Rain on my day

For the most part I really have a positive outlook on things, but some days it just rains.  Today I worked through yet another injury that has appeared in a month full of fun feeling, muscle tearing bliss.  At first I didn't think I would be able to move at all, but after I took some Western medicine I found myself feeling up to the task.  Actually at that point I danced pretty dam well.  

Oh yeah, I worked on a film today.  I think it should look pretty good when it's said and done.  That's what I was dancing in, and that's why I actually took western medicine.  Normally I don't go near pain killers, but I certainly wasn't going to be able to work if I didn't.  The film is called Changement, and I play a quirky french kid that dances for a company in the states.  I'll put more details out when it's out.  Any ways the day was hard, and some what disappointing as far as training goes, but it was a good lesson, that we have bad days to make our good days better.  

On another note I really feel the urge to put my comedy down for a while and focus purely on my dramatic works.  I may take my new contact juggling piece to the streets.  Another idea that I have is to just through some tunes in my ears and dance with a hat out.  Real improve style.  We'll see.  

  

Hear the dance, see the music.

I was sitting in the train today and I realized something interesting.  All works of any note today and yesterday were created and set in a locked choreography.  Well tomorrow I don't see this happening any more.  Works of the dance can be fully structured and choreographed, yet not bound by set steps.  It's one thing to demand a certain amount of out of a technician, but quite another to take command of an other's movements.  This may seem avant-guarde, but what if dancers were selected on their technique, and shape, but were allowed to speak the language that they worked so hard to create.

A Poem

What is
Is always and must be
For if we are to evolve it must entale all in order to see
Our potential is great
And perhaps dark too 
Yet it needs a single light to remember what we always knew
We are because we belong


pd

Flying fast

The past few days have been going by really fast.  Since my last post I have street performed all over the city, landed another film, trained with my new company, and worked out the loose ends to a new piece.
The piece is actually the most interesting part of the past few days for me.  Over the past few years I've been playing with the idea of doing a contact juggling piece.  For those of you that don't know what that is, look it up it's worth seeing and far too hard to explain.  To give you an idea though its like rhythmic gymnastics.  The difference is that with rhythmic gymnastics the ball bounces and is bigger, which is easier to manipulate.  Contact juggling is relatively new territory for the circus arts and very few go beyond the phase of upright juggling.  What makes it special is the that you are juggling one ball.  Now how you juggle one ball may seem easy, but in all actuality it can take years of practice to do it at any level worth watching.
That's not really what I want to talk about though.  What makes it interesting, what makes any work interesting is the lessons that you learn from the work.  In this case I have really learned the essence of focusing on one thing at a time.  That is something that I have a lot of trouble with, and funny enough it was really rough going at first, because the work behind the curtain in this case, demanded that I focus on one thing at a time.  At first I was trying to make a few pieces, one being the contact piece and another that I have since put aside for later.  In short what I've learned is that it's important to learn many things at once, but having the ability to focus in on one thing at a time is key.  Fill your days with many lessons, but if you are to succeed at any of them you must think only of the task at hand, otherwise you are never really breaking through the surface layer of the work.  That's been my life over the past few days, perhaps it was helpful.
See you next time.
 

STRESS

Today I woke up to a feeling that most dancers greet with pleasure, Soreness.  Like most I love the feeling that I trained hard the day before.  It's a beautiful sign that what your doing is changing you, and hopefully making you better.  Today though it was different.  Today I was not about to put my body through a normal day's amount of stress.  For some odd reason, beyond me, the dance world loves to over train.  It's amazing how with all the information that's out there about athletics and recovery, the dance world doesn't believe in any of it.  I have to say that I was really no different until recently when I came back from Los Angeles.  I was just getting back and I told myself that I would ease my way back into a full training regime, but what I found was that most of my pears were injured, or stiff.  These were people that I hadn't seen for about a month and yet they seemed to be weaker than I!  What I soon realized was it wasn't the training, it was over training.  They were putting too much stress on the body.  Ballet asks us to move in very dynamic and unnatural ways.  It emphasises the extent of our human movement and is so specific within it's design that there is no room for any variation.  In Ballet there is a right and a wrong.  Well I think I'm evolving!  I think from now on I'm going to train with all the smarts of a modern athlete, and combine it with the grace of a classical dancer.  

getting within it.

