MAD Artistic Adventures

CSU Fresno Day 4

2010-09-28T10:14:00.000-07:00

Finished
We completed the last of the dance. I love the students enthusiasm, not only diving into the movement but also taking the content of the movement more deeply each time they run the dance. I am really please with the dance, it is what I had hoped for, a dance of significance.

Significance
A dance of significance moves both the performers and viewers to examine life in some manner. It creates a wave of change, leaving with the dancers and viewers an impact that is not quickly forgotten because it initiates thoughts and discussions that move people deeper into an understanding about the humanness that we all share.

Costumes
Thank you to Professor Balint who released the students early from Ballet so that we could create the costumes together. We used pedestrian clothes that were from other dances, and Kenneth died them all shades of grey. Then after Ballet I taught the students how to dye-paint to achieve the effect of distressing the clothes. Each student created their own costume effect that is now an abstraction of pedestrian clothes... making the dancers appear both as people, as abstractions of people, and of a group that belongs together. In my mind, all of these characters are aspects of the dreamer, but as people observe the dance I fully expect each viewer to interpret from their own experience -as if the dance were a Rorschach Ink Block.

Music
After now 20+ hours editing the music I am pleased with the result. Each students voice is part of the soundscape, and the selection of music and sound effects that are interspursed flow together in the way that allows the dream to change scenes logically (which in a dream is sometimes illogical!). Although I always want to surprise the audience, I don;t wish to jar them, so it's a delcate process to edit so many sound bytes together gracefully!

Final Showing
At the end of the last rehearsal we decides to invite people to come witness the first run of the completed dance. The costumes were barely dry as the audience arrived. We fit about 3 dozen people into the studio to observe and the dancers completed a great run through. The audience responses were quite helpful, sharing with us in a question and aswer (we asked questions of the audience). As am I (and Kenneth has said also) they were very impressed with the passion of the dancers... the commitment to the movement... the risk. And the images they sahred with us helped the dancers understand how they have guided the audience to share in this expereince of a nightmare. I loved the audiences excitement about seeing a dance that was beautiful in it's darkness.

Accomplishment
More than learning a dance to perform, these dancers have learned through EMP how movement communicates with a viewer and then applied that to the dance to direct the nuances of what we want the audience to witness. They have demonstrated to me that they understand how the use of tension/release and time signatures of movement change the meaning in gesture and movement and how one movement can mean many things when performed in different ways. They have been courageous in the emotional and physical risk needed to accomplish our goals and have maintained a supportive enthusiastic comradery among the group members.

The Ongoing Challenge
The dance is successful in pushing the time, space and energy to extremes and thus creating a dance that walks a path that is uncommon. It is hard as a piece goes into rehearsal to hold onto the uncommoness because our human minds group things into familiar in order to remember them. These movements must remain extreme to retain the power of the piece. Now, as they take the piece to rehearse it will be important that they contunally recall:

• the core motivation for the movements (spine, head, shoulders, pelvis)
• the risk of taking the time to the extreme of slow with the intensity of bound tension
• the moments where bursts of movement surprise the viewer (quick, forceful)
• the manner of creating a guesture that appears to be motivated from outside one's own body (time signature quick to slow)

and of course, each run through should conquer any exptra steps or shifts of weight and should polish any partnering moments that have not captured complete and powerful flow.

What a please it has been to work with this company. I have to say that their director, Kenneth Balint, is training them in the manner of professionalism, open minds and strong bodies that will make these dancers ideal candidates for whatever they choose to accomplish in dance!

CSU Fresno Day 3

2010-09-27T10:18:00.000-07:00

What a great group of dancers... committed, enthusiastic and courageous! And tireless!

In six hours we put together 8 minutes of dance and have only the ending to finish. We've discussed details of make-up, hair, lighting and costumes and the dancers will meet with me today to create their costumes before rehearsal.

What I have loved most about this project is that the students have faced each challenge I set for them with the utmost grace, even under these intense challenges. The risks I refer to are not just the physical athleticism and partnering, but the most difficult -the emotional risk. I am asking 12 undergraduate students to dive into the material from which horror films are made, and to access their life experience to make it real.

