Three Shows in Two Weeks

Spring Dance 2010

Two Concerts, Four Nights

Program A:

May 26 & 28 - Wednesday & Friday @ 8:00pm

(I'll perform in Betsy Miller's El Otro Lado/The Other Side and Dante Brown's Chalk Boundaries.)

Program B:

May 27 & 29 - Thursday & Saturday @ 8:00pm

(I'll perform my latest solo, Bear Traps and Other Impressions.)

Both shows are at Sullivant Hall Theatre

1813 N. High Street at 15th Avenue and High Street

Tickets at the door

($10 General Admission, $5 with BuckID)

Poster credit: Bernice Lee

Media in Performance Showings

As part of the Media in Performance class final, we will present a collection of our work. Public is welcome! We would love your feedback. Admission is free!

Thursday, June 3, 2010, 5:30pm - 8:30pm

The Ohio State University, ACCAD Building, Emma Lab

Get a hold of me for directions.

Photo credit: Rashana Smith, Performer: Tsung-Hsin Lee

Pile Up

Come see an informal showing of new dance works presented by MFA candidates Dante Brown, Maree ReMalia, and Abigail Zbikowski. (I'll perform in Dante's Chalk Boundaries.)

Friday, June 4, 2010, 7:00pm - 9:00pm

The Ohio State University, Sullivant Hall, Studio 1

1813 N. High Street at 15th Avenue and High Street

Free Admission!

Poster credit: Erik Abbott-Main

Last Few Weeks

Almost done.

Hard Quarter.

Hard Year.

Too much.

Sleep deprived.

But

Growing.

Hopeful.

Finally! The last set of readings (#8)

From the Forward written by Richard Shaull in Paulo Freire's book Pedagogy of the Oppressed:

"I am encouraged when a man of the stature of Paulo Freire incarnates a rediscovery of the humanizing vocation of the intellectual, and demonstrates the power of thought to negate accepted limits and open the way to a new future. ...Freire is able to do this because he operates on one basic assumption: that man's ontological vocation (as he calls it) is to be a Subject who acts upon and transforms his world, and in so doing moves towards ever new possibilities of fuller and richer life individually and collectively. This world to which he relates in not a static and closed order, a given reality which man must accept and to which he must adjust; rather, it is a problem to be worked on and solved."

In addition to this book, I perused articles regarding Freire's work in preparation to helping lead a class next week regarding Pedagogy of the Oppressed. The articles were quite helpful in giving good examples of how to engage students in the classroom. Freire's work centered around adult education in Third World countries, but the same can be applied in many educational systems. I think this will assist me a lot in my teaching at Easthaven Elementary school (something I realize I haven't even mentioned on this blog until now). Most notable about Freire's book, well - the chapter I read most intently (chapter 2), was his idea of the "banking" concept opposed to problem-posing concept in education. This relates most directly to "teacher-centered" opposed to "student-centered" instruction that was discussed earlier in the quarter. Right now, I really just want more experience putting these ideas into action. Relevance, relevance.

Okay, with my readings done, it's time get something to eat and ready myself for four hours of rehearsal after which I will come home and start writing multiple papers. (Come on summer!)

Quick Note from Reading #7

So this is a big 'un. A lot more complex. Harder to understand. Theoretical, etc. Judith Butler's book Gender Trouble. Here's my selected quote:

"The theories of feminist identity that elaborate predicates of color, sexuality, ethnicity, class, and able-bodiedness invariably close with an embarrassed "etc." at the end of the list. Through this horizontal trajectory of adjectives, these positions strive to encompass a situated subject, but invariably fail to be complete. This failure, however, is instructive: what political impetus is to be derived from the exasperated "etc." that so often occurs at the end of such lines? This is a sign of exhaustion as well as of the illimitable process of signification itself. It is the supplement, the excess that necessarily accompanies any effort to posit identity once and for all. This illimitable et cetera, however, offers itself as a new departure for feminist political theorizing."

Okay - I had to read this over and over again. I gather that what she means is that the notion of a "subject" (man or woman) for Butler is formed through repetition, through a "practice of signification." Butler uses examples of "parody" (drag for example) that shake up normative ideas and make apparent the invisible assumptions about gender identity. There are illimitable (i.e. in the et cetera) ways of asserting one's identity. According to Butler, positive politics can emerge from redeploying practices of identity and exposing failed attempts to "become" one's gender.

Hmmm. Chew on that for awhile. Today I have rehearsals for my own choreography which I initially termed "Gender in Choreography" however as of last quarter I started thinking of it merely as "Identity Studies" and in this quarter, because of my use of video as the medium in which to present my work, I think of this project as "How We Perceive Identity." It's never-ending....

Quick Note from Reading #6

From "is any body home?" embodied imagination and visible evictions, I pull this quote:

"Our culture's increasing valorization of the visible has greatly reduced the sensual thickness of lived experience to a single and dare I say soulless dimension."

A few things are running through my head, mostly images of.... well, images. Thursday I posted a manipulated photograph of myself to represent how I felt at the time. I was thinking about intensity and about how I would see the manipulated photograph and how my eyes in the photograph might reflect how I see. On a more embodied level, I am working with this in my solo Bear Traps and Other Impressions when I stand on stage looking at people in the audience; seeing them see me see them and then I proceed to play through different scenarios of how I feel perceived or the excuses I might make for my first impressions. The act of performing this solo is my attempt at addressing my lived experience, regardless of how it is perceived by the audience.

Quick Note from Reading #5

This year I have had the awesome opportunity to work with Maree ReMalia through her choreographic work and now as someone helping her document her process. Tonight I took some time to re-read a draft of her MFA project proposal. From her proposal, I offer this quote which I think is timely:

"In her book, A Director Prepares, Anne Bogart discusses distortion and states that the 'instantly definable is instantly forgettable.'" (How wonderful that I was just reading that this morning.) This quote says so much about Maree's process. Being in her rehearsals, I can attest to Maree's use of distortion. Having performed in Within a Formal Circumstance I have first hand knowledge of enjoying the work by discovering what issues come up for me personally instead of Maree telling me what to feel. Read more about Within a Formal Circumstance on her blog at http://mahiree.wordpress.com/mfa-project-rehearsallabs/.

Photo credit: Tsung-Hsin Lee

Quick Note from Reading #4

"Rethinking Women's Ways of Knowing: Gender Commonalities and Intersections with Postformal Thought"

Geesh. That's a long title. Normally I might be all over this because the whole article discusses differences between men and women. I found though that I had a hard time discerning the actual findings of the studies since the most recent study tested the theories of a previous study. Or maybe because I'm a woman I found the whole article dry and separate from my own experience or way of knowing. Ha!

Quick Note from Reading #2 and #3

From "How to Write a Statement of Teaching Philosophy" posted in The Chronicle of Higher Education:

"Do I even have a teaching philosophy?"

Why, yes, I sort of do. Well, it's a first draft. There are a couple of things in there I need to clarify and obviously, it's a general philosophy. Depending on the places I would apply to when I'm back on the job market, I will need to tweak the statement. http://www.rashanaworks.com/classes.html.

From Jan Erkert's "Harnessing the Wind" - I don't have a response since the assignment was to review the example of a syllabus. It outlines a format of necessary information. Pretty straightforward.

Quick Note from Reading #1

Just to personally give me a little time to reflect after all the reading I'm going to do today, I thought I would pick one quote out of each reading and post something. We'll see how it goes - cuz really - nothing ever turns out how I imagine (i.e. proposing to post twice a week - ha!).

From Anne Bogart's "A Director Prepares:"

"It's not about the right idea or even the right decision, rather it is about the quality of decisiveness."

I find it is much easier for me to be decisive when performing my own work, but much less decisive when directing others. Frankly, it's frightening to me - and maybe that's a good thing. Now I just need to enter into the unknown and start making stabs at what I'm thinking. To say or do "nothing" is to present "nothing."

Photo credit: Shawn Hodges

More Wine Please

Okay, things are getting pretty tense nowadays. I putzed around in Photoshop for a few minutes tonight before getting back to obligations. I can't wait for summer....