Emotions Dance

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Larissa Humiston, the artistic director and choreographer of Emotions Dance, invited me out to see the rehearsals for “Muddle” which will be performed Saturday, February 6th at 7 Pm and on Sunday, February 7th at 7PM. “Muddle” combines live music by Damien Simon with a series of dances that illustrate the struggle between the seven sins and seven virtues. Inscribed on one of the dancers shirts read “Evoke emotion through motion.”
When I arrived the first day, there was a couple finishing up a ballroom dance lesson in the studio; a lesson on the box step. As dancers arrived, they started to warm up. Larissa welcomed me immediately with a hand shake and said she was excited to see what I do. At first, dancers worked on individual sections working out minor kinks. Later, Larissa had them run through the entire show. This is when the emotional impact of the show truly hit me. I had written down the sins and virtues as a guide, but it was fun to just watch and guess the sins and virtues based on the performances. They were: Temperance & Gluttony, Kindness & Envy, Charity & Greed, Chastity & Lust, Pride & Humility, Sloth & Diligence, Wrath & Patience.
I really loved watching Wrath & Patience. This dancing combination had the greatest contrast of emotions and Dion Leonhard Smith did an amazing job expressing Wrath. She transformed into a vicious beast, her back bending backwards at impossible angles and her hands clenched in fists of rage. The Chastity & Lust performance was also fun for a similar reason. The contrast was extreme and entertaining. For this performance, Dion would be on point as a ballerina, her hands graceful and demure, in stark contrast to her later performance. Cindy Heen did a wonderfully lustful dance that should please any boyfriends who were talked out of watching the Super Bowl.
When the run through was finished, Larissa asked the dancers to gather into the “Circle of friendship.” All the dancers sat around in a semicircle and Larissa offered notes and suggestions. To Amanda Cariotto she said “Remember you are humility, you need to be soft in the face. It is all in the line of the body as well, humble soft, eyes down.” As a general note, Larissa reminded the dancers to be mindful of what they express through their face as well as the dance. She was very worried that people might show up at the Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center on Virginia, which is the home for the Orlando Ballet. The Dr. Philips Center for the Performing Arts they are performing at is located across from City Hall at 455 South Orange Avenue. She was also concerned that the performance on Saturday would be packed and Sunday’s performance empty because of the Super Bowl. So any women out there reading, if you want to know just how much your man loves you, ask him to come out on Sunday to see this amazing performance. He will be pleasantly surprised.

P.S. I tried to convince my wife to see this dance performance but she insists on watching the big game.

iMove 2.0: iCandy

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Genevieve Bernard invited me to stop in and sketch some Voci Dance rehearsals. The first rehearsal I sketched was at a dance studio in Baldwin Park right near Colonial Drive. As often happens, I had trouble finding the place. I actually pulled right into the parking lot, but the door said it was an art gallery so I left and searched for another building. I finally returned and opened the gallery door. The art gallery was dark. In the far back corner of the gallery I saw a bright light coming from a back room and I noticed mirrors and realized I was at the right place.
When I walked in, dancers were still stretching in the back room of the art gallery. Since rehearsal hadn’t started yet for these dancers, I decided to sketch them as they warmed up.
The first dance routine they started rehearsing involved the dancers sitting in chairs in a large circle. I was still finishing up the first sketch when Amanda Oost Bradberry asked if she could use the chair I was sitting in and she offered me a cushioned folding chair as a replacement. I was glad to oblige. I rushed the gallery sketch so I could get into the dance studio and see what they were doing. I often find myself struggling to finish my art as life plows forward.
The chair routine was graceful and a joy to watch. I liked seeing how the dancer’s backs arched and their arms flowed in serpentine patterns. In a part of the routine the dancers ran their fingers through their hair as if they were sensually washing it.
The dance studio had one mirrored wall and it resembled a stage even having curtain dividers going back stage. A large black garage door could be opened to join two studio spaces making one large space if needed. There was a playful experimental quality to the whole rehearsal. There was a constant high energy as these women pushed the limits of what was physically possible in dance. I grew exhausted just watching them work and stretch themselves, yet I could not convince myself to leave. I constantly felt the next moment would hold yet another great sketch opportunity.
iMove_2.0: iCandy will be performed February 5th and 6th at 7:30 PM at the Say it Loud Warehouse (1121 North Mills Avenue, Orlando). The building is bright orange on the corner of Highland Avenue and you can not miss it. The first 50 tickets each night are free from the United Arts web site. Otherwise, $10 at the door. There is parking on Mills and all the side streets. This promises to be an amazing event. More posts to come…

The Nutcracker at Lake Eola

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12-20-09Nutcracker

The Russian Ballet of Orlando presented a free performance of The Nutcracker at The Lake Eola Band-shell.It was a freezing cold night, well down in the 40’s anyway, so I dressed in 3 layers a sweatshirt, fleece jacket and a windbreaker. Even with all that I was rather cold. instead of sitting in the theater benches I picked a nice tree to lean up against. This gave me a good overall view of the band-shell and audience. This sketch was done on the digital tablet. The tablet is good for getting bright colors and it has the added advantage of getting nice and hot when the processor is being put through a workout. It worked as a nice hand warmer. I am making a commitment to use the tablet more often when sketching at night and indoors.

During a fifteen minute intermission a group of children ran screaming after a swan causing it to swim as fast as possible away from them. The father rather lamely asked them to leave the poor bird alone but they continued the pursuit. At one point during the Swan Lake number the swans started to honk loudly lifting their tall necks. Then they went right back to searching for food under the water.

I can’t offer much of a review of the Ballet. There was always someone standing between me and the stage but I did catch quick glimpses. I can tell you that the dancers who were standing off stage were freezing. I could see them huddled together and jumping up and down to try and stay warm. The cold weather made this feel like a true Christmas performance.

Seven Deadly Sins – Sloth

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The Cameo Theater on Colonial near Mills was the venue for an Emotions Dance Company event called Seven Deadly Sins. When I arrived, the first thing I saw in the theater’s plate glass windows was Brian Feldman who sat on a worn and tattered recliner staring at a TV which was showing nothing but static. Brian had a remote control, but for this 30 hour performance he was personifying Sloth so he never had the ambition to change the channel. There was also a fake aquarium with animated fish swimming about. I immediately sat on my portable stool and started to sketch. Several times people passed by that I knew so I paused for a moment to say hello. A drummer set up camp right next to me, leaned over and asked “Hey, I love your stool. Any chance I could borrow it?” I was working so I had to say “No”. He began putting out plastic buckets of varying sizes and before I knew it he was banging out a very loud beat. He must have banged on those cans for close to an hour and I found it hard to concentrate. I probably rushed this sketch a bit since I wanted to get inside away from the noise. If Brian noticed the drumming, he never showed any interest, he just stared listlessly at the static screen and ate Cheerios.
Tisse Mallon, who organized the event, came outside and said to me, “Brian is very proud of the Game of Life that is in the foreground. He replaced LIFE with SLOTH“. Feeling a bit slothful myself, I hadn’t even noticed, so I went back and added that detail to the sketch. Inside the theater, there were semi-nude dancers painted to represent the 7 deadly sins. I spent some time trying to figure out which sin each represented. They moved in slow motion constantly gesturing in an abstract sinuous ongoing performance. There were also staged acts throughout the night. This was a fun event and sketch outing.

Haunted Mardi Gras

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Evan and Chrsitie Miga, DRIP dance groups art directors, hosted a Haunted MardiGras party at their home. When I arrived there was no mistaking the house which had a huge WELCOME sign above the entry lit with a black light. Dry ice mist was billowing out of the entry and I had to duck in behind a blanket to get to the front door. Visibility was zero but through the mist I could just make out some disembodied masks floating in space. The front door had some satanic symbol painted on it with day glow paint. When I entered the home Strobe lights blinded me once again and I wandered narrow corridors framed loosely with black drip clothes. At times the passage was so narrow that I thought I had made a mistake entering and I considered going back out. At the next turn however I found myself in the kitchen where a small group was assembled. A 6 foot high voodoo doll greeted me and then I recognized Christie as a voodoo priestess.
I was dressed as “Jack the Dripper” better known ad Jackson Pollock. My wife arrived later as Zorro and her friend from Miami was dressed as a cat lady. The party eventually moved outside to the back yard where there was a graveyard with a storage shed that resembled a church. A zombie movie was being projected on the back wall of the house and it was hard to ignore. Periodically a zombie would bite open someones throat or feast on their intestines. This movie used buckets of blood. Then the karaoke began and the highlight for me was when Evan the voodoo doll began making up his own lyrics to songs, looking pitiful and lost in his voodoo doll costume. It was a surreal and unexpected moment.
Much later in the evening the DRIP dancers began to arrive and for a short time I stood behind the singers at the karaoke machine offering my off key renditions of the songs being sung. Theater folks sure know how to party! My wife and her friend left early and I followed soon after, but I knew this party had many more hours in it.

