ASDI - Final Night

We began with a fire and s'mores...and so we ended. This evening Scott built another lovely fire and we gathered around it for company and conversation. Scott, Sherri, Carla, Doug and I spent the better part of the evening enjoying one another's company and a beautifual evening. The following is a sample of what every night here sounds like.

Tomorrow we conclude the intensive and go our separate ways. Sherri and I will see one another again soon in rehearsal. Carla and I say farewell for another year. As with Heather and Marissa, it has been such a pleasure to spend time with these women. I look forward to next year!

Joan

Video by Joan Meggitt

Prospect & Refuge: Moving In

Doug and I walked through the old factory this afternoon. Today, I was struck by the windows - cracked, broken, stained. Each pane is such a simple, beautiful statement, complete and evocative on its own; and all of it simply by chance. There is a lot of debris in the building. It is an odd assortment of old materials from the production of woven rayon parachute cords, and miscellaneous other implements that have landed there over the years. There is a great amount of detritus from the building itself - rust, glass, metal pieces, wood. There are also many signs of new/continued life - vines, moss, leavings from birds and small animals that roost/live there, etc.

We found a door with a metal piece sitting out in the middle of the roof outside of "the penthouse." Between the penthouse, the farmhouse and the woods, the dancers are in for an adventure.
More to follow,
Joan

Photos by Joan Meggitt

Allegheny Summer Dance Intensive: Week One

We have just finished the first week of the annual Allegheny Summer Dance Intensive at Allegheny College in Meadville, PA. The students are lovely, the instructors are great (of course), and the schedule is full. We run two different technique classes daily, a combined improvisation and composition class, and a rehearsal for participants who will perform with the Company in our fall concert at the College. There were also masssage workshops two evenings this week. Several mornings have been spent practicing yoga and/or cycling the 7 hilly miles to the dance center. It was a great pleasure to welcome Heather to the faculty and to, once again, work with Sherri. This year we were joined by company member Marissa. I know that the students enjoyed dancing with the ladies.

I taught the final technique class of the week this morning; after which Doug and I walked the woods where Antaeus Dance will be filming for Prospect & Refuge in two weeks. One bit of bad news: The farmhouse we were planning on using was torn down. It was falling down, to be sure, and had been standing for decades; but we were hoping to get one more year out of it. Doug is scouting a new location.

Tomorrow, former company member Carla arrives, and we jump back into classes Monday morning. Nine students are learning Recent Deviations, a piece I choreographed for the KSU Dance Division in 2008. The Allegheny students are enthusiastic and we covered a little over half the choreography in our first four rehearsals. We will finish the piece on Thursday and share it with the group on Friday. I will come back to rehearse them in the fall before their performance with AD. They are doing well and I am excited to see them perform!

Right now, I am enjoying some quiet at the home of a friend, to both me and Antaeus Dance. It has been really nice to have a home to return to each night, and to be in such good company...a place to prepare and share meals together, a place to rest and rejunvenate at the end of each day. Our first night, Scott built a great fire and we sat around it talking and roasting s'mores. I can't tell you the last time I did that. What a way to start! It is wonderfully quiet here at night and truly dark save for the stars. There is a great view from the swing out back.

I am looking forward to the second week of the intensive!
Joan

Photos by Joan Meggitt

Much to Report

There is much to report on the Antaeus Dance home front. Summer classes come to an end tomorrow evening. FALL CLASSES BEGIN AUGUST 24th and run through October 28th. These mixed-level classes are Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6:00 to 7:30pm in the beautiful Antaeus Dance studio at Pilgrim Church in Tremont.

The Company leaves for Pennsylvania this Sunday for the annual Allegheny Summer Dance Intensive at Allegheny College in Meadville. I have been directing this intensive for the past 10 years and look forward to it every year. This year Heather Koniz, Sherri Mills and former company member Carla Monzo will be teaching classes along with yours truly.

The Company returns to PA a week after the intensive to film for Prospect & Refuge (more on that below).

Catch us at Pandemonium at CPT on Saturday, September 11th. If you've never been, you must. It's a great party for an even greater cause.

Participants from the summer intensive will perform in Antaeus Dance's annual fall concert at the College, this year on Saturday, October 16th. We will be performing much of the work from our recent Home Front concert, featuring dances by Jenita McGowan and Marissa Glorioso.

After that the company focuses on the Prospect & Refuge project with dance maker and performance artist Doug Lodge, film maker Cynthia Penter, and composer Bill Sallak. Parts of the work were unveiled in Cleveland Public Theatre's DanceWorks 2010 series. The full premiere will be in the Gordon Square Theatre May 19-22, 2011 as part of DanceWorks 2011.

Last, but not least, Antaeus Dancers Shanna Sheline and Sherri Mills are featured in photographs by Rev. Tricia Gilbert at Truffles Pastry Shop (11122 Clifton Boulevard). They will be up through August 2oth.

More to come!

Joan

Photo: Dancing Windows by Tricia Gilbert