One might wonder, "Why would anyone do this?", "Isn't dance suppose to be pretty?".
Actually, it has taken me a while to understand my internal motivation... while I love to move and so became a dancer, I lived a very difficult childhood and had no resources with which to cope. Painting and art provided some manner of expression but not until I found dance did I find a voice that could express what I felt The depth of the emotions were too deep to be expressed literally, and dance provided a resource to express these things without naming them, analysing them or defining them. And then, when I began showing my dances to the public the most amazing thing happened. People I didn't know began writing me, so many I can't remember them all, and telling me of their experience. The most dramatic were those who told me they were suicidal until they saw my dance, which made them feel understood and less alone and more able to cope. There were those who were overwhelmed to know the were not alone in the shadow of grief, or the belief their late loved one was still with them. And those who said that they didn't think anything so beautiful as the dance could come of such a terrible experience. And the perpetrators of child abuse at a conference who cried when the watched "Sarah's Doll House", a dance that without blame or judgement portrays the Twilight-Zone-like experiences of the abused child.

Cultural Awareness
These experiences, and having lived through isolation, I have a keen desire to provide a vehicle to help people feel understood. To put our real humanness on the stage -no fairytale. Having toured to other countries, and particularly Belarus where we were sponsored by the Embassy as Cultural Ambassadors representing the USA, I have become acutely aware that our American sensibilities of social acceptance are vastly different from other countries. Somehow I had never realized that other cultures don;t place the same value on being happy that we do. My artistic mission has been to shed light on the darkness because I understood that disconnecting from those darker emotions causes a myriad of interpersonal and social problems. And not having the darker emotions understood isolates the sufferer and intensifies the darkness. When a loved one dies, for example, people say "It'll be OK" and they give a socially acceptable amount of time (about a month) to grieve but then it is suppose to go away so that you can live the American value of happily-ever-after. But when the grief/depression/anger -whatever the darker emotion is- doesn't go away, our culture provides few ways to deal with it.

Authenticity & Significance
Through dance, I have found a way to help people feel understood. Without being literal, he dances I create often dive into forbidden topics and issues (death, grief, hauntings, mental illness, suicide, child abuse, war, sleep disorders...). Through Expressive Movement Processing, presenting the dancers with the opportunity to bring subconscious material to the dance, each dance takes on the personality and characteristics of those who perform it. Even the same dance will never be performed the same way by different performers. Through the decision making process EMP brings to the dancers as they learn the dance, each dancer brings their life experience into the dance. And the process allows dancers to stretch their performance comfort zone so that they can perform intense emotions (whether funny, sad, crazy or whatever) in an authentic manner. And that's what the whole process is about: authenticity. Otherwise, the dance will not resonate with the soul of the viewer and will not achieve what I consider the highest tenets of the art of dance... significance.

And significance is what I can see happening in this dance. Taking on the topic of nightmares and bringing awareness to aspects of sleep/sleep deprivation, night terrors and through the kinetic reaction of the viewer, changing the inability to ever really share the depth of experience of a nightmare: sharing the unsharable.

CSU Fresno Day 2:

2010-09-26T09:15:00.000-07:00

Expressive Movement Processing:
This is a group of students that have just started working together this semester. As I teach them how to dive into their subconscious, a frightening thing for many to do, they readily accept the challenge to learn to be comfortable in the discomfort that can arise when one lets go of conscious control and explores internal motivators. This is seriously frightening for many dancers, yet only by learning to be comfortable letting go of control can a dancer achieve the highest tenets of performance -drawing on multiple resources to disover and portray authentic motivations of the character being portrayed, even when those are outside of one's own comfort zone. In the movement research that we have done, these dancers have turned themselves over to the process and thus the dance -the creation of absolutely original movements that are authentic in their expression of both motion and emotion- has begun to take on a life of it's own.

Partnering:
In a 6 hour rehearsal I took the dancers through the basics of partnering -a course I typically would take 10 weeks to teach. We set some absolutely beautiful, original and creative partnering sections, and developed the basic movement phrases that will be the skeleton of the piece. They quickly established a level of trust that bonded the students as a cohesive group and they responded to my nudges to dive further into the abstract emotional content of the movement without trying to convey anything in specific, but rather allowing the movement to be real and to speak the truth in the way that only the language of the body can. I really enjoyed observing their professor (Kenneth Balint) as he watched the sections of the dance and saw new potentials in the students begin to be realized.

We ate dinner at Professor Balint's house with the department chair and enjoyed creative dialogue and great food, and then returned to the hotel to spend most the night creating the music.

Music:
I had asked the dancers to recall a recurring or vivid dream and during our lunch break I recorded their voices telling the story of their dream. Back at the hotel I created a score that includes sound effects, some beautiful cello music (I love the music of Zoe Keating, and will contact her through a mutual friend to get permission for the use of sections of her work) with effected sections of the voices of the dancers. The result is a vivid, textured soundscape that sets the stage for creating the dance in rehearsal today.

Costumes:
Professor Balint and I went through the costume inventory at the school to find various items that we could put together to create a pedestrian yet unified look for the dancers. We'll try the costumes on them today, then after rehearsal go shopping to fill in the blanks, get some dye and fabric paint. Then tomorrow morning the dancers will meet with me to create the pedestrian yet abstract, dimensional, textured look that I want for this dance.

Cal State Fresno residency Sept 24-27, 2010

2010-09-24T19:52:00.000-07:00

Day 1
I've been looking forward to this residency even though it comes in the middle of the re-creation of a new dance on Moving Arts. Professor Kenneth Balint danced in A Ludwig Dance Co (although a few years after I did!) so it's all in the dance-family!

This is a short and quick process (4 days) so today we went through what would normally be ten weeks of material about Expressive Movement Processing in three hours AND covered the basics of partnering! And that was just the audition! Whoosh!

The students are great. Young & strong bodies, eager & open minds, they'll make the most of my time here.

We have chosen 12 dancers to work with and will create a dance for the American College Dance Festival. This will be fun.. AND we have our work cut out for us!

A new start

2010-01-26T17:17:00.001-08:00

The keys to the warehouse (former dance center) were returned two weeks ago...
We have almost cleared out the third storage area to pare down to two (so much to get rid of!)...

This has been an amazing process.
Twenty plus years of creating and one month to dismantle.

It's great to find out how many people have turned out to support us, even with just notes or a call... all the way to those who spent their extra minutes and hours helping us!

Change is hard, but this can be a metamorphosis. Now we'll find out what greatness begins and where it will take our MAD community!

We'll perform "Whispers" in San Jose next month... looking forward to it!

Count Down to be out!

2009-12-20T21:19:00.000-08:00

Counting days
Counting costumes
Counting sprung wood floor pieces and rolls of Marley
Counting friends
Counting our luck
Counting those who are there for us when we need them most!

We have until Dec 31, but hope to be done earlier. We could not do this without the support of the many, many volunteers and supporters! THANK YOU.

We have organized and tomorrow the dismantling begins.

Counting breaths
heartbeats
steps...

and freely letting everyone shed the many tears that are necessary to grieve this process.

It's as if I have been raising a child... really for 30 years... with the help of Scott for the last decade... and the child has been severely ill for the last three years... we have done everything we can to keep it alive, at great personal cost... and now it's time to let go. But the soul of the child will live on in the creative work of the professional company.

Changing Tides

2009-12-01T08:27:00.000-08:00

Dec. 1 and our world is about to change. There's a whirlwind waiting for us.
We have a world premiere this Sat, Dec 5
Moving Arts Dance Center and School will close as of January 1.

We've put our hearts and souls into this dance center. We have loved every step, even the most difficult, because each step brought us closer to perfection in the creation of this school and theater. Now, this week marks our last performance in this wonderful location.

So now we'll find another way to make the world a better place. But we leave knowing that we have made a difference in many lives. As dance changed my life, gave me a place to call home, physical confidence and grace, and a voice with which I could speak non-verbally, so I believe we have helped many who have crossed our paths.

