For my -ism dancers

Here is the document we used today for making gestures. If you didn't finish, please try and have your 7 snapshots with legs ready for next time:

-ISM:

— suffix forming nouns

1.            indicating an action, process, or result: criticism ; terrorism

2.            indicating a state or condition: paganism

3.            indicating a doctrine, system, or body of principles and practices: Leninism ; spiritualism

4.            indicating behaviour or a characteristic quality: heroism

5.            indicating a characteristic usage, esp of a language: colloquialism ; Scotticism

6.            indicating prejudice on the basis specified: sexism ; ageism

Etymology

Ultimately from either Ancient Greek -ισμός (-ismos), a suffix that forms abstract nouns of action, state, condition, doctrine;from stem of verbs in -ιζειν (-izein) (whence English -ize), or from the related suffix was Ancient Greek -ισμα (-isma), which more specifically expressed a finished act or thing done.

Many English nouns in -ism are loans of Greek nouns in -ισμός (mostly via Latin and French), such as baptism from βαπτισμός (loaned from Old French ca. 1300), or Judaism from Ἰουδαισμός (a learned English formation based on Latin, coined ca. 1500). In Late Latin, the -ismus suffix became the ordinary ending for names of religions and ecclesiastical or philosophical systems or schools of thought, thus chrīstiānismus (whence 16th c. Christianism) in Tertullian, a trend continued in Medieval Latin, with e.g. pāgānismus attested by the 8th century. From the 16th century, such formations became very common in English, until the early 18th century mostly restricted to either root words of Greek or Latin origin (heroism, patriotism) or proper names (Calvinism, Lutheranism). Productivity from root words with evidently non-Latin and non-Greek origin dates to the late 18th century (e.g. blackguardism). Reflecting this productivity, use of ism as a standalone noun is attested by Edward Pettit (1680) and becomes common from the mid 18th century. The narrowed sense of forming terms for ideologies based on the belief of superiority is a "draft addition" submitted to OED in 2004, based on coinages such as racism (1932) or sexism (1936) and productive since the 1970s.

forming nouns on action or process or result based on the accompanying verb in -ize

baptism (1300)

aphorism (1528)

criticism (1607)

magnetism (1616)

forming the name of a system, school of thought or theory based on the name of its subject or object or alternatively on the name of its founder ((when de-capitalized, these overlap with the generic "terms for doctrines" sense below, e.g. Liberalism vs. liberalism):).

Lutheranism (1560)

Calvinism (1570)

Protestantism (1606)

Congregationalism (1716)

Mohammedanism (1815)

Palamism (1949)

the action, conduct or condition of a class of persons, "behaving like a ---" ((with overtones of the "terms for doctrines" sense below):)

atheism (1587)

blackguardism (1875)

despotism (1728)

heroism (1717)

old-maidism (1776)

patriotism (1716)

ruffianism (1589)

class-names or descriptive terms for doctrines or principles in general

giantism (1639)

fanaticism (1652)

theism (1678)

religionism (1706)

nationism (1798)

romanticism (1803)

conservatism (1832)

sexualism (1842)

externalism (1856)

opportunism (1870)

jingoism (1878)

feminism (1895)

dwarfism (1895)

racism (1932)

sexism (1936)

a peculiarity or characteristic of language

Atticism (1612)

Gallicism (1656)

archaism (1709)

Americanism (1781)

colloquialism (1834)

newspaperism (1838)

Shakespearianism (1886)

an ideology expressing belief in the superiority of a certain class within the concept expressed by the root word ((based on a late 20th-century narrowing of the "terms for a doctrine" sense):)

speciesism (1975)

heterosexism (1979)

ableism (1981)

Lots of thoughts, ideas, logistics to throw out there...

ONE
I met with Ned Emerson today, a graduate composition student I know through the electro-acoustic music composition course I took in the music department last semester. We talked about some logistics and ideas for the sensors solo piece I'm creating for the concert, and though I am feeling a little overwhelmed about things as I get started, its always helpful to get some things out there even if I'm unsure about where I'm going. We talked about a time line and some practical elements of the project as well as a few aesthetic and directional elements. Things to do:

1. Decide on hardware/interfaces we are going to use and find out how it will communicate to Max/MSP.
2. Decide on our "concept" or "guiding idea" for the piece - what am I trying to do? 
3. Answer: What do we want to accomplish/convey? What is the sound?

We are getting together again in two weeks (Sept. 11) to hopefully answer some of these questions.

TWO
Rehearsals for the rest of my pieces begin this week. I have had auditions to fill in holes in my cast and I found some male dancers to join the ___ism cast, as well as a few new dancers for my lights/habits pieces.

