Trey McIntyre Project

Missing Bounce

Where did all my hip hop go?

Diggin that tight relationship with the music here...

Anna Halprin

Postmodern choreographer, dance therapist, life-long dancer.

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

My favorite thing to watch over and over again right now... incredible partnering

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.

Alvin Ailey

A few weeks ago I got to go to see Alvin Ailey for free (Haverford rocks!) at the Academy of Music. I saw...

Anointed from AlvinAileyAmericanDanceTheater on Vimeo.

The Evolution Of A Secured Feminine from AlvinAileyAmericanDanceTheater on Vimeo.

The Hunt from AlvinAileyAmericanDanceTheater on Vimeo.

and of course the Ailey classic...

Revelations from AlvinAileyAmericanDanceTheater on Vimeo.

The dancers as you can see have a tremendous amount of strength, charisma and vitality, and the choreography gave such a rush in watching them. It was the kind of performance where you just sit back and enjoy the thrill of the moment. Each of the pieces were distinct, as you can tell from these snippets, but as a series they were also complementary.

The Hunt by Robert Battle was particularly moving in an unexpected way. The program and Alvin Ailey website say this piece is about "the primitive thrill of the hunt," but for me the ferocity took on a greater, more universal meaning, speaking to the ways the people perpetuate cycles of violence. Sometimes the six men danced in a circle as if thrilling in an aggression fed by mob mentality, in others they separated into duets where the partners took turns at being the aggressor, all the while seemingly unaware of the hypocrisy of meeting violence with more violence.

Akram Khan

Video of the day... making of, talking about, dramatic performance, the people who make it, social contexts. It's also an artsy little advertisement that someone put some work into.

Carlos Acosta

Finished reading Carlos Acosta's memoir No Way Home for my Dance and Migration class. It was an enjoyable read, but sad to hear about the competition, injuries and job insecurity even the most famous and respected ballet dancers face.

Carlos Acosta is known a world-class performer, born in Cuba and the son of a truck driver. At one point, he says...

"Sometimes obstacles can become the very things that motivate us. When food is accessible and abundant, when options are endless, then art becomes a hobby. I believed that if I had had everything, I would have lost interest in dance in a few years, abandoning it to pursue a university degree, or to open a business. But when art is the only way out, the only way of supporting loved ones, when the practice of your art is the only way to make yourself seen, heard, distinguished, then art is never just a hobby. Art is a means of survival; passion is more intense, the nails and the broken floorboards nothing more than an excuse to work harder and become even better...."

Tabloid danseur

Benjamin Millepied's getting a lot of attention...

Without diverging in to celebrity gossip, here is a clip of the man at work. There are some gorgeous partnering moves that I'd love to figure out.

This one's for you Sandy

"Let's do the fork in the garbage disposal." - something everyone should have in their repertoire.

What makes this so irresistible? Something about simple dance party moves and technical clarity (Robert Hoffman, right, is a proficient dancer, see Step Up 2 the Streets)

Other classic dance party moves: The Sprinkler, Grocery Shopping, Driving, Basketball...

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...

My Fav Dancing Couple From The Netherlands

M&N Dance Company has new youtube videos! Sad thing though, one of their old videos "Summer Dancing Around" got the audio cut out. Who knew copyright infringement ever applied to youtube? Oh well, here's my favorite old video (besides that one) ...

I love all the fluid spiraling, and the timing pattern of emphasis and suspension is spot on. Plus the super fast synchronization is just impressive.

I'm not as fond of the new videos... there's a lot of goofy intro and self-promotion, and Nastja likes to whip her hair around too much, but you can't deny how cool the pair is. This one is a good example of their partnering... it's fun stuff even though the transitions come off a bit rushed, in the style of "you only have 45 seconds to impress the audience on So You Think You Can Dance".

Michal and Natsja's youtube page is http://www.youtube.com/user/beyondland22 and their website is http://www.michalnastja.com.

Wonders of NSYNC Rediscovered

Looking for awkward dance moves performed with boy band sincerity? You got it! The originals.... So ridiculous, so great.



PS - NSYNC rocked the Backstreet Boys' WORLD!