Cal Poly Orchesis Dance Company

Kathleen Helm

2010-02-08T10:48:00.000-08:00

Last night, I didn’t quite fulfill my expectations of making a really great, inspirational speech for our “Hallway Session”. So here is what I really meant to say (but wasn’t able to).

For weeks, I had been simultaneously dreading and anticipating the closing night of “Continuum”. Orchesis has been such an integral part of my college experience, and has shaped me into the person I have become in the past four years. I think everyone in the company can agree that dance has the ability to transcend us into a world that is not known to most people. The unique connections we all share, the art of moving, and the thrill of being on stage are sensations that are hard to describe, unless you are a dancer. I was dreading the idea that this was my last performance with Orchesis, because I didn’t want the incredible journey to end. However, I knew that closing night is the time to celebrate everything we have accomplished. It is a time to dance for the mere love of dancing.

The word, “Continuum”, was so essential to the growth of Orchesis this past year. At the beginning, we were just individuals with different ideas and expectations. As we prepared for our concert, these ideas and expectations transformed and combined into substantial works of art. The individuality soon melted away as we all united as a group, combining our efforts to produce a wonderful show. I was so proud to watch this happen; to see dancers overcome hefty obstacles and truly commit to dance was so inspiring. We have all contributed to the continuum of Orchesis—a continuum that will carry on far into the future, which is something really exceptional to be a part of.

To end this “speech”, I just want to congratulate all of my fellow “Orchies”. We should all feel so proud of what we have accomplished. Thank you all for being so dedicated, talented, friendly, and just an overall incredible group. I have loved being president, and I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for Orchesis!

One last thing. I promise.
If any of you “Orchies” have any doubts of coming back next year, please do come back. I can guarantee that you will regret your decision and want to be on that stage more than anything!
Photo:
Prem Ananda

2010-02-05T14:14:00.000-08:00

Alexandra Thomsen Wolfe
I’ve had a few revelations:

On the radio the other day a song by Garth Brooks called “The River” came on. I knew the song, but hadn’t really listened to what the words were saying before and as I listened a phrase struck me. It says, “So don’t you stand upon the shoreline and say you’re satisfied, choose to chance the rapids and dare to dance the tide.” I thought about this and whether I’ve led my life on the shore of if I’ve chosen to chance the rapids. And I realized that I am most definitely chancing the rapids in terms of creating a piece for Orchesis. Choreographing this year has been such an eye opening experience and a huge challenge. Until now I don’t think I even realized what a big chance, or risk I was taking. To take my ideas and put them out for the world to scrutinize is a very courageous thing to do. A lot of people would never dream of doing something so bold, they would be too frightened and self-conscious. And to be honest, I was that person all the way up until dress rehearsal of our show. I was terrified, worrying what people would think of my piece and whether it was any good. At every showing I felt like running away and hiding because I was so worked up about my ideas being judged by my peers and my professors. What if it is not good and no one likes it and I look like a complete fool in front of everyone? These thoughts were swimming constantly through my mind. And yet, I chose not to give up or give in. I kept plugging away at my piece with the invaluable help of my dancers who through every rehearsal gave me tiny flutters of inspiration to draw from. I now realize that the fact that I did this, choreographed a dance for Orchesis, is quite impressive. I do have talent and am capable of creating a work of art that is worthy of the stage. It only took me five months to realize it, but at least I now know that I am a creative and artistic individual with a lot to offer.
Another revelation I had came just last night after one of my friends came to see the show. He had never been to a dance concert such as this and was fascinated by everything, especially my piece. He asked me question after question about how you go about choreographing something such as this, how you get everyone who is in your piece to be motivated to perform it, and where ideas for movement come from? He then asked what the meaning of my piece was. I explained to him the concept I had worked with and I could just see in his eyes the awe and wonder of it all. I realized that my piece is no longer about my intentions or what I am trying to say. It has taken on a life of its own that is affecting people in ways I do not even know. And that is the great value of dance: Inspiring people not only through movement, but speaking to people on an intellectual level about a certain concept or idea. My dance has done this in ways I never imagined. My friend was so captivated by the fact that I used my faith as inspiration for my dance piece and that I was putting it out there for everyone to see. I’ve also realized that my piece and story is reaching people I am not acquainted with. My dancers have had friends say how much they enjoyed my piece and after my dancers explained what it is about, they expressed an even greater delight in it. That was so pleasing to hear. Through my dance I am not expecting people to be inspired to have the same faith as I do, but, possibly, people are inspired in some way, shape, or form. Perhaps people will think more about whatever faith it is that they have and to analyze it more closely, really contemplating what it means to them and what role it plays in their life. I love the fact that dance can really promote this type of awareness and instigate new thoughts and ideas to enter one’s mind, whatever the thoughts may be. Before discovering this enlightenment I felt kind of guilty about spending so much time dancing because I felt it wasn’t helping others in a meaningful way or really something that was worthy of so much devotion. I’ve been searching to find what it is about dance that I truly love and why it does have merit and now I have finally found it through choreography.
I had these epiphanies last night and then this morning these ideas were reinforced through none other than the Bible itself. I have a daily inspiration book with quotes from the Bible along with explanations and I hadn’t looked in it for weeks. I finally picked it up this morning and this is what it said for today: “ ‘God has given gifts to each of you from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Manage them well so that God’s generosity can flow through you. 1 Peter 4:10.’ God gives everyone specific abilities and strengths. Sometimes we neglect to use those abilities, or we get in a rut of using them only for ourselves (on a hobby, for example). When we see our abilities as gifts from almighty God, it is humbling to think that he would value us enough to put these gifts within our care. Use them for your personal enjoyment, but use them also to serve others, for that is where they have the greatest impact. We can pass on the gifts of our abilities to others again and again without running out. Through this act of serving others, we will find the attitude adjustment we seek. Humble gratitude will pave the way.” This has truly spoken to me in so many ways and I cannot deny the blatant message that has revealed itself. What these words are saying is what I realized on my own, and now seeing it written down and the way in which it was presented to me in such a fateful way solidifies it. Dancing is my joy and is a gift that I have been given. I may not necessarily be the best dancer, but I have been instilled with a love for it. And now through choreographing I have discovered how to use these gifts to let God’s generosity flow through me so I can serve others.

Photo: Sara Tollefson

Rebecca Jensen

2010-01-25T14:04:00.001-08:00

The show opens this weekend! I’m going through a variety of emotions, as a choreographer and a dancer: happy, sad, frustrated, butterflies, proud, loud, scared, excited, stressed… you name it. I’m feelin’ it.
Being on stage with the costumes, the lights, the makeup, the hair…it is truly a gift. All my life, this has been my outlet, my hobby, my “thing.” The feeling is indescribable. The best description I can give is one that I’d most likely say to my ESPN-obsessed boyfriend: I feel like Brent Farve, I’d addicted and I can’t stop. I keep thinking this will be my last game, and I play like it too, but don’t be surprised if you see me on the field again. As a matter of fact, I think I’ll just keep playing forever, no matter how old I get. I’m addicted to dance (but not for the money like Brent of course).
My piece, “Chocolate” is stressing me out. I have five amazing dancers to work with in this piece, each with a different dance background. This dance has been through a lot, it underwent a TON of changes/corrections while preparing for this concert. While I told the girls to “commit to the movement,” I understand how it might have been hard for them to fully commit, especially since things kept changing. When the dance was finally completed, I could see the girls were worn out. Just as I, they were frustrated. The style, first of all, was new to the majority of the dancers, plus they were still trying to grasp the choreography. 4 weeks before the show, we danced the piece in the studio for the entire company to watch. They WERKED; I felt like a proud mommy. 2 weeks before the show, we had our first tech/lighting rehearsal…simply put, it looked like those girls did not want to be on stage. Now, more than ever, I need those girls to commit to the dance. I need attitude, character, teamwork, and authentic movement quality. Granted, this was their first tech rehearsal…everything was frantic…first time with lights, costumes, makeup, etc. Stressed and panicked, I called a last minute rehearsal last night.
Last night, I was reminded of why I love dance. For the first time, I felt like we were in this together. The girls understood the problems, and worked together to fix them. It was all very positive. I knew we’d be okay when Michele said to me, “It feels so different when you actually dance in character. It’s actually really fun and makes me want to dance harder. The movement feels complete this way.” Finally, I felt like I could breathe again. This was my goal, it’s all of our goals. This is why we dance, to have a good time and enjoy the gifts that were given to us- and that’s all I could ever ask from them. Not to mention, they rocked the shit out of that dance last night, I’ve never seen it look so good. I am yet again a proud mommy. Seeing them happy with their work makes me happy. I feel like they’re stoked to on stage and show the world how beautiful they are, and that makes me so excited! You’ll see, they’re freakin’ hot!

Photo: Sara Tollefson

Crystal Valdez

2010-01-25T14:01:00.001-08:00

My last year in Orchesis

This is my 5th and last year on the Orchesis Dance Company and it is definitely a bittersweet feeling. Currently we are in the theater with blocking and lighting rehearsals so I really haven’t had anytime to reflect. But with a day off, my mind was able to wonder slightly and inspire me to write. If I can recall correctly I typically experience some type of either spiritual or philosophical enlightenment when we enter the theater during tech rehearsals. It’s always develops from a mixture of feeling the warmth of the stage lights, hearing the fullness of the music filling the theater and imagining the audience watching your every move. However, this year I haven’t felt that yet. At first it worried me just because it is something I’m used to feeling every year. But I realized I might have reached a new kind of awareness or you could say spiritual fulfillment from the Orchesis process. I’ve come to appreciate a lot more of the process and preparation for the show rather then the actual event of the show. Of course I love performing and have found no other activity or “drug” that gives me the same rush but instead of dreading all the tedious theater and blocking rehearsals, I’ve come to embrace them and really enjoy what we’re doing and working for. Maybe Diana has planted a seed within me when she told us that a very small percentage of our time is spent in the theater performing (maybe 5-10%) while the other 90-95% is spent preparing for it. I still have my rough days were tediousness wears away at my patience but we all do. However, what represents us on the stage I feel is only a fraction of our talent and artistry. Beginning with several voices coming from our directors, production manager, student and guest choreographers and all dancers, somehow all these ideas come together like puzzle pieces to create one production. Some of my most vivid memories are just watching the dancers in class that dance with their souls not just a flexible young body. We also develop a certain Orchesis “culture” that makes us a family you could say. Although it stems from less intellectual conversations of female reproductive organs, MTV reality television and “single” ladies we are all still connected by the fact we are articulate and gifted Cal Poly students with goals and aspirations in life. (Being able to balance a full-time school load, anywhere between 9-20 hours of rehearsal a week, and possibly a job is not a schedule every college student can handle) Plus, we all need a little silliness in our day! I wanted to arrive at a central point to conclude this but I think that may very well be my point. Orchesis not only gathers very talented and skilled dancers but also talented and skilled artists, architects, wedding planners, teachers, scientists, designers and engineers. There is so much more to our group and to our show that our audience doesn’t get the opportunity to see and experience. And I think that’s what I’ve enjoyed the most this year. From learning African inspired dance moves in SF to celebrating birthdays with delicious treats after class, from long intensive weekends with guest choreographers to hybrid drawings on the dance studio chalk board and from watching pieces develop throughout the quarter to witnessing the refined but not always finished product on the Spanos Theater stage, these episodes comprise my spiritual enlightenment that I have been experiencing since auditions. To all the Orchesis dancers, thank you for all the memories and sharing your art. To Diana thank you so much for all the wisdom and love for the art, I’ve truly reached a new understanding of dance and its form because of your words.

Opening night in less than a week.....let’s not only do this but enjoy it!

Photo: Sara Tollefson

Lisa Delanty

2010-01-20T12:57:00.000-08:00

This past week I have been thinking a lot about how much dance really means to me. In particular, being on stage has brought back that feeling of pure joy and excitement to share my feelings with others. The six dances I am in allow me to portray different emotions and situations that I go through in everyday life: happy, sad, serious, silly, intimidating, joyful, flirtatious, and the list goes on and on. Also, this week I have focused my energy on enjoying every moment I have on stage. It seems that we constantly work so hard for so long on various dances, and before we know it, it will be the last performance! I find rehearsals to be so tedious and that I wish I could just receive instant gratification. However, performing on stage makes every hour of practice worthwhile! Every aspect about performance gets me so excited! The lights, costuming, makeup, the audience, and all the butterflies and nerves! I love that we can all come together and create an amazing show! I absolutely can't wait until opening night!

Student Choreographer Bios

2010-01-18T13:37:00.000-08:00

Rachel Saalsaa is a third year Social Science major and Dance minor. She has been dancing since she could move, but officially has trained in ballet, jazz, hip hop, and contemporary for 16 years. She attended Salt Lake Dance Center and also spent a year living and dancing in L.A. with amazing teachers and professionals. This will be her third year with Orchesis and her first time choreographing.

This is Meghan Hudson’s last year at Cal Poly and with Orchesis. She is finishing up her degree in Recreation, Park, and Tourism Administration with a minor in Dance. This is her second year choreographing for Orchesis. She would like to thank her family for supporting her passion for dance and her fiancé for encouraging her through countless hours of rehearsals and many sore days.

McKenna Friend hails from the tiny farm town of Pixley, California but has always loved the “big city” style of dance. She has worked with various artists including the legendary Henry LeTang as well as with the Russian Festival Ballet. She received the majority of her classic training from the Sierra Performing Arts Center and performed for a decade with the Pallas and Company Dancers. This is her third year in Orchesis and her second choreographic experience with the company. McKenna would like to thank her family for all that they've sacrificed in order for her to follow her bliss and sends love to Colorado.

Jessica Thoma is a 5th year Architecture student, striving to keep her passion in dance very much alive. Being both a choreographer and designer helps bring aspects of creativity to her schoolwork and to dancing. She feels these are each similar challenges in their own fun ways. In the past she has choreographed for Orchesis and for her studio where she started dancing 18 years ago. She has enjoyed her last 3 years in Orchesis and looks forward to choreographing and dancing for the company again but focuses on the tasks at hand, including being this year’s Vice President.

Heidi-Marie Vigario began her dance training in Elk Grove, CA. She started with ballet and grew to enjoy other styles as well. Upon graduation from high school, she moved to San Luis Obispo to attend Cal Poly. Heidi continued her dance training at Cal Poly taking modern, jazz, and advanced ballet classes. This is Heidi's third year in the company and second time choreographing for an Orchesis concert. She graduated in June with her Bachelor of Science in Liberal Studies and received a Multi-Subject Teaching Crendential in December. One day, Heidi wishes to combine her love of dance with teaching, and bring dance and creative movement into public schools.

Crystal Valdez is a 5th year Orchesis dance company member and is very thankful for all the once in a life time opportunities that Orchesis has offered. She has choreographed for 4 years on the company, exploring her interests in ethnic and modern dance forms and styles. She graduated from Cal Poly in Fall 2009 with her degree in biochemistry and currently waiting responses from graduate schools in hopes of one day becoming a chemistry professor.
Kathleen Helm, a fourth year Recreation Administration major and Dance minor, has been dancing since the age of three. She credits her training and experience to Momentum Dance Center, located in Yorba Linda, California, and Lois Ellyn Ballet School, in Fullerton, California. Some highlights of her dance career include teaching ballet and jazz at Momentum Dance Center, performing as a member of the Nouveau Chamber Ballet, being captain of the El Dorado High School dance team, and competing throughout Southern California. Kathleen has choreographed various pieces at Cal Poly, including “In the Kingdom of Enticement” and “REM Cycle”. She is currently the president of the Orchesis Dance Company and had the honor of directing “Multiple Exposures”, the 2008 Cal Poly Spring Dance Concert

Alexandra Thomsen-Wolfe is living the dream life here in San Luis Obispo with her husband, Brandon, and dogs, Maggie Mae and Sam. She couldn't ask for anything more!

Rebecca Jensen is a fourth year business student with a concentration in marketing management. After returning home from a year abroad in London, England, she is happy to be back with her Orchesis family. Rebecca grew up in Carmel, California and began dancing 9 years ago at the Carmel Ballet Academy. Raised a competition dancer, she was required to explore various dance styles at an early age, including jazz, ballet, hip-hop, tap, commercial and modern. She is most fond of the contemporary jazz style. Although Rebecca has choreography experience, this will be her first time choreographing for Orchesis Dance Company. While this is her last year at Cal Poly, she is sure that this will not be her last year dancing.

Darren Bridges first started dancing 5 years ago for his High School Dance Company where he learned his basics of dance and explored many various dance styles. He later joined Broadway Academy Dance Company and NCDC Contemporary/Modern Dance Company. Always striving for new experiences, he auditioned for and was accepted to the Alvin Ailey School of Dance Summer Intensive and also had the opportunity to dance with the Limon Modern Dance Company at the Mondavi Center. Hoping to always do better and take his training to the next level, he has now dedicated 2 years of his college career to Orchesis Dance Company and hopes to learn many new things in the years to come. He hopes to inspire others to dance because there is no other feeling like it.

Heidi-Marie Vigario

2010-01-18T13:25:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was the first rehearsal in the theater for my piece in the show. The night before, I had a dream that no one could remember my dance! Not a good way to wake up; especially when your first rehearsal in the theater is also your only rehearsal in the theater. But rehearsal went wonderfully! It was great to see my piece onstage.

Being in the theater has me thinking about the differences from last year to this year in regards to my choreographic journeys. Last year was my first year choreographing for Orchesis, and I was nervous and anxious the entire time. I put so much time and effort into choreographing during the school year. This year I actually started choreographing over the summer, months before Orchesis auditions. I didn’t have any music, but I had ideas about what I wanted my dance to be. It was weird to me that I could be creating some serious chunks of movement without any music. This is definitely not the way I usually choreograph. Once I had my music and dancers set, my dance kind of just came together. The ease of this year’s process almost has had me nervous because of the lack of nerves!

So, here we are: blocking rehearsals in the theater, lighting on Saturday, and dress rehearsals next week. Some of us are tired from tons of rehearsals, others happy to be in the theater, and a few starting to get cranky from being around each other 24/7, but this is an exciting time in Orchesis, WE ARE IN THE THEATER! In two weeks, the empty seats will be filled and the curtain will be going up. How crazy is that??? After seeing Momix last week, I hope that I can emulate the talent, professionalism, and fun that I saw when the Momix dancers were onstage. I am so excited to be in the theater, 2 weeks away from opening night. Merde Orchesis dancers! Let’s have another great set of shows!

