Dancing Through the Lens

Last Photo post

2007-06-12T01:18:00.000-04:00

Now that school is over and I have graduated I will no longer be posting to this blog. Thanks for visiting and please go to my other blog at danceaday.com.

Making Dance-A-Day

2007-06-03T13:54:00.000-04:00

I have come to realize that making a new dance and recording it, editing it, and posting it online has come to feel like what I do as an artist. It began as sort of an interesting idea, a large interesting idea, because I could have made a dance a week or just dances online but I chose dance a day. This week I purchased danceaday.com to make the site easier to find. I find this exciting.

Also the first videos of the same event photographed and edited by two different videographers was posted today so check them out.

Two Weeks of Daily Dances

2007-05-25T02:01:00.001-04:00

Today it has been two weeks since I started posting a dance-a-day. Two days ago someone commented on one blog that the future of dance as I see it will not happen. I think is is happening as I see it because I am making it happen. I call the movement Pre-Futurist because I believe in taking action now not in the future. We don't need the Internet to live but we sure do use it. If we use it well it can help us. I believe that we have to continue to innovate and grow. The Internet has changed things and we should not ignore the possibilities.

Dance-A-Day

2007-05-23T09:45:00.000-04:00

I started making new dance everyday for about two weeks now and it is going very well. I decided to make two dance a day blogs because I had so much material. danceaday and boriswillismoves It has become a ritual for me to take my camera out everyday and tape myself dancing. It is amazingly rewarding to make art and to make it available for the world. My friends also make dances and contribute to the site. Mostly I have been improvising my movement but sometimes like the video I made yesterday, I thought of a concept and made it happen. Today's video on danceaday uses some stop motion and I continue with the double solo idea. Because the movement is improvised there are times when I don't like what I do or the energy drops so I cut it out and make a transition. I try to keep the videos under two minutes and vary the dances to get out of my movement habits.

New Blog

2007-05-14T11:01:00.000-04:00

I started a new blog this week http://danceaday.blogspot.com because I realized last week in class that I was not making art just commenting on it. So now I am making art everyday and I look forward to it every evening. I made my first post on Friday May 11 based on a presentation I did for a history class. I even have my friends involved in making daily dances. I am not sure how to handle all of the videos at this point. Do I only post one dance a day or do I post several dances a day by different people. I also have a problem with the descriptions of the daily dances not showing up in iTunes.

More Karaoke

2007-05-09T12:09:00.000-04:00

Ok so here are some photos of me singing with Dr.G. I did some Living Colour and Terrance Trent D'Arby last night. Just after I left the place post performance depression started to set in. PPD is that thing that happens after a show. We worked for 7 months and performed it three times and we will never do it again. It can make you sad when the work is done and you don't have something to look forward to to.

Spin Jam

2007-05-08T01:14:00.000-04:00

On some Monday nights the party continues with Spin Jam at Little Brothers which is soon to close its doors for good. This is just a sample of the dance related things that happen there; poi, hula hoops and stilting are good for the mind.This event is sponsored by HighJinks

The end of the night

2007-05-06T20:41:00.000-04:00

At the end of the night after getting rejected by every woman in the place, it is just the guys hanging out, talking about what could have been and eating fast food.

The After Party

2007-05-06T20:38:00.000-04:00

After we perform of course we go out and dance all night, then we sleep all day.

After the show

2007-05-06T20:34:00.000-04:00

We go out to meet and greet with our friends and fans--if we have any, after the show. When you are a rock star you get surrounded by pretty ladies who want to meet you. When you are a dancer you get surrounded by pretty ladies who tell their friends to watch out for you.

The Photo

2007-05-06T09:32:00.000-04:00

Here I am with the man himself, Vernon Reid just before he signed my Living Colour cassette. Last night's show was on fire and it is still burning.

Window

2007-05-05T15:07:00.000-04:00

The view outside my window. Just beyond the trees is the Olentangy River. I love it.

What the audience does not see

2007-05-05T15:02:00.000-04:00

Before the show we get ready by cleaning the floors, warming up and rehearsing.

Backstage again

2007-05-05T15:00:00.000-04:00

This is what really happens backstage before the show. Exciting huh!

Dancers

2007-05-05T14:57:00.000-04:00

These are photos of dancers in various stages of readiness.

Set and Reset/ Reset

2007-05-05T14:53:00.000-04:00

Photos of Laurie Anderson and Trisha Brown's piece Set and Reset/Reset.

Dancers getting ready

2007-05-05T14:29:00.000-04:00

Sitting in the house before the show many dancers stretch out and warm up even in small spaces.

Backstage

2007-05-05T14:25:00.000-04:00

A view from backstage during dress rehearsal.

DJ Spidey-X

2007-05-05T14:19:00.000-04:00

DJ Spidey-X on the wheels of steel, rocking out with the band, Masque featuring Vernon Reid.

Costumes

2007-05-05T14:08:00.000-04:00

Colleen and I try on costumes for Nicole's piece in the Vernon Reid Project.

Morning Dance

2007-05-05T14:02:00.000-04:00

How nice to dance or move in the morning sun. I passed these dancers in the Oval on my way to teach hip-hop at 8:30AM.

Vernon Reid Rocks

2007-05-02T09:14:00.000-04:00

Vernon Reid's Band Masque played for rehearsal last night and OMG it was amazing to hear. We danced our butts off because is sounded so powerful. I was beside myself, eerr behind myself.

Bill Moyers

2007-04-30T00:47:00.000-04:00

I don't remember the last time I sat and wept about what was going on in the world. Tears flow daily but I can't stop reading the news. When the VA tech shootings happened, I was sad and I thought it was terrible but I was reminded that mass killings happen in Baghdad every week. Our government keeps telling us to be afraid of terrorists and that we are in Iraq to keep us safe from the enemy. But when you ask when will we leave they say someday but if we say give us a date they say, the enemy will come find us and kill us here at home if we give you a date. This week we found out that the Jessica Lynch story was a movie made by our government because they needed a hero. They made this brave POW into something she was not. We also got confirmation that Pat Tillman was killed by friendly fire but our government decided to lie about that and say he was killed by enemy fire. Our government has lied about so many things that are so important and people are dying because of it. They have changed their rationale for this war over and over like an uncooked waffle flipping as each reason gets disproved. Bill Moyers Journal showed us that if no one admits they are wrong, nothing will change. McCarthy did not fall until he admitted that he was wrong. Karl Rove knew this. Bill Clinton did not fall until he admitted that he was wrong. Karl Rove knew this. President Bush will not fall until he admits he is wrong. Karl Rove knows this. The press has no power to challenge him. They FEAR that he has the power to deny access to what they need. Only the people can rise up to throw him out of office but we are also afraid. Bush has spied on us for years he can send in CIA to kill us and lie about it as he has lied about the war. Something has to give. This Administration is incredibly secretive and will viciously attack anyone who disagrees with them, no American should stand that kind of government. We the people cannot allow America to be at war for the wrong reason. John McCain says we are there now, let just deal with it.Iraq is in chaos because "WE" killed their leader and now they are fighting for control as any nation would do. The problem as I see it is that "THEY" had to figure out how to run their county and so do "WE THE PEOPLE"

Social Dancing

2007-04-30T00:23:00.000-04:00

The purpose of social dancing is that it provides a way for young people to meet each other. However, the state of social dance in the world today has complicated things. If you wanted to be noticed you have to stand out. You have no way of knowing if someone is interested until you approach and are not rejected.

Social dance is also just a fun time for friends to hang out, to move and to have the physical expression that is suppressed in adulthood. Adults don't roll on the floor unless they are doing yoga, which is a real shame.

Somehow you don't get to forget that the sex fantasy and the reason that these places thrive. You go there to meet people to have sex with even if it never happens.

Spring

2007-04-30T00:15:00.000-04:00

There is something about Spring that makes one feel different. Seeing people expressing themselves is intensified in the Spring. I sat at Short North Tavern and saw people who could not stay disconnected for more than a moment. They moved at each other, felt each other and performed a mating dance.

Riffe Center

2007-04-26T22:34:00.000-04:00

Here are photos of the Vernon Reid Project in rehearsal at the Riffe Center. This was our first rehearsal in the theater. We began with a warm up and then a run-through of the piece. The set is for another work on the program called Set and Reset by Trisha Brown and Laurie Anderson. Opening night is in one week May 3, 2007. If you are in Columbus, you should come see it.

Karaoke

2007-04-26T22:23:00.000-04:00

For almost two years I have been going to karaoke at Ravari Room on Tuesday nights. I have a stage name "Cowboy B" and I have a good list of songs that I like to sing from Prince to Cowboy Troy to Blood, Sweat and Tears to Fuel. I think of it as a way to perform without dancing. It is liberating to be on stage as a singer, even as a karaoke singer.

Dance History

2007-04-25T09:16:00.000-04:00

Listen, modern dance has only been around for about 100 years. It has grown and developed and explored and it is awesome. Sometimes it stinks too. It began as a revolt against ballet and it kept revolting against other kinds of dance, mostly itself. We are studying the self-revolt of the 1960's when the formal was rejected and the pedestrian was embraced. It has the confusing term Postmodern dance which other than following modern dance has no relation to postmodernism in any other way. Here we are in class, mastering the history.

