so we have finished our first week of classes now and i think i might be dying actually.  They didn't gradually welcome us back it was basically wham bam full force dance class.  I guess i should have expected that.  I spent a lot of days very sore and unable to move.  Mostly my upper body from contemporary partnering.  I've also been working a lot.  Last weekend i spent all sunday in WV teaching and then i've been working at the cafe a lot too.  I really dont like that job, but i don't have any other offers coming my way which i think has a lot to do with my availability.  regardless, aramark is better than nothing and i might even get a raise since its my second semester.  Truth is, no matter what job i get i'm going to make minimim wage which is unlivable in PA.

I like commuting.  I am ok with getting up early, but its only been a week.

weather has been outstanding.

my nose is stuffy.

thats all

bye

apparently people actually read this? cool.

Its back and fresher than ever.  I stopped xangaing while at ADF mid way through. Regardless I know at least my sister-in-law read this since my brother doesn't tell her anything anyway.  so Melissa, this one's for you.

As you can see i've officially moved to pittsburgh in a house in oakland.  Moving in sucks a lot but we are getting there.  Today is day one of internet and that was a scene in itself.  But here i am, connected to the world once again.  We've been busy here getting everything settled.  Our living room is finally in order and we are halfway getting the dining room ready.  The floors are hardwood and were ridiculously dirty so we had to mop before we did anything.  Luckily, my room was done fast so i have been able to chil in here with cable and stuff.  Its pretty nice i really like living here.  I'm even doing a good job of cooking.  Yesterday i made scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast for me ad michelle and then hot dogs and rice for dinner. By the end of this i'm going to be a gourmet cook probably. 

OK so i wrote an awesome review on pilobolus but it got lost and i don't feel like redoing it...it was awesome though.  Brilliant if you will ( and by this i mean the review NOT the show my anymeans). I'll just say, its very surface, it is what it is, a little hokey, but beautiful shapes and pictures and emaculent strength. I felt like asking the choreographer a lot of questions about some of the choices she made.  Transitions good, but there wasn't very much dancing.  Round of applause to lighting designer Steven Strawbridge though for brilliant lighting.  But i'm skipping it because my computer is so dumb. sorry.

Up Next:
Chunky Move

Urban Bush Women

Let me begin by saying, what an intelligent, passionate and creative human being Pearl Primus is.  If it wasn't for her, this company wouldn't be as wonderful as it is.  No, she is not the artistic director and Yes, she is deceased, but her brilliance is made abundantly clear through the work.  At first, as I read my program, I thought to myself "all these pieces have the same basic underlying theme: Oppression of African Americans.  How diffrent can it be?"  What I've learned, don't ever judge a performance by its program, EVER.  We began with "Walking with Pearl- African Diaries" which was dance performed to spoken text written by Primus.  Its context was her emotions when leaving Africa and the dancing was done beautifully with traditional African tribal movement with some american modern dance very well integrated to give the perfect balance for the piece.  The only part of it I saw where I was like "what? why?" (which is sometimes the reaction i get to a lot of pieces at one point) was a woman standing downstage left sort of literally acting out the text while another solo dancer danced and the corps danced throughout stage right. It just seemed a little busy and her movement was just too literal. 

After intermission, "Walking with Pearl- The Southern Diaries," was performed.  This piece had so many variations of movement.  It historically was so clear because you started out the performance with African movement and then the second act well demonstrated the lifestyles of southern african americans with a completely different quality of movement showing the diversity of the women in the company.  It went from solemn, to distress, to humor and energetic all in about 25 minutes.  Brilliant. 

The last movement of the last piece was the best part of the show.  These women were bursting with energy and there was a fire in them that you could just see in their bodies all the way in the back row.  They put meaning behind every movement from every part of their body; arm, leg, head, finger.  They had a fierce quality to them. They also used their breath so well. For a good portion of the time, their breath was the music they were dancing to.  At points, their breathing was made so obvious, I was a little nervous of seeing one of them pass out on stage, but it never happened.  They used their voices at any point when the movement just got to be so much they would sing or shout showing their intensity.  Wonderful performance, and if UBW ever come to a city near you, see them.  Even if its not really your style, see it.  You will surprise yourself at how much you will enjoy this performance.

Up Next:
Pilobolus

OK so I'm at the American Dance Festival right now and let's be honest, its awesome.  For all you dancers out there, I wish you too were here to experience it all.  Its magical.  I was reading Andrew's new xanga and it made me decide to do something of a similar fashion for the next six weeks.  So welcome to Laura's reviews of performances at the American Dance Festival.

The season kicked off with the Shen Wei Dance company from Tai Wan making a world premier of  "Second Visit to the Empress."  Shen Wei's concept was to integrate Chinese Opera with Modern Dance.  The story was delievered through song (and subtitles were  projected) and behind a scrim was the company doing absolutely beautiful movement.  The props and costuming were superb (obviously the company is well funded) and the instrumental was amazing as well.  I have never heard Chinese opera and I will say that it is very different from Operas that Westerners are used to.  It was a little "screechy" to my own ears but thats probably because it was my first time listening to it. 

While I have always loved the idea of integrating art forms, I found this particular integration to be a little much.  I felt there was a bit much going on at once, and the eye was a bit confused with where to look.  It also had a slow begining which probably went by slow because there wasn't very much dancing.  Mind you this is biased because I'm a dancer and would prefer to see more dancing on any stage.  But if you are going to integrate art forms, every art form included should be well represented. For instance, dancer and singers were on stage, but we never saw the musicians until the very end because they were hidden backstage.  I'm not just talking a high school band, these musicians were probably some of the best in the world (according to their bios).  If i hadn't read the program before the performance, I may not have known it was live and would have assumed the music was pre-recorded.

Despite those tiny critisms, the performance was good, not my favorite, but good nonetheless.  No one can deny that the choreography to the opera was brilliant, standing O to Shen Wei on that one. 

Next time: Urban Bush Women