Mad Circus

First Friday show at Ong King, dancing with Mercedes Johnson in costumes by Heather Cooper.

The show was packed! First Friday, a night of firsts: being in a circus themed show along with aerial dancers and storytellers, magicians and yes, a pole dancer. Also first time I improvised a solo in front of an audience.

David Smith's Photos of Lean On Me, Summer 2011

I am so amazed at the way David captures these moments as if they were living Renaissance paintings.

Sisterly Dancing

Elizabeth Ann Bowie is a staff writer for The Liberator, the award winning newspaper for LASA, which is where I went to high school and where my sister Willa goes now. She interviewed me about making and performing Lean On Me with Willa, who originally had the idea to make a dance performance for charity. It was a nice opportunity for some reflection...

EB: How did you feel performing in general?

AB: The chance to perform as a dancer and choreographer is always thrilling. You have the audience's attention and you have to keep it, taking them into your world and telling them exactly what you want with a totally different type of specificity from words.

EB: And when working with your sister?

AB: This year Willa and I performed a duet together and that was pretty cool. It was a sort of "evil twins" dance and it was fun to play with the characters. The competitiveness and scheming were fun to play up as sisters, and afterwards I got a lot of comments about how similarly we dance, which is a total compliment for me because Willa has so much more ballet training. Choreographing with Willa can sometimes be difficult because of my personal need to impress my little sister. It can be weird telling your sibling what to do. At the same time I always want to work with her because she is an amazing dancer and I admire her so much.

EB: How did it feel to know you were going to donate the money to Doctors Without Borders, and help someone? And why do you think it is important for students to volunteer or participate in fundraisers?

AB: Giving is important. We need to feel that connection to the world, knowing that we can make a difference. It's a totally different experience putting on your own charity, and I think everyone should try their hand at it because it really is rewarding.

Giving Thanks

Made these Thank You cards at the end of the summer, all collage and sharpie over printed cards of my talented grandmother's watercolors. They are all beautiful paintings on their own, but it was definitely fun to transform them into a pop art-ish series.

Composition II Final Dances

Rehearsal videos...

When Our Two Paths Meet
Choreography: Antonia Brown
Dancers: Luciana Fortes, Chris Flores, Antonia Brown
Music: Your Ex-Lover Is Dead by Stars



We Could Have Had It All
Choreography: Luciana Fortes
Dancers: Luciana Fortes, Chris Flores, Antonia Brown
Music: Rolling in the Deep by Adele

Created at James House

Looking forward to the Bounce show!

It took some time and asking the internet for tips but I managed to make a silhouette of every Bounce member! I can't wait for the tshirts, posters, program, etc...

Bounce Sneak Peek

Choreographing with Cee, Julia, Kate, Kirsten and Hilary...
(With Lykke Li's 'I'm Good, I'm Gone')

This semester I've been trying a new way of choreographing - I give movement prompts, we make movement as duets, film the material, I watch the clips on my own and rearrange / adjust the movement to the music and my ideas and goals for the piece. It seems to be working well, definitely a good way to get a lot of material quickly (and hold on to it) and get people to show their individual styles. These clips are some of the raw material. The full dance will be to Drake's remixed version of Lykki Li's 'Little Bit,' a song you can find on datpiff.com or youtube.

Still Body

Figure Drawing 03/16/11

This model held her pose for a full 40 mins, took a 10 min break and then went back to it for another 20. That's amazing. Being still and having people look at you for that long takes skill, and I admire and am thankful for people that are able and willing to take on the challenge.

Icy day in Haverford

Looking Back

Last summer... Lean on Me a benefit for Doctors Without Borders.

Dancing: Willa Brown, Jacobi Alvarez, Madeline Jafari, Sienna Blaw, Hannah Yeo and myself

Making music: Curtis McMurtry, Henry Clay and Allison Maupin

Lighting by Joe Zambarano, support from Michelle Brown and other moms and dads and studio space donated by Tapestry Dance!

All original dance and music. Movements made collaboratively over 3 weeks of intensive work. The full performance was 50 minutes long.

Photos by David Smith...

Dancing with friends

Today Sienna, Jacobi, Willa and I got together to share ideas, improv and learn a bit in the studio. It was a semi-reunion of Lean on Me because Hannah and Madeline couldn't make it. Tapestry Dance and Grace Holmes have been so good to us - Tapestry donated studio space for our Doctors Without Borders benefit and gave us space to work in today. It's a great environment over there, and I know Willa, Sienna, Madeline and Hannah love being in the youth company, Visions in Rhythm.

Willa had the idea to do ballet barre in the dark. It was a very different experience, especially since we were dancing to mostly Beatles songs. It wasn't completely dark, and our eyes adjusted pretty quickly so that the lighting didn't seem that unusual, but it did add a certain soft inward focus to the movements. I did notice that balances are a lot easier with the usual piano accompaniment - really anything that takes you away from that focus on strength and lengthening of the muscles can so easily throw you off, especially in a plain passe.

Then we did some group improvisations, working with contact and movement within the space. That's always a great place for discovery, and it's always a surprise what you can learn working in a specific group of people.

We also got a chance to talk some about this coming summer. Great things to look forward to!

Lean On Me dancers last year...

Jacobi Alvarez, Willa Brown, Madeline Jafari, myself, Sienna Blaw, Hannah Yeo