Tuesday Tunes!

by Lydia Tuesday Tunes

Tuesday Tunes

 

                Happy Tuesday Framers!

 

        This Tuesday we are highlighting…..

             Ginger Rogers!

 

When you’re happy, you don’t count the years

 

Ginger Rogers was born Virginia Katherine McMath in Independence, Missouri on July 16, 1911. Her mother, known as Lelee, went to Independence to have Ginger away from her husband. She had a baby earlier in their marriage and he allowed the doctor to use forceps and the baby died. She was kidnapped by her father several times until her mother took him to court. Ginger’s mother left her child in the care of her parents while she went in search of a job as a scriptwriter in Hollywood and later to New York City. Mrs. McMath found herself with an income good enough to where she could send for Ginger. Lelee became a Marine in 1918 and was in the publicity department and Ginger went back to her grandparents in Missiouri. During this time her mother met John Rogers. After leaving the Marines they married in May, 1920 in Liberty, Missouri. He was transferred to Dallas and Ginger (who treated him as a father) went too.

Ginger won a Charleston contest in 1925 (age 14) and a 4 week contract on the Interstate circuit. She also appeared in vaudeville acts which she did until she was 17 with her mother by her side to guide her. Now she had discovered true acting. She married in March, 1929, and after several months realized she had made a mistake. She acquired an agent and she did several short films. She went to New York where she appeared in the Broadway production of “Top Speed” which debuted Christmas Day, 1929.

Her first film was in 1929 in A Night in a Dormitory (1930). It was a bit part, but it was a start. Later that year, Ginger appeared, briefly in two more films, A Day of a Man of Affairs (1929) and Campus Sweethearts (1930). For awhile she did both movies and theatre. The following year she began to get better parts in films such as Office Blues (1930) and The Tip-Off (1931). But the movie that enamored her to the public was Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933). She did not have top billing but her beauty and voice was enough to have the public want more. She suggested using a monocle and this also set her apart. One song she popularized in the film was the now famous, “We’re in the Money”. In 1934, she starred with Dick Powell in Twenty Million Sweethearts (1934).

It was a well received film about the popularity of radio. Ginger’s real stardom occurred when she was teamed with Fred Astaire where they were one of the best cinematic couples ever to hit the silver screen. This is where she achieved real stardom. They were first paired in 1933’s Flying Down to Rio (1933) and later in 1935’s Roberta (1935) and Top Hat (1935). Ginger also appeared in some very good comedies such as Bachelor Mother (1939) and 5th Ave Girl (1939) both in 1939. Also that year she appeared with Astaire in The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939). The film made money but was not anywhere successful as they had hoped. After that studio executives at RKO wanted Ginger to strike out on her own. She starred in her final film with Fred Astaire in 1949 in The Barkelys of Broadway  replacing Judy Garland after Garland was suspended from MGM due to her tardiness.

She made several dramatic pictures but it was 1940’s Kitty Foyle (1940) that allowed her to shine. Playing a young lady from the wrong side of the tracks, she played the lead role well, so well in fact, that she won an Academy Award for her portrayal. Ginger followed that project with the delightful comedy, Tom Dick and Harry (1941) the following year. It’s a story where she has to choose which of three men she wants to marry. Through the rest of the 1940s and early 1950s she continued to make movies but not near the caliber before World War II. After Oh, Men! Oh, Women! (1957) in 1957, Ginger didn’t appear on the silver screen for seven years. By 1965, she had appeared for the last time in Harlow (1965). Afterward, she appeared on Broadway and other stage plays traveling in Europe, the U.S. and Canada. After 1984, she retired and wrote an autobiography in 1991 entitled, “Ginger, My Story” which is a very good book. On April 25, 1995, Ginger died of natural causes in Rancho Mirage, California. She was 83.

 

 

Fred and Ginger- Too Hot to Handle 

 

Ginger Rogers and Lucy Do The Charleston

 

Fred and Ginger- Bouncing the Blues from The Barkelys of Broadway

 

 

Facts about Miss Ginger Rogers

 

Was given the name “Ginger” by her little cousin who couldn’t pronounce “Virginia” correctly.

Sort-of cousin of Rita Hayworth. Ginger’s aunt married Rita’s uncle.

She didn’t drink: she had her very own ice cream soda fountain.

Was Hollywood’s highest paid star of 1942.

Her first teaming with Fred Astaire, Flying Down to Rio (1933), was her 20th film appearance but only Astaire’s second.

A distant cousin of Lucille Ball, according to Lucie Arnaz.

She and Fred Astaire acted in 10 movies together: The Barkleys of Broadway (1949), Carefree (1938), Flying Down to Rio (1933), Follow the Fleet (1936), The Gay Divorcee (1934), Roberta (1935), Shall We Dance (1937), The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939), Swing Time (1936) and Top Hat (1935)

Rogers holds the record for actresses at New York’s prestigious Radio City Music Hall with 23 films for a total of 55 weeks.

One of the celebrities whose picture Anne Frank placed on the wall of her bedroom in the “Secret Annex” while in hiding during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam, Holland.

Interred at Oakwood Memorial Park, Chatsworth, California, USA, the same cemetery as long-time dancing/acting partner Fred Astaire is located.

 

 

MFA Monday!

by Lydia MFA Mondays

MFA right

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Monday Framers!

We hope your week has started on the right foot, but either way this post from Sue Roginski will have you reflecting and reveling in whatever the week has in store for you. MFA Monday features reflections from Master of Fine Arts holders and Sue is a standout among the masters! 

 

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Part 2 of 3

MFA dance programs bring teachers/professors/mentors rich with information, creative talent of course, experience, and support. These important individuals are more than a pleasant perk and can offer serious guidance (beyond school-real life stuff included) at times in a challenging program.

