Fame or Famine

This is just a little bit of a personal peeve: I recently applied to perform at an art show (which I will not deign to connect with here via URL). It was a fairly easy application process, sending a short email description along with some sites where my performances could be seen.
I didn’t get in. How do I know this? Not because they let me know; no, they simply posted on their website “If you haven’t heard from us yet, you probably didn’t get in.”
“Probably”? Probably? In the days when you had to send out form letters via post, …read more

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I recently did a performance art piece in Mexico City. It had some relatively dangerous aerial dance components for my partner, and so there was some stress involved, but it went well. In fact, it was a great performance.
Not that I was perfect. In fact, it was some of the sloppiest work I’ve done – it came after teaching a workshop all day, and I was not in top form. Neither would I say it went well because my partner was fine – it was a difficult performance for her, too, and we even had to end a little early …read more

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Ever heard that before? I have, and even managed to follow it for a few years, until my own lack of business acumen caused me to need a “real job”.
Of late my thoughts have turned again to that kind of life, though, and the joys of making your own hours (“work any 23 a day you want!“)  and making your own work. Of course, it’s not all fun and games, as any starving artist will tell you. Still, in today’s job market, the old maxim from “The Full Monty” might apply: “It’s more fun to be an unemployed dancer than …read more

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It made what I consider to be some of the most egregious offenses in terms of manufacturing drama & suspense ("You’re…(wait for it…wait for it..falling asleep…tension mounting…tension dismounting…hey, I need eggs…and some baking soda…is that a crack in the ceiling?.) not the one that we want.") but it did hold true to its word, and the Revival of Grease will be opening with Max Crumm and Laura Osnes as the leads. Broadway World has the beginning of a "getting to know the cast" feature up; I’m wanting to actually hear and see some of the re-staging, and hope that it’s …read more

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Attributed to, I think, Sir Laurence Olivier. But one of the reasons I love virtuosic comedy is because it displays enough of a mastery of your craft that you’ve gone beyond work into play, and having fun with it. Victor Borges, Madeleine Kahn, any clown in Cirque du Soleil, and here, an example of Dudley Moore, who you may have forgotten was a concert pianist before his days of acting.
Or, maybe, better to say "with" them…
 

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Ok, so this is going to be a two parter: first, go and read this article in Salon, which talks about passion (one of my top three words) and the way that the passion of the dancers is infectious, even for sour old curmudgeons like myself. Plus, it’s cleverly written:

"Because when you know, deep down inside, that you’re just as passionate as the next person, only then can you appreciate passion in others. Then, when people make deeply irritating statements like "I live for my art," or "Having children made me fully human — before that I was more like …read more

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I’ve been the Special Events Coordinator for an event in Chicago, that’s where. It was a great event that I won’t go into here, except to let you all know that I both witnessed and taught about performances, and amongst all the intense, stylistic changes that were there (the conference was about Japanese Performance Art) one very salient, forgiving point came up.
It’s a point that I think we all forget in our daily life. It’s the idea of the "ultimate goal." Where are you going with this? Why are you performing?
The answer, most of the time, is that you’re doing …read more

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You know, I think I’ve got a new definition of the word virtuoso. It comes from a couple of recent pieces I’ve read – one in the business blog "Slow Leadership", and one in Greg Sandow’s ArtsJournal blog on the future of classical music.
He writes of hearing an opera singer – not just any opera singer, but a name – sing at a party:

…heard in a living room, this soprano was just about mesmerizing. Somehow the pianist and singers got started on The Sound of Music. A lyric soprano sang the title song. And then the Tosca soprano sang "Edelweiss." …read more

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Just watch it. And then, that thing you’ve been putting off because you figured it might be too hard to do? Just go do it, please.

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One of the more interesting pieces in today’s concert is Valerie Green’s "Naked Heart." It utilizes a different kind of movement vocabulary and accompaniment than most of the other pieces in the concert. Valerie, who graduated from the program just before I joined it, has a "choreographic work and teaching style influenced by her apprenticeship with the Erick Hawkins Dance Company"
I read this after we teched her solo, and I can definitely see it. I think I pleased her when I mentioned that her word seemed more based on "feeling" than beats and measures, and there are moments when she’s …read more

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