tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61040286527739220412024-02-08T01:27:49.106-05:00yina ngyina nghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083887682148094262noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104028652773922041.post-42883189708736001672010-11-11T00:35:00.004-05:002010-11-11T00:42:57.224-05:00it is the sharing that keeps me going.I go through ups and downs about dancing and choosing to do what I do. <div><br /></div><div>and tonight a thought came to me, in the way when you always know something but just have forgotten it somehow: I like dancing when I can share with the others, either in dancing or in performing to an audience. The audience. how important it is to have someone witness you: it forms the core of performance and without a witness there's no performance. And sharing with other fellow artists and dancers the experience of dancing, the experience of creating. It is the time when I experience humanity to the fullest. And I say this with certainty: I have not so far in my life have any other experience that gives me the same kind of liveliness and humanness, and the worth of life if not the beauty of it. I learn how to appreciate life over death in dancing.</div><div><br /></div><div>It is the sharing that keeps me going. I need to remember that.</div>yina nghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083887682148094262noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104028652773922041.post-22152477930545885532010-10-29T22:38:00.003-04:002010-10-29T23:12:50.292-04:00THEM by Ishmael Houston-JonesThis is not a review. <div><br /></div><div>Saw Ishmael Houston-Jone's THEM at PS122 tonight, first staged in 1986(?) at the same location. As Ishmael stated in a facebook chain discussion, one of the reason it is re-staged the way it was, is to share the work with more audience. And I, as a new generation of audience member as well as young artist, would agree with that and even appreciate having the chance to see a good work that I otherwise wouldn't have the chance to see.</div><div><br /></div><div>See? I just got robbed yesterday, in broad day light, by a 13-year-old kid. As I am still pondering human aggression and the large question of poverty and injustice, the aggressive and almost violent dancing didn't have any effect on me at all: I was surprised in a way. What caught me in the eye and left an impressive mark, was the subtle but highly suggestive juxtaposition. I like the way he puts things together. Simple repetition, doing something over and over again has its own power.. in one section as Dennis Cooper with his slighting depressing but matter of fact voice, described the suicidal deaths of gay young man, we simultaneously saw the image of a a young man swinging a wood block towards coins thrown in the air, as if he's practicing baseball in an empty garage. The sound of the coin hitting the metal ceiling of the theater, and the single strip of lighting suggested some potential terrible consequence that is about to happen, but we don't get to see it. It is definitely very disturbing and makes me more nervous than if they were to stage a real suicide or something similarly lame.</div><div>Another moment that touched me was when the two pairs of men were struggling and they looked like they could be in love or in a fight with each other. It's that fine line between physical violent and highly seductive sexuality. But the piece seems to be suggesting that violence is the way gay men express their sexuality, because it is the only way they can. Not a single moment in the piece did we see the other side of the spectrum: intimate, loving interactions among these men. There was one section when two performers had subtle but flirty exchanges, and led to another round of violent partnering. Anther moment of suggestive juxtaposition was with a recording of school boy hustles and voices in the school playground, and the adult male performers were all touching their pubic areas as if wondering who they were and who they are becoming...suggested curiosity and doubt in boys' puberty. simple repetitions like that tell such strong messages and that was the mastery of the show in my opinion... the dancing was good.. but after a while it's not interesting anymore and it's the pairing and way things are put in context and juxtapositions that made the show. </div><div><br /></div><div>One of my questions is for the straight performers... just coz I know some performers in the show personally and know that they are not gay.. How do they connect and perceive who they are in the piece and the experiences that are being spoken by the work? Also, if we were to make an all-women piece about the experience of growing up as young women, for example, that would probably just be coined as straight-up feminist. Why is it any less interesting than doing it with men? Except that I have to say I really enjoyed seeing men interact physically and dance together. It is not a common image in our society, and therefore there's something really satisfying just seeing that... maybe i am just being a woman. </div>yina nghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083887682148094262noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104028652773922041.post-53151138614104398172010-10-15T23:51:00.005-04:002010-10-16T00:02:41.948-04:00making sensehad an argument with one of my best friends<div>gone home. </div><div><br /></div><div>on the way thinking that maybe what I am doing is worth less</div><div>lost </div><div>about my passion</div><div><br /></div><div>sniffing as I dug into my spicy ramen noodles</div><div>as</div><div>the sound of my roommates chatting in their room</div><div>reverberates </div><div>in the air of the silent apartment</div><div><br /></div><div>I, as if reminded of something I've long forgotten</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>feel very lonely.</div><div> </div><div><br /></div><div>they wouldn't have known, would they?</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>if only we had perfect information in the world, </div><div>of every factor and element in people's situations</div><div>we would get mad at each other no more, and</div><div>every human action would all make sense</div><div>for once</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>yina nghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083887682148094262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104028652773922041.post-765116313357453422010-10-05T00:35:00.004-04:002010-10-05T00:47:14.294-04:00The Wilson Four and running away from homeHung out with roommates tonight. So nice to have people around, people who don't judge and just be. I like it. I like it especially when you are mentally and physically exhausted from having a full day of work. Turn on some jazz, and have a glass of wine, or whiskey with amazing conversations about everything. <div>So the Wilson Four is Cecilia, Yina, Veneta, and new roommate Laura.<div><br /></div><div>Before I got this job at this after-school program I never knew about this whole Chinese settlement near Sunset Park, where I work now monday to thursday. I am quite astonished at my cravings and behaviors around these delicious Chinese goodies. And then I tell myself, Man, I miss home. I really do. The fall is killing me with nostalgia. Maybe I should call home, but I never do. If I ran away why would I?</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div>yina nghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083887682148094262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104028652773922041.post-79761725019806734272010-10-03T19:41:00.005-04:002010-10-03T23:54:26.198-04:00I am starting to write again.I don't know what it is the propelled me to start writing on my blog again. But I feel a strong urge today, as if there is something in me that just needs to come out. And I don't even know what it is. I love writing, indeed. Maybe it is just a way for me to organize my thoughts, or to simply to deal with my self. But maybe it's just the coming of the Fall.<div><br /></div><div>I am distracted. I have been distracted, on an every day basis. I realized that I spend most of my time distracting myself with thoughts about food, laundry, cash, and the effort of trying to live. This sounds ridiculous but I realized that was what occupied my thoughts most of the time in the past year. As much as I have said in the past year that I do not want to settle down, I had to admit today to myself that I've been, every single day in the past year, trying to settle down. I don't know what it is that is so unsettling but I put a lot of energy fixing all these little things so that I would feel more settled... and I am really tired. I just wanna be somewhere where I can feel settled.</div><div><br /></div><div>I wish I could read all day, by myself and understand the world that way. Yet, reading about humanity has always directed me back to humanity. Insightful authors often reveal glimpses of truths that touch on my instinct to go back to life. Eros and Death. Death is my default. I fantasized that we'll understand life when death consumes us. And then all these will have meaning. </div><div>Though, I don't get addicted to truth in books because they are second-hand, and carry that odor of old pages. Life and happiness, I like them too, somewhere in me, I like them too.</div><div><br /></div><div>Just started Han Keilson's "Death of an adversary" </div><div>am already captured by the style of</div><div>complete naked emotions and </div><div>shaking realness</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div>yina nghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083887682148094262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104028652773922041.post-72869279866309265012010-06-14T17:49:00.004-04:002010-06-14T17:57:17.965-04:00New WebsiteI realized, and it took me a year, that I am simply a terrible blogger.<br />I mean, let's face it. I have may be like... 20 posts over the past year. This is quite funny.<br />Well, so I decided that I'm gonna have a real website, with portfolio and all that. YAY!<br />It took me about a full week to build the site, and i like it. If you have any suggestions, please let me know! (use the email form in new website!!)<br /><br />Check the site out here before it gets connected to this domain:<br /><a href="http://www.wix.com/ngyina/dancedesign">http://www.wix.com/ngyina/dancedesign</a>yina nghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083887682148094262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104028652773922041.post-78574963742425592622010-03-12T23:30:00.003-05:002010-03-12T23:37:38.272-05:00this whole dance thingyea. this whole dance thing.<div>why dance?</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>I just had a discussion with my friend Claris, who is one of those people who come up to me after a dance performance and say, "I got nothing meaningful from the performance." yea. Frustrating right, dancers/choreographers? yea. what is it? why is it that i can feel so powerfully and substantially that you can't? Aren't we all humans? what is this truth in movements and in moving the human body that i believe in? the truth. Bill T Jones talked about it. Meredith Monk talked about it. the truth. </div><div><br /></div><div>ar. maybe i am just having a depressing day. didn't go to work. didn't go to class. didn't do nothing. just sat and thought, about this whole dance thing.</div>yina nghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083887682148094262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104028652773922041.post-72385164447806484902009-12-07T02:31:00.003-05:002009-12-07T02:56:10.978-05:00Gestural VS "Dancey"Gestural=human<div>"dancey"= non-human/definition of space through angles, lines, spirals, etc. through the human body?</div><div><br /></div><div>My last two rehearsal (and first two as well) with David Hurwith and his selected group of women were challenging. The movement-based rehearsals are so far improvisational work that follows a set of guidelines from him. We've been working with the definition and range, I think, of gestural movements, and with finding the place where gestural and "dancey" are not so separate, where they both exist in a way that defines each other in the dancer's body and in space. That place reminds me of Faye's work, in which "dance" movements have something that triggers an impulsive human response, movements that look like "we can all do it" and "true, we all do it." Often when dancers improvise, we forget that not only were we dancers, but also humans. We forget that on top of all the techniques and "moves" that we've been trained in, we can also do other movements that we do "naturally" every day as living humans. Dance by definition might have been "movements that define space in a geometrical sense" rather than movements that are mundane. However, the collective effort of modern choreographers in the last few years to deconstruct that definition is obvious. Each choreographer is looking for that "place" where gestural meets "dancey," of course "dancey" as defined by the work in the last decade. Where is that place where dance movements can provoke a more direct, approachable, impulsive human response in more audience of different kinds and how do we get there?</div>yina nghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083887682148094262noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104028652773922041.post-81431618878868451442009-11-23T11:49:00.003-05:002009-11-23T12:03:02.824-05:00Yoga at 7am daily ritual!Being an artist is a daily practice- a friend I ran into while I was delivering MR fall festival brochures kindly reminded me. It is so easy to get busy with life, especially in the city, and just "pretend to be an artist." Thanks for the slap michael...<div><br /></div><div>So I decided to start a yoga ritual at 7am daily. Yes, that sounds awesome! Lizzy, being absolutely a wonderful yoga partner, so witfully ignored my wimpy text this morning and basically dragged me to class. The sky was still half-lit and the air was cold when we got into the studio; after an hour of energizing yoga, we opened our eyes and the morning sunlight was shining through the glass windows onto the wooden floor of the studio. It felt like I only really woke up at that point, body and mind. And I still have the whole day to play with, do whatever I need and whatever I want. </div><div><br /></div><div>Anyone in the city wanna join? it's called Yoga to the People.. it's a donation-based yoga studio and they have classes throughout the day monday-Sunday! check out http://yogatothepeople.com/new-york-yoga.shtml</div><div><br /></div><div>They go a little too fast for me sometimes...meaning when I would want to hold some of the poses a little longer and to take more time with transitions. But it's nice considering it's donation based. Try it at 7am too if you can- it's the least crowded class- as you can imagine.