Ode to a Successful Frame x Frame Film Festival

Ode to a Successful Frame x Frame Film Festival

by Kerri Education Frame | Work Links We Like

Frame Dance Production’s expertise in screen dance has been an asset in these virtual times, but I decided early on that I didn’t want to make Frame x Frame an at-home virtual festival. No way. There’s enough of that. (And that’s great!) Our partnership with Houston Ballet allowed us to create a Drive-In festival and to offer safe, in-person/in-car screenings for five weekends. That’s fifteen events. In COVID times. Over fifty dance filmmakers from Houston, the US and all over the world—China, France, French Polynesia, Australia, England, Belgium, Canada, and more had dance projected in the most glorious resolution in the middle of downtown all Fall. In regular times our festival is one weekend. Growth.

 

While some of what we do at Frame Dance has gone quiet (I MISS creating live performance and I MISS being in the room with our professional artists), restrictions have allowed us to push in new directions and we have found even more fullness in our mission. Moving our dance classes outside has been the most nourishing and quintessentially Frame Dance change we could have made at this time. And it’s something we are keeping after we’re all vaccinated and back in the studio.

 

The dance teacher in me says, “locomotive movement! You have your entire body to find new choices. Travel!”

 

 

Lydia Hance

 

Thinking about making your own dance for camera? Education Director Kerri Lyons Neimeyer compiled the following resources and considerations for novice dancer-filmmakers and dance-film viewers.

We are going to be so ready for FxFFF 2021.

Made for Kids and Used-to-be Kids 

What: New York International Children’s Film Festival Free Films, dir. various 

Where: NYICFF website, https://nyicff.org/now-playing/ 

Why: Most of these films are animated, but they show you how much story you can tell in 2 minutes. A lot, by the way. You can say a lot in 2 minutes if you plan your film well. Even the De La Soul music video packs a huge amount of story, environment, and filming techniques into 2 minutes.  

Many of the films in this festival are also wordless, which is an approach worth consideration; let the light, sound, and movement tell the story. I recommend Uka by Valle Comba Canales for the use of color and black-and-white. Mr Night Has a Day Off by Ignas Meilunas has lots of little surprises and “magical” changes that you can use in your filmmaking. One of my favorite techniques is in A Small Escape by David Sandell where the camera shot goes through the scissor handle, and then again when the viewer is looking through the scissor handles as if seeing through the scissor’s eyes. Looking through something, or creating a literal, physical frame around the action acts as a powerful symbol. All three of these films are wordless and under 3 minutes long. 

Watch for: Listen for: sound effects and use of music. How do these elements support the action? 

Warning: Some of the films on this site have a paywall. Most, though, are free, as indicated by the green arrow that says “Free.” 

 

Biographic

What: Move 

Where: Netflix 

Why: Each episode follows one dancer/choreographer representing styles and locations as diverse as Isreali Gah Gah, Jamaican dancehall, Basque flamenco, and American street dance. Because each episode focuses on one dancer at a time, you can look at it as a portrait, investigating the identity of that person through their relationship to dance. Besides being good – if lengthy – portraits of dancers, the filming in this series is very screen dance-y. The camera is just as much a tool of art as is the dancer’s body. There were times when I wanted to see more of the full bodies and the choreography, but I realized that the camera and the editing were done not to show the viewer a dance, but to tell the story of that dancer and that dance and the world that they come from and move in. 

Watch for: Camera angles, use of light, slow motion, close-up shots and gestures. 

Warning: The Jamaican dancehall episode, “Featuring Kimiko Versatile,” may not be appropriate for young viewers due to the sexual character of the dances and the open use of  marijuana in the culture. 

  

For the Modern/Contemporary Dance-Curious  

What: Body Talk Series, dir. Magali Charrier 

Where: YouTube channel of The Place, a contemporary dance center (or centre) in London. 

Planet Dance: Body Talk – Part 3 

Why: Haven’t we all heard from someone that they “don’t get” modern dance? The ideas and words of Sanjay Roy are a gentle entrance into the mind of a dance viewer, explaining phenomena like mirror neurons working in the service of art. Do you need to “get” dance? Is trying to understand dance even the best way to approach it as a viewer?  

