Friday, December 23, 2011
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Dramaturgical Research for CinderElla!
The ball scene will take place at the Apollo Theater. In this period it played a major role in the lives of many famous jazz musicians. The theater was built in 1917, but it was not until 1934 that Jazz became the primary form of entertainment and it also marked the year that it became integrated. Prior to ’34 it was a venue for burlesque and theater. Ella aspired to sing at the Apollo despite knowing about the segregation of the theater.
Benny Carter, who will represent the prince, discovered Ella. When only 16, she received her first big break at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, when she won an amateur night contest and impressed saxophonist-bandleader Benny Carter. He referred her to Chick Webb (a drummer), and that marked the beginning of her career. When Cinderella goes to the ball, the prince notices her. The same goes at the Apollo for Benny Carter. What captivates the prince in this production will be more than her beauty; it will be her talent and charisma.
Connie Boswell was a singer who Ella looked up to as a young girl. She listened to her records with her mother before she died. Their vocal styles have some significant similarities. In our artistic vision the fairy godmother will represent Connie Boswell. Connie Boswell was part of a whole group called the Boswell sisters. You could include or ignore this fact for choreographing.
The following images represent the “world” that this production will create. These images correspond to the locations other than the Apollo Theatre, which include Ella’s home and exterior scenes with the fairy godmother.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Good News All Around!
Both the pieces I am in got into Chelonia! My piece did not get picked, so I have time to think about CinderElla a bit more!
I finished a rough draft of an intense paper I've been working on. Now all I have to do is study Econ, and Linear Algebra, finish memorizing my lines for acting, write my artist statement for choreography, buy a bus ticket to Chicago, and then I get to see Matthew!
I finished a rough draft of an intense paper I've been working on. Now all I have to do is study Econ, and Linear Algebra, finish memorizing my lines for acting, write my artist statement for choreography, buy a bus ticket to Chicago, and then I get to see Matthew!
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Performances, Adjudicator, and the Rest
First of all, thank you, Faja with the help you gave for getting those scanned pages to me!!
After a long semester of many rehearsals and probably about a total hour's worth of choreography on my part. I'm done with performances.
The show was really great! There was good energy from everyone and I'm sure it was a delight to watch. Friday night the water piece I was in felt kind of rough, but it played into the piece quite a bit. The "Seven Minutes in Heaven" piece was a little too sassy/saucy on Friday night. It's hard to tell where to draw the line in performance. My piece went really well both nights! The audience reacted really well. Tonight the water piece was smoother, even bubbly. The "Seven Minutes in Heaven" piece was a lot more subtle. We were able to make the sauciness more of a secret that the audience would want, rather than blatant.
The adjudicator gave me the following feedback for my piece, this is obviously abbreviated:
The end of the piece- contrasting the rigidity of the line with the absurd and quirky movement was very effective. She wanted to see it develop more. She thought that the ending could have really "made" the whole piece. It reminded her of clowns and the circus. She was wondering about the intention of the dancers for everything. She felt like I could have created more of my own world with the movements.
Tomorrow I'll found out in the late afternoon whether my piece will be in Chelonia, which is the most legit dance performance our school has annually. My guess is no... but based on her feedback, it seems as if she really liked my piece. During first showings she originally said that she thinks that I have my own vocabulary and a very definite and different opinion of what movement is. Either way I think one of the other two piece I'm in, if not both, will be chosen. I already have new, little choreographic ideas brewing in my head. So excited for CinderElla, so excited to choreograph Pretty Theft, and so excited to choreograph for December dance workshop performances next year!!!
Now that its all said and done for this year, I'm studying my little heart out at 1am on a Sunday morning (saturday night?). There is no snow, and its almost christmas, I dreamed about Grandma's christmas morning monkey bread last night. Sad I don't get to see Omaha this year, but I'm so excited to see Matthew again in Montreal!!!
After a long semester of many rehearsals and probably about a total hour's worth of choreography on my part. I'm done with performances.
The show was really great! There was good energy from everyone and I'm sure it was a delight to watch. Friday night the water piece I was in felt kind of rough, but it played into the piece quite a bit. The "Seven Minutes in Heaven" piece was a little too sassy/saucy on Friday night. It's hard to tell where to draw the line in performance. My piece went really well both nights! The audience reacted really well. Tonight the water piece was smoother, even bubbly. The "Seven Minutes in Heaven" piece was a lot more subtle. We were able to make the sauciness more of a secret that the audience would want, rather than blatant.
The adjudicator gave me the following feedback for my piece, this is obviously abbreviated:
The end of the piece- contrasting the rigidity of the line with the absurd and quirky movement was very effective. She wanted to see it develop more. She thought that the ending could have really "made" the whole piece. It reminded her of clowns and the circus. She was wondering about the intention of the dancers for everything. She felt like I could have created more of my own world with the movements.
Tomorrow I'll found out in the late afternoon whether my piece will be in Chelonia, which is the most legit dance performance our school has annually. My guess is no... but based on her feedback, it seems as if she really liked my piece. During first showings she originally said that she thinks that I have my own vocabulary and a very definite and different opinion of what movement is. Either way I think one of the other two piece I'm in, if not both, will be chosen. I already have new, little choreographic ideas brewing in my head. So excited for CinderElla, so excited to choreograph Pretty Theft, and so excited to choreograph for December dance workshop performances next year!!!
Now that its all said and done for this year, I'm studying my little heart out at 1am on a Sunday morning (saturday night?). There is no snow, and its almost christmas, I dreamed about Grandma's christmas morning monkey bread last night. Sad I don't get to see Omaha this year, but I'm so excited to see Matthew again in Montreal!!!
Thursday, December 8, 2011
It's Official: CINDERELLA
Abbreviated version of proposal to Dep. Chair.
"Cinder Ella is a mash up of a timeless ballet, a magical fairy tale, and iconic music. This modern ballet will be a thirty minute production based on the plot of Cinderella using the music of Ella Fitzgerald, a jazz singer whose fame peaked in the 1940s. “Cinderella and The Little Glass Slipper” is a folk tale of the myth of the young hero overcoming unjust oppression in the world. The concept of the seemingly powerless heroine realizing her dreams is the driving force of the tale. The plot of Cinderella parallels Ella Fitzgerald’s early life as she rose from humble beginnings in Virginia to the grand stage at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem. Our goal for this production is to recount the Cinderella story through Ella Fitzgerald’s songs, which capture her struggles."
Setting: 1930's-40's in Harlem
Curating MOD NUT was fantastic and I learned so much! Mira and I are going to curate CinderElla differently. Based on the interest we got from people in e-mails on helping with curating for the next performance, we have decided to hire people to take over a lot of the tasks we did on our own. I talked to some folks in the econ/management dep about trying to get funding to pay people for their work. Mira and I will have to develop some serious communication skills and make sure that everyone is on top of what they need to be doing, but it will allow us to focus more on our artistic opinions, and bringing the show together as something of quality rather than quantity. We're going to be hiring two PR's (one for the Beloit community, one for the college), one stage manager, and one property manager.
It's very exciting! The show will be in April we are still deciding on a good date based on what we see on the calendar for the college. Hopefully some of you will be able to come see!!!
"Cinder Ella is a mash up of a timeless ballet, a magical fairy tale, and iconic music. This modern ballet will be a thirty minute production based on the plot of Cinderella using the music of Ella Fitzgerald, a jazz singer whose fame peaked in the 1940s. “Cinderella and The Little Glass Slipper” is a folk tale of the myth of the young hero overcoming unjust oppression in the world. The concept of the seemingly powerless heroine realizing her dreams is the driving force of the tale. The plot of Cinderella parallels Ella Fitzgerald’s early life as she rose from humble beginnings in Virginia to the grand stage at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem. Our goal for this production is to recount the Cinderella story through Ella Fitzgerald’s songs, which capture her struggles."
Setting: 1930's-40's in Harlem
Curating MOD NUT was fantastic and I learned so much! Mira and I are going to curate CinderElla differently. Based on the interest we got from people in e-mails on helping with curating for the next performance, we have decided to hire people to take over a lot of the tasks we did on our own. I talked to some folks in the econ/management dep about trying to get funding to pay people for their work. Mira and I will have to develop some serious communication skills and make sure that everyone is on top of what they need to be doing, but it will allow us to focus more on our artistic opinions, and bringing the show together as something of quality rather than quantity. We're going to be hiring two PR's (one for the Beloit community, one for the college), one stage manager, and one property manager.
It's very exciting! The show will be in April we are still deciding on a good date based on what we see on the calendar for the college. Hopefully some of you will be able to come see!!!
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Last Jazz Band Performance
I was looking for the jazz performance from this year, but found some from last year!
The ones from this year will soon be up!!!
The ones from this year will soon be up!!!
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Stressful Week
I am currently looking for someone to scan some pages (I don't know what pages) from two books I've found that contain the proofs to theorems I need for a project on Input-Output Economic Models.
P.Lancaster's Theory of Matrices (New York: Academic Press, 1969)
Or
E. Seneta's Non-negative Matrices (New York: Wiley, 1973)
The theorem guarantees the existence of an equilibrium price structure for any closed input-output system. Specifically that for an n x n stochastic matrix,E, and a n x 1 nonzero and non-negative matrix P, EP will be equal to P.
....
Anyway, I had an embarrassing moment today and wouldn't mind some advice on it. I had arranged for one of the dance professors to give me some last-minute feed back on my piece last week. I unfortunately had a rehearsal time switch with another choreographer and entirely forgot to mention it to the professor. I e-mailed back asking her to please excuse this mistake and gave my sincerest apologies for it. I don't want her to think less of me in anyway, seeing as I have her for two classes next semester. Is there anything else I can do?
....
Last note of the day:
P.Lancaster's Theory of Matrices (New York: Academic Press, 1969)
Or
E. Seneta's Non-negative Matrices (New York: Wiley, 1973)
The theorem guarantees the existence of an equilibrium price structure for any closed input-output system. Specifically that for an n x n stochastic matrix,E, and a n x 1 nonzero and non-negative matrix P, EP will be equal to P.
....
Anyway, I had an embarrassing moment today and wouldn't mind some advice on it. I had arranged for one of the dance professors to give me some last-minute feed back on my piece last week. I unfortunately had a rehearsal time switch with another choreographer and entirely forgot to mention it to the professor. I e-mailed back asking her to please excuse this mistake and gave my sincerest apologies for it. I don't want her to think less of me in anyway, seeing as I have her for two classes next semester. Is there anything else I can do?
....
Last note of the day:
Monday, December 5, 2011
Mira's Piece's I've been in
I've been working with Mira a lot. These are two pieces of hers I've been in.
This Semester:
Last Semester:
This Semester:
Last Semester:
Newest idea!
I've had to keep track of sending videos to all of the family, and decided to just make a page and put them all up here!
ModNut went really well this passed weekend. We had a huge audience turnout! I would say half were townies and half were students and faculty. Here are some excerpts from rehearsals and a movie that was the snowflake part of the performance.
http://vimeo.com/32639276
http://vimeo.com/32889712
My piece, though most people saw it over Thanksgiving! I'll be getting a DVD of the actual performance!
Last week was really difficult to get through. It was intense, between academics and basically having a company I was struggling to keep it up! I made it through the week. I'm feeling pretty burnt-out now, but I keep reminding myself I only have about two weeks left until I leave for Montreal!!!
This week I'm in the midst of two chapters and a project for Linear Algebra, a massive problem set for Microeconomics, memorizing the first part of a script for Acting, writing a dance critique on one of the dances from the performances this coming weekend, rehearsals, tech, and those performances, and organizing Cinder-Ella for next semester. I've never been so happy or excited! I feel like the energizer bunny.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiFQsxGUQOI
Here is the script I'm memorizing from the play, Pterodactyls:
http://books.google.com/books?id=sqxeXZp-ThsC&lpg=PA59&ots=YjY0Bq0_s7&dq=pterodactyls%20grace&pg=PA59#v=onepage&q=pterodactyls%20grace&f=false
ModNut went really well this passed weekend. We had a huge audience turnout! I would say half were townies and half were students and faculty. Here are some excerpts from rehearsals and a movie that was the snowflake part of the performance.
http://vimeo.com/32639276
http://vimeo.com/32889712
My piece, though most people saw it over Thanksgiving! I'll be getting a DVD of the actual performance!
Last week was really difficult to get through. It was intense, between academics and basically having a company I was struggling to keep it up! I made it through the week. I'm feeling pretty burnt-out now, but I keep reminding myself I only have about two weeks left until I leave for Montreal!!!
This week I'm in the midst of two chapters and a project for Linear Algebra, a massive problem set for Microeconomics, memorizing the first part of a script for Acting, writing a dance critique on one of the dances from the performances this coming weekend, rehearsals, tech, and those performances, and organizing Cinder-Ella for next semester. I've never been so happy or excited! I feel like the energizer bunny.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiFQsxGUQOI
Here is the script I'm memorizing from the play, Pterodactyls:
http://books.google.com/books?id=sqxeXZp-ThsC&lpg=PA59&ots=YjY0Bq0_s7&dq=pterodactyls%20grace&pg=PA59#v=onepage&q=pterodactyls%20grace&f=false
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