milka djordjevich

The Transversality Lab was an Austrian/NYC exchange that took place on June 2, 2008 at Judson Memorial Church during the Movement Research Spring Festival 2008: Somewhere Out There.

Featuring from Austria: Company Two in One, Julius Deutschbauer, Matsune & Subal, united sorry (Frans Poelstra and Robert Steijn), and theorist Gerald Raunig.

Featuring from NYC: MGM, Regina Rocke, lower lights collective, Eagle Ager, and theorist Jenn Joy.

Below is a video from the event made by Julius Deutschbauer:

The Transversality Lab was a collaboration between ACFNY, Tanzquartier Wien, the Austrian Ministry for Education, the Arts, and Culture, and Movement Research.

Please come see one or two amazing shows on Tuesday, June 10th at Monkeytown. All the proceeds go towards NYC artists participation in the danceWEB Europe Scholarship Program. We’d really appreciate your support.

xoxo
Milka

Tuesday, June 10
Admission: $40 door OR $30 door w/purchase of $30 prix-fixe dinner
Showtimes: 7:30pm
reservations are recommended

GANG UP! presents a ferocious evening of Oscar-nominated short film, award-winning video, performance, music and visuals. Don’t miss a night of what’s been up and what’s up and coming in New York. PLUS, YOU GET A ONE-WAY TICKET TO HEAVEN: All proceeds from this event go to help the curators, Will, Milka and Nohemi, get to the ImPulsTanz festival in Vienna. Come taste the talents of many while using your appetite for art to back up NYC artists!

Line up includes:
Neal Medlyn
Karinne Keithley
Rachel Johnson
Andrea Lerner & Rosane Chamecki
Jeff Larson
Felicia Ballos
Jon Moniaci
Adam Matta
JERK
Dance Gang

Prix Fixe Menu ($30)

Starters
vegetable pate
white beans, piquillo peppers, pistou, quick pickled cucumber,
lemon mustard

vindaloo lamb sliders
naan, pickled mango, roasted tomato chutney

seared sea scallops
curried corn pudding, heart of palm achar eucalyptus & black mustard nage

Entree
three cheese chile rellenos
fingerling potato, mushroom and corn ragout, pomegranate almond sauce

tender grilled pork shoulder
plum-ginger slaw, cheesy smoked potato maredsous sauce

roasted monkfish shank
roasted tomato, spinach and cranberry bean salpicon, salsa verde, roasted garlic and saffron broth

Dessert
maple bourbon flan
stewed blueberries

fig, bleu cheese and pinenut tart
rosemary gelato

three chocolate martini
dark, milk and white chocolate custard, malt cake, chocolate cake, dulce de leche gelato

Tuesday, June 10
Admission: $15, $10 minimum
Showtimes: 10pm
reservations are recommended

THE GREEN BEAT BOX WILL BE OCCUPIED: first, by Moaz & Matta and second, by Judd Greenstein. Avant-garde guitarist, Eyal Moaz, and beatboxer/breakbeater, Adam Matta, bring you a hot set of hypermouthpercussion and electrocuted guitar. Then, a wee bit later, director of New Amsterdam Records, Judd Greenstein, gets intimate and live with his hip stop electronics.

Visual decor by Dance Gang. There’ll be tracks laid down, don’t miss it, fool! PLUS, WITH ADMISSION, YOU GET A ONE-WAY TICKET TO HEAVEN: all proceeds from this event go to help the curators, Will, Milka and Nohemi, get to the ImPulsTanz festival in Vienna. Come taste the talents of many and use your appetite to back up NYC artists!

I am co-curating the Movement Research Spring Festival this year with Jeff Larson, Chris Peck, and Anna Sperber. It takes place May 26-June 8 mostly at Judson Memorial Church and beyond. Take a look at our website, we have details for all the events, podcasts, writings, and more!

On Friday, November 30, 2007 I went to Amsterdam to meet my friends Taisha and Ashley to see David Weber-Krebs’ “the words Jonathan said.” Weber-Krebs is part of a group of artists based in Amsterdam called Association LISA: “LISA is a production facility of the independent dance and performance makers Nicole Beutler, Hester van Hasselt, Ivana Müller, Paz Rojo and David Weber-Krebs, and was founded in 2004.” From what little I know of these artists, they seem to blur any strict boundaries between theater and dance. The performance took place at Gasthuis, which is a former hospital.

“For more than twenty-five years the Benedictine monk Jonathan has suffered from a very special kind of epilepsy. Doctors now call his disease ‘prophesia’: to suffer from spells of prophecy. At first his case only raised interest within the medical community. Later it even caught the attention of some secret services”
(more info here).

I wasn’t well prepared to see the show; I wasn’t feeling well and as a result had a hard time focusing, so pardon this extra-thin description. The work begins with amplified text and a darkly lit space. Slowly the performers are revealed, however rarely ever fully lit. There is a pool of light casting down on the center of the stage and the performers bask on the periphery in the dark, like shadows. They never speak and move slightly and slowly. The staging is precise and intentionally difficult to see. The work leads to a cyclical crawling on the floor, where each person tugs on the other. When it was over, it was hard to tell it was over. The work felt like a negative image of theater – elements normally bright are dark and vice versa.

