Fundraiser! And We Are Baking A Cake!

Thanks largely to Anne we have a fundraiser for one of her students at Studio 1 in Woodinville.

Friday January 8th at 8PM.

It's likely that only Anne + Maya will be performing. It's the fate of the working woman that Teresa works late on Fridays. She will be missed! But we're working it out.

The studio is small and we're paring down the set and the still partial piece. Ha! Even more partial.

One Cake. One Cake Stand. One Table. One Missing Performer. One Missing Section.

The new cake pan needs to be tested and will hopefully perform as well.

Details on what the fundraiser benefits confirmed tomorrow.

And of course, there will be a bake sale.

Things Have Happened

It's been about a month since the last post and things have happened. A lot of firsts.

First rejection to show this piece and first time it's been shown (partially). It's the first time I felt the force of my nerves for dancing in years and years and the first time I felt that relief from positive feedback and support from friends and family.

I have the utmost confidence in the women that I dance with - in their ability as performers - to take care of body and move smartly. This was no different. In fact, it absolutely delighted me to see each of them come to life in the way which pleases me so and that I hadn't realized until recently.

I repeat myself a lot and this is no different: part of my favorite part of performance is when something goes awry and there is that very brief period of time when as a performer you know it isn't working as designed and: Shit. How will this turn out. As audience member to be privy to the inner working of a performance is no different. Actually, it's quite the opposite. It's nice to see someone really thinking through what they're doing and committing to it and the accidental result can be better than the original intention.

The next endeavor is to figure out the second half of the piece. In excitement I purposed - let's do it again at 12MM! But, with doubt I wonder if that's smart. Should we let it be as is? And did I bite off more than I can possibly chew? A beginning to realizing the second half is to edit the first and par down the second. It has to be essential to stay.

Petticoats

Three more found...

Though all are bright red and black. It's curious that selection was either super long, super short or super old (read: shot elastic).

I managed to find three sort of middle, not quite long enough, but will have to work, options

Bake Sale

Fundraising is a necessary thing for so many things artistic endeavors and organizations. Gotta stack that funding up somehow.

For this piece, we're going to have a Bake Sale (and hopefully) multiple Bake Sales (if it works out how I hope)...it only seems to make sense.

The only catch is if you think back on the last bake sale you attended, it's always in conjunction with some type of event and at a place with high traffic ie game, work event, fair etc...

Ideas:

1. NWDS and I've talked about having some sort of viewing/performance which would be great, but would need to figure out a venue...


2. Late night - street meat esque - Bake Sale vending situation on Capitol Hill. It would have to be a rogue/travelling bake sale situation though unless I want to invest in a legit permit.


3. Vending booth at Pike Place which would be GREAT! Just need to figure out logistics and whether the expense of it is do-able.


4. Scrap the Bake Sale idea and having a high faluting car wash with lots o' leg, rain golashes and jackets in the middle of winter.

So if you like to bake and/or have any great ideas for us, holler.

Hmmm...

NW New Works Application Submitted

Check it off the list.

It was submitted on Friday. Just in time for Halloween festivities.

Keep your fingers crossed. I'll hear back in December sometime.

12 Minutes Max at On the Boards

Yesterday was the audition for the 12 MM at OtB. And I got the call last night from Brian Neel, one of the curators, saying we were accepted. Yay!

Anne, Teresa, and Maya were great, which for me, was not so surprising! There seemed to be a bit of nervous energy between the three of them and I can hardly blame anyone if they were nervous, as I was. Auditioning for anything is much more stressful than performing in an actual show. It's more intimate and because of that is harder to enter the performer mindset which is usually very comforting and for me is my happy place.

Another not so surprising, yet also rather surprising element of the audition was that I was more nervous than I've been in over a decade of performing in Seattle. Mostly because I wasn't a performer and had to actually speak to people about the piece. I also forgot Anne and Teresa's heels which was frustrating. (Seeing them put on the high heels is the best!) And we're talking shaking hands and voice nervous. Having the audition over and heading to rehearsal was a major relief.

