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  MONKEYHOUSE

C2C Blog

re[ACT] re[BUILD] re[COLLECT] Program

7/27/2018

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Image of three dancers. Text: Monkeyhouse & OnStage Dance Company Present React, Rebuild, Recollect. March 29-30 Multicultural Arts Center, Cambridge
Costume Design by
Karen Krolak
​unless otherwise noted

Lighting Design by Jason Ries

Special Thanks to
Impulse Dance Center,
Clayton Raithel, Catrin Evans and the Groton School Theatre Department,
​Aisha Cruse & Kelsey Griffith.

The biggest thanks goes to OnStage Dance Company for providing such an incredible opportunity to our community.  Monkeyhouse Loves You!

Photo by Olivia Blaisdell
Conglomerate (2018) *
Choreographed by Elizabeth Powers in collaboration with the dancers
Performed by Elyssa Berg, Sarah Feinberg, Nicole Harris, Caleb Howe, Samantha Mullen, and Olivia Scharff
Music by Kourosh Dini
This piece was created as a part of Monkeyhouse’s Choreography Mentorship Program and was originally presented at NACHMO Boston 2018. So many thanks to Karen Krolak and Nicole Harris for their mentorship throughout this process. Thank you to Jason Ries for mentorship in lighting and design. Special thanks to each of the performers for all of their input and trying the same prompt so many times while never producing the same outcome and to Karen Krolak for being at each rehearsal and always asking the right questions.

Ricochet (premiere)
Choreographed by Sarah Feinberg in collaboration with Elizabeth Powers
Performed by Sarah Feinberg and Elizabeth Powers
Music by Psycliq
Thank you to Monkeyhouse for providing me this opportunity to create and perform. Thank you to Karen Krolak for the mentorship you have provided throughout this choreographic process but also throughout my life. Thank you to Nicole Harris for inspiring me with your movement and creative choices during Musings. Thank you to Jason Ries for asking questions and challenging me to think about my work in new ways. Thank you to Elizabeth Powers for being a wonderful dance partner and for everything you have contributed to the choreographic process both in Musings and rehearsals.
Two dancers rehearse, One lies on ground, one stands above, In room with wood floor

Musing Prompt #46.329 (premiere)
Improvisation Prompt by Karen Krolak
Performed by Caleb Howe, Elyssa Berg, Nicole Harris, Olivia Scharff and Sam Mullen
Music by Twink the Toy Piano Band
Special Thanks to Aisha Cruse

Ukiyo (premiere)
Choreographed by Nicole Harris
Performed by Sarah Friswell Cotton, Olivia Scharff, Nicole Harris
Costumes by Nicole Harris
Special Thanks to Kelsey Griffith, Impulse Dance Center
Ukiyo (Japanese) - the “floating world”; a place of fleeting beauty and living in the moment, detached from the bothers of life.


[220] (premiere)
Choreographed by Karen Krolak in collaboration with Sam Mullen
Performed by Sam Mullen
Music by Twink the Toy Piano Band
Sam would like to thank Karen for the encouragement, freedom of expression and constant support.
​www.DictionaryofNegativeSpace.com

Two dancers, one sitting on ground, one standing. Blue light reflects on reddened floor
Photo by JK Photo
Connexa (2013)
Choreographed by Sarah Feinberg and Nikki Sao Pedro-Welch
Performed by Olivia Scharff and Samantha Mullen
Music by Drop Trio
Thank you to Monkeyhouse for the opportunity share this piece again. Thank you to Olivia Scharff and Samantha Mullen for taking this piece on with such energy and enthusiasm. It’s been a blast working on it with you two!


4 things (2018)
Choreographed by Elizabeth Powers in collaboration with the dancers
Performed by Michelle Boilard, Michela Doherty, Sarah Feinberg, and Elizabeth Powers
Music by Mystified
Costumes by Elizabeth Powers
This piece was created as part of the OnStage Dance Company Residency Program in the Spring of 2018.  Thank you to Jennifer Kuhnberg for organizing OnStage Dance Company’s Residency Program and providing the space for this work to be created.  Thank you to Karen Krolak for her always wise words of wisdom during this process.

