Whirlwind of a Weekend
Hey again everyone...
I am back from my whirlwind weekend up in Manhattan for the premiere of the dance TARO by the Mariana Bekerman Dance Company I blogged about recently. Thought I'd share some highlights of the weekend for anyone interested.
This was the culmination of months of collaboration with the choreographer (started work back in February/March) so it was fantastic to finally see the work in full - 55 minutes, 4 parts, 3 original composers and 1 prerecorded piece (Max Richter), 2 videographers (1 segment performed/mixed live), 3 choreographers, 7 dancers, 1 glorious evening at the Joyce SOHO.
Was rather surreal walking to the theatre in Soho from our hotel in Chelsea...crowded streets...lights...sold-out crowd...dance critics and reviewers...nervous to see the complete work for the first time...knowing that my music was opening and closing the performance...
Everything tricked off amazingly well. Thanks again to Mr. Master himself, John McCaig, my compositions hit with a hugeness that I can only imagine put a tad of stress on the excellent sound system there. Big ups JDG. Thank you.
The show ran for 4 nights and were sold out each night. At Saturday and Sunday's shows they had to turn a lot of people away. Woot! Now we wait for the reviews to come in. Thankfully her PR lady worked it big time and got us listed in all the major publications - NYTimes, New Yorker, Village Voice, etc. A reviewer from Dance Magazine was there as were others from smaller dance publications.
While there I also took a meeting with another choreographer with whom I hope to eventually work with. Very modern. Very forward-thinking. Very nice. Again, a surreal lunch meeting on the 5th floor, outdoor, balcony cafe at the Museum of Modern Art. Fingers crossed his company receives the grant.
Speaking of the Moma, and art...that was the other impetus for traveling to NYC for the weekend...my girl and I wanted to soak up as much contemporary art as we could possibly handle without reaching sensory overload (which we came close to! ha ha). We saw some great video work by Bill Viola and an artist named Pipilotti Rist. We also spent nearly an entire day wandering the gallery district in Chelsea (many of the best galleries from Soho relocated here) and came across a great gallery called bitforms where they had a fantastic installation by an artist named Rafael Lozano Hemmer. The whole room tracked you via hidden cameras and the 'art' was large flat screen tv's whereon your body shapes were being presented as scrolling text, changing kaleidoscopic mosaics of those who came through the room before - pardon my lack of accurate description, you really had to be there to experience it - but the eeriest part of the installation was an arrangement of leather belts suspended at waist level that rotated to face you as you moved throughout the room. Kind of like small invisible army tracking you...
I think some of our favorite moments though were spent in the early morning hours at this small French Cafe called Le Gamin (I think this is a 'chain' of sorts throughout Manhattan) - sipping dark French coffee, eating fruit filled crepes, wathing the millions pass us by just 10 feet away. Lovely girl. Lovely coffee. Lovely accents. Just lovely.
Got to meet my i n k w i r e business partner in person for the first time where we shared some excellent Spanish tapas and discussed our plans for building the business. Cheers.
Spent a few hours in Central Park enjoying the sites and sounds of greener area of town within the town. Avoided all other touristy things though. He he
Will very much look forward to making it back...hopefully sooner than later...and hopefully for more of my art being presented there. I've got more things on the plate for the near future - 2 new scores for modern dance and 1 film score (collaboration with the ubercool and talented 11t1) to name just a few. So stay tuned if you are interested!
Oh yeah, one more thing...if you have not done so, Subscribe to my Feed and keep up to date on all the happenings around here!
Peace
I am back from my whirlwind weekend up in Manhattan for the premiere of the dance TARO by the Mariana Bekerman Dance Company I blogged about recently. Thought I'd share some highlights of the weekend for anyone interested.
This was the culmination of months of collaboration with the choreographer (started work back in February/March) so it was fantastic to finally see the work in full - 55 minutes, 4 parts, 3 original composers and 1 prerecorded piece (Max Richter), 2 videographers (1 segment performed/mixed live), 3 choreographers, 7 dancers, 1 glorious evening at the Joyce SOHO.
Was rather surreal walking to the theatre in Soho from our hotel in Chelsea...crowded streets...lights...sold-out crowd...dance critics and reviewers...nervous to see the complete work for the first time...knowing that my music was opening and closing the performance...
Everything tricked off amazingly well. Thanks again to Mr. Master himself, John McCaig, my compositions hit with a hugeness that I can only imagine put a tad of stress on the excellent sound system there. Big ups JDG. Thank you.
The show ran for 4 nights and were sold out each night. At Saturday and Sunday's shows they had to turn a lot of people away. Woot! Now we wait for the reviews to come in. Thankfully her PR lady worked it big time and got us listed in all the major publications - NYTimes, New Yorker, Village Voice, etc. A reviewer from Dance Magazine was there as were others from smaller dance publications.
While there I also took a meeting with another choreographer with whom I hope to eventually work with. Very modern. Very forward-thinking. Very nice. Again, a surreal lunch meeting on the 5th floor, outdoor, balcony cafe at the Museum of Modern Art. Fingers crossed his company receives the grant.
Speaking of the Moma, and art...that was the other impetus for traveling to NYC for the weekend...my girl and I wanted to soak up as much contemporary art as we could possibly handle without reaching sensory overload (which we came close to! ha ha). We saw some great video work by Bill Viola and an artist named Pipilotti Rist. We also spent nearly an entire day wandering the gallery district in Chelsea (many of the best galleries from Soho relocated here) and came across a great gallery called bitforms where they had a fantastic installation by an artist named Rafael Lozano Hemmer. The whole room tracked you via hidden cameras and the 'art' was large flat screen tv's whereon your body shapes were being presented as scrolling text, changing kaleidoscopic mosaics of those who came through the room before - pardon my lack of accurate description, you really had to be there to experience it - but the eeriest part of the installation was an arrangement of leather belts suspended at waist level that rotated to face you as you moved throughout the room. Kind of like small invisible army tracking you...
I think some of our favorite moments though were spent in the early morning hours at this small French Cafe called Le Gamin (I think this is a 'chain' of sorts throughout Manhattan) - sipping dark French coffee, eating fruit filled crepes, wathing the millions pass us by just 10 feet away. Lovely girl. Lovely coffee. Lovely accents. Just lovely.
Got to meet my i n k w i r e business partner in person for the first time where we shared some excellent Spanish tapas and discussed our plans for building the business. Cheers.
Spent a few hours in Central Park enjoying the sites and sounds of greener area of town within the town. Avoided all other touristy things though. He he
Will very much look forward to making it back...hopefully sooner than later...and hopefully for more of my art being presented there. I've got more things on the plate for the near future - 2 new scores for modern dance and 1 film score (collaboration with the ubercool and talented 11t1) to name just a few. So stay tuned if you are interested!
Oh yeah, one more thing...if you have not done so, Subscribe to my Feed and keep up to date on all the happenings around here!
Peace
posted by Chimp Logic at 5:35 PM
0 comments
