Collaborative Choreography

October 23, 2008—Collaborative choreography for company members and young dancers
As a new member of Jane Franklin Dance, I am learning what it’s like to do collaborative choreography. Each dancer has their own style so in any given rehearsal we might do ten different styles of movement. Jane leads us through the concepts she has and gets us to move in the ways she envisions (hopefully we are anyway). Then Jane watches us dance and molds all the movement into dance pieces. There is never a dull moment. We might have to change the way we are facing, the speed, the direction, cut this part, add that one, do the movement on the floor, in the air, or take solo movement and do it with a partner instead. We have to be ready for anything!
Recently we started a project with young dancers. I was surprised the first day we had rehearsal at how well the elementary school-aged dancers improvised and how interesting their movements were. I thought they would have a hard time following Jane’s instructions and remembering the choreography, but they are doing very well. They’re also good at reminding me how fun dancing can be. We are putting together a piece for “The Music Made me do it” at the TJ Community Center. I am excited to see how it all comes together with the live chorus singers from HB Woodlawn Chamber Chorus.

–Andrea Ligon

The day after Powhatan Springs Skate Park

We had a crisp clear cool evening at Powhatan Springs Skate Park in Arlington for Breaking Ground. Several male friends joined us at 4:30 on Saturday afternoon and learned the structures we had set for a couple of the sections of the performance. Other sections contain detailed choreography. The dancers had to navigate a landscape of levels, cement, darkness, or the bright light of the projectors. Our new performers had a lot to get used to in a short amount of time, but the number of bodies was a bold move, and I liked having mostly non dance trained males being involved in the physicality of the piece.
Frankly, by the time Saturday rolled around, I was exhausted. There was a lot of delay in getting the final video product, and in my nervousness, I kept trying to move Mac files to work on my PC with an Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0 program. There was no success with that, and luckily Julia was able to pull together the DVDs by Saturday morning.
Outdoor performances, particularly in such a large space, are tricky to pull off with video involved. I think most of the people who attended were looking for something different, and here in this large space, they had many different places to look. People first sat on the hill outside the fence surrounding the park. We were waiting, waiting, waiting for darkness. Finally we called everyone inside and people sat around the edges of the park while the piece unfolded. It was almost too dark sometimes, and what can I say, as these things are somehow never in control even when you take so much time in trying to be in control.
Next up our performances at Woolly Mammoth where we'll perform excerpts from Breaking Ground as well as other repertory. We've barely sold any tickets and there is a lot of concern. So ease my mind, please come by on Saturday or Sunday at 8 pm.

Breaking Ground at Powhatan Springs Park

Last night we rehearsed at Powhatan park, a wonderful very large park with street style and round wall elements including one eight foot and one eleven foot bowl. Sean Watkins set up three projectors and DVD players and we were there to combine the video, with the performers, with that very unique outdoor landscape. We have some wonderful music composed by monstah black. Other great pieces of music are from Low End String Quartet, Jon Matis new venture that uses an electric guitar as one of the string instruments. I think it is a powerful combination - monstah's great voice and hip hop electronics with the String Quartet, classical musicians who like to dig into Radiohead, Foo Fighters or their own creations.
There were some rough spots mostly having to do with finding our way in the dark! All of the park's lights seem to be on one circuit. When the lights are off, they are off for the whole area. Dancers were finding their way with the light from only three projectors. We're trying to overcome that obstacle for Saturday night's performance. Another thing for the dancers to deal with is the landscape itself since you have inclines rather than flat surface, cement rather than sprung hard wood. There are things that are easy to do in one environment that are difficult in the other and negotiation in reconfiguring the movement.
Nevertheless, I was very excited to see the dancers against the video which does odd things to your sense of perspective. When the dancers are up against the projections it seems that many more people are a part of the piece. And in a variety of shapes and sizes.
I have directed the video editing completed by Julie Moscato with video from this past spring and summer. It has been taken a lot of energy to catalogue the footage and make selections. Julie has been patiently receptive to my artistic whims and thank goodness for that!
Come on over to the park this Saturday, Sept 20. We are inviting people in at 6:30 and there will be open skating until the performance begins at around 7:15. A beautiful outdoor setting, Powhatan Spring Park is at 6020 Wilson Blvd in Arlington. This one is free but if you miss, the coming two weekends "Breaking Ground" excerpts can be seen at Woolly Mammoth Sept 27 & 28, and on Oct 4 the whole piece as it now exists at an indoor park at 1250 9th St NW, near the Convention Center in WDC. If you need other info, look for it at www.janefranklin.com Thanks again and I hope you can make it.

Breaking Ground

Breaking Ground is a dance/ skate board/ video project that encompasses open skating sessions with youth, informal performances in non traditional spaces, and the development of the artistic work over time. I have always been attracted to dance in a real world context. This project, which we started in April, has brought us from outdoor sessions, to rehearsals where we retranslate what can happen on the incline of a round wall to what must happen when the wall is not there.
The project, originally planned to follow the construction of a new skate park at the corner of Wells & Otis Streets in Mt. Rainier MD, was moved to the completed Langdon Park. (The Mt. Rainier construction has not yet begun and Green Skate Lab has found many obstacles that are blocking their all volunteer effort.) Nevertheless, we were able to interact with the same youth population, as Langdon Park is located in a neighborhood adjacent to Wells and Otis. Additionally we had the help of visual artist Margaret Boozer who has a studio at Wells & Otis. Margaret was instrumental in structuring participation for the youth engagement sessions. The skateboarders are not organized as a set group or club and members are independently coming and going. One might think chaos would arise, but the skate boarders respect one another, take turns sharing the space with each other no matter the variety of age or skill level, and welcomed our participation by easily joining in even though we were doing a different activity.
This generous spirit also arose with Ben Ashworth and his companions at East Coast Round Wall Foundation who introduced us to the fabulous indoor skatepark they are constructing in a vacated building near the Convention Center at 1250 9th St NE. They are restoring a building that might have been abandoned otherwise, and giving it new life as a valuable community resource right in the heart of the city. We have been thrilled to hold rehearsal, donor engagement, and informal performances in this venue.
We have an outdoor performance coming up in Arlington on Sept 20, we'll be showing some new more detailed excerpts at Woolly Mammoth on Sept 27 & 28, and then we'll be at indoor park mentioned above on Oct 4. I hope you can come out and see us. Jane

Farewell Performance

Our performance at Woolly Mammoth had a great turnout, and there were even people sitting on the floor in front of the first row. I think all of the dancers were excited about having a full house. It was also great being right in downtown DC. It felt like we were reaching new members of the DC community who don't live in Northern Virginia but are interested experiencing art. I've written a little bit about each piece of the show:

The first piece I was surprised to find myself a little bit shaky. Once we got in the groove of it though, I relaxed and had fun. My only regret is dropping my hanger at the end of the wrist shaking section. Fortunately I didn't hit anyone in the audience!

The next piece, Branch, is a cardio workout. There are many entrances and exits in this piece, and the challenge of this theater was the lack of wing space. We had to remain onstage, against the wall, looking composed at all times. Mike and I did pretty well on the lift I've taken over from Dana – if I had more time I would have worked on not gripping his arm so tightly. He really did a great job working with me to make me feel comfortable though. He is so strong!

I loved how people started laughing during Brianne's line "When you're lonely, you can always go downtown". It was fun dancing that duet/quartet at the show because it had a very different energy than in rehearsal. We could tell that the audience appreciated the humor of the work.

The solo that I created for Sound Walk came about through matching the syllables of the text with movement. Even though I don't understand much Spanish, I feel like I identify with my "character" (as I suppose I've come to think of her). In my movement, I am trying to enhance her words. And in the end I feel like one of the messages of Sound Walk is the unifying force of dance, and the way that communities can connect non-verbally.

Even though I've performed with JFD many times, I still get attacked by a case of nerves during a show, which sometimes prevents me from dancing as full as I would like. The nice thing about Monday's show was how much I was able to enjoy it and really sink into the movement. Jane gave a very nice send-off for me at the end of the show, which I was not expecting at all! It was such a pleasure dancing with all of my fellow company members and guest artists. Thanks to Jane for all her hard work. I hope to see you all again soon!

-- Nellie Rainwater

Sound Walk Composition

To create the music for Sound Walk, I followed Jane into her community dance classes, set up some microphones and captured the sounds her students were making while they danced, shuffled, stepped, clapped, laughed and talked. Foot sounds, chairs squeaking, Jane instructing and encouraging, and the joy that bubbled out in laughs and whoops as they twisted and turned, stepped and clapped, became the fabric of the compositions.

Each location had its own energy and presented me with a unique direction to pursue. For Circles, as I listened repeatedly to the audio tracks recorded at JK Polk Elementary, melodies began to emerge from the tapes. The combination of children running and laughing, shoes squeaking and stomping somehow created a distinct melody that to me sounded like it was being played by violins. I merely echoed that melody with real violins. The melodies were, plain and simply, given to me.

The themes in Interview and O’Clock were my musical reaction to what I was hearing in the recorded sound clips from Ft. Henry Gardens Affordable Housing Corporation after-school program and Walter Reed Senior Center. For Inner View, recorded at Walter Reed, I wanted a sweet, enveloping background to embody the intimacy of the voices of the women that I interviewed. The exuberance of the children from AHC is captured in the shortest piece, O’Clock that is punctuated by the slapping, rhythmic intensity of a Flamenco guitar.

The schools and community centers of Walter Reed, Ft. Henry Gardens AHC, Arlington Mill, Langston Brown Senior Center, and JK Polk were all represented in My Name Is. I chose to use only recorded sound clips to design the composition and create “music” without any traditional instruments. I wanted this piece to be a full reflection of the cacophony of sounds inherent in her dance classes, and the voices of the people that encompass the community to which Jane Franklin is so very dedicated.

-Gina Biver

New blog

Welcome to our new blog page! Check in frequently for posts about upcoming performances, workshops, and behind the scenes info about the company. Jane Franklin, Artistic Director, company members, board members and collaborators will all be adding their input to our blog page, so there will be plenty to read. Check back soon...

-Fiona