Visit at VA Puget Sound

Thanks to the veterans and Anne Peterson at the Beacon Hill VA Puget Sound. We had a charming visit.

Highlights include meeting Jack who used to be a ballroom dancer AND played drums in a husband/wife band when swing dance drove ballroom out of fashion. You could see it in him too, long limbs and a certain presence even with his age.

Another bright spot was a sleepy vet that wandered right through the middle of the dancing to get to the coffee on the other side of the rec room. It was such a nice reminder that dance doesn't always have to be this precious thing pedestaled upon a stage but is really just another simple part of life.

As soon as I got home I got a nice note from Anne thanking us for our performance!

On a more serious side the experience let me to some further contemplation on the role of arts in the world. Upon first arriving at the hospital I feel shame. Who do I think I am trying to make a DANCE of all things considering mortality, loss struggle. Here I am youthful and ridiculously able-bodied in comparison to the residents, living a fairly sheltered existence.

Who do I think I am????

Of course none of the vets or the staff were thinking this. They are pleased that we have come, they are enjoying it. And I come to terms again as I have over and over with the truth that it is ok to be who you have become. Not everyone should be a doctor or a soldier and not everyone should be a dancer, and that is ok. It is ok that life places each of us in different roles. I am what this life has presented me, just as they are. I don't take issue with them for fighting wars that I don't believe in, they don't take issue with my years of plies and tendus and futile acts of movement.

They are happy to see us. Instead of guilt, I will feel happy to be seen.

I have a right to tell this story even if I am most likely farther from it than they. We all have a right to it. We all end up in it. We all have to watch those around us enter into it. It is OUR story. I just happen to have been placed in a position where I can tell the story. They were in a position to patch wounds or to fight and sadly to kill, but they rose to meet what they were given. I am in a position to be seen. I have a forum to 'speak'.

Maybe sometimes the graceful thing to do is to put aside our private neurosis, to not shrink humbly away on account of our own insignificance, but to do whatever thing we have been given with as much dedication and integrity as we can muster.

Maybe seeing a thing through is an honorable thing, regardless of what path you have stepped onto.

The A.W.A.R.D. Show!

Josephine's Echopraxia

is excited to be participating in this year's

The A.W.A.R.D. Show! 2011: Seattle

One Night Only!

Friday January 28th, 8pm

On the Boards, Merrill Wright Mainstage

100 West Roy St, Seattle WA, 98119

Tickets $15 http://www.ontheboards.org/special-events/award-show

or call 206.217.9888 Tue - Fri • noon - 6pm

The A.W.A.R.D. Show! is an experiment including dance audiences in the usually closed door process of arts funding, an acronym (Artists With Audiences Responding to Dance) The A.W.A.R.D. Show! gives audiences (along with a professional panel) the opportunity to award one deserving choreographer a $10,000 grant and two runners up $2,000.

Josephine's Echopraxia is excited to have another chance to dance upon On the Boards' beautiful and expansive mainstage. We have further developed our work from Northwest New Works and are bringing you the next chapter, Saying goodbye again and again and again and again… [stifle] While excited to be a part of this innovative performance and granting format we are focusing our energy on the truest expression of where stifle needs to go next instead of focusing on the competitive aspects of the show.

We would be honored if you would join us to take in these developments. Saying goodbye again and again and again and again… [stifle] will bring you performances by Marissa Rae Niederhauser (dancer and choreographer), Spencer Moody (musician and composer), Allie Hankins, Meredith Horiuchi, Meredith Sallee and Rosa Vissers (dancers) and Cameron Elliott and Eric Fisher (musicians).

We hope you will join us for this intriguing evening of dance that includes performances by Waxie Moon, Quark Contemporary Dance Theatre and tEEth with a Q and A and vote after the show.

To help bring Saying goodbye again and again and again and again… [stifle] to The A.W.A.R.D. Show! please make a gift securely online at

https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=30857. I have partnered with Shunpike, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, as our fiscal sponsor. This means your donation to Josephine's Echopraxia and Shunpike will be tax- deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

For more about The A.W.A.R.D. Show! please visit http://www.joyce.org/about/special_events_awardshow.php

Major funding for this program has been provided by The Boeing Company.

Saying goodbye again and again and again and again… [stifle] made possible in part by a grant from 4Culture and a smart ventures grant from Seattle’s Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs. Developed in part during a Flight Deck Residency at Open Flight Studio and at MLK Ballet.

Josephine's Echopraxia is an Associated Program of Shunpike http://www.shunpike.org/

If I had died these photos wouldn't exist

If I hadn't brushed up against death- they wouldn't exist either. It is a fine line.






Top Photo: Tim Summers Others: Ryan Crase

Thank You VA Puget Sound!