Watch for: Tools that the modern dance-curious or even the downright modern dance-resistant can pick up and take to the next performance, including performances on screen. 

 

What: Mitchell Rose Films 

Where: His YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/user/Mitchla/videos 

Why: Because he is a master of dance for film. Because he has a sense of humor. Because his friends and collaborators are a who’s who of contemporary dance choreography. 

I specifically recommend And So Say All of Us and its predecessor Exquisite Corps. They both use the same format to connect dancers and choreography across space and are fun and accessible.  

Watch for: The dancers choices, again, especially the location each has chosen and how they use that space. 

Warning: I’ve only watched a few of the films on this channel, so I can’t vouch for them all in terms of appropriate content for general viewing. I can vouch for the two recommended above. 

 

Innovations – Films with technical flair 

What: Punto & Linea, dir. Tania Reza 

Where: https://vimeo.com/89965413 

Why: Coming in just under 4 minutes, this film was included in several international film festivals. Nonetheless, most of the elements of this film – location, costume, camera work, spoken word – are available to the novice dance for film maker.  

Watch for: Lighting, camera angles, camera placement, how bodies and parts of bodies are presented in different shots. 

Warning: En Español, en caso de que no lo hables. 

 

What: Rosie Trump’s SCORE CARDS Project 

Where: Rosie’s website, https://www.rosietrump.org/score-cards 

Why: Rosie is a choreographer, a screen dance filmmaker, educator, Associate Professor of Dance at University of Nevada at Reno, and founder and curator of Third Coast Dance Film Festival. This is a project she made for dancer/filmmakers during quarantine and it is very open-ended assignment. The films are all under 3 minutes long, and they use a huge variety of approaches to filming. Some version of all these approaches is available to the beginning filmmaker: projection, horizontal vs vertical framing, stop-motion, dancing with props, split screen, speed changes, putting text on your images, and using “found” sounds. 

Watch for: How did the dancer fulfill the direction on his or her score card (which is posted beside the film)? Look for the choices they made in terms of time (slow, normal, fast, linear, nonlinear), light and color, location and backgrounds, sound, choreography, and camerawork. Whose decisions did you find most effective? Most interesting?  

Warning: Be aware that this project is ongoing, and films will continue to be added. 

 

Let’s Talk About the Powerful Possibility of Dance for All Students

Let’s Talk About the Powerful Possibility of Dance for All Students

by Kerri Education Frame | Work News & Updates

HISD Gets Serious About the Arts, Dancers Get Serious About Pliés in Public Schools

Did you know that, until last week, Houston Independent School District’s Fine Arts Department was organizationally administered by the Elementary School Curriculum Department? If that seems off to you given the caliber of talent at a place like HSPVA, you are not alone, but take heart because change is coming for arts education across the district. Interim Superintendent Granita Latham has promoted HISD’s Fine Arts Department to a stand-alone department, reporting directly to the Chief Academic Officer. For teachers of music, dance, theater, visual and moving-image arts, this move is a resounding acknowledgement of what they see in the classroom every day: arts education makes a positive and far-reaching difference in the lives of our children and our community.

Photo by Lynn Lane

Frame Dance encourages arts educators, classroom teachers, school administrators, and parents to make your voice part of the discussion as the district develops arts programming under the newly advanced Fine Arts Department.

Frame Dance believes that the art and practice of dance brings unique, extensive benefits into a child’s school day. We believe that every school that wants a dance program can and should have access to professional instruction that is smart, vibrant, and caring.

How auspicious that there is a film about impactful dance curriculum in the public schools screening at the Frame x Frame Film Fest!

PS Dance! is a documentary about some of the most successful dance programs offered in NYC Public Schools under their Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in the Arts city-wide curriculum. The work being done by the students, instructors, and administrators in this film is a great example of what is possible when creative movement is prioritized in the public schools.

We invite you to watch the film on Saturday, November 21, 7 PM at the Houston Ballet, and then share your thoughts at a virtual round table discussion on the film and its relevance to dance programming in HISD. The PS Dance! Discussion Session is on Sunday, November 22, 2 PM and will be held virtually (contact kerri.lyons.neimeyer@framedance.org for more information). Guests include representatives from arts advocacy organizations, dance educators with HISD experience, and more professionals who are ready to inspire, inform, and listen.