Nice comments in Brian's message included that they (two curators and Sean Ryan from OtB) enjoyed the piece and that it is going to go at the top of the show because it's lively and dynamic. Wahooo!

I believe the section we auditioned was timed at just over 6.5 minutes which means that we have about 4 minutes to build in a very, very short period of time. But, we can do it! It was a really positive thing having other people see it (for the first time) in the current state and though I KNOW I will be -peeing my pants nervous- come showtime, am confident that the three ladies performing will put my nerves to rest.

Baking In Heels

It's pretty incredible that you can spend hours, months, even years creating a product that though you might love, still took a really long time to make. Then, you can also create something in literally, 10 minutes and love it even more.

Credit goes to these ladies for making it happen.

This was the third and final take.

Pink and Gold Pumps = Love

Hump Day Can Be Productive

Cheers to a pretty successful rehearsal tonight. Wednesdays are tough, especially when you start late and end later. BUT, we got through (what felt like) a ton of material, nailed down a decent amount for the video sample shoot on Friday and have the costumes put together for the most part.

YES!

We'll run Section 1, most of Section 2 and the first minute and a half of Section 3 for the video shoot. If we choose (and time permits) we'll shoot an additional 1-2 minutes of foot and hand (heels) work.

These ladies look pretty in high heels, it's true.

Love!

Pretty Kitchen Things

The Most Important Component

Is the movement and seems to be the most difficult. Also the cadence of the piece, editing and creating the world that everyone wants to be a part of in some sense.

Full speed ahead. There's no time to waste and it feels slightly like the scene in The Shining when Jack is sitting at his typewriter losing his fucking mind.

It's Business Time

Sort of.

Meaning I have finally joined the world in owning my very first video camera. It's a Kodak ZI8 Pocket Video Camera. Small, tidy, is not extra fancy and from the demo I saw that prompted me to buy it, should work adequately for the process documentation, memory aid and to create the work sample/s that I've needed a camera for forever.

Considering that it's getting late, I'm at home with dim lighting and no human specimen to record a first sample, I used my Jolly Lolly Oliver (aptly eating leftover Kibbles aka Nibbles aka Dinner) to see some movement and took a few photos and videos of my room.

Costumes

Room


Bed + Oliver

Oliver looks grainy, but the background looks clean. The zoom function moves in chunky and I don't think I like chunky, at least not in this sense. Chunky peanut butter, yes, but zooming, maybe not so much. Will note that I'll need to (possibly) do a close up and full room shot of the studio and set on Friday. No selling, so nothing fancy. Also note that I'm a beginner and if I get anything good at all, will be very pleased indeed.

This sucker also shoots in HD, so we'll see how that works next.

Everyone Could Also Use a Backup

These are also some backup options in case something doesn't fit at all, but we are limited.

The blue striped dress would also need to be shorted by a good six inches to offset the marmishness of the longer lenth (Hello Big Love!). And one of the aprons I bought off of etsy is a bit too bright/busy for my liking now, but it would go great with the original black dress I had for Anne.

Everyone Should Look Great While Baking A Cake

Well, here's to hoping that these costumes will work for my three main cake ladies. Sizing will be tough because these dresses have a little more structure than say, dance pants and a cotton flowy top.

We're working with some jugs!

So I brought a bit o' stuffin to enhance my own set. Too big is not the problem, but too small is. We can always take something in if we need to. So far I have two petticoats for underneath and will need at least one more, if not a whole second set for added fluffage.

There may be some mix and match depending on what fits whom, but I have it picked out as follows:

Maya

Anne

Teresa

All together now!

The (not so) secret part of me kind of hopes that none of it will work and I'll have some fantastic new dresses and aprons.

Today is the day...

Today is the day to pick up the table currently at Maya's house making 2 of 3 acquired. Also on the prowl for 2 more dresses for Maya and Reese and some sort of tulle for added puff. I should also start outlining my applications to NWNW and 12 MM and look at other possibilities in PDX and BC.