Photo: Prem Ananda

Diana Stanton

2010-01-18T13:24:00.000-08:00

Oh how wonderful it is to have a good rehearsal. But what makes a good rehearsal?
On Friday I didn’t get as much cleaning done as I wanted, I am stressed that I need more time to rehearse this dance, new transitions that I built don’t look as I envisioned (that is nothing new,) and there are still a few blank spots to fiddle with. The beginning of rehearsal proved difficult as I struggled to get “spatial relationships” to work – and they didn’t. But, what happened toward the end of rehearsal simply made my day – my week, and probably my month as well.
There is something magic about “working together toward a common goal.” At this point in my life as a choreographer/educator, process is ultimately more important than product. On this particular day we (me and the dancers in the piece) worked together toward a common goal without me having to direct, encourage, prod, scold, nag, cheerlead, or any of that. As I worked with a quintet, another group of 6 took it upon themselves to refine and rehearse their section. Simple, I know, but watching young people making choices, taking ownership of their experience, and working together proactively is nothing short of inspiring.
As educators, we can only wish that students enjoy experiences that we have found valuable. We hope that they not only listen and perhaps understand what we are really doing here, but that they actually use the concepts and bring their own strengths, vision and creativity to any given project. This is an ultimate joy. Dances end, styles and popular aesthetics change as fast as you can pirouette, audience applause - as fleeting and rare as it is – disappears, (one is wise not to base their worth on it,) and the curtain ultimately closes. Friends and colleagues graduate and move on, and “secret dancers,” are forgotten. But, these experiences, and the character they build, become a part of the psyche, and are used and developed in new and exciting ways - owned forever.
I know, I am such a geek.

Meghan Hudson

2010-01-17T21:17:00.001-08:00

The End is Starting

Tonight is our first rehearsal in the theater. I am both overjoyed and dreading it. The theater is a sacred place for me, it is where I feel like I can make a difference in the world. So, as exciting as the first theater rehearsal is, I am also scared to start the whole process. Everything in my life, senior projects, graduation evaluations, wedding planning, all point to the closure of this chapter of my life. Even this first rehearsal in the theater is marking a last time. But tonight, I will go to the theater and make it the best, first, last rehearsal of my college dance career. I will never stop being an artist, and I, God willing, will never stop performing in my sacred place. I cannot let my fear of the future get in the way of my present.

And now that I am getting teary in the library, On With the Show!

Photo: Sara Tollefson

Carolyn Taylor

2010-01-01T18:53:00.000-08:00

I wanted to discuss the very different choreographic processes that I
have been experiencing so far this quarter in regards to a couple of
the dances that I am in. In Kathleens' rehearsals we learn so much
every time. She comes to the rehearsal with counts, formations, names,
and choreography all written out, ready to go and completely prepared.
I am always impressed by her ability to create a beautiful,
imaginative and challenging product. She really seems to love to see
her ideas in her mind come to life in her dancers exactly the way she
saw them. In Crystals' rehearsals on the other hand, not to say by
any means that she is unprepared, but simply in a different way that I
admire and respect equally. Crystal also comes to rehearsals with
things written down, however, it is in a much more
"free-spirited"/"brain-stormy" way. She keeps a journal with her and
writes in it when she is inspired during class, riding the bus,
studying or really whenever she feels the need to make a note. This
alone inspires me. I find it fantastically impressive that she can be
so dedicated to her creative mind and can allow herself the freedom as
well as the structure that is required when creating such a wonderful
art form as dance. She always has concepts and phrases that eagerly
await rehearsal time and for us all to try and experiment with. One
can really see that she loves and is inspired by her dancers, people
in general and really everything that is around her. These two
choreographers are so very talented and creative and I always feel so
privileged to be a part of something so special. For a dancer, it is
such a joy to have the chance to experience such different
choreographic approaches and to have the opportunity to work with such
incredible people. It has just been so exciting and interesting to
experience both of these unique processes and dances. I have
especially enjoyed seeing how these two choreographers have grown in
the past 2 years. They are both inspiration to my life as a dancer.

Photo: Sara Tollefson

Emily Deckert

2010-01-01T18:52:00.000-08:00

After much mental and physical preparation, I auditioned for Mike Esperanza's piece. This year, above all other years, I feel a sincere sense of urgency in that I am graduating and am unlikely to encounter another dance experience similar to Orchesis again. Sure, there'll be studios and master classes, but the incessant practices, where you are surrounded by the same dancers you were surrounded by the previous day, will be gone. The opportunity for choreographic experimentation, theatrical performance creation, and consistency in dance material is a unique one, and we are all lucky to experience it. Because this is my last year with Orchesis, I am feeling not only like I need to savor every moment, but that I am running out of chances to grow as a dancer.

From this perspective, being in as many groundbreaking dances as possible is the highest goal. Therefore, it is not surprising that Mike's piece was of great importance to me. The day of the audition, I succeeded in holding back nothing. I put as much effort, grace, and emotion into the audition phrase, which we cycled through endlessly across the floor, as I could in that moment. After two minutes of discussion, Diana and Mike announced the dancers who would be in the piece. All I heard was my name, as understudy. I was thrilled. A few tears collided with my beet red face as I made my way outside.

The rehearsal started that day. Being understudy meant that I was to learn all the parts, which is a sizable task. Simply learning one part, and dancing it accurately and to the level desired by Mike was a challenge. In order to accomplish the role of understudy, I needed to be completely focused and dedicated. So I danced HARD. I took as many opportunities as possible to learn other parts, and continually practiced individually throughout the weekend. The dance is a beautiful piece of art, and yields itself nicely to complete devotion by the dancer. I utilized the power of the piece to focus myself so that I could keep up. I am still pushing myself to get better at the choreography and to be aware of all the parts. That weekend of dancing pushed me and helped me grow. I wouldn't have wanted to spend the time any other way.

Photo: Sara Tollefson

Anna Gibbons

2009-12-06T19:25:00.001-08:00

This year I have the joy of working with the same two choreographers I worked with in last year’s show. Rehearsals have been simple because I know what to expect from each of the choreographers in regards to their choreographic style. Their styles are anything but similar to each other. One choreographer’s moves and shapes have a structured look, whereas another choreographer has a very free and non-specific style of movement. The structured style of movement closely follows counts and has specific movement and shapes that are taught. This style can be simpler for me, because there are specific guidelines that I follow as a dancer. On the other hand, the choreographer with the free and non-specific style of movement poses a bit of a challenge for me. She has a style that is specific to her, and as her dancer you want so desperately to match it. This can be difficult because there are no specific “dance terms” or counts to help achieve this. You watch what is given and try to mimic and perfect it up until the show opening. This year I am not just experiencing the choreographic style of the two choreographers that I am accustomed too, but am also learning from another choreographer that has a drastically different style from the previous two. This third choreographer has had much success with her Broadway style dances, creating a light and playful air in her choreography. This style has challenged me to search deep within myself for that style of jazz I left back in the “competition years.” The style is sophisticated and playful and I have loved being challenged in this new way. I believe that it is the different experiences and styles you are exposed to throughout your career that helps you become a successful dancer. I have these three choreographers to thank for their different styles and creativity.

Photo: Prem Ananda

Rebecca Jensen

2009-12-06T19:24:00.001-08:00

Mike Esperanza came and taught us a fierce piece, Cellar, this weekend! It was a long weekend of dance, but all seven of us tried our best to focus, work hard, and take in the corrections.

This is the first dance I've ever been in that's more than 7 minutes. It took us two and half days to learn, and our bodies are sore. His teaching style was very commendable...productive, focused, and silly. I am happy to see how much work was done, especially with all the laughing and giggling. At the end of each run, Mike and his assistant had nearly 20 minutes of corrections. At one point, I questioned myself, "where is my notepad?! I need to write down all these down so I don't forget!" It is all very detail-oriented. One of my biggest corrections was clarification of my thumbs. Yep, my thumbs. I've got the dinosaur thumb sticking out...7 years of competition dancing will do that to the fingers, I suppose.

This weekend's choreographic process was unlike all the others: short and concise. He knew exactly where, when, how and why he wanted us. Granted, it was easier as a dancer to pick up the choreography, he had all the answers to all our questions. However, I know this dance did not come straight-out-the-box for Mike...he's changed and rearranged the dance a number of times...I think Orchesis Dance Company's version of Cellar might be his third or fourth version? Cellar is clear evidence that dance is always a working progress. I'm excited for our future rehearsals, we've got a lot of work to do. Come February, our hard work will be gold---let's hope it's 18K.
Note – Mike’s dance is now officially titled “Slang.”

Photo: Sara Tollefson

From Diana

2009-11-22T17:12:00.000-08:00

“The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the object it loves.” Carl Jung

“The very act of putting my work on paper, of, as we say, kneading the dough, is for me inseparable from the pleasure of creation. So far as I am concerned, I cannot separate the spiritual effort from the psychological and physical effort; they confront me on the same level and do not represent a hierarchy.” Igor Stravinsky

“Unless you have been thoroughly drenched in perspiration you cannot expect to see a palace of pearls on a blade of grass.” The Blue Cliff Record

Photo: Sara Tollefson

Lauren Bastrire

2009-11-22T16:55:00.000-08:00

"You've done it before and you can do it now. See the positive possibilities. Redirect the substantial energy of your frustration and turn it into positive, effective, unstoppable determination.” Ralph Marston
PHoto: Keith Mosher

Guin Chan

2009-11-16T16:43:00.001-08:00

While many of us would say dance is a cathartic process and a form of release, it is often easy to lose sight of this mantra. In the midst of midterms, club meetings, and everything else life decides to throw on top, dance rehearsals begin to look more and more like a burden and less like a reason to breathe.
Tuesday or Thursday Orchesis class rolls around, and I can feel myself wishing I was home working on the mountain of endless projects and book problems. It takes a second to remind myself that at dance I have to check my problems and responsibilities at the door, and realize that this 4 hour block is time for myself. I choose to be here because of how much dance does to keep me sane.
This year, it seems that many of the student directed pieces are much more focused on a collaboration between the choreographer and the dancers. It is a journey that is tedious and demands more attention than the standard choreographic process of learn and digest. After a week long frantic scramble to meet deadlines and group members, it can be difficult to contribute any sort of valuable input or even to wait patiently as the choreographer plays with various ideas. Again, it takes a deep breath and a mental check that this is all a learning process. In the end, by harnessing the creative energy of the dancers in the room, each person in the dance should feel more connected to the piece since a part of them is cemented into the choreography.
Just reading the other dancers blog entries should provide an idea of how much of the choreographic process is centered around collaboration. No one can definitively say there is a choreography technique that champions the rest, it is all subjective. I know that even in my own opinion, I cannot declare a preference for one despite my occasional frustration with a collaboration route. Ultimately the piece will speak for itself and whether the process it chose worked in its favor.
Regardless of how much work I have piling up, or how much I hate or enjoy learning choreography, being in the studio and doing what I love most will make up for everything. It takes an occasional reminder, but it is a constant in my life for a reason.

Photo: Prem Ananda

Sara Markham

2009-11-16T16:42:00.001-08:00

Each week I get to experience very different choreographers, dancers, and styles as I learn the pieces to be performed at Continuum.

Rebecca’s piece has a flirty style that has quick, detailed actions. She gives the overall layout of movement to all the dancers, and uses repetition and setting counts to put the choreography into our bodies. Emphasis on sharpness or the breath of a motion helps us understand how things are to fit the music and idea of the whole piece. Her style is new to many of us, and her constant push for us to push ourselves has helped in understanding how the style can work on our individual bodies.

I am also working with Rebecca in her collaborative piece with Darren. Their process is completely different with each of them teaching separate pieces of the puzzle. Later the parts come together to make a whole layered piece of quirky movements. The two working together create a mix of ideas ranging from small fast flicks to full-bodied motions cohesive in their similar style based in contemporary.

Rachel’s piece is unlike others with her stylistic process being more about testing out different movement ideas against one another. Different combinations of motion on the dancers’ bodies help her decide what she likes and how it can fit together well. Staying consistent to her theme of evolution, her testing, modifying, then setting in her choreographic process, as luck would have it, almost mimics the idea of evolution she is portraying in the piece.

Finally working with Diana I have experienced a choreographic process that includes learning combinations initially and then taking them apart to use certain pieces, shapes, or repeated sections from those patterns. She has a complicated vision that uses moments of stillness, striking movement, and overlapping patterns to create a distinct style and product.

All the choreographers have individual processes that require their dancers to change their method of learning to fit their method. Involvement in more pieces this year has allowed me to experience a challenging and much wider range of choreographic development. The different methods of learning help me be more aware of the tedious process that we artists (choreographers and dancers) balance with our lives outside of the studio.

Photo: Sara Tollefson

Stephanie Alvarez

2009-11-16T16:38:00.000-08:00

I don't think I have ever felt so busy and so stressed out of any quarter I've had here at Cal Poly. This quarter has been absolutely rough; being a 4th year and having to deal with classes, my senior project, volunteer work, dance, friends, and on top of all that work I have become completely overwhelmed with everything. I usually know how to balance all my activities and social life well but for some reason this quarter I feel as if I have no control over it. I know it's my own fault that I took on more than I should have, but I couldn't help it; when I watched all the choreographers show a sample of their piece I just wanted to be in everything, so I took on more dances than I could afford. To be completely honest, I regret that choice -- not that I don't want to be in all the dances I'm in (I love them all!), but the fact I feel I am in the studio constantly...at least 75% of my week. It's gotten so bad to the point where I feel like I don't want to be at dance anymore. It's like I'm not even happy when I'm at dance and it makes me sad because before dance was the only thing that could make me feel truly happy. I miss having that feeling and I hate the fact I dread going back to the studio after I was already there for 3 hours and would rather be lazy and have free time. I hate the fact I feel as if my social life has taken a toll since I am always at dance or always tired from being at dance, making me not want to hangout with my friends. I'm just sick of hating it all and I want to love dance again...

I know I sound like a negative Nancy talking about dance right now, but I just want to show reality: that dance doesn't always make me happy. Sometimes I get really tired of it and pissed off about being there, but that's just how it goes. Sometimes you just get burnt out from it and there's nothing you can do to change it.

I know right now I'm not the happiest flower in the bunch but hopefully next quarter my feelings about dance will change. I'm actually sure they will since my quarter won't be as hard and I will not take on as much work on as I did this quarter, meaning more free time to myself. This quarter has been a learning experience for me and now I know I not to take on more than I should. I keep reminding myself that I'm almost graduated from college, meaning that dance in my life may be coming to an end. I keep telling myself this is my prime time for dancing and I need to enjoy and love it as much as I can before I blink and I'm not dancing anymore. I just try to remind myself everyday of that feeling I get when I'm on the stage in front of an audience, and try to keep on dancing, reminding myself at the end of January, I'll be there.

Photo: Prem Ananda and unknown - Chad Hall homework

Aimee Warner

2009-11-16T16:36:00.000-08:00

This year has been a very different experience, which I am really enjoying. So far I really enjoy Diana’s process. The 3 hours rehearsals a definite test of my attention span, but Diana’s resilience and willingness to try new things and not get stuck in a certain phrase is helpful and keeps the dancers engaged. She is demanding and requires a lot of presence from her dancers. I know I have to really focus and fully engage in the material that I am presented with. The one thing I am really enjoying is the warm up. It is a great mental and physical preparation for the remainder of the rehearsal. I get to really concentrate and focus on my body and what it needs that morning. I can work on using my breath, and really breathing into my body to wake it up and fill all of those little places we tend to forget about. The main difference that I notice with Diana’s rehearsal compared to the student pieces that I am in is the pace at which she moves. She comes prepared with ideas to try, phrases to work on and things to fix.
This allows Diana to keep the pace of the rehearsal up. And if something isn’t working quite right, she is not afraid to say “okay…let’s leave that and try something else”. I think many of the student choreographers have a certain idea in their mind and will get stuck in a rut trying to make it happen instead of moving on and allowing the piece to take on its own life and path. I think this is partly why Diana always says that her pieces are never what she first intended them to be. In a way this is a really cool process and creatively has the most logic, but it also the scariest. You don’t know where things may go and that can be intimidating. There was a quote from a director in my theatre textbook that said “If I understand a play just from reading the script, there is no point in my directing it. I need it to be a journey through which I discover and understand the message and purpose of the play.” I think this idea more or less fits Diana’s choreographic process where as student choreographers seem to tend to “pick the plays they understand”. In other words, they have a clear image of what they want to say and do when and in what way. Neither is right or wrong but they each have a different process and maybe even a different purpose in the eye of the choreographer.

PHoto: Sara Tollefson

Rebecca Jensen

2009-11-16T16:35:00.001-08:00

Rebecca's entry is from October, but now we finally have her photo.

Photo: Sara Tollefson

Darren Bridges

2009-11-16T16:33:00.000-08:00

Since starting my dance with Rebecca Jensen, we have come up with many
ideas and concepts that we would like to use for our dance. The
problem that we have been faced with is that we can not use EVERY
GREAT IDEA that we think of. So lately we've been trying to
incorporate different little pieces from each idea and utilize that in
either our choreography and/or message that we will like to convey.
Some ideas/concepts consist of lighting, the idea of "selfishness"
that people have in life, and whether or not to choreograph the dance
with internal or external feeling. All of these things are apart of
our choreographic process and I hope that we are able to maintain a
balance between them or somehow create a great dance with only two out
of the three concepts.

Photo: Sara Tollefson

Kiira Norris-Turin

2009-11-16T16:30:00.000-08:00

It has been really interesting to observe and participate in the choreographic process these past couple of months. As this is my first year being a member of Orchesis, it is all new to me and I am still getting used to it, but it is very interesting and exciting to see what the minds of dancers can come up with when they work together. I have been dancing since I was 3 years old. I was on my high school dance team all 4 years. But never have I experienced something as interesting, as thought-provoking, as interactive as the choreographic process I have been exposed to on Orchesis. Although as students on my dance team we were able to choreograph our own pieces, the process was a lot different. I really like how the choreographers ask for the dancers’ feedback and are willing to take suggestions and even make changes if they think someone’s idea is more interesting than their own. I have always been used to the choreographer setting the steps and the formations, and everyone going along with what they are told to do, so it has been interesting to see a different way of creating dances. This way, we get the collaboration of everyone’s most creative ideas and, consequentially, the most interesting and dynamic pieces.
Working on the finale has been a lot of fun. Though many find it tedious, I like seeing the way each section of the piece is created. How it can start from as little as one pose or movement and can be expanded into a minute-long sequence. How each little movement has a purpose, has a meaning in the big picture of the piece, and of the entire show. Each movement initiates another slightly different movement, but if you look at the first and the last movements they are entirely different, yet somehow linked. Everything is connected on the continuum that makes up the art of dancing.
I have thoroughly enjoyed these past couple months of working with the Orchesis Dance Company, and I am looking forward to what is to come.