I will miss the school and theater so very much. I will miss seeing everyone weekly and knowing that we are all on the path together to be more gracious, sophisticated people... to creating art on the forefront of creativity in dance... to developing this creative village that we have enjoyed for too brief a time.

So, here we go... into the whirlwind of the known and unknown.
• A very difficult move awaits us. Literally. Everything goes into storage in December.
• And then, a very difficult move awaits us in January. Figuratively. Everything must be re-created into it's new form,
whatever that will be!

Here's to the future, and the steps each day to help us achieve even higher goals than we can imagine today! Keep your chins up and your spirits high. Great things await us all.

The Beginning or the End? Day of the Dead approaches

2009-09-14T14:13:00.000-07:00

Our "Welcome Back" concert Sept 12th was produced at the end of the first week of classes for the Fall 2009 session at the dance center. It was an amazing concert and exemplified the vision for the dance center.... to provide a venue for experimental dance theater to be produced and have audience feedback. It was an amazing concert and made me very proud of the work Scott and I have done along-side a multitude of volunteers, to make this possible.

The first week of classes showed us that we do not have the income from student fees to survive this session. If all our students were paying we would be fine. However, our studio has been hit very hard by the recession. Since about March we have been approached almost daily by a parent who have lost their job, been given furlows or reduced hours. Now, a class of nine students may have as few as one that is not on scholarship.

Our session is gearing up for performances of Night Visions on Oct 24 & 25 (Sat times: 3:00, 5:00 & 7:00
Sunday Times: 5:00 & 7:00). Then we have one more week of classes to end the session on Oct 31. Thus, Nov 1, the Day of the Dead, become our deadline for raising funds to cover the almost $10,000 a month it will take to keep us open.

I will keep this blog up to date on details. As I said at the concert when I announced our dire situation, we have done tremendous work and we are in this situation because we are a humanitarian driven, creative based, non-profit arts organization rather than a BUSINESS. Our decision in running the business have been made on strong spiritual and moral grounds. We have aimed to trian gracious, creative minds along side athletic dance artists. We are the only training of this sort in Contra Costa County. To find this sort of training you have to go to Berkeley or San Francisco. And to find this sort of training for children limits the pool to less than a handful of schools in the Bay Area.

With only Scott and I to run it, our energy has gone where the needs were immediate in order to assure the spirit and soul of the business was pure. We have tried very hard, at much personal cost, to keep the business alive long enough for the economy to recover. So we offer no apologies that we are not "good businessmen". But now, without the help of the community stepping forward to fund it, we will have to close.

We have the best team of faculty to date, each fully committed to creative-based training at the highest tenets of professional dance... for every age and level without prjudice for beginning dancers or bais toward advanced dancers. It's a rare gem. I have felt like we are "Picasso's of the dance world in Contra Costa County" in that we are ahead of our time. This training is what is offered in universty settings and where national standards in dance are taught... but California schools lag behind the national curve in the teaching of dance offering it as exercise rather than art. And, California studios offer dance as entertainment, competition or ELITE art, only for those with chosen body types and natural skill. We are completely different. I hope it is a service the community decides is improtant enough to fund. In a short time we will know.

I am at peace with whatever the community decides, and I think I can speak the same for Scott.

Scottsdale EMP Residency -last day

2009-09-14T14:11:00.000-07:00

The last day of the residency was magical. The dance and costumes came together with a calm grace, (not that I got much sleep that week though!), so the last day was not a panic at all. We polished the piece, and did a photo shoot in the finished costumes. I had SUCH an amazing time with these dancers. They are FULL of LIFE with the rapt attention that is necessary to absorb so much information in a 5-day residency! I think that this dance is one of my all-time favorites. The students are authentic in their performance, take physical risks, and are ever grateful!!!

I can't wait to see performances of the dance and am really looking forward to the Arizona Dance Festival Oct 8-10 at the Tempe Center for the Arts where I heard they may be performing! My company will be there also! What fun! If we can raise the funds, we'll take OUR version of Whispers to perform on the second night!

