Onto new adventures...

Its been eerily quiet on this blog for a number of reasons.
1) I moved halfway across the globe to Singapore
2) Haven't had time to think about the next steps of this piece because a) its not really finished b) I'm re-creating it to fit a traditional stage
3) Re-creating the piece

With that said... the past couple weeks, I've been re-envisioning this piece as vignettes of solos with group transitional segments.

Habitat is the space in which we live. Our personal space. The environment in which we confine ourselves to become our truest self. The quirks, neurosis, emotional highs and lows, habits, transformations, etc. What happens behind closed doors when we come into our physical home. What happens to the self when we leave, do we change the way we think, act, dress, interact with others...

I'm hoping this new way of looking at this piece will hone in on all the stuff we were creating the past year in the studio in New York. I'm not completely abandoning all that material. Just drawing upon this new revision and adding some of those material into the new stuff we've come up with.

Photo Credit: Laura Lamp

A.H. dance company will be performing and presenting our first public showing of "Habitat" - a multi-sensory dance installation during the FIGMENT Arts festival on June 9th from 12:30-1:30 pm at the Nolan Stage.

Lets have a picnic afterwards!


About Habitat:
A dance installation that examines how we coexist in the habitat(s) in which we live in and how we adjust to changes in our environs based on our senses, perception, and quality of life. By taking away one of our senses, we heighten the other senses and our perception changes. This multi-disciplinary dance installation will invite audience members to experience and be an active participant in the performance. Each audience participant will first be directed into the space blindfolded, as the piece unfolds, the blindfolds come off and they are directed to sit, lay down, stand in various configurations. By blurring the lines of performer and audience member each person involved will experience Habitat a little differently. This piece will be completed in the summer 2012 and ready for our premiere performance in the fall of 2012.


Photo Credit: Jene Youtt 


About FIGMENT arts festival
FIGMENT celebrates an abundance of creativity and passion, challenging artists and our communities to find new ways to create, share, think, and dream.
http://figmentproject.org/

Click here for directions to Governor's Island  

Habitat Project: Lauren's Tap sequence

This tap inspired sequence is performed in the perimeter of the audience members. Audience members are placed in a large circle facing in towards the center of the space. They experience the rhythms while viewing a Busby Berkeley inspired phrase done on the floor in the center of the space done by other dancers.

How well do you know your neighborhood?

I sent out my dancers on a mission to take pictures of a neighborhood that they are familiar with and unfamiliar with. I walked around my neighborhood and realized how much I don't know or notice when I walk around.

Here's the mission I sent my dancers out on:
1. Go to an area of the city that you're familiar with & take snapshots of people living their life. Try to capture their emotion, action, or something unique about how they are going about their day.
2. Go to an area of the city that you're not very familiar with & take snapshots of people living their life in that area. Try to capture their emotion, action, or something unique about how they are going about their day.

So my dear readers, I would like to challenge you to do the same. I'd love to see the pictures and include it in the Habitat Project (with your permission and you will be credited in the program of course!)


Photo Credit: Alaine Handa

Habitat project: Wall section

Choreography by Alaine Handa in collaboration with the dancers
Dancers appearing in this video: Alaine Handa, Laura Lamp, Lauren Calzolaio
Please visit our project blog at habitatprojectahdc.blogspot.com/

New Year, New Blog, New Project!

Habitat is A.H. Dance Company's current work-in-progress piece. A multi-sensory dance installation piece involving the five senses, video projection, audience involvement, experimentation, and an in-depth look at how we experience our habitat. A few questions we're questioning ourselves in rehearsal: How do we live? Describe your current residence - what does it look like? how do you feel living in it? How do others live? What happens when one of your senses is compromised? What changes? What is the experience?


Stay tuned for some exclusive behind-the-scenes footage from rehearsal and follow our creative process!