Photo: Sara Tollefson

Alexandra Thomsen Wolfe

2009-11-16T16:29:00.000-08:00

At my rehearsal I had an epiphany. As I was watching my dancers perform my movement, I became more and more disheartened by how it looked on their bodies. Why aren't they performing the movements the way I am envisioning them? I thought. Why can't they do this movement the way I am doing it? Why when I give a correction does it still not look right? I couldn't tell if my choreography was the problem or if the performance was the problem.
The more I thought about it, I realized that this must be a dilemma that all choreographers face and I was looking for an ideal that is not possible. I thought of all of the pieces I am in this year and wondered whether the choreographers look at me and ask why I am not doing their movement accurately. How do they deal with it? How can Diana be so calm and say what we're doing looks great, when it looks nothing at all like how she executes the movement? Is her artistic desire and design satisfied by what we are giving her? When she watches us, does she overlook our flaws and have faith that it will come together later? Or does she watch us realizing it is not what she wants, but it will do?
Then I started to feel guilty. I want so much of my dancers, expecting them to pick up details quickly, perform the movement accurately, and remember it for the next rehearsal. However, when I am honest with myself, I know that I am not being this diligent for the pieces I am dancing in or devoting myself fully to the other choreographer's artistic intent. Why should I expect that which I am not giving? Now realizing as a choreographer what I would like my dancers to do, I think I will be better able to ‘give’ myself as a dancer to the choreographers of the pieces I am in and work harder to do the movements with the accuracy that they specify.
As for the movement not looking 'right' on my dancers, I have realized that they are each unique individuals with their own style of movement that is comfortable in their bodies. What works for me may not work for them. The real question needs to be how can I help my dancers internalize the movement? Should I give it time, or should I stop and tell them exactly what I want and work with them until they have it? I know it will have to be a bit of both. The more I think about it, I have discovered that I must break the mold of my usual behavior – smiling and pretending everything is wonderful - and specifically address what it is I want to have happen. And at the same it is necessary that I give the dancers time to work on it. If a movement isn’t working, I can draw from the dancer and use their strengths, the movements they are comfortable with and feel good doing. By doing this, I may be pleasantly surprised and even happier with what we come up with than what was originally planned. I now feel optimistic and excited for the possibilities that lie ahead!

Photo: Sara Tollefson

Jessica Thoma

2009-11-16T16:26:00.001-08:00

Confidence has been a hard thing for me to sustain in my life lately. The only place where I feel truly comfortable and confidant is either on the stage or in the studio dancing. It is a place where I can recognize opportunities to learn and grow and where I can feel confident that, in time, anything I try to do I can do well with. I may not master it and that is something I struggle with in everything but I do my best. A key element to my learning process with dance is through observation. I identify that as one of my skills that enhances my ability to excel and sometimes learn more quickly than most.

Having listed one of my strengths, it is time now to move on to something I’m struggling with currently. Choreography. As I mentioned in my last blog entry, the first rehearsal went smoother than I had expected and I was hoping for some similar experiences for the next few rehearsals. No such luck. I have lost my confidence in my artistic abilities and it is frustrating to go into rehearsals with a few planned moments which go completely opposite of what I want. They don’t end up being straight up crap but nothing is turning out to be what I absolutely LOVE. Again, I strive for perfection and mastery and it’s difficult to do that in anything, especially with any form of art.

There are many styles of choreography, as you’ve read in previous blog entries and I’d say I enjoy the process where the choreographer instigates a conversation with their ideas, everyone puts in their ideas and the choreographer makes the final decision. I like inputting my ideas to help shape the overall look or concept that the choreographer wants. It’s easier to be that person where the pressure is off of you.

What’s different in my case is…I’m the one who has to start the discussion! I’m the one who has to make the decisions! I’m the one who has to know what they’re doing! I can’t just use my skill of observation and observe how to choreography a 5 minute piece. It’s a struggle and it’s hard but I’ve done it before and things will get better; I just need a game plan now.

I know this all sounds stressful (it is) but it’s totally worth it. There are just moments when you lose confidence in yourself and your abilities and that is what I am struggling with at this point in time. I’m getting wrapped up and believing I’m in quicksand when I really just need to get it together and believe that I’m doing it right. Confidence. It’s key. I’ll move forward with that.

Photo: Sara Tollefson

Danielle Dahlerbruch

2009-11-10T07:54:00.000-08:00

Since I can remember, I have been dancing with the same people, at the same
dance studio, with the same teachers, but not this year. New to the
Orchesis Dance Company and Cal Poly, I was thrown together with many people
I do not know and dance styles I have never tried before. Everything is a
new experience from rehearsals, to the finale and company get-togethers. I
am embracing every moment and taking in all new experiences with an open
mind.
Every dance I am in is a different style and every choreographer teaches in
their own way. When they come to rehearsals they have many good ideas that
they think will go well with their dance. It is interesting to observe them
and see their ideas come to life. Sometimes it does not work and we have to
try various possibilities. It sometimes is a tedious process, but in the
end we find something that turns out to be amazing. Occasionally, within
this process, we add our own input and ideas to find something that works
perfectly. The whole choreography process is interesting to observe and an
exciting new experience to be part of.

Photo: Sara Tollefson

Lisa Delanty

2009-11-09T13:57:00.001-08:00

Preparing for the show, "Continuum," has opened my eyes to a range of dance styles as well as choreographic processes. Performing in a total of six dances, I have experienced everything from Romantic Ballet to girly jazz. I love the opportunity of having a variety of dances because I like learning and adapting to new styles. I have noticed that the most productive rehearsals come from those choreographers who enter the studio with everything set and completed beforehand. This way we are able to learn a large amount of choreography in the time we are given, and then spend the rest of the time on the smaller details. Another approach to the choreography process is to collaborate with other dancers to gather new ideas and perspectives of movement. Although this method is more time consuming, it allows for a group effort where everyone has input. Through my personal experience with choreography, I know it is very difficult to come up with every single step for all the dancers in the piece. It is important to come prepared, but also for the dancers to contribute as well. For any style of dance, an immense amount of time, patience, and dedication is required. I find it essential to come into the studio with an open mind and willing to try anything new. I want to thank all the choreographers for putting in so much time and effort in order to make our show an amazing one! I can't wait to see how it turns out!

Photo: Sara Tollefson

Crystal Valdez - 2

2009-11-08T16:23:00.001-08:00

This year, I began with exploring the definition of the show’s title “Continuum”. The definition I decided to work with is: Continuum - a link between 2 things, or a continuous series of things, that blend into each other so gradually and seamlessly that is impossible to say where one becomes the next. From this definition, I begin thinking about the different connections we have in life. I explored different connections we have in life such as the physical ones (atomic attractions, gravity, etc...) and emotional ones (connections we have with people on the bus, connection we have when we give a hug) as well as how connections have developed over time with even realizing it. As early humans we concerned with our connections with the Earth since it provided us with life but now things such as telephone and internet connections are top priority for most of our day. On top of all these different images and relationships that are guiding my choreography, I have also been focusing on the choreographic process and utilizing tools I’ve learned in composition class and other dance classes. For example, for my first rehearsal I wrote down my audition phrase in small segments without any transitions. I handled out the list of movements to my dancers and had them interpret the list and put in transitions that made the most sense to them.

Photo: Sara Tollefson

Megan Butala

2009-11-08T16:21:00.000-08:00

This quarter each choreographer I 'm working with has interesting and enjoyable choreographic processes. Being interested in choreographing soon, I'm getting all I can out of each rehearsal with them.
Diana is working with her usual sketch and refine method. She'll come in with choreography that develops as we learn it, she adds and removes pieces of it, adds dimensions and layers of movement that make the stage really interesting. Also, one of my favorite things about working with Diana is the opportunity to work on developing contact partnering, just sharing and taking weight to happen upon what usually comes to be really cool shapes. The experimental process and her willingness to alter or get rid of movement instead of forcing it to work is something I find hard myself but will hopefully be able to do more easily after my involvement with her.
In Alex's rehearsal, so far most of the movement has been created through Alex prompting the dancers and seeing what we came up with. I always have a hard time coming up with movement or where to start with movement so this is something I will definitely think about using. Besides being helpful to get good base of movement to use throughout the work, I feel a little more connected to the dance since I have an opportunity to include my own story in Alex's vision.

Photo: Prem Ananda

Lexie Conat

2009-11-08T16:20:00.000-08:00

Each choreographic progress I am in the midst of experiencing is as different as the choreographers are themselves. In Lisa Deyo's rehearsal, we are given every step. She has planned out the movement of all nine dancers and we move at a quick pace learning the material so we can spend lots of time cleaning. This is the way I am used to, being taught exactly what I need to know. Rebecca's rehearsal is more challenging for me. Though she teaches us most of the choreography, the movements of the piece are definitely still in progress as are all of the student pieces- we learn something, then let it go. The style is also more difficult as I am used to classical ballet. For Moon Ja's piece, she expected us to learn the entire dance off of a DVD she gave us at the first rehearsal. This was especially difficult to try to learn by ourselves, reversing the steps from the TV and learning the dance without the other 4 dancers to figure out spacing. Though each process is different, something can be learned from each. I really enjoy the challenge of working to bring these dances to life and I know no matter how we get there, the end product will be great.
Photo: Sara Tollefson

Alexandria Lightsey

2009-11-01T21:20:00.000-08:00

Examination, reflection, discovery, product- such is the evolution of our rehearsals where each day I am challenged by this foreign system of collaboration we utilize. Coming from a strictly classical Ballet background, this self-investigatory process is at once terrifying, exhilarating, and satisfying: where structure is tossed aside for the sheer glorification of movement. Such a process has not come easily to me, contradicting the rules, classical posture, and stance I have long been comfortable with. However, I am learning to let go while simultaneously battling the fear of venturing into this new realm of dance where I am forced to explore my own unknown.

Photo: Sara Tollefson

Alexandra Thomsen Wolfe

2009-11-01T21:19:00.001-08:00

Heidi and I perform a duet in the guest choreographer Chad Hall's piece called Rip Tide. The duet is very intense and conveys a very particular attitude. In order to help us become more in tune with each other as well as more aware of the intention of our duet, Chad Hall had us come up with words and phrases that characterize or capture our movement. This is what we came up with:
chasing and escaping, stand off, anticipation, trick, grasping, reaching, out for blood, defensive, pushed, pinned, caught, out of breath, offense, need to fight back, sneaky, frustration, attack mode, spoke, getting on track, free, caught off guard, revenge, final attack, final escape, pride, false security, surprise arrest, defeated.
It was really helpful to do this because Heidi and I both realized what the true meaning of our movement is and what the quality of the movement is. After doing this we were able to perform the duet with a lot more conviction.

PHoto: Sara Tollefson

Come to Rehearsal

2009-10-19T20:55:00.000-07:00

Have you ever seen a group of young people work together with such commitment and generosity you think they were out to change the world?
Come to rehearsal.
Have you ever seen anyone throw her entire body, mind and spirit into action in service of someone else’s expression?
Come to rehearsal.
Have you ever thought dance was just “fun?”
Come to rehearsal.
Have you ever thought that only the best “shows” are onstage?
Come to rehearsal.
It is always so much more than you think it is.
Chad Hall Intensive Fall 09.

Crystal Valdez

2009-10-18T13:24:00.001-07:00

In her collaborative modern piece, Crystal is exploring the natural transitions and connections between movement inspired by the very connections we have in life. From the bonds that hold atoms together to the connections that we make on telephone calls and electronic mail, to the non-vocalized interactions that create the formations birds fly together in the sky to the communication that occurs on public transportation, all these come together in their unique connections to form the continuum of our life experiences in our world.

Photo: Prem Ananda

Kathleen Helm

2009-10-18T13:23:00.000-07:00

It wasn’t a question of whether or not I wanted to choreograph again this year. I knew that I had to; for myself, that is. Something would be missing if my mind weren’t busy working on that one combination that wasn’t quite right. My class notes would be empty if there weren’t stage patterns and formations scribbled in the corner. The challenge of choreographing another piece for Orchesis was something I wasn’t about to pass up. My brain needed that artistic stimulus.
The piece that I choreographed last year, “The Kingdom of Enticement”, was very enjoyable to work on, so I decided to travel down that same path again and create a contemporary ballet. I’m a perfectionist (especially when it comes to choreographing), so once I find my strengths, I try not to stray from what I know I can achieve. However, every choreographer needs to take risks, so this year, I decided to test myself in the concept of time. The music I chose is the truly breathtaking “Runaway Horses”, composed by Philip Glass, and not only is this piece over 9 minutes long, but it is very complicated as well. I have already had to call my brother (who is a music student in New York) to help me with the rhythms!
Maybe now I should actually describe what my piece is about! Well, it is a profile of the Seven Deadly Sins. While I was studying abroad in Thailand, I visited an exhibit in Bangkok, in which students from a local art institute had created works around the sins. This had been the start of my thought process. The Seven Deadly Sins are so prevalent in pop culture (“America’s Next Top Model” and “Top Chef” centered challenges around them!), and I knew that they had inspired many works of art. However, I found it odd that I had never seen a dance inspired by this concept.
The intent of my dance is to portray each of the Seven Deadly Sins tastefully and somewhat ambiguously. Even though each of my seven dancers are going to be the “characters” of pride, anger, jealousy, gluttony, greed, lust, and sloth, the audience must determine who the dancers are, based on the movement. I hope to incorporate a variety of solos, duets, and trios in order to combine different interactions between the sins. I’m thankful to have seven extremely talented dancers, who have been wonderful to work with so far! The piece will succeed if there is a chaotic nature embedded with an intense focus, and this will be up to the dedication of my dancers.

Dancers at Work

2009-10-18T13:20:00.001-07:00

Dancers hard at work in class.

Photos: Sara Tollefson

Alexandra Thomsen Wolfe

2009-10-18T13:18:00.000-07:00

For the first time, I am choreographing a dance piece. That is, for the first time I am choreographing a work of art. I am feeling so excited, intimidated, anxious, overwhelmed, and overjoyed about this experience. The choreography I have done in the past has been about the movement and had no real purpose other than looking good. This piece is about me and about everyone and has a specific idea that I want to convey. Will it work out? I have no idea. Will people like it? I hope so, but does it matter? Will it be challenging? More than I probably know. Rewarding? Definitely. So here it is, my idea for choreography:
My concept for this piece began when I realized over summer that I was easily becoming distracted from the things that really matter most in life. I felt like I was losing a sense of purpose and meaning in my life while being preoccupied with things that were just trifles. I am Catholic, and it became evident that part of this disconnect was stemming from the fact that I was not attending Mass regularly during the summer. Once I started attending Mass again I felt a sense of direction and ease and my life was just put back in order. By ‘finding God’ again, my life made sense again. My aim is to represent this idea of having lost sight of what is important in life, and finding the path back to a journey that is ultimately fulfilling. For me, a fulfilling life involves my religion, and this is what my concept is stemming from; however, I want the piece to be representative of what helps people in general to find meaning in their lives. Everyone has a different idea of what it means to lead a fulfilling life; we know that what we need is within us, yet we still have to take a journey to uncover it.
There is a quote I have from Catholic Catechism – the essential data of the Catholic faith – that is the impetus for the various movement motifs I want to have in the piece. It says, “Although man can forget God or reject him, He never ceases to call every man to seek him, so as to find life and happiness. But this search for God demands of man every effort of intellect, a sound will, ‘an upright heart,’ as well as the witness of others who teach him to seek God.” My plan is to have different dancers representing ‘will,’ ‘intellect,’ ‘heart,’ and ‘others,’ each with a specific movement motif. These dancers will affect another dancer who is representing the soul of a person that is disconnected and is on the path to discovering the journey that is right for her. She will incorporate the various dance motifs into her own movement as if she is learning what they have to teach her and applying it to her life. I plan to use my dancers as inspiration for movement as well as have their own raw movement be the basis for their motifs. I am asking each of them to bring their own life story to the piece and use it as motivation for movement. I hope to learn a lot from the dancers in my piece who I will rely on so much and a lot from this journey that we are embarking on together.

Photo: Prem Ananda

Rebecca Jensen

2009-10-18T13:17:00.002-07:00

It’s 10:48pm on a Wednesday night, just got home from the studio, and despite all the homework, dessert, friends, bickering at the boyfriend, Facebook, Gossip Girl and other mundane distractions that normally consume my life- nothing demands my attention more than my delightfully sore body.
These muscles are tired. My stomach from all the contractions, my toes from Michelle’s pointe class, my neck from the head rolls, my hamstrings from the leaps, my arms from…I don’t even know! It’s amazing, isn’t it? This is what I call living life. Vicki Baum famously quotes “There are shortcuts to happiness, and dancing is one of them.” I would agree; when I am dancing, I am happiest.
In Orchesis this year, I am choreographing two pieces, granted both Darren and I will choreograph the second piece. My first piece is a feminine jazz with a focus on women and temptation. As I described to my dancers, women will always give into and participate with temptation. Chocolate, carbs, the “bad” boys, flirting…it’s all too familiar. For example, society often places a negative stereotype on women proud of their womanly curves, labeling them as too promiscuous, immoral, or even slutty. This piece’s concept originally rooted from the story of Adam and Eve, which made me realize, this is simply part of human nature. Why so bad if we flirt with a boy or slip a piece of chocolate? Embrace it. Of course I’ve added my own flirty twist to mix, or as Darren likes to call it, tranny style! I’m thinking chandeliers, luscious apples, and six tempting women…
After studying abroad for an entire year last year, I’ve had a plethora of revelations—one being that most humans are selfish…which motivated Darren and I to choreograph a dance together. It happens everyday; most things we do are for ourselves, even when we don’t realize it. We donate money to the poor (so that we feel good about ourselves knowing that we did something to help the world). We stay with our boyfriends/girlfriends despite the unhappy relationship (only because we don’t want to be alone yet). We do and don’t commit to activities (because it’s based around our own schedule). This dance will hopefully demonstrate that it’s a good to take a step back to seriously question your intentions. Are you honestly doing this for someone else, or for yourself?
Stylistically, this will be a raw, contemporary modern dance. After seeing Bill T. Jones/ Arnie Zane Dance Company last weekend, all Darren and I could think about is movement quality and commitment. The style is very awkward (warning, don’t get mad at us when our dancers ask you for massages), and it will definitely be tough, but as long as we see commitment to the movements, down to every fingernail, we will be happy choreographers.