Be heard.

Dance for All!

Creative Reset: The Practice of Making with Audacity

Creative Reset: The Practice of Making with Audacity

by Kerri Education Frame | Work News & Updates

What: Seven sewing classes in which you will make a dress and learn to adapt that basic dress pattern to work for different bodies and styles. 

When: Tuesday evenings, 7-8 PM, October 6, 13, 20, 27, November 3, 10, and 17, 2020

Where: Right in front of your very own sewing machine in the comfort of wherever you have room to make a dress. Yes, you need to provide your own sewing machine. We will help you learn to use it. Classes are held online.

How: Register here. Classes are $10 each, and you must sign up for all seven classes in order to finish your dress.

Why: Once, I tried to make a dress. I put a square pocket on the chest, and I sewed all four sides of that pocket to the bodice. It was not great. If only I’d had Ashley Horn Nott to help me.

Ashley would have had a plan for my inexperience, my ignorance, my besotted love for the fabric and my overconfidence in “figuring out” a sewing machine. The first time Ashley took on a costume-making project for a dance company, her sewing experience was straight lines and stuffing. Pillows. She knew she could sew a pillow cover, and the rest she had the audacity to make up.

And it worked! Today, Ashley has made costumes for most of the modern dance companies in Houston, including her own productions. Absolutely hundreds (possibly thousands?) of dresses and other costumes gorgeously crafted. Why did Ashley’s gamble worked and mine didn’t? I’m guessing that Ashley had more tenacity to match her audacity than I did. She also made the compelling decision to promise other people that she would complete her project. No one cared when I folded up my half-dress with its unusable patch of a pocket and never unfolded it again. Ashley had a commitment to people she cared about, people who were counting on those costumes, and that accountability motivated her through the “now I have to seam-rip the whole damn thing” moments.

Let us be that accountability for you. Maybe you’ve been saying that you want to sew your own clothes. Maybe you found the most amazing fabric. Maybe you found that fabric years ago and you’re ready to give it form. Maybe you are a dancer and you want to be able to make costumes for yourself and others. This is a chance to create beside a self-made professional. Grab your audacity and make it into a dress. Your dress.

 

How is making a dress a creative reset? Um, can I answer that tomorrow? It’s kind of a whole thing…

 

 

 

The World is Our Dance Studio

The World is Our Dance Studio

by Kerri Education Frame | Work News & Updates

Outdoor Fall Programming from Frame Dance

Quarantine and social distancing has taken away many habits and practices, but sometimes the things we replace them with are so very sweet. We’ve been forced out of the dance studio this fall, but when we walked through that door we found ourselves on the grass, under the sky, breathing deeply among the trees. Frame Dance has a lot of practice using the city as its stage, an now we are using it as our studio, taking our dance classes into the parks and green spaces of Houston.

 

Like other dance programs, we offer online dance and dance-related content. Unlike other dance programs, we have not gone hybrid or into taped-off personal areas in a studio in order to dance together.* Instead, we offer you the uncommon joy of dancing outdoors. 

 

Three outdoor classes happen on the weekends: Creative Movement and MultiGen on Saturday mornings, and Beginning Modern Dance on Sundays. The first two are are grassier versions of the classes we’ve offered season after season, but Beginning Modern for adults with Jacquelyne Boe is all new. To us. Jacquelyne had taught modern dance to adults for many years at various studios, and we are proud and pleased to offer this first ongoing adult class with a member of our prestigious company. I personally take classes with Jacquelyne whenever I have the chance because her classes are thorough and inventive and good for one’s physical and mental health. I mean, all dance classes are, or should be, but these have an extra layer of goodness. Our girl is insightful and efficient. Give yourself the gift of experiencing it. Register here.

 

Creative Movement is for families to dance together at a park, which is exactly what I thought parenting would be before I became a parent. Lydia leads this idyllic interval of sweetness. Each family will purchase a bag of dance accessories to use at class and at home during the week where the learning and joyful activity can continue. Register here.