Virtual Insanity

2007-04-24T14:44:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I wonder if I am recognized by strangers. It is entirely possible as I have all kinds of profiles all over the net. They are on dating sites and social networking sites and websites everywhere, hmmm is the net a place you can GO. It does not phase me that someone would see me on a social networking site but to be recognized in public by someone from a dating site is somehow totally different. I feel like that information is private. Only me and the millions who are on the site should get to see that stuff and of course I should never see anyone from those sites in real life. I mean really its like "hey I saw you on dateacooldude.com and I noticed you are sitting here alone. Is that your favorite drink a caramel double whip no fat mocha? See I knew that, how is you cat Harry, he was so cute in the photo. By the way, the photo of you topless at Myrtle Beach--smokin. So your profile says you are looking for "All Ethnicities" is that really true. Hey, I will send you an email and maybe we can get together again sometime." Anyway I noticed someone from a dating site in real life and I thought, I need to delete some profiles.

Spontaneous Art

2007-04-24T01:41:00.000-04:00

As I was working in my favorite cafe, a band appeared outside and played fun music. There is nothing more wonderful than live art. When it was over I returned to my 25 page paper.

More Fire

2007-04-22T23:31:00.000-04:00

Eating in a Japanese Steak House is fun and entertaining if you are 9. Actually I had fun too. :-)

Internet Dancing

2007-04-22T10:43:00.000-04:00

Ok. I admit that I have danced naked in front of audiences for my art. I have done this to say the body is beautiful, don't censor it or call it obscene. I also like to go to clubs and dance. Nothing makes me happier than dancing with a beautiful woman. I like seeing people dance. However, I am in a bind. There are two websites devoted to people dancing and honestly to me one is not better than the other, they are very different. Ok so here are the issues. Dance Off Pants Off

is a site where people dance and take off their clothes. The music is fun although repetitive. There are graphics to enhance the viewing and as someone who studies movement it is interesting to watch. They are real performances by sincere performers. However, it borders on pornographic and for some it is unquestionably pornographic. It is also easy to understand, it does not confuse you or make you say this is weird. People dance like this all of the time everywhere except they don't usually take off their clothes.

Move-Me is a site where people dance to the instructions of established choreographers. No one takes off their clothes but the dancers are no less sexy. They are school girls and school boys, grandmothers, dancers and friends who entertain themselves and us through serious art. When I say I am a dancer, I have to hold both of these ideas in my head. It comes down to intent. Art does one thing while entertainment does another but the what separates them is sometimes blurry. I am questioning everything. So often I hear people say that they don't understand modern dance or they don't like it. Hell, I rarely like it anymore. I do find myself watching Move-Me a lot more than Dance Off Pants Off.

Fire

2007-04-22T10:21:00.000-04:00

Fire.(yeah, what's really going on) ba ba baa da baa da baaaa. ba ba baaaaa ya ba ba yi ee yaaaaaa (love life let it love you back.) -Aceyalone & RJD2

I had dinner with some friends last night. There was fire everywhere. I love the look burning wood in a controlled setting, the color of flames and the smell of warmth while drinking wine with good friends.

Pinwheels

2007-04-18T23:12:00.000-04:00

As I made my way to class I saw pinwheels. How nice to see movement so close to the ground. Buy one to help with breast cancer research.

Reign of Error

2007-04-18T19:20:00.000-04:00

Click To Play

The re-election of George W. Bush.

Balance

2007-04-16T23:57:00.000-04:00

Dancers have good balance because they work hard to get it. Once they get it sometimes they can relax and just use it. Steven is good a balancing on his back.

Tissue

2007-04-15T13:52:00.000-04:00

After looking at some class blogs I got inspired to post this. Thanks Cheryl. The photos are of my trashcan and an art piece by Heather Willems.

Clampdown

2007-04-15T04:30:00.000-04:00

I can't do much work at home. I usually have to go out to a bar to work. Tonight I went to a monthly party called The Clampdown. They play a lot of music that I can not dance to but some people can such as my friend Dorian.

Don Imus

2007-04-15T03:05:00.001-04:00

Oh the talk of what he has said. Someone said to me that what happened to Imus was blown out of proportion and he should not have lost his job. I feel that progress has been made when a wealthy White man in the US cannot call Black women names without serious consequences. However, this is only one incident by a repeat offender who went too far. There are more than 216 million White people in the US according to the 2000 census. There are two Black women in the photo my mother and grandmother. Many black people have a European heritage so I think it is good not to make us seem so different. I get angry knowing that someone is going to wear a Halloween costume based on this incident. I get angry with musicians who have placed this language in the culture. I get angry when I see photos on Facebook with the caption "my bitches." I have been banned from the campus of the George Washington University for life because I was sitting on a bench, I have had the police come to my house looking for a gun because there was a loud pop from a transformer during a rainstorm, I have been kicked out of a dance studio on High St during Gallery Hop for standing in the corner and I have been stopped by the police in my car for driving. So for me, it is not blown out of proportion because these things will not stop happening to me or anyone else if there are no serious consequences for injustice.

Maybe I am getting old

2007-04-15T02:56:00.000-04:00

I am offended by these video ads on Myspace from True.com. It is not so much that they are images of women being flirty, I like the ones from match.com, but the unrealistic airheaded behavior of the models in their ads is so distracting. It angers me when I see them and I try to scroll away. I know I am not their target audience I am surprised that anyone finds this enticing.

First Kiss

2007-04-14T10:21:00.000-04:00

Back in September I went back to my undergraduate school, The North Carolina School of the Arts for a visit. I took some photos and today I was thinking that this is where I had my first real kiss.(I am not counting the time I was 13, yuck!) This group of sculptures is called "The Elephants" although I am not certain they have an official name. So many times I have sat here and pondered life or read or danced or checked out beautiful people who walked on by. This other photo is of the dance studio where I took my first modern dance class. So many times I was yelled at in this room. This is where I learned to dance.

The Vernon Reid Project

2007-04-11T15:26:00.000-04:00

Today I was in rehearsal. We are performing May 3,4,5 at the Riffe Center. This work has 27 dancers, four choreographers and a live band. Yes, that Vernon Reid, Living Colour, Cult of Personality.

Dem Boots

2007-04-11T11:14:00.000-04:00

Boots can stand up to a lot of things. Like walking out in the field on a dusty day, or riding horses hard and putting them away wet. Sometimes boots just stand.

A soapy sky

2007-04-11T11:09:00.000-04:00

Jennifer waned to rid her car of bird poop. So we drove into the sunset and watched the sky turn cloudy and wet.

Dance Class

2007-04-11T10:58:00.000-04:00

In dance class, we read and then talk about what we read. We ask questions of how and why and what. How do you see what was there, which is now gone? How do you begin when your mind is empty? When you move, what does that say? How can you influence the message of your body language? Where is Boris?

Flowers Die

2007-04-11T10:54:00.000-04:00

The next day my flowers have wilted. A short life and a pleasure guilted. Good thing I took a photo.

Flowers

2007-04-08T20:16:00.000-04:00

When you are a male dancer you get flowers. Here are some flowers I got last night after my performance at Gallery Hop. Flowers need photos to be immortal.

Rollin on Dubs

2007-04-08T19:28:00.000-04:00

I imagine that this is how people see me when I roll down the street in my white car. My car which is on the bottom has a bit less wheel though it evokes the same kind of response. No rap songs talk of rollin on 15's though. The top photo is a photo I took when I was leaving NC. I saw the car and I chased it until I got close enough to snap the photo. It was a bit dangerous, but worth it. I got a speeding ticket on that trip. I did not pay it and on a trip to DC I got stopped for . . .mmmmm driving too close to a truck. My license was suspended. I could have been arrested but my beautiful blonde Finnish friend was in the car. So he took us to the Burger King down the street and charged me with driving too close and having a suspended license and having no license. The judge threw out the suspended license charge and hit me with following too close. How funny. My license was in fact suspended but I was not in fact following too close.

Imma piss on you

2007-04-08T19:09:00.000-04:00

What a sight. A life gone. A shell floating in water and amino acids, uric acid and creatine. Slightly acidic at pH6 and haunting.

Group Forms

2007-04-08T18:38:00.000-04:00

In dance class, we watch people move. Sophisticated people watching is what I call it. We explore the relationships of people to space and how they move in time and how moments gather meaning. It is marvelous. As we watched a dance by Bebe Miller I noticed the dance of watching and the organizing of people in space--so I began to watch the watchers and I framed the watching.

A Pink Dart

2007-04-08T18:32:00.000-04:00

This dog has a hard on. A pink dart. Sitting in a coffee shop in Columbus. Drinking a soy chai latte and eating three bean vegetarian chili I noticed a person and dog. The person looks like a woman. It was the dog that kept my attention.

Annadroid

2007-04-08T17:59:00.000-04:00

Anna is not drunk but she drooped to one side on a Sunday night as we dined and I thought what an interesting photo. So I snapped it. and then I took another one and she posed or rather did not move. Perhaps she was tired. Imagine this was a scene from a movie, what would be the moment of this scene and now it transitions to this . . .click