[82] (premiere)
Choreographed by Karen Krolak in collaboration with Olivia Scarff
Performed by Olivia Scharff   
Sound Design by Karen Krolak
Special Thanks to Chris Lanier and to Olivia for being brave enough to take on this solo.
www.DictionaryofNegativeSpace.com

In a studio,  Dancer walks on rope on ground,  One arm out, one bent
Photo by Sarah Friswell Cotton

Dancer silhouette One arm and two feet planted firm Stomach to the sky
Photo by Sarah Friswell Cotton
Irradiance; In Three Parts (premiere) *
Choreographed by Elyssa Berg
Performed by Sarah Feinberg, Nicole Harris, Caleb Howe, Elizabeth Powers   
Music by Daniel Birch, Kevin MacLeod, and Mathieu Lamontagne and Emmanuel Toledo
Thank you to Monkeyhouse for the opportunity to create work and share the space with so many talented and supportive artists. Thank you to all of the artists who participated in musings to bring inspiration and insight into the direction of the work. And lastly, a special thank you to Nicole Harris, Karen Krolak, and Jason Reis for their guidance and support of working in new ways with new resources while growing as an artist.


Voetstoots (premiere)
Choreographed and Performed by Caleb Howe and Nicole Harris  
Music by Francois Couture
Sound Design by Nicole Harris
Umbrella Design by Karen Krolak
Special Thanks to Karen Krolak and Peter-John de Kock
Voetstoots (Afrikaans) - refers to something, usually sold, with all its faults and without guarantees - “As is”


* Created as part of Monkeyhouse’s Choreography Mentorship Program
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reACT reBUILD reCOLLECT Interviews - Nicole Harris & Caleb Howe

7/27/2018

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by Karen Krolak
Photo by Karen Krolak
​Nicole enjoyed interviewing the other choreographers we are working with, but Karen stepped in when it came time to interview the choreographers of Voetstoots, Caleb Howe and Nicole herself.  Here are their thoughts on collaboration, the choreographic process and working together.

Nicole and Caleb will also be dancing in work by Elizabeth Powers, Karen Krolak and Elyssa Berg.

reACT reBUILD reCOLLECT
Friday, July 27th @ 8pm
665 Salem St, Malden, MA
Tickets available here for only $10 if you use the VIP Code MH10.  
VIP tickets are not available at the door so get yours today!​​

karen Krolak: Lots of people loath collaborating.  What drew the two of you to want to build something together?
Caleb Howe & Nicole Harris:  We improvise well together.  We’ve had a lot of opportunity to experiment with movement together over the last year and while we are both happy with what comes out of those exercises, this was an opportunity to see what could happen with a more prolonged process.  Caleb has never choreographed before, and so collaborating gave him the opportunity to build a piece without having to take on everything at once.

kK: Can you describe how this piece grew out of specific Musing exercises?
C:  When you first made the umbrellas during the first generation of what later became the Dictionary of Negative Space, they had a very different intent than the prompts you gave when you brought them into rehearsal back in March.  You handed an umbrella to me and asked Nicole to coax me out from underneath it.  We were the only two in attendance which gave us the opportunity to do a lot in a short amount of time.  Working with the same partner over and over again allowed us to build an understanding of how the umbrella moves even as the specifics of the prompt changed.  
N: When we left the studio that day both Caleb and I were interested in continuing to play with the ideas you had introduced.  Knowing you and what you know of the roles  depression and anxiety can play in both mine and Caleb's lives, I am not surprised that you selected those particular prompts for us.  When we got in the studio this spring we tried to stay true to the idea of finding the ways you can help support another person, even when that means temporarily setting your own problems to the side.  The idea of the umbrella expanded and the journey of the characters developed, but the seed of the piece continues to be that same exercise of two people supportively coaxing each other.

