So the shoot is outside this weekend.  For those of you on the East coast or middle of the country, this may sound wimpy. It’s supposed to warm up a bit over the weekend. But here we have today’s:

Skies: Temperature: Humidity: Wind: Pressure: Visibility: Sunrise: Sunset:

Cloudy 49° 92% NNW 23mph 30.05″ 10 mi. 7:14AM 5:47PM

February 10, 2011 you have a very important date with us.

Every Thursday, Spacetaker and Boheme host a different local arts group. At this special happy hour, get up close and personal with Frame Dance Productions. Even better, a portion of the proceeds from the event benefits the company. Join us at Boheme located at 301 Fairview in Houston from 5-10 p.m. on Feb. 10.  And that’s not all….

Several lucky attendees/drinkers will win free tickets to the premiere of Satin Stitch, our next dance-for-camera work screened at Spacetaker on March 12, 2011.

A gesture phrase in 7, a boot dance, a hand dance, pull, lean, lift.  Cheek to cheek, confined becomes ecstatic and some solo time. I took mental note today during rehearsal about how I communicate or rather, don’t communicate, what I’m thinking.  I spend so much time in preparation for film rehearsal and I have to see big  picture before working out details that I spend a lot of time thinking and imagining without communicating.  So the first time I ever put my directions into words–other than some conceptual journaling– is when I’m communicating directives to the dancers.  Hmmmm.  Maybe I need to rehearse the rehearsal.

They did great.  Really great.  Can’t wait to shoot and edit.  I think I was just noticing something about myself: I don’t imagine in words.  I imagine in pictures and moods and colors.  So it makes sense that I am a filmmaker and not a writer, I suppose.   Back to today.  Today we rehearsed for the upcoming film….drum roll please…Satin Stitch.  I did it, I named it.  And I’m happy with it.  Since artists are inevitably asked to describe their work as well as explain their titles, I’ll just wait until forced–eh–asked to explain it.  Maybe I will…and maybe I won’t… Nah, I’d like to have something substantial to serve as the descriptive undercurrent of the piece and the title. You’ll get the thoughts along the way, I promise.  But for the nutshell, two sentence synopsis, it’ll be March 12.  Have I mentioned Satin Stitch is premiering March 12? 😉

Tomorrow is officially our first rehearsal as part of the Hope Werks residency.  This rehearsal is devoted solely to the film we are shooting later this month.  I’m working on titles…I think I’ve decided on one but need to sleep on it one more night before I declare it in front of the world.  This one was a challenge.  With Crease, the title actually came first.  Points and Coordinates came early in the creative process.  But I don’t have the luxury of a lot of time to come up with this title because it is going to be a fast one.  Fast shoot, fast edit, and fast promotion.  It feels like a lot to juggle the creation of a live show that includes film as well as a totally separate dance-for-camera work.   They are different works, but I think there are some tangled concepts in there.  Don’t forget, you’ll get to see it March 12 at Spacetaker.

I’ll let you know the title tomorrow…

I love beginnings.  Sometimes I wonder if I love the middle and the end too little.  But we’re at a new beginning, 2011, so I’ll just enjoy the moment.  We have taken a bit of a breather at Frame during December, hibernating to come back with gusto in the new year.  And I can’t stay away any longer.  Technology director Jonathon Hance and I have just returned from prepping on location for our next dance-for-camera work.  We shoot in about two weeks.  Costumes are about 80% complete. We rehearse on Tuesday, tweaking movement, narrowing in on the scope of the shoot and a million other details.   I am organizing this shoot a little bit differently because we aren’t filming in Houston like we did for “Crease” and “Points and Coordinates.”  So I’ll try and get you, dear readers, some backstage pictures of the weekend Frame went to ______ to shoot a film…

So, when will you get to see this fabulous new dance-for-camera work?  Mark your calendars Houstonians, it’s premiering Saturday, March 12.  Tickets coming soon.

2010-2011 Frame Dance Productions Music Composition Competition

Note: The deadline is January 7, 2011.

Frame Dance Productions announces its competition to select a piece of music for its upcoming evening-length premiere of Mortar, Sylphs Wrote. 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.

Award and Performance
The winning composer’s music will be the basis of the new original work, Mortar, Sylphs Wrote and will be featured prominently as the sound score of this premiere in Spring 2011.

