Finding your purpose on Sunday Night

by Lydia Uncategorized

What is it about Sunday nights that makes you question the purpose of your life?  A weekend full of too much fun?  Aimless socializing?  The impending work week ahead of you?  Guilt from a work-less weekend?

When is it that you really feel alive?  What are you doing?  Where are you?

For me it’s at the beginning of things.  I’m not sure if this makes me an optimist or if it means that I have ADD (which I do NOT, by the way.  Squirrel. )  I often talk about how my favorite part of any process is the beginning.  You know, if you have to choose between being a Starter, or a Process Person, or a Closer, where do you fall in the cycle?  I think I want to be a Process Person, and I certainly LOVE struggling my way through the progress of things, but if I’m honest with myself, it is the beginning–the idea– that gets me the most excitement and feeling of purpose.  So I often find myself on Sunday nights without the hope of something new.  If I started something new every week, nothing would ever get done, and then what would that make me?  A flounder-er.  That’s right.  A flounder-er.  All kidding aside, we can only have a favorite part of the process if we journey through the rest of it.  So I love the beginnings because I know it’s going to take me on a long and often arduous journey.  Frankly, I care least about the finish.  In fact, all my life I have had very little interest in how things turn out.  I’ll read 80% of a book, I’ll fall asleep right before a movie finishes.  It’s not that I don’t care about what’s happening.  I think that I care too much about what’s happening to seal it up artificially.  I’m fine with it floating in the ether.  I’m happy that what I’ve experienced exists…as it is…without some false summary.

I think finishes will come organically. (yuck– that word is overused.)

So I’ll focus on the process.  It’s the longest part of the journey.  It’s the majority.  It’s where direction is determined.  It’s where you have the most room for play. It’s elastic.

But this week,  I will search for new beginnings in the midst of the process.  New ways to challenge myself.  Find freshness in the mundane.  What’s that saying…?  Stay the course.  I think there’s comfort and and an irritant in that.  On the one hand, I appreciate how knowledge and habit can keep you going further than you think you can go, but on the other hand, how absolutely dreadful to STAY on a COURSE.  I’m too much of a wildcard for that.

But that’s my goal: to find newness in the middle of things.  Ask me how I’m doing on Friday.

 

xo and to art,

Lydia

Fieldwork

by Lydia Uncategorized

FWlogoHi Friends, Framers, Friendly Framers.

Twice a year I facilitate a work group for artists to receive feedback on the work that they are making.  This Fall we are meeting on five Sunday afternoons from 1-3pm at Hope Stone in the Montrose area.  In the past the group has included choreographers, painters, doll makers, song writers, poets, musicians, performance artists, filmmakers, and several combinations for these.  The group is called Fieldwork at it comes from a fabulous organization called The Field based in New York.  This summer I was fortunate enough to be able to attend their Fieldwork Network Conference and meet with Facilitators from all over the world.  Did you know that there are Fieldwork groups in San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Denver, Chicago, Seattle, Miami, New York, Berlin, Geneva, Atlanta, and others I’m sure I’m forgetting.

What is special about Fieldwork is that it is interdisciplinary, it gives us opportunities to grow in our vocabulary and the way we look at and discuss art, and it gives us framework and deadlines to get that project moving along.  Any procrastinators out there?

The first session is always informative, and never binding.  So come check it out!  Sunday, September 8 from 1-3pm.

Do something good for yourself and your art.  It’s important.

To Art,

Lydia

Tuesday Tunes

by Lydia Uncategorized

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We hope the beginning of your week has been terrific!

Here are some great tunes from Michele Kitchen

to get you moving…

What music inspires you the most in the classroom and/or in the choreographic process?
I find myself drawn to music from movies I really love. I think that, similar to dance, sometimes everything just comes together in movies and the music can turn a scene into something magical. Those are the kind of pieces that inspire my creative process oddly enough. Either that, or something I find nostalgic for whatever reason.
 
What are your three favorite tracks to teach a (pick one (or more!): modern, ballet, jazz, hip hop, improvisation) class to?
So many options! I love Lynn Stanford’s music for Ballet currently, it’s super rhythmical and reminds me of some of my favorite pianists. For my little ones (Creative Movement) this summer I had a mashup: Waltzes from Sleeping Beauty (Op. 66), Fleet Foxes (Winter White Hymnal), various different Charleston tunes from the old Great Gatsby soundtrack.
Fleet Foxes
Fleet Foxes
What are your top tracks to get the rehearsal process going?
Currently…
Man in Me -Bob Dylan
Blue Spotted Tail -Fleet Foxes
These Days -Nico
Hannah Hunt -Vampire Weekend
Kaw-liga -Hank Williams
 
Pick 5 tracks that should be on every dancer’s iPod? iPod_nano_gen2_5up_stacked[1]
  1. Vivaldi (all of it)
  2. Bach’s Suite Solo for Cello No. 1 in G Major (Yo-Yo Ma)
  3. M.I.A Mango Pickle Down River
  4. Daft Punk Doin’ it Right (feat. Panda Bear)
  5. Swan Lake in its entirety
Do you have a ‘secret weapon’ song or artist when you need go-to inspiration?

It changes, but is pretty consistently my classical favorites (Vivaldi/Tchaikovsky) and at the moment Benjiman Britten.

Britten
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imageMichele Kitchen, originally from Austin, TX, started her formal training at Festival Ballet Atlanta in Georgia. She then continued her studies at Ballet Austin Academy, where she trained in the Pre-Professional Division until graduating in 2006. She received additional training from American Ballet Theater, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, and Boston Ballet. In 2010, Michele graduated cum laude with a BFA in Dance as part of the inaugural class of Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet/Dominican University. While at LINES, Michele had the opportunity to work closely with Alonzo King, Maurya Kerr, Gregory Dawson, Arturo Fernandez, Carmen Rozestraten, Julie Adams, Ben Levy, and Yannis Adoniou. Since moving to Houston, Michele has taught for Houston Ballet, The Clair School, Precision Dance Academy, and Hope Stone. As well as teaching, Michele dances with Earthen Vessels (Sandra Organ) and teaches gyrotonic.

 

 

We Love Houston

by Lydia Uncategorized

We want to celebrate our wonderful city today!

From our friends at Fresh Arts:

Houston is Inspired!

Houston, we don’t have a problem. We have arts and culture.

There’s more to Houston than brisket, big oil, and bayous. Houston has another story to tell. The story of how this city has Houston is Inspired #HOUARTS become a mecca for some of the best arts, culture and food in the country. We have a winning combination of creativity, diversity, innovation and resources to be named Forbes’ “Coolest City.” Thousands of people come here every year ON PURPOSE to experience everything Houston has to offer. Thousands more will visit, especially now that The New York Times marked Houston #7 on its “Places to Visit in 2013” list (along with Instanbul at #10 and Paris at #46). (True story.) Well, hello, Houston. That’s something to brag about.

And that’s how “Houston is…” was born. They did approximately 7,000 tons* of research and figured out that visitors LOVE Houston for two things above all else: culture and cuisine. They created a spectacular national advertising campaign to share that news with the world. And when folks working in Houston’s arts and culture community** heard the statistics and saw the campaign, they did a collective dance of joy and adopted “Houston is Inspired” as a unifying mantra for an unprecedented regional effort to celebrate our creative capital. We’re ready to let the world know that our special BBQ comes with an extra side of awesomesauce. And a bottle of champagne.

Houston: We ARE inspired. It’s time to inspire everyone around us, too. Here’s how you can help. (Especially YOU, independent artists! Make your voices heard!)

our gal pal Courtney D. Jones at the Houston is Inspired mural. Best pic of the event.
our gal pal Courtney D. Jones at the Houston is Inspired mural. Best pic of the event.  We thought it needed a little extra flair, too.

INTRODUCING: Thesis Thursday!

by Lydia MFA Mondays Uncategorized

Thesis Thursdays turquoise (1)

 

Hey Framers! Lena here, Frame’s Development Assistant. This year I wrote a Senior Honors Thesis for Rice University’s Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality on the topic of Contact Improvisation and Feminism. I’m so excited to share with my research findings and hear your thoughts on my work! This is the FIRST entry and the series will most likely run for most of the summer – so stay tuned!

ok…drumrolllllll…Here is the first excerpt from:

Points of Contact: Contact Improvisation and Feminism

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I remember the first Contact Improvisation dance jam I attended. I went as a photographer; paid to record the unrehearsed art that develops from bodies making movement together to the beat of an unpredictable score played by live musicians. According to one of the original Contact Improvisation practitioners, Nancy Stark Smith, a “jam” is more easily defined in the negative: “It’s not a class, it’s not a rehearsal, it’s not a performance…[it’s] where people at different levels of practice are able to interact with one another through a form.”[1] They bumped and jumped and ran and fell and lifted and held. They touched. It’s fascinating all the ways we can touch – it’s not just the hands that are privy to this sensual, human experience. The top of the head, the back of a knee, the ribcage – they connect too. I was excited by what I saw – I was scared. How does one become open to such vulnerability? Most of the dancers were strangers to one another; it was the Texas Dance Improvisation Festival[2] in which undergraduates, graduates and teachers coming from different parts of Texas gathered to practice this niche dance form that requires its practitioners to safely and sensually touch. A slender, blue-eyed man curling on top of a burly, bearded man; a stocky, elderly woman being held and set on the ground by an eighteen year old girl; a short, unyielding woman effortlessly shouldering a tall, nimble man.  The lack of gender conformity was inspiring – all of a sudden, the possibilities are endless.

Images taken by me at my first jam:

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Contact Improvisation (CI) dance began in 1972. Steve Paxton is generally recognized for starting CI, but Paxton and many other practitioners involved during the inception of CI allocate founding credit more diffusely to include dancers such as Nancy Stark Smith, Nita Little, Daniel Lepkoff, among others. Since the 1980’s, Nancy Stark Smith has come to be seen as the leader of the CI community. Over the past four decades, CI has been defined in myriad ways: as an art sport,[3] a physical conversation, a technique of nonviolent protest.[4] For this project, I will define CI as spontaneous movement that relies on information from forces of nature, namely gravity and momentum, in addition to sensual information provided by fellow practitioners, in order to create an improvised dance. Daniel Lepkoff stresses the continuity within CI: “…ultimately, [CI’s] initial stance of empowering individuals to rely on their own physical intelligence, to meet their moment with senses open and perceptions stretching, and to compose their own response remains intact.”[5] Despite tremendous growth of the community to every continent in the world, CI remains the same: thoroughly rooted in a physical premise and yet free to adjust to changing social and individual realities.

Nancy Stark Smith and Steve Paxton

 

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I am interested in the potential of CI dance to enact feminist ideals on an individual and societal level concerning hierarchy, sexuality and gender. Significant scholarship has been written on CI’s connections to postmodernism and its complication of hierarchy, sexuality and gender.[6] The original contribution of my work is to connect Contact Improvisation dance to feminist performance art and feminist theory. I will argue that CI is a complex feminist practice. The relationship CI has to feminism is complex because it is not inherently feminist, but enables women to have a feminist experience. I will show that it is a dance form that is particularly compatible with feminism by first showing its historical proximity to feminist performance art and subsequently analyzing how CI continues to provide a way of exploring sexual-sensual boundaries while breaking both the gendered dichotomy of movement and traditional hierarchical forms of organization.


[1] Nancy Stark Smith, “Contact Improvisation Today,” Writings on Dance, no. 21 (Summer 2001): 25.

[2] Texas Dance Improvisation Festival (TDIF) began in 2009 and featured three days of classes, jams, and performances. The TDIF mentioned occurred in 2010 at Rice University in Houston, Texas. Jordan Fuchs, “The First Annual Texas Dance Improvisation Festival,” CQ Contact Improvisation Newsletter 35, no. 2 (available only online at http://community. contactquarterly.com/) (accessed December 16, 2012).

[3] “The first time Simone Forti saw Contact [Improvisation] she said ‘Mmm, it’s kind of like an art sport’. And we used that term for a long time.” Nancy Stark Smith, “Contact Improvisation Today,” Writings on Dance, no. 21, (2001): 22.

[4] Danielle Goldman, “Bodies on the Line: Contact Improvisation and Techniques of Nonviolent Protest,” Dance Research Journal 39, no. 1 (2007): 60-74.

[5] Daniel Lepkoff, “Contact Improvisation, A Question,” Contact Quarterly 36, no. 1 (2011): 40.

[6] For more discussion see: Cheryl Pallant, Contact Improvisation (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2006). or Cynthia Novack, Sharing the Dance, Contact Improvisation and American Culture (Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1990).

Excited to share more with you next week! Please comment and let me know if you have any comments/edit suggestions/questions.

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(Me presenting my thesis last month)

 

Eat Well Wednesday

by Lydia Uncategorized

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Hope you are having a fantastic week!  Today we are going to dive into calories and take a look at what 100 calories of real food is compared to 100 calories of processed food.  Now please don’t get the wrong idea, eating well is not about calorie counting, it is about eating REAL FOOD and adopting a healthy, balanced diet for life.  But I wanted to share this information with you because I think it is important to see the difference between “Real Food” and “Processed Food” and how much more bang for your buck that you receive when your diet consists of “Real Food.”

The problem that a lot of people struggle with is the lack of satiety with their diet. They feel as though they are always hungry, needing to snack, eat, fill themselves up. So they grab another candy bar, soda, bag of chips etc. All processed foods have very little nutritional value, therefore your body does not feel fulfilled.

It needs more.

It is craving REAL FOOD!

Check out this blog post on Processed food, where I break down in detail and define the difference between real food and processed food.

REAL FOOD is food grown from the earth, food that does’t come in a package, and the ingredients are not mass produced in a lab or chemical plant.

REAL FOOD nourishes your body, gives you energy, vitality, and a glow in your life.  Your body also reaps the benefits of vitamins, minerals and fiber.

PROCESSED FOOD or food that is mass produced in a factory, packaged, only provides temporary satisfaction and taste.  Your body doesn’t know what to do with the HFCS (high fructose corn syrup), food dyes, chemicals, preservatives and additives.  Our bodies were not designed to process unnatural material.

So what happens when we do?  Our body rejects it, we get sick, lethargic, or our bodies store it as fat because it is an unusable energy source.  Processed food doesn’t fill us up so when think we need more.  We have a bag of potato chips and then 30 minutes later we are hungry again.   You grab a candy bar next and then a soda and the cycle continues.

The truth is……

We are overfed and undernourished.

We are simply not eating the right foods to nourish our bodies. The REAL FOOD that our bodies were designed to process and therefore use as energy and create vitality!!

I am a very visual person and have created a collage for you.  (click image to view close-up)

100 Calories of Real Food VS. 100 Calories of Processed Food

100-Calorie-Collage

When you fuel your body with REAL FOOD you reap the benefits of all the vitamins, minerals, fiber and other nutrients that keep us healthy and fueled for life.  PROCESSED FOODS derived from chemicals made in a lab deplete us of energy, satiety, nutrients and leave us hungry for more.

When building your meals make sure to have a Protein, Carbohydrate, and Fat.  This make a perfect, well balanced meal that will fuel your body in a way that will allow you to function optimally.  Just take a look at the volume of food you can eat when you consume REAL FOOD vs. PROCESSED FOOD.  Not only do you get to eat more, you get the many nutritional benefits that will create a healthy, strong, well-balanced body.

So, the next time you reach for a PROCESSED FOOD( Something out of a box and comprised of ingredients you can’t pronounce) remember that food is fuel and to be the best that you can be, make sure that your food is fuel that will drive you through life.

Eat Well. Live Well. Be Well.

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HeadshotJill Wentworth is leading us Wednesday by Wednesday into making better food choices and being more healthful. Tune in every Wednesday to get some great recipes and advice from someone who really knows health. In an effort to fuel her passion to serve as well has enhance the lives of others through their nutritional choices, she started Eat Well SA(San Antonio). Her vision is to educate you on how to incorporate a healthy array of foods into your life. Eat Well is not a diet, nor does it embrace any one specific dietary agenda. She also offers customized programs that are educational and teach you the tools you need to maintain healthy, well balanced eating for your busy lives.

Take a peek into a Frame Rehearsal!

by Lydia Uncategorized

Hey Framers! Lena, Development Assistant, here! I got a chance to watch Frame rehearse this afternoon for what will surely be an epic show – Ecouter, coming June 28-29 at 8pm at Spring Street Studios!

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Ecouter, which means “to listen” in French, will feature two works that have premiered to rave reviews (see slide number four) earlier in our season and a completely new piece set on dancers Shanon Adams, Jacquelyn Boe, Laura Gutierrez, and Ashley Horn. Frame Director, Lydia Hance, led the four stunning artists in a fierce and fun rehearsal this afternoon in preparation for an epic evening of dance!

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Rehearsal began with a “check in.” Everyone passed around a theoretical ball and took turns stating how our body, energy, space, and time felt.

tight, good, stiff, tired

frustrated, moderately moderate, high-strung-happy, high!, excited

calm, cool, beautiful, clean, open

good, free, valuable, expansive

These were a few of the words used by the dancers to convey their current states of being.

Then they got to creating.

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Dance is physical. And this dance is no exception with lots of exciting and beautifully athletic moments to look forward to! But, all of the physical exertion was duly aided by a few… interesting verbal directives from our fearless leader, Lydia Hance:

“take a risk”

“find a moment of discovery”

“even if it’s just an arm…experiment with your whole body getting there”

“Accent the fingertips! like…the road rage bird, grrrrrr”

“if you’re lifting someone, give them a moment”

“smart flocking”

and, of course, the most surprising yet frequent directive:

“GUACAMOLE ARMS”

Intrigued? You should be! This piece is fantastic – I feel so privileged that I got to be a part of rehearsal today and I absolutely can’t wait to see what the final product will be!

To finish out the rehearsal the dancers convened once again for a brief “check out.” Again they were asked about body, energy, space and time.

great, hot, sweaty, sore, warm, tentative, stiff in lower back

little lower, more calm, tired, light, high and fulfilled

ok (back to work), valuable, well-spent, precious, about to speed up, over

light, wonderful as always, empty

As I walked to my car, I thought more about my own energy and how it had changed over the course of the hour and a half of witnessing dance and art and the creative process. Gratitude. I was overwhelmed with gratitude. It’s not everyday that I get to see something organic and authentic manifest in front of my eyes, in front of my camera lens. One thing is for sure: I can’t wait to see more.

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Stay tuned for more information on the show including ways to volunteer (and get in for free) or how to become a VIP attendee and enjoy a pre-show reception with the artists. It’s sure to be a spectacular event that you won’t want to miss, so mark your calendars now!

Houston is Inspired

by Lydia Uncategorized

From our friends at Fresh Arts:

Houston is Inspired!

Houston, we don’t have a problem. We have arts and culture.

There’s more to Houston than brisket, big oil, and bayous. Houston has another story to tell. The story of how this city has Houston is Inspired #HOUARTS become a mecca for some of the best arts, culture and food in the country. We have a winning combination of creativity, diversity, innovation and resources to be named Forbes’ “Coolest City.” Thousands of people come here every year ON PURPOSE to experience everything Houston has to offer. Thousands more will visit, especially now that The New York Times marked Houston #7 on its “Places to Visit in 2013” list (along with Instanbul at #10 and Paris at #46). (True story.) Well, hello, Houston. That’s something to brag about.

And that’s how “Houston is…” was born. They did approximately 7,000 tons* of research and figured out that visitors LOVE Houston for two things above all else: culture and cuisine. They created a spectacular national advertising campaign to share that news with the world. And when folks working in Houston’s arts and culture community** heard the statistics and saw the campaign, they did a collective dance of joy and adopted “Houston is Inspired” as a unifying mantra for an unprecedented regional effort to celebrate our creative capital. We’re ready to let the world know that our special BBQ comes with an extra side of awesomesauce. And a bottle of champagne.

Houston: We ARE inspired. It’s time to inspire everyone around us, too. Here’s how you can help. (Especially YOU, independent artists! Make your voices heard!)

our gal pal Courtney D. Jones at the Houston is Inspired mural. Best pic of the event.
our gal pal Courtney D. Jones at the Houston is Inspired mural. Best pic of the event.  We thought it needed a little extra flair, too.