The Mouse of Amherst

We are jumping into three more shows of The Mouse of Amherst this weekend. Actually, it feels good. The dancers have had time to get more assured about their roles, small changes have made a big difference, and all the technology part is much easier to handle.
We have 3 boys in our cast which is a large deal since most dance productions are over-run with hundreds of girls and maybe one or two boys.
I really like the small theatre in at 3700 S Four Mile Run Drive - Theatre on the Run. The lighting, the audience proximity, just the way it looks. It's a comfy little theatre and we are happy to be there. I am so grateful for my collaborators - of course Bryan Leister who has done a phenomenal job with gaming technology to take the production to location's inside the Dickinson house, as well as outdoors, in a garden, or in a larger landscape. It is all so fanciful and wonderful. My composer friends Mark Sylvester, Steven Rogers and Paul Musso have provided inspiring and thoughtful sound and music that energizes the dancers and the whole production.
The story by Elizabeth Spires is inventive and interesting, even if you are an adult.
Come on out and see our show. You won't be disappointed.
Dec 4 at 11 am and at 1 pm
Dec 5 at 1 pm
Theatre on the Run
3700 S Four Mile Run Drive
Arlington VA 22206
Tickets online at www.janefranklin.com
703-933-1111
or at the door
$15 general
$10 children under 10 years
A few half-price tickets are available at Goldstar

Acting it out

Our recent collaboration for 2010 Source Festival "A Great (er) Depression" brought many comments about how the movement successfully supported what the character was feeling as well as saying.

“Jane – Loved the piece you put together with Matt and Brad. Everything worked so well together. I mentioned to Matt that the choreography really blended so well to create that effect that we were in his characters mind. The dancers on the table in front of him, as if he’s projecting his internal anguish. The dancers shaking hands and grinning behind him, as if he senses the rest of the world moving forward and succeeding reinforced the fact that his character continued to do deeper within himself. Loved also the incorporation of the file boxes. So much good stuff. Look forward to seeing more of your work.” – Dan O’Neil, 2010 Source Festival attendee

A critic (a dance professor at GMU) wrote that the movement was distracting because it was not "acted out." More weight was given to the written word, assuming that the words have higher priority, that the staging was absolutely not connected to the dialogue.
This brought up the questions: Why should text be primary? Can more than one thing happen on stage at a time?
These questions have already been answered in dance history - especially with post modern choreographers and with Merce Cunningham.
In a previous article in the same blog, there was a long article about how the dance community lacks internal support and nurture.
This might be a place to start; that dance writers and professionals acknowledge other work with an open mind; and write about the content of the work rather than personal preferences.

More about Mar 21

Rich Kleinfeldt from Washington Saxphone Quartet came in for a few photos with us last week. As well as playing the NPR theme song (which is heard on NPR all through the US daily), Rich is quite talented with keeping his concentration while dancers leap all about. That's Brianne you see jumping into the frame.
I've been rehearsing with a group of women that comprise our Adult Repertory group - and funneling some of the same material into a reconfigured trio of company members - Andrea, Cait and Whitney. It's been challenging and inspiring to swap material between the dancers, and work with the limitations that are the basis for the choreography.
Hope you can come to see us at The Athenaeum on March 21 at 7:30. We truly look forward to this coming performance with live music. http://www.janefranklin.com/ for tickets - or just give us a call at 703.933.1111 for more information

Incidence

We are working with an aluminum piece that Howard Connelly created for "Incidence." The whole idea is about chance and change, how we move things along, and how we don't know even when there is familiarity with components. We are developing segments of choreography that will be performed dependent on the visual appearance of the sculpture. The cues for our changes will come when Gina Biver changes the music. The piece will never be performed in the same order. The linear order is what often makes sense, beginning, middle and end, as you couldn't tell a story quite as well without it, though some films do very well with that idea by taking you forward and backward in time, "Pulp Fiction," "Memento." and many others.
Incidence
Dec 4 pay-what-you can preview

Dec 5, 6, 12, 13 at 8 pm

Dec 7 and 14 at 3pm

Mead Theatre Lab at Flashpoint

916 G Street NW

Washington DC

Tix: $15

At the door or online at

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.