This morning Spencer, Allie and I did a short and casual performance at VA Puget Sound. The audience started small, but curious passerby soon crowded the hallways to peer in the window. They were a kind and pleasant audience and it was such a nice experience to dance with the intention of just creating a soft and gentle diversion. Obviously this is not my interest for most performance creation, but for this beautiful sunny day it was perfect to dance sleepy lullabys for smiling elderly.

Rehearsal Photos for stifle

Our drummer Ryan Crase has been taking cell phone pictures during rehearsal. They are fun to see so I thought I'd share them.

Above: Spencer Moody (composer, guitar and voice) making some notes.

Above: Cameron Elliott (guitar and Piano)

Above: Spencer and Me (check out my superb fashion choices- now that is style!)

Above: Dancers (left to right) Me, Rosa Vissers, Meredith Horiuchi, Meredith Sallee and Allie Hankins.

Above: Meredith Sallee, Spencer Moody and Cameron's foot at On the Boards

The Lowjack

Hey Tacoma....

Spencer Moody and I are going to be performing

The Lowjack

in your town

March 12th at 7pm and March 13th at 2 and 7pm

at the Tacoma School of the Arts (SOTA) Theater 1118 Tacoma Ave

as part of MLK Move.

According to Urban Dictionary a lowjack is: "To have something taken from you by smooth talking or strong convincing. Not as violent or non-participatory as being High-jacked, being lowjacked involves ones own insecure or gullible nature."

photo by Tim Summers from 'stifle' for On the Boards Northwest New Works June 5th and 6th 2010

Look what I found in my google alerts!

Check out this video of an improvisation I did with sound artist Geist (Michael Sauders, http://www.myspace.com/geistroad and http://www.myspace.com/underspears) at Open Flight's first installment of HERE/NOW www.herenowonline.blogspot.com on 5/16/09.

Yes, I start out a bit slow, and end a bit awkwardly but there is some good stuff in the middle and this was my first experiment of completely open, un-scored performance improv. So- not too bad.

Thanks for watching =)

ps. don't forget you can make a tax-deductible donation to support the creation of 'stifle' showing in OTB's Northwest New Works this June. Just follow the 'click and pledge' link to the right under my profile.

Thank you!

TRACINGS DECEMBER 3

Tracings, finished or not will screen the evening of Thursday, December 3rd at Northwest Film Forum probably around 7. Stay tuned or email josephinesechopraxia@gmail.com for details.

To whet your appetite here are some stills taken from the film (camera by Benjamin Kasulke) and one picture of the crew and myself taken by my momma.

!!ArtsLaunch!! 10/25 8 pm

UPDATE: Please note solo has additional minute and a half of choreography since it was shown at 12mm and includes an ALL-NEW MASHUP! 6 songs in under 6 minutes!



Here's a head's up:
I will be performing a short solo excerpt from my upcoming film "Tracings" at this month's !!ArtsLaunch!! with "makeup" by Dave Hanagan.
Saturday, October 25 8pm (doors 7:30)
The Chapel Space at The Good Sheperd Center
4649 Sunnyside Ave. N.
$5-$15 suggested donation
6 dance numbers
3 musical numbers
2 visual artists
AND
a discussion!



Photos by Dave Hanagan when the solo showed at OTB's 12MM

"Holding This For You" Premier at Local Sightings

"Holding This For You" will be premiering at the 11th annual Local Sightings film festival at Northwest Film Forum.
Please join me in FINALLY watching this on the big screen. After over three years of work the film is presented as part of a shorts program "Movement in Place"... "an examination of movement and technique" along with 10 other films, some of which are dance oriented as well.

The show is Sunday, October 5th at 9pm at NwFF, 1515 12th Ave. Tickets are available through www.brownpapertickets.com or from their 24 hour hotline; 1-800-838-3006 and are only $6.12 for members and $9.70 general public.

A lounge is open afterwards where you can either spit in my face or congratulate me depending on how you feel about my work. I am so excited to be able to finally push this baby out into the world and hope you will join me for the occasion.

More info about the entire festival at:
http://www.nwfilmforum.org/go/localsightings/

photo credit: Kaija Cornett

"Tracings" research

Something that persons outside of the dance community may not know is that most dancemakers do a lot of non-movement research in creating and preparing for the performance of a dance work.