</div>yina nghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083887682148094262noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104028652773922041.post-66154168789797691412009-11-15T12:23:00.004-05:002009-11-15T12:54:36.006-05:00Juddertone Performance a success!Big Ape has just finished another successful performance as part of the <a href="http://www.juddertone.com/">Juddertone</a> Performance Series at Boston University Dance Theater. The concert was an exceptionally long one and the audience has been incredibly patient for the duration and also general quality of the work in the concert....Thank you everyone who came out to see the show!<div>This piece is quite different comparing to Big Ape's other repertory work in the way that it doesn't have an obvious drive as the piece progresses. It maintains a specific pace throughout and at times almost hints a termination of momentum or energy, but then it picks up and keeps going...in a cycle. The work was made in pieces and usually you would imagine sections start to interweave and have meanings being done one after another. But "Away" kind of maintains that "sectionalism" in a way, pieces held close to each other only because of some inevitability of the bigger structure. I am still making sense of the work. It almost feels like it should just crumble and complete fall apart and be "disposed" at the end, somehow. How do you dispose a piece?</div><div><br /></div><div>I was getting on the T to get back to my temporary "home" in Boston and had a rather inspiring conversation with one of the audience members about what is "modern dance." haha, of course right? what is modern dance, then, and now, and how's it changing, how's it dying. Maybe we can wrap all that has happened since the 20s until now and call it modern dance, and call what is yet to come something else? So many dance works have shifted to something close to our concepts of "experimental theater." But that seems to me only a way to escape thinking about <i>what is </i>the kind of work that we don't consider dance now? Why? Can we categorize them in more specific and informed ways than one large "easy-to-go" category of experimental theater? of course, i think modern dance pieces still need to be movement-based to be called dance. Theatricality is one of the ways to say what you wanna say, but i do think only if the movement itself makes a statement that a piece can be a dance. It seems to me so interesting that each audience member has a "line" through which they judge/ or categorize whether a piece is "dance" or not.</div>yina nghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083887682148094262noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104028652773922041.post-12544626002959801022009-11-10T23:23:00.003-05:002009-11-10T23:55:48.711-05:00This weekend at Boston University with Big A.P.E.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIYJmL5ULx-zCEaIxiwaN9CkUbtGEo9bKkeW98-CiNpQDGLdIBL2XfxvxZSWNbuyW1zDvz4u_BnXopQTSjBM_8IkXHFItm1CeSqL7k8gF_eHnRRG5ZzNQbOBf5b1VsQ21J5wM-2XC1OqQ/s1600-h/bigapenews.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIYJmL5ULx-zCEaIxiwaN9CkUbtGEo9bKkeW98-CiNpQDGLdIBL2XfxvxZSWNbuyW1zDvz4u_BnXopQTSjBM_8IkXHFItm1CeSqL7k8gF_eHnRRG5ZzNQbOBf5b1VsQ21J5wM-2XC1OqQ/s320/bigapenews.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402704465591502530" /></a>the title says all- Big A.P.E. is performing this weekend Nov 13, 14 @ Boston University Dance Theater as part of the Juddertone performance series. If you're in town, come join the fun! I attached the newsletter from the director...<div><br /><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; color: rgb(24, 21, 15); "><div>Next week we travel to Boston to premiere our newest work, "Away (from here)" as part of the <a rel="nofollow" track="on" href="http://www.juddertone.com/" linktype="link" target="_blank">Juddertone Performance Series</a>, a commissioning program pairing composers and choreographers together to create new work. We have been very fortunate to work with <a rel="nofollow" track="on" href="http://www.julietcase.com/" linktype="link" target="_blank">Juliet Case</a>, a fabulous composer from Providence, Rhone Island.<br /></div><div><br />Where: <a rel="nofollow" track="on" href="http://www.bu.edu/fitrec/programs/dance/dancetheater.shtml" linktype="link" target="_blank">Boston University Dance Theater</a><br /> 915 Commonwealth Avenue<br /><br />When: Friday & Saturday,<br /> November 13-14, 8:00 p.m.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; ">To reserve tickets call: 617-358-2500 </span> <br /><br />If you are in the area, come out and see the new work! If not, please forward this email to your friends in the Boston area.<br /></div><div> </div><div>Sincerely,</div><div> </div><div><b>Tiffany Rhynard</b><br /><b>Artistic Director, Big Action Performance Ensemble</b></div></span></div></div>yina nghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083887682148094262noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104028652773922041.post-23714877889368534742009-10-31T14:12:00.003-04:002009-10-31T14:20:42.405-04:00Mariangela Lopez workshop @ MR<div>She is working with dancer and non-dancers alike, exploring the complexity of the human mind and cleverly utilizing that interesting complexity to create a collective memory of the group. Very interesting approach to connect human experiences and create collages.