Researal 3 Video 1

Rough Skeleton

8 Sections, 6 Pieces of Music

Section 1:
Barebones laid down. Need to manipulate and solidify character.

Section 2:
To be worked on tonight at rehearsal, ideally roughly complete.

Section 3:
I have some (what I hope to be) good ideas for this section. If it can work, it will involve the beginning that I love into table work and three simultaneous solos. Then into a duet and solo that involve high heels and flipping furniture and introduce our beloved Cake Line.

Section 4:
Using similar movement as Section 2, but in more confined space with restrictions of the heels and flipped tables. Eventually we'll put everything back together and straighten up.

Section 5:
...

Section 6:
It's the Cake Line Parade! Cake Line + Trio Transition. Begin finishing preparations.

Section 7:
Continue prepping the goods and send them off.

Section 8:
Outro and End Credits

Trois Cheveux - Ooh La La

Dance hair has been, is and will continue to be a huge pain in my ass.

My hair is a difficult, in between length with a ton of layers and the ever painful bangs. Luckily, A + M + T all have long lustrous, shiny locks.

Though there is not always a lot of time for super complicated, high maintenance hair during performance, the goal is to achieve something very quick, easy and secure.

Read: Hairspray, our dearest friend.

In all seriousness, I am easily distracted by hair and also find free moving hair delightful. Like everything, it all depends.

These two examples lend themselves to an idea of what I would like to achieve in our own right... Because really, who doesn't love a finger-wave?

Aprons Galore!

And so it begins...

Two aprons are on their way, handmade in white and pink and white and red. One full and one half. The half apron is also reversible.

**Note the table FULL of lovely pyrex bowls and casserole dishes - printed and solid - in the picture with the full, polka-dot apron.

In Need of Things

Dancers: A, M, T

Need: 6 Cake Line Dancers

Colors:

Black, Grey, Dark Blue

Pink, Yellow, Lime Green

?

Costumes:

3 Dresses - Upwards of 12 total (4 or 5)

3 Aprons - Upwards of 6 total (3)

Ribbons (0)

Hankies (M or T cleavage?) (0)

Red lips, black eyeliner (YES - Color Check Warm/Cool)

Finger Waves, Chignon - Neat, Tidy (practice)

Tables:

3 Simple Tables about 4.5 x 3 feet (3)
Dishes:

Pink Bowl Set (yes)

Yellow Square Bowl (yes)

White Cake Stand (yes)

Blue Cake Stand (yes)

Green? Cake Stand (no)

Fourth Cake Stand?

Host of other pyrex dishware

Gram's Flower bowls?

3 Serving Plates

Cakes:

3-4 Cakes (Sara?) and G

SkyMall Cupcake Cake Plate

Rehearsal 2 Video 2

Track 3

Pretty girls do pretty things.

Rehearsal 2 Video 1

Track 1
Track 2

September 16, 2009 - Rehearsal 1

I was incredibly nervous for this rehearsal. It's been a good 6 years since I last truly choreographed a piece, but considering who I'm working with I really shouldn't have been too nervous. Teresa, May and Anne were very patient with me as I flailed about trying to work out what's been going on in my brain with this piece.

How difference choreographers work is interesting. Really, there are likely a bazillion different ways you can lay out a rehearsal process and I seem to have a lot of the conceptual components and feelings of the piece and a fairly (simple) framework set up of how I was the work stylized, but don't yet have a lot of movement. Yes, the key ingredient: movement.

One of the beautiful and greatest thing about dancers is that they as the choreographer is working something out physcially, they begin working it out on their own bodies in tandem. This is both unnerving, making me laugh hysterically and lovely.

This first rehearsal, albeit rough, was perfect for what it was: verbal vomit, physical vomit of general movement postures and translating those to other bodies. I realize that I move according to how I'm physically structured, naturally. This changes dramatically on other bodies most the time and sometimes, in that moment of clarity, it's precisely the same. Pop in a few more moments of what the dancers' bodies do naturally with my movement, changing it dramatically or subtley in that wonderful way and BLAMMO! You got yourself something to work with.

Lucky, Lucky Me

Maya - one of the three performers for this piece is a teacher and is currently on her summer break. This means her schedule is free and clear until school's back in session in August. Ding!

On Monday, we're meeting to do a preliminary rehearsal (maybe more to come) to start to feel out the movement and ideas we're going to work with.

Maya, Teresa, Anne and I also discussed rehearsal schedules hopefully being on Sunday (late)mornings or Wednesday evenings. The main objective is to bang this out in 2-3, 4 months tops. Then we can put it in our pocket to keep for later.

I am also fortunate to have a couple of friends who are incredibly talented in their lines of work and that seem willing to lend themselves to wrapping this project up in a nice little bow. We're talking RESOURCEFUL to the max!

We Got Something Coming in the Mail!

It's a Classic Bread & Baking Industry Film and Commercials film from the 1930's and 1940's, brought to yours truly form some person in Michigan who's got a stockpile of them on eBay. I hope there are good images, jingles or instructions on baking techniques. To be sure, it's definitely a crapshoot...but, we shall see.

This is an image from the posting. The others were gigundo and blurry.

Included:

In the Dough (1931)-A film all about baking the perfect loaf of bread. You'll learn all you want to know after this reel. All about diastases, Lintner's tests, and dough fermentation. this is a riot for bakers, a head scratcher for everyone else.

Baking Industry, The (1946)- Vocational film about careers in baking.

Wonder Bread Commercial
County Fair Bread Commercial
Fischers Bread Commercial
Sunbeam Bread Commercial

Sadly it's all about bread and not at all about our beloved cakes and baking thereof, but an educational film at the very least!

What?What? What's that you say?

Ah yes, please let me explain.

Bake You A Cake will be a performance equipped with sweet, sweet treats, the baking thereof, delightful dishes, trays and jars in bright colors and an old fashioned radio. To be performed by three lovely ladies dressed in their finest baking dresses and a much needed apron. Music is yet to be determined, but will likely involve old commercials and at least three pieces of music.

I just don't quite know yet.

Please to Have

One more cake stand in green preferably. White would also do.
Already have one bright blue and one white fancy falutin one.
Need three total. One for each lady baking a cake.

The Cake is Decidedly So

In a recent trip to New Mexico on a Southwest flight, I perused the SkyMall catalogue like any good airway traveller.

What, you say, did I find in the fabulous catalogue full of lawn furniture, ornamental rocks for your unsightly garden hose nozel, and nose hair trimmers?

Nothing short of a cake pan in the shape of a giant cupcake!

This cake pan is destined to be our ending product for Bake You a Cake.

First I must purchase said pan and do many experiments to determine it's (and my) ability to bake a decent looking (and tasting) baked good in an oddly shaped situation. But, do not fear, we are both learned in our abilities of baking goods and baking the goods and we shall not fail.

Everyone Deserves A Cake

As children, many of us were not fortunate enough to receive every single thing that we longed to have, to own, to eat. I lusted after the Baskin Robbins ice cream cake: oreo ice cream, chocolate cake. A person I know lusted for a Fudgie the Whale Cake made by Carvel. My brother, I believe, once got a cake in the shape of a cowboy boot. My mom made it special, just for him.

You'd go to your friends' birthday parties and pizza parties and see the other kids get the lusted after fancy thing. This didn't change the longing desire to have your own Fudgie or your own Cowboy boot, but you did satiate the immediate desire by devouring a delicious piece of Fudgie or boot for yourself.

Though some of us may not have received that very prized, very special cake that we so wished to received, it doesn't mean it's too late. Everyone Deserves A Cake. And I'll bake you, special, just for you.

If I'da Known You Were Coming

I'da Baked a Cake.
It would be special, just for you.
In the shape of a whale.