Branch Dances at the Barnes Foundation, Wed, June 12

Ahhh!  It's good to back!

Marion Ramírez. Photo:Bill Hebert

I'm excited to be presenting another set of  Branch Dances at the Barnes Foundation next Wednesday, June 12, during the opening reception of the Dance USA Conference.  I'm happy to have the opportunity to show the work in this context, and for this audience (a  who's who of Philadelphia dance and beyond).

SoMoS was selected for presentation at the conference as a "presenters' pick" during the recent Philadelphia Dance Showcase.  Also on the program are Kun Yang Lin, Anne Marie Mullgrew, and Tori Lawrence.

The Barnes is a perfect venue for a bare bones version of the Branch Dances. The elegant architecture brings out the aesthetic power and compelling expressivity of the straight-on performance practice.   Olive Prince, Beau Hancock, Jung Woong Kim, and Marion Ramírez will be performing three movement structures from SoMoS; no projections.  Beau will be inside with his heroic version of Jumatatu Poe's bundle dance.  Olive will  be guarding the entrance performing her extraordinary solo with two giant branches; Marion and Jung Woong will perform their sensual vining duet along the reflecting pool.   Christine Darch is creating new costumes for the occasion.   Harold S. Smith will  accompany us on the didgeredoo.   It promises to be a  kinesthetic, aural, and visual feast!

Marion Ramírez. Photo: Bill Hebert

Even though its a private event,  passersby can catch the outdoor  performances along the reflecting pool and the entrance starting at 8:00PM (at no cost).  If you are attending the conference, make sure you plan to stay to the end of the event so you see the entire 30 minute  performance which begins at 8PM.

The weather promises to be delightful.   I hope you will join us!


Directions to Barnes Foundation

How did it feel to perform SoMoS?

Merián Soto

My students ask me: how did it feel to perform SoMoS?



There are so many details to look after in a piece like SoMoS, so many elements, so many people involved.   It demands enormous attention, coordination,  and effort. After three,  12-14 hour days in the parking lot, my body is tired.  The temperature continues to drop, is everybody ready?   So many things can go wrong.  No use worrying, I choose to trust.




I don't think.  I don't warm-up.  I just start.  Stepping out of the summer tent we are surrounded by audiences.   No way to move to our opening spots.  I realize immediately that everything is new, chaotic.  Its unnerving.  Nothing to do but  do what we do.  Do the practice.  Slow down. Connect. Accept the moment, the people, their reactions and behavior, the technical glitches, the cold.  People's cries of delight fill the air.   Whatever is going on is OK.   The audience is with us, delighted.  It is a carnival!  I've achieved my goal. Yes!

SoMoS Oct 12, 2012

After several minutes the video finally comes on. OK, the tech people are taking care of problems.  I see Lauren Mandilian by the projector.  No sound yet in the fall area.  

Fall: Megan Mazarick, Ellen Gerdes & Merián Soto

Ellen, Megan and I move slowly towards the beginning our score.   I inch my way into the projection with  audiences oh so close, almost too close.   I begin to expand my movements; audiences back off to give me more space.   They start to watch  the play of shadows and projections, opening  up the space  a bit more.  A good fifteen minutes into the piece we have arrived at the score.  We connect with each other, our shadows, our bodies.  We deal with audiences moving through our dance, the sense of crowding — Silvana and JMo have joined us.

Summer:  Elizabeth Reynolds as the mermaid

The audience has stepped away and given us the space.   Kariamu's laughter rings out regularly  in the distance or closer  throughout.  I notice constant traffic into the summer tent.

Jumatatu Poe under a pile of branches

                                                            My impulse is to leave my group;   I want to see the piece.  I need more space.   I move away from the projection and look to frame the action from afar, moving into areas of light.  Its my piece, I can do what I want, so I go for a walk.    I watch Jumatatu for a while, and then Olive. They are the only other dancers I can see besides my group.  Winter Spring and Summer are in their respective tents. 

