Wrap-up

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I feel like I’m in a bit of a dance coma. Last weekend was both the premiere of Satin Stitch at Spacetaker and a screening with new live music by Chris Becker of Frame dance-for-camera At First, Delights at Frenetic Theater. The weekend before that was the premiere of a section of Mortar, Sylphs Wrote at Diverse Works. And this week the dancers have off for our spring break. So no rehearsals, and I haven’t entered into that space either. I’ve mostly been working and prepping and game-plan-making. Today I will re-enter the choreography and make plans for the upcoming rehearsals. Mortar, Sylphs Wrote is about to hit the Houston scene, so don’t miss it. Its premiere, in its entirety, will be April 16 and 17 at the Hope Center, 7:30 pm. Then on May 15 we will show a different excerpt at 2pm at Barnevelder, and then on May 21 at Archway Gallery we will show the piece, slightly altered for the new space. The gallery will be filled with the artwork of Donna E. Perkins, a beautiful collaborator from our piece Points and Coordinates. You may recall that she comes in and draws the line she sees the dancers making in rehearsals and performances and then creates beautiful paintings.  You can read about our collaboration here.

So here are the dates again:

April 16,17 at Hope Center in Montrose 7:30 pm, $5

May 15 at Barnevelder Movement Arts Complex in downtown Houston, 2pm

May 21 at Archway Gallery 7:30 pm, FREE

COMING JUNE 2011:

Frame Dance Productions in Big Range Dance Festival, Houston.

Screening, Silent Films and more

Performances/Screenings

Last night was fantastic. Thank you Frame Fans. I just love when art is fun. Combining a the fab space and art installation at Spacetaker, some wine, cookies, and chocolate and the premiere of Satin Stitch, the weather was lovely, it couldn’t have been better. For those of you who missed it, we missed you, and catch you next time around. April 16,17: Mortar, Sylphs Wrote.

And for those of you looking for some art tonight, I have a great idea. Chris Becker is a musician and composer for silent films. He is performing tonight at Frenetic Theater, and a Frame Dance Productions film, At First, Delights, is on the program. Same film, Chris’ brand new music specifically for At First, Delights. Here’s the info:

Music For Silent Films at FrenetiCore
5102 Navigation Blvd., Houston, TEX
March 13, 2011 at 7pm
$7 cover
1 hour and 10 minutes approx
Part of FrenetiCore’s Second Sundays series

Chris Becker – Laptop, Kaoss Pad
Films by Lydia Hance/Frame Dance Productions, Maya Deren, Noe Kidder, Molly Schwartz, Aurora Neeland, and others

Composer Chris Becker presents a set of composed and improvised music accompanying silent films by friends and fellow artists from New York City and New Orleans, as well as Maya Deren’s seminal work At Land. Becker recently debuted this project in Houston in a special set presented by the Caroline Sessions at CultureMap. Some of the films from that set will be screened again at FrenetiCore, but every performance of Music For Silent Films is different.

Using the popular software program Ableton Live and a large collection of samples musical or otherwise, Becker improvises a soundtrack to each silent film selecting and layering samples like the pieces of a aural jigsaw puzzle. The majority of the samples are field and studio recordings Becker has made over the past decade. Although the music for each film begins with a prepared, partially composed “template” of sounds and samples, once the film hits the screen, an improvised dialogue between Becker and the images begins. No two performances to a film are ever the same.

Becker has performed Music For Silent Films solo as well as with ensembles small and large in venues across the U.S. including Zeitgeist Theatre Experiments (New Orleans), ADA Gallery (Richmond, VA), Live With Animals (New York City), and Capital University during their annual NOW Music Festival (Columbus, OH). Musicians from the worlds of jazz, indie rock, and the avant-garde have joined him for Music for Silent Films performances. March 13th at FrenetiCore’s, it will be just Becker and the films.

A recent interview with Chris Becker on Space City Rock.

Film maker Noe Kidder’s Paradise with music by Chris Becker. This film will be screened with a new, improvised soundtrack at the March 13th show:

The Loop Scoop’s review from 12 Minutes MAX

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Excerpted, written by Kerri Farrell Foley
‘Frame Dance Productions offers up an excerpt from “Mortar, Sylphs Wrote” choreographed by company Artistic Director Lydia Hance. Composer Micah Clark, winner of the 2010 Frame Dance Productions Music Composition Competition (wow, that’s a mouthful), provides the haunting music for this ensemble piece. Behind the six dancers onstage, a video directed by the choreographer and Jonathon Hance rolls on, presenting alternating views of a brick wall in close-up and what appears to be a tourist-ridden street somewhere in… France? I’m guessing. It’s a rarity to see an ensemble where no single dancer outshines the rest of the cast, but these pros clearly respect the continuity of the story they’ve been entrusted to tell. Mark the full-length premiere of “Mortar” at Hope Center on April 16th and 17th on your calendar. Mark it, now. I’ll wait…’

Entire article
That’s right, mark it on your calendar! I’ll wait…

Tickets, Tickets!

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Hey Frame Fans,
Don’t forget to email Lydia.Hance@framedance.org before Saturday to get your discounted tickets for Satin Stitch. Otherwise, it’s $7 at the door. Credit card/cash/checks accepted. See you Saturday for some wine, dessert and the new Frame Dance Productions film short.
Cheers,
Lydia

Satin Stitch, a dancer’s perspective

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Here are dancer Kristen Frankiewicz’s thoughts on our shoot for Satin Stitch, the experience of making a dance film, and how it differs from live performance:

Frame Dance Productions….Satin Stitch…
The weekend of the shoot in January seems so long ago now. So much has happened since then. So many more new projects have begun since then…yet I’m still incredibly excited about the energy surrounding the Satin Stitch project. Is it just that I haven’t seen the edited version of the film yet? Or is it something more that’s keeping this project so awake for me? It got me thinking…

Working on this dance film wound up being a single marathon day of shooting, and that day’s resonance with me has happily lasted much longer. When I think back about that cold windy weekend in Galveston, I find that I’m able to recall certain fragments and memories about space, time, direction, feelings, food, laughs, textures, colors, shapes, and images we created, but I can’t remember it all. Obviously I’ll never be able to remember it all exactly as it was. That’s a huge part of the beauty in live performance for me; it’s all a series of beautiful fleeting moments, never to be recreated or remembered exactly the same ever again. Each moment special; each moment temporal; each kept alive in memory by small details or connections, however imperfect their memory may be.

I can’t help with the simplicity of my current thought though, “Hurry up March 12th, I can’t wait to see this film already!”

Thinking back to the film shoot day, I can remember some of the laughs we all shared on the ferry ride over to Bolivar. I can remember the feel of my boots turning on wet sand, the feel of that beautiful cold grey wall, the little warmth and speed of the sun rising for our opening shots, the sharp pain of tall grass stabbing me in the face, a few movements from the zen-like gestural phrase in a diagonal, the freedom felt with improvisation, the warm quality of simple interaction I shared with Ashley, Alex, and Nichelle in the ‘hand dance’ section, and a heck of a lot of tangles in my hair from all that wind! Naturally, I find these memories diluted as I look back on the live performance I gave that weekend, but it doesn’t seem to make the moments any less substantial to me. As much as I love the thrill of performing live, it’s exciting to have opportunity to play with live dance’s counterpoint…film. I’m looking forward to watching film’s take on this project’s live performance.

Ok to be really candid, sure, I really want to see what footage Lydia ends up selecting for the final film version, how it’s edited, what it actually looks like, what the tone of the film feels like, what I look like, what we look like, what music gets used — the details and basics you know. But aside from what it looks and feels like, I really want to see if it reopens more memories of the weekend for me. I want to see if when I watch it a few months from now it’ll feel different yet again. And when I watch it much later than that, I want to see what it feels like then too. Will the film preserve some of my experience of how I felt when I danced in it? Will any of it? Will the images and tone of the film be strong enough to keep the live experience of dancing it more tangible to me? Tangible memories, mmmm 🙂

Beautiful, beautiful dancers

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We performed and premiered a section of Mortar, Sylphs Wrote this weekend at Diverseworks in the 12 Minutes Max! program. Thank you to all of our Frame Fans and Friends who came out to support us. What a fun, diverse program. I think this may turn into an open letter to my dancers…

Beautiful work. You left your emotion, physicality, and commitment on that stage. You were bold, and subtle; gentle and gutsy. You listened to the music and to each other. I received quite a bit of feedback about you how connected your dancing is with each other. That means trusting and protecting each other. You moved as a unit but never let go of your individuality. Bravo, I can’t wait to see the progression of this piece as it unfolds into an evening-length production. See you in rehearsal.

Your Fan,
Lydia

12 Minutes Max!

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Helloooooo. My, it has been a flurry around Frame Central. Tonight is the opening night for 12 Minutes Max! at Diverseworks. We are showing a portion of Mortar, Sylphs Wrote. Come be among the first to see what’s been happening in the studio.

Also…SATIN STITCH is premiering on March 12. Email RSVP for discounted tickets, otherwise it’s $7 at the door of the fabulous Spacetaker ARC. 8pm. Wine, dessert, dance film premiere. Get your art on. Get your Frame on.