paul in the park
paul taylor performance free this evening!

I am super excited about tonight's free performances. In anticipation, I have watched an early filmed version of Esplanade on Youtube, probably 10 times already. Here is my favorite section from the dance, the very last section which is the most kinetic and also the most urgent. Much of my dance work owes a lot to this dance. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHkciz_yYYI&feature=related

Things I will be thinking about during tonight's performance: How the performance of Esplanade has evolved over the generations of dancers who have danced it... how has the virtuosity of the technique expanded and what has been lost/gained. Also, I will be thinking of its splendid beauty.

And just to refresh, tonight's performances begin at 7.30pm with Paul Taylor 2, the apprentice company. They will perform 3 Epitaphs followed by Esplanade. The senior company will then perform Airs, Syzygy, and Company B. Performances take place at Damrosch Park as part of the Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival. For those of you who don't know where that is (I didn't until I looked it up,) it is located at 70 Lincoln Center Plaza & W 62nd St, New York, 10023. Telephone: (212) 875-5456

Take the 1 train to W 66th and walk down, the Bandshell is nestled between Amsterdam Ave and W 62nd. 

Paul Taylor 2 will continue to celebrate his 80th birthday dance season with another free performance, August 13th with Naganuma Dance Company at the East River Amphitheater. Performance starts at 7. The bill will include Airs and Company B.

***

I will see this performance tonight as a parting gift from nyc to me before I leave for Martha's Vineyard. My trip will include a long bus ride followed by a steamship ferry. I leave August 7th and will not be back again until September 30th. During my stay, I will update my blog frequently-- covering the dance classes, performances, lectures, and beauty of the island. I hope to take pictures and films, draw, and send postcards to my dearest friends and family.

Here's to safe travels, beautiful summer vacations, and free dance in the park :)

peace and love dear readers,

melissa

Are We Human or Are We Dancer?

So, this is the song that is running through my head at this moment-- I attribute it to last night when, home alone on a Friday night, I decided to turn off the Head Bangers Ball (a program specifically set for late night Friday's on Q104.3 for all of us metal heads who will be home) and listen to whatever else was on the radio. No, I am not proud of it-- but I figure it appropriate since this blog will mainly be a discourse on aesthetic and anecdotal musings about dance and creativity.

On that note-- are we human or are we dancer? Is there a difference and why such a distinction (and also, why is dancer singular)? Does this statement, sung by the once adorable and now whiney (well, perhaps always whiney) Brandon Flowers imply that dancers are achieving something unhumanly though the mere act is performed within the physical limitations of a bipedal (sometimes) human being?

So, these are the preliminary questions running through my mind. Right now this is simply rhetoric, though it is my hope that somehow a serious (or semi-serious) conversation can be provoked by the statement, Are we human or are we dancer?

I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce myself and my motives. My name is melissa west. I am a choreographer, dancer, and poet living in Brooklyn, New York. It wasn't always like that. I grew up in Staten Island, a farm land compared to this city (and so it begins-- I am well versed in melodramatic hyperbolic statements). The Island, in fact, is not a farmland, although my father tells tales of open fields and farms before the construction of the Verrazano Bridge. I digress... I lived on Staten Island, though I commuted and did the city-life for five years before uprooting to live in Williamsburg, the heart of zombie/hipster/eat you alive with your daddy's money-ville. I now am cozy, though mostly poor, and making dances when not working at your local Staples Print Center.

So, I am a recent graduate of Hunter College. I am also completely new to the blog thing. My inspiration came the other day, when, during the last day of my internship with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, I attended a workshop called the Op-Ed Project. The workshop was attended by (approximately) 20 of the city's well-established artists and arts administrators from different age demographics and backgrounds. I was particularly taken with Eva Yaa Asantewaa-- a beautiful dancer and critic who posts her own blog at http://www.infinitebody.blogspot.com/. After looking over some of her postings, I thought that maybe my next venture should be to create my own blog. Surely, I love to read and write and I have thoughts on the world so this could be my Letter to the World.

Returning to the here and now: I am performing next week for Gerald Otte, a former Nikolais dancer. He was a professor of mine during my time at Hunter and I find myself thinking more and more about his rehearsal process, which is very classical and intense. I began training/dancing "officially" at nineteen as an undergraduate, so I have spent the last few years attempting to catch up to whatever boat I thought/think I'd miss.

This blog will be a platform for me to investigate dance writing/art writing. I have a few ideas mulling around in my brain on articles I'd like to investigate. But first, I will be attending (or hope to attend) the Nikolais film showing celebration at 4.00pm, Walter Reed Theater at Lincoln Center. So, I will write about what I see and dish it out to you, dear reader.

I hope this wasn't a drag. I guess I have written a blog. My first blog :).

Onward!
.mw
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