Drip at the Art Lounge

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I went to the final rehearsal before the opening performance of Drip at Blank Space. Blank Space is an experimental art and coffee house located at 201 East Central Avenue right across the street from the Public Library. Linda Eve Elchack, the choreographer, pulled up in front of the performance space and through the store front windows blue and red lights began to flash. It turns out Linda had been “speeding” going 30 MPH in a 25MPH zone. She was pulled over just inches from where she would have parked. The performers stood by as they waited for the officers to go through the long process of getting the license and registration and issuing a ticket. Sam tried to distract the police by spinning and dancing. It didn’t work. Tin Tin who was shirtless from a previous rehearsal was told by Dave that he might want to get a shirt on. All the dancers had on flesh colored tights and Dave felt that Tin Tin showing some nipple might result in trouble with the police. The fact that Tin Tin then put on a shirt is an indication of the type of repressed city Orlando remains.
Lights were being set up and drop clothes were being hung everywhere. The “room” in the sketch was constructed of large sheets of black plastic and one wall of clear plastic. In the center were 2 ladders with a pole duck taped between them. Hanging from the pole was a large paint can. The performance which was filmed by Meriko involved the dancers interacting with the paint bucket which was filled with thin paint which dripped and poured out of the holes punched in the can’s bottom. The performance was called “Paint by Rain”.
Getting into and out of the room was a challenge all on it’s own. The doorway flaps were covered with wet paint from the dancers hands. I wore a white shirt and I was sure it would be covered by the time the evening was over. I ducked back into the furthest corner I could and started to sketch as the performance began. I had to get out of the way as Tin Tin made his way up the ladder and then I resumed sketching. By the time the performance was over, both dancers were covered head to toe in paint. I splattered paint over the page at random often along with the music trying to convey the messy and fun dance. I had no doubt this performance would be a show stopper. You can see DRIP perform every 3rd Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Get tickets at www.ILoveDRIP.com

DRIP Rehearsal

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When I entered the Center of Contemporary Dance where the DRIP dance group was rehearsing, I saw a huge screen printing press in the middle of the dance studio. The idea behind the dance routine they were working on, was to use the screen printing press to print images of dancers on the cakes which were to be served for desert at a private event held in a gallery downtown.
After saying hi to Dave and Samantha, the two dancers I had met at a photo shoot the week before, I sat down to start sketching. The press had to be moved back away from the mirrored wall. Four dancers grabbed the press and moved it together as a unit. David said, “We are like an ant colony, yall!” When rehearsing the dance, Sam is in charge of pouring the inks onto the screens and the other dancers use squeegees to force the ink through the screens onto the cake. Afterward she asked, “So, do I have time to disperse the juices?” The response was, “Yes, you never want to disperse the juices to fast.”
Prior to another dance run through, Marika shouted out “Did you all hear what Christie was just saying? There are five different art forms going on in the room right now.” I started to wonder what those 5 art forms were. Obviously dance would have to be one. I was sketching, so that was two. Twanda had entered the studio and she was sitting in the far corner of the dance studio making adjustments to costumes, so that is three. Evan and Christie were painting signs among other things and Linda was making sure her choreography was on the mark. When the dancers worked “All out” Linda would shout at the top of her lungs thanking the dancer that was pushing the envelope.
During a break, David said “I am going to be dreaming about this unit.” Sam said “It’s so big.” David followed with “That’s what she said.” The group the dance troupe was to perform for is apparently rather conservative. For this reason none of the dancers could just wear skirts. Black tights had to be put on to cover their bare legs. While restoring , David shouted out “We have a vision here, You are not fulfilling it! Lets go people.” He is never serious and everyone always laughs. Maybe you had to be there to get his humor.
Mariko asked that the dancers go through the routine one more time this time using the inks. Drip rags were placed over the dancers heads and trimmed. Everything was going great up until the dancers got ink on their hands. Suddenly paint was flying everywhere and the dancers had to be stopped. The drips had flown well beyond the confines of the drop cloth placed under the press. Soon everyone was on hands and knees cleaning the dance floor. Mariko said “Well, at least we found this out now, rather than during the actual performance.” It was decided that this one performance would not need to have inks on the dancers themselves. The point was to make the printing of the cakes entertaining. They didn’t want paint flying onto peoples dinner tables silverware and plates.
The dance performance combined stretches of choreography with stretches of pure improvisation. The improvised segments were different each time and inspiring to watch. DRIP has its first performances at Blank Space TONIGHT October 15th at 8 and 10PM! Blank Space is at the corner of Roslind and Central right across from the Public Library. You can actually see the performers through the store front windows. DRIP will perform in Blank Space every Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 and 10PM.

DRIP

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I first met Jessica Mariko the Executive Producer and Creative Director of Orlando’s Drip Dance and Visual Arts Performance Group at an event called Ignite Orlando. She performed an amazing dance piece with music and narration that shed light on the creative process. The dance company is about to begin performing at the New Contemporary Art Lounge which is right across from the Orlando Public Library. Performances will be on the third Thursday, Friday and Saturday of each month. This photo shoot is for a huge billboard image that they will install on the front of the building.

