Behind the Scenes: Let’s Stay Home and Fight

Frame | Work News & Updates Performances/Screenings

Frame Dance Productions presents Let’s Stay Home and Fight, the latest from dancer, choreographer, and Artistic Director Lydia Hance. Lydia both generously and provocatively describes her inspiration and intention for this performance, and I believe that these insights will enrich the experience for you, our beloved participants and audience.

Letter from Lydia:

Dear Framers,

Settle in, I’m going to take you behind the scenes of my creative process for this next show, Let’s Stay Home and Fight on January 26 and 27. I like to make work to confront myself: my fears, my doubts, my questions. I love how art is my vehicle for personal growth. That’s how I know it is a lifelong endeavor. Making art will never be something I retire from. It’s the way I make sense of things, and it’s the way I deal with my world. As a person averse to conflict (any of you out there like me?), I have been trying to figure out why my natural instinct is to avoid it. I mean, there are ACTUAL HUMANS out there who dive right in with zest and a pair of curled up fists. After a little research I discovered that there are people who believe conflict is the best way to reach an agreement, and is even a good way to connect. This was mind blowing to me. I’ll take my one way ticket back to Mars, because I must be an ET on this Earth.

At the recommendation of a friend (and artist in this show), I began to study the Enneagram. The Enneagram is a model of the human psyche which is principally understood and taught as a typology of nine interconnected personality types. I have found this system far more accurate and helpful than any of the other personality typing models out there. I’ve been digging into it for almost a year; I am no expert, but it has truly helped me understand my own strengths, vices, and challenges. It has been both freeing and challenging.

I take quite a bit of time by myself crafting creative concepts, movement ideas, and music selections. I schedule rehearsals where I have time to be by myself and internally sift through what is developing. I make dance by feeling. I often cannot put words to my ideas in the creation process. I make by instinct. It’s like I have millions of feelers all over my body and I have to sense every choice. That can take time.

People have told me that I’m thoughtful. I’ve always kind of liked that. As a 4 personality type (you’ll have to do a little of your own research to understand what that means), I have an ability to understand how others around me feel. 4s are highly empathetic. So in rehearsals, I sense others. I respond to them. What would happen if I embraced conflict? Easier said than done, I know. Could I create an environment where I give myself license to be a little bit more obstinate? Could I make work that might be a little bit less thoughtful, and maybe a little more gutsy? I’m trying it.

Here’s how I’m making this show:

I am assigning each of the six dancers (including me) a number on the Enneagram. We are researching these numbers deeply. Each artist makes each creative choice from the perspective of the personality type they are assigned to. I am giving each person a primary duet partner, and we are researching our partners’ numbers. The show will be based on three pairs of people negotiating with each other’s differences. We are making the show during extended rehearsal times, all crammed in one week, in the performance space. There’s an intentional pressure-cooker format to the creation and performance. In a word: intense. In another? Exhilarating.

Here’s your homework:

  • Research the Enneagram. There are a lot of great podcasts out there. Find out your number before this show, do a little emotional work. It would even be fun to see if you can guess the personality numbers of the dancers by watching the performance.
  • Come see the performance. This is going to be risky, vulnerable, and revealing.

Put ‘em up,

Lydia

Costumes!

Performances/Screenings
Fab Ashley in character for our piece Dinner/Dance19.
Fab Ashley in character for our piece Dinner/Dance19.

I would like to take some time to really acknowledge Ashley Horn for her impactful Frame Dance collaborations over the past five years (and more to come!)  She has been my most consistent collaborator, and has had an indelible stamp on Frame Dance aesthetics.  She is so talented and unwaveringly creative.  She understands my interest in color, shape, and style.  This performance of Framed in Five is requiring her to make 34 (or something) costumes!  Here are a few photos of the costumes in progress…

 



 

MFA Monday: Stressed about your thesis?

MFA Mondays

MFA rightObservations that helped me create my MFA thesis

by Amanda Diorio

It will happen.

As those of us who have worked in show business are well aware “the show must go on.”  It is amazing when you think about all that needs to get done in a production like an MFA thesis concert, but miraculously it all happens.  This was a helpful attitude to take when I was working on my own concert.  I had no idea how all the work would get done, but I knew that somehow it would all come together. And of course it did.  Remember this when you are at your wit’s end and about to freak out about not finishing your work for the show.  One benefit of having a concert as a final project is that you have no choice but to get it all done. The dates have been set long in advance and cannot be changed.  This is one advantage that those seeking other kinds of terminal degrees do not have.  I have friends who have been working on their PhD dissertations for years.  The have no specific end time so it can be drawn out.  We, as performers, have the benefit of having a set date to be done by, a finish line to look towards.  When you are in the thick of it and your life has consisted of this crazy schedule for years it is hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel but remember grad school is not real life.  Your concert and your degree will happen.  Hang in there!

The project is still a part of the learning. 

While your final project is a reflection of your overall work in graduate school it is still a part of the learning process.  There is this sense that Continue reading

Tuesday Tunes

Tuesday Tunes

Performer Profiles!

 

The next Framer up telling us about her performing rituals is…

 

Name: Laura Gutierrezlaura

First Frame Dance : To the Brim (Director’s note: Laura! You were in Quiver first!)

