Monsters in the Factory: Scene-Setting and Heavy Lifting with Laurel Atwell and Ohad Meromi.

 It's been a minute since the last post! I've been assigned to handle the ol' blog and really should have blorrgged some stuff earlier but look I have been really very busy, I swear. It takes while, maybe 50 minutes to browse through every sale item on Opening Ceremony and sigh between each one. Jokes that are not-funny-but-real aside, I want to tell you about something the SINecdoche Dancers and I worked on in April.

 Our sparkly cracker of a member Laurel Atwell was invited by the Public Art Fund to collaborate with Israeli-born sculptor Ohad Meromi and choreograph a performance piece for their spring benefit. We met Ohad and his family of conical wood sculptures in a massive former factory space in Long Island City, where there was enough room to be puffed upon jogging to reach the other side. Ohad, like Laurel, is interested in the intersections of visual and performance art, theater, spectacle and ritual. His structures are sturdy, demountable, and in their stark geometry appear markedly Constructivist/Dada-inspired. Ohad bought us blue rubber lined workman gloves to wear while handling them. A an eerie but somehow delightful Edward Burtynsky-style thing occurred whereby the walls of the factory space were painted blue and parts of each sculpture was painted blue here we were hauling large structures around and around...and around.

After we got used to the scale and weight of the sculptures, Ohad and Laurel had us experiment with pace and flow as we built scenes, landscapes and pockets of architecture before sweeping them into different positions, beginning again. Then we started creating different ways of holding them on our bodies and locomoting them/with them. From this strictly movement-based play grew a slew of mutants and fusions of robots and animals that we took turns to showcase across the space. Our result was a score that was highly structured but from which arose an eclectic mix of abstract form, flashes of exaggerated caricature and architectural relationships.

While we knew our rehearsal space would be nothing like our performance space there was only so much we could do to prepare for the chaos of bright lights and throngs of gala goers standing right where we might have set a sculpture down or spun one on it's head. Navigating the plates of tiny ceviché and the forest of tottering Louboutins added yet more unexpected facets to the piece, that (I do hope!) we took in our stride.

I felt honored to work with Ohad who never finds the trouble in being serious and playful at once and of course I'm so proud of Laurel, living up to her own high expectations at every moment. HOLY WOW.

Until next time! xo Aya (posting through B's account but a bit too friday to change that)

Creative Acts.

According to neuroscientist Rex Jung, creativity is living in some unexpected places.

Just as a slapdash explanation - Rex Jung has been doing research on something he calls transient hypofrontality. Basically, he's finding that what we call "creativity" comes out most effectively in people who can quiet down the super-focused, super-organized, straightforward frontal lobe patterns (what many people associate with "intelligent thinking") and ramp up the more meandering, indirect, inarticulated brain processes located in other parts of the brain. In layman's terms -- as I understood it -- that means people who can stop thinking so hard and let their nonlinear brain patterns take over are more likely to make unexpected linkages between different kinds of thoughts, and then come up with more novel solutions to meet situations. As Jung puts it, "You're getting outside your comfort zone where your brain has worn ruts in the road, and trying out other paths."

Remember that story about the mathematician who couldn't figure out how to measure irregular shapes, who finally took a bath and came up with the method of measuring by displacement ?

Now, I find all this very interesting. And here's why. I often feel that in rehearsal with Sinecdoche, we are practicing the brain. That's not so far off-key -- the brain is a muscle, and it has been shown that you can change the way your brain works with practice. And we get pretty twisted up, mentally, much of the time. But we also get twisted up physically. And our physical and mental twistings are often placed (by some very careful or malicious rule-making, depending how you see it) in counter point to each other such that to continue all the physical and mental tasks you've been set becomes impossible.

(Let me take a minute to illustrate, in case you're not in rehearsals. Today's task included flinging your limbs, all in different directions, with momentum. Then at a certain point arresting the momentum in mid-fling. So, if you're dancing these rules, you have to be sending each of your limbs in a different direction without engaging your muscles, tracking where they all go, and stopping them all in space - reversing the process you've started by flinging them - at the same time. While balancing on one foot with your head way off away from your feet. It's kind of like throwing a ball and trying to get it to stop in midair before you catch it.)

So, physical and mental tasks. Tough ones. Many of them. At once. And they accumulate.

And that's when all the crazy stuff happens. Maybe, without knowing it, we are forcing our brains out of rut-worn patterns and into something we don't know yet. Maybe we're actually building some kind of-- eh, transient hypofrontality muscles. Let's hope so.

I do know that this practice often builds to a point of insistent frustration, built of exhaustion and discomfort and desire to do the right thing and the certain knowledge that I am not, that makes me feel like steam is coming out of my ears, or like nothing could ever shake the various wrangling parts of my brain-body into a comprehensive order ever again.

And that's when I say fuck Belinda and do whatever I feel like doing. And that's when something clicks. And maybe that's when I've stopped using my go-to-it, get-it-done New Yorker brain and slipped into something more wide.

For more thoughts and more details from Rex Jung, check out the podcast:

Name Games

It's true. We're considering a name change, mostly because we've received feedback that the company name is unpronounceable to some, and others associate it with a burlesque company. Must be the SIN. SIN is the city/airport code for Singapore, where I'm from, but it really is too obscure a reference. So we've been spending our days name-picking - and we're stuck! Help! I'm partial to 'He Dances'. I think it's hilarious that a bunch of women form a company named that. Right? We are also toying with corps | anon, corps unknown, corps anonymous, and various others. But we haven't found one we think really completely describes us and what we do. Any suggestions?

We mostly just could not help but share this photo

...of Belinda. You know what would be fun? A caption contest! Whoever comes up with the best caption for this photo gets a signed photo of the whole company. I just made that up, but I don't know why we couldn't, really...

Comment with your captions below!

Today's Photoshoot with Jason Kip

Hello friends,

Today we got up early on a chilly morning for a company photoshoot in Greenwich House's gorgeous courtyard with stellar photog Jason Kip. Check this guy out, we love him!

We started the day by sorting through Belinda's white clothing. Homegirl has a lot of white clothing. Once we'd settled on tops that were flattering and suitable to our sensibilities, we decided to head outside & take some photos.

Jason is a pro, so he was terrific at directing us to get the perfect shot. While one person was getting photographed the rest of us stood around telling stories to that individual, trying to keep the energy (and their faces) light and relaxed. Among the topics of conversation were a mutual friend's "Japanese sense of humor," Russian banyas, and the well wishes we wanted to send to Mandy (who couldn't join us because she was feeling under the weather -- feel better M!).

Check out a few of the behind-the-scenes snaps I captured...and stay tuned for Jason's photos.

Yours,

Erica

Click below to be taken to the afternoon's Picasa album.

Radio Silence

Forgive the time away, dear readers. The good news? We're back and planning to blog, and we hope you'll continue to stay tuned to get an eye into what actually happens in the rehearsal studio (although we're not always entirely sure either).

Tomorrow we're taking a field trip from our regular Sunday rehearsal space at Greenwich House Music School and heading into the park. The occasion? A photoshoot with Jason Kip (www.jasonkip.com). We've been asked to wear all white, and then an outfit that represents us. Ooh! We love a challenge.

Til next time,
Erica

Summer of SINecdoche

We at SINecdoche Dance have been having some down time since our show at the beginning of July. We've all had a little time to explore other projects and get some other performing in!

Mandy and Ilona were in Philadelphia for a weekend of art and performance. They showed some of what they're working on with The Tree Project. Mandy is staying on in Pennsylvania for the rest of the month, continuing to pursue dance opportunities.

I have been collecting "data" for a collaboration piece with Jeremy Pheiffer for Draftworks this December. He and I are putting all our thoughts and inspirations into a blog for you to see how we're approaching the project! I will also be performing with Kirstan Clifford on Saturday, August 27th at 5Pointz in Queens from 5-8PM.

This Saturday, August 13th Erica Frankel will be performing with VaBang! Dance as part of the Waterside Plaza Dance Festival at 5PM (free!).

BUT DO NOT FEAR
We are all going to start rehearsals for our new project in September. We are going to be going away to Silo to begin work on our own version of the famed ballet Giselle. We will keep you on the up and up about all our adventures and the very involved process Belinda has developed to get this ballet made.