A Blessing/An Experiment

These fearless wonders! I love these women and I love their spirits and I love their clear, direct gaze. I wish I wish I wish I’d taken better footage of that quiet hallway, but life was a whirlwind and what can you do? Below, the pieces I do have, from our rehearsal, and a clip of the thing in action:

A Blessing/An Experiment

Performed by Emily Palmquist, Maggie Mial, Taylor Drury

Featuring choreography by Kristin Yancy for a 10’ x 30’ hallway at the Museum of the Moving Image

Set to the sounds of a North Carolina Thunderstorm

in collaboration with Responsive Conference 2017

SWING BABY

I find watching honest-to-goodness arguments exhilarating. People can become soap opera stars/imaginative storytellers/assholes during a fight, sure, but sometimes the truth is under those layers and I find that kind of cold water refreshing. I particularly love that moment in which a heated argument starts to toe the line of comedy, and the participants have to decide whether or not to laugh. LAUGHING AND SCREAMING AT THE SAME TIME! It’s so human it’s basically a chocolate chip cookie.

ANYHOO. I had the pleasure of making this particular argument with my friend and (brilliant) dance partner, Connor Schwantes, and with the technical help of the great Natalie Deryn Johnson, a bonafide expert in living life to the fullest. Working with these two made a fast and furious process feel almost leisurely, and to dance with Connor is to remember why I like to boogie so much in the first place-- because it's fucking fun. Peep the goodness (and enjoy, especially, Connor’s shit-eating-grin right there at the end):

Credit Schmedits:

Filmed by Natalie Deryn Johnson

Danced by Connor Schwantes and Kristin Yancy

Music: Cowboy Bebop OST 1 (1998), by Tank!

Thoughts While Underwater, Part 1

This is a rough sketch.

It feels like a cop-out to admit that right away, but it is the literal first translation of thoughts I'd been chewing on, and it's a bit hard for me to watch now knowing that "it" is not complete. I know though that it does exist in this shape, or one like it, and so I had no choice but to beat it out of my head one afternoon in March, even though I remember just how hard it was that day to carve out the time to make even these tiny pieces. When I finally did, I caught the last hour of some lovely light. 

Looking back, I feel that the threads here are tied to something about loving this body for its health and strength, and learning to love it for all its shapes and its funny play on masculine and feminine. I'm embarrassed to be the millionth woman going through this self love battle, but, constantly, in my head, is this thing someone once said to me: “dance is a visual art form.” And I have a critical eye. 

So. This is an unfiltered study of some images I've had on the brain. 

As far as credits: It's all me here, except for the tunes, which are by Bonobo. 

January Twins

This little video is an ode to sun and the human that is technically not my twin but actually is, for all intensive purposes. So cheers to quirk and weirdos and this very blue sky and my little Nina who makes me want to skip and giggle, below:

10 points if you can correctly guess which witch is which.

I guess the only other thing to say is how great it is to see people framed by stunning visual places and spaces and also CLEARLY I am a big fan of Wes Anderson and my subconscious is kind of a thief. The life lesson here: the beautiful thing about claiming the role of an amateur filmmaker is that I can try whatever the EFF I want.  

Wowza, right? Click below for a beach vacation:

Inside the Mumus: Kristin and Nina Yancy

Music: JazzyFrenchy, Royalty Free courtesy of BenSound.com

Edited by #1 Lover of PaddleTurns, AKA Me

Oh, Ruby

The following can be credited to one of those times when the joke became the work. 

In this case the "joke" was brought on by a late night jam session with friends, which birthed a sort of irreverent character that was so clear in my mind that I felt we had to make some visual record of her.

Leading up to this point, I had been trying to build what might be classified as a "serious" phrase, something grounded and earthy, and also, evidently, something stubborn, as inspiration would not come and I was left with some very disjointed pieces which I had no choice but to abandon and bookmark for later.

But I was teaching the following day and I needed a phrase. What followed was a caricature of the "other girl" that was awake at that hour (it was a late night)--- or how I envisioned her--- someone stylish but just a bit overdressed, free but teetering on the edge of sloppy, and, most importantly, someone who was fresh out of fucks to give. 

Only badass, confident women could run with this prompt the way Mel, V, and Em could and did. So a cheers and stomp for them, and a cheers and a stomp for you, for watching this, and then hopefully putting on a red lip and a lash and raising some hell.

Enjoy.

Rabble-Rousers: Melanie Comeau, Victoria Finehout Vigil, Emily Palmquist

Tunes: Ruby Blue, by Roisin Murphy

Concept, Choreo, Film, and Edits by Yours Truly, with some help from the keen eyes and ears of a one Mr. Eric Chaves.

Point of Invention

I have thought for a long time on whether or not to share the origin text that inspired this piece.

I’m not going to. It gives too much. Which might seem odd, given that in other cases I have expressed a commitment to being clear with the viewer, but you know? Sometimes I find that source material restricts the viewer to only seeing one (JUST ONE) truth? And in art, in everything, there is so much more to see than a singular Option A. The dancers themselves did not even see the origin story until just before going onstage at their opening performance.

Now that it's made, it doesn't belong to us anymore anyway. Us= myself, and my choreographic partner on this one, Katherine Roarty, who I'm also very lucky to call a friend. I think some of the complexities of our friendship snuck into the fabric of this piece, which I love. And I think it is evident just how beautiful stories can be when they are a teensy bit strange? Beauty only results for me when I do not strive for beauty. 

The only other thing I'll say is this: look at these young young souls! How much to be learned from working with dancers fresh to this madness!  I'm remembering my own experiences with these kinds of beginnings. 

Watch the fountain of youth below:

—

Filmed by the fabulous and fearless Natalie Deryn Johnson of Lady Deryn Photography. To see more of her goodness: http://ladyderynphotography.com/promo.

Video Credits:

Music: Cirrus, Bonobo

Choreographed by Katherine Roarty and Kristin Yancy

Filmed by Natalie Deryn Johnson

Edited by Kristin Yancy

Performers: Mariah Aivazis, Christina Barr, Brooklyn Bass, Kaitlyn Bonanno, Christophe Desorbay, Shany Dagan, Tessa Jenkins, Sofie Payne, Marisa Schaefer, Marah Thornhill, Hannah Triquet, Adam Wedesky, Corey Wright, Sydney Zucker

Displacement

What a new face. Here, a somewhat broken girl on a beach, sweet little baby artist. I’m still her.

Music by Max Richter

Filmed by Nina Yancy

and the rest is me.