 

MultiGen is the epitome of Dance for All. Every body can dance and every mind and spirit can grow from the practice of dance, and this happens with uncompromising quality of instruction and abundance of heart at MultiGen dance class. For everyone, all ages, all abilities, even babies worn by a dancing adult are welcome (those special pairs of people are also welcome in Creative Movement along with their dancing child). MultiGen is about radically inclusive community, which means that you, all of you, automatically belong there. Register here.

 

See you on the grass, under the sun, surrounded by living things, dancing outside like the happy, wild artists we are.

 

*No shade. If we had our own studio, with rent to pay, we’d be taping those floors for sure.

Creative Reset: The Practice of Learning from Others

Creative Reset: The Practice of Learning from Others

by Kerri Education Frame | Work News & Updates

A History of Modern Dance with Jamie Williams

What: A series of three one-hour lecture/conversations on modern dance history with dancer and professor of dance, Jamie Williams.

When: Monday evenings, 7-8 pm, October 5, November 2, and December 7, 2020.

Where: Your screen of choice.

How: Register here. Cost is $10/class.

Why: Modern dance pioneers were masters of the Creative Reset.

The earliest modern dance artists knew that existing forms of dance – primarily ballet – were insufficient to explore and express conditions in the early 20th century. It was an era of seismic recalibration in all areas of human culture. These artists were working at the time of Freud, Einstein, and early Picasso, and their ideas were no less self-consciously revolutionary:

 

Denishawn Dancers, 1900, photo by Bain News Agency, Library of Congress

 

“I bring you the dance. I bring you the idea that is going to revolutionize our entire epoch.”

Isadora Duncan (1877-1927)

 

“We should realize in a vivid and revolutionary sense that we are not in our bodies but our bodies are in us.”

Ruth St Denis (1879-1968)

 

Merce Cunningham, “EyeSpace,” 2009, photo by Daniel Arsham

 

Contemporary and post-modern dancers also recognized the need to drop what is non-essential and do a creative reset, to accept and stretch into the new senses and modes that reveal themselves:

 

“I think of dance as a constant transformation of life itself”

On randomly chosen movements: “…I would always try it because the mind will say `you can’t do it,’ but more often than not you can, or you see another way, and that’s what’s amazing. In some cases it’s impossible, but something else happens, some other possibility appears, and your mind opens.”

Merce Cunningham (1919-2009)

 

“Making dances is an act of progress; it’s an act of growth…”

Alvin Ailey (1931-1989)

 

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre performs Revelations, Miami, 2011, photo courtesy of the Knight Foundation

 

“I realized that carrying around old information, trying to get everything in, and still be in the moment just doesn’t work.”

Meredith Monk (1942)

 

Meredith Monk gives us some direction on finding the “set” part of “reset,” a way to recognize when we have hit that sweet spot of a new “sense” – to take Olafur Eliasson figuratively – that will work for us in our changed environment:

 

“That inner voice has both gentleness and clarity. So to get to authenticity, you really keep going down to the bone, to the honesty, and the inevitability of something.”

 

Meredith Monk, “On Behalf of Nature,” Brooklyn, 2014, photo by Steven Pisano, courtesy of Brooklyn Academy of Music

 

Dancers have studiously refined senses, and no one literally or figuratively pivots with grace and strength like a dancer, so I can’t wait to have my mind blown by the facts, the philosophies, the responses, the lives of modern dance masters. 

 

*I tried to bold every synonym of RESET in this post. Did I get them all?*

 

Featured image: Meredith Monk, “On Behalf of Nature,” Brooklyn, 2014, photo by Steven Pisano, courtesy of Brooklyn Academy of Music

Creative Reset: The Possibilities

Creative Reset: The Possibilities

by Kerri Education Frame | Work News & Updates

In 2019, ahead of a massive exhibit of his work appearing at the Tate Modern museum in London, artist Olafur Eliasson spoke with Mark Turner, art correspondent for The Guardian, about his installations, specifically about a piece titled “Your Blind Passenger.” The work is a room filled with fog and lit by colored fluorescent lights such that all that is visible to the viewer is a shallow, blurry colorscape. Only a few people are allowed into “Your Blind Passenger” at a time because it is so disorienting, making the viewer even more likely to feel detached and alone in an indistinct but colorful unknown. Eliasson said of the experience, “Very quickly you realise, and I mean this quite literally, that you are not completely blind after all, you have a lot of other senses which start to kick in.”