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is my writing from one of the sessions...you can see how my mind works in the studio..</div>Brown image was strong and my arms carried the image of the van often shaking or trying to figure out where to steer. Other stories/descriptions I heard later from other people couldn't help blending with my own memories of my elder sister whose face was stuck in my mind together with the images of the uncle...the Chinese kid...the van that the uncle cherished and that is now renewed. Now that I'm writing it more memories of the uncle came out...my movements with the group also blended with my experiences listening to people, not so much the stories and details themselves but more my experience of that person - his voice, his way of thinking (structuring a description)...yina nghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083887682148094262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104028652773922041.post-70562113354688346922009-10-29T23:18:00.000-04:002009-10-29T23:25:22.838-04:00video business in the city<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSWwM10nJfShfQrqGPDD5ITfJsEvJPA7v0gFHqwyrYq5xb_sp1vuB1zyCbNFx0gqfbxtI4XJM4K-Vxhm1FWq1gI1p9-5ugNDI9QKHLETI6Ywf5KV7BXwwn40XXJqlICMwq18asTVeK5ZM/s1600-h/businesscard.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 188px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSWwM10nJfShfQrqGPDD5ITfJsEvJPA7v0gFHqwyrYq5xb_sp1vuB1zyCbNFx0gqfbxtI4XJM4K-Vxhm1FWq1gI1p9-5ugNDI9QKHLETI6Ywf5KV7BXwwn40XXJqlICMwq18asTVeK5ZM/s320/businesscard.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5398228713282488482" /></a>First gig done!yina nghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083887682148094262noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104028652773922041.post-67295922602308356162009-10-27T23:32:00.004-04:002009-10-27T23:45:01.043-04:00How to start making work in your first year in the City?There are so many things I want to do here. In this year. One year.<div>Recently I have been thinking about creating my own work a lot. Not the usual, "ah I will get into so and so big company and dance for a few years...then I'll make work..." why? why this order necessarily? I started dancing because I want to make work...because of the hunger for creation. I want to jump right into it: I want to make work, make more, and keep making. But I don't know how to start. How do you start as a choreographer right out of school? Self-production? Where would let you self-produce? Not the big studios I guess...</div><div>The good thing is, my internship is teaching me a lot of online marketing for the arts, which is going to be really useful if I want to sell my own work. One of the projects that I have started recently is to reconstruct this blogger website into a much more professional looking wordpress site with videos of my dance and video work, photography, and blog entries of my creative process. Stay tuned.</div><div><br /></div>yina nghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083887682148094262noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104028652773922041.post-65788037510154746982009-09-27T00:10:00.003-04:002009-09-27T00:55:08.940-04:00New York CityMoving is always a headache and a hell lot of physical pain. Moving from here to there has become such an integral part of my life and I have, for a short while, grown to dislike it quite a lot. This time, well, it has induced much psychological pain as well. And oddly, that became the reason why I have slowly started to deconstruct my bias of moving and, actually, to find it enjoyable.<div>Learning to move to a new place is to learn to become a responsible member of that particular society, a member who bears responsibility to offer and is granted the privilege to receive. It is a process of establishing a personal "place." The difficult part of establishing this give-and-take relationship is the fact that we can only do it through planting, not building. The psychological pain, then, comes from the waiting after all that work of planting and the uncertainty that naturally arises from looking at the so far empty land. Patience, I remind myself every day.</div><div>I have never thought of moving in this way because, well, I wasn't mature enough to understand and desire that relationship with the community of which I was a part. </div><div>Being able to think of moving in this way make me feel life, the passing of youth and the beginning of adulthood. And that makes me proud, and thankful.