Photo: Coming soon

Heidi Vigario

2009-10-18T13:17:00.001-07:00

The inspiration for my piece came to me while I was driving in the car. It was probably not the safest ride home, but I was filled with so many ideas that I didn't want to forget! My dance is based on the ocean and the creatures that live in it. I want to explore the essence, the core, of these animals.
I want to take the audience on a journey. I want them to experience another world. We will start at the waves and descend to the deep sea before coming back up to the surface.
I am excited to begin working on my piece with my dancers. I spent all summer creating phrases, exploring ideas, structuring the dance, and more. I couldn't wait for Orchesis to begin because I was so excited to start! And now that rehearsals have begun, I can't wait to see where the piece will go!

Photo: Prem Ananda

Jessica Thoma

2009-10-18T13:16:00.001-07:00

Going into this process I found myself nervous and scared to even attempt to go through the whole experience. I had a million ideas and concepts in my head and not many ideas of how to put it all together, which posses a problem sometimes. My experience last year was a difficult one because there were obstacles that just didn’t get solved as smoothly or as fully as I wanted. Working with a partner during the choreographic process made it necessary that we needed to know a good majority of what we were going to do before rehearsal. There was a lot of good communication and a lot of not so good communication and so there was an overall frustration with the process. It wasn’t as enjoyable as we had expected. Many of these frustrated feelings were what I had in my mind when I thought about choreographing again, though I moved forward and challenged myself anyway; knots in my stomach and all. I had my first rehearsal this last Saturday and I honestly came to rehearsal with less in my head than I wanted to; approximately 10 or so seconds of choreography. At this point I thought to myself, this isn’t going to be a very long rehearsal since I have practically nothing! On the contrary, I ended up experimenting and refining movements I already had and came up with a good chunk of really interesting movements and compositions. I was not expecting success and it turned out way better than I expected. My architecture class is working in teams right now and we’re learning how to work together with the concept of “Learning to fly on the way down” and I think that applies to this process for me because it really is the first time in a long time that I’m working off the cusp like this. I’ll probably prepare a little more for the future just to have some sort of plan but it was exhilarating to learn how to fly on the way down. In a way, this process is helping to support the idea that is behind this whole dance. The concept of this piece is a lot of what I have been dealing with the last few months. I am exploring the rise and fall of how people survive through the challenges of life and I’m focusing in on how dealing with these challenges can be smooth and successful or harsh and destructive. The structure of it will drive the path in how, in concept, life should go but the variation off this path will be where the interest and struggle with become its own story. I’m eager to see what I come up with but I have a good sense of where I want it to go and my goal is for this to be a therapeutic process for the dancers, the audience, and myself.

Photo: Keith Mosher

More Trip Photos

2009-10-18T13:12:00.001-07:00

Here are a couple more photos of the trip to San Francisco.

Rachel Saalsaa

2009-10-16T19:12:00.001-07:00

So someone asked me the other day if I am excited to be choreographing? I looked at them and said, “Honestly, I’m terrified!” And that’s the truth. Don’t get me wrong I am super excited, but I think terrified better explains how I feel. This is going to be a new experience for me and it is something that I know I will grow so much from. Also, in the end I know that I won’t regret it and probably want to do it again.
Over this past summer I spent a lot of time trying to find inspiration or some idea that I would just love to dance about, but when that never came I decided to just throw in the towel. Then at the last minute, actually two days before it was due, I was sitting in an anthropology lecture and bam it hit me! I had my idea and I began to discover what story I wanted to tell. Being the nerd that I am, I decided that my dance will be based off of the real story of human evolution, a monkeys to man kind of tale. It will be about everything including our closest ancestors, natural selection, discovering “Lucy”, man coming out of Africa, the features that define us from apes, and maybe even some knuckle walking. For choreographing, I like to draw movement ideas from all kinds of places, and recently I’ve been watching a lot of videos on primitive tribes and the great apes, especially chimpanzees! I also like to ‘play games’ and work collaboratively with my dancers to create movement sequences out of nothing. So in the end I’m planning on this piece being a big hodge-podge of movement that randomly assembles into the story of how humans came to be. Mainly, I look forward to making this a fun process for both me and all the dancers in my piece!

Photo: Prem Ananda

Meghan Hudson

2009-10-16T19:10:00.000-07:00

I am attempting to explore the relationships between mothers, daughters, and grandmothers through movement. I got the idea on a camping trip this past summer. I was camping with my fiancés family, which expands three healthy generations of women. I guess knowing I would become a part of that family soon made me notice the family’s interactions and think more about a woman’s role in the family. In just a few years the daughters will become mothers, making the mothers grandmothers and so on. It is such a quick step up but those three generations will always exist even as we move through them.
I am also experimenting with Merce Cunnginham technique, both movement and choreographic. I appreciate his emphasis on movement and taking chances. As a dancer I get more involved in dances that use me in the choreographic process. I feel like I can invest more of myself into the dance and choreographer. I want the same from my dancers. I want to use their ideas and let movement come by surprise.
We will see how it goes!

Photo: Prem Ananda

McKenna Friend

2009-10-16T18:43:00.000-07:00

I draw much of my inspiration for dance from the Classic Age in Hollywood. MGM films have been playing on my worn out VCR since I was an infant. The women from that time had a different kind of beauty. The aura of Ginger Rogers, Vera Ellen, Ann Miller, and Eleanor Powell and the style of the Zeigfeld Follies always intrigued me. I've spent years mimicking their dancing.
When many people hear Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue they initially think New York City. I didn't want to cater to that tradition for my piece but I didn't want to disappoint the audience by abstracting the classic too much. The nighttime and moonlit theme seemed to fit perfectly.
As of now, I want the style of the piece to be reminiscent of the ballet from An American in Paris. Full of character and class...taking the audience on a flirty midnight adventure.
When choreographing, the music is in charge of me. I'll spend hours just listening to the melody building on images that the song calls to mind: trains, bumblebees, a marching band, a newspaper hat. Once I have some of those images, I attempt to develop movement inspired by those images. Sometimes it works. :)

Photo: Prem Ananda

Continuum - Orchesis 2010

2009-10-12T21:35:00.000-07:00

Oct 12, 2009

Well, yes, we have already started. It seems amazing that we are now heading into the fourth week of classes, and I am just instigating our Blog. So much has happened for Orchesis already this quarter, and I must say we have a wonderful company and are well on our way.
The officers: Kathleen Helm, President; Jessica Thoma, Vice President; Alexandra Thomsen Wolfe, Treasurer; Meghan Hudson and Megan Butala, Publicity, are more mature, self motivated, and creative than I could have ever imagined. These are inspiring business women, creative professionals, and also charming young ladies. All of them have set the tone and generated the enthusiasm needed to create not only what looks like it will be a great performance, but also a very enriching process along the way.
The company of 26 was selected from about 60 dancers who auditioned for Orchesis this year. Each of the company members has something unique to offer, and I look forward to learning more about them and watching them grow. The student choreographers presented some strikingly mature choreographic proposals, and the content of the dances promises to be provocative and deeply explored. Rehearsals are finally underway and I cannot wait to see what transpires.
The dancers have been nothing short of professional in class and activities so far. Some of the younger, newer members are clearly being taken under the gentle caring wings of previous members. All seem extremely committed to excellence. What else would they be other than excellent?
Any creative process is not without risk, and we have plenty of that happening this year. We will collaborate on our Finale this year for the first time, rather than having the dance set and learned. This finale dance will hopefully contain a little bit of everyone; it will have movement from each dancer and each teacher that we experience along the way.
Our trip this year was again to San Francisco and included wonderful classes at the San Francisco Dance Center. It was great to have classical dance techniques fused with contemporary urban styles. Even the old lady – me, Diana – provided the students with some fodder for laughter as I put my 44 year old butt into Hip Hop class with Dexandro also known as “D.” I am so glad Michelle Walter, our Assistant Director was with us for the trip this year. The Bill T. Jones Performance we saw was an amazing Multi Media Dance Theatre experience. The performers were stunning, and the creativity and technological elements blended flawlessly to create a very compelling evening.
We are still breathless from the trip, and have sore muscles to remind us we are back in action. We are at work, it is now time to dig the soil and sow the seeds. We’ll let you know how it grows.

The End.... sort of

2009-02-23T15:22:00.001-08:00

I asked the dancers three last questions after the performances of Impact were over. I asked, “What is a choreographer and what does he or she do,” “Why is a dance program like ours valuable at a Polytechnic University,” and “What moment(s) during the performances were memorable and compelling to you as a performer, an observer or participant.” As always, the dancers generated thoughtful, deep and intellectual responses that affirm the value of what we do here. Their answers supported the value of dance education at the university level, and demonstrated their/our commitment to artistic concert dance distinct from commercial or competition dance.
The dancers understand that a choreographer is more than one who just makes up dance steps, that he or she is an artist with a vision who uses movement as an expressive medium. We saw many examples of choreographers in this sense in the Impact performance.
My list also includes that a choreographer is:
A movement artist
A visionary
A conceptual artist
A sculptor of space
A multimedia designer
A storyteller
A social and political commentator
A kinetic journalist
A philosopher
A magician
A cultural reflection-ist

There are many reasons that dance is valuable to the students at this polytechnic. Notably, many students find connections between whatever discipline they study, to dance and to the body’s wisdom. The connection to creativity through dance fuels new and progressive ideas and provides tools to access the creative process.

In the words of Kate Barton,” Dance has so many parallels to my architectural education. Choreographing is like making a living model where I can explore space-making and circulation patterns with infinite flexibility.”

Expression balances analytical thinking, and for many students, somatic knowledge and kinesthetic learning dominates their educational experience. Also, dance nurtures the aesthetic, it gives the students the experience and the tools to evaluate and interpret meaning in symbolic and non-verbal forms. The possibilities for communication become infinitely multi layered and rich.

In terms of the last question – what they remember from the performances – many dancers commented on the joy and power of shared experiences, connections they made with others while dancing, and the joy of collaboration and teamwork. I was deeply touched by the many comments students made about witnessing the incredible beauty of their colleagues in various moments throughout the performance. How generous and mature it is of them to recognize and support the beauty and success in others. Bravo. Until next time…. we keep dancing.

Fin

2009-01-31T10:10:00.000-08:00

More Photos

2009-01-31T10:07:00.001-08:00

Photos: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

More Photos

2009-01-31T10:04:00.000-08:00

PHotos: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Here We Go

2009-01-30T12:00:00.001-08:00

Merde Everyone

Onward and Upward,

Diana

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Krizia Torres

2009-01-30T11:52:00.000-08:00

The Chad Challenge. Challenges come in many forms. One of those forms of challenges may very well be the one essential thing that will help separate a masterpiece from the rest. This challenge? The ability to trust.

From the moment I first saw Chad Michael Hall I knew that his piece, “DoubleSpeak” was not going to be for the faint of heart. Sometimes I feel like there should be a viewers’ discretion attached to it that reads, “Warning: You may witness carnage on the dance floor.” But I joke. The first weekend Chad came to teach us his piece, he fearlessly flung his body a couple feet into the air and immediately crashed it onto the surface of the Marley floors without sight of a broken bone. Crash and burn. There were many forlorn looks amongst the dancers that reflected an inner fear. A fear of what? A fear of not knowing if we would hurt ourselves badly enough to get sent to the hospital. A fear of not knowing if we could muster enough strength to go through another brutal 8-hour rehearsal. A fear of not knowing if we would be able to match Chad’s intended style of choreography. A fear of not knowing if we would be able to channel our “psychic sisterhood” and move together as one unit when needed. A fear of not knowing what was going to happen. Essentially, that is exactly what fear is: the panic of not knowing.

As day and night became a blur of one, and as the weeks zipped past at the speed of light, the Chad troupe finally got it together. Like every work of art, dance is a vicious, yet remarkable cycle of progression. The dance isn’t perfect, and perhaps it may never be. But for now, it is what it is. And what was the answer to digging through those coupled layers of fears? Quite simply, it was trust. Once each of us salvaged enough trust in ourselves, pushing past those barriers fear left us, we united and came together. We found trust in one another. Maybe that’s part of the lesson Chad wanted us to learn on our own. Just as the story of his piece reflects the development of chaos powering together to mold into a revitalized unit, we, as dancers had to power through the anger and frustrations to eventually find a stronghold of peace within one another and within ourselves. You can’t imagine how great it feels to dance something you’ve bled, sweated, and worked so hard for and at the same time, to be able to dance it with those who have been there every step of the way.

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Stephanie Alvarez #2

2009-01-30T11:51:00.000-08:00

When first hearing Diana talk about her piece, I loved the idea of it: early morning, dawn, statues becoming alive, Greece & Rome, sudden movements, breath, feminism....that sounds pretty damn powerful and pretty damn awesome. Now, looking at the finishing product and all that I have been through for this choreography, I am by no doubt IN LOVE with this piece. Usually after running a hard and tough dance most dancers don't want to do it anymore -- it's way too exhausting... but not with this piece. When dancing this piece, I want to keep going. The power of the music and the connection with my fellow dancers keeps me dancing non-stop and I love every second of it. When it's done, I want to do it over again. Not only is it so much fun to dance, but it's a good workout and stamina pusher -- it for sure kicks your butt! The concept for this piece to me is just so cool and I loved that Diana was inspired by her trip to Italy to create it. Although all my dances I am going to perform (AHH so soon!) are my favorites, "Sculpture Garden" is definitely on the top of the list. Every time the music is turned on I feel transformed into a different being, not only as a statue and as a dancer, but as a powerful and strong woman.

Regardless of the twice a week 7 am rehearsals (!) this piece just got me going. Tired as I was that early in the morning, Diana always knew how to get me as well as the other dancers moving. With an 18 min. warm-up we learned and did every morning we rehearsed, we were all ready to learn new choreography and to perform this piece. Diana always came to rehearsal with new ideas but one thing I admired about her choreographing was that she also took ideas from us, the dancers (who knew!). We would be goofing around in these wee hours of the early morning and Diana would see it and be like "I like that, push save on that and remind me of it later" and somehow, whether it was that exact movement or the same but with a little tweek, Diana would put that movement into the dance. That was very cool of her, and also when she would make us mold and find shapes and positions with each other. We'd play around before we'd actually start learning movement for the piece. If she saw something she'd liked she'd ask us to do it again and BOOM it was in the dance.

Not only was dancing at 7 am twice a week a toughie, but Diana always played around with choreography and changed things often, which sometimes can get kind of repetitive. There were times where she wasn't happy with something and make us do it over and over again, maybe with one minor change each time. Of course it was a little frustrating, I was ready to move on! Get past this choreography and learn something new! It felt like sometimes we just kept cleaning and changing the same spot over and over again. I mean it was totally fine, it was Diana's choreography and not mine, and that's what you do when creating a dance to get the perfect piece. It just got so tiring sometimes to do the same thing over and over again, especially at 7 in the morning when all you'd rather do is be asleep in your bed (sometimes...). Looking back on it now, however, it really wasn't so bad to repeat the movement about 10 times. Through all those changes we went through Diana had found the perfect movement and transitions that fit perfectly into the piece, and looking at her dance now, I am so glad we did those movements over and over again. Things like that and even goofing off are really apart of that choreographic process.
I learned as a dancer, you are the paint and your choreographer is the painter. The painter does what he wants with his paint and moves it around as he pleases, and it is he, the painter, who creates the entire piece of artwork.
On another note, I AM SO STOKED TO PERFORM THIS PIECE!!!! I am so happy and feel so honored that Diana choose me to be in it. Any feedback I hear about this piece has always been positive, and it even makes me feel even luckier to be in it.

Photo: Prem ANanda premphoto.com

Rachel Saalsaa

2009-01-30T11:49:00.000-08:00

I feel really lucky for being able to be a part of Crystal’s piece this year. As a choreographer, I really admire her artistic and creative ambitions. I especially enjoyed being in this particular dance because I could easily relate to her pieces message and meaning. For me this dance is so great because it's something that everyone can connect to and mold to fit their own lives. When I'm dancing this piece I think it's just that that gives it a sort of comfortableness. I mean from the very first rehearsal where Crystal told us what her dance was about to the day when she finished the piece there was always a comfortable atmosphere where I felt like this dance was apart of me. Crystal also did an amazing job at incorporating her dancers into her choreographing process. She was always open to suggestions on anything like how to combine two sequences, what worked and what didn't, or for partnering patterns. That openness and dynamic between us the dancers and Crystal also added to making me feel like this dance was individualized for just me. It was great to be included in the whole process of creating her dance and watching it develop. This piece definitely changed from where it first began, not in its intent, but more in the actual choreography. Crystal knew what she wanted to do a dance about and the general idea of how it should look but I think that it really evolved as we went on. For example, there were sequences that we learned in the first rehearsals that didn't even make it into the final product. In the end I really am thankful to have been able to be in Crystal’s piece, it's been a great experience and I can't wait to perform this dance on stage!