One thing you always do when preparing for a performance: 

It’s important for me to get a good nights sleep, eat a healthy meal and if I don’t make it to a technique class I will definitely go to yoga.

After performance : 

Stretch, eat, shower and I try to make it a point to journal my performance experience. What felt good and how to achieve that feeling again if possible and if something didn’t go as planned how to work on it for the next performance.

Fave moment in performance:

photo by David deHoyos from Frame Dance performing Steve Reich's 2x5 with Liminal Space
photo by David deHoyos from Frame Dance performing Steve Reich’s 2×5 with Liminal Space

I was performing my senior solo in NYC both my sister and niece flew up from Houston to come to the performances. As I was performing my solo (which was about my niece) there was a moment that I looked into the audience and my niece was looking right back at me smiling and reaching towards me. It has happened a few times since where I perform and I make eye contact with family members or friends unplanned its a special feeling seeing those you love supporting you.

 

Thanks Laura!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday Tunes: Shanon Adams

Tuesday Tunes
Hey, Framers! I’m super excited to be kicking of our dancer profiles with Frame Dance dancer Shanon Adams!
 

Tuesday Tunes: Shanon Adams

 

Shannon AdamsFirst Frame Dance Piece:

Ecouter (Spring 2013)

One thing you always do before a performance:

I always take a shower right before call time before performances. Even if I’m pretty    clean or have just showered recently – it makes me feel refreshed and gives me a sense of  clarity.

What do you do after a performance? How do you unwind? 

Most of the time I like “alone time” after a performance. I need a little time to myself to process everything, sometimes I feel overwhelmed if I’m immediately engaged in conversation. I like to have a glass of wine when I get home and usually another shower.

Describe your favorite moment in a performance:_DSC0647

I have two favorite moments! One is the moment in a performance when I feel focused but am able to give up a lot of my thoughts, get out of my head and just perform “in the moment.”  I always compare it to how it might feel to have an out of body experience. It’s a really beautiful place to be. My other favorite is when I feel a genuine connection with the audience, even if it’s just one person.

 

photos by Edgar Guajardo and Lena Silva.

 

 

The Framers head to Aggie Land!

Uncategorized

After a fantastic performance in Austin, we’re packing up our costumes and heading to College Station to perform in the Brazos Contemporary Dance Festival.  We’re excited to be in a festival environment to see the other dance performances and meet new artists.  We’ve been resetting “Divide by Five” on three new dancers, and our veteran Dance Captain Jackie.  (Please know my terminology is used with the largest sense of sarcasm you can handle.)  May I say, it is looking gooood.

This music is composed by Robert McClure and was the 2013 winner of our annual Frame Dance Composition Competition.

Get your tickets now and hit the road with us. Houston, see Aggies in their natural habitats.

Here’s Divide by Five with Luke Hubley, gyil when we performed it in Ecouter, June 2013:

Costumes by the talented Ashley Horn.

 

Divide By Five from Frame Dance Productions on Vimeo.

Tuesday Tunes

Uncategorized

Tuesday TunesHi Framers!  We are heading into a series about performances.  I’ve realized I’ve been really bad about how I send the dancers into performances.  I’m often so pulled in a million directions with things to get ready for the performance, that I haven’t even hugged them!  Often, they are the only thing I can trust to be ready.  But it is important to have a moment, ritual, prayer before you go on to pull the company together in mind, body, and spirit.

 

Starting next week, we’re asking the Framers how they prepare for a performance– what is one thing they always do? how do they feel in performance? how do they unwind after a performance?

 

So today we’re starting with that strange french word “Merde” that dancers say to one another before a performance.  Actors say “break a leg,” but for dancers that is said to be bad luck.  It’s clear that even professional dancers don’t always know why dancers say “merde.”  Do you?  Here’s an article by Dance Enthusiast who asked professionals in the field why dancers say “merde” before performances.

CounterCurrent 2014 Part 1

Interviews

Happy Friday!  Seriously my favorite day of the week.

Last night was a treat because I saw Framer Laura Gutierrez

DDH_57111383422_604175139645058_2030064230_n1013039_541940985868474_1343797836_n

 

perform in CounterCurrent, is a five-day festival of bold experimental art presented by the Mitchell Center. Occupying a range of unexpected sites in the city of Houston, CounterCurrent includes audio and visual installation, live performance, and participatory events by artists from around the world. Collaborations with dynamic organizations and artists in the Houston community are included as well as fresh new works by University of Houston faculty and students.

Laura is performing a work called Eclipse by Jonah Bokaer.  A collaboration between choreographer Bokaer and visual artist McCall, ECLIPSE is a multidisciplinary performance that integrates choreography, light, visual design, and an audio-visual time score to arrive at altered ways of viewing a performance. ECLIPSE features four dancers, with a special appearance by Bokaer.

May I say, Laura, you were STUNNING.  So proud of you.

Jonah-Bokaer.Eclipse-highres-1024x646

 

The dancing was so clean.  I kept thinking of cold running water.  If you can, be sure to check out the additional events at this festival.

See you ’round the arts scene,

 

Lydia