20 Years Done. 20 Years To Go!

In the spring of 1992 Sharon Mansur and I performed together for the first time. I had created a piece called "Floor Plan II" for five dancers with original music by Alex Gardner which was premiered at the Hall of Mirrors dance studio at Glen Echo Park and Sharon danced in the piece. The performance also contained other works, including a solo by Sharon. Over the 20 years since that performance Sharon and I have collaborated in countless ways: by creating numerous works together, co-directing a dance company (Quiescence) for 7 years, as housemates, performing throughout the US, and teaching classes and workshops at universities, studios and even in old barns. This spring we are marking our 20th anniversary with a flurry of activities - last Saturday (1/15/12) we performed in Philadelphia in the Falls Bridge festival at Mascher Space Co-Op, we're teaching a 3-part improvisational workshop at Dance Place, we're creating and performing our first evening length duet (sightlines) February 18 & 19 at Dance Place and we're traveling to Michigan to perform in the RADFestival. A busy and fun winter/spring. Below is a some video excerpts from our performance in Philly. Enjoy.

photo by Stan Barouh

The Russian Girl Text (She Arrived, Alone)

The first half of The Chemistry of Lime Trees (She Arrived, Alone) is based on an oral history I found from William Williams, the Commissioner of Ellis Island from 1902-1905 and 1909-1913. We used this story as a taking off point to imagine what it would be like to be stuck at Ellis Island - literally stuck on the border. I guess you could say the piece is a character study, or an impressionistic story-telling - I think Katie, who embodies the young woman in the story - does an amazing job. See the whole piece November 19, 2011 at CenterStage in Reston, VA.

Here is the complete text:

"A handsome, clear-eyed Russian girl of about twenty-years, the daughter of a farmer comes in and sits down before us. She is clean and intelligent looking. She nervously clasps and unclasps her hands and the tears are welling in her eyes. "That girl over there," says the commissioner, "is an interesting and puzzling case. Her father is a farmer in moderate circumstances. A young man with whom she grew up, the son of a neighbor, came here two years ago, and last year wrote to her father that of the girl would come over he would marry her. So she came, alone. But the prospective bridegroom didn't show up. I wrote him-he lives somewhere in New Jersey-and last week he appeared and looked her over. Finally he said he wasn't sure whether he wanted to marry her or not. Naturally her pride was somewhat wounded, and she decided that she had doubts herself. So everything is at a standstill. The girl says she doesn't want to go back, to be laughed at; and I can't let her land. You don't know any lady who wants a servant, do you? She could work! Look at her arms. A nice girl, too. No? Well, I don't know what to do. Are you willing to marry Peter if he comes again?" The girl nods, the tears brimming over. "Well, I'll write to that fellow again and tell him he's a fool. He'll never have such a chance again."

Movement Two: Adelais Twisting

Here's the second in my series of videos of my daughter moving. In this one Adelais is hanging upside down during a aerial lesson with my wife and she just began doing this twisting movement side to side - completely her own initiation. Caught my wife off guard, but was pretty cool.


Movement Two: Aselais Twisting from Daniel Burkholder on Vimeo.

First Adelais/Movement Video

I am creating a short series of videos featuring Adelais (my daughter) doing repetitive movement - which she loves to do. Each one will be less than a minute. This first one was recorded while we were in Milwaukee on a playground with Andrea (wife/mom) pushing her on a swing. She (Adelais) makes the best sound as she's being pushed.


Adelais Swinging from Daniel Burkholder on Vimeo.

Performances Echos

This weekend we performed The Chemistry of Lime Trees at Danceworks in Milwaukee, WI. We had a wonderful experience working with the theater and its staff (shout out to Sarah!). We began in the theater on Sunday and worked all week. Here are some of the highlights that still stand out to me:
     • Katie: She so fully stepped into her role this week - it was truly wonderful to watch. A colleague, Elizabeth, commented on what a special performer Katie is and I couldn't agree more. She captured her character's vulnerability, strength and resolve and how these attributes changed or evolved over the course of the 35 minute piece.
     • The generosity of my collaborators: We were working on the ending of the first half and felt a section with the rope wasn't working. Not only was Katie (who is in the piece) making suggestions and trying to find a better answer, but Susan and Stephanie were joining in as well. Not sure how we ended up with the solution we ended up with, but it had bits of suggestions from all four of us - developed, riffed and shifted from one to the next.
     • After Friday night's show my colleague Ferne mentioning how she appreciated the time events were allowed to fill because it gave her the opportunity to connect her story to the stories we were presenting.
     • As we were leaving Friday night one of the ushers came out and asked Susan to sing one of the songs in the show again. After Susan sang a bit, the usher began singing it and dancing around.
     • After Saturday's performance, Marcia commenting that she felt the show was a very grown-up work of art. (whew, finally...)

And, mostly, the camaraderie and pleasure to hang, work and create with Susan, Stephanie and Katie for a full week - uninterrupted - a real treat.

If you came to the show I'd love to hear any reactions to had to the work - images that are staying with you, sections that were powerful or poignant, questions you may have, or anything that sticking with you. Thanks!

Photos from Primary/Scale

In May the company presented Primary/Scale at the Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival - you can read more about the piece here and here. While we were setting up the tech crew asked if I wanted them to stop people from taking photos, but instead I asked them to give the photographers my business card and request the photographers send me links to the photos they take. We ended up with so many wonderful photos. Below are some of them. Enjoy! And thanks to Don Arteides, Jaedra DiGiammarino and Ted Jamieson.

Primary/Scale from Daniel Burkholder on Vimeo.

Thoughts on Not Sucking

In a couple of weeks I, along with my collaborators Katie, Susan, Stefanie and Stephanie, will be presenting The Chemistry of Lime Trees as my thesis concert for my MFA in Dance from University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. As I've noted elsewhere, this performance consists of two separate, but related works exploring how borders, real or imagined/personal or political, effect our lives. The first half of the evening is a duet with Katie based upon an oral history about a young Russian woman who is left at Ellis Island by her fiance. The second half is a trio for myself, Susan and Stephanie based upon a couple from Sarajevo (he Orthodox Christian, she Muslim) negotiating and living during the Bosnian War of the early 1990s. Both these works deal very specifically with character, plot and storytelling. This level of theatricality along with actual 'acting' is new to my work. In the past I have always dismissed the idea of "pretending" and wanted a "real" physical experience - we, the performers, were always ourselves in the moment. In this work we are definitely portraying other people - in both works, real people.

Because this type of work (theater) is new to me I certainly have a good dose of nervousness about it, as well as questions. Does the story come across? Are our characters believable? Are we pushing it too far, or not enough (the 'sex' scene, for example)? Can I push myself emotionally to the edge I need to get to? Can I help the other performers get there? Can they help me? Will the audience find this engaging, funny, terrifying, sad? Because the work is so different for me I go back and forth on how to judge the work (though that is probably clear by now). How do I make it better? What does 'better' even mean?

And, of course, the big, overarching question is simply, "Does it suck?". Of course, I don't think it does, but then...does it? I guess this is the question, problem or challenge that we all face when we do something - at least something that challenges our normal processes and products. And, I think, this is what we should be doing with most, if not every, project we take on - challenge our norm, push our process, dare to suck!

The show goes up July 15 & 16 here in Milwaukee, then again November 19 in Reston, VA.

Come and let me know if it sucks or not.....