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Jessica Thoma #2 "Surfacing"

2009-01-30T11:44:00.002-08:00

When is any art piece complete?? No one knows what complete really is because there are always little nuances and details that you can fix. Not to mention the fact that people interpret things differently so not everything is going to come across the same. Basically you have to do the best you can and make it fit for what you believe that it means. For the dance that I created with Kelsey, we had a good first experience with this piece. We had our ups and downs with the process but overall we learned a lot. The beginning of the journey for us seemed simple and straightforward and the first few phrases we got were interesting and fun which was what we were hoping for conceptually and aesthetically. Trying to stay on track with our intent was challenging but worth it. My biggest set back with continuing the process and getting to where I wanted to be was the time constraint. Choreographing a piece that takes the necessary steps of explaining an idea is so hard to do in a 10 week quarter of 1 rehearsal a week. The completion of the piece is going to be worth every minute of stress and trifle because to perform and show off our ideas will be so rewarding. In every moment of our dance we have put as much thought and time as we had and I believe that we produced a dance that is very successful. Did we make something that was full and rich that will intrigue the audience?? Yes, I think we did. Did we satisfy our own wants of what we hoped for the piece?? No, but like I said before, sometimes you can’t complete a piece of art to its fullest potential. Sometimes there just isn’t enough time in the world.
Encountering the problems we did, I found it very helpful to have a person to reflect ideas off of. We were able to discuss the problems we had, and gradually work through them. As we got down to more and more of the details, we looked to the choreography to fill in the holes. It made the most sense to fill those places with movement and a dance vocabulary that we had already shown. The moments when we found the right movement to either repeat or modify were awesome because we could feel it all coming together to make a better picture. In those times I felt confident that we had set up the dance correctly from the very beginning. Working together with Kelsey was rewarding along with working with the two girls, Megan and McKenna. Their contribution helped to push us forward. It was a challenge for all of us because we were all experiencing something new. There were new styles and new movements for people, new people to work with, and a new side of the dance world to experience; choreography. It was difficult to put all the ideas in the piece being that there were so many but sometimes you need to downgrade from your ideas. It’s just too much for people to handle and then it gets too confusing. Making the choices to complete the dance were necessary steps to finish in time for the show. Kelsey and I wanted it to be perfect and knit picked at all those moments we didn’t find perfect but all we could do was make the best decision at the time. Overall I believe that we made some good ones and the dance is a success. I am very happy with the outcome and enjoyed learning as much as I did through the journey.

Photo" Prem ANanda premphoto.com

Carolyn Taylor #2

2009-01-30T11:44:00.001-08:00

One of the most amazing aspects of going through the process of choreographing and creating a piece of artwork (or having the opportunity to be a part of this in any way, for example being a dancer for a choreographer that is creating something new) is that there is no "correct" way to approach this often times overwhelming task. Unlike a research assignment or an essay that one may be required to write for class (and given specific instructions of what needs to be included) and where the finished product will be evaluated more often than not by using some sort of checklist, it is the choreographer and the choreographer alone who decides exactly how they will conquer this "assignment". They also have the power to change anything they please the moment they are so inspired and no one can tell them that it is "wrong". Some decide to use the "come to rehearsal completely prepared" approach, while others use the "inspiration of their dancers in the moment" approach and others may use something in between. Throughout this past quarter while rehearsing for our upcoming show, I have had the incredible opportunity to work with a number of creative and talented choreographers. Kathleen's piece was created for the most part by her choreographing on her own and bringing her material into rehearsal to teach her dancers. It was interesting to see how successful this approach was and how over the past couple of months it did not seem to deviate from her original intent or feel of the piece. It has been beautiful, feminine and mysterious every step of the way. In contrast Diana's piece used more of the "inspiration from the dancers" approach, which I have really felt honored to be a part of. It has been truly exciting to not have an exact idea of how each rehearsal would turn out, what we would accomplish or what crazy/awesome things we would try. Diana herself has said multiple times that something may have not been her original plan, but things never look the same as they do in your head once you have real people to work with. Being able to be flexible and accepting of change, as well as being brave to try new things has been only a few things that I have been lucky enough to practice throughout this process. I have so enjoyed every moment with every choreographer that I have had the pleasure of working with in preparation of this show. It has been a great learning experience to be exposed to so many different creative minds that follow their own individual thought processes. The really beautiful thing is that each of these processes and approaches has the ability to create something just as wonderful, inspired, and or magical as anything else. Thank you Crystal, Kathleen, Diana, Michelle, Bliss (Robert Moses), Dennon and Sayber! You are all truly appreciated and amazingly talented!

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Guin Chan #2

2009-01-30T11:42:00.000-08:00

I am not a morning person, and seven a.m. practices were definitely difficult for me to wrap my head around. I would sleep in my dance clothes so I could just roll out of bed (or clumsily climb down the ladder of my dorm bunk bed) and go. But in all honesty, I don’t think rehearsals would have been the same had they been later in the day. Everything’s quieter. The sun has just barely managed to get up itself and the air is calm and cold. It’s easier to dance when the day has just begun, when there are fewer distractions in my head.
We started learning the piece by learning various combinations, which set the idea of “the power of the feminine.” But in the beginning it was just a vague concept for me; more of a series of powerful movements without actual meaning.
Diana drew inspiration from her trip to Italy and the works of artists who sculpted and painted the already immortal Greek gods and goddesses. It is definitely challenging to recreate these masterpieces gracefully on a pedestal. And I wasn’t even on the tallest one! But when we managed to figure it out, it was a new experience to imagine being a statue brought to life by something intangible.
By the end of a quarter of early morning struggling and sweaty knee pads, I feel like this dance has really come together to paint a picture. And working on the stage is another level of experience. With the tricky pedestal magic moving, and the fog, and the costumes, the sculpture garden will be complete. It is its own world of mysteriousness and magic, beauty and strength.

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Megan Butala #2

2009-01-30T11:41:00.000-08:00

It occurred to me during one of Diana’s early morning rehearsals that all of us there had a sense of commitment to the company and the piece. It was worth it to us to give it our all and put in the time (however early it may have been) and energy required to get the piece to the level it needed to be, and as close as possible to Diana’s vision.
Being surrounded by all of the talent and artists in the studio was refreshing and inspiring. Also, I felt a sense of unity within the piece when we learned large chunks of material. Everyone regularly put in all of their focus which made it possible to master the material quickly so we could continue to learn and/or tweak more during that rehearsal. Diana was extremely organized in the movement and plans prepared before every rehearsal, and even if we didn’t make it through everything she had on her agenda, there was always progress, whether it was learning a whole section of the dance or fine-tuning a few last transitions.
Not all choreographers are like this, but it is still possible to enjoy the process and end up with a great end result. Take Jessica and Kelsey for example: both are beautiful dancers and people and somewhat new choreographers. Working on their dance was a blast. There lack of experience made them very enthusiastic, but they did have a little trouble getting past the mental and creative blocks they encountered during their choreographic process, but once they did, it ended up being really enjoyable movement that just feels good to dance. Being a part of this piece did require extra time to finalize some last details, a few rehearsals were added, but I didn’t have a problem putting in the time they needed to be satisfied with the piece. Being one of four in the dance and seeing their process so closely made me excited for them and their expression, made me feel like it was mine too, so I was more than willing to do what needed to be done to get things right.
The processes I was a part of for these two, and the other three dances I am in, were all very different but very enjoyable and I learned things from all of them. All of the choreographers and dancers I have worked with in my two years at Cal Poly have helped shape who I am the dances I will be in and maybe choreograph later.

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Rachel Ankeny #2

2009-01-30T11:40:00.000-08:00

From the beginning, Kathleen had a very clear description and image of what she wanted her dance to be this year. From her first showing of the choreography, she mentioned that she wanted dancers with a strong ballet background. She intended to focus on using ballet technique but create variations on the traditional movements and positions. She also emphasized wanting a very regal quality to the movement with a hint of mystery. Her vision and choreography has been upheld throughout the experience and I am very pleased with the results. Every detail from the piece from hand placement to costumes has matched my initial impressions and has created a beautiful finished product. A few of the dancers and I were discussing the ease with which our bodies remember and carry out the movements.
Kathleen’s clarity has allowed us to focus on the more artistic details in these later rehearsals. We can take moments to connect with fellow performers and put on our “regal” persona. I feel Kathleen has been very consistent in her artistic integrity and in the intent of her choreography. She was always prepared with choreography ahead of rehearsal. Each rehearsal she had a goal to get to a certain point in the choreography and always accomplished that goal. Her process was very efficient and made rehearsal time seem to fly by. The dancers part was mostly to be open, clear, and efficient as well to match her and maintain the progress of the piece. I feel as though all the dancers in this piece worked with Kathleen to try to match her desires as much as possible or brainstorm with her to find solutions to problems. All in all it seems this piece really held on to her initial vision and is a great success.

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Michele Andrews #2

2009-01-30T11:39:00.001-08:00

As a dancer in Heidi's piece, Intricate Effect, we have been asked to call on our emotions. Collectively, we want to convey a sense of loss, missing someone, and also a sense of strength that develops throughout the dance. However, each of us has our own individual experience to call upon in order to properly communicate these emotions to the audience. The trials we've all been through allow us all to throw ourselves into the movement and dance with purpose. Towards the end of the dance, we were each given a little choreographic freedom to experiment with. While this is clearly a contribution to the choreography, I don't feel this is the most valuable contribution I made. I think the individuality and uniqueness I bring, that we each bring, to the piece and the stage will be what makes the piece memorable. This piece, as well as the six of us, have grown into something special. The intent of the dance remained the same throughout Heidi's choreographic process, but I think with each rehearsal, as it got closer and closer to completion, it developed into something that was both intentional and unexpected.

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Aimee Warner#2

2009-01-30T11:38:00.000-08:00

Crystal’s dance has really felt like a journey; it took many phases to get it to the stage it is at currently. We talked about the concept of a “background noise” at our first couple of rehearsals, which I feel was a big contribution on everyone’s part. Each dancer really opened up and talked about their own experiences allowing us to personalize this dance and also provide Crystal with different ideas to work with. Crystal has worked with a few of the same movement phrases since the beginning, while also adding new ones and experimenting with the arrangement in order to find a composition that spoke to her. After a few rehearsals Crystal decided to reverse the ‘order’ of the dance, so that the conceptual beginning came at the end; I feel that there are many elements that encompass this idea; for example: the phrase that is repeated in the beginning and at the end is smoother and slower at the beginning and the dancers are really affected by their partners who represent their background noise. By the end, that phrase has sped up and takes on a slightly frantic feeling which I think correlates to how one feels when they are not fully aware of their background noise. After this phrase, the dancers end by becoming aware of the screen behind them also representing background noise. In my personal interpretation of this concept, if a person is not aware of their background noise, they feel confused and frustrated but once they open their eyes to their subconscious, they have much more control, and while they may still be molded and bent at times by these thoughts, they have the ability to choose what to listen to. I feel this choice is represented in the beginning of the dance when although the dancers are being manipulated by their ‘background noise’ they still come back to standing and do not have the burden of the background noise to carry around, literally.
One of the additions to this dance that I am quite excited to see in the theatre is the addition of a slide show behind the dancers. This has been a collaboration of the dancers, who provided pictures from their personal travels and lives, from which Crystal then chose those pictures which she felt added to her concept. I think this will had a huge dimension to the dance allowing the audience to broaden their interpretation of the piece. For me, these images help to play off of the lyrics “intruder alert” but we will see where Crystal takes this part of the piece.
Dances are always a journey, through the choreographic process and also each time the music starts. Each time I step into the world of the piece, I relive the story and scenarios I have developed to allow myself to fully enter the dance which leaves me full of emotion and also satisfied in that I have given a part of myself to this dance in order to share with the audience.

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Darren Bridges #2 "Eclectic Rhythms"

2009-01-30T11:37:00.001-08:00

Comparing the time that we started this dance and until now, I would have to say that mine and Amee's dance has came a long way! In the beginning it was hard to get the style across to our dancers because it was something out of their element that they had to work extremely hard at it in order to do the movement. Now that show is almost here and we have had time to practice, I couldn’t be happier with the way that the dance has turned out. I feel that now that it is crunch time, everyone (including myself) has learned to feel out the dance and learned to dance together as one. The overall experience that I had this year choreographing has been great one. Its always fun to have the opportunity to display your work for others to see.

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Anna Gibbons #2

2009-01-30T11:35:00.000-08:00

For me, dancing is a way of expressing emotions that tend to not have words appropriate enough to explain. I remember the first day of Heidi’s rehearsal she explained the heart behind her piece, “Intricate Effect.” She had emotions that only movement could express. She explained that the piece was about being away from somebody not by choice and in her case it was her husband. In that first rehearsal she desired for us to be in a similar mindset. She asked us to write down experiences where we have been away from someone not by choice. As we did this, I realized how personal this piece would be to me. My father passed away about five years ago and as I realized that, the dance took on a new meaning. Through learning movement, cleaning pieces, and growing in my understanding of the emotional feel of the piece, the dance became therapeutic for me. When you think about the process of creating a dance you think of the steps listed above, but through this piece I’ve come to understand the emotion of dance better. I’ve come to a place of finding out what it means to pour all of me into a piece. Each time we run the dance I find myself learning something new about my own situation. I know that when the dance hits the stage it will take on an even more powerful meaning and emotion, and I can’t thank Heidi enough for that.

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Sara Markham

2009-01-30T11:34:00.000-08:00

A giggle from the side floats to another dancer's ear after tripping on a cord offstage, and laughter across the stage erupts soon after. All this time at rehearsals, helping with publicity for our show, and going to dance classes seems to be so much work for experience in something that many of us do not plan on following as a career. To people who don't get to see our time spent in the studios, the amount of time dedicated to this experience might appear as a burden. I'm sure our sometimes exaggerated (sometimes not) moaning and complaining of how sore our necks are, the high level of exhaustion we are at, and how bummed out we are about missing a Thursday Night Market doesn't give an outsider trying to get a feel for the reason to our madness much insight. The truth is, Orchesis and our work towards the upcoming performance is so much more than the dances we are about to show. The real reason we go to every rehearsal even after having a spinal tap the day before, show up at class after hours and hours of working in the labs, and hold our bodies up through a guest instructor's class with knees and ankles shaking is because, well, the experience. The experience I am talking about here is not the kind I mentioned earlier that you might put on a resume later, but it is the bonds between the people and the moments between the dancing. I'm sure each of us enjoy different things about the time spent with Orchesis because of our vast array of personalities in the company. My favorites include not being able to breath during a casual, initial run through not from the physical exhaustion but instead from trying to hide a laugh and continue dancing, seeing fellow members on campus in "normal" clothes and realizing they do have other items in their wardrobe besides sweats and cut t-shirts, or not being phased by the fact that someone is telling you your "turn, hit, and throw" is on the "boom ba-da-baaa". Great moments offstage and on, fear of not perfecting a well-rehearsed piece, or the artistry in each person as they create movement or interpret someone else's all helps us grow into a new and slightly different person. Some people choose to play music, some people choose to be marathoners, some people choose to become involved in bettering the world with a cause, some people choose to master video games, and all of us, we choose to dance. With each of these dedications there is a world around it that does not involve the actual activity it can be labeled under, but it is the experience between the lines that keeps us hooked. It's that, or maybe we are just crazy college students needing something to fill in our horribly, empty schedules or a new topic to complain about to our roommates. Either way, the show is coming soon, so I say let's live between the lines until that final curtain drops.

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

McKenna Friend #2 "Every Love But True Love"

2009-01-30T11:32:00.000-08:00

My piece for this year’s show took a very long journey. It started out in my mind as a quick/short uplifting blip for the audience and has now become a little "Broadway Suite" with story telling and props. It was extremely difficult for me to develop the piece I initially had in mind to the 5 minute "show" it is right now.
Finding the extra music was my first challenge. I knew that Keely Smith's upbeat song was exactly what I was looking for...but finding songs that went along with it but were different enough to develop a separate mood was difficult. I still can't seem to find the right movement for about 20 seconds of Dinah Washington's Love for Sale. My dancers were wonderful. They helped me with many choreographic "blocks." They also encouraged me and my work with compliments and pep talks when I was feeling low. This isn't really MY piece as much as it is OUR piece. I'd like to think we all shared in the experience and I know I enjoyed it thoroughly. Of course I would still make some changes if I had the time but overall I am pleased with the outcome and proud of myself for putting it all together. :)

I fell in love with Robert Moses' choreography last year when I watched his piece "Lucifer's Prance." I searched the web for anything I could find on him or his company the day after Orchesis "premiered" the piece after a rehearsal. I watched videos and read newspaper articles on his work. I did all the research I could along with obsessing over "Lucifer's" during their practices in hopes of being considered for this year’s piece. When I was selected for "Soft Sweet Smell..." I was ecstatic. Ask my roommates. The piece is extremely difficult for me with its unique style, difficult timing, and the need for uniformity yet I adore every second of it.

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Kelsey Tallon "Surfacing"

2009-01-30T11:31:00.000-08:00

In some ways, our dance was exactly how I imagined it and in other ways it did not resemble what I had imagined in any way. Throughout the choreography process, I felt as though I was writing an English paper. We first made a rough sketch of what we wanted and then kept revising as we went along. Things seemed like they were working out well for the choreography until we realized that the entire dance thus far was split into twos. At first showing, we quickly found out that that was quite boring, even though it is the essence of our concept. This presented us with the challenge of making the dance more interesting by breaking up the groups of two. In this way the dance was also like an English paper. It seemed like everything we did we were able to make up some reason for how it fit our concept. A lot of the ideas seem like a stretch, and I am acutely aware that unless Jess or I am available to explain each movement of the dance to someone, there is pretty much no way to understand the concept of the façade and the soul and how each of our movements explain all of their interactions. This was really bothersome at first, but the more I think about it I come to realize that it doesn’t matter. The majority of the audience won’t really care what the dance is about, and will just be looking at it for visual pleasure. The other part of the audience will be attempting to interpret what the meaning is, and likely will not get exactly what we mean. But isn’t that what’s nice about dance? It is open to interpretation, and allows not only the audience but the dancers themselves get from it what they please. So it really isn’t a big deal that no one is sure what we mean, all that’s important is that people enjoy it because in some way it speaks to them. And that was the original goal Jess and I had from the beginning. So even though the movement may have been entirely different than what I anticipated, the motivation behind the dance was achieved.
Is a dance ever finished? I’m not sure I’ve ever danced in a completed dance. I think any choreographer always has things they want to change, tweak with, or add to. The same is true for this dance. I am mostly happy with the first part of the dance, but the second half was so rushed that I feel we could spend a lot more time developing the ideas in that part. Also, my feelings about the rhythmical quality of the movement changes each time I see it. Luckily, we were able to form a really tight group with the four of us and both Megan and McKenna were incredibly helpful in making decisions and giving suggestions. Sometimes it was so helpful to have the extra eye of people who are not as wrapped up in the concept to make really great suggestions. Showings also gave us an opportunity to show the dance to a whole range of people who come from so many different dance backgrounds. It was really interesting to see how each person had such different ideas for the same section of the dance. Some of these suggestions we took, some we modified, and others we thought about and kept in mind for the future. This dance has truly been a collaborative process, more so than I ever expected it to be. Even though it has been extremely difficult, it was entirely worth it.

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Crystal Valdez "Background Noise"

2009-01-30T11:30:00.000-08:00

"As a dancer, and even as a choreographer, it was always very hard for me to grasp the concept of being a part of or choreographing a piece that was a “work in progress.” Dances are typically thought of as complete pieces of work that once performed its required amount of times is maybe then only stored in the memory of an old video. But this year, my choreography can only be defined as a “work in progress” I initially had envisioned a dance that was approximately 7-8 minutes long because of the music I choose and because of the concept I was trying to communicate. However, I managed to only fully spit-out 4 minutes of representative material and was unable to develop the second half of my dance. With the approximately 13 week, 1 day a week for 2 hours practice contributed to me not developing it as much as I anticipated, I think this just goes to show me that my thoughts and mind are always changing which will have a direct effect on my movement and intent changing in my choreography. My dance is the introduction to my message I am trying to create: trying to understand and differentiate the background noises we all hear throughout your lives. But I am very happy with it and have really enjoyed the differences and diversity within my group of talented dancers. They’ve worked so hard on the style and unique rhythm of the choreography and I couldn’t have asked for any better. If my career path does lead me into a career in dance, I can see myself continuing to work on this piece. “Background Noise” will only begin to set up the audience for my whole message and hopefully leave them slightly informed in what we are all as a world are trying to accomplish."

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

ALyssa Carnahan #2

2009-01-30T11:27:00.001-08:00

One of the pieces I am performing in this year is a tango-influenced ballet choreographed by Kate Barton. I have been in a few of Kate's pieces in the past, so the process by which she creates a dance is somewhat familiar to me. Kate always begins with a very clear idea of what her piece is going to be about, or the story or theme around which the movement is based. For inspiration for this piece, she watched a number of tango videos in order to get a feel for the style of movement as well as the intent and attitude with which it is done. It has been an interesting process for me discovering how she has chosen to translate these kinds of movements into a pointe dancer's vocabulary, and how she has made her own stylistic choices to transform the mood of the tango into a performed ballet.
Kate always arrives at her rehearsals with clear goals in mind--she has her choreography planned out in advance, though often left open with room to make choices about spacing and timing once the movement is set on the dancers in the studio. Kate's organized and deliberate process has made it easier for the dancers to cope with some other kinds of challenges that go with the territory for a piece like this: we were all struggling to take care of our sore toes as well as were learning how to dance and maneuver the black fedoras we all wear for the piece.
Kate is often flexible about the demands of her piece; though she has her clear vision and goals in mind, she is also very understanding about practicality and the limitations of each dancer's ability. If something in the piece doesn't seem to be working, she fixes it by modifying how it is done or by replacing it with something else, (unlike choreographers who stubbornly choose to cling to unworkable choreography). She is also open to the suggestions of the dancers and often asks the dancers how they would prefer to perform a piece of movement given a set of options.

I am very excited for audiences to see this piece. I know that it will be as charming to watch as it is exciting for us to dance!

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Amee Sing #2 "Eclectic Rhythms"

2009-01-30T11:25:00.000-08:00

Now that our dance is finally done, it is a huge relief. This year choreographing has been very stressful. It was completely different than last year. We wanted this piece to show three different styles of hip hop and I think we achieved that. Nothing really changed from our original vision. Working with Darren was so easy, we would both be trying to figure out movement and when I would look up we were pretty much doing the same thing. When working together with someone it is a lot harder than if you were to choreograph by yourself. You have to make time to get together, and that in itself is hard enough with our crazy schedules. And you also have different ideas that you have to try and blend together. Each song has a different feel to it, so we tried to show that through our movement. We also wanted to make sure that it wasn’t your normal hip-hop dance that doesn’t really build or use the stage. Our biggest problem was with our transitions between the three songs, because they were so different we weren’t really sure how to tie them together to make the dance flow. We had a few ideas and some feedback that I felt I might have misinterpreted, which led to some issues. The idea that we had and put together didn’t really work out for our type of show. It was really hard to hear that it wasn’t working so close to the show, but it had to change. As a choreographer I feel that you have more respect for fellow choreographers’ work, because you know the process of creating a piece. Our dancers are great and have worked really hard for us. It was just hard because none of us were trained in this new style of hip-hop and there is so much detail in the movement that it is hard to pick up on. I feel that our dance is complete; if we had more time I think that we could have created much more for this piece. I’m very happy with this piece and now I can finally enjoy it.

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Megan Branson #2

2009-01-30T11:24:00.001-08:00

It’s funny how in normal life people get uncomfortable when you get too close to them, but in dance, invading personal space is the norm, and usually expected. From the very first rehearsal for Meghan’s piece “Spoken For,” we played with all sorts of partnering work. Since each of us six dancers in the piece represent Meghan or a special person in her life (Mom, boyfriend, best friend), the roles we portray are very intimate. We began rehearsing this piece at the beginning of the quarter, so my partner Alex and I had just met, but we jumped right into the partnering work with ease. The dance has never been constant; it was a continual process that involved the choreographer and all six dancers. Meghan always came to rehearsal with tons of ideas, and then used the energy and reactions of the dancers to fill in the spaces. Some things we tried worked out the first time while other things never seemed to work, but each time the piece changed, it was for the better. I can’t even count how many times the part of the dance that highlights the relationship between Alex and I has been changed, but the final change fits Alex and me perfectly. The nice part about Meghan’s piece was that she always asked for and used our input, so the dance became ours too. Meghan chose not to actually be in the piece, so it is our responsibility as her dancers to get her vision across.

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Rochelle Norwood #2

2009-01-30T11:22:00.000-08:00

From the very beginning of Crystal's piece to the final steps, it has been like a very natural process to me. In our very first rehearsals, instead of jumping into choreography, we sat down and explored the concepts of the piece and how Crystal's ideas related to our own personal lives. The piece is based around her concept of "background noise," the idea of voices, experiences, emotions, or
other factors that influence us, consciously or subconsciously. Throughout the piece she wanted to explore how we experience "background noise" on a daily basis, how it affects us, and what we do. And so before we did anything else, we talked about what background noise meant to us, what our own noise was, and how we deal with it. I think that our discussion not only gave Crystal further inspiration, but also helped us understand from the very beginning what the dance was about and how we could relate to it. I think that this caused all of the dances to develop a strong connection to the movement and choreography. As we get closer to the concert, moving into the theatre, blocking, and moving around on the stage, I feel that the piece has a calmness to it. Even though we all have huge amounts of "background noise," and will have even more in the weeks
ahead, our connection to the piece has yielded such a natural and rewarding creative process. Instead of doing the choreography, you become part of the choreography.

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Heidi Vigario #2 "Intricate Effect"

2009-01-30T11:21:00.001-08:00

The most nerve racking thing for me during this whole process, even when I was debating whether or not to even choreograph in the first place, was how was my movement going to look onstage? Would it read well? Would it even look good at all? I decided to jump over those hurdles and come back to them when we got to the theater. I was hoping that through all the showings in the studio that whatever didn’t work would get weeded out by the time we got to the theatre.

I had my first rehearsal in the theater this weekend. It was awesome! (No doubt because of my dancers’ positive, energetic, hardworking, and fun attitudes! Yay Megan, Aimee, Anna, Michele, and Rachel!) I loved seeing my dance onstage! We of course had the ‘oh so amazing’ runs of the piece while we were getting acquainted with dancing in the theatre. But we also had really good runs. My dancers are so amazing; they put so much genuine effort into their dancing. And the best thing that happened that night was my dancers telling me that my dance is in a really good spot. What a compliment for them to say that they are not worried about the dance, that they feel the most comfortable with performing my piece.

I am very happy with my piece. I don’t think I would change anything for this set of performances. If I had the opportunity to work on my piece some more, I don’t know what I would decide. But if I wanted to work on it some more, I know that I would change how I incorporated the shirts into the movement. In the beginning of my choreographic process I had an idea about the shirts, but that changed, it just wasn’t working. The emphasis on the shirts is now a lot smaller. If I had the time I might try to go with my original idea and make the shirts a larger part of the choreography. I know that it would completely change my piece, and right now I’m satisfied with the movement I have created.

I love to dance my dance with my dancers. I feel very accomplished every time we reach those last few seconds of the piece. I recognize all the hard work and numerous hours that have been put into this dance, and it makes me proud to put it onstage!

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Lauren Bastrire

2009-01-30T11:17:00.000-08:00

Tap has always been one of my favorite forms of dance and I was excited when I heard I would be taking part in the tap piece this year. Kate's tap piece was originally planned to be performed with a specific musical selection. However, once it was realized that there were only going to be three people in the dance, the thought of doing the piece a cappella began to circulate. During the first rehearsal we decided that it would be a cappella, but we would still learn the piece how it was originally choreographed to the music. We began learning the steps to the music just like you would for any other dance but by the second rehearsal we realized we needed to ignore the music and create our own rhythms. We ended up collaborating to choreograph the rest of the piece. I had never choreographed a tap piece before, nor have I ever been in an a cappella piece so I thought this was going to be quite the creative challenge. It actually turned out to be a lot easier than I would have thought, we were able to feed off each others’ ideas to create something I never envisioned when we first started out. The hardest part we came across, in my opinion, was putting together the solos and figuring out the back beats and tempos. Eventually it morphed into a great sequence of steps and beats and is now my favorite part of the dance. From something I would have thought to be a challenge ended up as a great collaborative process, and we created a piece I think will be enjoyed by most.

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Kathleen Helm #2, "In the Kingdom of Enticement"

2009-01-18T10:02:00.000-08:00

It’s a strange thing to look at a final product and trace it back to the initial concept. It’s also strange to think that if the work of art had been completed in a different period of time (even a minute later), the final product would be vastly different. Choreographers often notice the tiniest details of life and truly live in the moment. This plays a vital part in the creation of movement, because even the most mundane action (such as the vibration of a cell phone) can trigger the choreographer with a thousand different motions relating to that vibration.

The small details that inspire my choreography lie in music. I’ve recently discovered my passion for classical music, because it seems to naturally create movement. So, in terms of my dance for this year’s concert, it’s hard to say whether my final product achieved what I set out to do. This is because I envisioned what the song should “look like” before I began the choreographic process. In comparison to other choreographers, my method seems backwards, since I usually begin with a song, and build my concept on top. It is easier for me to draw a storyline out of the music, rather than the other way around.

Choreographing “In the Kingdom of Enticement” was not a struggle for me. For some reason, it just flowed. Each time I added movement to the piece, it magically fit together like a puzzle. I honestly don’t know how the process was so smooth. Again, I’ll have to give credit to the music. I also received positive feedback and encouragement from Diana, Maria, and my fellow dancers, and this unquestionably aided in my success. I’m definitely pleased with my final product, but the perfectionist side of me will always find flaws.

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Meghan Hudson #2 "Spoken For"

2009-01-17T10:48:00.001-08:00

I chose not to be in the dance I choreographed, and as hard as it is to not dance, it is wonderful and empowering to watch others take ownership of my artwork. Like Alex said in her blog, I created my dance, but the dancers are the artists who make it happen every time. It was scary to surrender my work to them, but life-changing to watch my dancers mold and shape the choreography. The piece itself took on a life of its own, it breathes, changes, grows, and occasionally has a sick day. As the choreographer, I’ve witnessed every stage of this piece’s life- I’ve seen the bad days when nothing works out right and I’ve seen the great days when everyone is in sync and piece flows naturally. No one else gets to have that. I am the only one who has seen the worst, the best, and everything in between. So when I watch Anna, Kerry, Megan, Alex, Mckenna, and Darren work their magic and dance, I am above all proud of them and beyond blessed to call them my dancers. If they get on stage and forget everything we worked on, I will still feel this way because I know how hard they have worked for me and how hard I have worked for them. I have given them a piece of me, my stories, my art. All I can ask for in return, is that they find happiness in dancing this piece and a deeper understanding of who I am.

Photo: Diana Stanton

Kate Barton#2, "Tango en el Mate"

2009-01-16T19:27:00.000-08:00

My dancers ate my dance for breakfast. I tend to come up with some pretty tough movement when I can't sleep at night. In years past, my highfalutin ideas have been shot out of the sky when I bring them to my next rehearsal, instigating the piece's metamorphosis from what I "wanted" to what it becomes. But that never happened this time. My dancers devoured whatever I threw at them, and in one case encouraged me to make the choreography harder by adding hops en pointe. I'm lucky enough to have 5 really talented ladies with good technique who can also be a little sassy or give me a little pantomime when the piece requires it. I couldn't ask for anything more from my last piece for Orchesis.
That being said, the dance is VERY hard. The dancers were all so facile at picking up the tough little bits of choreography that we had a rude awakening the first couple times we ran it as a whole. Every time we run the piece it improves as we learn to moderate our stamina to last us through the whole piece. I'm looking forward to my blocking rehearsal in the theater on so I can see it from the audience and hopefully clean everyone's focuses and arms before show time. These two weeks in the theater are both the best and most stressful times for choreographers!

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Kerry Mills #2

2009-01-14T20:04:00.002-08:00

Criticism: it tears you down, makes you question your abilities and weakens your mindset. But ultimately, it makes you better. It is hard for anyone to take criticism, but I believe that dancers, with the bearing of emotion through physical movement, can take it especially hard. When you put everything out on the line for someone to see, you don't want your hard work to go unappreciated. I am sure we can all recall seeing a dejected student walk out of class saying, "grrr, that teacher picked on me so much!" However, I am also sure that every dance instructor would tell you that the people they "pick on" the most are the ones that they care about, the ones that have the most potential. They wouldn't waste their time giving a dancer a correction if they knew they wouldn't take it. In order to improve, a dancer needs to be mature, open-minded, and willing to change. He or she can only get better by thinking about a correction and applying it. While I was thinking about this, I realized that it is likely that the best dancer in the world has heard more critiques and corrections than the worst dancer.
This definitely applies to the choreographers as they go through the demanding process of creating a dance for the concert. They are putting their thoughts onstage for people to inspect, pull apart, interpret, critique and enjoy. Suggestions have been made that the choreographers may not automatically agree with but are encouraged to play with. Every dance has something special about it, and those who are critiquing it and making suggestions only want to bring out those unique qualities. The critiques are made to better the dance and the dancers in it. Though it can be frustrating at time, criticism is there to help us and we need to remember that through these next few weeks!

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Rochelle Norwood

2009-01-14T20:04:00.001-08:00

I have been tapping since I was three years old, and looking back, it is hard to
believe that something I started so young is still with me 20 years
later. I think that is the amazing thing about dance, it can outlast
everything else. Through fads, trends, and life cycle phases, from
childhood, to teen years, and adulthood, it is the one thing that
has remained constant in spite of everything else I do. Choreographing
and working this year with only three people in the tap piece, and
using no music, has been such an enjoyable process. Coming up with
tempos, combinations, and interesting footwork, and sharing it with
other people has been really rewarding and I've loved the creative
process. The most interesting thing to me this year while helping
choreograph, was how your feet would be moving without really thinking
about it, and then they would just catch on to some sort of tempo and
a great beat would come out. I also love how a single heel can change the
musicality and you can come up with something entirely new. As in
other forms of dance such as modern and ballet where you gain emotion
from the movement and choreography, I believe in tap the expression is from the
harmony and interesting sounds that you create. Listening to yourself
and two other people, no music, all creating the same beats, is such a
rush. Unlike other forms of dance though, I feel like tap is more like
riding a bike, even though there are various levels of difficulty, for
me, it is something that I will always remember, how to make certain
noises and combinations. I think the greatest thing I have gained from
this is the creativity of several people coming together to create
something that we enjoy doing, and that people enjoy watching - I find
that very inspiring.

Photo: Keith Mosher

Alexandra Thomsen-Wolfe #2

2009-01-12T19:53:00.000-08:00

I am a dancer in Meghan Hudson's piece "Spoken For."
At first I was worried about being 'up close and personal' with another dancer in this piece. I have done dances where there is a lot of physical contact with other dancers, but what Meghan had in mind for her choreography was so much more personal in nature. When you are being lifted by someone it is purely mechanical; the movement we are doing in this piece requires us to dance emotionally with each other. For example, we support each other's weight in ways that really invade personal space. I think the reason this feels so different from other contact movement I've done is because our faces are so close together. Our faces are what express the majority of our human emotions on a daily basis and to have someone we don't know well so close to what represents us in this way can feel a bit invasive.
However, as we have progressed in this piece all of us dancers have come to know each other a little better and found ways for our bodies to mold together more comfortably. Our movement has also become truer to Meghan's intent as we can really be expressive in our movement now that we've come to a new comfort level.
I also feel challenged in this piece because we are all representing a personal message for Meghan. I wonder if we meet her expectations for this piece and I feel an accountability to her art because it is we who are the means through which her art is shown. As a choreographer it is a much greater challenge to have human beings as your media because humans are not perfect, we make mistakes. As a sculptor you can work your clay until your sculpture is exactly how you want it. As a painter you can keep mixing colors until you have the perfect shade. As a choreographer there is no way to have your art exactly the way you want it. A piece will actually be different every time it is shown. It is the dancers' responsibility to perform the artist's choreography to convey the artist's message. For this dance I really feel the weight of this responsibility and it challenges me to work harder.
This piece has come a long way from where it started not just in terms of the choreography unfolding, but in terms of the emotionality we as dancers are now able to portray through the choreography.

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Francesca Lee #2, "Loyal Opposites"

2009-01-12T16:30:00.000-08:00

At this point, I am satisfied as a choreographer and ready for my dance to be presented to the public. I have gone through many challenges and thoughts leading me to produce Loyal Opposites.
My piece is about risk taking from a comfort zone that we make ourselves feel safe in. Although we are in these comfort zones, we also wish for more in life. We are not satisfied with life unless we take that next step out of the box. Some reasons we don’t stray away from our box could be our insecurities of who we are, what others will think about us, or worrying if we made the right choices. It is pressure of what is, what was, and what is to come.
I have learned a lot about my choreographic process. My journal has scribbles I can’t read, along with ideas and movement, and also just writing to free my mind from the tension I have from thinking too hard about everything in life. Most of the time, I have to remind myself to BREATHE. I am not a choreographer who creates movement in a straight line from beginning to finish. I experiment with segments of movement that will eventually be pieced together. This is frustrating because I forget what is what and how segments will be pieced together. On the other hand, it makes the ending product unpredictable and leaves room for evolving thoughts. It is an adventure. I definitely challenged my choreographic skills this year. I have relied on my dancers for variations of movement I give them. They have been my other pairs of eyes to inform what my piece was evolving into. I have had many challenges asking myself questions like:

What am I actually trying to portray to my audience?
How will I use my 3 dancers throughout the piece?
What is the meaning behind my set?
How does the set relate to the stage?
How will I put all of my choreography together?
How does my piece reflect my life? Or does it not?