Scottsdale EMP Residency Day 4

2009-08-21T08:23:00.000-07:00

Day 4 was a delight.
The class knows water technique enough now that I can simply lead them through the warm up and have been able to begin introducing some of the influences of Graham technique and the value of core strength in movement. The dancers listen well and are not resistant to changing movement habits that are less efficient. It is wonderful to see 20 bodies moving through space with abandon. They have been well prepared for this work. Their director, Angela Rosenkranz, is the real thing. She understands and imparts the value of pure technique, hard work and risk!

In EMP I lead the dancers through a dance therapy session that lead them to their shadow self. The dancers went in with open minds and hearts and engaged their subconscious without resistance. The depth of their movement understanding through these experiences has been phenomenal. They are developing the ability to understand movement as language, even in the abstract, and the next next step: applying that to performance. It is exciting for me to open this door for dancers!

AND, in applying the movement from the EMP sessions to choreography, we have developed a dance that has many levels of sophistication. The dancers are abandoned in their ability to take physical and emotional risk, so the piece takes the viewer on a journey that brings the audience to the edges of their seat at times. The gestures the dancers have chosen to incorporate into the dance are poignant in their expressive depth. And most importantly, the dancers have learned how to perform them authentically, so there is no sense of "drama" even though it is dramatic.

The dancers, though sore and tired, worked really hard and we finished the dance. Almost 11 minutes long. It is the third version of "Whispers". I really love finding the direction of the path that our combined subconscious takes the dance. Each version is entirely different. It is a fascinating experience! I hope SCC will bring the dance to CA so our sudiences can experience this version as well. It's so interesting to compare them!

Off to the LAST DAY!

Scottsdale EMP Residency Day 3- Sore but Tough

2009-08-19T21:58:00.000-07:00

Day 2 was a blur.
Water Technique at 10,
EMP at 11,
lunch until 12:30 or so
then rehearse until - 5:00.
A quick trip to buy clothing I can turn into costumes,
dinner with Angela and the company, and then
home to bleach, dye, dye again, and alter the clothing to begin the costume making process.
Not much sleep, and then do it all again!

And I'm OLD! Not to mention just had major surgery 4 months ago. But it's fun for me even though the body complains a bit. OK, it complains a lot.

The 20+ dancers here have taken very well to the absolute purity of Water Technique. Today I touched on kinesiological concepts for gaining flexibilty as well. They come with open minds and hearts, are good listeners, and value the absolution of habitual movements that distract from the body’s ability to move with ease and strength by empowering gravity… fall & recovery (thank you Doris Humphrey).

EMP seems to be a natural fit here too. The dancers present with untainted intentions. They value the opportunity to learn to dive into the deepest nuances of the ART of dance. They understand that movement that speaks to the soul through masterful technique holds an entirely different power than dance that is merely cool steps or great tricks strung together. And they want to learn how.

Using powerful and authentic moments captured through EMP, Instinct (the advanced dance company), spends the afternoon with me honing a new piece of choreography. We are resetting “Whispers, Silence, Rumors”. This is version three and represents for me the ability to dive ever deeper into a concept that has my attention: gossip. However, this version takes into consideration my recent neck surgery and the implications of neck to voice. Using the same processes that I employed to create the previous two versions, I have connected the dots by selected a few choice moments to remain the same in all three versions, but the rest is completely different as influenced by the differing personalities.

Rob Crouch, a life-friend of mine, came to watch rehearsal and brought his daughter. They made stunning observations. Rob had seen Whispers II in rehearsal in the Bay Area, so he had the insight to point out how the process honors the personalities that are involved. That the dance remains the same, but at the same time is presented with entirely different steps and the meaning changes slightly. He pointed out that it was interesting to see how it changed while retaining the power of the work.

I really love these dancers.

Through bruised skin, sore muscles and floor burns they don’t complain at all. Through dancing 6 hours at an incredible intensity, they maintain their sense of humor, cry when it’s an appropriate release, and laugh when that is more appropriate. For me, this is what being human is all about… sharing intimate intensity that enhances the lives of those we touch. Not holding back, but taking the risk to be real and understanding the incredible value that brings to all.

