The project is on the way ! - introducing team number one first :)

This is a sketch by one of our collaborator/Sound sculpter Ela Lamblin.He is a sculptural instrument inventor with a keen awareness of how the body can relates to the instrument in space- and  at the same time able to create beautiful sounds.It will be a device that is integrated with my body on which i can learn to play substantial musical compositions. Most part of our project has already moved into the Frye's Arts Commerce Center( In Seattle Washington ) and everyone is hard at work........

The second photo is of my collaborator and dancing/ music partner for the project Dohee Lee.She is a percussionist/vocalist and dancer that is deeply involved  in the style of Korean shamanistic peformances.She has been coming to our 3rd intensive rehearsals ( all the way from Bay area)and am about to come up for the 4th one!
She is extremely hard core...I was hoping she would push me for this project but ACCORDING TO DOHEE, we ended up pushing each other ,and once we have started going, we had to tear ourselves from the project, and slam the door from each other so we could get some rest at least in the evening, and not keep going insanely like a coked up feverish people, tortured by the project and the pressure we gave our selves.   For me-Coming from the Butoh tradition of drinking SAKE after some session, I have come to realize VERY QUICKLY that Dohee is not only a master of drumming, but A MASTER OF HARD CORE DRINKING as well. She have told me stories that she and her Korean master teachers would drum all night and drink and drink, and DRINK all night ( and Day? ) as well.Goodness! we have hard core fun and challenge each other!.. the rehearsals are often filled with lots of laughter and saying to each other-  towards the end -" Oh my Gahd.....!" and Dohee asking " wow... you guys eat a lot..! "

As Jherek Bischoff, our collaborating composer would say, " dAnG , gIRL! "

  

 In this Blk and white photo taken by Rex Hohlbein, here is Jherek singing the part of the composition with the chamber ensemble that has done some readings of the composition of his and Joshua Kohl's.Joshua and Jherek, Dohee has been composing for the 5 chapters of our contemporary take,  a re -imaginiing  of the Redshoes story that the Degenerate Art Ensemble will perform this spring in Seattle and New York.Along with their music/ sound team, Suzie Kozawa and Robb Kunz will be joining for the sound installation that will accompany our pieces. In the photos, there are (Dohee singing, Dylan playing the cello, Briana on the viola, Kendal on the violin, Joshua on Dohee's drum, and Paris also on the violin  )

Here is Trinidad Martinez, my  friend and the star from my last big DAE project at the Moore theatre in Seattle.She is a dancer and a director from her group Magpie Productions. She has been TIRELESSLY helping my rehearsals,the chapter's choreography, being an outside eye, and giving me an honest sharp tongue and extremely objective eye and opinions so I can keep myself on my toes. (! ) She is spanish, I am japanese, we joke about being in the U.S. and comparing everything to our own countries. ( !) I think maybe we did that with Dohee too.
A photo below is Leo Mayberry, Jason and I. Starting with Leo, He is the  bold and  brainiac video artist who creates wild and playful, great obssesive, complicated  ideas onto a screen, always working with a challenging concept of illusion of the eyes, and he has been an incredible creative partner on the video concept working with the story, the charactors, the vision, , along with me and the team. (Leo and I somehow always go late in the night NERDING INTENSELYon the project plan and it is always a strange and relentless lullaby to Joshua, who ends up snoring HEAVILY on the couch while we are still scribbling and experimenting  with paper cuts or mock-ups on our living room floor ) The Scene with the mysteriously beautiful artificial trees is the scene of the "Black riding hood". She
disguises her self as the mischievous girl in the forest but she is also the wolf. Who has made the trees?

 Above photo is Jason, he MADE THE TREES for the video realm as well for the sets. Jason Puccinelli, our new team collaborator and guest here, is biting on a SWAN's neck. Yes, there is a swan chapter that I will be dancing, inspired by the WILD SWANS, by Hans Christian Andersen. I will explain why so many fairy tales are intertwined with the actual story later, I would like to talk about Jason. He is a painter/ performance artist and and also an installation artist who has a very strong vision and a unique perception. He makes work that asks viewers to question the society we live in and immerses them in carefully constructed interactive performance installations.I enjoy very much working with him ! He is creating the sets and most of the props for the project. He and I have had intense brain-storming sessions in the beginning with the concept escpescially of the protagonist's journey through out the piece.We have been focusing greatly on the SWAN CHAPTER lately, and continuing our dialogue as it keeps evolving to an exciting place. Below is Joshua Kohl of DAE. ( Degenerate Art Ensemble) and above -mentioned people at work! Team number two will be positing next week!

       

Improvisation and training in the pArK

I have not kept up with the blog. I HAVE kept up with the training,on the rainy mornings I walked to the park on the 44th in Fremont and trained under the roof over the restrooms.I missed about 4days when it was raining SO HARD outside and I was under the weather.Improvisation with Joshua has been every other day,even though it has been every day for sometime... sometimes if we are tired, we only do it for even 5 minutes (! ) just to keep it going.....and now with an additional new improvising friend every week( once a week starting last week) with an artist named Christian Swenson, my joy has expanded to more possibilities to learn! He calls himself the HUMAN JAZZ and he is like an - ipod from space-rythm- man. ( did I spell rythm correct?I have a wrong feeling...) He is tall and like a tree and I am small like a beansprout so it must be entertaining to watch us go at it.We improvised until out of breath and laughing, last friday at where he teaches, the fine arts building of Seattle University. We also took turns with short solos and so we could observe each other, and eventually jump in. He teaches movement to actors and working with him and talking with him, he must be a warm and attentive, fun teacher. I also wanted to teach, teach and teach well, but had a complex for a long time until last two years..I have been teaching here and there over the last 5-6 years, but I realized a lot of things with sharing my learnings from my wonderful mentors recently.I always felt awkward, that I perform vocals, Butoh, physical theater and improvisation also, and could not come to terms with how to teach all of this in one workshop. But that eventually and organically took shape through my Butoh trainings and from my own explorations and also burrowing from other teachings.But more importantly, I learned things like, how to fascilitate the best I could to the learner/absorber /receiver to having them experience and discover on their own thru their 5 senses and observation, and by giving them space and enough time, to have them experiment with themselves and watch eachother.These are from my mentors like Shinichi-Iova -Koga and Minako Seki.Sometimes I found a lot of times my habits or difficulties more clearly by watching my students go through the excersizes I do my own, and re-discover where to work on.Or, sometimes the student is more experienced then I and give me a more perspective to how it could be more interesting, efficient or much easier communication for the tools to get there.Anyway, I have recently danced in the evenings ad had an interesting experience.In the evening, by the canal where all the Adobe business buildings are lit up inside, I could see everthing from below( where I was, the office building was surrounding on both sides , kind of like an ampu-theater), and also the quiet gliding boats on the water in front of me, and the shadowy dark figures of people constantly rushing by to get home for dinner.It feels like a veil, invisible and internal.It was kind of nice feeling.