The shoot was in a quiet suburban neighborhood. When I walked up to the address I wasn’t sure I was in the right place, but there was a crowd of people in the garage so I walked in.

People were hanging plastic drop cloths everywhere and the floor was also covered in plastic. As the photographer, Tisse Mallon, got the lights and background scrim ready, the art directors, Evan Miga and Christie Bock cut up swaths of fabric into drip rags which would be used by the dancers to cover their hair.

The shoot started slow enough with shots taken of the dancers without any paint involved. Then things got fun when the dancers dipped their hands into the cans of latex house paint. The paint was bright blue and bright orange. The dancers posed separately at first and then they posed together. As they worked they got more and more covered with paint. The poses that seemed to work best for the horizontal format of the final image involved the dancers intertwined and reaching as if struggling to grasp something. The male dancer said “What if I bent back on my knees and she was almost flying?” All suggestions were tried. The shoot was a constant collaboration between the photographer, Mariko and the dancers themselves. Mariko said ” I like the idea of the two of you throwing paint together.” The female dancer had an expression on her face that Mariko tried to define, she finally decided “Keep that look, it is an artsy confident look.”

When the dancers were drenched in blue and orange paint, the art director decided to add black paint into the mix. When paint was poured on the dancers they would scream since the paint was rather cold. It would drip down under their skin colored leotards and settle in uncomfortable places. As the paint started to dry on the dancers skin, it began to peal away like a bad sunburn.

My sketching became more frantic as the shoot progressed. I started slinging down washes and dripping paint on the page. I was inspired my all the activity and dripping paint which was splashing everywhere. Everyone was laughing the whole time. I am sure that sense of fun and play will shine through in the final billboard image. When the dancers were finished, the art director and designer started just splashing paint around to get shots of paint flying through the air. I hope to sketch rehearsals by this dance company whose performances are sure to inspire.

Dance Auditions

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The Harbor room is a kids area of the church which, through murals and a small dock like stage, makes it look like everyone is dancing on water. Molly and Alison were put in charge of the dance auditions. The director was also on hand to offer advice and keep things running smoothly.
First everyone in the room was taught all the steps. Everyone stood up and the instructor went through the moves one at a time. As people started to understand the dance moves they then had to be reminded to smile and look like they were having fun. I can relate since I tend to frown when I draw. If I smiled the whole time I drew however my face would hurt.
Once everyone was up to speed, the director called up 4 or 5 dancers at a time using their numbers. Then this group would go through the moves while Molly and Alison watched. The group would go through the dance moves twice which allowed Molly , Alison and the director to see everyone’s performances. This endless process allowed me to sketch the dancers in deep space. The dance began with a hip thrust from side to side and it was this movement that I tried to catch with each of the dancers. While a group was going through the moves everyone else sat in the back of the room quietly waiting for their turn.
This was a fun process to watch and sketch. When the core group of dancers was finally picked, everyone else knew that they would be working the non dancing actors rolls in the show. I am still shocked by the sheer size of this production.

Earthy Habitat

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I was offered a tip from KC that Earthy Habitat was having a grand opening and there were going to be belly dancers! I couldn’t pass up an offer like that. The store had just moved 3 weeks ago from it Thornton Avenue address right next to Dandelion Communitea Cafe. The store is now located at 990 North 434 in Altamonte Springs. I had some trouble finding the place since strip malls and stores in Florida don’t do a great job of displaying the street numbers. I have a GPS and with trial and error I finally did find the store just when I was ready to give up and head home.
It was pouring rain when I arrived. I ran toward the store and ducked under the store front overhang. As soon as I shook out my umbrella a young woman approached me and told me I could have any item on the outdoor table for free. I chose a hand woven green bracelet that I think my wife Terry will love. Earthy Habitat offers hand crafted jewelry from around the world. Items can be found from Africa, Tibet, India, Ecuador among other places. Gloria Beharry and Sandra Burgos are the owners. Sandra has many of her own paintings decorating the store walls. KC’s daughter is working in the store for the summer. So the whole family was out to see the opening. KC introduced me to Bob who is the love of her life and looks just like Ernest Hemingway. I then met KC’s youngest daughter Liz who at first seemed a bit unhappy to have to sit through the event but she later livened up and turned out to have a fun sense of humor. Kit was busy talking to clients and selling like a pro. She never stopped working the room.
The 3 belly dancers arrived late. They are called the Magi Dance Troupe and they were amazing. Their arms moved like snakes and they had perfect balance which was demonstrated when the lead dancer, Melanie LaJoie, balanced a flaming candle in a bowl on her head and began to dance. This dance actually made me a bit nervous, I immediately imagined the bowl falling and igniting the carpet and people screaming as they ran towards the exits. I suppressed those thoughts, quieted my nerves and finished the sketch.