Two mores days to go.
So much more to do.
It's all about creating magic!

Scottsdale EMP Residency Day 1

2009-08-17T17:48:00.000-07:00

Technique:

The students here are mostly modern trained movers, which makes teaching them what I call "water technique" amazingly easy. In one hour we covered what could have taken two days.. understanding the theory of fall & recovery (Doris Humphrey) and release technique.

EMP:
Then we spent the second hour working with EMP... eyes closed following open-ended imagery to inform the movement choices. This is an amazing process. Much like Dance Therapy and Authentic Movement, EMP begins with a leader who guides the group (or individual) through familiarizing themselves with eyes-closed movement. It is a difficult task because culturally we are such a visually oriented society. When one closed their eyes, suddenly the environment is frightening, unfamiliar and feels unsafe. Additionally, eyes closed moving in a group of people -even just walking around- means that their will be accidental touches that occur. An additional source of discomfort. This group, however, was open-minded and brave. They embraced the opportunity to dive into a new way of learning about movement, took risks, and were generous with their energy. Their reactions to movement ran the typical gamut of emotions from fear to relief, from a desire to connect with another, to a desire to remain apart. This group is open-minded, great listeners with a body-self familiarity that exists less when dancers are trained in specific techniques only. For example, ballet trained dancers can be absolute and amazing masters of the ballet technique and yet, in an environment where they are free move in any manner, the lack of form reveals a dancer who has not developed self-confidence as a mover outside of the movement of ballet.

These dancers moved so quickly through "water technique" and embraced EMP full-heartedly.

Choreography for the Company:

After the workshop I rehearsed with the company. These dancers are fearless risk takers (which I LOVE). They understand their body to the point where they can take "safe" physical risks, and they have enough confidence as performers to dive into the emotional risk. This didn't take place without the laughter that reveals discomfort. Sometimes the exercises would hit a nerve and the discomfort would show it's head, but the dancers moved through it and the dance we are setting showcases their strength as performers, as well as dancers!

I have begun setting a new version of the dance "Whispers, Silence, Rumors". This version will have it's own title as it is exploring a different angle, but it is performed to the same music as the two previous versions of the dance.

The dancers are employing the same process as the two previous versions... calling on their own inner resources to explore movements that come from subconsciously guided decision making. An example of this is one section of the dance that explores movement that entangle the dancers bodies, swooping in and out of each other's way, in an intricate timing that, if missed, could lead to the slamming of bodies together in manners that are not advised! With this direction, three couples have created their own choreographic phrases that interlock, the intersection of which creates a backdrop of chaotic humanity that is as of yet without interpretation. Within the next week we will fill in the movement blanks to finish the dance under the guidance of decision making that engages the subconscious. The end of this process will reveal a dance that will have meaning which will be revealed to us in time. When the meaning is revealed, we as a group will understand something about ourselves that our subconscious has dictated for us to see at this time in our lives.

I can't wait to understand what it will be!

Scottsdale EMP Residency -the Technique class

2009-08-16T09:34:00.001-07:00

At the beginning of each day I will teach a technique class based on the theories of Fall & Recovery as developed by Doris Humphrey. When I was a young dancer I had the opportunity to perform in the "Doris Humphrey Festival" in Tempe, Arizona. I was cast in two dances, "Water Study" and "New Dance". Though I was not consciously aware of it at the time, my experiences, especially in "Water Study," influenced the rest of my career in dance.

I was a modern dancer with ballet-as-a-second-language (so to speak). My great love was taking dance to the edges of flying on the physical plateau and to the edges of authenticity on the emotional plateau.

In order to take such physical risk I had to learn to work with, rather than against gravity.

In order to take emotional risk, I had to develop a way to work with, rather than against, fear.

Toward achieving the emotional levels of risk I developed EMP. Toward the physical levels of risk I have come to realize that although many techniques influence my performance and teaching style (including Jose Limon, Martha Graham, Alwin Nikolias, Bill Evans and others), Doris Humphrey's "Water Study" in particular gave me tools to perform, and now teach "Fall & Recovery", or as it is often called "Release Technique".

