Just a couple of weeks ago, Christian Serrano and I officially embarked on a endeavor both of us had been dreaming about for a LONG TIME.  We started our own company under the name MOVEWORKS! We set up weekly regular rehearsals with a group of committed dancers, organized our fiscal sponsorship, and planned out our Spring season.  We have 5 shows in the line-up and are working on a couple of full length pieces to debut later in the Spring.  

All that's to say that most, if not all, of my artistic effort is going into this and I'd love you to check it out at MoveWorks.co.  Stay tuned, join our mailing list, and I hope to see you at one of our shows!
 - Sarah

Ooops - somehow 7 months have gone by, but it's not because I haven't done anything! 
Here's a quick recap  - ADC shows its new piece with ropes, ADC performs at Jacob's Pillow, I perform in Sandra Parks' work at Dixon Place, Christian and I start work on Governor's Island - it ends up being this huge thing with a gazillion dancers and five thousand performances, and everything goes swimmingly, everyone gets paid, and audiences have smiles on their faces.  I make it to 63 Hours of Art where Helga holds a ceremony and then I fly out to Hong Kong to visit Aubrey and take French, obviously. Then I just swing over the Bali before returning home to NYC and then Christian and I start work on the Contaminant for Boston.  Charlie the Chicken arrives in our lives, and then the day of the show, we decide to add eggs and paint yolks all over us.  Boston goes great so we apply that piece to performed elsewhere and BAX takes us on for Upstart in February. On a whim, I sign up for the xyz "make a dance in a week" thing, I'm chosen, I do it, have fun, and win.   Christian and I continue to perform for ADC, A Quiet Perseverance at GAS and In the Beginning in AAS.  And we teach and want to teach more.  And then we also make a new piece based on the Apache dances of early 20th century Paris, for AAS.  We hurt each other just enough.  And I think that brings us up to speed.  

For the past couple of days, I've been creating the "Foreign Affairs Nonsensical Poem of the Day." I basically apply a simple formula to two of the snapshots posted on the site that day, massage the words just enough, and then, call it a poem.  I'm basically curious to see if something meaningful can come out acts of randomness on nonrandom materials.  By reading these somewhat random and nonsensical poems, can you get a sense of the original substance?

Here are some examples from the past week:

Snapshots Nov. 20, 2014

Ten percent of its economy reached a surprising conclusion -
A new global deal, rather than predictable rules and
Regulations -
Have since increased dramatically- a long list
of other systemic problems
they must keep their eyes on - to be complicit
in fraud.

Snapshot Nov. 21, 2014

A profound turning point in Islamic history - delay of the second hike -
bestowed his title on Selim from a year ago
of the Prophet’s Quraysh tribe -
freeing up its market -
who that Arab caliph would be - work, government subsidies, and pensions
Educated and intelligent Muslims to lose just 30–40
of those.
Well-defined Islamic mandate.

Special Mashup of the Day - Saturday, Nov. 22, 2014
FA Archives 1925- Fascism In Italian History and NYTimes on Sicily

The Italian national revolution - chef Lele Torrisi steps in
Italy's recent political struggles - prepare
the sea bass
Movement claims to undertake - long, dark green spinach
Assertion of modern statehood of their tuna -
fillet of
their great predecessors onto a local sesame bread.
Authority for some decades - onions in Marsala wine
(symbolical and political implications)
- A blue sea in the distance.
and the radical Masons costs $125 per person.
The new civic consciousness- red wine for a dessert
would be doubly baneful -
this is fresh produce.


And finally, just for fun, below is the visual nonsensical poem from Nov. 21.

Here are some sketches that I made for the upcoming Helga performance next week  - April 17 & 18 at CPR!  I made these so that I could move them around like playing cards to figure out the best scene order.  Only a couple of rehearsals to go, we'll see what actually ends up on stage. Hope to see you there!



April 17 & 18, 2014 at 7:30pm
CPR
361 Manhattan Avenue
Tickets: $12 in advance or $15 at the door (cash only)

Below is ALL of the anonymous audience feedback, uncensored, that Helga received last weekend after performing at AAS10.  My favorite is actually something I've heard before in response to my work:  I DON'T KNOW WHAT THIS WAS BUT I'M ALL FOR IT! I think it sums it up what I go for pretty well: the notion that you don't have to  understand something in order to enjoy it.

This here is old old old footage from a piece I created 10 years ago.  I've had difficulty getting it to transfer correctly, but it seems to have finally made it to the interwebs in one piece! I'm happily stealing snippets of this for the upcoming version of the Helga Project.  Enjoy!

Having been consumed with a variety of projects (a performance today and Helga/AAS10 in two weeks), I missed last week's post - which means I'm one behind!  For this week, I've decided to forego a movement piece and instead showcase some visual art.

I took the photo to the left as I was walking to the performance space today - between 7th and 8th Ave on 38th.  I saw this yellowish doorway, walked by it initially, stopped, and then walked back the three steps to take a photo.  Of course the original photo is far less colorful and less striking, but I took it for the shapes and the lines, cracks and crannies - knowing that I could play with the colors and contrast later on on the train.  Does that make it any less valid?


Below is a completely failed Helga painting that I attempted a couple of weeks ago.  Whatever I tried, I just couldn't get it right.  I kept on painting over and over and over her until it turned into a gray mess. It is still a gray mess, but I was able to play with the colors and contrast and come to something somewhat interesting (but still, not suitable for a wall). It makes me wonder, though, what else is possible in the gray area between painting and digital.   There are no rules that say I can't take a picture of a painting and then make it more awesome on my computer - boost the color here, increase the contrast there, why not?  I guess I'll just keep on playing - in both worlds.   

I'm excited to announce that I'll be presenting my first non-solo version of "Helga" twice in the next couple of months - an excerpt on March 22 and a larger version on April 17 & 18.  I'm putting together music, sketching out scenes, and, finally, assembling the "Helga Chorus."    More to come.  Load up your wagon - this ride is starting.

For this week's video, I found some OLD footage that I shot at 60 hours up at Beulahland - Helga's birthplace.  I haven't thought about or looked at this footage in years - so it was, to say the least, an interesting peak into the past (and into my pre-Helga brain.)

My brain was fried last night after a chock-full day of information and inspiration at the DanceNYC Symposium at Gibney, so this video is what it is and nothing more.    

Last week I had the great pleasure of returning to Boston to help out at the New England Regional American College Dance Conference - while the snow wasn't so pleasant, the vibe and energy of the dancers was infectious and inspiring.  
While most of my time was spent doing more "worky" type things, I did have a chance to teach two classes - an impromptu "Let's Make a Dance Film" class and "Improv Partnering."  Both classes were awesome!
I intend to put together a longer, more comprehensive piece using the footage from the dance film class... someday...when I have time.  But for now, check out one of the many shots below.  I had each student conceptualize and direct their own shot, so credit goes out to the students.

I wasn't feeling particularly inspired by anything "exciting" today, so I just decided to do whatever came to mind first - so, I rolled up and down the walls of my hallway, knowing that I would speed it up in the editing process.  

It was done all in one shot and the second round (lower to the ground) was much more challenging than I expected it to be. I'd curious to see all of the various permutations of this - sideways, upside-down, in the air, with two people or more people, going in different directions, etc.  

(Credit to Mimi for joining the shot...)

This is a video/sound recording that I threw together a couple of weeks ago, in collaboration with the lovely Aubrey A. Daval.  We recorded our voices during intermission at a show at the Joyce and then just started hopping around the city afterward.  It was purely for play. Enjoy!