So… I started with something, and I ended up with something completely different. My artistic intent changed along with “things” I have recognized in myself. I went through MANY thoughts to finalize the concept for my piece. I swear it changed everyday for weeks. I had to let go of some ideas I wanted to keep and when I did, something better came along.

Although I am satisfied with where my piece is at this point, I still think of it as a work in progress that I would like to modify in the future. It is only a rough draft. I think only with time this piece will become complete. I am not sure what I would change, but I know I would solidify meaning and concepts throughout the dance. Personal experiences and decisions in my life in the next 6 months will allow me to fully develop Loyal Opposites and call this piece complete, if I get the opportunity to work on it again.

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Diana Stanton, "Sculpture Garden"

2009-01-12T16:01:00.001-08:00

Dancing is the closest thing to creating magic I know of, just like Alyssa said in her description of her solo. Magic - even at 7am. An unusual time for a rehearsal yes, but with the studio full of classes and rehearsals, and everyone’s schedules maxed out to say the least, 7 am was what we had. It turns out it was an ideal time to play with magic, to create a story, to enjoy the body’s abilities (and residual soreness).

I always feel that the atmosphere, the time of day, the energy of the dancers, and the overall vibe of the group can really influence the creation of a dance. In the mornings this past Fall quarter, there was sometimes a mist in the air or a gentle wind that created a perfect environment for our “Sculpture Garden.” Inspired by statues of gods and goddesses and classic fine art paintings I saw in Florence, Italy this past summer, I sought to create an otherworldly atmosphere where dance celebrates the mystery and power of the feminine.

I love how legends attempt to explain the mysteries in life that seem to guide the mortal, tangible world. Gods and Goddesses control the wind and the growth of plants, they fight beasts protecting the world from evil, they exert forces that possess you with love, power and wisdom, and their gaze can melt you into the earth or turn you to stone. A dancer can be that powerful - at least it feels like it sometimes. It is fun to feel like you can move a mountain with a gesture, fly with a jump, or conjure a storm with a pirouette. I wanted that sense of playful power for this dance.

In terms of the craft of the dance, I wanted the movement to develop from stationary to a swirling and fulfilled use of space, from still postures to kinetic flow, from staccato to swingy and fluid. I wanted the dancers still and suspended in time at the beginning, to full of breath and life at the end. I wanted the entire dance to be its own early morning ritual that takes place before the rest of the world is awake.

I tend to use the individuality of the dancers in choreography. Each dancer in this dance has added, in her own way, a sense of youthful delight, beauty and articulate expression. The process has been quite enjoyable for me. For the dancers, dancing on a “tippy” pedestal hasn’t been easy or comfortable but they have been helpful and enthusiastic about it. Also, some of their rehearsal kibutzing has turned into choreography; their play and their efforts have really added to the work. As the dancers have become more comfortable with the material, they have settled into being less “posey” and more into being beautifully authentic. The dance has grown into a life of its own now rather than being just a collection of ideas. The experience has been a gift to me, and it will be fun to watch what happens as this dance transitions to the stage, which itself is full of magic.

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Alexia Beghi #2

2009-01-11T15:52:00.000-08:00

Although McKenna’s Every Love But True Love underwent drastic changes in storyline and musical selection, it never veered from the style she so daringly chose to portray—Broadway. This type of piece is a first in my history of being in Orchesis, and I am just thrilled that I could be a part of it. Not only were we expected to have the energy required by a Broadway piece, but our acting skills also definitely came into play. All of us were also really willing to help McKenna through some tough choreographic blocks. As a group, we really worked together to solidify the story McKenna wanted us to represent through our dancing and acting.

Photo: Prem Ananda

from Diana

2009-01-11T15:28:00.000-08:00

Showtime is imminent - about 3 weeks away. Most dances are complete I have asked the students to reflect on the choreographic process, the intentions and evolvement of each dance. Each piece has a unique statement, point of view or expression. The dancers have the very important job now of bringing the dances to life, to express the intentions of the choreographers, to speak- through the body- what words cannot. It is a pleasure to watch the students in some of the rehearsals as they take responsibility for themselves, many have become very invested in the excellence and artistry of the work. It is collaboration in the truest sense. There is much to do, tension is high and physical health is precious. This is an opportunity to be our best.

Darren Bridges

2009-01-10T21:53:00.001-08:00

The trip to San Francisco was a good learning experience and definitely inspired me as a dancer. The most exciting class for me was the Master Class with Bliss, the style was very “Fun Modern” and I enjoyed how it required you to cautiously think about every step. We weren’t able to “just dance”, we actually had to focus on each aspect of our body while at the same time, keep a our technical skills present. For one of the classes that we had from Saki was difficult for me because I haven’t danced lyrical/jazz in so long that it took me a while to shape my movement to fit the style. Another hard thing from her class was the section in warm-up that we stay up on our eleve for a long time! But after each class my body was pumped up and ready for the next. The most challenging aspect for me the time restraint that we had, that weekend was very hectic, especially with school and then having other commitments to attend to directly after we got back. Overall the trip was great and I’m glad that I had the chance to experience it.

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Michele Andrews

2009-01-10T21:48:00.002-08:00

This was my second trip to San Francisco with Orchesis, and it was far different from my first...The first time I went, two years ago, I only knew a few of the dancers and was nervous, to put it lightly. Our first class was from Stacy Printz and I found myself unable to even wrap my head around the movement let alone ask my body to put it into motion. I left the class feeling discouraged and unsure if I was actually going to be able to do this whole "dance company" thing.
Obviously I stuck it out, and this year, I went into Stacy's class with a much more positive outlook. Did I get each step, arm or body roll that she did?? Definitely not! But I attempted each movement she gave, and if it didn't look like Stacy's, well, I made it my own. I left class feeling feeling confident, feeling like I had grown a little as a dancer from what I attempted in class. I tried to hold on to this attitude for the remainder of the trip, and our Sunday morning class with Bliss was even more inspiring. I've admired the Robert Moses’ work for the past two years, and it was awesome to be able to learn some of the movement and dance it to Dr Dre! Our last class with Saki was a bit of a challenge for me. After the Moses class, the jazz just wasn't flowing through me at all (not to mention all those relvees in second at the beginning of class had my calves burning!) Although, the final run of the combination we learned was really awesome - a wonderful way to end the trip!
One of the things I've gained through dance is the confidence to walk into a room, be it dance studio, classroom or interview, and be present and be myself. This is something that shows the impact dance will always have on my life.

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Megan Branson

2009-01-10T21:48:00.001-08:00

Although this is my third year in the company, I have never had the chance to go on the annual San Francisco trip. I’d heard stories from all of the other vets about how fun the trip was, so I was really looking forward to going. The most memorable part of the trip for me was watching Alonzo King’s Lines Ballet. The performance was held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, which is a gorgeous theater. Our seats were up high, but it was almost better that way because we could see the wholeness of the pieces. Sometimes when you sit too close you get distracted by what’s right in front of you and miss out on other great parts of the dance. The dancers were absolutely amazing. They were the most graceful, intricate, and flexible dancers I’ve seen. Seeing this concert inspired me and made me excited for our classes the next day.
I woke up the second day sore and tired (I’m definitely NOT a morning person), but I couldn’t wait to dance. Bliss’ class that morning was my favorite class of the weekend. The warm up she gave us was a perfect way to wake up our bodies. I love the way she works through her feet with everything she does and how she makes herself look bigger when she dances by using all of the space she can. The Robert Moses choreography she taught us was nowhere close to my style, but it felt good to put my all into it to try to adapt to the style. It’s so hard to do the fast yet detailed work like the lunge, turn, jump, lunge sequence! I think all of our thighs were hurting from that the next day! It’s interesting to watch the Moses piece in the show and see all of the different interpretations of the movement the dancers have. Everyone expresses it differently, I love it!
I think the most challenging part of the trip was the last class we took. It may have been different if we took that class first, but my feet were cramping after the first five minutes of Saki’s warm up! I haven’t had a conditioning class like that in a verrrry long time. My legs were shaking from all of the balances we had to do. I think I would have enjoyed this class more if it wasn’t at the end of the trip when my body was exhausted and all I could think about was going back home and sleeping. The S.F. trip was reminded me of all the reasons I choose to dance. It was a change from our normal routine and perfect way to get to know all of the newbies!

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Amee Sing

2009-01-10T21:45:00.000-08:00

I have a lot of memorable moments from the SF trip. One of my most memorable was the Lines Ballet. That was one of the best shows I have ever seen. It really inspired me to work on my technique more, while I still can. All of the dancers were amazing. This show really opened my eyes to see that I should continue to push myself as a dancer.
Out of all the classes, I was most excited to take class from Bliss again. I just remember how fun that class was when she came for the first time two years ago. But once we took all the classes, I loved all the movement. The classes were all so different and different than what we have been taking. It was a nice change. I enjoyed the first class that we took the most. It was so intricate and easy to express my feelings through the movement. Even though there was a lot of movement it was really easy to let go and feel the music. During all of the classes my body felt good. There was a lot of control and I really was able to focus on the movement. Afterward, however, my body didn’t like me. I just overworked myself and sprained my muscle.
The challenges that I faced were getting back into the groove of taking classes from dance teachers that I haven’t taken class from before and being able to pick up on their style and choreography. It just reminded me of one of the reasons why I love dance. The trip as a whole brought me back to the reasons why I love dancing.

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

McKenna Friend

2009-01-10T21:39:00.001-08:00

My life is a circus right now. There is so much going on around me that I can barely hear myself think. Dance is the only thing in my life that remains constant. I feel most comfortable when I am performing. I appreciate the beauty in the process of sweating, crying, training, choreographing, and rehearsing but it will never even remotely compare the joy I experience in front of an audience. Some say it's my pride that drives me to perform. The need to be seen. That is not it at all. The only time I am truly ME is when I am on the stage. To some degree, the me you see in every day life is just a body. My soul stays on the stage. It lives and thrives there. When my body gets to join my soul on stage...that is when I am truly happy. That is when the circus around me disappears and all the sweat and tears are worth it. That is when I introduce myself to you. The piece from MOMENTUM last year articulated it perfectly... "I am McKenna...and this is my heart."

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Prem Ananda - Photographer

2008-12-31T20:49:00.001-08:00

Does a picture capture a thousand words? I think so, maybe even more than a thousand. When your expression is as transient as dance, a photographer that can capture the drama of the human body in a jump, a fall, a turn or a moment of physical emotion, is an indispensable gift. This year, Art and Design Student Prem Ananda has been following rehearsals and leading photo shoots all quater long. He has captured the elegance, the hard work, the fun and the experience of Orchesis. See more of his work at premphoto.com.

Rachel Ankeny

2008-12-30T22:47:00.000-08:00

For the past three years I’ve had the pleasure to be a dances choreographed by Crystal Valdez. In the last few weeks I began to realize how interesting it has been to watch her development as a choreographer. Her first piece was a fun, upbeat dance with many dancers. The dance was reminiscent of Brazilin social dance, the stage was filled with bright colors and flashy movements. It was uplifting to dance and was a crowd pleaser! The next year, Crystal’s choreography started to take on more meaning and send a message. “Femishpere” made a statement about the different roles of women in modern society. The piece was edgy and even uncomfortable at times, and it did an amazing job to get a reaction out of the audience. And finally, this year, again Crystal has chosen a specific theme to portray through her choreography, which she described in her blog. Her process this year has been very rich and artistic. There was a strong focus on the story behind the movement. Our first rehearsal was used solely to discuss the theme and get responses and ideas from the dancers. She has taken concepts from our stories and integrated into the movement. Also, she has integrated different styles of dance. It is so fun to see her artistry develop as it has. Each piece was uniquely beautiful and well crafted, but it is clear that the process behind each one has been different. It is fun to have seen that over the years she has come to be very talented in creating art that expresses a specific meaning as well as is pleasing to the eye!

Photo: Keith Mosher

Guin Chan

2008-12-30T22:46:00.002-08:00

I hadn’t originally planned to dance my first year in college. I decided before packing up all my things and heading off to Cal Poly that I should focus on my studies. After being on my high school’s dance team for four years, I hate to admit it, but I was a little burnt out from the crazy practices and the drama and the competitions. Not saying that I didn’t love every moment of it, but I thought I wanted a break from it. All I factored into my decision about dance was the practices, all the time spent in the studio that could’ve been spent doing something more productive for my resume, the politics and the money.
  But I forgot about the most important things that I love about dance itself. I forgot how happy I was after practice, no matter how difficult it got, and how I could be proud of myself for pushing myself to do what I thought I couldn’t. I forgot that while practices could drive me insane, dance has always been a pillar in my life, and for a good reason. I forgot how easy it was to tune out everything that didn’t matter, all the politics that were irrelevant to the here and now in the studio.
   I’m glad that I realized the positives outweigh the negatives by a million because I don’t know what I would have done without the familiarity of dance in my first year away from home. The movements may be different than what I’m used to, but its still the same catharsis.
  Reading through these blogs it’s easy to see that every single member of Orchesis is here because they love it. Dance holds an important place in their life for them; an emotional outlet, inspiration, sanity. I think that at this point in our lives, if we still choose and need somewhere to dance regularly, that it is obvious the sole reason is a vital necessity to dance. It is here that I see a difference between high school and college dance, namely Orchesis. I think a lot of the stress of competing and practicing in a high school team is eliminated with that simple fact. When the common goal is purely to dance, the politics are easily dissolved, the environment is softened, and everyone I think, is generally happier.

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Jessica Thoma

2008-12-30T22:46:00.001-08:00

Processing thoughts is what we do all day. Through thinking about a math problem, or how we are going to get to class the quickest, or what lipstick will look good for this date. Why? The biggest question of our lives is why? Why do you think about this? Why so we care about this? Why should we do this? It’s a question that lingers in our mind but we never really stop to process and ponder. Some of us do, but we become frustrated and turn away from it and some of us ask this question why and we reinterpret what we think the answer is. In design class for architecture, we reinterpret an idea that relates to the site and the people and the precedents around the building. This interpretation is our answer to the why. Sometimes its good, sometimes its way off base so we continue redefining and reinterpreting the idea until it fits well enough. Nothing is ever finished because there is always a better solution. Reworking and reworking and reworking for hours and hours….I answer this question why for a building and it seems like enough work just for school that I couldn’t do this for one more second…yet I choreograph… I think the reason I choreograph is because it is my passion to dance. I love to move and feel everything that happens when your heart rate goes up and you feel the coolest things emotionally and physically within yourself and with other people. Why shouldn’t I try to create something like this myself? Then it feels even more genuine and real when I dance it. I can answer those questions of why for myself. I can share those things with someone else and explore different things with my body and my emotions and my thoughts. The process really makes you think and that ability to dig deep inside yourself to figure out what you really think about things and how you feel that they should be expressed…it says something and you learn about yourself. I have learned so much from this process. I thought it would be a complete and total disaster creating a piece for the first time, but along with my partner Kelsey, we’ve come up with some really interesting stuff. Why hadn’t I thought it was possible? It all comes down to why for me, and I think that everyone should explore the why in their lives. Creating a building can be the exploration of the why for a space and for a group of people but creating a piece of modern dance is an exploration of the why for me.

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Carolyn Taylor

2008-12-30T22:45:00.000-08:00

I absolutely loved the Lubovitch Master Class that was given by
Christopher Vo. What an awesome experience that we were so lucky to
have to opportunity to participate in! Every second of this class was
even more wonderful, challenging, fulfilling and just fun than the
last. For me, one of the most enjoyable aspects to this class was the
fact that it took place in a very large, beautiful, mirror-less room.
The lack of mirrors allowed me the opportunity to really feel the
movement in my body. This is something that seems so basic, but I
think is so easy to forget when otherwise you have mirrors all around
you and you can't help but to stare at yourself, judging, critiquing,
and thinking about what you are or are not (or even can't be) doing.
The movement that was being given to us was truly beautiful. It was
flowing, it felt real (nothing fake, thought out, planned or
pointless) and I was beginning to feel like I was that dance because
there was nothing there to distract me from focusing on how the
movement felt in my body rather than how my body looked doing it. I
honestly do not think that we would have been able to even come close
to do it justice had those terrible, full-of-lies contraptions that we
call mirrors, been covering the walls. I only wish that I (and all
dancers) could allow myself to feel like this every time I danced, or
at least a little more often. It was a truly, beautiful, special and
therapeutic experience.

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Kerry Mills

2008-12-30T22:44:00.000-08:00

During the photo shoot we did a lot of improvisational exercises in the hopes of capturing something interesting or appealing to the eye. One of my favorite exercises was when one person took a shape, another person ran up to them and took a different position, and a third person joined in and played off the other two. Why was this interesting? A choreographer can spend all day creating a perfect shape for three people; playing with levels, weight distribution, and the lines created by arms and legs. Ultimately, though it may take hours, they will create a shape that appeals to them. But in less than fifteen minutes, we created close to one hundred shapes that were beautiful, interesting, and diverse. Not one shape do I remember not enjoying. Each was unique and captured a certain spontaneity. Everyone had to make choices on an impulse. They were forced to create a shape that they couldn't think about for more than a few seconds. What resulted were beautiful shapes that weren't over thought or forced. One person could totally change the shape as well. When one person ran out and another ran in it was like a whole new shape. Different levels, a different quality, a different position. I am certain that the images captured by the photographer will show how beauty can be created by simple, spontaneous movements and positions.

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Alyssa Carnahan

2008-12-30T22:43:00.000-08:00

“Becoming Myrtha”

I find myself here, in one of those times…a fourth year Orchesis member and a senior graduating in June. How did I get here? This is the last time I will be performing with Orchesis, a fact that makes me think about my very first year, and all the things I have learned between then and now. I would like to say that the insecurities are fewer, that it gets less nerve-racking to “show your stuff” as we say, and dance all that is in your soul without worrying about what it looks like to other people, (there are some things I am still waiting to learn, I suppose. Some things that haven’t really changed at all). But hard work means patience, and one day, eventually, we get there.