Once you finish graduate school and become a “master”, the re-entrance to the art/dance/performance/teaching/professional world can get very lonely.

 

Shyness

(note to self…don’t be shy)

I think one of the most difficult things for me in graduate school was the fact that I had a hard time, and I mean a really hard time putting any kind of work: be it written-choreographic-fragmented ideas or investigations “out there” for feedback. Sharing creative stuff can wreak havoc on the sense-of-the-artist-self.

I’ve had many a conversation with grad school friends (pre and post) regarding the vulnerability that is felt when sharing choreography or just putting work out into a public space/arena. Once it is out there it is immediately exposed to critique, praise, dialogue, exposure: in other words… it becomes a potential thing/entity for CRITICISM.

 

Feedback

It can be intense and can feel like one of the riskiest compromises of self and to self-confidence.

 

On Feedback

During the process of creating the MFA project my committee chair/professor and mentor Susan Rose reminded me that all individuals viewing rehearsals would have quite varied and different sets of feedback. I remember she said, “Try not to have everyone in the studio at the same time”. This was an interesting concept to me. Whispering to myself a thought: I actually could choose what feedback would work for the project. I did not have to absorb and utilize all of the notes that were offered to me? Susan reminded me to sift out what was necessary for the work. I could then insert that feedback into my own process.

 

Seek out feedback

In a year (second year thought) you will be out there on your own, so seek out mentors-teachers-professors during your grad school experience.

 

Experiment

Try something in your work and choreographic process you may not try otherwise. After all you are inside (where?) the safe walls of an academic institution.

This is the time to try something and fail.

Fail…I know that word is loaded with negative connotations, but graduate school is a space where those misses or failures can be discussed and analyzed and given some important time. The mentors love to be in on your process/project.

 

Luxury of time

Time goes by so quickly in this space: grad school place

My advice is to remain in contact with your mentors.

They will most definitely want to know what you are working on after graduate school.

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backyard

Sue Roginski graduated from Wesleyan University in 1987 with a BA in Dance and from the University of California Riverside in 2007 with an MFA in Dance (experimental choreography). She is a teacher, choreographer, and performer who has produced her own work as well as performances to benefit Project Inform, Breast Cancer Action, and Women’s Cancer Resource Center. In the past few years, Sue has had the opportunity to share choreography at Anatomy Riot (LA), Highways Performance Space (Santa Monica), Unknown Theater (LA), AB Miller High School (Fontana), Culver Center of the Arts (Riverside), Society of Dance History Scholars (conferences ’08 and ’09), The Haven Café and Gallery (Banning), Back to the Grind Coffee House (Riverside), Heritage High School (Romoland), KUNST-STOFF arts (SF), and Riverside Ballet Arts (Riverside). She also has been privileged to dance and perform with Susan Rose and Dancers since 2005. Sue teaches at Mt. San Jacinto College and Riverside City College and divides her time between Riverside and San Francisco where she had a ten year career as dancer and collaborator with the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. Sue performs with Dandelion Dancetheater (Bay Area based ensemble) and Christy Funsch (SF dance artist) whenever possible, and in 2010 created P.L.A.C.E. Performance (a dance collective) with friend and colleague Julie Satow Freeman. Her ongoing creative process infuses choreography with improvisation.

Tuesday Tunes

by Lydia Tuesday Tunes

Tuesday Tunes

Liza Minnelli

 

My mother gave me my drive but my father gave me my dreams

 

Liza Minnelli was born on March 12, 1946, the daughter of Judy Garland and movie director Vincente Minnelli. She was practically raised at MGM studios while her parents worked long hours there and she made her film debut at fourteen months of age in the movie In the Good Old Summertime (1949). Her parents divorced in 1951 and, in 1952, her mother married Sidney Luft, with sister Lorna Luft and brother Joey Luft subsequently being born. Her father, Vincente Minnelli, later married Georgette Magnani, mother of her half-sister Christiane Nina “Tina Nina” Minnelli.

At sixteen, Liza was on her own in New York City, struggling to begin her career in show business. Her first recognition came for the play “Best Foot Forward” which ran for seven months in 1963. A year later, Judy invited Liza to appear with her for a show at the London Paladium. This show sold out immediately and a second night was added to it. Liza’s performance in London was a huge turning point in both her career and her relationship with her mother. The audience absolutely loved Liza and Judy realized that Liza was now an adult with her own career. It was at the Paladium that Liza met her first husband, Peter Allen, a friend of Judy’s.

Liza won a Tony award at age nineteen and was nominated for her first Academy Award at age twenty-three for the role of Pookie Adams in The Sterile Cuckoo (1969). Other dramatic roles followed and, in 1972, she won an Oscar for her performance as Sally Bowles in the movie Cabaret (1972). The seventies were a busy time for Liza. She worked steadily in film, stage and music. She and good friend Halston were regulars at Studio 54, the trendiest disco club in the world. Marriages to filmmaker Jack Haley Jr. and Mark Gero, a sculptor who earned his living in the theater followed. Each marriage ended in divorce.

Over the past years, her career has leaned more towards stage performances and she has a long list of musical albums which she continues to add to. She teamed with Frank Sinatra in his “Duets” CD and Sammy Davis Jr. joined them for a series of concerts and TV shows which were extremely well-received.

She has had to deal with tabloid stories of drug abuse and ill-health and has had a number of high profile stays at drug-rehabilitation clinics. Her hectic schedule may have slowed down in recent years, but she still has a large following of immensely loyal fans who continue to cheer her on.

 

Liza Minnelli on the Judy Garland Show

 

Baryshnikov and Minnelli

 

Stepping Out

 

 

Facts about Miss Liza Minnelli

 

Her parents named her after Ira Gershwin’s song “Liza (All the Clouds’ll Roll Away)”

Says her mother gave her a sense of humor

1990: She received the Grammy Legend Award, making her one of the few artists who have won entertainment’s top four awards – the Oscar, the Tony, The Emmy and the Grammy.

Was briefly managed by KISS lead singer/guitarist Gene Simmons in the 1980s.

When she was young she befriended Marilyn Monroe.

Her mother, Judy Garland, and former father-in-law, Jack Haley, starred together in The Wizard of Oz (1939).

She and her mother, Judy Garland, were the first Oscar-nominated mother and daughter.

Godparents were Ira Gershwin and Kay Thompson.

Because Liza constantly traveled with her mother, she spent most of her childhood in hotels. She was the inspiration for the character of “Eloise”, who grew up in the Plaza Hotel. The books were written by Liza’s godmother, Kay Thompson.

While Frank Sinatra’s version of “New York, New York” is played at Yankee Stadium after every Yankee home win, Liza Minnelli’s version is played after every Yankee home loss.

Her favorite modern-day singers are Adele, Michael Bublé, Pink and ‘Lady GaGa’.

 

MFA Monday

by Lydia MFA Mondays

MFA right

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Monday Framers!

Another busy week and another fabulous MFA Monday series! This is the FIRST post of three by Sue Roginski! Enjoy!

 

backyard

Sue Roginski graduated from Wesleyan University in 1987 with a BA in Dance and from the University of California Riverside in 2007 with an MFA in Dance (experimental choreography). She is a teacher, choreographer, and performer who has produced her own work as well as performances to benefit Project Inform, Breast Cancer Action, and Women’s Cancer Resource Center. In the past few years, Sue has had the opportunity to share choreography at Anatomy Riot (LA), Highways Performance Space (Santa Monica), Unknown Theater (LA), AB Miller High School (Fontana), Culver Center of the Arts (Riverside), Society of Dance History Scholars (conferences ’08 and ’09), The Haven Café and Gallery (Banning), Back to the Grind Coffee House (Riverside), Heritage High School (Romoland), KUNST-STOFF arts (SF), and Riverside Ballet Arts (Riverside). She also has been privileged to dance and perform with Susan Rose and Dancers since 2005. Sue teaches at Mt. San Jacinto College and Riverside City College and divides her time between Riverside and San Francisco where she had a ten year career as dancer and collaborator with the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company. Sue performs with Dandelion Dancetheater (Bay Area based ensemble) and Christy Funsch (SF dance artist) whenever possible, and in 2010 created P.L.A.C.E. Performance (a dance collective) with friend and colleague Julie Satow Freeman. Her ongoing creative process infuses choreography with improvisation.

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Part 1 of 3

At 40 I sent in my acceptance letter to the UC Riverside Department of Dance for the MFA in Experimental Choreography. I had been dancing in San Francisco for 17 years and was feeling the need for a change-shake-up-something new when I encountered an information session for UCR’s MFA/PHD program in SF.

200px-UC_Riverside_seal.svg

The Unknown 

It was a big deal to say the least to leave a community I was a part of for 17 years: a leap into the unknown. No worries about missing friends, community or city, graduate school sucked me in and under, and for two years I was immersed, overwhelmed, invigorated, challenged, inspired, overworked, and in desperate need of a comb or brush. Not that everyone does grad school the way that I did, but haircuts and daily moments of primping become a low priority when reading 300-500 pages a week become part of a dance experience. The program at UCR: “Critical Dance Studies” requires MFA students to take the PHD seminars. The four core classes blend cultural, historical, political and rhetorical “approaches” to the practice of making work as a choreographer. Rigorous in nature, theoretical and in depth, the program does not ask you to let go of everything you bring with you, but does require an open mind and sponge-like willingness to absorb what is covered.

The Uncomfortable

In a week I was IN, and there was no turning back. The first PHD seminar had us reading Michel de Certeau and Foucault, and in the MFA studio course dancing representations, we considered the dances that needed “program notes” and HOW to proceed in the making of a dance without those.  “Representations” includes a series of choreographic studies. Create a gendered portrait. Such a good assignment, but the hard part of course was actually being exposed to performing a solo again, being watched, and the feeling of being under a microscope. You must be willing to put your self out there and at times embrace the failure. The class not only consists of receiving feedback after sharing the study, but offering thoughts in the moment after a colleague performs her/his study. Dance, respond, observe, articulate, think, move, create, absorb, share, expose, unearth, contribute – just scratches the surface of grad school tasks.

Graduate school seems to have many of those performing moments. In seminar imagine that you’ve done all of the readings, have a solid understanding of what was read, and can contribute articulately to the discussion in class. I cannot imagine that. That was never the case for me. I would have a hard time grasping the reading material and through seminar would think intensely about what I could add to the dialogue. During year one I couldn’t/didn’t speak. I wasn’t ready at the time, but didn’t realize that. I spent many moments in seminar trying to figure out what to say. It was debilitating. I almost forgot I had been OUT of school for some time at age 40. Everyone was so smart! I could have just practiced listening, being.

Side Thought

Graduate school is a ton of work condensed into a short amount of time, so there is a lot of doing and expectations always dancing alongside the doing.

Process

As a dancer and performer, there is much emphasis placed on product, the performance, or the “show”. I feel as an artist there is ego involved so you want to be praised or complimented. It took me about a year to settle into the concept of process as the crux of an MFA rather than “performing”. Of course, show up, be in the moment, be present, but don’t over analyze what you are contributing each moment that you’ve just contributed something. Experiment and investigate AND hold onto a bit of you while you are moving outside of a comfort zone. After all it is you who got into the program.

