Habitat: The Press Release

Photo Credit: Ji Yoon Kim

April 21, 2013                   

 

A.H. Dance Company presents Habitat in Edinburgh Fringe Festival

The Edinburgh debut for international contemporary dance company based in New York City and Singapore, following performances in New York, Guangzhou, Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur. Habitat (world premiere) is a multimedia dance production explores how we coexist and how we adjust to changes in our environments based on our senses, perception, and quality of life.  

What:	Habitat
Who:	A.H. Dance Company
Where:	C Venues, C (+2), Chambers Street, Edinburgh, United Kingdom Venue #34
When:	31 July – 13 August, 2013, 13:50 pm everyday
Tickets:	Tickets cost £ 10.50 – 11.50. Purchase tickets: Habitat | Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Habitat Publicist:	Alaine Handa, ahdancecompany@gmail.com Laura Lamp, lauramlamp@gmail.com
C Venues Fringe Festival Publicists:	C venues press and marketing department publicity@cvenues.com Tel. 0845 260 1234

About Habitat

Habitat is a multimedia dance production – assessing how humans coexist in the habitat(s) in which we live in and how we adjust to changes in our environments – inspired by our senses, perception, and quality of life. When we retreat into our physical home what happens behind closed doors? Our personal space is the environment in which we become our truest self. The quirks, neurosis, emotional highs and lows, habits, transformations, etc. This multicultural cast of dancers from Singapore, USA, Portugal, and Indonesia transcend national boundaries to share their lives with each other onstage.

About the Choreographer/Artistic Director

Alaine Handa is attracted to work that engages audiences from a sociological context. Her choreography has been described as “quirky, honest, athletic, and lyrical.” Alaine received her B.A. from UCLA’s department of World Arts & Cultures in dance studies. In Los Angeles, she has worked with Yvonne Rainer, Simone Forti, Mandala Danceworks, Space + Movement Exchange, Victoria Marks, among others. Since relocating to New York City in 2005, she has performed for Larry Keigwin + Company, Sasha Soreff Dance Theater, Open Floor Dance, The Movement Collective, High Frequency Wavelengths, Gabrielle Lansner & Company, Scott Lyons & Company, and Stephanie Liapis. Her own work has been shown at Toronto Fringe Festival, Dance Forum, University Settlement, Abrons Art Center, Dance New Amsterdam, Movement Research, Merce Cunningham Studio Theater, Meridian International Children’s Festival, Capital Fringe Festival, Cool New York Dance Festival, and various other venues.  Ms. Handa has lived in Indonesia, Singapore, Los Angeles, and New York. For more information please visit www.alainehanda.com.

"Most of Alaine's work is based on some sociological observation or a desire to inform and enlighten through dance. In fact, she epitomizes the best traits of global nomads and is an excellent ambassador."

- Lisa Finnegan "Changing the World through Dance" for Parenting While Abroad, 9/12/2010

About Edinburgh Fringe

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the largest arts festival in the world and takes place every August for three weeks in Scotland’s capital city. Every year thousands of performers take to a multitude of stages all over Edinburgh to present shows for every taste. From big names in the world of entertainment to unknown artists looking to build their careers, the festival caters for everyone and includes theatre, comedy, dance, physical theatre, musicals, operas, music, exhibitions and events. http://www.edfringe.com

A.H. Dance Company

A.H. Dance Company is a multicultural modern dance company based in New York City and Singapore. A.H. Dancers perform work that reflects the diversity of the cast and various collaborators. Founded in December 2007, A.H. Dance Company has performed in various theaters, studios, community centers, conferences, and festivals in the United States and beyond.  A.H. Dance Company’s mission is to present and support independent contemporary artists and companies worldwide. Through collaborations with local dancers and artists of other mediums, A.H. Dance Company strives to share modern dance with communities that lack exposure to it. Through the work of Ms. Handa and the company members, A.H. Dance Company aims to present work that is engaging to a vast range of audiences.  For more information visit www.ahdancecompany.com

 

The road to Edinburgh

Thank you to everyone that donated to the indiegogo campaign!

We raised $1,131 USD from the campaign* + an additional $500 SGD.

That's $1,914 SGD in total from private donations!

With grant money from Singapore International Foundation we are up to $5,914 SGD. A small stepping stone towards our total budget of $24,000 SGD to make it through the summer of performances in Edinburgh for our small cast of 4 + a stage manager.

If you missed out on our able to donate a small sum of money towards our goal, we would really appreciate it! You can click on the Paypal Donate button below.

*Indiegogo will be charging 9% fee for not making our fundraising goal of $1500 so we could use some help!


Many Thanks to Heather Cheung, Anonymous, Nicholas Fox, Gabrielle Lansner, Anonymous, Patricia Lee, Zhiying Lu, Julia Simens, Paoley Tjia, Judy Rickatson, Anonymous, EMCJ Holk van Eysinga, William Hebert, Centre Stage School of the Arts, Anonymous, Kyla Barkin, Anonymous, Annette Rahbek Floystrup, Lyna Ward, Media Generation!

