Frame Announces Music Composition Competition

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2010-2011 Frame Dance Productions Music Composition Competition

Note: The deadline is January 7, 2011.

Frame Dance Productions announces its competition to select a piece of music for its upcoming evening-length premiere of Mortar, Sylphs Wrote. Its two-fold purpose is to offer outstanding emerging composers a forum for their recognition as well as an opportunity to collaborate with the dance performance company, Frame Dance Productions.

Award and Performance
The winning composer’s music will be the basis of the new original work, Mortar, Sylphs Wrote and will be featured prominently as the sound score of this premiere in Spring 2011.

Eligibility
All composers, who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents, are eligible.

Submission Guidelines
Works may be written for solo, duo, trio, quartet, or quintet.
Instruments may include the following: flute (piccolo, alto flute), clarinet (bass clarinet), oboe, bassoon, saxophone (soprano, alto, tenor, baritone), French horn, trumpet, trombone, percussion, piano, violin, viola, cello, bass.
Acoustic works that utilize electronic playback are also acceptable.
Electronic music is accepted and encouraged.
All music must be unpublished and more than 20 minutes in duration.

Interested composers should submit:

• a recording of the piece on a CD
• a biography, with current address, e-mail address, and phone number, and
• a stamped, self-addressed envelope, if they wish their music returned.

Entry Fee and Deadline
The entry fee is $15.00 and composers may submit up to three selections.  Make checks or money orders payable to Frame Dance Productions.

All entries must be postmarked no later than Friday, January 7, 2011.
Frame Dance Productions is not responsible for lost or damaged material.
The winning composition will be announced at FrameDance.org on Friday, January 29, 2011.

For submission details please email Lydia.Hance@FrameDance.org.
For more information on Frame Dance Productions, please visit FrameDance.org.

Brush Up, Tech Run etc.

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I always have a certain feeling before a performance that I organize. Fidgety, expectant, nervous…

Yesterday at Fieldwork we went through (almost) all of the pieces in show order so Kris, our excellent lighting designer, could see what she would be lighting. With all the love in my heart, I’ll say this: it’s harder to wrangle adult women than two-year-olds. But I told them, and I’m still thinking it, they are powerful women. The Fieldwork group is all women, and let me tell you, it is going to be a wonderful, powerful showcase. Variety, depth, exploration, vulnerability. Get yourself there if at all possible. It is worth it.

We didn’t run Points and Coordinates last night because, as you may remember, we had a brush up the night before. I love trusting my dancers implicitly in this piece. It’s what makes it alive. We had all just come from another rehearsal and we were tired, it was late, and emotions were a little fragile/volatile (at least on my end.) So we went through it and we felt disconnected and a little rushed, and lost in the “road map” of the piece. I think we were a bit discouraged because our memory of the piece was true and real connection with one another. But I expected and wanted that to happen. It needed to happen before we could get back into that place that exists within the context of Points and Coordinates. That probably sounds extremely strange to you… got it. Let me try to explain it a little more like this. Doing this piece is a bit like entering another world with its own dynamics, rules, relations. We are both captive to the environment and directors of it. But in order for that to happen there has to be a synchronization of breath, motive and expectation. And when we’ve done it in the past, I truly believe that is what has made it so powerful and lush–that the three of us have come together in those aspects ready to give and receive without judgment in that space. And it will happen again, I am certain. What happened the other night at the brush-up rehearsal actually made me realize how special the dynamic really is, and how dependent we are on each other to create that world on the stage. It’s a beautiful risk. And I’m ready to enter that world.

But before that, I must iron a 12×9 foot canvas and buy some gaffer’s tape…

Points and Coordinates

Brush UP

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Tonight we are brushing up Points and Coordinates for the showcase on Sunday. We aren’t learning to choreography or drilling anything. We are just stepping back into the space of the piece to feel and sense our way back into the world that we create in Points and Coordinates. There’s something very, very special about this piece. The cast, the interaction with the film, and the exploration that happens is magical and I feel so blessed to have this piece and create it once again on Sunday. There will be new moments and new meaning and I’m excited to surrender to the points and coordinates of moving on the canvases, with the graphite and with the cast. I’ll let you know how it goes.

If you’ve seen it either at the Contemporary Arts Museum or in its infancy at Spacetaker, what are words that you would use to describe this work?