kK: Caleb, how did the umbrella shape your movement choices?
C: Much of the movement that Monkeyhouse is drawn to tends to be very grounded, either on the floor or with hands on the floor.  The umbrella does not like to be upside down and so it restricts choices and required me to find more upright movement.  While I do have some background in ballroom dance, the choice to use it here came much more from the restrictions the umbrella posed than simply relying on what I knew.
kK: Nicole, this is the first time the you have collaborated with Caleb on choreographing a piece, how was the process different than other choreographers in Monkeyhouse?
N: Since I have primarily collaborated with you for the last 18 years, we have developed a shorthand (both verbal and physical) in working together which doesn’t exists yet with Caleb, so the experience was very different in that regard.  I think my biggest challenge was making sure I supported Caleb, who hasn’t choreographed a piece before, in a way that didn’t impose my own agenda on the work or the process.

kK: Caleb, what were some of the challenges you dealt with as you choreographed a piece for the first time?
C: I don’t have any training as a dancer,  The challenge for me building this piece was not having a movement vocabulary to draw upon, and having to construct each of the movements from scratch.
N: Caleb described it to me as being similar to when a child learns to read or write.  They don’t yet have the experience to recognize entire words but instead process each letter one at a time.  I thought that was a really great analogy for what I saw in working with Caleb.
​
kK: Nicole - how did you find the music for this duet?
N: Before we knew what the piece was going to be we were playing Pink Martini’s “Hang on Little Tomato” in rehearsal.  The movement instantly began to transform itself.  However we knew we would not get the rights to Pink Martini’s music, so we slowly introduced other pieces of music discovered on Ilicensemusic.com until we found the right combination of what we were looking for, not too fast, no lyrics, not too heavy a swing.  Once the music was selected I did a little editing to the beginning to help support the story we are trying to tell.
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reACT reBUILD reCOLLECT Interviews - Elyssa Berg

7/26/2018

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Photo by Olivia Blaisdell
Here are a few words from our Choreography Mentee, Elyssa Berg.  Her new work is an exciting blend of choreography and design.  She worked closely with our resident lighting designer and production manager, Jason Ries, to create three distinctly different vignettes, each with its own method of illumination.

Elyssa will also be performing in work by Elizabeth Powers and Karen Krolak.


​ reACT reBUILD reCOLLECT
Friday, July 27th @ 8pm
665 Salem St, Malden, MA
Tickets available here for only $10 if you use the VIP Code MH10.  
VIP tickets are not available at the door so get yours online now!
EB:  This is definitely a new way of working for me. I usually work by building set choreography but for this piece the majority is set improvisation. Overall I feel this is an interesting way to work as it has brought a genuine feel to the work. The dancers are seen as individuals and are making decisions that are true to them. It is fulfilling as a choreographer to see this happen. It is exciting to see people take your ideas and interpret them as opposed to seeing people try and duplicate exactly what you are thinking in movement that was created for your body. I will definitely explore working this way further as it has brought out different work that has a completely different feeling than what I usually make.
Two dancers stand close Lit up by one light below Everything is black
Photo by Sarah Friswell Cotton
Nicole Harris:  You are building a series of vignettes using four different dancers.  Can you talk about who is in each section and what drew you to those people/pairings? 
Elyssa Berg:  This decision came from watching how people interacted during Musings. I was able to work quite a few times with these ideas and throughout the sessions of Musings I was able to watch the pairings of people, seeing how they interacted with the light and each other. I chose the pairings in this way so that the connections appeared genuine and true to the relationship of the pairings. Nicole and Caleb are a part of the first section in which the feeling of the piece is curious and explorative. The second section includes Elizabeth and Sarah and the feeling is more playful which is very true to the relationship between the two of them and how they move together. The last section is a solo with Elizabeth in which I wanted the feeling to be isolated and contained. Thanks to Musings each decision was made based on how the individuals and their actions inspired me as they brought themselves to the work. 