For this residency, we will dive into both!

Scottsdale EMP Residency begins

2009-08-15T22:27:00.000-07:00

A 2-day drive to Arizona was actually a great way to relax and clear my head for the upcoming week. I am excited to work with the researchers and dancers who are interested in the mind and brain. EMP (Expressive Movement Processing), for those of you who haven't experienced it, it is a combination of my educational interests: BAE in Dance Education, masters degree in Choreography with a second emphasis in Kinesiology and a second masters degree in Dance/Movement Therapy.

While finishing my first masters degree, I began the pursuit of my second masters degree as a means to further my choreographic vision: engaging movement as a means for emotional expression. My masters thesis was on "Movement as Emotional Expression". My advisers suggested I learn about dance therapy because it accesses the emotions, and subconscious impulses, through movement. This course of study unleashed a whole new way of choreographing AND performing for me.

As I pursued the two masters degrees, I engaged the creative world of choreography, the scientific world of kinesiology and the psychological world of dance therapy in my quest for understanding how movement communicates, and more than that, to understand how movement touches the heart and soul of the viewer in an authentic -real and genuine- connection that is meaningful.

I began at first to call the product, the dances created, "Dances of Significance". This referred to the intention of the work: the art of dance as seen through the viewpoint of it's ultimate communication with the audience. But the title didn't covey the full impact of the process; a research tool that cultivated creative movement vocabulary for the choreographer, and unlocked the potential of the performer to reach into the recesses of his/her own experiences that are the source of powerful performance.

As I began to form the process, it became critical that it provide a manner to face the fears that prevent one from fully engaging in the creative expression of all emotions in their most valuable, vulnerable and genuine expression. It would be important also that the process then provide choreographers with a garden of uncultivated movement expressions, as I discovered come from intention and nuance, from movements unpracticed in the dance vocabulary and sometimes unbridled emotion expressed in raw movement that takes the witness on unexpected journeys.

Thus, as I began to understand that authentic expressive movement was the more universal product for which I searched, I utilized processes from dance therapy, improvisation, acting, dancing, choreography mixed together with a touch of scientific interest in the formula of the language of movement. Ultimately the name of this process thus evolved to become Expressive Movement Processing (EMP):

Expressive Movement Processing (EMP): Developed by Anandha Ray, EMP utilizes processes from improvisation, dance therapy and acting to (1) uncover and release blocks to creativity in performance, (2) formulate choreographic vocabulary, (3) understand and embody character development. EMP is a journey into the subconscious world in which creativity bridges the void between self and other. Through this process one surrenders control and follows pathways that allow the subconscious to reveal itself through artistic expression in movement. The process is both a deep exploration of self and personal motivations and practical education in the universal hieratic and culturally specific language of movement.

2009-05-13T15:46:00.000-07:00

2007-06-24T21:53:00.000-07:00

2007-05-18T21:08:00.001-07:00

2007-02-17T02:14:00.000-08:00

2007-02-15T21:13:00.000-08:00

Recent events (as of Feb 2007)

2007-02-14T20:28:00.000-08:00

Just a brief recap:

October Walnut Creek, CA "Night Visions"
Four performances
The world premiere of our 60 minute foray into the
delightfully dark world of Halloween... a perform that
is set in the environment of a "wax museum" -where
the wax figures come to life!

Nov 12 Palm Desert "Under the Stars Choreographers Festival"

We were eligible for two awards and
took first place in both:
Solo Choreography,
Choreography on a dancer under 12.
CONGRATULATIONS
Sophia Bouzos and Anandha Ray!

