Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Social

Tonight, Ben, Emily, Ellen and I went out to the Dance/MetroDC year-end party at The Passenger just outside Gallery Place in DC. We got a chance to catch up with our friends in the dance world here, and learn about Dance/MetroDC's plans for the coming season. I'm excited for the "Should I Quit My Day Job?" Dance Offs in which D/MDC will pair professional choreographers with groups of non-dancers who'd like to try their hand at dancing and performing. The winning group will perform at the Dance Awards in October. Can't wait!

Company member Ben Wegman and Dance/MetroDC director (and former DXer) Peter DiMuro catch up

Peter and DX Projects Coordinator Ellen Chenoweth take in the scene

Headed out: Ellen, choreographer Kelly Bond, and Ben

Last week at St. John's

Michelle, Thomas and I spent last week at St. John's on the Lake in Milwaukee, WI. We made small group dances to finish of our week together...

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Tools for Health in Milwaukee

This week, Michelle, Thomas and I are in residence at St. John's on the Lake in Milwaukee, WI. We've just wrapped up a two-day Tools for Health training with local dancers and health care workers, and tomorrow we begin working with a group of residents to create a short piece for a showing on Friday. We're also documenting the whole process in collaboration with a videographer, so you can expect to see clips from that later this summer.

In addition to learning Dance Exchange tools and methods for generating and crafting movement, the participants shared their own practices when working with seniors with varying cognitive and physical abilities, crafted dances, developed potential workshops for their constituents, and participated in two Dance Exchange-led workshops with residents at St. John's. A number of issues emerged around how we talk about what we do: we're not dance therapists, but the impact of our work as artists can have a therapeutic effect, and can have an impact on clinical goals. How do we document goals met and provide evidence for our other artists and health care providers? A new dance, an article, clinical assessments with residents, participant writings, blogging, video--there are many ways and we're finding more.

In the spirit of finding multiple outcomes in this kind of work: We had each of our participants fill out pre- and post-assessment forms about their experience in the training. One of our participants, an Occupational Therapist, told us that on her pre-assessment form, she circled "1" in response to the question "Do you consider yourself a dancer?" On her post-assessment form, she circled "4".

If you are interested in learning more about Tools for Health or attending a future training, please email Dorothy Williams, Partnerships Manager: dorothyATdanceexchange.org.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Plan it.

Today Thomas, Martha, Shula, Cassie, Ben and I had a planning meeting/rehearsal for our upcoming Summer Institute. The culmination of our institute will be a performance in a parking garage in Adams Morgan, so we started playing with the cars in our parking lot at DX for ideas.

Check out the performances featuring DX company and Summer Institute participants on July 16-17...more details coming soon!

Day o' meetings

Friday, June 4, 2010

Meet the DX: Ben

Company member Ben Wegman grew up in Normal, Illinois and trained at the Joffrey Ballet and Point Park University. He joined the Dance Exchange in 2007 after spending a few years as an adjunct artist. You can see him dance in the premiere of Liz Lerman's The Matter of Origins in September at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center.

Talk a bit about your dance background.

I grew up as an incredibly active kid. When I wasn’t tearing through the neighborhood at full speed, I was playing soccer, taking tae kwon do, taking tap and gymnastics, performing in my church musicals, etc. Dance has always been a part of my life, but I really began to take it more seriously my last two years of high school. I began to approach ballet very seriously, and for a long time thought it would be the focus of my dance career. Thankfully some mishaps with the Joffrey Ballet led me to realize that my strengths were best focused elsewhere.

How did you come to Dance Exchange?

I met the Dance Exchange during my time as a student at the Conservatory of Performing Arts at Point Park University. Peter DiMuro, one of the former producing artistic directors of the company, made a new work with several students selected through an audition process. Working with Peter and the tools of the Dance Exchange I was exposed to methods of creation and choreography I had never even imagined. It was the first time that my voice and ideas were an integral part of creating something within a group. I had never worked so collaboratively or so intensely with a group of people in my life to make a work of art.