N:  You have led a series of Musings (a time for choreographers to play with ideas in a low stakes setting) over the last year in preparation for creating this piece.  How have you used Musing time to help get you where you are now?  What was something from Musing that was unexpectedly helpful?
EB:  Musings have helped me in feeling prepared to create. When you come into rehearsal with a big idea, of something you haven't done before, it can be very intimidating. The most frustrating part of building a new piece can be the trial and error process that you feel you don't have time for. It can feel like a lot of pressure to build something quickly with the resources that you have, feeling like everything you make has to be good. Musings gave me the chance to have all of the trial and error moments that you need before you start setting a work. Since there is no pressure in Musings you can try just about anything. You can go in with a small idea and just see what happens. A lot of unexpected things have happened during Musings that made their way into the piece. With all of this time to weed out the ideas that I didn't need I was able to focus on what I liked and what read the best. It was amazing to see how easy the building process of the pieces was after preparing through Musings. 
Dancer silhouette One arm and two feet planted firm Stomach to the sky
Photo by Sarah Friswell Cotton
N:  What is a favorite rehearsal moment from the creation of this piece?
EB:  It is hard to pick a single moment. I would say that the most fulfilling moments are the unexpected times where you try to communicate to your dancers what you see in your head and then the dancers deliver even more than you could have expected. Those are the most exciting moments that bring a new light to the piece.  ​
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reACT reBUILD reCOLLECT Interviews - Elizabeth Powers

7/26/2018

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by Nicole Harris
Photo by Lucas Buriche
Next up, Choreography Mentee, Elizabeth Powers!  You saw the piece she created as part of the Choreography Mentorship Program at NACHMO Boston in January.  You'll have the chance to see it again on stage tomorrow.  We're excited to see what Elizabeth brings to the company in the future!

Elizabeth is also dancing in work by Sarah Feinberg and Elyssa Berg.  Here she is talking about the two pieces she has in tomorrow's concert.
re{ACT} re{BUILD} re{COLLECT}
Friday, July 27th @ 8pm
665 Salem St, Malden, MA
Tickets available here for only $10 if you use the VIP Code MH10.  
VIP tickets are not available at the door so get yours today!​

Nicole Harris:  You have two pieces in this concert that you created as part of two different choreography programs this winter.  What were some of the highlights of your experiences with each program?
Elizabeth Powers:
  Many of the best parts of each program are the same! Both gave me as an emerging choreographer free space along with lots of freedom and little pressure to make something new. A highlight from OnStage Dance Company’s residency program was that I had the opportunity to bring together dancers who I new from different dance communities as well as meet other dancers from the OnStage community. A highlight from the Choreography Mentorship Program with Monkeyhouse was all of the opportunities for feedback and reflection on the work I was making. Additionally with this program I was given mentorship in all kinds of areas of the field including working with a lighting designer, finding/licensing music, costuming mentorship, and more.
Photo by Olivia Blaisdell
N:  The piece you created for OnStage Dance Co's Residency Program was fairly significantly less improv based than the one you created for Monkeyhouse's Choreography Mentorship Program.  Can you talk about the differences between those two processes?
EP: The main difference between the two processes was what I came in with. For OnStage, I began the first rehearsal by teaching a phrase. The first rehearsal with Monkeyhouse began with several improvisation prompts as well as dancers creating their own phrases from these prompts. With the OnStage piece, the improvisation tasks were mostly developed into set material. For this piece, I imagined very specific images while working to bring them to life. Comparatively, the Monkeyhouse piece was created by honing specific improvisation scores and combining them into a cohesive dance.
N:  Will you be making any changes to the two pieces from their first performances?
EP:  
Definitely! Every time I see my work I think of something new to add, alter, or take out. The main structure of each piece will stay the same but I definitely made several small edits to both. Additionally, since there are elements of improvisation between each piece, there is no question that the pieces will not be exactly the same as they were in their original form, which is what I love about dance :)
Back of a dancer One arm reaches out to side In room with wood floors
Photo by Sarah Friswell Cotton
N:  What is a favorite rehearsal moment for each piece?
EP:  
A favorite rehearsal moment for the OnStage piece was the moment when all of the pieces finally went together. There was a time in the process when we had so many bits of material that we had been playing with, but they didn’t seem to work together. Trying one combination that finally worked was a great moment. A favorite rehearsal movement for the Monkeyhouse piece would have to be the first time we played with creating the duet between Sam and Olivia. It was just so much fun to watch them explore their silly and playful movement that was fun and thought provoking to watch.
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reACT reBUILD reCOLLECT Interviews - Karen Krolak

