URBAN DANCE FESTIVAL: October 2009

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Daisy, Jessica & Yomi

Jenny in the foreground creating her solo

Jenny again!!

Eliza shares her choreography with Jessica

Jessica, Sophie & Daisy

Cindy, Jane & Eliza in the foreground

Group B being creative

The stimulus....

Eliza a devises her phrase of movement

Olivia shares her phrase with Shayin, Beatrice,

Joyce, Jess & Eliza

Shayin creates her phrase of movement

Incite³

Incite³ stands for In site x Incite x Insight. Through site-specific work, Incite³ seeks to provoke thought that provides the audience with insight, sparking epiphanies and inspiring them to ponder ideas, question the norm and search for ways they can live a fruitful and rewarding life.

Francoise Rene Auguste Chateaubriand once wrote:

A master in the art of living draws no distinction between his work and his play; his labour and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both.

Is work and play the same for you? If not, why not and... should it be?

Life is sweet

Rehearsing the travelling section of the piece!

Joyce, Shayin, Jess & Eliza create their section

Olivia teaches Beatrice, Joyce & Jess her choreography

Olivia, Jenny, Sophie & Eliza work on their section

Jessica teaches Daisy & Yomi her choreography

Life is sweet!

This week I worked with a smaller group of dancers to create work for a section of our total piece, I had 5 dancer/choreographers from Group A and 10 dancer/choreographers from Group B. I found a song called "Life is Sweet" by Natalie Marchant (lyrics below). I split up lines from the song and got everyone to create their own phrase of movement, then I selected the ones that I felt were the strongets and split the group up to learn each others choreography.

It's a pity, it's a crying shame

Who pulled you down again?

How painful it must b

To bruise so easily inside

It's a pity, it's a downright crime

It happens all the time

You want to stay little daddy's girl

You want to hide from the vicious world outside

Don't cry, you know the tears will do no good

So dry your eyes

Oh, your daddy, he's the iron man

Battleship wrecked on dry land

Your mamma she's a bitter bride

She'll never be satisfied, you know

And that's not right.

But don't cry, you know the tears will do no good

So dry your eyes

Oh, they told you life is hard

Misery from the start,it's dull, it's slow, it's painful

But I tell you life is sweet

In spite of the misery

There's so much more, be grateful

Well, who do you believe

Who will you listen to

Who will it be'

Cause it's high time that you decide

In your own mind

I've tried to comfort youI've tried to tell you to be patient

They are blind, and they can't see

Fortune gonna come one day

They're all gonna fade away

Your daddy the war machine

And your momma the long and suffering

Prisoner of what she cannot see

For they told you life is hard

Misery from the start,

It's dull, it's slow, it's painful

But I tell you life is sweet

In spite of the misery

There's so much more, be grateful

So, who will you believe

Who will you listen to

Who will it be'

Cause it's high time that you decide

It's time to make up your own

Your own state of mind

Oh they told you life is long

Be thankful when it's done

Don't ask for more, be grateful

But I tell you life is short

Be thankful because

Before you know it

It will be over'

Cause life is sweet, life is also very short

Life is sweet and life is also very short

Life is sweet

We then spent some time rehearsing the travelling sequence that we will use a s a linking movement between the areas in Island East!

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Friends Junction - Dance to express!

Friends Junction - Dance to express!
Colour - Red
Passion, faith, love

Winnie will lead a Jazz Funk workshop in the festival.

We are a group of young, enthusiastic and energetic street dancers who have rich experience in performing, choreographing and teaching.

Let’s take a look at our past performances and our main dancers! We have been doing a fresh choreography for the coming Urban Dance Festival.

Friends Junction at a dance competition in Macau

Dancers: Winnie Man, Bread, Regent, Kenny

Performance in Intercontinental Hotel - A grand show

Main dancers:

Winnie Man, Bread, Gilbert, Kenny, Regent, King

School Tour 2009 - Our tutors leading a group of students in a school show

Tutors: Kenny, Winnie Man, Bread, Mike, Regent

So here’s what we have for now. Stay tuned for our next blog entry and our rehearsal progress!

See you on 12/12/2009 at the Urban Dance Festival 2009.

Friends Junction Dance Company

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Sugar High

Sugar High!!!

Last night my group explored high energy travelling sequences.
I had prepared an array of images of dancers in motion and asked my group to give me words that the images made them think of...could be a movement word, could be a feeling or emotion or it could be a quality of movement. We had words like reaching, stretching, leaping, balancing, supporting, feeling of freedom, joyous, soaring, grouping, strength, enjoyment, etc.