Merián Soto

Its playful,  engaging with the audience up close, moving  in on them, turning through the space getting as close as possible without hitting any one.  I recognize several people.



This connecting with the audience  becomes a new thematic action.    When the group finale comes around I run straight towards groups of people.   I am amazed that they hold their ground, totally unafraid of a person hurtling at them with a huge branch.   I get close to people, very close. I remember  once again my sense that  this is a practice of peace.   Obviously, this is transmitted to the audience, they trust us.   The group is connected despite the sense of disorientation from the cold and the masses.   We hold together, we hold the score.  We find the end.  Together.


I'm surrounded by friends.  They are excited by the work, they want to talk but they need to get out of the cold and scurry off.    I'm freezing;  I look around for Michael. I don' see him so I move  around the site looking for my blanket, checking that everything is ready for the next performance.   Finally, Michael brings me a blanket.  Five minutes to places! I'm not ready to do this again. 

Olive Prince

I turn to Megan and Ellen.   Are you OK?    The cold is so impossible, especially since we are  sweaty from the final running, and the wind has picked up.  I don't want to give up my blanket.  "This will be a great performance,"  I say.  I know we just have to dive in.  Don't think.  Just do the practice.  Stay connected.  



We begin again.  The audience has thinned out a bit, its quieter, less chaotic.   We can move into the score immediately.  We connect.    Slohhhhhhw down, down, down, take turns, follow the shadow plays.  Fear creeps in at moments as the wind picks up (I don't want to get sick; I don't want  anyone to get sick).  My body drops low to the ground several times looking to move away from the wind. Nothing to do but commit, go slow, stay connected.

Finale

When its time to run I experience a moment of shock.  My legs feel leaden, so heavy,  no longer two, just one heavy anchor.  Thankfully,  the sensation is transient.  I fall into the weight and immediately I am moving swiftly through the space.   I have a sense of everyone, yes!  I remember the dance just 1.5 hrs ago.   I can see we all remember.  We have all entered the structure with a sense of connection to self and to the whole.   Yes! It feels right, un-rushed, self-aware, creative,  and free.

I see that the dancers are tired, they are ready to end this.  I see the video still has several minutes to go, its not yet time!   I too want this to end but I need it to be right.  I  slow down in the turning and fall into a zone.  I fall into a prayer for clarity and inspiration for everyone here, of thanks for the fulfillment of my vision.  I see dancers stop one by one as I continue to spin  spin spin spin.   Finally I stop, dizzy.    In moments it clears.   I release the branch and catch it.  I gently place it on the ground.   I step back. The end.

The End.

All too quickly we disperse looking for warmth in our cars, in layers of clothing.    Its over.   Everything must come down.

All photos: Lindsay Browning Photography

Its been a week since SoMoS.   Still feeling happy from the experience. But tired.  Performing for 3.5 hrs in 30some degree weather takes its toll.

Below are photos by Gabe Martinez and links to various post-performance press.   Check out Deni Kasrel's review in the the City Paper.

Jazmyn Burton has written a piece for the Temple Times.  

And the Dance Journal review.

Olive Prince

Silvana Cardell by the mural

Jumatatu Poe and summer tent

The winter tent from outside

Marion Ramirez & Jung Woong Kim in spring tent

Ellen Gerdes by the fall wall

Marion Ramirez in ensemble finale

Katie Jasmin, Merián Soto & Marion Ramirez

Melissa Putz & Jung Woong Kim

audience

Interview with Jumatatu Poe, dancer-collaborator for SoMoS

SoMoS is a Branch Dance performance spectacle bridging nature and the urban landscape, to be presented in a parking lot in the North Philadelphia barrio on October 12, 2012, at 8pm, as part of Taller Puertorriqueño’s performance series, Café Under the Stars: Spotlighting the Arts in El Barrio. In contrast to the urban landscape, the parking lot at 5th and Huntingdon Streets will be transformed into a quiet carnival of nature images, sounds, and movement invoking the four seasons. This is a free event.  See links on right for more information.

Interview with Jumatatu Poe, dancer-collaborator for SoMoS.