7/25/2018

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Photo by Stephanie Young
by Nicole Harris
In the last few weeks we've introduced you to new performers, guest artists and choreography mentees related to Friday's performance.  Just in case you were missing our incredible Artistic Director, Karen Krolak, we wanted to make sure you heard all about the three new pieces she has in the show.

Karen has created two new solos for Sam Mullen and Olivia Scharff as well as put together a Musing Prompt so you can see what improvisation time with Monkeyhouse can be like.  Karen has also designed costumes for the majority of the work being shown!

reACT reBUILD reCOLLECT
Friday, July 27th @ 8pm
665 Salem St, Malden, MA
Tickets available here for only $10 if you use the VIP Code MH10.  
VIP tickets are not available at the door so get yours today!

Nicole Harris: You are building two solos for this performance. 
karen Krolak: Yes, through the Musings this year, I began to explore some choreographic ideas related to The Dictionary of Negative Space: an interdisciplinary lament. 

N: Can you talk a little about what the dictionary is and how the pieces relate to it?
kK: The dictionary began as my thesis project for my MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts at Sierra Nevada College. It examines the negative space within the English language, the vast chasms of unnamed ideas related to mourning, trauma, and repair and it was inspired by the car accident that killed my mother, father, and older brother in 2012. By the time we began to plan Re act…, I had a two ideas for pieces based off of this research. 
N: You led a number of Musings around the text from MyFather’s              [1]           .              [13] Dance. It is choreographic score and it is very different from how you usually create work. Can you describe it?
kK: Hmm. It is an odd bit of text. Really, it is a list of physical instructions. I have been curious about how different people would make movement phrases based on these words. You know, some people when you say ‘Rewind’ will move backwards whereas someone else might turn around like the cog of an old cassette tape. 
 

N: How did you develop the verbs on this list?
Picture
www.DictionaryofNegativeSpace.com
kK: So, in the Dictionary of Negative Space, entries are labeled by the number in the bracket. For instance,                [1] is the place where a deceased person was last seen alive by the speaker.

​
Exactly two weeks before the accident, my father, Kwaq7aj’, and I went to see Monkeyhouse’s creation in Luminarium’s very first 24hr ChoreoFest. I decided to create a choreographic score to guide someone from the Dance Complex to the place where we said goodbye that day. When I began mapping out these activities, a little more than 5 years had already passed. 
 
Odd, I just remembered that I started working on the score after I left a showing that Luminarium presented at Green Street Studios this fall. 
 
Anyway, it was challenging to recreate exactly what happened. How long did we wait for the walk signal? Where exactly was our table when we sat down to eat? Since I did not know that this would be my last outing with my father, I did not memorize as many details as I wanted later. More importantly, I realized that I had tricked myself into thinking that this was my father’s 
               [1] because in reality both of my parent’s                [1] no longer exists.  That place was destroyed a few years after the accident. I had latched onto the goodbye from the day of ChoreoFest because my brain clearly did not want to deal with another missing thing. 
 
