Friday 20 January 2006

Stephanie Schober & Dance Company Touring Spring 2006

Stephanie Schober & Dance Company Flyer Front

Stephanie Schober & Dance Company Flyer Back


2月、ステファニー・ショバー・ダンスカンパニーの公演をロンドン,サウスバンクセンターほか3カ所で行います。プログラムはこの間の秋と同様:Inside Us, Catch, Changeの三作品。それぞれ個性の違った作品で,一晩の公演全体としてよく仕上がったものになっています。

STEPHANIE SCHOBER & DANCE COMPANY

In February, we are touring with Stephanie Schober & Dance Company in England including South Bank Centre, London. The programme is the same three works as the last autumn tour: Inside Us, Catch, Change. Each piece has different theme and atmosphere, and the evening will be enjoyable as a whole.

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11 Feb 2006 (Catch only)
British Dance Edition
Carriageworks Theatre
Leeds

16 Feb 2006>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>My Birthday!!
Alsager Arts Centre
Stoke on Trent

24 Feb 2006
Purcell Room
South Bank Centre,
London
Box Office 0870 401 8181
www.rfh.org.uk

02 Mar 2006
Lawrence Batley Theatre
Box Office 01484 430 528
www.lbt-uk.org

Tuesday 17 January 2006

Pilates in Ballet School

Last week I went to Central School of Ballet twice to observe their Pilates mat work classes. Sara Gallie, one of our teachers in the Pilates teacher training course, teaches Pilates in the school and we were invited to observe some of her classes.

I had never been to a ballet school and had an image that all the students were super skinny and full of ego in a magnificent building. So I was surprised and changed my mind quickly to like this school as I stepped in. It was pretty much like MY old Laban Centre, where I spent 12hours a day x 7days a week x 2years. Both old Laban and CSB were old buildings with narrow corridors and staircases, and of course many studios in different sizes. Students and teachers have to say hello to each other all the time as they pass each other. That kind of intimate space.

I had to remember my old days in Laban while I was in the ballet school. Musicians who I saw in the stuff room excited my dancer's blood by just a demonstration of some rhythm on a drum. Yes yes this is what I missed in Pilates!, I thought. Students behaves quite well as I expected for ballet students, but still have some liveliness. Generally good feeling.

Watching their work in Pilates, naturally their individualities came up. Different body shapes, functions, and attitude to improve their bodies. I watched 1st year and 3rd year students. How they could change for two years of training. I had an opportunity to look after two girls in the 3rd year, who had very bad backs even not being able to walk properly. I know it is a very frustrating and depressing thing as a dancer to have injuries and not be able to dance. These two girls must have been feeling like hell. From Pilates teachers' view, it is more interesting though very challenging to work with people with injuries. This time, I felt it is too scary to work with those two girls. I need more experience of teaching Pilates to deal with those people. But still I could think which exercises I could do without engaging their backs, which is the evidence of my little knowledge.

An observation of Sara's classes has made me think that what I had done in my teaching for performing arts students in a university was not too bad. Pilates classes cannot be very creative anyway. But still I want to make it more open that can make a bridge to contemporary dance technique somehow. Not just muscle building. More exploration to do.

Monday 9 January 2006

Contact Improvisation Workshop with Kirstie Simson

Last weekend I needed to sleep a lot. I was very tired from the workshop I took last week. My shoulders were awfully sore from lots of handstand, and also I was in a strange state of thinking constantly.

I was very much looking forward to taking this workshop. These days I have been feeling I was getting dry. Rehearsals and teaching are about giving and now I needed to feed myself.

The workshop with Kirstie Simson is about improvisation and contact improvisation. Most of time a session finishes with a jam, where we can pop in or out as we feel like. Someone said a marathon is like life, but a contact improvisation jam is like society. There I always think how I want to be: how much I listen to others and how much I make my statement, when I join and when I withdraw, etc.. I like listening rather than talking. I don't want to disturb others. I don't like seeing someone's ego. I don't want to show my ego. I just want to be part of it.

Thinking of these, it is so easy for me to be passive. But I am not happy about it. I need to make a bit of statement, so I need to take some risk to fail.

This is the situation of me in an improvisation jam, as well as in everyday life.

A balance between listening and talking, or others and myself, is something I want to figure out.
I just need to put myself in a dance, or in the society, wihtout thinking too much. Yes I know...

Photographic Exhibition: aequilibrium

aequilibrium 009

aequilibrium 008

aequilibrium 006

aequilibrium 001

aequilibrium 004

FULVIO RUBESA
aequilibrium


Photographic Exhibition

Fri 6 Jan- Sat 28 Jan 2006
Everyday 11am-10pm (Sat 6pm)

The Camera Club
16 Bowden Street
Kennington
London SE11
phone 020 7587 1809


download PRESS RELEASE pdf.


Last Friday, I went to an opening of a photo exhibition by Fulvio Rubesa. He takes pictures of dance, and print them with his original way of printing, so that the works suggests his own way of seeing dance. I worked with him in 2004 for his project called aequilibrium, meaning the balance. Since then he has had some exhibition including the Resolution! 2005 at The Place. And this time another exhibition in a gallery. I have seen ones of myself before and some others before but this time he added some pictures of a new dancer, so there were thirteen pictures from five dancers. He said that everyone improvised movements on the idea of the balance. But of course we can see from the pictures that every dancer had different shapes and dynamics. I was a bit amazed to see completely different ideas and results from other dancers, which I would never do. Also when I saw his pictures for the first time, I was very amazed that what I see in the pictures are completely different from what I thought I was dancing. It was an excitement of working with other art media. Opening my little subjective dance world to something more open and with more possibilities. Great.