A showing of a solo at Cool New York 2013 Festival

Cool New York 2013 Festival is coming up and we will be a part of it! Quite exciting b/c this will be the first of many showings.. virtual and live leading up to the big global premiere this coming summer in Europe! (Yes, we're excited.. can't you tell!! We're even pre-announcing before the official announcement. hah!)

Anyways back to Cool New York..

Here are the details:

CoolNY Dance Festival originated in 2004 as a component of Cool New York, the City’s winter celebration of “arts and parks” events. Mayor Bloomberg put his personal stamp of approval on the celebration, deeming it “the perfect opportunity to get out this winter season, explore new neighborhoods and appreciate the magic of the city.” WHITE WAVE honors its milestone 10th Anniversary CoolNY 2013 Dance Festival this January 30th – February 10th.

The CoolNY 2013 Dance Festival is FREE and contributions are greatly appreciated in order to continue festival presentations.

Featured companies include: 
Amos Pinhasi, Jennifer Mellor Dance Project, Inclined Dance Project, ANAHATA Dance, NEVILLE Dance Theatre, FLUSSO Dance, Raw Delivery, Andrew Jannetti, FluidEdge, “NOT for reTAIL”, Cori Marquis + the Nines [IX], Sapphire Moon Dance Company, Anne-Flore de Rochambeau, A.H. Dance Company, MUSE309, KDNY, The Brooklyn Dance Ensemble, 4thrightdance, RG Dance Projects, Enzo Celli-Celli Contemporary Ballet, Dorcas Roman Dance Theatre / DRDT, ADANZAVECVOS, Core Dance Contemporary, Hwa Suk Lee Dance Project, Olsi Gjeci, BAXco, Brooklyn Arts Exchange Teen Company, Liz Piccoli, Bo Kyung Lee, Adams Company Dance, Tamara LaDonna Moving Spirits, Inc., Kyla Ernst-Alper, Juhwan Hwang, Theodora Boguszewski, Megan Nicely/Dance, Regina Nejman & Company, Yin Yue Dance Company, Jules Bakshi/ Subtle Details Dance Theater, LJ Leach/Movement Arts, Double-Edge Dance, SoGoNo- Tanya Calamoneri, BodyStories: Teresa Fellion Dance, Asterial Dance, MJM Dance, Kitchen Sink Collective, Nehara Kalev, Shauna Dever Dance, Whiteroad Dance Media, Sheena Hagy, Jennifer Phillip, Nadine Martinez, Melanie Cortier/Eidolon Ballet, Kip Martin, Elinor Harrison and more…

Program H

February 8 @ 9-10:30 pm
February 10 @ 6-7:30 pm

Location: WHITE WAVE John Ryan Theater, 25 Jay Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Directions: F train to York Street. Walk along Jay Street towards the waterfront. Entrance is on John Street.


Watch the beautiful Laura perform part of her solo at the festival!

Photo Credit: Fig Tree Photography

Here's Laura performing Chameleon at the Outlet Dance Project this past fall.

Photo Credit: Silvia Si-Wei Chen

Laura performing "Nothing Matters When We're Dancing" Flashmob in Washington Square Park co-choreographed by Alaine Handa, Michael Mao, and Natalia Duong as the closing for Locating the Sacred Festival hosted by Asian American Arts Alliance in September.








Here's a rehearsal video snippet of the solo:

Lauren's Habitat, Photos by Jene Youtt

Last Winter in NYC, we shot a segment in Lauren's apartment of Lauren in her natural habitat. I filmed a choreographed improvisation of gestural series on her bed, brushing her hair, picking out an outfit while photographer Jene shot the series in slow motion. We spent a couple hours shooting her from different angles.

Here are some of the pictures taken from that evening.

I love the raw vulnerability of these pictures and the calmness of Lauren's face as she was dealing with a sustained ankle injury at that time.

Many thanks to Lauren & Jene!

Photo Credit: Jene Youtt

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/