Q: Please describe your role in SoMoS. What was the process of creating this show?

OYWPP Photo: Gabriel Osorio-Soto

Jumatatu Poe: I am participating in SoMoS as a collaborating performer. I have been doing branch work with Merián now for the past six years, and feel a significant sense of ownership of the practice of branch dancing. It is something that you can only really feel over a significant amount of time. I do not think there will ever be a time when I am not practicing slowing down as part of the work. Even after so much time, I am learning about the range of possibility within slow. Slow is a really huge landscape, and so much can happen there.

There are different modes that Merián has encouraged each individual collaborator to create for themselves. One of mine that I most enjoy is Vining. In short, it's a way to use the shape of the branch and its (usually) vertical interaction with the ground to find and accentuate curves in your movement. I always feel like I can open different parts of my body up when practicing Vining. I feel like I am exposing different parts of my body to the surrounding air, being touched by the air. It's sensual. It's precious.

Q: Does the scale of SoMoS affect your approach?

SoMoS; Photo Lindsay Browning

Jumatatu Poe: The scale definitely affects the work—there are no environmental elements that are ignored in this work (at least not intentionally). It creates a magnitude of information to which we must pay attention, even as we go to very internal places for performance. Also, the vastness of the space means that we have plenty of room to travel, and we use that. This also creates opportunity for momentum.

Q: As you said, you've been working on branch dances for six years. What was the practice like to develop and at what point did you feel you got it?

Jumatatu and Noemí Segarra Photo: Alan Kolc

Jumatatu Poe: I felt connected to the work pretty early, actually. Noemi Segarra and I performed a duet, States of Gravity and Light #2. We rehearsed intensively for this work. That intensity, the connection between Noemi and I, and the brilliant musicians with whom we were working allowed me to receive Merián's direction trustingly and critically.

We spent maybe a year and a half performing that work in different iterations. Every return to it felt like a deepening of my understanding of the work, since, as I mentioned before, it really takes time to be able to understand it. I was always interested in it, felt connected very early, but I feel like I really understand the work now. My sense is that so much of it is really about temporary-ness—and you may get a different perspective from Merián—and aging. Beauty and decay.

Q: Merián has talked how SoMoS is the culmination of her branch dance work. How do you see this evolution?

Jumatatu Poe: Many of the branch pieces over the years are being referenced in this particular work and taking this work into an urban setting is something that we have been supposed to do for a long time. I think that is really critical here.

Interview by Josh McIlvain

Interview with Leigh A. Mumford, lighting designer for SoMoS

SoMos is a Branch Dance performance spectacle bridging nature and the urban landscape, to be presented in a parking lot in the North Philadelphia barrio on October 12, 2012, at 8pm as part of Taller Puertorriqueño’s performance series, Café Under the Stars: Spotlighting the Arts in El Barrio. In contrast to the urban landscape, the parking lot at 5th and Huntingdon Streets will be transformed into a quiet carnival of nature images, sounds, and movement invoking the four seasons. This is a free event. See links on the right for more information. 

Photos of Leigh Mumford's lighting for Postcards From the Woods by Cylla von Tiedeman

Interview with Leigh A. Mumford, lighting designer for SoMoS

Q: Please describe your work for SoMoS . How does the scale of SoMoS affect your approach to lighting?

Leigh A. Mumford: The scale of this project is large and small. It is delicate in every way because the movement is so slow and melodic, one gets lost within it. So when approaching the geodesic tents, which are huge on the outside but quite intimate on the inside, I have to keep in mind the complete simplicity of this world so as not to upstage it with my design. The space outside the tents is vast and will include texture and breakups in light to emulate the light between leaves and trees and the overall feeling that fall brings to our souls and our senses. Inside the tents Merián’s projections serve as the light, which in itself is beautiful and holds incredible texture. So my lights inside will only cut in from the sides so the projections appear three-dimensional.

