Think differently Archives - Page 2 of 11

Supporting creativity Pt. 8

This is the end. Beautiful friend. This is the end. My only friend, the end.

This evening finding myself writing the last of my posts in this series.
Finding myself.
Finding myself writing.
Finding myself.

My relationship with dance has been pervasive and thorough. Filling. Fulfilling.
Every aspect of it soup to nuts. I love sitting in a rehearsal, listening to a proposal, setting up the technology, raising funds, meeting audience and supporters, writing letters, and talking about this amazing cadre of performers who are Miller Rothlein. I think you would too.

Expressive movement is transformational. Seeing it will change you. Doing it changes everything.

Generate Degenerate Excerpt from MILLER ROTHLEIN (MIRO) on Vimeo.

This evening I ask that you find what moves you and support it.

Become a microphilanthropist.

Set aside ten or twenty dollars a month and give it to a dance company.

Personally, I would like it to be Miller Rothlein.
Honestly, I only care that you give. We learn, we challenge, we teach, we give to one another.

The PLAN–Personal Learning Arts Network.

What would you pay? What is it worth?

What would it be worth if you knew that without you, it would disappear? That is always a possibility.

The visual silence would be deafening.

Could you, would you, give the price of your lunch or dinner today?
Match the cost of your coffee this week? Donate the cost of a ticket to a fundraiser?

Click here to give something that I promise will be appreciated

Supporting creativity Pt. 7

Learn a language. Learn a lot of them. There are some words that are far too weak to use and require reconsideration. Other languages have much better words. They sound better. More accurate. Beautiful. Hear them and wonder why we have to even translate. So many borrowed words already, what’s a few more?

Several years ago I began learning American Sign Language. It was useful with a few friends who were deaf or hard of hearing. Translate a little. Chat. Lend a hand. Of course, that made s

ense. What made more sense were the ways that my hands, face, and body moved when I spoke. All signing requires an expressive face, sometimes mouthing the words for both our sake. I quickly began to realize that my gesturing when I did not know a sign was not helpful at all. I quickly began to realize that repeating signs did not increase understanding. I quickly began to realize that the motion of words was much more accurate than the ones coming from my mouth.

Want. Here. Space. Now. Sit. Hunger. Control. Who. Hi. Sorry. Thanks. Turtle duck rabbit.

All signs that feel more real to perform than the words that inspired them.

You see, signing reminds us that movement is deliberate and meaningful. It carries with it all the expression that our selves can muster. Every word has the levels of height and width. Exaggerated without all the ‘verys’ and ‘reallys.’ Sarcasm? Far better in ASL.

Dance is like that. The learning curve in expressive movement hinges greatly on self image. It is important to help students move past the idea of what they look like when they express. Whether it is a series to sum up a word, a gesture to encompass pages, or something tacit that demands escape and its only medium is the body in four dimensions–there is never a doubt that something is being said and I just might have to respond.

Pardon me while I go express myself.

Click here to support the creative expression of children

Supporting creativity Pt. 6

The first time I have been moved nearly to tears by dance was in college. I have explained the tunnel vision of audience participation before. This lucid state was, is, like a drug to me. Attention. Do I have your attention? Yes. Now don’t anyone mess it up. Life became exciting. Busy. Graduation. Work. Busy. Life. Love. Things forgotten, lost, new concerns and tunnel vision around necessity.

Spooky Action was the first evening length piece that MiRo had developed since Pitch Black. It had been a few years and they, I, we had grown so much. It was based, deeper now, around their work at Fermilab. Extended and researched. There was sponsorship and beautiful video integration showing off the technology of Green Hippo–live manipulation of multiple video streams and sources. It was perfect. Enthralling and at no point were you distracted with figuring it out. It was a character of its own.

This was about the time that the students really started to get deep in the practical understanding of quantum entanglement. You know. Like sixth graders tend to do. MiRo is more than a dance company. The research they do for a piece is one of immersion. Pasteurized. Almost completely underwater. They expect the same from their students who embrace the focus and the exploration. They see that complexity and depth of expression comes from knowing the reason and the rationale; the process of embracing the chaos and making it beautiful.

This was about the time that I started to get deep in the practical understanding of working closely with dance. Something that I had not done in decades. Seeing Spooky Action in the basement performance studio of the Kimmel Center brought back the tunnel vision. The music by Peter Wyer fitting as always. A narrative about relationships. The piece, furious with all the passions I would expect from all those bodies on stage and projected. Pixelated. Picked apart. Accelerating. Becoming.

Tragic.

That’s how I explained it to Amanda. It was so sad.

The first time I have been moved nearly to tears by dance in decades was that day. A few years since MiRo Dance Theatre began working with students at the school and suddenly I felt very vulnerable. Aware that fast friends were capable of reaching into me. It is very much like sitting across from a Jiu Jitsu black belt or a sharpshooter. Potential lies within but never lies without.

I am grateful to my friends Tobin and Amanda and the ways they have changed me. I am writing every day this week and I am dancing like a disco fool on Saturday night to support and sustain the work that they do. If they can change me and they can change students and they can change…

Click here to support art that challenges your thinking

Supporting Creativity Pt. 2

Our first year was a “learning experience.” In typical parlance this means that it was a failure. It was not.

We encountered MiRo Dance Theatre as they were developing a piece called Pitch Black. They met, appealed, auditioned, and werked a group of interested, curious, and some disbelieving students. MiRo did not spend time drilling technique though their director was a former ballerina. They did not spend their time watching video though their producing director was an award winning video artist. They worked and treated these students as members of a company.

Students started saying they danced with MiRo Dance Theatre. They were.

When we traveled to see the premiere of the work at Altria, MiRo delayed its start while they waited for the student company to arrive.

They had arrived. We all had.
This is how education works.

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