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Stay tuned for more from Sue next Monday!

Tuesday Tunes!

by Lydia Tuesday Tunes

Screen Shot 2013-07-09 at 12.05.42 PM

 

              HAPPY NEW YEAR!

               

Today for Tuesday Tunes we are featuring the works of…

        Donald O’Conner

 

I was born and raised to entertain other people. I’ve heard laughter and applause and known a lot of sorrow. Everything about me is based on show business – I think it will bring me happiness. I hope so.

 

 

Though he considered Danville, Illinois to be his home town, O’Connor was born in St. Elizabeth Hospital in Chicago. His parents, Effie Irene (née Crane) and John Edward “Chuck” O’Connor, were vaudeville entertainers. His father’s family was from County Cork, Ireland.[3] When O’Connor was only a few years old, he and his sister Arlene were in a car crash outside a theater in Hartford, Connecticut; O’Connor survived, but his sister was killed. Several weeks later, his father died of a heart attack while dancing on stage in Brockton, Massachusetts.[4] O’Connor at the time was being held in the arms of the theater manager, Mr. Maurice Sims.

O’Connor began performing in movies in 1937. He appeared opposite Bing Crosby in Sing You Sinners at age 12. Paramount Pictures used him in both A and B films, including Tom Sawyer, Detective and Beau Geste. In 1940, when he had outgrown child roles, he returned to vaudeville. In 1942, O’Connor joined Universal Pictures where he played roles in four of the Gloria Jean musicals, and achieved stardom with Mister Big (1943).

In 1944, O’Connor was drafted into the Army. Before he reported for induction, Universal Pictures rushed him through production of three feature films simultaneously and released them when he was overseas. After his discharge, Universal (now reorganized as Universal-International) cast him in lightweight musicals and comedies.

In 1949, he played the lead role in Francis, the story of a soldier befriended by a talking mule. The film was a huge success. As a consequence, his musical career was constantly interrupted by production of one Francis film per year until 1955. It was because of the Francis series that O’Connor missed playing Bing Crosby’s partner in White Christmas. O’Connor was unavailable because he contracted an illness transmitted by the mule, and was replaced in the film by Danny Kaye.

O’Connor’s role as Cosmo the piano player in Singin’ in the Rain earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Comedy or Musical. The film featured his memorable rendition of Make ‘Em Laugh. O’Connor was a regular host of NBC‘s Colgate Comedy Hour. He hosted a color television special on NBC in 1957, one of the earliest color programs to be preserved on a color kinescope; an excerpt of the telecast was included in NBC’s 50th anniversary special in 1976. In 1954, he starred in his own television series, The Donald O’Connor Show on NBC. In 1968, O’Connor hosted a syndicated talk show also called The Donald O’Connor Show.

O’Connor overcame alcoholism after being hospitalized in 1978. His career had a boost when he hosted the Academy Awards, which earned him two Primetime Emmy nominations. He appeared as a gaslight-era entertainer in the 1981 film Ragtime, notable for similar encore performances by James Cagney and Pat O’Brien. It was his first feature film role in 16 years.

O’Connor appeared in the short-lived Bring Back Birdie on Broadway in 1981, and continued to make film and television appearances into the 1990s, including the Robin Williams film Toys as the president of a toy-making company. He had guest roles in 1996 in a pair of popular TV comedy series, The Nanny and Frasier.

In 1998, he received a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars. O’Connor’s last feature film was the Jack Lemmon–Walter Matthau comedy Out to Sea, in which he played a dance host on a cruise ship. O’Connor was still making public appearances well into 2003.

The most distinctive characteristic of O’Connor’s dancing style was its athleticism, for which he had few rivals. Yet it was his boyish charm that audiences found most engaging, and which remained an appealing aspect of his personality throughout his career. In his early Universal films, O’Connor closely mimicked the smart alec, fast talking personality of Mickey Rooney of rival MGM Studio. For Singin’ in the Rain, however, MGM cultivated a much more sympathetic sidekick persona, and that remained O’Connor’s signature image.

O’Connor nearly died from pneumonia in January 1998. He died from complications of heart failure on September 27, 2003 at age 78 at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital, in Woodland Hills, California. His remains were cremated and buried at the Forest Lawn–Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles. O’Connor was survived by his wife, Gloria, and four children. Gloria O’Connor died from natural causes on June 4, 2013, aged 84.

 

Incredible balloon dance!

 

Make ‘Em Laugh from Singin’ in the Rain

 

Walking My Baby Back Home

 

 

Fun Facts About Mr. Donald O’ Connor 

 

Judy Garland, whom he knew as a child, was one of his best friends.

Was suppose to co-star with Bing Crosby in the perennial film classic White Christmas(1954) in 1954 but was sidelined with pneumonia and replaced by Danny Kaye.

Allegedly didn’t enjoy working with Gene Kelly while filming Singin’ in the Rain (1952), because he found him to be a bit of a tyrant on set.

Made his film debut at age 12 in Melody for Two (1937) with his two brothers, Jack O’Connor and Billy O’Connor, doing a specialty routine. Billy died a year or two later after contracting scarlet fever.

Despite failing health in 2003, he made appearances at the Roger Ebert Overlooked Film Festival and the opening of the Judy Garland Museum.

While he’s hesitant to select a favorite film, he’s quick to single out his favorite performance: “Call Me Madam (1953) – my favorite number is in there with Vera-Ellen. It’s the number I do out in the garden with her to “It’s a Lovely Day Today”. It’s a beautiful lyrical number. I think she was the best dancer outside of Peggy Ryan I ever danced with”.