Jumatatu Poe

I cannot simply approach this project thinking it is large—each area is so incredibly intimate and important that it needs to be broken down using isolation and complete and utter emotion. On the equipment end of things the scale is HUGE; it has taken months for us to get here. I'm so excited and blessed.

Q: What is the set up like for the show, and what are some of the challenges?

Leigh A. Mumford: Setup is very much like arena lighting slash dance lighting. Audiences will be viewing the work from every direction but they too will also be lit because they must experience this work. There is no brightness in lighting like stage theater, the lighting will be broken up and quite shadowy, carving out the bodies like the sun or moon sliding through the trees, blanketing itself, and wrapping around, giving life and energy to our nightly tree dancer nymphs.

Noemí Segarra

Challenges will be plentiful as I won't really know what this will look like until the day before, which is nerve wracking. I have all the confidence in my design approach and implementation of the design—however, as an artist, the greatest challenge is perfection within one’s own mind, knowing that I can always do better and hoping to have the time to perfect the design. The challenge at that point lies within my dual job as technical director. The technical aspects have to be constantly monitored and properly installed. That is the biggest job and then the design comes into being.

Q: Merián has talked how SoMoS is like a culmination of her branch dance work. How long have you been working with Merián on branch dances, and how do you see this evolution of her work?

Olive Prince

Leigh A. Mumford: I first worked with Merián for Postcards from the Woods back in 2009 for the Live Arts Festival. It was an incredible experience. My light moved organically in and out of the projections, I became a part of the piece literally by manually fading in and out the lights based on instinct and feeling. SoMoS will be my second experience with Merián. Merián's evolution is taking her slow melodic movement to another level, not only incorporating more lighting but doubling all the projection images and adding the scenic elements for the first time. Instead of just watching the video, Merián and Christine Darch have created a world to step inside of and experience in the round in a neighborhood where not all are able to travel and see these beautiful places. "We are nature"—to quote Merián—and we are bringing four worlds, four seasons to concrete land.

Interview with Christine Darch, set, costume, and graphic designer for SoMoS.

SoMoS is a Branch Dance performance spectacle bridging nature and the urban landscape, to be presented in a parking lot in the North Philadelphia barrio on October 12, 2012, at 8pm as part of Taller Puertorriqueño’s performance series, Café Under the Stars: Spotlighting the Arts in El Barrio. In contrast to the urban landscape, the parking lot at 5th and Huntingdon Streets will be transformed into a quiet carnival of nature images, sounds, and movement invoking the four seasons. This is a free event.

Interview with Christine Darch, set, costume, and graphic designer for SoMoS.

Q: Please describe your work for SoMoS. How does the scale of SoMoS affect your approach to design?

Christine Darch: I am doing the set, costume, and graphic design for SoMoS. When Merián and I began set design conversations we thought about ways to create fantastical experiences of a heightened natural landscape. The first question we encountered was how to be inspired by the idea of a tent, a white rectangular box. I had grand ideas about giant flowers that bloomed over time, petals unfolding and foliage magically emerging from branches, wild masses of entangled vines, and felt strange about reconciling them with the ubiquitous white vinyl party tent. We searched for something more special and found the geodesic tents from a company that provides temporary disaster shelters and living spaces for Burning Man goers.

The design has evolved into something much more Zen and minimal in feeling. The domed tents are inherently beautiful and the video projection is stunning. Anything faux does not work. I am embellishing branches for their respective environments, creating a mirror in the shape of Puerto Rico for Jumatatu Poe to dance on. Shapes in the costumes are from nature, but neither literal nor overly conceptual.

Several different performances are happening simultaneously, and so most of the set budget has gone to creating the six "theaters"—clean, comfortable places for the dancers and audiences to experience the work. 

Q: What is the set up like for the show, and what are some of the challenges?

Christine Darch: The set up will be largely accomplished by Michael Roberts, the SoMoS production manger. The weather will affect how efficiently we can assemble four tents, almost one thousand square feet of living bluegrass from a local sod farm, about two thousand square feet of flooring, fallen trees, and hundreds of branches. The costumes have to work for whatever the weather is for that night, it could be a balmy Indian summer evening, or 45 degrees with wind-chill. My costume design for dance is usually as bare as possible. I like to see the body and bare, luminous skin. This has been my first foray into designing with "performance" fabrics, textiles that are used for hikers and mountain climbers with inherent moisture wicking properties to hopefully keep the dancers warm and dry.