The 4th year PARTS  students at their best.

Due to my overwhelming schedule prior to my departure for Brussels, I was not able to see anything at Performa07 in New York City.  One work I wanted to see was Xavier Le Roy’s Le Sacre du Printemps.  So I was happy to find out that PARTS had organized a bus to see a performance of the work in Valenciennes, France (about 1 1/2 hours from Brussels) at the Lignes de Corps Festival.

I must admit I’m tired of how many versions of Le Sacre du Printemps there are. It’s like artists reinventing the wheel.  However, Le Roy’s approach to the work is very interesting to me.  His impetus for the work is solely through the music via the movement a conductor produces by directing the music.  So the work is strictly that – Le Roy is alone on stage with his back to the audience and starts to conduct the empty space and after a few moments he turns and begins to “conduct” the audience.

Le Roy admits he is not a musician and that he is merely moving to the music – He makes mistakes.  Musicians can see the mistakes, but it doesn’t matter because the movement evolves and morphs into a dance, which strongly references conducting. In an after-talk he explains how the work is a combination of copying specific movements from conductors he has observed and the embellishment of conductor-like movements.

I really became aware of the music and less about the “conducting” and ironically, the music was composed for a dance, but then he dances the music through “conducting” and what I finally experience more is the music, rather than the dance. This layering of intention and perception is quite complex and leaves me thinking about how much of what I experience in the world is layered and complex in a similar way.

There is also a specific use of space in relation to the sound.  Le Roy works with a sound person who places speakers under the audience in the set up of an orchestra. He points to the audience in various locations depending of what instrument he is cuing. As a result, as spectators we become passive performers. The experience strongly reminded me of my past experiences of being in orchestras and at the same time not.

This idea of copying, replication & appropriation seems to be a reoccurring theme among the work I have seen in Europe and of the work that I’m told some students at PARTS make.  In my 4th week at PARTS I will be taking a workshop with Mette Ingvartsen based on this trend.  From what she tells me, it is a way of really understanding the trend so that you can produce work not only of the trend, but to also produce work outside of the trend.

On November 23rd I went to Leuven, Belgium (1/2 hour from Brussels) with some classmates from PARTS to see Why We Love Action at a theater called STUK. The work was by Mette Ingvartsen, a former PARTS student, who at a very young age has gained major acclaim as a choreographer.

The work opens with an action-filled sequence of stunt moves from the movies. This all takes place on an entirely lime green set, with a backdrop, floor, furniture, blankets and pillows. Dramatic action, crying, mystery, and murder scenes from cinema are demonstrated. These cinematic moments are bare on there own, but gain a more cinematic feel with the use of loud sound affects and vocalizations made by people offstage for the performers onstage. The performers overact, which seems intentional, since replicating scenes from cinema is not the same as acting on stage. Maybe when one tries to imitate cinema in front of a live audience it becomes more apparent how ridiculous and false cinema is.

The construct of cinema is highlighted when elements are taken away or added. For instance, at one point the performers articulate the actions of crying, but cease from vocalizing the crying. It makes me think about the idea of going through the motions or crying, without crying. Stunt actions and dramatic scenes are embellished by repeating events, or by having multiple performers execute action. Things are often done longer than in the cinema or done in unison – maybe this is necessary in order to amplify elements that are so strong on film, but may not translate to a theater.

Like in cinema, the work is very episodic with blackouts between scenes. The piece seems over and then a film sequence is played, much like the ending credits in films. There is video of various clips from the rehearsal process of the work. Ironic mishaps are shown with people asking “are you ok?” during a choreographed stunt scene. Most of the time they are ok, except when one of the dancers actually gets punched in the nose – a choreographic error.

It’s strange, as I’m writing this I’m debating whether I should reveal too much about the work. I usually don’t have this question with other works, but maybe because of the cinematic references, I may subconsciously feel like I’m writing about a movie – but I’m not at all.

My first week at PARTS I took an afternoon workshop with British choreographer Charles Linehan. It primarily consisted of us participating as dancers in his choreographic methods. We first learned a few short phrases – the movement was simple with many small gestures.  From there we had the freedom to cut up the material and improvise with it.  We soon constructed our own material with specific guidance from Linehan. He had a strong emphasis on partnering, with or without contact, particularly with one person bending and folding another body and it’s parts. One person can direct and the other follows, but at times the passive partner can become more active. He slowly layers, builds, and splices movement fragments to create a rich palette of action. His vocabulary is clear and mostly develops through his direction and guidance, rather than teaching material. It feels literal and abstract at the same time.

Through my artist residency at Movement Research, I have the unique opportunity to be a guest student at PARTS in Brussels for one month. From what I know, I don’t think there has been any guest who has taken class longer than 2 weeks. So this is something new not only for me, but for the school as well. I will be taking classes and workshops with the 4th year students and I have the option to rehearse my own work in the PARTS studios.