With this realization comes a shift, a transfer of attention. Something is taken away or blocked – in this case most of the visual information –  and the response of the viewer is to adjust how they engage with their surroundings. According to Eliasson, “it shows that the relativity of our senses is much higher than we think, we have it in our capacity to recalibrate or at least stop being numb” (emphases mine).

 

Eliasson’s work is often about jarring, all-encompassing alterations, like “Your Blind Passenger,” and they are often about connections that are simultaneous with fracture. Some of his visually quietest pieces sound the loudest social alarms. I feel like Eliasson’s work is made for coping with COVID and our ongoing strangeness. I feel like the quote above is instructional for living in a world where the the crisis alert is stuck at 11.

First – I think the quote is telling us – we need to be aware of these numb and underused senses. Then, bringing our attention to them, we can start to turn them on or turn them up. We can do work and practice actions to heighten the senses to the point that they become capable of nuance, of making and receiving meaning. Because our attention is finite – even when turned up to 11 – by attending to new areas, we are less reliant on the ones that used to dominate our awareness. We have recalibrated.

 

The issue of recalibration has been on Lydia Hance’s mind over the spring and summer. Accustomed to helping people bring attention to their (often underused, not quite nuanced) sense of movement, Lydia knows that practicing this set of sensations – practicing dance –  reduces stress and reduces the need to rely on other sensations for managing stress. Dance practice heightens the sense of the body in space, making movement more efficient and less stressful on the body. It also gives people another way to process and express emotion, again reducing the stress load we carry in our bodies and our thoughts. Lydia knew that during the stresses of quarantine and social unrest, people had lost some of their most powerful coping devices – face-to-face interaction with people we care for and freedom of movement both within and outside of one’s community. She knew that people needed a reset.

Lydia has a mighty set of creative friends, makers of one kind or another (or a whole bunch of kinds at once) who identified areas where a little attention to an underused skill goes a long way toward recalibration. Creative Reset is designed on these practices. Taken alone, the practices allow for recalibration. Taken multiply, you’ve got yourself a transformation!

Coming Soon, Creative Reset: The Practices

Cover image: Photo “Your rainbow panorama” By Harkolufs 

Inset images: From “Room for One Color” Tate Modern 1997, Photos by Anders Sune Berg from olafureliasson.net

Sunday Brunch

Sunday Brunch

by Kerri Frame | Work Interviews News & Updates

 

Let’s have pretend Sunday Brunch together to introduce our new Frame Dance staff.

The Brunchers

Lydia Hance, Founder and Artistic Director

Brunch Spot: Pondicheri

Brunch Dish: Almond roti frankie or anything on their breakfast menu

Brunch Beverage: Oat milk latte


Colleen Hargraves, Program Manager

Brunch Spot: The Kitchen at the Dunlavy

Brunch Dish: Avocado Toast with a poached egg

Brunch Beverage: Just a glass of champagne!


Kerri Lyons Neimeyer, Associate Director of Education

Brunch Spot: Bouldin Creek Cafe, Austin

Brunch Dish: Migas w/tofu scramble

Brunch Beverages: Espresso and fresh OJ

The Talking

Lydia: I am so excited to work with you both, you’re my dream team. Would you share how you each came to Frame Dance? 

Colleen: I am thrilled to be part of the Frame Dance team! I have worked in the art and non-profit world since I moved to Houston 5 years ago and love supporting our community’s artists. When I saw this opportunity I couldn’t resist applying, I love all the past and upcoming programs and classes! 

Kerri: One decade ago when I moved to Houston, my sweet friend, Margaret, recommended Hope Stone dance studio, and that is where I took my first modern dance classes. It was a brave move for me, and my brave heart grew there. After that studio closed I heard that Lydia Hance, who I knew as their Education Director, was teaching open-level adult modern dance and I knew that I needed that class. That is how I joined MultiGen, became a Framer, and now dance braver than ever.

 

 

Lydia: What about Frame Dance’s work and mission excites you? 

