Habitat Pictures from Around the World

 

I find other people's habitat extremely interesting because you really get to know someone just by visiting their home. From the decorations, household items, to the architecture of the home is all orchestrated by the inhabitant of that place. A few months ago, I had an open call for pictures of people's past or current habitat and these are a few of the pictures that were sent to me. These pictures will be used as a backdrop for Habitat.

If you would like to send me a picture of your past home or current living situation, feel free to email me at ahdancecompany@gmail.com








Anastasia Ashman's Habitat

Cheilaugh Garvey's daughters' former Habitat

Maria Foley's Habitat

Rob Oandasan's Childhood Habitat

Laura's Solo performance at Cool New York 2013

The snowstorm dubbed "Nemo" did not stop Cool New York 2013 festival from happening. The Show must go on! With the impending storm, Laura went to tech/dress rehearsal before the storm. We were scheduled to perform Friday evening and Sunday evening, however, "Nemo" blanketed the East Coast with over 2 feet of snow (POWDAH!) and she only got to perform Habitat on Sunday to a FULL HOUSE!

The following video was taken during dress rehearsal. We'll be working on the solo in the coming months so its a bit more polished for the upcoming fringe festival in Edinburgh (more on that later on!). I love the lighting and mood of this solo - it fits Laura so well.


     


Laura had to alter the performance a bit due to the FULL HOUSE with people sitting on the floor in front of the pillars. But I'm sure she danced beautifully. (I wish more performances were livestreamed so global audiences can watch as well)

Habitat is shaping up really nicely - I have rehearsal this weekend with a dancer/teacher living in Singapore. I'll definitely share the rehearsal video in the coming weeks.

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.