In the final hours before the opening night performance, Jessica Mariko had the dancers do a full run-through of the whole show. I had spent most of the day setting up my art installation of the 2009 Sketchbooks in the entry room. I had fun using a whole lot of junk found in my garage to create my odd, somewhat alienish installation. In the main room I leaned up against a wall and started to sketch. Everyone was rushing around to clean up before the first audience arrived. Bob Kodzis asked Christie Miga where a garbage can was. She pointed towards me and said “Over there next to the artist sketching.” It is humbling being a landmark for garbage. When Ashley Kroft and Tin Tin started to explore the coffee mound which is the stage for one of the dance routines, they discovered rocks and glass in the dirt. Ashley, and several other volunteers, had to sift through and remove as much glass and rock as possible. They can never be sure they sifted every inch. Lighting was being installed and aimed right up until the last second. There are no dressing rooms in the Cameo theater so for the rehearsals the dancers changed in the man’s room and the women’s room became the bathroom. I only discovered this when I had to actually use the bathroom and I almost walked in on a costume change. Right before the performance Jessica poored a whole bag of raw coffee grounds on the mound which filled the room with the distinctive pleasing aroma of coffee.
There was a rumor that someone was going to propose marriage to his girlfriend this night so I had my eyes on the lookout for who that couple might be. For an additional fee some couples were allowed to wander through the Willy Wonka like edible environment on their own before the main crowd arrived. The more daring also had their bodies painted and got Henna Tattoos. This was a small group of couples and I figured the marriage proposal would be among them. Tisse and I debated on which couple it might be and we agreed on a slender young woman who was getting a Henna Tattoo. Her boyfriend however was in his iPhone not really paying attention to her. I wrote this behavior down to nerves and figured he was texting a friend to try and decide when he should pop the question. I kept my eyes on this couple for some time but then out of the corner of my eyes I saw a glint of gold and a woman hugged her fiance and kissed him. I had missed the main event! Bob, who was acting as the MC, announced the proposal and acceptance, and everyone in the room applauded.
If you want a unique sensual and pleasurable evening with your true love, then FRESH is without a doubt the hottest ticket in town!
FRESH – Building a Tree
Becky Rankin is seen here adding the finishing touches to a huge tree trunk that now acts as the centerpiece to the FRESH performances now going on at the Cameo Theater. I watched Becky as she delicately interwove branches into the rope and potato sack-like structure. In the background, Christie Miga, one of the DRIP art directors, is working on a waterfall installation which is also part of the show. Christie put out a request for various forms of junk which she wanted to use as the raw materials to built the set pieces. I bought in a VCR and an old air conditioning unit. My VCR can be seen in the foreground of the sketch with its various wires now acting as the delicate inner workings of an exotic plastic flower made from a soda bottle. Using everyday objects in unconventional ways is seen throughout the DRIP installations. Tree branches which had been painted white can be seen at the front of the warehouse. I find myself drawn back time and time again to see what they will come up with next.
Evan Miga told me it took two trips in a U-Haul truck to transfer all of these creations to the Cameo Theater, where they then had just two days to set everything up and make sure it all worked. Evan said that he had tree branches sticking out all around him as he drove to the Cameo in the truck.
I spent all of yesterday at the Cameo setting up a display of my 2009 sketchbooks. Keeping with the theme of the whole show, I ended up hanging my work in a rather unconventional way using found objects and plenty of creativity. I thought it would take only an hour to hang the show, but when the ideas started flowing, I found myself lost in the process for the whole afternoon. From my garage, I bought in some folding closet doors that had been sitting unused for years. I also bought in various Indian drapes and pillows to decorate the space. I had decided to share the space with photographer, Tisse Mallon. She hung her photos from vines made from rope and fabrics. I was delighted at how seamlessly we designed the space. I was amazed that Louise Bova, another exhibiting artist, had bought in folding doors almost identical to the doors I had decided to bring in. This sort of melding of creative minds happened more than once, making it seem like these choices were preordained.
The first run-through in the Cameo Theater in front of a select audience was thrilling to say the least. FRESH indulges all the senses so you really have to experience it for yourself to truly understand it, but I will be sharing many sketches in the next few weeks since FRESH is as exciting as the Moulin Rouge.
