melissa west makes dances/fall season schedule

This fall I will return to a lot of creations, re-stagings, and work at hand. This makes me very excited. While at the Yard, I intend to restage People in the Sun as a solo for an October performance (tba). I have already begun to do so, check out this clip of my practice from yesterday in which I work on my petite allegro. I am also watching Pictures quite repetitiously to relearn phrases-work I have long since forgotten about.

Also for when I return to NYC, I will be creating a new piece to be debuted sometime in the spring season. It will be a performance piece featuring approximately 10-14 performers of various backgrounds. The piece will be 15-25 minutes long and will involve lipstick, a light fish sculpture, the constellations, and a lover's waltz. That is all I will say about it for now, don't want to spoil the surprise. I am very excited!

This week I took class with Sandy Stone, a former Taylor dancer which was wonderful! I intend to take class at the Taylor school when I return home. Doug Elkins is here and taught class this morning. It was fun, very syncopated. Tomorrow he will be doing more phrase-work with us.

As for the Yard, despite the constant messiness of living with 10 people in one very old house, things are going well. We've staged to Opera's, one of which I loved: Archy and Mehitabel, starring Alison Fraser. It was so cute and witty. I want to read the book of poems when I return to NY.

I made some soup for lunch and will eat a veggie burger for dinner. I don't know why that's important but somehow it just is.

very well, xo

melissa

chilmark day three

it is a quiet evening here in Chilmark, Mass. I can hear the crickets outside as the darkness settles in around the commune. the last day or so has eased in, i arrived here very upset and in desperate need for a change. i am finally settling in, and suspect that a few more days and i will feel really relaxed here. i had a lot to say before but i don't feel it's necessary to write much tonight. there are spiders on the wall. daddy long legs are like dancers with their thin legs, but i do not like them. yet, i have not been able to kill them-- i just do not feel the need. 

today i awoke at six a.m., showered and crept down the stairs, careful not to wake my roommates. i went down the gravel rode to take a seven a.m. yoga class, followed by an eight a.m. meeting. later in the afternoon i went to the grocery store in edgartown, which is thirty minute ride which i drove down back roads and windy paths, careful of bikers and pedestrians. on the way back, i got a little lost and wound up at a beach but the beauty of the bay and the yachts and boathouses, the white pale sand was totally worth it.

cleaned a lot again today. the attic bedroom is now in good shape. i took a picture after the cleaning but not before ... if you only knew. made some zucchini and red onions from the farm share. some pasta and steak from the market. read some of simone forte's handbook in motion. she speaks motions. i am completely immersed and will quote her quite soon. 

i took a video of me dancing: 

it's just a little solo improvisation. nothing special but thought i would post it here. 

also took some pictures tonight, here are the one's i most love:

the compound next door.

view from the water. 

 

the house i am currently living in.

simone on the porch.

 our countryside sign.

and here is a picture of me in the midst of adjusting to a new and wondrous place:

yayy. :) peas and love, m

welcome to the vineyard
Well, I arrived safely to the Yard. It took me almost 12 hours to get here due the enormous amount of traffic we encounter. I arrived in the dead of night, fairly appropriate since everything I do is mildly complicated for no good reason. I did not see much on the car ride to my destination, just a lot of woods and back roads, Chilmark is very secluded from the rest of the island. The town of Oaks Bluff, right off the ferry was magical-- I want to revisit on a day off. Apparently, the oldest carousel lives there. 

I arrived to the Yard, a dance colony in Chilmark, at around 9.30pm. That is when I noticed my cellphone had no service (at&t does not provide service to the island-- go figure) and would not be able to talk to people regularly on my downtime. That is also when I notice how old this property is and that there are bugs everywhere. I do not know what I was expecting with that-- it's an old house in a woody area. However, I broke down in tears late last night because I was not expecting that. I envisioned beautifully pastoral cottages with modern utilities and wonderfulness. I suppose it may be like that, but definitely a lot of bugs. In a few minutes I am going to roam the estate, see what it looks like in the daytime and get acclimated. It might take a few days or a week. Last night, when I got out of the car I looked around in the darkness. Looking up, I noticed the stars. Oh my lord, there were hundreds. The sky was so clear. I have never seen so many stars in the sky. It was absolutely extraordinary.

-m