Ruminating on Judson Dance Theater’s Pervasive Legacy
See more posts from the STANCE Focus ABOUT:TIME >> I can’t write about dance without thinking about time, especially how work relates to the past and present and what it might say about the future. My head was in the past a lot this year. I wrote about the 50th anniversary of Judson Dance Theater, an early ‘60s avant-garde modern dance collective that performed mostly in NYC. The...
Seattle Women + Provocative Art // A letter to Speakeasy participants from A K Mimi Allin
The following is a letter from A K Mimi Allin written after Seattle Women + Provocative Art: Artists Respond to Elles @ SAM, a multi-disciplinary think-tank curated by Allin in cooperation with Velocity Executive/Artistic Director Tonya Lockyer, presented by Velocity’s Speakeasy Series on November 15, 2012. First, thanks for attending the Velocity Speakeasy “Seattle Women + Provocative Art” last Thursday evening! I had a very good time and hope you did too. I was surprised we...
Zoe Scofield and Brian Rogers talk process, magic, and misery
Zoe Scofield and Juniper Shuey’s latest work is all about process. For this episode of STANCEcast, Zoe talks with Brian Rogers to trace the path that lead to zoe | juniper’s current project: No one to witness and adjust, no one to drive the car. Brian is the artistic director of the Chocolate Factory in Queens, New York where this September he—whilst plastered—premiered Hot Box. This is...
Quiet Riot: Modern Dance as Embodied Feminism by Tonya Lockyer
The following essay offers some historical context on how women choreographers have been, in Tonya Lockyer’s words, “kicking-ass as ambitious, forward-thinking creatives for over a hundred years”. Consider this writing while reflecting on Amy O’Neal’s recent “feminine tour de force” at Velocity, attending the upcoming event curated by A K Mimi Allin–Seattle Women + Provocative Art: Artists Respond to Elles @ SAM presented by Velocity’s Speakeasy Series...
Mark Haim and Allie Hankins
We’re delighted to share the latest artist2artist podcast, produced by Beth Graczyk. Dance makers Mark Haim and Allie Hankins talk time. Their conversation is a fitting entrée to STANCE’s upcoming FOCUS, ABOUT:TIME. This podcast was recorded October 9th, 2012 in Beth Graczyk’s home in Capitol Hill. artist2artist is a podcast of conversations that source dance and dance making. These conversations are between artists engaged in creative research...
Amy O and Jhon Stronks talk race, gender, and the communion of the ass
The Most Innovative, Daring, and Original Piece of Dance/Performance You Will See This Decade. That’s the title of Amy O’s evening-length solo that premiered at Velocity on October 12, 2012. Curious to understand what makes that work so daring and original STANCE set up a phone call between Amy O and Houston-based dance artist Jhon Stronks. In this episode of STANCEcast, Amy and Jhon continue a dialogue...
If You Laugh I Will Only Beat You Harder
If You Laugh I Will Only Beat You Harder from Madeleine Bailey on Vimeo. Video by Madeleine Bailey and Alison Rhoades, 2011 “Indexes of endurance, absent spankers, mechanized logics and confused circuits, we know what is going on but we do not know for what this is going. In my video, installation, drawing, and performance work, there is transparency in both materials used and in what is...
Juggling Lesson #1: A mostly listening somewhat visual experience for two people
Juggling Lesson 1: a mostly listening somewhat visual experience for two people from Sayward Schoonmaker on Vimeo. This video is part of an installation. Two people are invited to enter a small tent, sit in the dark space, and listen/watch a poem. Sayward Schoonmaker comes from Plainfield, New York. She is currently working on a book-length project about architecture, love, and ownership. She received her...
How does the idea of queerness relate to your work and process?
To be a dancer means embracing the actual experience of living in a body. Body, not as known territory, but as the unconscious – repressed unconscious and that which is not yet formulated. As with our emotions, we don’t have a choice about what our experience is. We have a choice whether to feel, but not what we feel. We can choose to relate to the experience...
Thoughts on turbulence without the pressure of landing
The first time I saw Keith Hennessy perform was about 20 years ago, as part of the dance company Contraband: in the performance, the dancers threw water balloons at the cement façade of an office building in San Francisco’s financial district, and as the balloons splattered onto the wall the dancers threw themselves at the building, seemingly attempting to climb even while falling. This image stands well...
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT STANCE // Q+A: Tonya Lockyer
Stance’s first Guest Editor Syniva Whitney has questions: How did STANCE get its name? Mary Margaret Moore, who played a key role in the development of STANCE, came up with a list of potential names. One of them was Circumstance. She and I played with it, then zeroed in on STANCE. We asked other folks what they thought, and STANCE stuck. What started STANCE? A conversation, a...
Fundraising as a Creative Act
Dear friends: Considering fundraising a creative act and part of making new work (rather than something desperately akin to pulling teeth) is my goal. In the spirit of clouds and of dance, I have decided to hold an ephemeral sale in support of my current project, cloudland. Since dance leaves no object behind, I am photographing objects that are a part of my life and my dance...