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.
Instruments may include the following: flute (piccolo, alto flute), clarinet (bass clarinet), oboe, bassoon, saxophone (soprano, alto, tenor, baritone), French horn, trumpet, trombone, percussion, piano, violin, viola, cello, bass.
Acoustic works that utilize electronic playback are also acceptable.
Electronic music is accepted and encouraged.
All music must be unpublished and more than 20 minutes in duration.

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 or money orders payable to Frame Dance Productions.

All entries must be postmarked no later than Friday, January 7, 2011.
Frame Dance Productions is not responsible for lost or damaged material.
The winning composition will be announced at FrameDance.org on Friday, January 29, 2011.

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

I always have a certain feeling before a performance that I organize. Fidgety, expectant, nervous…

Yesterday at Fieldwork we went through (almost) all of the pieces in show order so Kris, our excellent lighting designer, could see what she would be lighting. With all the love in my heart, I’ll say this: it’s harder to wrangle adult women than two-year-olds. But I told them, and I’m still thinking it, they are powerful women. The Fieldwork group is all women, and let me tell you, it is going to be a wonderful, powerful showcase. Variety, depth, exploration, vulnerability. Get yourself there if at all possible. It is worth it.

We didn’t run Points and Coordinates last night because, as you may remember, we had a brush up the night before. I love trusting my dancers implicitly in this piece. It’s what makes it alive. We had all just come from another rehearsal and we were tired, it was late, and emotions were a little fragile/volatile (at least on my end.) So we went through it and we felt disconnected and a little rushed, and lost in the “road map” of the piece. I think we were a bit discouraged because our memory of the piece was true and real connection with one another. But I expected and wanted that to happen. It needed to happen before we could get back into that place that exists within the context of Points and Coordinates. That probably sounds extremely strange to you… got it. Let me try to explain it a little more like this. Doing this piece is a bit like entering another world with its own dynamics, rules, relations. We are both captive to the environment and directors of it. But in order for that to happen there has to be a synchronization of breath, motive and expectation. And when we’ve done it in the past, I truly believe that is what has made it so powerful and lush–that the three of us have come together in those aspects ready to give and receive without judgment in that space. And it will happen again, I am certain. What happened the other night at the brush-up rehearsal actually made me realize how special the dynamic really is, and how dependent we are on each other to create that world on the stage. It’s a beautiful risk. And I’m ready to enter that world.

But before that, I must iron a 12×9 foot canvas and buy some gaffer’s tape…

Tonight we are brushing up Points and Coordinates for the showcase on Sunday. We aren’t learning to choreography or drilling anything. We are just stepping back into the space of the piece to feel and sense our way back into the world that we create in Points and Coordinates. There’s something very, very special about this piece. The cast, the interaction with the film, and the exploration that happens is magical and I feel so blessed to have this piece and create it once again on Sunday. There will be new moments and new meaning and I’m excited to surrender to the points and coordinates of moving on the canvases, with the graphite and with the cast. I’ll let you know how it goes.

If you’ve seen it either at the Contemporary Arts Museum or in its infancy at Spacetaker, what are words that you would use to describe this work?

Today I’m am finalizing the program info, the program order and production notes for the Fieldwork Showcase on Nov. 7 at 7pm for $7 at Barnevelder Movement Arts Complex in Downtown Houston. This is going to be a rich, diverse showcase of artists. We have a poet, a doll maker, three choreographers, two playwrights and one short story author. Beautiful work that has been developing through the Fieldwork process over the past 10 weeks. What I love so much about the showcase is that it shows works in progress as well as finished works. Audiences rarely get glimpses mid-process, but that’s really what I’m all about: bringing the audience into the world of creation.

One of the writers in the group many of you may already be familiar with is Diana Weeks. We collaborated in the creation of “Dancing Diana” where Frame Dance Productions danced to three of her witty and humorous short stories that were performed in the Houston Fringe Festival in Aug. 2009 as well as in Danceplorations last spring. There is also another writer in this group that I am in the beginning stages of collaborating with for “Mortar Sylphs Wrote” which is the title of our upcoming evening-length show, the culmination of the Hope Werks residency. She wrote a poem that will be a part of the new work. MMmmmmmm collaboration…

I strongly urge you to see this showcase. It does contain some more adult themes, so just a heads up for the little art-goers out there.

And I also encourage you to check out Fieldwork if you are an artist (undercover or not) or if you have a friend you think would benefit from this work/feedback group.

Here’s an image of what Frame will be presenting at the showcase: