The last 3 days have been long.
On the 25th, last Saturday, I had to present my choreography to the entire Synapse dance Co. It was a monumental moment as I have worked very hard and deidicated a lot of time on my choreography. It was my chance to prove myself as a skilled and improved choreographer, compared to the sloppiness and inexperience I displayed last semester. Sadly, I let myself down. I tried my best, but I failed. So far it seems like my peice won't make it into the show; it's not that I procrastinated, we just didn't have enough time.
After that stressful period I went home, got ready, and got picked up by Sarah to go to the American College Dance festival at UC Irvine. After an hour trip, we got to the hotel.
LEt me skip to the important shit... that night we went to a house music club. I was worried that these kids wouldn't be feeling it, especially if the place wasn't crackin, so I made myself meditate on the image of everyone having fun at a bomb ass club due to the fact that I was entertaining images of the contrary. And Lo! the club was popping, people were ..."doing plies, jumping, and grinding..." popping, and I brought some break elements into the mix. I got kicked out the club for drinking but homegirl Sarah talked the security guard into letting me back in.
I got deep. It took a minute for me to submerge myself into my body and into the music, but around midnight I got rockin raw. I started doing moves I've never done before, and pushed limits, and connected footwork and combos like never before, all in the moment, without hurting myself! I had so much fun! My peers told me my sweat was splashing all over people. The househeads gave me props on my style, and I met some nice people there who, too, were there with a love for dancing.
I know I have definitley improved dramatically in house dancing. Both Amy and Paul commented that I've improved in breaking. I think it is in the being that I've used house-style transitions to smoothen out the link between different sets of movement.
Thereafter we drove back to the hotel with a small delayed caused by LA's finest and a bit of alcohol (I didn't drink though).
The next day, the first day of ACDF.. THAT was a fucking long day.
Waking up with only a few hours of sleep. We headed out to school and got a tour and signed up for classes and got packets for ACDF. I took a pilates class, then rehearsed for the performance. We toured the campus, got food, rehearsed, went back to hotel, then back to school, got in costume and everything then performed, then watched the rest of the show, then stayed for the adjudication, then Lauren drove me back to LA, then I drove back to Irvine, then I got in the jacuzzi with everyone else, then I went and blazed with Samantha, then I freaked out and went back to my room and tripped out on all the thoughts in my head cause I was high and concluded that smoking weed is stupid if all it causes me to do is trip out and not enjoy life.
Eventually I fell asleep in the far latter part of the night due to the lack of comfort I am currently experiencing in my bed.
That was tuesday. Wednesday got a bit rougher.
I woke up late and got a call from one of the kids and found out that I made the lottery for the master class that morning. After some convication with my peers I borrowed the parking permit and drove to school. I walked into class a bit late but I made it in. It was a lot of fun, and most suprisingly, the dance style taught was HOUSE! whaddya'kno? With Rennie Harris teaching, he first elaborated a bit on hip hop culture and then moved on to do a house warmup with us, which then moved up to house dance. Alot of the dancers were new to the style, but still liked it. A few of my SMC peers sitting in the bleachers were vibing to the music while watching the class. I learned a few moves that I hope to put into practice and thereafter add to my housedance vocabulary.
After that I wanted to go eat, but the kids who decided to procrastinate and stayed at the hotel wanted me to come back and get them. Uncertain as to whether or not I would be able to have time to eat, I showed a bit of hesistation. After a bit of frustration and misunderstanding, I got back to the hotel to pick them up.
I went to more classes including a modern Horton class and an African class. Both were fun. The teachers went through the choreography very quickly and thus made it a very focused environment. The Horton class was pretty fun. The teacher warmed us up well and taught us a bit of technique. I really like horton style as it is a very strong form of movements--more masculine and less ballet-ish. The african class was very popular, and the class itself was extremley high-energy. I probably had sweat from about 40 other people on me. The teacher taught us an entire phrase in that short session.
After the class we played around on some mats I found in the room, and for the first time I did a front handspring on my HEAD! yes I sprung on my head instead of my HANDS!! The third time I did it, I did so to impress a woman, and thus I hurt myself (but not badly) :).
Then, after that, a peer said some things I did not like about the "ride back to the hotel situation" so I walked away. I guess some complications arose from my decision to walk away and some people had to cram in other cars. This isn't a blog for drama so I just ended up picking people up, then going to the hotel.
Pumped up from the African class, I went back to the school after borrowing a permit. All of my muscles were highly activated and I thought to myself: How can I condition myself so that my muscles are activated and pumped like this all the time? I felt able to cypher, bust, and throwdown like it was Cake. And now, writing this, I am concluding that I should start doing cardio exercises--like running.
Stamina is a problem for me in break and house dance forms. I usually exit a cypher panting and catching my breath like I just ran a marathon. This is likely due to the fact that I've stopped doing cardiovascular exercises. A ballet teacher or 2, or 3, told me that running is bad for my knees, and thus as a dancer I should not do so. For now I will disregard such advice and try running or other forms of cardio exercise--maybe a simple intense african class will do the trick?
So I went to the show by myself, sat in the front row, and used all the energy I had built up to examine the dancers performing. I watched in awe for some of the peices, and asked myself why some of the others ones were so long and boring.
There are a few things choreographers should keep in mind:
LEVELS- both in energy and movements. So many peices kept the same energy and speed level throughought the whole peice that by 5 mins in I no longer became interested in the peice, i was simply waiting for it to be over.
REPETITIVE CHOREOGRAPHY- How many fucking modern rolls and contractions can you do?!?!!? How about a grandeplie that falls backwards onto our hands? Dont let me forget about the fast-slow-slow-slow-fast-fall-catch-fast-slow-contract shit. So many of the peices had the same moves it made me sick of modern dance.
LENGTH- About 65% of the peices performed were way too long. The audience usually loses interest about 6-8 minutes in unless there is a definite dynamic level or mood change in the peice, and if that is so, the choreography should change as well. Revisions of the same movements dont trick us. Package them well if you wish to reuse them. we do not refund damaged items. Almost like this blog post, it's getting too long. Time to start a new one to catch reader's attention.
INNOVATION - People love something new and innovative. If you have the nerve to choreograph a peice before a group of LosAngelino college students, at least make it cool. And by cool I don't mean to sound closed minded. One of the best peices of the show was a greekish modern peice with long classic peice for music. However, many peices seemed almost exactly the same if you change some costumes, music, and the backround. What we as the audience see is the CHOREOGRAPHY. After a minute or 2 we no longer care about your costumes, nor about the music or the fancy props on stage.
A GOOD SHOW - Yeah. You spent years mastering your technique and months perfecting the choreography, but too bad you may have failed to actually entertain your audience. People don't really care about fancy dancing because we're not all dancers and it's not that impressive on stage because it's EXPECTED. Don't bore your audiences in the midst of your expression, it's rude, and using filler phrases with simple movements just to fill a count block isnt fun either. The audience pays hard earned money to see your show. Make it worth their while. Its not what you do, it's how you do it. It's not always worth the stress to put insanely hard routines on dancers who can't necesairrly execute them with ease. Haste makes waste.
more notes to come
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