 

MFA Monday

by Lydia MFA Mondays

Got a case of the Mondays?

 

Well, this will surely lift your spirits! Another installment of musings from Master of Fine Arts holder, Heather Nabors! Enjoy!

 

heather

 Heather Nabors is the Assistant Director of Dance Programs at Rice University. Heather relocated to Houston this summer from North Carolina. Heather has been a teacher and freelance choreographer in NC since 2005. She served as an adjunct faculty member at Catawba College, Greensboro College, Elon University, and UNCG. In 2012, Heather founded ArtsMash, a collaborative arts concert in NC. Her work has been presented at ArtsMash, The Saturday Series, UNCG Dance Department Alumni Concert, Greensboro Fringe Festival and the American Dance Festival’s Acts to Follow. She has choreographed over 14 musicals in NC for community theaters and local high schools including Rent, Oklahoma! ,The King & I, Legally Blonde, Little Shop of Horrors, and Children of Eden. Heather received her MFA in Choreography from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

 

 

 

Stop, Collaborate, and Listen

 

I am an only child. When I was seven, my favorite t-shirt exclaimed “I’m the boss” in 70’s iron on fabulousness. I did not enjoy sharing my toys with my younger cousin. I did not appreciate being told what to do by anyone. I would create countless dances in my bedroom and force my mother to watch every last one of them.  It took a little while, but eventually I grew out of this self-centered phase (well, for the most part) and over the years, I have learned how to work quite well with others.

One of the best lessons I have learned from my work in musical theater is the art of collaboration. As a choreographer, I am used to being in charge. It is my dance and I make the final decisions. (“I’m the boss,” remember?) When I am choreographing a musical, artistically, I am the low woman on the totem pole. I have been fortunate to work with good directors who respect my opinion, but I know that if my choreography interferes with singing or action on the stage, I have to rework it. The music and dialogue are set, so I have to be flexible. I have a healthy ego, but I know when to leave it at the door. It is a trait that has served me well and has allowed me to continue working.

My graduate school did not have a combined performing arts department and I don’t remember any department co-mingling or collaboration. The only non-dancers I saw enter the dance building were the pianists who accompanied our technique classes. One semester, I ventured out a bit and took an art class with a fellow dancer. We were the only non-art majors in the class and our classmates regularly spent class staring at us as if we belonged to some exotic species of bird. Unfortunately, I never considered venturing to the music building and asking a music student to write a piece for me. When I first experienced the intense collaborative process of putting together a musical, I realized what I had been missing. I had always enjoyed the feedback process offered in choreography class, but I had never worked with anyone outside my field. It was refreshing to get a non-dance perspective on things and bounce ideas off other artists with radically different backgrounds.

A few years ago, I met a lovely musician and asked him to create a score for me. This collaboration was one of the most exciting and frustrating experiences of my life. I am a task driven list maker. My partner for this collaborative process was a little more laid back. I had to develop a new set of skills that allowed for freedom on both ends and didn’t squash his or my artistic voice. I also had to loosen the reins and put faith in his ability to create something that enhanced my work and expressed his point of view.  I videotaped my rehearsals and we viewed them together. I tweaked my work to fit his notes and he found the nuances in my movements and used that to fuel his writing. The piece turned out well and I loved this collaboration so much that I am marrying the composer. (I can now have free music whenever I want it! Yay!)

As choreographers, we can become isolated and lose our sense of community and collaboration. It is easy to get tunnel vision and miss connections with other artists that can inform and reinvigorate our work. Furthermore, I have seen many choreographers lose jobs and burn bridges because they never learned to play well with others. Use your graduate school experience to form partnerships outside the dance community. Collaborate with painters, musicians, filmmakers, and mimes. Take in all the art on your campus and let that fuel your creativity. It is great to be surrounded by a supportive group of dancers, but there is much to be learned from artists in other disciplines as well.

 

Tuesday Tunes!

by Lydia Tuesday Tunes

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 Merry Christmas Eve Framers!

 

Judy Garland!

One of the brightest, most tragic movie stars of Hollywood’s Golden Era, Judy Garland was a much-loved character whose warmth and spirit, along with her rich and exuberant voice, kept theatre-goers entertained with an array of delightful musicals.

She was born Frances Ethel Gumm on 10 June 1922 in Minnesota, the youngest daughter of vaudevillians Frank and Ethel Gumm. Her mother, an ambitious woman gifted in playing various musical instruments, saw the potential in her daughter at the tender age of just 2 years old when Baby Frances repeatedly sang “Jingle Bells” until she was dragged from the stage kicking and screaming during one of their Christmas shows and immediately drafted her into a dance act, entitled “The Gumm Sisters”, along with her older sisters Mary Jane Gumm and Virginia Gumm. However, knowing that her youngest daughter would eventually become the biggest star, Ethel soon took Frances out of the act and together they traveled across America where she would perform in nightclubs, cabarets, hotels and theaters solo.

Her family life was not a happy one, largely because of her mother’s drive for her to succeed as a performer and also her father’s closeted homosexuality. The Gumm family would regularly be forced to leave town owing to her father’s illicit affairs with other men, and from time to time they would be reduced to living out of their automobile. However, in September 1935 the Gumms’, in particular Ethel’s, prayers were answered when Frances was signed by Louis B. Mayer, mogul of leading film studio MGM, after hearing her sing. It was then that her name was changed from Frances Gumm to Judy Garland, after a popular ’30s song “Judy” and film critic Robert Garland. Judy’s career did not officially kick off until she sang one of her most famous songs, “You Made Me Love You”, at Clark Gable‘s birthday party in February 1937, during which Louis B. Mayer finally paid attention to the talented songstress.

Prior to this her film debut in Pigskin Parade (1936), in which she played a teenage hillbilly, had left her career hanging in the balance. However, following her rendition of “You Made Me Love You”, MGM set to work preparing various musicals with which to keep Judy busy. All this had its toll on the young teenager, and she was given numerous pills by the studio doctors in order to combat her tiredness on set. Another problem was her weight fluctuation, but she was soon given amphetamines in order to give her the desired streamlined figure. This soon produced the downward spiral that resulted in her lifelong drug addiction.

In 1939, Judy shot immediately to stardom with The Wizard of Oz (1939), in which she portrayed Dorothy, an orphaned girl living on a farm in the dry plains of Kansas who gets whisked off into the magical world of Oz on the other end of the rainbow. Her poignant performance and sweet delivery of her signature song, ‘Over The Rainbow’, earned Judy a special juvenile Oscar statuette on 29 February 1940 for Best Performance by a Juvenile Actor. Now growing up, Judy began to yearn for meatier adult roles instead of the virginal characters she had been playing since she was 14.

By this time, Judy had starred in her first adult role as a vaudevillian during WWI in For Me and My Gal (1942). In November 1943, Judy  began filming Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), which proved to be a big success. The director Vincente Minnelli highlighted Judy’s beauty for the first time on screen, having made the period musical in color, her first color film since The Wizard of Oz (1939). He showed off her large brandy-brown eyes and her full, thick lips and after filming ended in April 1944, a love affair resulted between director and actress and they were soon living together. Vincente began to mold Judy and her career, making her more beautiful and more popular with audiences worldwide. He directed her in The Clock (1945), and it was during the filming of this movie that the couple announced their engagement on set on 9 January 1945.

But married life was never the same for Vincente and Judy after they filmed The Pirate (1948) together in 1947. Judy’s mental health was fast deteriorating and she began hallucinating things and making false accusations toward people, especially her husband, making the filming a nightmare. She then teamed up with dancing legend Fred Astaire for the delightful musical Easter Parade(1948), which resulted in a successful comeback despite having Vincente fired from directing the musical. Afterwards, Judy’s health deteriorated and she began the first of several suicide attempts. In May 1949, she was checked into a rehabilitation center, which caused her much distress.

On returning, Judy made In the Good Old Summertime (1949), which was also Liza’s film debut, albeit via an uncredited cameo. She had already been suspended by MGM for her lack of cooperation on the set of The Barkleys of Broadway (1949), which also resulted in her getting replaced by Ginger Rogers. After being replaced by Betty Hutton on Annie Get Your Gun (1950), Judy was suspended yet again before making her final film for MGM, entitled Summer Stock (1950). At 28, Judy received her third suspension and was fired by MGM, and her second marriage was soon dissolved.

Judy signed a film contract with Warner Bros. to star in the musical remake of A Star Is Born (1937), which had starred Janet Gaynor, who had won the first-ever Academy Award for Best Actress in 1929. She won a Golden Globe for her brilliant and truly outstanding performance as Esther Blodgett, nightclub singer turned movie star, but  Judy lost out on the Best Actress Oscar to Grace Kelly for her portrayal of the wife of an alcoholic star in The Country Girl (1954).

At age 41, she made her final performance on film alongside Dirk Bogarde in I Could Go on Singing (1963). She continued working on stage, appearing several times with her daughter Liza. It was during a concert in Chelsea, London, that Judy stumbled into her bathroom late one night and died of an overdose of barbiturates, the drug that had dominated her much of her life, on the 22nd of June 1969 at the age of 47.She is still an icon to this day with her famous performances in The Wizard of Oz (1939), Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), Easter Parade (1948), and A Star Is Born (1954).

MFA Monday!

by Lydia MFA Mondays

 

 

 

MFA right

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Monday! Another start to a great, full week!

Another  MFA Monday featuring….

(drum rrrroll please)

            Heather Nabors!

 

heather

Heather Nabors is the Assistant Director of Dance Programs at Rice University. Heather relocated to Houston this summer from North Carolina. Heather has been a teacher and freelance choreographer in NC since 2005. She served as an adjunct faculty member at Catawba College, Greensboro College, Elon University, and UNCG. In 2012, Heather founded ArtsMash, a collaborative arts concert in NC. Her work has been presented at ArtsMash, The Saturday Series, UNCG Dance Department Alumni Concert, Greensboro Fringe Festival and the American Dance Festival’s Acts to Follow. She has choreographed over 14 musicals in NC for community theaters and local high schools including Rent, Oklahoma! ,The King & I, Legally Blonde, Little Shop of Horrors, and Children of Eden. Heather received her MFA in Choreography from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

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The “MFA Monday” series features the musings of local Master of Fine Arts holders. Enjoy their thoughts on the process of attaining an MFA!

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I Love Jazz Hands

I love modern dance. It is wonderful and fulfilling, but it doesn’t always pay the bills. Prior to moving to Houston, I spent nearly a decade making a living teaching jazz, tap, ballet, modern, and dance for musical theater, and choreographing musicals for community theater.

As a young studio kid, I was a full fledged Jazzerina. I spent my early years studying everything from jazz and tap to ballet and acrobatics. In college, I discovered modern dance and though it felt a little foreign in my body at first, I soon warmed to this new way of moving and developed a deep love and appreciation for modern dance. I was drawn to graduate school by my love of choreography. Once there, I was fully immersed in modern dance up to my eyeballs and I loved every minute of it.

While my graduate program did not openly discourage studying other forms of dance, it was not exactly encouraged either and the pickings were slim. There were a limited number of jazz classes (though none were taught by faculty) and tap was only offered because one of the graduate TAs had the ability to teach the class. Though it was never explicitly stated as such, the message was implicit: modern dance was “high art” while other dance forms were seen as mere entertainment; suitable for commercial pursuits but not worthy of serious study.

In graduate school, I imagined I would land a full-time teaching job within a year of graduating and soon after, would start my own modern dance company. (Totally realistic, right?) However, when I began looking for teaching jobs, I found modern dance jobs scarce and I quickly realized that in my area of North Carolina, the need was for teachers who could teach jazz in theater departments. The reality of life quickly hit me in the face and I dusted off my old jazz shoes in pursuit of a modified career path. I started teaching jazz to beginning theater students and to my surprise and delight, it was awesome! I found them open to everything and completely receptive. They didn’t see dance as commercial vs. artistic, they just wanted to move and learn the basic skills to help them succeed in a musical theater audition. Around the same time, a friend and colleague mentioned that her husband was looking for a choreographer for a musical he was directing and wanted to know if I would be interested. I instantly accepted the opportunity and so began my entrance into choreographing musical theater.

During these intense jazz and musical theater years, I learned many things about myself. I really love jazz. I love musical theater. I love working with beginners who have no formal training. And my love of these things in no way negates my love of modern dance. I don’t care what kind of dance I am teaching – I just want to move!

In graduate school, you may have visions of what you think your career will be like, but these plans may go slightly askew. Be open to every opportunity and don’t be afraid to dive into the “commercial” side of dance. Don’t limit yourself to only working in dance departments and reject teaching classes that are not a level 4 modern technique class. My working colleagues in North Carolina earn their bread and butter from being amazing tap, jazz, and hip hop instructors. In my new position at Rice, I get the best of both worlds. I get to work and train wonderful students who love modern dance. I also get to teach beginning level jazz dancers, some of whom come to me not knowing a jazz square from a square root.

I love dance in all shapes and sizes. It challenges me, awakes my senses and inspires me. I love the shift of weight, curve of the spine and release I get from modern dance. I also love a good jazz hand and tapping out the shim sham on a wood floor.  As a student, I felt the need to choose art or entertainment. As an adult, I know it’s all just dance and it rocks.

 

Tuesday Tunes!

by Lydia Tuesday Tunes

      Screen Shot 2013-07-09 at 12.05.42 PM

         Rita Hayworth

 

 

” I was certainly a well-trained dancer. I’m a good actress: I have depth. I have feeling. But they don’t care. All they want is the image.”

 

Margarita Carmen Cansino was born on October 17, 1918, in Brooklyn, New York, into a family of dancers. Her father, Eduardo was a dancer as was his father before him. He emigrated from Spain in 1913. Rita’s mother met Eduardo in 1916 and were married the following year. Rita, herself, studied as a dancer in order to follow in her family’s footsteps. She joined her family on stage when she was eight years old when her family was filmed in a movie called La Fiesta (1926). It was her first film appearance, albeit an uncredited one.

Rita was seen dancing by a 20th Century Fox executive and was impressed enough to offer her a contract. Rita’s “second” debut was in the film Cruz Diablo (1934) at age 16. She continued to play small bit parts in several films under the name of “Rita Cansino” until she played the second female lead in Only Angels Have Wings (1939) when she played Judy McPherson. By this time, she was at Columbia where she was getting top billing but it was the Warner Brothers film The Strawberry Blonde (1941) that seemed to set her apart from the rest of what she had previously done. This was the film that exuded the warmth and seductive vitality that was to make her famous. Her natural, raw beauty was showcased later that year in Blood and Sand (1941), filmed in Technicolor. She was probably the second most popular actress after Betty Grable. In You’ll Never Get Rich (1941) with Fred Astaire, was probably the film that moviegoers felt close to Rita. Her dancing, for which she had studied all her life, was astounding.

After the hit Gilda (1946), her career was on the skids. Although she was still making movies, they never approached her earlier success. The drought began between The Lady from Shanghai (1947) and Champagne Safari (1954). Then after Salome (1953), she was not seen again until Pal Joey (1957). Part of the reasons for the downward spiral was television, but also Rita had been replaced by the new star at Columbia, Kim Novak. After a few, rather forgettable films in the 1960s, her career was essentially over.

Her final film was The Wrath of God (1972). Her career was really never the same after Gilda (1946). Her dancing had made the film and it had made her. Perhaps Gene Ringgold said it best when he remarked, “Rita Hayworth is not an actress of great depth. She was a dancer, a glamorous personality, and a sex symbol. These qualities are such that they can carry her no further professionally.” Perhaps he was right but Hayworth fans would vehemently disagree with him. Rita, herself, said, “Every man I have known has fallen in love with Gilda and wakened with me”. By 1980, Rita was hit with Alzheimer’s Disease. It ravaged her so, and she finally died at age 68 on May 14, 1987, in New York City.

 

Let’s Stay Young Forever

 

 

The Famous Scene from Salome

 

 

Fred Astaire and Rita Hayworth in “You’ll Never Get Rich”

 

MFA Monday

by Lydia MFA Mondays

MFA right

 

 

 

Hello Framers! I hope you all had a great weekend!

Only ten more days ’til Christmas!!!

 

This week’s MFA Monday article comes from previous Frame blog contributor and long-time framer, Rosie Trump! This week Rosie is offering advice for the before, during, and after stages of pursuing a M.F.A.

 

 

Rosie Trump holds a M.F.A. in Experimental Dance Choreography from UC Riverside.  She is a choreographer, dance filmmaker and educator.  Her teaching credits include Seton Hill University, Mt. San Jacinto College and Rice University. Trump is the founder and curator of the annual Third Coast Dance Film Festival. rosietrump.org

 

 

 

So You Think You Want a M.F.A.?