As I wrote out everything that was tangled up in my head, I realized that I was not writing instructions for my father’s 
               [1]. I was writing out my father’s  aaaaaaaaa[13] (n.[usually plural] activities that seem ordinary but take on new significance when they are the last moments spent with someone). I edited my thoughts down to just the verbs to emphasize those actions. 
In a studio,  Dancer walks on rope on ground,  One arm out, one bent
Photo by Sarah Friswell Cotton
N: Can you talk about what you discovered during Musings?
kK: It was fascinating to see how each person responded to the text. I remember the first time that you played with it, your work began an ended in the exact same spot over and over again. I loved how it felt as thought you became trapped in a memory loop. Elizabeth developed a phrase that just felt isolated or lost in her own mind and that was exacerbated when I asked other people to dance past her. I began to realize that the text could inspire multiple pieces without anyone in the audience feeling as though they were related. Both Sam and Olivia's solos evolved from the text but they did it in very different ways.
N: The one for Olivia Scharff was also influenced by a walk you went on in Malden Center.  Can you explain what you saw on the walk and what path the idea took once you were in the studio with Olivia?
kK: Right, I had received an email from Mobius and discovered that they were planning some dadamobile events in Boston at the Farmer’s Market on Copley Square. One of them was just a few hours after the email arrived and I had some free time. Two moments on that trip sparked an idea of how to approach this solo. 
 
First, while I was sitting near Copley over by the Finish Line for the Boston Marathon, a man approached me to use my phone. Having just recently adjusted to a new phone, I was hesitant to hand it over to a stranger. He was clearly in distress and wanted help to contact a medical clinic. I offered to call the clinic for him. As we navigated the phone tree, things got very frantic and confusing for him. He was in a treatment program for opioid addiction and had missed the time that he was supposed to contact his nurse that day. While he and I were sharing the phone in this awkward uncomfortable duet, people were just rushing by us and stepping over us. It was very similar to the feeling of Elizabeth’s phrase from that Musing.

Then on the way home from the T in Malden Center, I was behind three strings of children on walking ropes. I was still worrying about the man from Copley. Juxtaposing the security and calm of these kids making their way to the Ed Emberley Park against the man’s isolation and despair, I began to wonder about a person who realizes that they are all alone on their walking rope. Once again, I understood that I was exploring yet another entry from the dictionary but I will let people guess about which one until they come to the show. 
N: How did you approach working with Sam?
kK: Sam has not been told very much about the instructions on MyFather’s
                  [1]     .               [13] Dance 
other than that they are related to the Dictionary of Negative Space. Her choices are all very carefree and full of wonder. I wanted to see how she would experience the instructions without the weight of the backstory
.
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reACT reBUILD reCOLLECT Interviews - Sarah Feinberg

7/25/2018

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by Nicole Harris
Dancer in white room Long brown hair flowing behind Reaches out and looks
Photo by G. Mark Lewis
  With reACT reBUILD reCOLLECT just around the corner we wanted to give you a more in depth look at some of the work that will be performed.  Here is a quick interview with choreographer and performer, Sarah Feinberg!  

Sarah has been dancing with Monkeyhouse on and off for several years and we are thrilled to see what she's been building with Elizabeth Powers.  In addition to premiering a new work she has restaged Connexa, which she choreographed with Nikki Sao Pedro-Welch.  Sarah  will also be dancing in choreography by Elyssa Berg and Elizabeth Powers.

reACT reBUILD reCOLLECT
Friday, July 27th @ 8pm
665 Salem St, Malden, MA

Tickets available here for only $10 if you use the VIP Code MH10.  
VIP tickets are not available at the door so get yours today!