Colleen: Frame Dance is the kind of organization I wish I had access to growing up. A place where you can express yourself freely and creatively is incredibly important for developing confidence, stretching your brain, and promoting joy! 

Kerri: Its uncompromising artistry and its openness. It is dance for everyone, and it takes dance to the people. That is what kind, responsible people and organizations do, and I want to be a part of it.

 

 

Lydia: What unlikely place should the company perform in next— if there was no Covid and no limits? 

Colleen: I would love to see the company perform in the Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern! Magdalena Fernandez’s installation “Rain” was incredible in the space and I think the environment would be impressive to see dance in. 

Kerri: Graffiti Park would be a great backdrop. The Eastern Glades at Memorial Park have really soft lawns, perfect for floorwork. The big hill at Spott’s Park. The space in front of the Glassell Building at the MFAH. Sabine Street Bridge and the stairs and lawns beneath it. On boats in the bayou. Stop me!

 

 

Lydia: What’s a perfect day for you? 

Colleen: That’s a tough one. I’d have to say April 25th. Because it’s not too hot, not too cold, all you need is a light jacket” ….. I couldn’t resist! My real perfect day is simply taking a walk in the arboretum with my husband and dog and getting to have pho for dinner. The little things mean the most! 

Kerri: Well, it has ice cream and nature and family and tons of laughing, and those ingredients can plentifully arrange themselves however they want. And good weather, of course. It’s Houston, so you have to specify that.

 

 

Is there a space in Houston that you love and would like to share? A restaurant or a business? 

Colleen: It’s hard to choose just one thing, there are so many things I love to do and still want to experience! The Folly Garden at the Rienzi is particularly special to me though, I can’t think of a more magical spot in Houston! I would highly suggest checking it out if you want a small taste of being in Roman ruin. 

Kerri: First, Old Sixth Ward is a treasure. Dream neighborhood. In my actually neighborhood, my secret magic spot is the waterfall feature at Allen Parkway and Tirrell on Buffalo Bayou. Apparently it’s called the McGovern Cascade. Sometimes it’s dry (eyeroll), but when it’s working you can spend gorgeous carefree time floating sticks and leaves down the falls while the running water drowns out traffic sounds. 

I shop Space Montrose for cards and gifts and usually go home with something for myself, too. To quote Marianne Faithfull on Absolutely Fabulous, they do your shopping for you. Everything in there is a winner.

 

Lydia: What’s your favorite color? 

Colleen: White 

Kerri: Blue

Lydia: Favorite holiday? 

Colleen: Christmas!

Kerri: The Christmas 

Lydia: Song? 

Colleen: “The Getaway” by Athlete 

Kerri: “Born Under Punches” by The Talking Heads and Oscar Peterson’s “Peace for South Africa.”

 

Lydia: If you could pick any decade to live in, which would you pick? 

Colleen: I would choose the 50’s, mainly to see Elvis perform live. 

Kerri: I would live 2010-2020 over and over again. Controversial choice, I know. The 2010s don’t end well, to put it mildly, but I get to go from newborn to 10 year-old with my son in that decade, so it’s the best.

 

 

Lydia: Would you rather be part of a human pyramid or a human steam roller? 

Colleen: Now that I googled what it is, I would choose the human steam roller. It seems like it would be fun! 

Kerri: I choose to roll.

 

Photos provided by subjects, except cover image “Monki Bistro Inglewood” by Kaush949

The Balanced Bath: A Prelude to Your Creative Reset Workshop

The Balanced Bath: A Prelude to Your Creative Reset Workshop

by Kerri Frame | Work News & Updates

The week has just started, but Wednesday is coming. Humpday, right in the middle. What a perfect time to retreat from busy-ness. What a perfect time to try a Creative Reset.

 

You’re familiar with the Creative Reset series, right? It’s Frame Dance Productions’ offering of workshops to our community – in Houston and online – at a time when we all need quick responses to the uncertain and unfamiliar. And it would be nice to make these responses with a bit of grace, with awareness, with balance.

 

You know what will help? Water. Fortunately, Frame Dance has a workshop for that this Wednesday, September 16 at 7:30 PM. Know where it’s meeting? Wherever you want it to. Creative Reset is a series of learning and tool-building recalibrations, and our workshops are all about being stretched out and then coming from multiple directions to settle into ourselves.