Thoughts about my work:

1. "___ism": I am mostly reworking this piece from the ground up. There are certain aesthetic qualities I want to bring back, but when watching the original piece, it seems to be very design oriented and I'm lacking direction in much of the piece. Certain actions and interactions are relevant to what I'm hoping to express, but the dance as a whole isn't saying much. (Here's the original: _____ism)
2. "Habit of Change": This piece is going to stay the same at it's core. The base of this piece and its aesthetic qualities are still appealing to me and I'm excited for a chance to re-look at the dance and improve/clean it up. There are definitely sections to think about further. I'm interested in the gender roles involved and how I can represent my thoughts more clearly. (Here's the original: Habit of Change)
3. Lights: I'm really excited to start this piece. I've been experimenting with the logistical aspects of this dance (you can read/watch in prior posts) and I'm starting to formulate clearer ideas about what I'm wanting to say or work with beyond just lights. I'm toying with bringing back ideas of "memory," which is something I have worked with in other dances I've worked on, but I want to help make this concept clear by using lights to highlight the process of remembering. My working title is "As I recall..." Some things I will be thinking about and asking the dancers to think about are dealing with how we remember things and what makes us remember. How does a sequence of events reappear and what is left out, changed, expanded upon, etc. over time. How to memories become stories? What makes a good storyteller?
4. Tap/Contemporary exploration: I'm a little stuck with this piece. Megen and I have had a few rehearsals and we've been researching how tap steps, phrases, and concepts can find threads that lead to contemporary steps, phrases and concepts, but we're still at a very basic level. Right now we're at the movement exploration level, but I'm not sure how this is going to become something further.
5. Sensors: See ONE above.
6. Communication/Paper: See previous post.

That's where I am!

C-O-M-M-U-N-I-C-A-T-I-O-N

In thinking about the piece I was writing about in my previous post - I have decided that the best way to keep with my thinking is to actually WRITE (with my hand on paper) about it, rather than type. So, as long as I can keep from being lazy about it, I will upload scans or photographs of my thoughts for that particular piece.

I will continue to express ideas in a variety of forms for this piece, but I will be contributing thoughts like these via handwritten forms.

I met with the dancers for the first time on Friday for this piece, and though we didn't actually dance this week, we did talk a good bit and I shared my thoughts, inspirations, and ideas about this piece with them for discussion.

Some sounds ideas I have are thinking about sound and music as more of a collage of representative sounds and songs, rather than there being something cohesive for this piece. Some things I'm currently finding interesting:
The Beatles - "When I'm Sixty-Four"
Spandau Ballet - "Communication"
G. Love & Special Sauce - "Communication"
Samples of popular technology sounds ("You've got mail!", ring tones, etc.)
Samples of other sounds pertinent to communication (scratching of writing on paper, crumpling paper, printing press)
....and I'm still looking. These are just some preliminary interesting things I am starting with.

I'm also thinking about images of communication - seeing people seemingly talking to themselves, though they are actually wearing a bluetooth.... receiving a handwritten letter.... tweeting.... etc.

What happened to all the writers?

Something I have been thinking about lately is the passing of the written (and spoken) word. Why do we write things down or video/record them?

The Now:
-Newspapers/News Programs - What's happening in the world now?
-Blogs - often what is in the now (current events, what's new in fashion, documentation of current thoughts and processes)
-Diaries and journals - what am I thinking right now? what happened today?
-Youtube videos - Something funny caught on camera, new movement phrasework captured from rehearsals, latest work
-Letters, emails, text messages, postcards - varying degrees of contact between two specified people, immediacy of the text message vs. anticipation of written word through snail mail, brevity and specificity of postcard, informality of email

For the Future:
-Newspapers - documentation of the past, patterns of events
-Blogs, diaries, journals - What was I thinking last year? What ideas did I have that I forgot about, strayed away from, carried out? How have I grown?
-Youtube - Here are all the things I have done that I selectively want people to see.
-Archived inbox, stack of letters - archived emails and text messages for ease of returning to old thoughts, clarification of dates, etc.... saving handwritten letters and nostalgia of personal communication

I'm interested in how the current state of the economy has impacted the way we communicate with each other, both in the selective one-on-one form, and in mass media as well. In thinking of my specific family history, the way it is documented through written word and song for years though now my family tree exists in a facebook group of common ancestors for people to quickly learn bits of information. What has happened to personal relationships? We used to write hand written letters, make personal visits, and sometimes long phone calls for long distance friends or family. Now the email and text message is the way to go. Personal messages sent through impersonal channels. Its quick and easy, just press a button and its on the way. Instant gratification.

So these are the ideas I am thinking about for a new duet I am creating with Kristen and Jessi. I think a duet will be interesting because it will clearly force me and the audience to see the personal and impersonal means of communication between two people without deciphering extra human relationships. I am excited to delve into our world of communication - how its being done now and what it is doing to our humanity.

More Lighting Experimentation

Back in the studio - with MORE flashlights.... I wanted to try different set ups with a better camera to see how effective different angles, quantities, qualities of movement, levels (etc. etc.) worked in the theater.

One particular set up that I find particularly interesting and aesthetically pleasing is creating a sort of "garden" with the flashlights. Having the lights sit up with the beams towards the ceiling and randomly placed and grouped around the stage is interesting, but limits visibility to close proximity from the knees up. I experimented with placing some lights on their sides to give more visibility to lower extremities with pretty good success. Below is a video of some of the things we tried...

1) "Garden" - with single lights and grouped lights, random movement and unison movement
2) Close Cluster - very specific and concentrated visibility
3) Row of lights from Stage Left - laying on side
4) Circle of lights, beams up - dancing from inside and outside