Nicole Harris:  You are building a duet for yourself and Elizabeth Powers.  How are you working rehearsals?  Do you build work together?  Are you responsible for coming up with material?
Sarah Feinberg:  A combination of strategies has been used. We have developed phrases collaboratively by improvising together, I have come up with and taught phrases and we have improvised with the phrases I have come up with to develop new versions. 
Three dancers in black room. Text reads: React, Rebuild, ReCollect
N:  You have led a series of Musings (a time for choreographers to play with ideas in a low stakes setting) over the last several months in preparation for creating this piece.  How have you used Musing time to help get you where you are now?
SF:  
Musings have been a great opportunity to try out ideas and get feedback. I had some improvisational prompts that I started with but then got stuck when it came to setting choreography. I was challenged by karen during a musing to come up with a phrase to teach and then use the improvisational prompts I had been playing with in conjunction with the phrase. This was a major turning point in the choreographic process for me. The phrase I came up with that day ended up laying the foundation for the entire piece.  
N:  What is a favorite rehearsal moment from the creation of this piece?
SF:  One of my favorite moments was when the last bit of choreography came together and all of a sudden I had an ending to my piece. I had initially came in to rehearsal that day with a very different plan for a possible ending and as we were working through the choreography the ending came naturally and that was that. 
Two dancers, one sitting on ground, one standing. Blue light reflects on reddened floor
Photo by JK Photo
N:  In addition to your new duet you will be setting Connexa, a piece you built with Nikki Sao Pedro-Welch, on Olivia Scharff and Sam Mullen.  How has it been going back to that piece?  What has changed when you set it on new dancers?
SF:  ​It has been a lot of fun getting to revisit this piece again. Sam and Olivia have been wonderful to work with and the piece looks great on them! I love seeing what they bring to the characters and how 
they make it their own. A few bits of choreography got adjusted here and there but the biggest change is just new dancers bringing new life to the characters. One of the things I love most about this piece is that no two dancers are going to perform it the same way. Every time this piece gets performed its a little bit different and that is part of what keeps it exciting. 
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reAct reBuild reCollect Guest Artists -- Part I

7/9/2018

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by Nicole Harris
Three dancers in dark room. Text reads: Monkeyhouse and OnStage Dance Company Present: React, Rebuild, Recollect. March 29-30
OnStage Dance Company Summer Series
We are very excited to have several guest artists as part of reAct reBuild reCollect on July 27th at OnStage Dance Company in Malden.  We have been slowly introducing you to all of the artists participating in the concert on social media but here's a look at two specific groups of guest artists!
$10 Tickets
can be yours right now by clicking here!  Any tickets using the VIP Code MH10 not only are less expensive, but give a higher percentage of the ticket price to the artist.  (psst, that's us!)  VIP Code rates are NOT available at the door, so get yours today!

For the past year I have been honored to have three former students return to the studio to take class as adults.  It began with Olivia Scharff, who sweated out the summer with me last year at Impulse Dance Center during my adult tap class.  When September rolled around she was joined by Kelsey Griffith and Monkeyhouse alum Sarah Friswell Cotton.  Towards the end of our first ten week session these ladies approached me to ask if they could dance on the "big stage" in Impulse's end of year concert.  LuAnn (Impulse's director) was more than happy to include three Impulse alumni in her show so we got down to work and the second ten week session was dedicated to creating a piece of choreography.
The piece they performed this June was to Waving Through a Window from the Broadway show Dear Evan Hansen.  The choreography was intricate and the incredible music gave the piece body and character.  However, the music also allowed for the dancers to hide within its orchestrations.  Don't get me wrong, these ladies aren't lazy!  But the fullness of the music overpowered some of the rhythms and counterpoints they were working so hard on, so we decided to also create a version of the piece with no music at all to be part of reAct reBuild reCollect in July.
The original plan was for all four of us to perform this new tacit piece but unfortunately, Kelsey tore her ACL this spring and will not be able to join us at the performance.  However, you can still learn about the amazing things she, Sarah and Olivia are doing by clicking on their images below.  It's exciting to see how people keep dance in their lives and these three are doing some pretty incredible work.
Headshot of woman Brown hair pulled back, brown eyes, smile Wears a yellow shirt
Picture
Headshot of woman Shoulder length blonde hair, wears black Smiles at camera
I can't describe to you how much fun it was to work with these ladies again.  Teaching adults is a very different thing than teaching children or even teenagers.  I loved seeing the different ways each of them had learned how to learn in the ten years since they last took class with me.  I am impressed by their ability to see their strengths and also their weaknesses and not be afraid to ask for or offer help.  I am honored to dance with them on July 27th and continue working with them in the future!  
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Happy July Birthdays