By Rosie Trump

Let me begin by saying graduate school is not and should not be for every artist.  It requires a huge personal undertaking and a significant financial investment.  You will be a different person and a different artist when you finish.  With that being said, I want to share some advice I have gathered from my own graduate school experiences and post-graduate career.

 

Know Before You Go

There are many good reasons to pursue an M.F.A.  There are also some very bad reasons. A combination of good timing and clear postgraduate goals can make all the difference. When deciding on pursuing an M.F.A., it is very important to be honest with yourself and realistic about what this degree will add to your life and career.

If you are 5 or less years out of college ask yourself: Do I have significant professional experience?  Do I have ample teaching practice and a developed pedagogical approach?  Have I developed a distinctive, individual artistic point of view? If you answered no to any of these questions, spend the next two years filling in the gaps before you apply.  Additionally ask yourself, will I resent spending the next three+ years of my life being separated from friends and family, extremely poor, lonely, overwhelmed and overworked?  If you answer yes, wait and reconsider an M.F.A. in a few years.

If you are a mid or post-professional ask yourself: Will I resent spending the next three+ years of my life being separated from my established dance community, deferring earning potential and having my established methods and approaches upended and dismantled? Do I have an extra 40-60 hours per week in addition to my non-negotiable responsibilities to dedicate to intense study?

I believe a good M.F.A. experience is akin to boot camp—a very long boot camp.  For me, graduate school was the hardest thing I had done to date. On the flip side, it was also the absolutely most rewarding thing I had ever done.  I came out on the other side armed with an entirely altered perspective on dance and choreography, and a cohort of brilliant, inspiring friends for colleagues.

 

Still want to go? Tips on how to pick a good program:

Not all M.F.A. programs are created equal.  Finding a good fit for your interests will require a lot of research.  While institutional prestige and geographical desirability are very seductive factors when considering a M.F.A. program, I think the most important factors should be curriculum and faculty.

Curriculum: What excites you about the courses?  Does the curriculum have enough structure and/or flexibility?  Do the classes support your artistic and professional development?  Will you be technically and theoretically challenged? Two important factors that may not seem obvious when you first enter, but will mean everything by the end are:

1. What shape does the thesis project can take? For example, do students produce solo concerts, share an evening or write research document?  Who covers the production costs?  Where can the thesis take place–off campus, in another city, etc?

2. Is the curriculum going to be a rehash or reboot of your undergrad studies?  What I mean by this is, will you take seminars that provide you with information that you could not obtain or have not obtained in any other way?

Faculty: These are the people that will make or break your grad school experience.  Will you be excited and eager to work with these people?  Will they be interested and active in assisting your vision and growth?  Do you have compatible artistic points of view?  Do they have connections and (much more importantly) time and energy to mentor you?  Will they champion you in the post-graduate professional realm?  The best faculty most certainly do not have to be superstars or ‘nice’ people.  The best faculty will push you in directions you didn’t know you needed to go.

 

Money, It’s What I Want! Or How to Negotiate the Offer…

You buffed up your resume, did the research, applied, interviewed and now you have an acceptance offer! So let’s talk about money. Trust me, no matter how good at living on a minuscule budget you have been thus far, you will need more money than you think for graduate school.  Moving costs, books, costumes, production supplies and countless bottles of wine (as Mary describes) will all quickly add up.

I encourage you to negotiate the best possible situation BEFORE you accept the offer. Now and only now, do you hold a little bit of power.  Once you accept, that offer is your contract with the institution. Negotiating a better situation after this point will be nearly impossible.  This is also why it is important to ascertain more than one acceptance offer.  Even if you prefer one school over another, you can use the other offer to get a better deal (an extended fellowship, an additional semester of TA-ship) at your ‘dream school.’

 

Here is what you will need:

  1. Full tuition remission—you should not pay any tuition fees to attend grad school.
  2. A fellowship stipend —this is ‘free’ money that the school pays you to do your creative research.  Often times this is offered in your first semester or year.  This is the money you use to pay for rent and living costs.
  3. Teaching assistantships—these are teaching positions where you will either assist a professor with lecturing, grading, etc. or be the primary instructor for a course.  TA-ships usually require around 20 hours of work per week.  This money pays for your rent and living costs.

 

I will share with you what a mentor told me when I was considering applying to graduate school: They pay you to attend.  You do not pay them. This includes living costs.  If you are like most people, you have already racked up considerable debt from undergraduate student loans.  Do not take out student loans to pay for a M.F.A.!  I cannot emphasis this enough.  It’s bleak, but true, that once you graduate your earning potential will probably not be that much better than before you earned your M.F.A.  Do not shackle yourself to more debt!

If you receive an offer that requests you pay part of the costs and you cannot negotiate a better deal, DON’T GO!  Wait, gain the experience to make yourself a more desirable candidate, and then reapply in a few years.

Last but not least, beware of the “once you get here you can apply for XX fellowship or XX grant to supplement our offer.”  This is dangerous because these opportunities are often contingent on external funding sources that can waiver with the economy, etc. and/or are competitive.  You could find yourself competing with a hundred other graduate students in ‘sexier/more traditional/more practical’ fields for one or two awards.

 

*Helpful links:

Don’t Go to Graduate School (aimed at PhD students, but much applies to the M.F.A, too)

100 Reason’s Not to Go to Graduate School

M.F.A. Fever – an article about perusing a creative writing M.F.A.

A listing of over 100 graduate dance programs

* While some of these links may seemed aimed at keeping you out of graduate school, their real goal is to reveal the honest truth of what lies ahead.  Many artists are all too aware of the hardships in their field, but can still romanticize the academic life.