Fame or Famine

January 17th, 2008

A Talent Whines

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 […]

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December 4th, 2007

Definition of a Good Performance

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 - […]

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August 29th, 2007

Do What You Love, and the Money Will Follow

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 […]

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August 20th, 2007

Remember that other Show? Meet the cast of GREASE! the Revival

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 […]

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July 3rd, 2007

Death is easy; Comedy is hard

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 […]

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June 26th, 2007

Passion and SYTYCD

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 […]

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May 30th, 2007

My God, where have you been?

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) […]

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May 15th, 2007

Opera, Dance, or Juggling: Making it look easy

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 […]

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May 4th, 2007

Amazing Salsera

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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April 28th, 2007

More from the Booth: Valerie Green and the GreenSpace

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 […]

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