 

This Wednesday, you’re going to work with water, first by yourself, and then in a workshop. You’re going to give your body and mind an evening of balance and flow. 

 

Note: the balanced bath is only a suggestion! It is not a part of the workshop or a prerequisite for Brooke Summers-Perry’s watercolor class. But it’s a pretty great compliment to the class and a chance to set aside a couple of hours for yourself in the middle of the week.

 

First, you’re going to clean your tub if it needs cleaned (which it will if it is like my tub which is also a shower and is shared by the people who live with me. These are not bath people). Nice and clean. No harsh ingredients in those cleaning supplies, no irritation to your lungs or your hands. All right. Now you’re going to take off your clothes, take off your day. Ahhh. You did your work and you did it well. Time to let it go. By all means, dry brush while you fill that tub. Light candles if that relaxes you. Take a nice stretch, arms up with a big inhale, and roll down on the exhale. Get out a clean towel, fresh from the laundry or linen closet, and set it next to your tub. Check the water. Warm it up or cool it down if necessary. It’s almost time to get in.

 

What does your body need right now? 

Magnesium in Epsom salts soothes sore muscles and softens skin.

Oatmeal treats sensitive skin, and even soothes irritation as severe as sunburn and hives.

Milk, coconut milk, and coconut oil all moisturize and have anti-inflammatory properties.

And then there are the ingredients that work – in part – by smelling w o n d e r f u l:

Ginger clears congestion and aids headaches (but can be irritating to sensitive skin).

Dried, fresh, or distilled to essential oil, lavender, rose, and eucalyptus benefit the skin and the spirit.

Just a bag or two of your favorite tea will turn your tub into a tiny oasis.* 

 

Now that you have prepared the water, get in slowly. Feel the difference that the water makes on your skin, on your muscles. Breathe. Cover yourself as deeply as you can, and feel the parts of you that float. Swish your body and feel how that changes the water and your body in the water. Now be still, and think of nothing.

 

When it is time, get out of the tub. Rinse your body if it needs rinsing. Thank the water, and anything you put in it, for serving you well. Pull that plug. Get dry. Get moisturized. Put on whatever you like to wear best right now; your favorite pajamas, a pretty sundress, overalls, a big fluffy robe. You are about to take an art class with Brooke Summers-Perry, and she does not care what you wear as long as it doesn’t impede your work. 

 

You are rested and focused and ready to meet the water again, but in a new way. Color it. Play with it. You are mostly water, remember. Our need for it is literal, and perhaps this is why we relate to it so well metaphorically. Get stirred up, settle, wave, float with it, push it, be moved by it, flow. It is in you and it is a tool. Use it.

*Ingredients suggested by the website helloglow.co. Go here for yummy bath recipes.

Dance in Quarantine: Responses and Resources

Dance in Quarantine: Responses and Resources

by Kerri Education Frame | Work Links We Like News & Updates

I don’t need to tell you that we as a society have gone through massive and abrupt changes in recent months. I would like to take this opportunity to notice and celebrate the ways that dancers and choreographers – always nimble, always flexible – have created, discovered, expanded, adapted, worked and reworked formats for creating and sharing dance in this time of uncertainty. In the role of artist, dancers and choreographers both lead and reflect our responses to events and our shifting perspectives. The art of dance has held an important place in quarantine culture since it began, becoming uniquely popular as we stay home to stay safe. 

 

By the end of March, publications like the LA Times and Vanity Fair were reporting on online dance classes and dance parties, while industry journals like Dance Enthusiast had designated space for social distance dance content. Dance companies responded with choreography and editing that allowed dancers to dance alone together. On March 29, the Martha Graham Dance Company posted “Sharing the Light,” excerpts from Graham’s dance Acts of Light performed by company members in domestic and outdoor spaces. In format, “Sharing the Light” is reminiscent of the gorgeous dance films of Mitchell Rose, specifically 2016’s “Exquisite Corps” and 2019’s “And So Say All of Us,” where dancer-choreographers are connected by movement, music, and editing while dancing worlds apart. It is an adaptable format. For example, it is used adorably and with feeling by YouTubers Dylan Arredando in a series of Quarantine Movement Chain Letters, and Prischepov TV to present the Quarantango.