I have been blessed to have had the chance to perform three solos while a member of Orchesis, the third of which I am working on now for our current concert. It is “The Queen of the Wilis” from the Second Act of the beloved romantic ballet Giselle. I am working with Moon Ja once again; she continues to tell me how important it is to revive the old ballet masterworks and to share and carry on their magic in the world of dance today. This is a point I have always supported myself, and I have felt truly honored to perform in her restagings.

But for some reason, (and I am still trying to decide what that is), I feel different this year. My focus seems to have changed. I feel more connected with the piece and with the character I am playing, and the magic of it feels more at home in me. When we first began rehearsing at the beginning of the quarter, I told Moon Ja that I was glad that we had not chosen to do this piece three years ago (the year I performed a variation from Sleeping Beauty) because I know now that I would not have been ready for Myrtha at that point. Honestly, perhaps I am still not ready for it. For this piece, there is no hiding behind complex footwork or a plastered on smile. To dance Myrtha’s solo is to be Myrtha. The dance itself is her persona, the embodiment of who she is. Because of this, the work I am putting in this year must come from a different kind of place.

There is something I can’t seem to quantify, a sacredness and a transience that I can only affectionately describe as “magic” that occurs in the relationship of a dancer with the music, the stage, and the material. If I can’t articulate it, then my goal should at least be to try and capture that magic and channel it somehow to make myself become Myrtha, if only for the moment I have onstage to tell her story. I feel as though that is what we are forever trying to accomplish as dancers, to capture a moment in time and to express its truth with our bodies. (In my head I imagine rays of light and energy--think Fantasia!--that play like string instruments and harmonize in, around, and through a dancer’s moving body: the motion in harmony with the music in harmony with the surroundings in harmony with the spirit in which it is done…)

Anyway, the process never ends. We try to work a little harder today than we did yesterday and hope we get somewhere. Sometimes we don’t. Other times, the coin disappears, the rabbit jumps out of the hat, and a fleeting moment is extended, revealing something you never even knew was there.

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Megan Butala

2008-12-30T22:42:00.000-08:00

Earlier in Fall quarter we had a master class when Lar Lubovitch's company performed at our school. Before it started, I was, as usual, a little intimidated about the idea of being around really strong dancers. Also, I always anticipate stiff and really structured and serious instructors who don't necessarily want to be there working with me. Expecting this, I was pleasantly suprised and releaved by the bubbly, friendly dancer who taught the class.
I enjoyed getting a look into a professional dancer's thought process as far as how he explained and taught and just his relationship to the movement. He emphasized performance quality, not having perfect technique or being exactly on the music. He presented the material well and in an informal way that helped me be less nervous and do better than I might have otherwise.
Besides the instructor and getting some insight into his state of mind, I also really enjoyed the movement; it was really different from movement that's comfortable for me and that I'm used to doing. I do quite often feel challenged, but not in the same way that a new instructor or type of movement challenges and refreshes you.
Part of my favorite part about the last phrase we learned, which seemed like another average combination, suprised me when we did it in canon with a partner. I had no idea of the really cool relationship that would result from doing the combination in that manner, I had never thought about doing movement like that and i really enjoyed it, its always fun to really feel like you are dancing WITH people, to have moments on contact and having connection between the initiation and motivation between movement.
In all, I enjoyed the master class and came away feeling refreshed and inspired.

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Anna Gibbons

2008-12-30T22:40:00.000-08:00

Frustration: the feeling of being upset or annoyed, esp. because of the inability to change or achieve something.

All weekend I had been trying so hard to master Chad Michael Hall’s style. I threw myself on the ground with enthusiasm, I rolled over my shoulders more than I needed to, and I pushed my body exceedingly past its limit. So, of course, I ended the weekend with an injured shoulder. With each passing day the injury got increasingly worse. I couldn’t lift my arm without pain in the back of my shoulder. I would reach for something, feel the same shocking pain, and instantly have to retract the movement. I was frustrated. Throughout my dance career I had never suffered an injury that kept me from dancing. I was frustrated at the fact that I had to sit out of rehearsals for a week and a half. I was frustrated that I didn’t know exactly what was wrong with my shoulder or how I could fix it. I was frustrated at doctors for telling me what I already knew. I was frustrated that all I could do was ice and heat it while continually taking ibuprofen. Mostly I was frustrated by my inability to change the situation. I’ve always heard shoulder injuries are the worst. What if the pain doesn’t go away? Will I need surgery? Would this be something I would have to deal with for the rest of my dance career? These questions constantly ran through my mind. My imagination was running wild, wondering if it would heal before the upcoming show. The slightest chance I might not be able to perform crushed me. From that feeling I realized the importance dance held for me. I deeply desire to be back on stage, dancing in front of people who understand my art form.
Now, mostly healed, I can admit the over-dramatization of my thoughts through this process. But as a vocalist’s voice is essential to their expression so is a dancer’s body essential to theirs. Without even one part of my body working at its full strength, my main source of expression is stolen from me. And that’s frustrating!

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Aimee Warner

2008-12-30T22:32:00.001-08:00

Wow, what can I say? This quarter has been mind blowing…literally. I have been exposed to so much new material and movement styles that I feel that it has all flown past me and I’ve been lucky to grab a small lesson from each experience. Right from auditions I have been pushing myself and trying to gain as much as I can from the amazing talent that I am surrounded by. The first thing that is really beginning to sink into my mind and body is the use of floor work and upper body work between rolling, falling, jumping I am beginning to move my body in ways I never thought I was capable of. It is challenging both to mind and body. People don’t necessarily think of dance as something that involves a lot of brain power, but along side of remembering combinations there is the task of break down and understanding the movement you are given or are creating. Dance is truly a whole mind and body experience, requiring you to be fully present in yourself and aware of where you are physically. Another thing that has been a challenge for me both within classes and rehearsals is working on truly filling all of my movement. There was one moment during our first class with Sydna Reed where she came over to me during an arabesque and simply pulled on my wrist and told me to expand. Somehow this simple gesture really hit home and has been a moment that I return to often to remind myself to allow my movement to continue rather than to just reach a max and stop. I like to think of these moments as an addition to my “tool box” as my drama teacher explained one time. As you go through life you experience new things that then get added to your tool box that you can access at any time.
Now while this quarter has been full of additions to my technical tool box, I’ve also had the ability to add a few to my emotional tool box. Being a freshman in college there’s lots of new experiences, feelings and situations to deal with; luckily I have dance in order to help me work through these instances. There are two ways in which dance allows me to explore these new places in my life, one is the ability to come to rehearsal or class and leave the outside world behind. When you begin to dance and move your body, by taking an internal focus and honing into what your body is doing it allows me to be in a completely different world and forget about the stresses and release and relax so that when I do have to re-enter the real world, I am calmer, more collected and deal with things as they come rather than just feeling overwhelming and panicking. The other thing that has been great for me this quarter has been being a part of both Crystal and Heidi’s pieces. They both involve topics and themes that are relevant to my life right now, so going to rehearsals allows me to dance through any hardship or mental stress I am going through at that moment. I am very, very grateful to the wonderful program of Orchesis, I’ve learned so much already and can’t even imagine all of the lessons to come.

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Kelsey Tallon

2008-12-30T22:28:00.001-08:00

I feel like I am in a really odd place right now. Last year was really tough for me…it was a relatively short period of time where life really just kicked me in the butt. Although I despised many moments in the past year, they taught me a lot about myself. I learned that my way of dealing with stress is horrible, and something needed to change. So it did. I decided that dance would stop being just another thing to stress me out and regain its place in my life as the thing I did to get rid of the stress. My view of Orchesis changed as this year began, and classes (even ballet!) became extremely enjoyable. In fact, I felt so in control of everything that it seemed very plausible for Jess and me to choreograph together. This was great at the beginning. We just got into the studio, discussed our concept, put movement to it, and to our, or at least my, great surprise, it was very well received. We were so worried that as first time choreographers, our movement would not be up to par with those who have done it many times.
Well all was fine and dandy until after the first showing. That’s when we realized that this is really ridiculously difficult! The suggestions we received were awesome, and it seemed as though implementing them would be quite simple. But it wasn’t. We got into our first argument ever trying to decide where we wanted to go with the piece, what looked good, and what was interesting. It’s gotten a little easier since then, but we still are having trouble agreeing on what should happen now and next. It’s really fascinating to reflect on what we are doing, and actually kind of humorous. We have the exact same conceptual idea for the dance. This is what I expected to give us the biggest issue. It’s like writing a paper with someone else. Once you decide on the skeleton of the paper, it seems like it would be easy to fill in the substance. Well, that’s wrong. What’s ended up being hard is the “how”. How do we display our concept? Well, we both have very different ideas. And in case it’s not obvious, this gets really frustrating for both of us! I suppose this is just another good life lesson. I want to say that it’s just about how it’s important to compromise when you are working with someone else so you don’t make them want to hurt you, etc. But it’s way more than just that. It’s about compromising your ideas to make something even better. The dance would be entirely different if just one of us choreographed it, even with the exact same concept. But I really think that all of the arguments and frustration that has gone into it so far has created something much more interesting. And importantly, something that more thoroughly explains the idea we are trying to convey.
So I suppose I should relate this to how this puts me in an odd place. Well, things went from easy and great with our dance to more and more frustration. Because it was just our dance that was frustrating, it was easy to still enjoy dance. And then came Chad Hall weekend. To be honest, that weekend made me very apathetic about dancing. It was my stress reliever becoming the thing that stressed me most in my life. And it sucked. I completely understand what happened (a missed opportunity to be in the dance because of scheduling), and it is no ones fault. In fact, it was actually a really good thing as far as the direction of the company. But regardless, it sucked. So the idea of dealing with the frustration of our dance and going back into the studio were not particularly appealing. And now I feel like I am battling the desire to just give up. It’s that whole intellect/emotion thing. You know intellectually that in the grand scheme of things, there are just the growing pains you have to go through to mature, but you have this huge emotional block that doesn’t really care about anything your intellect has to say. It’s unfortunate, and it’s really odd. So I’m trying really hard to break down the block, because I do love dance, and there really is nothing else like it to work through all of your emotions. Maybe this is part of the problem I am having with our dance now. Diana has said many times that you have to choreograph what is relevant to you right now, and our concept does not deal with the feelings that are currently relevant for me.
In any case, it seems like these kinds of things happen all the time in life. Although it’s hard right now that it is happening with something I care for so deeply, it is really good that it is happening with a part of my life, dance, that I use to work through things with.

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Tanya Tolmasoff

2008-12-30T22:25:00.001-08:00

I think dancers forget sometimes that they are part of a higher
community- artists- and it's an honor and a talent that only a
select few really posses- and I believe dance is one of the highest
forms of expression. Plato once said 'Dance is the closest you'll get
to expressing the soul" (well not exact words- but pretty darn close).

'You are the central character of your own Novel'.   This idea should
also be present in dance as well. We don't always get to have a solo or be in the front or even be lit... both in life and on stage. However, this doesn't mean that
our performances should have any less meaning for ourselves or the
audience. A few years ago, I went to see the 'The Paris Opera Ballet'
and was entranced by the dancers- oh, no, not the prima ballerina- not
the main prince- no, I was completely involved in the background
peasants dressed in very 'unfortunate' costumes. The reason I was so
focused on them was that they were so true to their character, their
insignificant roles barely on stage, that I couldn't take my eyes off
of them. I find it is much more interesting, both as an audience and as a performer, to put your own story and emotion into every step... not kidding... every single step.
I had the pleasure of watching different student choreography last week at the showing and was overwhelmed and proud to know all of the dancers and choreographers. It was a marvel to watch the different journeys all the dancers and choreographers are allowing us to witness. This is why I'd like to discuss the idea or the meaning of performance. Why do we perform? is it to show that we can point our feet and remember steps? maybe. But I think
it's much more than that. Why, as a patron, would I be interested in
watching kicks, and tricks, and turns, and poses, when I've seen that
before sooo many times? I can see that anywhere. I believe that it
is a dancer's duty to take themselves and the audience on an artistic
journey... and beyond... I believe dance is when you
feel so much emotion that you cannot express it except by dancing it.
Just like music: as if the words coming out of your mouth are too
important to be just said- they NEED to be sung.    Otherwise- what
the hell are we doing on stage at all?!
I see more potential in all of us. We have an amazing opportunity to really stretch the limits of ourselves as performers, dancers, students, artists, and choreographers.   I want to be the kind of dancer who thinks she’s doing a solo even when she’s in the back behind someone really tall... because every step is
important... Maybe a ronde de jambe won't save the world, but it's a start...

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

from Diana

2008-11-19T22:03:00.000-08:00

When you live as an artist you observe, you feel, you experience and you are aware of the highest highs and the lowest lows in life. It doesn’t matter really what you do for a living. For those destined to an artistic path, life manifests as a work of art no matter what you are doing. You could be an accountant, a lawyer, an engineer, or a student, anything...but as an artist, you have a point of view about ideas and emotion, you have interesting outlooks on everyday behavior, and your most mundane activities are sacred. Especially as a dancer or other performing artist, life is an open experiment. You, and everything about you becomes public property in a way. Perhaps that is why dancing is so compelling. The dancer is and becomes the work itself. A dancer feels and has the ability to magnify her or his experiences, and in doing so gives others permission to feel, to think, to analyse and to ponder. The dancer gives the spirit a voice, brings thought into action, and physicalizes the unknown. That is impact.

Ironically, as meaningful as dance is to those of us who practice, to many who only observe dance, the artform sometimes becomes only decorative, fun “entertainment.” (which is fine, but there is also more...) Or conversely, when viewing concert/artistic dance, the movement can seem confusing, abstract and difficult to “understand.” It does take some investment on the part of the audience to process the depth, but Modern Dance Pioneer Isadora Duncan points out, “if I could tell you what I mean, I wouldn’t have to dance it.” I wonder, who completely “understands” Beethoven or other classical music greats? We experience the art, we feel it, and sometimes works of art strike a chord in us, they ring true to our spirit and we “understand” even though we can’t explain why. The artwork (dance in our case) gives us a language other that words and an expression other than verbal. Our bodies become our voice... our anatomy - our grammar.

Oh no...here she goes with the philosophy stuff again....

That usually happens to me after we show/see the dances we have been working on since the beginning of the quarter. It seems amazing what we do - all these interesting ideas and dances are created with such limited time and resources. One of the challenges of working in the arts at a polytechnic university is that students have labs, projects and classes (darn academics...) that get in the way of rehearsals and casting opportunities. We have only one big fully staged and supported dance performance a year when we really need at least two. With only one dance studio (but it’s ours and we are so thankful for it), it means we rehearse at 7 am (yes really, just ask the students) and on Sun evenings. It means the show will be an epic if we take all the dances that audition.

Orchesis is full of wonderful inspiration, but is not without its drama, growing pains, disappointments and challenges. As in many dance programs at universities, the desire for quality and excellence doesn’t come without a price. This is college and what that means is that sometimes dancers don’t get roles they want .... sometimes they are not right for the part, their skills are not what is required, or their schedule and their priorities are not working with the rehearsal call.

Honestly, and sometimes sadly, the cold hard truth is that no one is “entitled” to any role because he or she is a senior, a past Orchesis member, a good student or a friendly face. A role in a dance is earned, and “luck is when opportunity meets preparation.”

- do they know that this is because we want them to be their most excellent, that we want the program to be strong for Their benefit??

Student choreographers are challenged to justify their choices, to clarify their movement, to dig deeper into their artistic intentions, and to make connections between their emotional, artistic, and intellectual lives?

- do they know it is because we want them to grow, to strengthen their artistic voice, to not settle for less than the best they can offer?

In college we hope and expect that discipline comes from self motivation and drive. Students are expected to listen to and apply feedback, to observe detail, and to push themselves. We want them to reach higher, be stronger and more powerful, and to be smart. As teachers we have other interesting things to share with them about art and about the body rather that just acting as their disciplinarians. We hope that self discipline is already in place.

-do they know it is because we want to share a wonderful world of dance with them?

Sometimes we have to tell students things they don’t want to hear - critiques and bad news.

- do they know we still care about them and think about them all the time?

- do they know that loss and disappointment doesn’t mean that an experience is bad, that it can still be valuable and fun?

- do they know that hard work and taking things seriously actually makes things more fun and satisfying?

Sometimes I forget they are 20ish and I am 43ish - some of them seem to worry if they are “liked,” (so do I, but not as much), I worry wondering if they grow, question and understand (perhaps so do they, but not as much).

They want frozen yogurt after a long day of rehearsal - I want a glass of wine.

And you thought we were just prancing around huh.........

Photo: Prem Ananda premphoto.com

Stephanie Alvarez

2008-11-19T11:56:00.000-08:00

Pain. I never thought of it as both a physical and a mental thing. Well, I mean I have, but I have never thought of combining these two different types of pain to create something miraculous. This weekend I became in pain physically by throwing my body around in Chad Michael Hall's piece(it was quite fun though), but I never knew I could use my mental pain of emotion to help express and move my body in this dance.

Mental pain? During this past year I have felt as if everything I loved has been taken away from me. Back in March, my grandma passed away. At the end of August, my boyfriend (well, ex-boyfriend now) of almost two years ended our relationship and broke my heart into pieces. Then in October, my grandpa passed away. At this point I felt as if I had nothing. I have never felt so devastated and alone. I had lost three major things I cared for the most in my life. I didn't know what to do. Right after my grandpa's funeral I met up with the rest of the Orchesis Dance Company in San Fransisco. Of course I was still sad but it was nice to be surrounded by my friends again. It was in our first master class at the Alonzo King's dance studio that I realized, hey, dance is therapeutic. Dance is what keeps me sane. I didn't realize until then how much emotion and passion I put into my dancing. From this mental pain that has been growing and growing this past year, I took it all and used it to power my dancing. The death of my grandma and grandpa, every lame excuse my ex-boyfriend has given me to make me mad, and just about every other little thing that made me feel like nothing, I felt that pain and used it. I don't think I have felt this strong in my dancing in a long time.

Those who say to leave everything that's happening in your social life (whether dramatic, bad, or good) out the door when entering the dance studio? BS. I say take all those emotions, whether you're angry, happy, sad, or stressed, and use them to dance. If you put your heart into it, it will make you feel better, and your dancing will be phenomenal.

Photo: Keith Mosher