23 December

Good Evening everyone and happy holidays!
I've just added some video. I've finally begun to look at some of the footage of the 7 hour marathon I did at Skidmore College to raise money for the Commissioning Project. I've selected only the first 5 minutes or so. I think I'll try to add some of the later footage when I am dog tired just for fun.
I am inspired to do this and, well, just to think about it because our lovely Fiona from the August Project Workshop just performed her solo in Australia. I'm so curious to know how it all went. I think she did 4 or 5 days of performances along with one of her own creations. Good On Ya Fiona! Let us know. It makes me wonder how many others have performed so far or whether she is the first to show I'LL CRANE FOR YOU.

So here's something to watch and enjoy.

The practice for me is continuing apace. So much work in the meantime and finding time and space to practice has been a challenge. I haven't resorted to dropping my bags and simply doing 25 minutes in Hyde Park, or in the mall while Christmas shopping, or anything like that. I've been working between classes on the lunch break at Skidmore and finding studios and using the stage while touring St. Cloud, MN and Calgary, and the Court Theater in Chicago. But I'm making progress no question and looking forward to setting a date and a location.

What I've learned recently:

1. "Get what you need and nothing less" has everything to do with Time.
2. "I need the lab" has everything to do with focus and remaining in the moment so as not otherwise to go into a visual trance. Which is to say that it is easy to let the eyes fix and glaze over so that one is consequently inwardly seeing an designing one's movement. IT'S NOT THAT.
3. There is nothing to reach for.
4. I now understand better the admonition "just see what you are doing as (fill in the prompt/proposition/direction from Deborah's score).
5. It helps to actually let the score go and not try to do it at all. Once the sequence is familiar, just dance, and now and again remember what the sequence is.
6. It helps for me to dance for 20 to 30 minutes before practicing the performance with shape so that I can burn off or get rid of my "dancing ideas" vocabulary. It's better for me to work all that off with exhaustion and then dance what is left.
7. Spend 1/2 an hour on the floor and just deal with it. Try to get up. Humbling.
8. Remember again and again and again, "It's no big deal."
9. Remember again and again and again, "You can't do it."
10. I love Pina Bausch (just saw Bamboo Blues and enjoyed it).

Very best holiday wishes to all of you. More later. And thank you again for your support.

Bondo