer for four days and it may not be what I wanted. Start again. “What if you make it less corpse like and more as if you were trapped in a jello mold?” Eh. Not quite. It works like this: I video myself or dancers located where I am and sometimes follow that by talking into the camera to describe certain parts. Then, I upload it to youtube.com and mark it private so the whole world can’t see my embryonic dance or me looking sweaty and gross as I blabber into the camera. The far away dancers watch it, learn it, video tape themselves doing it and repeat the upload process. I watch, take notes on changes I’d like made, send the notes back to the dancers, and get to work on the next segment of dance. It seems to take ages for one cycle.

I find myself forced to work off only my body if I have a deadline or a rehearsal space budget, and I often have both. This creates works that are made for a body like mine blended with the body of the dancer I’m imagining. So far, this has turned out great, if frustrating. It’s terrible to try and see tiny gestures or facial movements on video. I find myself dancing and describing what I’m doing at the same time, which generally works. The process gets long with all the video back and forth. It also requires a certain amount of trust. Trust in the dancer(s) to work hard without my immediate guidance. The dancers have to trust me to be working in times of less video contact and to properly explain how I want the work done. Common training and common dance language are helpful.

This weekend Kathleen Kelley and Anne Lazovik will be performing “So…come here often?” which is a work I created for two dancers in Minnesota, Erin Drummond and Kristin Howe. I really enjoy the piece. It’s silly with secret depth. Right. That’s pretty vague. But, to me there is meaning beneath the silliness. You’ll have to go see them at The Flea on October 6th for more about that. For the most part, Kathleen and Anne are simply learning the movements, etc. from Erin and Kristin on video. Of course, it won’t look the same. They aren’t bouncing off of me in person and currently have no idea what the piece is about (to me). I think that’s great. They’ll have a different story to perform than the original dancers. Now that they know the piece, I’ll be filling them in with my ideas in case anyone asks and I’m not there to answer. Another interesting point to me is that Kathleen and Anne chose to “be” the opposite person than I assumed they would. Kathleen and Erin are both taller, longer, more fluid dancers and even have black curly hair and porcelain skin. Anne and Kristin are power houses. They are more compact and muscle bound than their counter parts. They also both have blonde hair. Hair, of course, has nothing to do with anything, just a side note. I didn’t specify which part would belong to which dancer, but I assumed they’d see what I saw and go in that direction. It really surprised me to see their first video to me and see that Anne will be playing Erin and Kathleen will be playing Kristin. I can’t wait to see the video from these performances. It’s going to be a whole new dance and I just love that.

Merde, Kathleen and Anne! I can’t wait to hear how it went!

NYC, I hope you’re ready for all this.

New York News

It is a busy couple of weeks here in NYC, with lots of free shows and events coming up!

Come join us at White Wave’s Dumbo Dance Festival on Friday, September 25th and Saturday, September 26th!

September 25th at 7pm, Stephanie Blackmon Woodbeck’s duet, “So, Come Here Often?” will have its NY Premiere danced by Kathleen Kelley and Anne Lazovik
September 26th at 5pm, you can check out Stephanie’s duet if you missed it the first time around! But, be sure to stick around for…
September 26th at 8pm, Kathleen Kelley’s solo, “A Piece of What, #7”, a section of the Piece of What series.

All shows are free to the public, so please come join us to celebrate these new works.  All performances are held at the John Ryan Theater, 25 Jay Street, in Brooklyn. Check out http://www.whitewavedance.com for more info and the complete festival roster.

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Stephanie Blackmon Woodbeck’s duet, “So, Come Here Often?” will be participating in the free show, Dance Conversations at the Flea on Tuesday, October 6th at 7pm. This lab-like environment will feature the works of 4 emerging and mid-career choreographers. The performance is followed by an open discussion between the artists and the audience, moderated by choreographers Nina Winthrop and Tere O’Connor.

The Flea Theater is located at 41 White Street, between Broadway and Church in Manhattan.  http://www.the

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Another free event THIS Saturday, September 19th, 11pm-3am: Labor Force Dances kick-offs the season with a celebration: Dancer Dance Party held at Bar 4, 444 7th Ave (at 15th St) in Brooklyn.  Come dance like crazy with a lot of dancers and dancer-lovers, listen to fantastic tunes dj’ed by Kathleen Kelley and Anne Lazovik, and support Labor Force Dances by drinking lots of frosty beverages!

10% of the bar receipts will be donated to Labor Force…. just by having that drink or three you would have had anyway, you can help us get rehearsal space for our new work!

Check out this event on facebook.

Movie magic

Kathleen here.  I have been obsessed with Inglourious Basterds since seeing it two weeks ago.  I am particularly enthralled with Quintin Tarantino’s use of kitschy movie magic: old fashioned credits and chapter titles, the Jackie Brown-esque narrator that appears only twice in the whole film,  the little details that make you pay attention.

What I can’t get out of my head is the particular lushness of it.  As a director, he commands that you pay attention, that you buy his storyline, and that you care.  He lets this fantasy plot develop through such gory, bold, luxurious, imaginative detail.  The story takes its time, and does not apologize for taking up 2 1/2 hours of yours.

Ever since taking DNA’s Choreographic Investigation Course with Monica Bill Barnes, I have been really obsessed with art that makes bold choices, like Inglourious Basterds.  Art that is unapologetic, but not dogmatic.  Art that demands you pay attention.

Any thoughts on the movie or otherwise?

About us

Labor Force Dances is Stephanie Blackmon Woodbeck and Kathleen Kelley.  It makes dances in two cities: Minneapolis-St. Paul and New York City.  It has a roster of amazing dancers who give their time with such enthusiasm. It is about the lives and artistry of two women and friends.  It advocates feminism loudly.  Labor Force is about sweaty, physical dances.  Its about little girls and tutus and big blasts of emotions and the little subtleties of life. Its about making dances you see live, you see online, or you never get to see because they are made in our kitchens.

In this blog, Stephanie and Kathleen will talk about what we’re doing, what we’ve been seeing, what we’ve been rehearsing and what arty (or otherwise) ideas have been flowing around our heads.  We hope you–our readers, viewers, and favorite people–will engage with us and share all your amazing thoughts and interests and ideas and feedback.