Dinner events for couples:
Feb. 5-6 8PM
Feb. 11-12 8PM
Feb. 13, 6:30PM, 9PM
Feb. 14, 6PM, 8:30PM
Brunch events:
Feb. 6th Kids FRESH 11AM (Presented by PLAYGROUND Magazine & Misty Forest Enchantment Center)
Feb. 13 Friends and Singles 12PM
Feb. 14 Big Gay Brunch 12PM
Complimentary Childcare during dinner events on Feb. 13 & 14. (Provided by Misty Forest Enchantment)
Fresh Rehearsal
Jessica Mariko invited me to sit in on rehearsals for Fresh which is starting February fourth at the Cameo Theater (1013 East C0lonial Drive). Rehearsals were held at the new Drip Warehouse on Old Winter Garden Road. I got hopelessly lost the first time I tried to find the place but Christie Miga, one of the amazing Drip Art Directors finally gave me some landmarks to help me find the place.
Fresh promises to offer a Willy Wonka like edible environment where guests get to experience culinary performances all revolving around the theme of love. There will be an art and candy market in which you will be able to see my work as well as photos from Tisse Mallon. This is an amazing event that will appeal to all of your senses. Everyone at the event will be dressed in their bohemian best along with colorful hippie accents and beatnik flair.
At this rehearsal Tin Tin was leading the dancers as they rehearsed a piece around a new hand made silk screen printing press. In previous performances they had rented a printing press but for this show a hand crafted press was created using PVC, wood, and lots of creativity. Now the press looks like a glorious lotus flower. The music for this piece is driving and rhythmic. At first he dancers move like zombies who are discovering their body movements for the first time. They stretched and reached out in staccato violent moves. They shivered and shook until they discovered the press and through it they developed a sensuality and vitality to their movements. As they created, every movement became more vibrant.
The warehouse where the rehearsal was taking place was littered with all of the creative elements that are being assembled for the set. Christie asked me for any junk I might have lying around my garage, and I bought in an old Computer monitor, a VCR and a broken down air conditioner. There were disassembled and incorporated into organic creations. I saw VCR wires hanging from a flower made from plastic bottles and the computer monitor was painted white. I joked that if these set designers had been given the task of fixing the Lake Eola Fountain they could recreate and get it working it with found objects, old PVC, duck tape and a whole lot of creativity.
Drip Fundraiser at Blank Space
The Drip Dance Company held a fundraiser at Blank Space Gallery 201 East Central Boulevard across from the Public Library. This sketch shows Christie Miga at the Canvas dip station. She created this colorful canvas in minutes by pouring the paint onto its surface then letting it flow diagonally with gravity doing the work. The colors would blend and flow together in unexpected ways. Small canvases are stacked in the corner. For a small fee a guest could take a canvas and dip it on the pool of paints left on the plastic drop after Christie finished the big canvas. In the background in the corner of the room was something called a Sake Luge. This device had a guitar amplifier hooked up so that when sake was poured into the top it would flow down a series of slides and make a haunting ethereal sound on its route. The works of MC Esher were being projected on a screen. Steve acted as the DJ for the night. He stood behind his laptop computer the whole time mixing songs. Sam and Tin Tin, two drippies, were covered head to toe with monetary contribution amounts. Their bodies were divided up like those cattle meat charts you see describing cuts of beef. For $20 you could paint Tin Tin’s butt cheek red or for $15 you might paint Sam’s left breast.
There was a station set up to paint Christmas ornaments by dipping them is paint cans, or dripping the paint on using a brush or stirring stick. A young dancer would perform from a hoop that had been crudely hung from an exposed ceiling beam. The hoop dancers little sister was watching and tried to imitate her sisters performance before the crowds arrived.
I was sitting next to a ping pong table while I did the first sketch and it became difficult to draw as a game began and the guy on my end of the table took the game very seriously. He was slamming the ball as hard as he could and I was bumped more than a few times, but I persisted until the sketch was complete.
The walls were covered by the works of an artist who now had a line of Swatch watches based on his bold primitive work. The paintings remind me a bit of Keith Haring’s subway chalk graffiti work from the 80’s in NYC. AS I got ready to leave, I passed a group of girls on the sidewalk as they painted Sam’s bicep. They were having a grand old time.
The Drip Dance group is now rehearsing for a new Valentines show called FRESH which will premiere on February 13th and 14th at City Arts Factory. Mark your calenders for what should be an amazing event!
Drip at the Art Lounge
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
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
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.