weekend video...

trust me. you need to watch this before you start your weekend. it's been a while since i've shared it, and it feels like the best way to start the first weekend of 2013.

THE Kelly Clarkson Driving Dance from the dance/theater piece, 'genesis, no!' by Adrienne Truscott performed by Carmine Covelli and Neal Medlyn at PS122, NYC, 2007.

think-move art...

i'm writing in another place... i'll still be here, but i can also be found at thinkmoveart.com, my new space for movement/thought exploration. think-move art is a space for conversation about the moving body; its complexities, its function, its ability to create art.

thanks for stopping by. and please, share your thoughts...

Behavior is rarely rational; it is habitually emotional. We may speak wise words as the result of reasoning, but the entire being reacts to feeling. For every thought supported by feeling, there is a muscle change.

-Mabel Ellsworth Todd, The Thinking Body

Pina Bausch - Tanzteater Wuppertal - Rite of Spring

... an almost death.

"Oh honey, it was just a spell."

But the goose egg on your forehead; purple-yellow cheeks tell it as a different story. 

It smelled of gun powder and pipe tobacco. My fingers, black and fluorescent from scraping my nails against clay targets.

PULL - BANG - BREAK

I wiped my eyes. Tears, mascara and dirty fingers left stripes of war paint across my forehead and cheeks; solidarity for your marks.

--

The day after my mom called to tell me about her "spell," was the sorest day I can recall. My gut and visceral reactions made every muscle in my body tense. I slept poorly. My jaw locked. I could hardly move the next day. The fear reflex, the primal reaction to protect - changed my body.

a manifesto (v 3.0)...

you = i, me, mine. what is mine is mine.

what is yours is ours.

mine is yours.

be honest.

contradict.

provoke thought and action.

be provocative in thought and in action.

give cliché a try.

never use just as an adverb.

make mistakes.

make the un-right choice.

do what you know is bad for you.

try every idea that exists in your head.

change your mind.

go for some emotional reality.

be true.

be true to self.

let the gut make some decisions.

you can do whatever you want to do.

start.

stop.

jake and layla make a dance...

jake and i have been talking a lot lately about owning our happiness. that idea (sometimes seemingly obvious... but if you're human like me, shit. making mistakes and learning how to be the layla i actually want to be isn't always my initial reaction...) that being happy comes from being inside of what really drives you. you. not what others validate as an acceptable form of expression. doing what i need to do to be happy is key for me right now. for as much as i think i know about myself, there's always more. and i'm usually the last one on the obvious bandwagon, you know?

so, as i mourn the loss of one great pal, i've got another who is allowing and encouraging me to own the things that make me, me.

jake and i are making a dance together. yes. our friend ryan asked if it would be an adventure with a lot of spinning/twirling... he's interested in that. i think we'll have to throw some in to keep him engaged,

but seriously, we had a rehearsal on saturday. i am a better person because of it. for so many reasons. being in the studio is always beautiful/exciting/challenging. and when it's with someone that i trust and respect as a collaborator... shit is magical.

basically, we rolled around for two hours. which, isn't too far off from what we used to do back when we worked in the same building... but intentions were different. it was like being in grad school again. we played with patterns and tricked our brains into moving in ways that are not our comfortable lexicon. pure joy.

i'll post some video one of these days... for now, i'm enjoying how high it leaves me. seriously... i can feel the effects for days. owning this joy (with a little help from my friends...).

ps... for about a year now, jake has been saying this to me: i was meant to be a dancer. me too, buddy.

best...

yesterday is one for the record books. such a brilliant day. jake and i had a bunch of together time... which can generally make me nervous, but we're pretty good at being friends. probably, i don't have to worry about too much together time.

we met for coffee at philz (duh) and then hit the road for the world savvy challenge. world savvy is an amazing organization promoting students k-12 to become active, educated, participatory and responsible global citizens. read about them, for real.

so jake and i were volunteer judges for the world savvy challenge. we watched performances, looked at exhibits and observed round table discussions about the need for change as it relates to sustainable communities. what what?! ya, junior high and high school students talking about using bamboo as a resource to build houses in haiti, the epidemic of e-waste, water shortages and hunger. the performance that i didn't get to see... which was a major hit... isolationism in north korea! the musical.