7/6/2018

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Picture




Twyla Tharp, Jessica Friswell, Rachel Solem, 
Marie Libbin, Aisha Cruse, Renee Harris, Lisa Conley, 
Katelyn Alcott, Arleigh Rothenberg, Jason LaVoie, 
Ruth Birnburg, Ginger Rogers, Michael Flatley, 
Catherine Buell, Edgar Degas, Nicole Kedaroe, 
Pam Vlach, Ninette Paloma, Andrew Nemr, 
Randall Rosenberg, Theresa Fellion, 
​Dorothy Mahoney, Jon Wye
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OnStage Summer Series Interview - Kelley Donovan

7/2/2018

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Short haired dancer in black pants and red shirt with cape throws arms, head, and one leg back.
Photo by Michael Hamilton
by Nicole Harris
With the first performance of the OnStage Summer Series coming up on Saturday we are excited to be sharing our next interview with you!  We interviewed Kelley Donovan for NACHMO Boston 2018 in January.  If you want to know more about what she's doing you can catch her show:

OnStage Dance Company, 665 Salem St, Malden, MA
Saturday, July 14th @ 8pm
Use VIP Code KDD10 to get a special ticket price here!

Nicole Harris:  Can you tell me about the work you’ll be performing as part of the OnStage Summer Performance Series?
Kelley Donovan:  We are developing a modern dance work using chance elements, numerology and imagery from the Tarot, Additionally, I am performing a recent solo and showing an old solo from 1994.  Rozann Kraus will perform "Waltz news" featuring 6 dancers depicting images of the "false news" featured on social media.  


N:  Who are the dancers you’ll be working with?
KD:  10 dancers, some new and some whom I have worked with since 2007,  The dancers include: Rose Gibney, Carolyn Jepsen, Crystal Heroux  Jacqueline Wilkinson Jane Wong, Katie Logan, Kira Mathiesen, Lauren Sava Marva Yates , Samantha Wilson, Sarah Takahagi,, Tiffany Lau and Rozann's work features:  Jacqueline Wilkinson, Jim Banta, Karen Klein, Kelley Donovan, Rozann Kraus, Dan Quinn and Samantha Wilson


N:  You have a performance series of your own called the Third Life Performance Series.  Can you tell us about it? How did it come about?
KD:  Yes, the third life series has been going for 6 years now since 2012 and we have presented over 150 choreographers and groups!  It is an informal series, designed to echo works in progress like the Judson Church Monday night showings in NYC.  When I started the series there were few informal showing in Boston and I felt a need for a stepping stone to full concerts and full productions and a need to build community that comes from seeing one anothers work.
N:  Last time we spoke was for NACHMO Boston in January. We talked about the challenges of creating choreography in such a short amount of time and the challenge you’d given yourself in creating a solo.  Now that that process is over I would love to hear about how you felt it went and what tools you used to create in such a potentially limiting environment.
KD:  I work improvisationally mostly so I consider it a step in a long process of creating material.  I consider every performance actually as part of a process, even the fully produced evenings.  I am more interested in the process, exploration and growth or work on creating.  I give myself structures and practice improvising with those structures leading up to the next showing.
Dancer in all black room, throws one arm up, head to side, and one leg bent in front
Photo by Olivia Moon Photography
N:  What are some amazing things you have been up to since we spoke in January?
KD:  ​I have mostly been performing solo work, at Thang at Somerville Armory, Mayfair, Third life and performed w/ teXtmoVes and with Kraus and..... in Dance for World Community, We Create at Hibernian Hall, I also reset a new work on Boston dancers called "Transitional State" at Dance Complex, and created a commissioned work for Boston Moving Arts for the same show!  It has been quite a busy year so far!
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