Q: Merián has talked how SoMoS is a culmination of her branch dance work. How long have you been working with Merián on branch dances, and how do you see this evolution of her work?

Noemí Segarra  Photo: Merián Soto

Christine Darch: I have been working with Merián since 1997. Her passion for Puerto Rican and Afro-Caribbean culture and dedication to improvisational dance is the driving force or undercurrent to the work. The first outdoor branch dances coincidentally took place in my home town of Northport, Long Island, about seven years ago in a lovely harbor front park. This culmination brings nature and branch dancing from all its prior venues, from urban theaters to natural wooded landscapes, back to the urban environment, to beautiful and ephemeral theaters in a harsh and uninviting abandoned urban parking lot. If we are nature, it is possible to say that everything is nature, every thing is created by the natural world. Concrete resin, aluminum, steel, oil paint, PVC, vinyl, lycra, and polyester are of and from nature. Noemi Segarra appears as a mermaid in cropped hair and sunglasses on a Puerto Rican beach at sunset in one of the videos. It is a wild juxtaposition that is a perfect metaphor for how I have approached the design. Fantasy shielded by plastic in a beautiful "natural" setting. It is a striking trope to use branches along with so much technology and plastic to evoke an experience of nature. 

October 3, 2012

Christine Darch Costumes for Merián Soto Works:

States of Gravity & Light #2 Photo: Steven Schreiber

Three Branch Songs Photo; Steven Schreiber

La Máquina del Tiempo Photo Doug Herren

La Máquina del Tiempo  Photo: Doug Herren

Interview with Cicada Brokaw Dennis, Sound Composer and Designer for SoMoS.

SoMos is a Branch Dance performance spectacle bridging nature and the urban landscape, to be presented in a parking lot in the North Philadelphia barrio on October 12, 2012, at 7:15 and 9PM as part of Taller Puertorriqueño’s performance series, Café Under the Stars: Spotlighting the Arts in El Barrio. In contrast to the urban landscape, the parking lot at 5th and Huntingdon Streets will be transformed into a quiet carnival of nature images, sounds, and movement invoking the four seasons. This is a free event.

Interview with Cicada Brokaw Dennis, Sound Composer &  Designer for SoMoS

Q: Please describe your work for SoMoS . How does the scale of SoMoS affect your approach to sound design?

Cicada Brokaw Dennis: The scale does not really affect my approach, so much as the scope and breadth of the work. The length of the piece really moves it well beyond the realm of design so that we must speak of sound composition. And the number of different sound environments requires that I create multiple sound compositions. Each environment requires its own hour-long multi-channel composition.

I am a collector of sounds. I have many long duration, as well as shorter duration recordings with which to paint the sonic canvas. To create surround sound mixes, as backdrops I am using multiple long duration stereo recordings of nature placed into the four stereo planes present in the quadraphonic sonic field. These backgrounds evolve and develop over the time of the piece. Other shorter duration events are placed at various times, locations, and distances to complete the compositions.

The compositions are ever evolving and changing. Yet the pace is that of nature: a slow steady asynchronous interwoven complex of sound patterns which gradually shift and change.

Q: What is the set up like for the show, and what are some of the challenges?

Cicada Brokaw Dennis: There is a sonic environment for each of the four seasons. These are suitably placed within the performance space. There are also a couple of other smaller scale environments. Each environment requires its own sound source, amplification, and set of speakers along with necessary cables and power. Each environment must be plug and play, as there is not a cost-effective way to continually monitor every environment and be adjusting sound levels during the performance. Our tech rehearsals are very important to get to that level. The sonic juxtaposition of the various environments will make for interesting experiences at the areas of transition and overlap. The quadraphonic sound fields and the tents will help each sonic environment maintain its integrity. Because of the large scale, it is not feasible to put up and tear down the performance space prior to the week of the performance. A lot of tech work and tweaking of the design will be done in the final week in order for everything to gel.