</div><div><div><br /></div></div>yina nghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083887682148094262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104028652773922041.post-52844844762313217792009-09-07T01:21:00.004-04:002009-09-07T01:35:36.261-04:00Life has gained momentumLife has gained momentum. career, love, friendship, family. all in one giant swirl crashing the last bit of regularity in the good old rhythm i was so used to. <div>They say things change. They really do. Friends whom you thought you knew so well all of a sudden seem so distant. Strangers become lovers. My family is helping me to move to NYC. For the first time I truly feel the freedom to do anything I want to do in this life- with courage and confidence. This summer especially, I learned, through both the hard and the easy way, how confidence really really matters. It brings success, because without it men cannot create. impossible.</div><div>I am so glad I am not going back to school tomorrow.</div>yina nghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083887682148094262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104028652773922041.post-1219800429874838202009-08-04T00:50:00.001-04:002009-08-04T00:52:48.031-04:00so I figured that putting the one-minute videos here is kinda redundant because people (you!) can view them by clicking on the video thumbnails on the upper right corner of this blog. They're all on youtube but you can see them without leaving the blog- which is the cool thing about it! :)<div><br /></div>yina nghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083887682148094262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104028652773922041.post-78891941089508624322009-08-01T01:56:00.003-04:002009-08-01T02:07:11.171-04:00the universe<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzcnuNoRgQxwM-sdcxcLvwv65486OpG0YQMsd2URSIExJtuwQnJZx62lbcMo5PP68xO4NWv6G0gaoVTsOou9Q' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe>yina nghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083887682148094262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104028652773922041.post-91808163447945968322009-07-30T23:13:00.004-04:002009-07-30T23:41:38.829-04:00<div>Merge </div><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dz_wgzlNGC2i3KGd88o4UeR5TLXneL7BqR2CwhcC9pidRtOGFd5_N6Ba9TMncmQ6pCwndJjlM1_PvmdcUOGlQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><div>Here, there<br /><div><br /></div><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxq8Pghu5CscTPezT2kXaz8kgXLIn0VWiWIJOclPO2LRPjxahywvGcmfSR02MsUAR5LUdOyRby4HrEAjkOWtg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><div>couldn't help making two today. Special thanks to my dear friend Claris.</div></div>yina nghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083887682148094262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104028652773922041.post-64575100314945723242009-07-29T22:42:00.003-04:002009-07-29T22:53:31.918-04:00<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwacYNF4YZeYD3eE4_wgRfCwRupBJ2ByoXl7l7KyECuci4e7HYbptEtUjCOgNc3ekfbyysqI8MzclBnAjy1nw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><div><br /></div><div>I am doing a one-minute video series. Starting from today I will create a one-minute video study and post it on my blog here. Feel free to view and comment!</div><div><br /></div><div>So ADF is over. It was so enriching, diverse, intense, and amazing. I loved it, though I would have planned it differently if I had known what I was getting myself into. I've come to re-evaluate my own creative process, what I want to say and how I want to say it as an artist. Faye was so inspiring - her confidence and passion for what she believes in. I've met young artists there who are just as passionate as me if not more. I've had amazing conversations about life, about art, about love. I heard the most honest and genuine comments for me as a person, for my dancing, and for my work. Thank you my beloved ADF community. </div>yina nghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083887682148094262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104028652773922041.post-7615553881130532262009-07-09T23:00:00.003-04:002009-07-09T23:31:43.954-04:00<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">Inbal Pinto</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">redefined dance for me tonight. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">I realized that this whole time at Middlebury I was creating work that I thought the others regard as "dance." I was playing safe. The fear of being disproved of my ability hindered the application of my experiences in theater into my choreography, hindered my imagination and willingness to go crazy. This has actually been a constant problem: that I found what I did with theater before is somehow separated from what I do now with dance. I couldn't find ways to connect them somehow. They have been two different kind of experiences for me ever since I started dancing in Middlebury my freshman year, and even until the presentation of my senior thesis. Inbal Pinto's pieces tonight inspired me to somehow connect them: the physicality and dance technique I have been developing in the past four years, and the unique theatricality that I embody. I don't know exactly how, but I feel like I have a better idea how to mix them, and definitely a re-ignited passion to keep working towards that direction. I can do whatever I want, fuck it. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">I wanna make work now; I wanna do it, experiment with it, and go with it. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">I need confidence: trust what I'm doing regardless of all the criticisms, to allow space for my imagination, to allow entrance of all that I have experienced in my history, to allow who I am as a person to live and dance without secrets. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">"If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too."-- </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:x-small;">Rudyard Kipling</span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><div><br /></div></div>yina nghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083887682148094262noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104028652773922041.post-5628492363651485592009-07-05T22:05:00.000-04:002009-07-05T22:18:55.110-04:00happy 4th of July<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Happy 4th of July!</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">I got a day off dancing yesterday, thanks to the US. As part of my all-American education, I had burgers with Simon, Katie, and Sonia, and went along with them to my very first live baseball game. The whole thing was pretty hilarious and entertaining. The lemonade vendor was definitely one of the best amusement. O and the little shows they put on in between games. I had a huge Budweiser and cheesy fries, with that I blended in the crowd pretty well. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">The fireworks were absolutely gorgeous though. I was reminded of those nights of firework celebrations in Hong Kong when millions of people all tried to rush to the harbor...argh disastrous. The same thing happened in Tokyo except they put a festival where the fireworks are so you got to chill with yakisoba and kushiyaki and beer while crashing with people. Here I found myself sitting at a baseball stadium in my own seat comfortably and just raise my head effortlessly. say so much about cultures huh. that was an experience. </span></span></div><div><br /></div>yina nghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083887682148094262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104028652773922041.post-31080332513489718422009-06-29T13:40:00.000-04:002009-06-29T14:01:28.646-04:00<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">everything was quite confusing for the last two weeks. some of it are still pretty confusing, but at least my immediate surroundings are more in places than before. </span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">at least my confusions came from choices, or the privilege to be able to choose. the american dance festival is a great place- i ve met so many great people, and am learning from so many great teachers and professionals. it seems like my body has gradually adjusted to the rigorous schedule here too. no, a lot of amazing things are happening here, out there, in my body, every day. it's great. Just as a young dancer, i got confused about which path to take. and i know there isn't a particular perfect one, but i wanna make wise choices upon which i wouldn't regret later. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">enough whining. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">i am working with two amazing choreographers, Faye Driscoll and Tatsuya Kusuhara. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Faye reminds me a lot of my own process. being in it now, i've come to realize what i don't like about this way of working, and what she's doing that i am not. i'm totally grateful that i am in the piece now, finally, after 2 weeks of audition. HA! </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">It's quite interesting that she is constantly hyper sensitive about "dance" movements, or movements that she labels as "dance." it is obvious that she avoids those at all times the best she can. i am interested in where she finds the line though. what is dance moves, and what is not? </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Tatsuya works in a similar way, using the body in rather specific ways yet away from any recognizable dance vocabulary. His piece is a reconstruction, which means his process is quite different from Faye's. it's indeed quite stimulating to be involved in both.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'lucida grande';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">I am working hard. And i miss home, i miss mum. a lot. sometimes i question what the hell am i doing here, in a foreign country, and leaving home behind in a distal place i can't quite get hold of in my imagination.</span></span></div>yina nghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083887682148094262noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6104028652773922041.post-20256648784834594882009-06-02T11:30:00.000-04:002009-06-02T11:48:50.733-04:00<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">I have been thinking about the social body recently. During a chilly but refreshing morning in James' office, I fortunately discovered an inspiring conversation on a blog linked to the dance bloggers community. And there I found companions who are doing works concerning the social body, placing often omitted attention to how our bodies are inscribed with a pattern of rules and definitions set by social expectations. I have explored such questions briefly in my undergraduate endeavor (which just ended two weeks ago) in relationship to gender and gender representation. But this artistic conversation on the piece </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">The Runner </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">performed and choreographed by Coco Loupe covered the concept of social choreography and the necessity to raise conscious awareness of one's daily movements (dancers and non-dancers alike) on a fuller scale. Here I would post a few paragraphs that inspired me: </span></span><div><br /><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px; ">Michael wrote to CoCo 9:11am, 17 May 2009:</span><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px;">And what it says about our perceptions of the body, our expectations and rules for it. And how quickly we take cues and prescriptions for ourselves from the other bodies we encounter. I felt like it revealed something so fragile: maybe the choreography of identity? Maybe when you develop a research interest you begin to see it everywhere, but it was something like that. Up until their encounter with you, the others in the space knew the “rules” and they were playing by them! That’s maybe the crux of this connection is that it revealed some layer of awareness or intentionality of the ways in which these other individuals were handling themselves in their bodies, the way they were choreographing their actions to fit within their understanding of the “rules,” and by encountering you/your dancing body, their understanding of the rule, and thus their “choreography,” was called into question. So fragile.<br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px;">It made me think of something Bill Forsythe said about the thought behind “Monster Partitur” and the whole exhibition at the Wex. He talked about how in the art gallery culture, their is a certain “viewer agency” to meander, to wander, to direct attention for whatever duration, to come in, to leave, etc. And in the dance world, we tend to hold our viewers captive. They come in, they sit down, we turn out the lights, and for the most part, they are expected to STAY. He was interested in moving dance into the gallery space to potentially explore this viewer relationship. it raises questions like, “Dance, unlike a static object, literally changes and unfolds over time. How does its meaning or relevance shift if the viewer can come in or exit an encounter with it at any point? How is its value effected if they don’t see the ‘beginning’ or the ‘end’, only some piece in the ‘middle’?” I felt that “The Runner” leant itself to this way of viewing remarkably well. There is something about the piece, how it moves from one thing to the next with very little through-line, how each moment it partially characterized by the total abandonment of the previous moment, that gives immense permission to see/encounter only a part of it. I felt like I was fully engaged with the piece for its duration, but by the end I could not begin to describe the sequence of events, or even recount all of the events that had transpired. Just as it seemed as if you moved from moment to moment, event to event, with a total abandonment of what came before, I felt that I was invited to do the same. Which seems to relate much more to that “gallery, come and go as you please” mentality than to the proscenium “come in, watch from beginning to end, then leave” way of engagement. In that sense, I commend you hugely. I think Agora was a perfect match for the piece. I think I would also love to see it in the Wex, either in a gallery or outside on that quad . . . something about framing it in the manner of engagement associated with gallery/museum spaces that I described above. I think that is a fascinating connection between the context and content of the piece.<br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11px;">I don't really know who this Michael is and have not seen the piece, but this conversation, and my subsequent reading of Deborah Hay's writings on her website certainly provoked my thinking about what is dance, and the importance of developing an active awareness of the possible ways we can execute movements in different bodies as "houses," and their contexts as the external architecture of the houses.</span></div></div>yina nghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06083887682148094262noreply@blogger.com0