i. know.

oh, and... the keynote speaker rapped beef  by boogie down productions. yes. 

yes.

a bunch of my brown ledge crew was there. that's my summer camp world. in fact, the organizer of the even is a brown ledge girl and overall brilliant genius. and jake, who knows very little about camp was thrown right into it. he's a champ, but perhaps a teensy bit overwhelmed by our rapid paced conversations and squeals over memories and summers past.

we took a break from each other, but then reconvened for PINA. you haven't seen it yet? do. it. now. a wim wenders film made with the dancers for the late pina bausch. genius. and in 3-d.

and of course i ran into one of my sarah lawrence dancers in the theatre. ok, not just any sarah lawrence dancer... but the one who danced for me during her entire sarah lawrence tenure. more squealing. more rapid fire talking. this time with wayyyyy more gestures and general wiggling. we talked about dance and movement and training bodies for movement patterns and visceral reactions to movement and how fucking scary that can be.

i have amazing friends. so blessed. so in love with it all.


be kind. i love you. piccys are still coming from ffffound.

on ownership, part deux...

this is the [long awaited] part 2 of a series on ownership. part 1 found here.

since most of you know i don't have a tv these days, which i'm sure still amazes tony guest to no end, as he could never peel me away from it as a kid... guess i'm really growin' up, huh dad? at any rate, not having a tv means i watch my tv on the internet. sometimes a whole series at a time (hello dowtnon abbey, what!? more on that later). but, i also watch a lot of youtube, read a lot of blogs (duh) and listen to/learn about new music. so, if you're an internet sensation... i've probably heard of you. it's no wonder my friends never call after 9pm, they know i'm otherwise engaged...

the point? beyonce. i'm so mad at her. still. huh? maybe you don't know about this... the internet has calmed down on all of this, but i'm still pretty heated. and for a couple of weeks last fall, the internets were a blazin'... and i liked it! you see, as soon as the video for countdown was released, my heart sunk. let's be clear. i. loved. beyonce. love. love. loved. and i'm not sure how forgivable it is at this point...

watch these:
(at least watch the last two, they're the ones that hold all of the information)

1. beyonce's video for countdown. directors: adria petty and beyonce knowles.

2. for those with short attention spans... a quick look at some pretty clear acts of pagiarism. video from studio brussel.

3. the kicker. put your glasses on. put it on full screen and watch. please. from here.

change of plans kiddos... watch these and let them marinate, ok? i'll be back tomorrow with the letter i'd like to send to beyonce. anybody have her address?

image from here. also, if i forget... remind me to buy toilet paper by the end of the week. please. 

phases...

this afternoon jt and i had linner at an indian restaurant in our hood. they were playing some pretty rad tunes... i turned to jt and asked him did i ever tell you about my indian phase? he just stared at me. but, not in that christ, layla. what the hell are you talking about kind of way. more in a uh huh? i've been waiting for you to spill the beans about this and i'm not the least bit surprised, not one eentsy bit kind of way. how i adore this guy...

so, towards the end of undergrad, i was studying kathak and bharata natyam (both classical forms of indian dance). i listened to mostly indian music... anoushka shankar, nitin sawhney and lots of bol chanting. i saw performances by shobana jeyasingh and swooned over akram khan... i read a fine balance by rohinton mistry (disregard the oprah sticker... it's not to be missed) and even made a dance about that piece of literature. i talked for hours to grandpa jim about india and his experiences there during the war. i dated an indian fellow. you get the point, yes?

but no, i never went to india. blast.

i've had other phases... in grad school it was mexico. lots of dances about los angeles, angeleno/mexican culture, catholic saints, mariachi music... i realize that these phases may sound ridiculous/awful depending on your point of view. trust, it was my way of honoring and learning about the cultures... promise. all good intentions.

hey y'all? i feel another phase coming on. españa! i think maybe i'm supposed to go to live in spain. like, soon. i found this guy... he takes amazing photos and i cannot stop staring drooling at the flamenco dancers. spain. let's start saving right now, ok? until then, we'll take flamenco dance classes and maybe even a course in spanish. (i know, how come i din't learn spanish during my mexico phase... i was choreographing and writing my thesis at the time. plate. was. full.)

so. look at these: (i don't own these photos... and if you are journey photographic (i give you mad props) and you want me to take these down, i will... but pretty please don't ask me to, because i'm staring drooling...)

i've already looked at flamenco shoes online. it's. happening. now. oh i can't wait to make my feet move like that! and the skirts?! can you stand it?!

xo. i love you.

dance party...

if you know me, you know i'm prone to spontaneous dance parties. everywhere. anywhere. and not in that stupid shit girls say (uh, do you know about this? probably. it's perfect... except for when i'm secretly embarrassed because i say that shit all the time. even the really annoying ones) kind of way... in an honest-to-goddess-i've-got-to-dance-right-now-or-i-will-explode kind of way. cool my fire yearnin' honey, come set me free. this becomes especially precarious when i'm at work or a very hoighty toighty event... as it is not always a generally socially acceptable form of expression. wait, what? did i just say that? rewind. erase.

anywhoodle. on new year's eve i was at a party in the western addition with some folks i didn't know very well. i got myself all involved with this group because of swoony mcgee (who i'm not soooo swoony about at the mo'). we had agreed to spend the evening together and house-party hop. we only hopped once.

don't you know now

is the perfect time.

we can make it right 

hit the city lights.

just to make it right

in the night.

hit the lovin' spot

i'll give you all that i've got.

have you ever been to a party where you have to take your shoes off when you walk through the front door? ya. it's a scene from some episode of sex and the city, but it happened for real... on new year's eve. aren't we supposed to wear cute shoes to accent our outfits just so? alright y'all, i was wearing boots. and you know, if i'm wearing boots, i am not wearing matching socks. yup. that's me. nerd with the mis-matched socks on new year's eve, party of one. i'll take you there, i'll shake you there.

here are some bits of convos i overheard that night...

omg, you're shoes are soooooo cute. you totally got them at forever 21, riiiiiiight?! 

(oh, did i fail to mention that we all had to take our shoes off, but the hosts and hostess had their shoes on the entire night?!)

we should totally start a dance party right now.

please tell me we did not just run out of prosecco!

we should totally start like a full on dance party right now.

that girl's socks don't match. 

dance party!!!!!

that girl with the weird socks has a whole bottle of prosecco.

ugh.

pretty young things, repeat after me...

said girls were near me several times when they casually shrieked about having a dance party. hellooooooo dance party. 

*very important disclaimer... i went to art school thrice. dance school to be specific. i have a bfa and an mfa in dance and choreography. i say this not because i am tooting my horn about my skillz, but because, hi... i have spent close to all of the years of my life... dancing. spark my nature, sugar fly with me. so, mention dance party, and you can bet your buns, i'm there. dancing. and, yes... it helps that i've studied many forms of dance and have a pretty keen sense of my kinesthetic awareness and can hold a beat and drop it like it's hot and other various shit... i'm not an asshole, ya dig? i'm just trynna get my groove on... same as you.* 

o.m.g. not the case. when those girls said dance party, i said yaaaaaaaa! (waving my bottle of prosecco over my head). and when i started groovin' they turned their backs to me and shuffled off to the kitchen... left me dancing to p.y.t. all by myself. fine. have it your way then. where did you come from lady, and ooh won't you take me there.

i kept on dancing.

(i found some pretty rad texts the next morning in my outbox to jt...) let me take you to the max.

in the end, it was not the worst night... even though it doesn't sound like it from this post. i was out. there were sparklers. a couple of good smooches. and i made some awesome voice recordings of swoony mcgee (we should find a new name for him) and his pal from alaska.

hey 2012. i've been waiting all year for you. welcome.

twinkle from here and nails from here. the words are michael jackson's. obvi. pyt.

pop...

i've been loving this video for a long-ass time. b.r.i.l.l.i.a.n.t.

the kelly clarkson driving dance from adrienne truscott's dance/theatre piece genesis, no! performed by carmine covelli and neal medlyn. ps 122, new york, ny. 2007.

everyone should know about this.

here goes her website if you wanna browse around a bit more...