Voyage Junkie

If you're keeping up with the blog, you know that I was recently in a dance performance in Gifu, on a day that was also my Artistic Director's birthday (December 18th, 2011).  A few days later I went to the last class before winter vacation.  It was a crazy class in that we were all tired, one of my friends spilled tea in her bag and had to skip out of most of class, and another girl was there to run through a solo she's performing in a few weeks.  After the warm-up, I spent most of the time doing yoga and Pilates.  When the solo dancer needed a break, Yuko sensei called me over and spent some time teaching me  noh -inspired classical Japanese dance.  She put on music and improvised, and I followed along, fascinated by the subtle movements.  I decided, then and there, to make her a birthday dance honoring our times of cultural exchange.  I set the piece to an Okinawan song, and for movement I improvised much like Yuko sensei, attempting to stay w...

If you're tired of seeing my videos all over the place, this is it for awhile, I promise!  I just finished my current backlog with this installment for my sister Clara.  It's a lonely piece set against a backdrop of autumn trees and a city skyline.  For this piece I listened to the music and took the feel of it to the set, where I improvised in relationship to the various physical structures.  I didn't want to get caught up in the 3/4 time and play into the song too much, so I kept things loose.  My only pet peeve: youtube, why did you choose such awkward thumbnails for this piece?  In post, it made sense to use fades with this dance.  Up until now I've used only quick cuts (or no cuts, in the case of installment two).  However, this dance needed more flow, to go with the 3/4 time.  But every thumbnail is during a fade!  Oh well.  Sorry, it's neither as super cool or as annoyingly ghostly as the thumbnail suggests, whichever you wer...

Hot on the heels of the last video comes number 3, made for my friend Steven Kwan.  This was actually filmed before number 2, but it required a lot more editing so it took a backseat in post-production.  The song Steven picked seemed to call for more than one performer, so I chose a place I could film from one continuous angle and edit into a duet.  I don't have super high-tech equipment, so there's places I had to deal with wind blowing the camera around and other such nonsense, but at least the project stays true to its indie roots. If You Give a Girl a Camera, Installment Three "I Have Something to Discuss" Music: An Argument With Myself  by Jens Lekman   Note: I earn no money from this blog, nor any place this video has been shown so far. Also, this song has strong language at one point, so parents beware!

Here's video number two in my new series!  This one is special because I filmed it entirely in one take.  I wanted to channel the genius of music videos like Christopher Walken's performance in " Weapon of Choice " by Fat Boy Slim, which if somehow you haven't seen because you've been in a hole, please watch it now!  In any case, it took some interesting communication between Matt and myself.  I was up on a hill and I obviously couldn't be listening to the music.  So he's down with the camera, calling up at me when things were changing in the music, and where he was pointing the camera.  I think we really pulled it off in this take, which is only the second full run-through.  Enjoy! If You Give a Girl a Camera, Installment Two "Go West, Young Man" Music:  Black Moon  by Wilco   Note: I earn no money from this blog, nor any place this video has appeared so far.

On a whim, I decided to start a new dance for camera series inspired by the musical choices of my friends.  It can be difficult for me to develop projects on my own, especially when my hands are tied by factors like lack of space, lack of dancers, etc.  So on the birthday of a longtime friend, I asked him to tell me his favorite song of the moment, and I made the video below to that song.  It turned out much better than I imagined, and I'm currently working on the next four installments of the series.  Enjoy!  If you like it, there will be more coming soon. If You Give a Girl a Camera, Installment One "You're Invited to a Tea Party" Music: Holiday  by Weezer Note: I earn no money from this blog, nor any place this video has appeared so far.