Motivated Movement at ODC

Last night, i saw "Motivated Movement", part of House Special sponsored by ODC. House Special invites dancers for a two week, crash course rehearsal period for carte blanche dance making. First up was Holly Johnston, the artistic director of ledges and bones dance project. Captivated by the "groundness" of her movment, i loved her unusual use of her feet. One of the reasons i enjoyed her piece was that it was so original, so different from anything else i've seen. When she spoke afterwards during the Q & A, she spoke with eloquence and intelligence and i am always surprised whenever i hear that from anyone in the art world...because, it is so rare.

My reason for attending this event was to see i think my absolute favorite dancers/choreographers Wendy Rein and Ryan T. Smith. (God, i hope they don't think i am stalking them! And I hope they don't think of me as similar to the character "Mel" in HBO's Flight of the Conchords. One of my favorite tv shows this season!) First of all, they had this awesome poster ...

and the piece they performed "After 5:00" was amazing. It was interesting to hear that they rarely dance a piece as a duet because of their process of collaboration with other dancers. However, this evening, they danced a duet, powerful and beautifully staged. I enjoyed the narrative and while it isn't important for me to understand the choreographer's meaning (as in Holly's piece) i appreciated it here. Again, they spoke eloquently about dance and i appreciate the thought, the process, their passion and it inspires me as a painter. It was interesting for me to hear that many if not all of their pieces have to do with intimate relationships. I think of my current work as intimate relationships between colors. Each color i place , each brush stroke i lay on the canvas will affect it's predecessors and will influence my choice for the next color and placement. Objects will form, new color combinations will unfold and it seems i have no control over that process.

Another note about the performance, the audience made insightful comments and i felt i learned a lot about dance from them!