Most of the time we think that artists have it so good.  And being someone who is lucky to call his art his job, I would have to agree with that concept.  That is until I have a day like I had today.  There is nothing like training your body six hours a day, six days a week.  It hurts so bad that you begin to tell yourself that you actually enjoy the pain.  In fact you get addicted to it... The same way drug addicts get addicted to haroin.  Yesterday I came down with a cold, and I was forced to take the day off from training.  Well I was supposed to take the day of from training.  Instead I still woke up at the crack of dawn and I still showed up and took company class.  The truth about art is that there is an element that has to be work.  There has to be a structure that you never falter from.  It's that structure that is so f#@!#$% hard to maintain, that allows you to go beyond your craft.  The consistency is what gives you fluency.  The hard part about dancing is the day in and day out work ethic you have to have.  The rest, the rest is easy...  Double tours, tour assemble...  It's easy, but you have to maintain your structure, otherwise there isn't clarity.  Days like today remind me how hard this life can be.  The next few days I'll be getting over this cold, but you can bet I'll still be training.  Something to think about.

Rain

Today was mmmmm,
I loved today.  I met a great new friend and had lunch with a old new friend.  This city has so much to offer.  I can't really say much right now because of the incredible high that I'm still feeling, but it was dreamy:)  I think the trick is to just be happy at all costs.  I spent all day creatively processing life with other people.  There is something in the works, something that I can't quite taste yet, but it's there ready for devouring.  There is a place called the Circus Warehouse in NYC.  It's magical.  The juices that are flowing from this place are amazing.  I recommend it to all.  Go to the circus ware house.

On another note, Tuesday I start with Ajkun Ballet Theatre.  I don't really know how I feel about it right now.  It's too much to take in at one time.  I am glad I have tomorrow to take class in a set environment.  It should clear my mind of not feeling on top of things come Tuesday.  There is so much I have to say, but it will just have to wait until tomorrow.  Another day, another chapter.  

I realize I haven't been clear

Wooop's,
you know what, I haven't really introduced myself.  In my first blog I told you that I wanted to share my world with you, but I didn't tell you what world I was in!  It certainly isn't the world of writing as you may have realized from my simple writing style.  No, I am a performer.  A simple vaudevillian/ Classical dancer/ Actor/ musician/ magician/ juggler/ clown.  Wow that's a mouth full, and yes, I know what your thinking.  How could someone have so many titles, or time?  Well first of all if it were up to me there wouldn't be a seperation between artistic expressions.  I'm sure that Picaso would have been an amazing dancer, infact I hear Da'vinci was.  Secondly I didn't really have a social life growing up.  What I did have was a lot of interests in the circus arts and physical activities.  I wasn't a good student in school either.  In fact I was an "F" student all the way around, except for P.E. and Art.  In thinking about it now I realize I never had a mathematical brain.  I have an artistic brain.  but our system only gives one subject to that side of thinking.  I mean honestly, where's the sense in that?  But not to get into that discussion right now...  I was just very interested in things that had to do with performing.  Sports have a stage too, and I loved it.  To put it simply, I started as a magician, and branched out into everything else.  I wanted to express myself as purely and fully as I could.  That meant every facet.  When I put a piece on, it consists of everything together. like a one man band of sorts.  As of this very moment I am in a professional ballet company, I street perform around the world, and I occasionally go to Hollywood and partake in the film industry.  Not a bad life really... But I will say this, I always skip the after parties!  

TODAY TODAY MY SEASON STARTED

Well today I started my 2011 street performing campagne.  I just eased into it before I really begin in the coming weeks.  It's really strange how you can love something so much and then after a few months get totally burnt out on it.  At the end of last fall I told myself I wouldn't street perform this year, because it wouldn't make me any money or further my career.  I was probably right, but I just don't care about that stuff anymore.  I love expressing myself in the street environment.  It's so brutally honest.  If you suck, you know it really quickly!  I know now that I will probably die a street performer, and you know what, I wouldn't want it any other way.  When you go out there and you actually pull a show off.  It's like Magic.