PARTS has a highly competitive audition process. It is clear they seek diversity - there are rarely more than two people from the same country in a class. For instance, there is only one American in the entire school at the moment (this has not always been the case). It creates a really beautiful community, where different cultures meet on a common ground. It may also be a major reason why the school is so unique.

PARTS is a 2 or 4 year program and only accepts students every other year. So at the moment there are only 2nd year students and 4th year students, which totals about 50 people (around thirty 2nd years and twenty 4th years). The first two years make up the 1st cycle and are for students recently out of high school or with minimal professional experience. The 3rd and 4th years make up the 2nd cycle, which is for selected students from the 1st cycle, as well as outside applicants with a college degree or sufficient professional experience. The 2nd cycle dedicates more time to personal work and research, mainly choreographic. Most of the current 4th year students have been at PARTS all 4 years, in fact, only one student has been at the school for the 2nd cycle. From what I’ve been told, this is not always the case – In the past there have been more outside applicants accepted into the 2nd cycle.

The days mainly consist of an early morning yoga class, 2 technique classes, and an afternoon workshop. My first week, the technique classes are with Salva Sanchis, a former Rosas dancer, and Diane Madden. Then there is a macrobiotic lunch (which I like, some don’t, and others say you just get used to it – it’s free for the students). The workshops in the afternoons are either led by an artist about their choreographic practice, or a theory course led by various theoreticians (for the next 4 weeks focusing on Gilles Deleuze). The first week I am taking a workshop with British choreographer Charles Linehan.

It soon hits me that I’m in school – again. In a recent conversation in New York, I was discussing how I’m trying to de-educate myself, meaning filtering and distilling what I have learned in order to shape and develop my own interests. I had gone to university and received my MFA by the age of 24. This left little time for me to really focus on my work outside of an academic context. Nearly 2 and 1/2 years later, I will spend a month educating myself again in this intense context at PARTS.

Yes, it is intense and maybe this is more obvious to me coming from a different country and a different lifestyle. The school is small, occupies a lot of time and is in the outskirts of Brussels. I’m staying near the school and there is really nothing else to do. As a result, the students spend most of their time at the school and with each other. I wonder how isolated they must feel. But in someway it is very special. Since there is nothing else to do, one can really focus on their work. Coming from the over stimulated environment of NYC, this was a shock to my system at first, but I’m now growing to love it.

For a clear history and more information on PARTS please visit www.parts.be

I was recommended to see Sister at the Kaaitheater, choreographed by Vincent Dunoyer, particularly because he will teach a workshop that I will take at PARTS. I went to see the performance on Saturday, November 17th - my first day in Brussels. The Kaaitheater is a beautiful art deco building, with a large yet intimate space (maybe a third or half the size larger than Dance Theater Workshop). As you enter the space there is a small projection, in the lower right hand corner of the upstage wall, of photos of a female dancer in various poses.

In the first half of the piece, Dunoyer performs a series of phrases, each connecting to the other. Some actions are large, gestural, or simply small actions in the face. At times his breath is very audible and specific to the movement – this reminds me of how the dancers in Rosas often perform.

Eventually Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker (ATDK) comes on to perform, what seems like the same solo, wearing a dress with chunky high heels (I think she likes high heels. I’ve seen some of her works where the dancers wear high heels. Unless it was Dunoyer’s choice, which I highly doubt). ATDK’s dancing is clear – her presence dynamic and changes with different phrase material. At certain points ATDK seems to forget the material and asks Dunoyer for help (who sits off to the side of the stage watching). He gestures what comes next or gets up and shows ATDK. I wonder how real or staged her forgetting is.

The entire work is interspersed with blackouts, whiteouts, quick bursts of music, and video clips projected upstage. This first video clip of the piece is of a man repeating a phrase over and over on a small stage. He stops the phrase again and again because it seems like he is forgetting it or is trying to perfect it. The clip that ends the piece is of John Jasperse at Eden’s Expressway (or maybe it was Cathy Weiss’s studio) teaching and performing a phrase. He eventually waves goodbye to the camera and then Dunoyer gets up and waves goodbye to the audience.

I could not read the program because I happened to grab a Flemish program, but after the performance I found a brochure, which describes the piece:

“For Sister [Dunoyer] asked Fumiyo Ikeda to recall and show poses and movements from past Rosas productions, which the photographer Mirjam Devriendt then captured. He then asked about thirty Rosas dancers (and ex-dancers) to take two photos each and link them by means of a new choreographic phrase. In Sister Dunoyer then thread them all together to make a new choreographic piece which he himself dances first, and then Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. This puts her at both the beginning and the end of this ‘dance chain.’ “

When Dunoyer puts these phrases together they become a new entity, to the point were I could not tell that the material came from various people. He streamlines the movement, making it very smooth and gracefully executed. Not having read the program notes before, I did not know how the work was made. I’m not sure if it mattered. In some way the process seems more interesting than the work itself – It lead to create a cyclical work, where the original source material came from ATDK, then expanded upon by her dancers and then brought back to ATDK to perform. Is it some sort of ode to ATDK? Or something else?