Do you have a favorite moment on tour or in rehearsal?

Being in Japan was a highlight of my time with the Dance Exchange. I was incredibly moved by the culture, tradition, work ethic and generosity of the people there. It was one of the only times in my life when I had to solely rely on my art and creative process to translate ideas; there was very little shared spoken language among myself and the participants. It was a struggle and also a joy to watch dance be both personal and universal simultaneously through creation of a new dance work with that community. It was also one of the first opportunities for me to flex my leadership muscles and I learned a great deal about myself and my capacity as an artist/teacher/facilitator. It is a time in my life that I hold very closely to my heart.

Do you have any pre-show rituals?

I wouldn’t say that I have a specific pre-show ritual, but I become a very specific person before shows. I used to go really crazy before shows - be very physical, warm up for hours, expend a lot of energy in the hopes of warming up my body and getting myself excited, but I’ve found that the older I get and the less physical work I do right before I perform, the better. I tend to be very quiet before I perform, very reflective. Pre-performance time is a time to center myself emotionally, physically, mentally. I find myself in deep self-dialogue before shows; you could almost say in a meditative state. It’s these moments when I have to push the rest of myself aside, and place my faith and trust in my physical being, in my training, in the knowledge that my structure holds, in all the work and study I’ve done over the years.

What is up next for you with Dance Exchange?

A lot. I just finished a residency in Lawrence, Kansas at the Lawrence Arts Center teaching modern technique and choreographic tools. The rest of the year will find me creating and teaching at our Summer Institute, preparing for the world premiere of Liz Lerman’s The Matter of Origins in September, touring throughout the fall, creating new works with students at Dickinson State University in Dickinson, North Dakota and students at University of Maryland and beginning to work with the Minnesota Chorale in Minneapolis to design a concert of dance, movement, and song with a mixed abilities cast.

What would you do if you weren't dancing?

If I wasn’t dancing, I would probably be working/studying within the visual art world curating and presenting. I have a strong interest in how we foster new art as well as represent and make apparent what has come before. I’m interested in how art speaks across time, culture and language and how that dialogue changes as our society evolves.

What do you do when you're not in rehearsals?

Well, I don’t think I’m ever not in rehearsal honestly. I think as long as I continue to dance, I’ll be in some form of rehearsal. My body and mind seem to be in a constant state of discovery and collaboration, be it in the studio or sitting at a coffee shop. Sometimes I feel like my entire world revolves around the discoveries of my physical structure; I just can’t shut it off.

But, when I’m not in the studio, I like to read. I’ve recently rediscovered bikram yoga and find immense strength in the practice of that. I tend to drink too much coffee and spend too much time on facebook as a hobby. I like to provide conversation and company while my friends cook, since I’m probably the worst cook ever but the perfect dinner guest. I enjoy foreign films and old movies. I am fed and nurtured by the Smithsonians and art galleries around DC, the Hirshhorn being a particularly favorite spot of mine.

You almost always have a book on you at Dance Exchange. What are you reading right now?

I’m never just reading one thing – I’m currently downing 5 back issues of the New Yorker, the new anthology of Kay Ryan’s poetry, the fourth section of Roberto Bolano’s 2666, and William T. Vollmann’s Kissing the Mask.

Photos: Ben in rehearsal in Portlaoise, Ireland in 2008 (Photo by Jori Ketten) / Ben with two community participants in Sheboygan, WI (Photo by Sarah Levitt) / Ben performing Keith Thompson's work, Blueprints of Relentless Nature (Photo by John Borstel)


Cassie featured in July's Dance Magazine

Company member Cassie Meador is featured in this month's Dance Magazine! She wrote an article for their "Why I Dance" section:

"Rather than spending hours trying to move like others in a ballet class, I attempted to move like the things I observed in my environment: the resilient squirrels in my yard, the way the magnolia trees bent down during a storm, the walking ritual my 88-year-old neighbor took to the edge of her drive each day, and the speed of land being cleared along the Savannah River. It was these tiny and grand expressions that I hungered to dance about."


Read the full article here.