I also used a bilingual word sheet to inspire different movement and movement qualities describing the feeling of euphoria and 'sugar high'!!

After improvising with the movements I asked the group to create a sequence of 4 x 8, exploring bith the visual and the written stimulus. There had to be a moment of stillness and they must not have any movements 'on the ground'...no crawling, sliding, rolling, etc. The reason for this is that this is the choreography for the 'procession' part of the piece and they must be able to travel on the road, etc and not worry about damaging themselves or be worried about what they might 'slide' into!!

After everyone had created their 4 x 8 I asked them to refine their piece to 2 x 8 and get rid of the stuff they didn't like...so they had a very strong 2 x 8. We then watched everyones and I selected a few for the group to learn.

I did a very similar process with Group & B and selected 2 pieces from A (Tiffany & Eliza) and 3 pieces from B (Jenny, Olivia & Jane). Everyone learnt the sequence which lasts 10 x 8. This will grow to 12 x 8. Another great rehearsal...I am very pleased with the way both groups are growing every week and developing thei choreographic potential...can't wait until Arts in the Park where we share some of our choreography for the first time!!!

Friday, October 16, 2009

Reflections... 15th October

Respire│Aspire│Respire

When you walk through Taikoo Place, there are so many windows. What i love most about the windows is that while you look out of them and at the world bustling around you, where things are happening, people are going places, doing things, moving forward... you can always make out yourself in the picture... reflected by the glass - reminding you to reflect once in a while...

Last night i asked the dancers to reflect on the past month of rehearsals, asking them what motivates them to spend a couple of hours every thursday night moving, thinking, creating, sharing, being...

“Jumping, twirling, rolling, grooving – every Thursday is our day for some CRAZY dancing!”
- Evelyn

“可以從其他人身上學到更多.”

- Venus

"要記好多野,創作好多同平時香港上既堂好唔同.好玩好多同時要思考. 要input又要output.”
- Julie

“On normal school days our minds have to think a certain way, but every Thursday my mind is free to be creative.”

- Clarissa

“要的是記憶，無的是体力!”

- Debbie

“The ultimate creative outlet – YAF is a place of acceptance.”
- Rosalie

The Coffee Fix...

Respire│Aspire│Respire

Yo yo yo!

We had an AWESOME rehearsal last night! Everyone was absolutely bubbling with energy... I had a mocha frappuccino to switch my brain on before the session, but it seemed to rub off on everyone as we powered through a lot last night.

So... I have a confession to make. I lied in my last post. I claimed that I'm choreographing one of the YAF groups for UDF, but that isn't technically correct. I like to think of it more as inspiring one of the YAF groups to choreograph their dance. So basically I provide some stimulus and then they create... In my opinion, it creates a more interesting piece as instead of having one person's perspective on something, we have a multitude of interpretations. It also creates a fusion of dance forms which results in a really dynamic performance.

Last night, we created some travelling sequences inspired by abstract shapes that the dancers had drawn when we did our site visit. Here are four we've been using so far:

Here's a little video, just to give you a little taste of something we came up with:

Am thinking the mocha frappuccino might have to become a habit if it makes for such an energised rehearsal!!!

till next time... Ciao!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Respire / Aspire / Respire

Lindsey's just taking up too much blog space, so i thought it's time that we add a different voice to the site!!!

Hi! I'm Pat and I'm choreographing one of the YAF groups for UDF! Our rehearsals are well underway and have been exciting and stimulating!

The concept of our dance is a reflection of Taikoo Place's revolution:

16 years ago, an article in the Eastern Express predicted that Quarry Bay would become the new Lan Kwai Fong… it was an article about dreams and aspirations. Today, while TaiKoo Place may not be Lan Kwai Fong, it has become a hub of sophistication and creativity, an amalgamation of business and innovation. Swire envision a harmony between environment and work ethic, creating spaces that encourage the proliferation of aspirations while harnessing the focus of determination. Taikoo Place seems to encompass extremes, the buzzing work of the day to the quiet reflection of the evening, the space itself undergoes a journey from one end of the spectrum to the other within a day. A revolution that is repeated, daily, but not in a stagnant, stationary routine, but in a motivating, mobilizing determination towards its dreams.

A few weeks ago, we did a site visit and explored the spaces in Taikoo Place. I have always found architecture fascinating - the use of shapes, of light, of shadows... how spaces are filled and spaces created. I love drawing on the site for inspiration...

how can we create movement that reflects this space?