Dec. San Francisco, CA "The MAD Hatter Performance and Tea Party"

An original story, depicting the adventures of Alice in Wonderland's grandaughter (Malice) in a current day, Gothic, Wonderland
• on the waterfront at the Cowell Theater
with performances by Tony and Elaine LaRussa
whose daughter Devon is a member of the co.
in addition to cameo performances by students of
SOLAD Dance Center, Delta Ballet
and the Rhythm Room

Dec Antioch, CA "The MAD Hatter Performance and Tea Party"

on the waterfront at the art-deco El Campanil Theatre

2007

Jan 14 St. Louis, MO "ARF Stars to the Rescue"
We received a standing ovation from 5,000 people!
In "Amethyst Dreams" with Devon LaRussa, Terrin McGee Kelly, Paris Wages and violinist Carlos Reyes
also performing: Winona Judd, The Doobie Brothers and more

Jan. 21 NY, NY Booking Conference

one strong lead for tours in China

Feb. 9 & 10 San Jose, CA "sjDanceCo Annual Choreographers Festival"

The festival gave two choreography awards,
Audience Choice and
Producer's Choice...
we won BOTH!
CONGRATULATIONS
Anandha, Maria and CJ!

Feb 10 Oakland, CA "Tapestry Dance Festival"

CONGRATULATIONS DANCERS
Momentum members debut performance
as Mountain Elves
Lauren Atkinson
Candace Cabrera
Sarah Jauregui
Audry Lamb
Rachel Nesheim

in Temporal Landscapes with MA II members
Michelle Dawkins
Miranda Munro
Amber Payne
Brittany Richards

and Moving Arts Dance members
Devon LaRussa at the Snow Fairy and
Terrin McGee Kelly as the Water Nymph

Paige Gruner made her debut performance as a
guest member of MA II in "No Place To Rest"
choreographed for her by Anandha Ray

AND... Terrin, Devon, Coreen Danaher
and Damon Mahoney premiered a revised version of
"Island of Tears" with dancers from Momentum, MA II, and guest performers

In the Beginning There Was Dance

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Moving Arts Dance has toured, as of today, over 67,ooo miles since 2003:
6 countries,
9 USA states,
27 cities,
62 performances,
17 standing ovations,
23 tours with residencies,
5 competitive festivals, and
7 awards from 4 of the 5 festivals.
But who's counting?

At first it was a really tough to break into the touring circuit, but self-producing concerts was killing us financially, not to mention that it was a lot of work to create a whole concert that only got performed ONCE!

Also, the tours didn't break even -but they cost less than self producing. I believe very much that if you follow your intuition, you will find your path. In the face of having no money and no concerts lined up, my intuition told me to have a concert ready. So I rehearsed -for no apparent reason. Thinking me crazy, we lost a few dancers. Then came the first call... a concert in Louiville, KY... in two months! We were ready. That concert opened the door to our next tours and from each tour more doors were opened. And now we have a strong history to stand on as we look to build more touring, especially at home in California. Plus, we have been accepted by a great organization for booking representation, Pentacle (http://www.pentacle.org/).

So spread the word... We're great at what we do. We're ready to do it!

For a visual of our performance history visit: .

Getting Started

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Anandha Ray here. I am the Artistic Director of Moving Arts Dance (www.movingartsdance.org). This company tours internationally, and provides educational outreach... as well as daily classes at home in the Bay Area of California for the general public as well as at-risk families.

It has long been suggested that we "blog" our adventures... so here goes.

I have agreed to make this effort because it is my contention that the daily goings-on of this dance company life provide a rich look into the "culture" of humanness... capturing the greatness of humanity through artistic expression -at home and on the road.

Living in the artistic sub-culture called Moving Arts Dance, the dancers, directors and I strive to create dances that are
• on the "edge" of creative force... and that are what I call
• "dances of significance"... art as entertainment -rather than for the SAKE of entertaining.

The "family-life" that evloves from such a deeply connected artistic vision is compelling...
We strive for
• honesty
(artistic and personal),
• courage
(to take artistic risk, and to be honest),
• the absolutely new
(as we tour the world we take it all in, and embrace the artistic diversity in order to nourish the freshness that has become our own artistic style)...

and we intend to change the world... making dance a healthy environment that encourages professional artists who have developed their trade without developing anxieties and disorders!

I have learned that less is better... so short blogs will be attempted (though there's always so much to say, and short is relatively subjective -especially with my propensity to strive for "absolute").