Q: Merián has talked how SoMoS is like a culmination of her branch dance work. How long have you been working with Merián on branch dances, and how do you see this evolution of her work, and the evolution of your contributions to it?

Cicada Brokaw Dennis, Leigh Mumford, and Beau Hancock 

Cicada Brokaw Dennis: I previously worked with Merián in her Postcards from the Woods in 2009. At the time, that felt like a culmination. SoMoS builds on that experience and moves to another level of form, movement, and sound. The branch dances in the Wissahickon occurred in various seasons at the time and place of those seasons in nature. Postcards in the Woods was in an enclosed space using projections and surround sound, which moved through various seasons and experiences of nature during the course of the piece. In SoMoS, what I see is that the seasons and experiences of the pervious works are taken out of time and simultaneously placed into a single place within an urban environment. We are bringing recordings, interpretations, and reflections of nature into a space that is normally perceived as devoid of her immediate presence. The piece is also reaching out to a community, by being placed there in that space and being free for those who would come. The development of the dancers and the choreography of the work continue to evolve and expand, as the dancers find connections within themselves to the natural world and with the branches.

Q: Other thoughts?

Cicada Brokaw Dennis: SoMoS is sure to be a transformative experience for those who come to experience it as well as for those of us who are creating it.

Interview by Josh McIlvain

Photo: Lindsay Browning

September 25, 2012

Quick and Easy Guide to Experiencing SoMoS

Photo: Melissa Putz

• It's free 
• Wear comfortable clothing.  Leave the heals at home!  
• You may experience SoMoS from beginning to end or come in at anytime. Audiences get to choose how to experience SoMoS. Late arrivals are welcome! 
• There are two performance during the hours SoMoS is open—you can catch performances you've missed the second time around—also each iteration brings new creations so you will never see quite the same thing twice. 
•  Three large geodesic tents and an outdoor performance area with simultaneous performances for audiences to move in and out of at will. 
• You may sit, stand, walkabout or do all three.
• Docents will be there to help interested audience members negotiate the piece: these docents are dance and movement artists and scholars.
• The three geodesic tents have interior performance spaces devoted to winter, spring, and summer. Fall will be outdoors. 
• Once you arrive, you cannot miss it! 
  In inclement weather please check the blog (branchdances.blogspot.com) for updates

  

Some Highlights 

Photo: Lindsay Browning

• Performances are simultaneous. You can walk through the parking lot at your own leisure and take in what you choose from this feast of branch dancing.
• Outside and in the center of the event, dancer Olive Prince (of Olive Prince Dance) performs an hour-long solo with two massive 20-foot branches. Says Olive, "The weight of the branches becomes intense and it immediately requires me to sustain this constant awareness of my body and the branch moving in space."
•   In the spring tent dancers Marion Ramirez and Jung Woong Kim perform an intensely sensual duet amidst the sights and sounds of spring in extreme close up. Says Marion, "I imagine that we are seeds and we grow through the branches and get trapped and survive by going around another branch, and get rained on, and grow some more."
•  Jumatatu Poe (of idiosynCrazy productions) will perform with a large bundle of branches, stationed outside the summer tent, and standing on a floor cut in the shape of the map of Puerto Rico.
•  Massive video projections of nature up-close and the performers shadows will be projected inside and outside the tents.
• The summer tent will be a hang out for audience members. Merián explains, "The summer tent will have projections of a tropical beach and be empty except for a white gym floor and white exercise balls. It was an idea I had when I first built the large tent. It seemed so much fun I didn't want to mess with it."
• Multiple soundscapes of nature in quadraphonic sound. Says sound designer Cicada Brokaw Dennis, "The compositions are ever evolving and changing. Yet the pace is that of nature: a slow steady asynchronous interwoven complex of sound patterns which gradually shift and change."