My reading list for the creation of Tracings included:

Evolution in Four Dimensions: Genetic, Epigentic, Behavioral, and Symbolic Variation in the History of Life
by Eva Jablonka and Marion J. Lamb with illustrations by Anna Zeligowski
Ghost Worlds: A Guide to Plotergeists, Portals, Eco-mist and Spirit Behavior
by Melba Goodwyn
The Knowing Body: Elements of Contemporary Performance and Dance
by Lousie Steinman
A Good and Happy Child (fiction)
by Justin Evans
The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories
chosen by Michael Cox and R.A.Gilbert
True Ghost Stories
Marchioness Townsend and Maude FFoulkes

In addition I did quite a lot of internet reading:

A New York Times bio on Marian Radke-Yarrow "The Anthropological Psychologist" 12/30/07
by Lauren Slater
A New Yorker article; "The Itch: It's Mysterious Power May Be A Clue to a New Theory About Brains and Bodies" 6/30/08
by Atule Gawande
"Brain Basics: Know Your Brain"
from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke website
A Telegraph UK article; "Secrets of the Monster"
author unknown
The Stranger's slog comments on Seattle's pitifully impaled pigeons

Additional (unfortunately undocumented) web research on: epigenetics, pre-natal stress, maternal depression, trans-generational trauma, domestic abuse, peloria linnaria vulgaris (toadflax) and Carolus Linnaeus (founder of taxonomy), hauntings especially in the Seattle area, hydrangeas, the brain disorder Kuru found in the Fore tribe of Papua New Guinea.

I watched:
a lot of horror (haunting only) films. Some good, some awful.
Fox Sports Network's "Sports Science"
Youtube videos of hockey player Clint Malarchuk horrific accident.

My research also included a lot of free writing, rumination on my own memories and stories told to me by others; including one from my father about when he "cast the demons" out of a troubled young man while on a religious mission in the "deep south" only to have the young man (several years later) go on to decapitate a man on main street over a woman.

Other life experiences that became research include:
I spent time observing and interacting with a tweenage girl.
Went to a wedding.
Mourned the deaths I had been avoiding.
Taught myself to cry on cue. Decided it was too painful to ever try again.
Sorted through my great-grandmothers sewing box with my mother.
Comtemplated the possibility of a guiding hand, a god-like presence.
Observed up close the lives of animals in nature. In particular nest-building and rearing of baby birds.
Made handicrafts and lists.
Experienced deep rage.
Spent time alone.

I compiled a inspirational music mix. The set list is:

Black Eyes and Neckties: Apparition (entire album)
Coco Rosie: Ghost Horse and Stillborn (entire album)
Cloud Cult: Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes) (entire album)
Okkervil River: Another Radio Song, Forest, Black Sheep Boy, Garden, Missing Children
Elliott Smith: Bye, Don't Go Down, A Fond Farwell, Can't Make a Sound, King's Crossing, Memory Lane,Ostriches & Chirping
The Mountain Goats: Dilaudid, Up The Wolves
The Flaming Lips: Do You Realize?
Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter: Doralee, Reckless Burning
Rasputina: Endomorph, My Little Shirtwaist Fire, Stumpside
The Black Angels: The First Vietnamese War
Neutral Milk Hotel: Ghost
Trailer Bride: Ghost of Mae West, Hope Is A Thing With Feathers, Shilo, Skinny White Girl
Me First And The Gimme Gimmes: (Ghost) Riders In the Sky
Erykah Badu: The Healer
Death Cab for Cutie: I Will Follow You Into the Dark, Soul Meets Body
Mathew Sawyer & The Ghosts: In a Haunted House
The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir Obsessions
Slowdive: Trellisaze
Tegan and Sara: Walking With a Ghost

Oh, and I did some improvisational dance as well.



Original specimen of Peloria Linnaria Vulgaris from telegraph.co.uk

Photos from "Tracings"

These are photos from my latest film project "Tracings". Photography credit goes to Dave Hanagan. This is a very small peek at the film. There are several other scenes, but the shooting schedule was so tight we didn't get as many stills taken as we would have liked.

Film shot on location in an 1870's house in rural Riverside, UT at the end of July.

The "Tracings" production crew was:
Ben Kasulke: dp, etc.
Dave Hanagan: camera assistant, etc.
Nathan Hadley: sound op
Michelle Henley: pa, etc.

produced in association with The Northwest Film Forum and 4Culture

Photos From "Holding This For You"

The following are photos from my first film "Holding This For You". Slated for completion this autumn.
Photo credit goes to Kaija Cornett.

Production Crew:
Ben Kasulke- dp
Courtland Premo- 2nd camera
Curtis Taylor- set construction
Alicia Graf- costume construction
Michelle Henley- pa
Michel Tran- pa

Post-production Crew:
Jason Staczek- score
Caoimhe Doyle- foley
Vinny Smith- sound design
Tania Kupzcak- title design
Ella Marie Gray- violin
Eric Goetz- orchestrator

produced in association with The Northwest Film Forum and the City of Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs