35

This is an excerpt of a piece by Jane Wang performed in the Politics of Shoes at Mobius. The section you see was preceded by approximately 10 minutes of slow, meditative movement by Jane (in white clothing) with the bells. I am the woman in red.

34

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Dance #33

This piece was performed as part of The Politics of Shoes at Mobius, Boston, MA. Improvised sound by Haggai Cohen Milo.

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Dance #32

Dance #31

Improvised Duet with Haggai Cohen Milo (live sound, except jackhammer and fire engines courtesy of Cambridge, MA) and Liz Roncka (movement).
I love that I am cut off from the frame at the end, but if you look in the mirror you can see me. Chance blows my mind.

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Dance #30

This piece was exploring use of eyes, focus and body language. I have been thinking about how and why movement can mean something to the viewer. What shapes, tension, rhythms create emotions...create "drama". Why is some movement easier to "relate" to. When you understand what I am doing....how and what does that mean? I am interested in body language (as opposed to gesture). I find in "music" certain tones or pitches immediately create a feeling in me. It is primal, reflexive. I am curious about the equivalent in dance. I was recently reading an article that suggested a woman do a gesture or "pose" with her palms up or open to show a man she is interested. Is this true? What are the signs we read without knowing?

Dance #29

Dance #28

Dance #27

Dance#26

In watching this, I realized how much I appreciated the sound of the objects being flung and landing. Rich.

Dance#25

It was hard to get motivated for this one. My"task" was to focus on being who I was, exactly where I was, feeling what I was at that moment.....honestly.

Dance #24

This piece is accompanied by my first attempt at making "music" with Garageband. The song features a track of my 3 cats being fed. Fun, but time consuming.

Dance #23

A mood-induced piece. When I watched the piece after doing it, I was at first annoyed that my head was cut off when I stood up. However, it ended up serving several other purposes. When I stood up I made a series of gestures, some inappropriate, that I felt somewhat self-conscious about. Due to the field cut, my hand was never seen. I also appreciated my final "gesture" much more coming from a shot in which my head was not visible. Who knew.

Dance #22

An experiment in brevity.

Dance #21

This is a long video, but it was essential for me to keep its entire length. Since it is over 10 minutes, it had to be posted as 2 videos. I hope you will view the entire video. It is an "ode" to my childhood. I am dancing in my parents' house, the one I grew up in. My sister did the filming. It is a very loaded piece for me.

Dance #20

Live duet with Haggai Cohen Milo on bass. During our session that day we were focusing heavily on simplicity and attempting to do only one thing. Inevitably, if something is happening along the continuum of time, there is some progression but the attempt was to stick to "the thing" as much as possible. In the first few improvisations (which are not posted) I felt a sense of resistance and tension in regards to the idea of one thing. However, after relaxing into it, by the run seen here, I felt a calm sense of clarity about what I was doing. The inner babble stopped and there was no hesitation or anticipation about what would happen next.

Dance #19

This was originally done to music by David Torn. Now it is in silence. It seemed too artificial to stick some other music on top of it. Fortunately this was the last video that had audio that needed to be altered.

Dance #18 5/7/09

A little ditty probably best viewed full screen in the dark.

Dance #17 5/6/09

This one almost drove me crazy. It was originally done to a different piece of music. However, due to my copyright caniption, I decided to get rid of the original audio. I cut and pasted some legal sounds to make a new soundscape. Then.....I was only allowed to post a max of 10 minutes, so I had to edit. Aargh. But here is what we have and it was worth it. It is super-slow and segmental, so allow your attention to adjust to the pace. Cheers.

Dance #16 5/4/09

Dance #15 got shelved for now cuz of music.

Some Videos Will Disappear and the Soundscape will Change!

So............I am not surprised to learn that I really can't b using copyrighted music for this project without going through a lot of red tape. After reciting all the curse words I know, I have decided to remove videos with music that is likely copyrighted. So now, we will have environmental sound and original music and text only. Lovely, but these are the laws. So, farewell to the videos that disappeared. I may consider reposting them without sound or who knows... laying new original sound over them?!? I guess this is how one's work evolves sometimes....Watch out, I may start singing. Also, all u musicians and sound-makers....send something my way with explicit permission for me to use your material.

And for those of u that know me well, it may b time for the Fender to come out from under the couch or Bubbles' horn to appear.

Dance #14 5/2/09

This was a day that it was hard to get it going on. Somehow I think I found something though.

Dance #13 5/1/09

The source of my inspiration for each dance is random. It could be the light in a certain room, my mood, a piece of music, an image or it could be something "negative"....not knowing what I want to do, but knowing what I don't want to do, where I don't want to dance, etc etc. Today's video sprung from a mood, that led to a piece of music, that led to a costume......

It can be challenging to dance to music with lyrics, something almost pop....how not to be too literal or dramatic....not too music video-ish. Most times I shy away from even attempting this kind of thing but I think there is a way to transcend, a way it can work..... not that I have necessarily found it, but I am curious........


Author removed video secondary to copyright.

Dance #12 4/30/09

Duet with bass player Haggai Cohen Milo. Performed at New England Conservatory.

Dance #11 4/29/09

I removed the video secondary to copyright issues with sound.

Dance #10 4/28/09

I am still very excited about this project. I love the good days and the bad, the successful pieces and the ones that have details that bother me aesthetically and/or compositionally. I am also deeply appreciative of you who have been viewing the blogs. Posting these pieces brings up many questions for me (and hopefully for you). One main concern is how to balance staying true to the practice, to uphold the focus of this being about the process. This is no way means "anything goes" but it means that I do not have to subject myself to a high level of perfectionism before deeming the piece worthy before sharing it. Because.....what is perfect? What is worthy? Is product more valuable than process? Is process not product? Is life a product or a process? Perhaps that is taking it too far, but it all these questions feel very relevant.

To me, everything is process. In process, there is movement and change. Everything is movement and change. There is no such thing as stillness. Enough. I hope you get my drift.

This work is about questions: generating questions, answering questions, questioning the answers to the questions. I hope this is true for me and for you, the participant. I do not wish to use the word "viewer" because I think viewers are all participating with their eyes and ears and brains.

SOOOooo....this whole blab-a-thon entry started when I was reading one of the comments I received (which I love receiving because it makes this all even more interactive). And before I begin, let me thank the person who wrote it because it inspired me to clarify my thoughts and motivations and generated more QUESTIONS!!! The sentences that intrigued me were, "I struggled to get more out of it,as an outsider. I feel as if this dance is for yourself." This comment was made about Piece #8. I think that all these dances are for me and all these dances are made for anyone who sees them. I give and take all of me in making them. But what it makes me wonder is....what makes someone watching feel an "outsider", how/when does a piece alienate a "viewer" ? Or is it about someone's ability to connect to the piece and is that my responsibility as the creator or the viewer's or both? If I think about this question specifically in terms of this piece, I wonder how certain aesthetics reel people in or shut them out? Does the lack of a human face create a feeling of being shut out? And what if that is the intention of the piece? Or is the performer hiding her face even though her feelings are exposed? Or is the small, measured movement more difficult to connect to on a physical level, but is the creator trying to share the experience of being in her body in this physical/emotional state? Anyway, these comments are rich. As an "artist" my ultimate goals are to communicate and be authentic and to try not to compromise either in the name of the other. I hope at least a fraction of this makes sense to anyone reading. If not, just watch the "dancing" and forget about it.

Dance#9 4/27/09

This is my second exploration of improvising both text and movement simultaneously. I am intrigued by this process, not only by what words and topics come up, but by how significantly it shifts my movement quality, timing/phrasing and emotional state. I feel I access another aspect of my personality that was formerly much less present in my improvisational work. It seems to have potency because of its authenticity whereas previously, I might have "resorted" to theatricality to "up the anti". To quote yet another cliche: less is more. Maybe.

Dance #8 4/26/09

Video moved to private collection secondary to copyright for music.

Dance #7 4/25/09

A late night improvisation. Music by some of my current favorite improvisors: Haggai Cohen Milo and Mateo Lugo. Pardon the distortion caused by playing the music a little too loud near the camera. However, I am slightly interested in the combination of the sound distortion and the video's grainy quality created by the low light.

This brings me to another point: most days I allow myself only one take of a piece. Ocassionally, if I feel remarkably unsatisfied, I allow myself another take. This particular day I did that, but found that in the end, the first run was the preferred one. How unsurprising.

Dance #6

Some of you may have just received the email announcement for Emily and Eric's and my daily dance projects. A little heads up...my blog runs chronologically with the newest entry first. I started posting about a week ago, so please scroll down for some of the first entries.

I encourage viewers to just watch a video or two in one sitting to keep one's attention fresh. I also recommend viewing the whole video to appreciate the entire composition.

Today's video was actually done on a day when it felt challenging to do a video. So I allowed a slow start and the possibility of doing little to nothing until genuine impulses arrived. I find myself continually reminded of the importance of waiting and listening.

Dance #5

Author removed video secondary to copyright of music.

Dance #4 4/22/09

In general, I have chosen music that I am relatively unfamiliar with, except for its overall mood. Ideally I would have live improvised sound each day, but....Therefore, unless I am specifically moved to use a particular piece of music that I know, I have been attempting to choose music I don't really know. This helps keep the improvisation as fresh as possible.
Once again, impeccable work by the Katz.

Video moved to private collection secondary to music copyrights.