Habitat: Indiegogo campaign

Our indiegogo campaign has less than 9 days left and we need all the help we can get. Will you check out our indiegogo campaign video and if you are able to donate a few dollar bills, we would be very grateful!

Thank you shoutout to Media Generation (http://www.media-generation.com/, Annette Floystrup, tribalyna, Anonymous, and Kyla Barkin for your donations!

Singapore. The process

Habitat,

The process:

The nature of a collaborative creative process between dance artists produces unexpected results. Habitat is becoming a waiting ‘Zone’ where I witness the new and bizarre while humming to a tune in my head.  The singer that can’t tune one note (myself) finds himself delighted with his own music.

The dance material is taken out of context and while dancing I seem to feel like I am doing what I shouldn’t in the middle of a busy road. Habit is opening a new door to the poetic aspects of living in a Modern city – Singapore. I face the difficult task of turning the mundane tasks into interesting subjects – finding in the ridiculous of brushing my teeth every morning with my eyes closed an inspiration to develop gestural choreography.

In the beginning I thought pedestrian. The latter is a very famous word in the umbrella of contemporary dance; I come across this empty concept in all sorts of places, at the costume department, in the studio with other creatives, on stage and in press releases. I understand now that pedestrian is a very vague and empty word that doesn’t inspire me to create dance.

Habitat is a creative process where I discover my private self – creating new and bold dance material inspired in my most private and mundane situations.

Habitat of a Singaporean dancer: Kai Eng

In February, I went to the home of a Singaporean dancer, who had just moved back from living in Stockholm for a number of years. She had just moved into this apartment she shares with her boyfriend and her landlord that has typical Singapore views of government-subsidized housing called HDBs in an area that I'm not familiar with. Even though I've grown up living in Singapore, I didn't have many local friends as I attended an International school and an American school later on. Almost all of us lived in private condos and no one I knew lived in an HDB flat from my schools. I had very few local Singaporean friends who I'd met through the dance studios I trained at and through the ice rink (I used to be a figure skater). This particular dancer, I had met at the ice rink. She and I were rink buddies back in those youthful days. We sort of lost touch after I moved away from Singapore to the US but reconnected on Facebook. She became a modern dancer while in Sweden.

When we look at the Habitat we place ourselves in, it reflects a physical place of where we our in our life in that current moment. I had asked Kai why she didn't move back "home" with her mother and she replied that she was going to live with her boyfriend that moved with her from Sweden and didn't want to burden her mother. She chose her living arrangements. I believe that when we get to choose our own living arrangements, we are much happier wherever we are. We get to unleash our truest selves 24/7 instead of just behind closed doors.

Photo Credit: Alistair Chew (Visit his Tumblr blog with AMAZING Dance Photography! Tonight We Dance)

 
























 


Photo Credit: Alistair Chew (Visit his Tumblr blog with AMAZING Dance Photography! Tonight We Dance)

Her current habitat is humble and simple. Her landlord was excited to have us film and photograph in her apartment.


A BIG Thank you to Alistair Chew (Seriously check out his blog: Tonight We Dance) and Kai Eng for this photoshoot! I'll have more pics highlighted from that shoot that will be used as part of the backdrop for Habitat. 

A lone dancer in rehearsal

I have been conducting virtual rehearsals for a few months with Laura now working on her solo and this project, it got me to thinking about the process of rehearsing and how it changes the work we create in different types of situations and spaces. This piece is very much a collaborative process with my dancers because I'm working with them one-on-one and in the case of Laura, virtually. The ideas that I have come to fruitition entirely when we both come up with ideas. Back and forth emails. So much of how we live today exist in a virtual habitat and a physical habitat.

I know I'm not alone in this same process of creation. I've spoken to a number of artists who do collaborations trans-globally with each other seem to also work this way as well.

Now I'm curious because when I'm in a studio alone, I feel very much alone in my own skin. Even if I'm choreographing for something, I feel alone. Does anyone else feel this way? I wonder if Laura feels this way when she goes to the studio to work on Habitat. Maybe its different because she's accountable for these video recordings to send them to me so I can give feedback. Because there's that accountability.

I'm having a hard time shaping my own solo for this piece. Perhaps I should create an accountability and make videos as well to send to my dancers for feedback.

This is the most recent video of Laura's rehearsal. The solo is shaping up nicely. A little more tweaks and then I can be satisfied with it.


p.s. I like the studio that she's rehearsing in has light colored marley and white walls. I'm imagining all the projections behind her bouncing off.

A rehearsal video

I have a new dancer in the Habitat piece and his name is Ezekiel. We work for the same arts school who is also generously donating space for us to work together when the studios aren't being used. A BIG shout out and THANK YOU to Centre Stage & Pete for generously letting us use the studios.

Here's a rehearsal clip from our first rehearsal, this will be part of a transition section currently titled "Wall".