 

Dance educators were quick to adapt to virtual dance. Within days of cities declaring lockdown, studios big and small moved their classes online, and we all found the most Zoom-able corner of our house and turned it into a dance studio. Suddenly, anyone with an internet connection could study dance with the schools of Alvin Ailey, Merce Cunningham, Gibney Dance, and the aforementioned Martha Graham. Smaller local and regional studios without the resources of these legends have not had to navigate digital dance instruction alone. The wonderful people at the National Dance Education Organization began sharing resources for on-line dance education on March 24 and, as of today, have produced and shared fifteen free webinars on the subject. Luna Dance Institute in Berkeley, CA, hosts weekly practitioner exchanges that gather dance leadership from around the country to discuss concerns and solutions in virtual dance education. 

 

Our dance community has not missed a step (pun intended!) in it’s goal to provide quality dance training, and has even found exciting new possibilities in the online format. Student dancers are having a crash course in dance-for-camera as they consider framing, space, and editing as part of their “digital studio” skills. Pre-recorded classes give dancers a chance to look carefully, to slow down the movement, and to revisit it at will. Holding classes in the home allows the entire family to participate in dance education, and interacting with studios via social media provides a different, sometimes broader, sometimes deeper relationship between a dancer’s family and their instructors. The domestic/public spheres are being broken down and renegotiated, as are so many parts of the larger culture, offering new possibilities as old practices are eliminated or put on hold. We are learning together, and together we are remaking our world. That’s not hyperbole. That’s bodies, in motion, making choices.

Please share online dance resources – instructional and/or just fun to watch – in the comments. Show us part of your world!

Lydia’s News from Quarantine

Lydia’s News from Quarantine

by Kerri Frame | Work News & Updates

Hi Friends,

It feels like it’s been awhile since I’ve written to you. My world has turned upside down with the birth of my sweet daughter, Willa. She is truly something to get delightfully lost in during the emotional rollercoaster that is COVID and quarantine. I am not exhausted by my newborn. Oh, no. I am exhausted from feeling scared, peaceful, alone, claustrophobic, irritated, anxious, and frankly, thankful for my family’s protected time together. As one who already feels my feels big and intense, this time has amplified them even more. And I know I am not alone in that. You are exhausted. You are scared, alone, claustrophobic, irritated, anxious and maybe thankful, too. This experience has been one of extreme training for my thought-life, not allowing my thoughts to run away. I’ve been trying as hard as I can to literally count my blessings as a means to control my emotions and maintain perspective.

Another reason you haven’t heard from me as much as usual is because with businesses and people turning to social media platforms, there has been an abundance of content to digest. That’s great! There was no reason to compete. However, I did want to share a few ways to connect with me and Frame Dance moving forward. I’ll start with the first event:

Saturday, April 18

National Water Dance Performances

Tune into our social media channels (@framedance on IG) at 3pm CST to watch Framers dance together with people across the world in community and solidarity for caring for our planet, our home, our natural resources.

Ongoing

Online dance classes

For the children and for the families, we offer both live zoom classes and prerecorded creative movement and ballet classes. Our master teachers are continuing their semesters online. Even if you live too far to usually attend, you can join us virtually. I’ve been so pleased with how the classes have transitioned from classroom/studio to the computer. It truly is a time of connection and joy to inject into your quarantine.

Starting now, or when you’re ready

Coming This Summer

Book club with Lydia.

This summer I am reading Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit: Learn it and use it for life. If you consider yourself a creative person, or would like to be more creative, or are craving accountability and structure in your creative practice, I invite you to join me! We will meet online to discuss the book a little at a time this summer. If you’d like to get a jump start on the reading like me, go ahead and order it now and we will begin meeting in June for discussions. Email Bobbie.Hackett@framedance.org to let us know you’re reading with us.

Rescheduled

Soirée

Good question, glad you brought it up. Our smashing, dazzling, super fun annual bash is being rescheduled. We are celebrating 10 years! But we want to do it safe, and right, so stay tuned for a new date.

Virtual hugs, and stretches, and dances, and sweet thoughts to you.

 

Lydia