SDSU Studio Theater (tickets available at Smith Recital Hall Box Office or at music.sdsu.edu)
Saturday, November 19, 8:00PM
tickets: $8 (student), $12 (general)

Rebecca Bryant will perform her newest solo entitled Suite Female: Part I, a piece that Chicago dance critic Zachary Whittenburg called “limited in palette, albeit exploding with suggestions...” Part of Bryant’s Suite Female series, this solo focuses on cultural constructions of female identity within Western culture using book titles and rigorously improvised movement.

The Past Modern Performance Duo’s latest piece, A Moment of Danger, combines non-traditional music and dance-making strategies to deal with notions of risk-taking in contemporary performance. Percussion is played on circular saw blades, dance phrases are built by negotiating safety cones, and car crash simulations create a backdrop for this satirical look at making a “safe” performance.

The short film Movements In and Out of Time is an international collaboration between four time-based artists blending dance, visual art, music, and video. Using Eiichi Tosaki’s Bimanual Coordination Drawings (asymmetrical compositions drawn with both hands) as a point of departure, dancer Rebecca Bryant and musicians Don Nichols and Reiko Manabe improvise performative responses which are intricately collaged together in a visually striking film.

Rebecca Bryant, Don Nichols, Leslie Seiters, and Ron Estes have been meeting in performance over the last several years. They will gather again in San Diego in the second half of this evening of work.

Post 5

POST 5

I apologize for posting this late! I am giving you all an extension until class time on Thursday to make your comments.

I couldn't decide what to post for this week so I posted three pieces! Please choose at least one piece to respond to and if you choose to watch all three that is great. Continue to notice how what you see relates to your experiences/questions in class.

QUESTION:What do you see in terms of performance quality? What specific ways of using weight, momentum, follow through and punctuation do see in the movement vocabulary of the 3 different choreographers?

Kathleen Hermesdorf and Susan Marshal are American choreographers. Lee Su-Feh is a Canadian choreographer. The following are excerpts from their choreography.

Kathleen Hermesdorf (look at the 3rd video) http://www.la-alternativa.us/www.la-alternativa.us/Welcome_.html

"Cloudless" by Susan Marshal http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EZTZzZHfoE

"The Whole Beast" by Lee Su-Feh http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPl-EdWUCXM

Post 4

As usual consider how you can relate what you see in these videos to your experience in class.

QUESTION: What do you notice about ways of relating through both close and far proximity? What do you notice about touch and partnering? Any thoughts/questions/imagery that these works evoke for you?

These are short excerpts of longer works by two american choreographers, who both use a lot of partnering based in contact improvisation within their work:

"Wonder Boy" by the Joe Goode Dance Company 2009, United States

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8N8lzfJB60

"Rocky vs. Barishnikov" by Scott Wells and Dancers 2002, United States

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmlfROd3qaQ

Post 3

Thank you for the fullness and detail within your comments last week. It is exciting to continue to hear how you are thinking/writing about contemporary dance.

QUESTION: Who is a dancer? Is there a certain kind of "body" that can/can't dance? What is dance? How do you feel that these questions relate to "The Cost of Living"? What does this piece evoke for you/make you think about?

These are two short excerpts from "The Cost of Living" by DV8, a British dance theatre company, directed by Lloyd Newson. It is part of a 35 minute piece that was made for film in 2004.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EayAmhSsBZI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR7kAGgxXS0&feature=related

POST 2

Thank you for the thoughtfulness of your comments last week! Continue to play with using imagery and specificity to describe what you see and what it evokes for you. The more that you can connect what you see with your experiences/questions from class the better. Continue to indulge in your curiosity through observation and questioning.

QUESTION: How do you experience sound/silence in relationship to the stillness/movement within this piece?

An excerpt of "The Song" by the contemporary Belgian company Rosas. Choreographed by Anne Teresa Dekeersmaker in 2009.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlQuhLfE

POST 1

Welcome to Beginning Contemporary! This blog will serve as a forum for exposure to and discussion of contemporary dance (that ever evolving term!) that is happening throughout many parts of the world. I will post a link to a short (usually under 5 minutes) video along with a primary question to consider. You will write a written response that relates to the primary question and the points that are brought up by your classmates. I encourage you to enjoy these videos and really allow yourself to see them from a place of openness and curiosity. The more that you can think/feel about how it relates to your/our experience in class, the better! I will always post a video on Thursday and you must post your response by class time the following Tuesday. Late posts will not receive credit. Please email me or talk to me in class if you have questions or need further clarification. Enjoy!

QUESTION: How do you see the dancers using body parts in relationship to the whole body? What imagery/questions does this piece evoke for you?
The example for this week is by the Isreali dance company Batsheva. The piece is titled "Three" by Ohad Naharin made in 2005.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCaHbOLGXfY