Lydia Hance | Frame Dance Productions

The Cinema Arts Festival Houston has come to a close. While I feel fully saturated for the week/end, I can’t help but admit that I became fond of cruising through the weekend looking at the abundant film offerings, picking up my purse and hopping in the car to attend any little thing my heart desired. Did you go? What did you fall in love with? Or what did you not like? I’m going to write about a few things that I saw these past five days.

1. Pina— see below.
2. Myth and Infrastructure held at Talento Bilingue de Houston on Friday evening. The event was an installation slash performance opened by two short films. The live performance pieces/installations were certainly the strongest of the evening despite TBH’s inability to switch the audio output. The audience sat in the dark for a good ten minutes. Needless to say, I found that the film audience of Houston kind and at ease. Comforting.  The performance was a mixture of animation projections and the shadow of the creator and performer, Miwa Matreyek.  We followed her on two of her surreal, dreamy, journeys that felt like a washing from reality.  One of them appropriately named: Dreaming of Lucid Living.  However, the stronger of the two was Myth and Infrastructure which had a stronger direction, provided an “un”narrative arc and ended before we had been in her land too long.  Did I mention it was funded through a Princess Grace Award?  yeah.

3. Held at the Edwards Greenway Palace Stadium, aka a regular commercial movie theater, I saw Here, directed by Braden King.  He was all over this festival from his feature length aforementioned film, to an installation at TBH, to a live deconstructed version of his feature length, to the Meet the Makers dialogue.  He gave a Q&A after the screening of Here which lasted until after midnight.  The screening began at 9:45 pm on a Friday which was a little bit late for me to fully enjoy the beauty and subtlety of his work.  In a word: impressive.  They filmed over several years in Armenia and the cast spanned from Ben Foster to local Armenians they cast once arriving to shoot.  At almost exactly two hours in length, the film follows an Armenian photographer and an American modern-day cartographer, making maps for satellites.  The connection between a photographer and a map-maker seems obvious but their discovery of themselves and each other was fresh and real.  It is a road trip romance, but one you haven’t seen before.  The audience perked at the mention of Sundance, and it’s no surprise why it did so well there.

4. Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film.  I thought this was brilliant, funny, educational.  Pip Chodorov made this film for “beginners” he said in the Q&A after the screening, but he certainly didn’t undermine the “advanced” audience, which I could tell by the cinemistas in attendance.  We saw excellently shaped interviews with luminaries such as Robert Breer, Michael Snow, Ken Jacobs and Peter Kubelka.  And what was most impressive was Chodorov’s personal relationships with them all.  There was no air of art aristocracy, but an honest desire to educate the public.  Chodorov also manages to weave several short films into the documentary seamlessly.  He made avant-garde accessible.  And funny.  For me, this was the beautiful and unexpected prize of the festival.

I can’t wait for next year.  This is truly a gem of Houston.  Other cities– be jealous.  Houston Art rocks again.

I went to a Houston preview screening of Pina 3D, and it’s taken me until now to finally write about what I saw. Last week, Billy Bell tweeted “see the problem is I’ve watched Pina like 10 times…” and “#itsstillnotenough.”   I did fall in love with the film, but forgive me Wim, I can’t provide the same box office boost.  I would love to see it again, and probably again and again, but I’ve needed a breather.  The power of the drama, the imagery, the performance, and the production was so intense that I found my stomach in knots after the screening.  Pina is one of the most visually beautiful and tormented dance films I’ve seen.

With vibrant eyes and voiceovers from the dancers, Pina’s choreography was punctuated with glimpses of what it was like working with the iconic choreographer. Even after twenty years of working with Pina, they were still in awe of her.  Like she was worthy of their worship.  Imagine being that captivating.

There is something similar about each of these striking dancers, old and young.  I saw something in their eyes: clarity and intensity.  I remember someone asking Paul Taylor how he chooses his dancers.  He said that it’s something in the eyes.  And if the eyes are the windows to the soul, Pina was clearly looking in.

I am struck by the restraint of the choreography.  So much depth of storytelling and still no extraneous movement. Null.  Pina is the epitome of “less is more.”

The 3D was effective and never verged into gimmick.  I may be one of the biggest critics of 3D.  Yes, it’s where we’re going.  Yes, it requires more skill and discretion.  And this filmmaker approves.

Opening this weekend in Houston as part of the Houston Cinema Arts Society Festival, I urge you to go.  Pina is so visually stunning, you won’t regret it.  Nov. 9-13.

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The benefits of winning Frame’s Composition Competition

The opportunity is four-fold:

1. To have your composition interpreted by a professional choreographer and performed by professional dancers.

2. To have your music serve centrally to a produced performance and/or film.  Essentially, a dance company is creating an entirely original work based on your composition.

3. To have your music featured in an event hosted, organized, and paid for by Frame Dance Productions.

4. To gain a broader reach; increase awareness of your work; find new fans.  Frame’s audience will now know you as a composer.

Are you a composer or know one?

We are all about collaboration here at Frame.  All about it.  And once a year, we open a Music Composition Competition to find new collaborators for our live and film work.  Last year’s winner was Micah Clark.  His music was in both Mortar, Sylphs Wrote and Satin Stitch.  A talented composer, his works were necessary for the work that we made, and played an integral role in shaping the piece.  Mortar would not be Mortar without Micah Clark.  The reason we selected his music was the depth of the sound.  I heard Stravinsky and Debussy and his own voice.  An old, old soul but at the same time fresh.

It’s that time when we open the competition again, to find this year’s winner and collaborator with Frame.  Here are the details:

2011-2012 Frame Dance Productions Music Composition Competition

Note: The deadline is January 6, 2012.

Frame Dance Productions announces its competition to select a piece of music for its upcoming Spring season. Its two-fold purpose is to offer outstanding emerging composers a forum for their recognition as well as an opportunity to collaborate with the dance performance company, Frame Dance Productions. We are looking for completed pieces, or for samples in consideration for a future work.

Award and Performance
The winning composer’s music will be the basis of a new original work– film and/or live and will be featured prominently as a collaborator with Frame Dance Productions.

Eligibility
All composers, who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents, are eligible.

Submission Guidelines
Works may be written for solo, duo, trio, quartet, or quintet.
Acoustic works that utilize electronic playback are also acceptable.
Electronic music is accepted and encouraged.

All music must be unpublished.

Interested composers should submit:

• a recording of the piece on a CD
• a biography, with current address, e-mail address, and phone number, and
• a stamped, self-addressed envelope, if they wish their music returned.

Entry Fee and Deadline
The entry fee is $15.00 and composers may submit up to three selections.  Make checks payable to Frame Dance Productions.

All entries must be postmarked no later than Friday, January 6, 2012.
Frame Dance Productions is not responsible for lost or damaged material.
The winning composition will be announced at FrameDance.org on Friday, January 28, 2012.

For submission details please email Lydia.Hance@FrameDance.org.
For more information on Frame Dance Productions, please visit FrameDance.org.

Today I wrote on facebook about how Wednesdays are my marathon days.  Oh they are… teaching six classes and then Fieldwork tonight.  It’s also usually the day that my kitchen explodes.  Hmmm.  Anyway, Jo Yost Ulrich, a friend and Yamuna teacher gave this beautiful image that is helping me immensely today:  Pace yourself and approach it like you would to eat an elephant.

When things get crazy it’s easy to get crazy with them.  But today I’m remembering that I have a choice in that matter.

What is Yamuna?  After years of pain from scoliosis plus crazy dancing hours, about two years ago I found something that relieves my pain.  And I have tried everything.  EVERYTHING.  Holistic.  To get the official info, click here.  In my own words, it’s exercise/massage self-care method that, through stimulating bone and working out into the fascia and muscles, provides a way to find a healthy skeletal and muscular balance.  The best thing is, it’s all about education, and finding what YOU can do outside of the class environment.  I’ve been going to classes for about three years now, but I own my own Yamuna ball and Foot Wakers (the equipment for the feet) and I use them to prepare for class, performances, or realignment if I’ve been editing too long on the computer.  It’s not like going to a massage therapist where you’re completely at the mercy of the 50 minute slot of time.  Plus tip.

I encourage you to check it out, and see if there’s a Yamuna practitioner in your area.  If you are in Houston, I recommend Jo’s classes at the Hope Center.

Are you familiar with Yamuna Body Rolling?

For the dance teacher, Halloween marks the the final stretch of classes before the winter holidays.  In most cases, they become increasingly challenging due to two factors:  sheer fatigue from the semester, and a spike in sugar intake on the part of the students.  I’m curious, dance teachers, what are your tricks to keep your class focused and engaged for these last few weeks?

I wrote this for Hope Stone’s blog about our Hope Werks Residency last year.  I teach at Hope Stone– Parent & Me, Creative Movement I, Creative Movement II and in the Kid’s Play Program.  It’s a fabulous program offering arts scholarships to all kids involved and they have master teachers in dance, theater, music, yoga, and photography. The Kid’s Play program is in Houston, TX, New Orleans, LA, and Katy, TX.

But back to Hope Werks, the residency Frame had last year. During the time we created Satin Stitch and Mortar, Sylphs Wrote.   Hope Werks is also a program run by Hope Stone. Here’s what I wrote:

As I sit here frantically arranging sponsors and partnerships for my next show, I reminisce about the luxury of rehearsal time and space that the Hope Werks space grant allowed.

It may be a secret–although it shouldn’t be a secret– choreographers and companies are out money before they even begin rehearsals.  That is because it is expensive just to rent the space you need to rehearse.   As a freshly formed company of nine months, my company Frame Dance Productions began rehearsing last January a part of the Hope Werks Residency.  We had three months of consistent rehearsals without having to pay to rent the space.  Hope Werks was absolutely essential in the work that I created last year.  What a significant opportunity in the first year of the company.

It is that it is rare to find or afford enough space to actually “finish” a work.  In a lot of my work prior to the residency, I just had to be satisfied with not being done with things.  But for me, getting Frame up and running and wanting to create work–wanting to create a lot of work– to establish the company, I needed time to truly finish something meaty. And just because a choreographer has “finished” the work doesn’t mean that the work is finished.  It takes time for the dancers to fully investigate the roles and the material and the chemistry with other dancers.  That is another luxury that Hope Werks has afforded Frame and me.

I’ve realized how much I relish and find meaning in my creativity as a practice.  Having a set rehearsal schedule, one that I could count on and one that the dancers could count on, created structure and repetition that allowed other variables to live and breathe.  We had consistency in making the work and consistency for the dancers to rehearse and understand dynamics with each other.  I love for dancers to know material so well, that I can cut it up and play with it–so that it keeps it new every performance, but they don’t feel insecure.  Just ask the dancers—they never performed the same piece twice.  I thrive on consistency of community so that I can build trust, fluency, and then play with details, dynamic, and give dancers the freedom to make new choices on the stage.

Since the Hope Werks residency started, the company has performed live eight times and produced and screened two brand new dances for camera.  I have been awarded three grants and I’m now planning a brand new show for this Spring. Thank you Hope Werks, Hope Stone, and Jane.  We’re off and running.