INTRODUCING: Thesis Thursday!
Hey Framers! Lena here, Frame’s Development Assistant. This year I wrote a Senior Honors Thesis for Rice University’s Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality on the topic of Contact Improvisation and Feminism. I’m so excited to share with my research findings and hear your thoughts on my work! This is the FIRST entry and the series will most likely run for most of the summer – so stay tuned!
ok…drumrolllllll…Here is the first excerpt from:
Points of Contact: Contact Improvisation and Feminism
————————
I remember the first Contact Improvisation dance jam I attended. I went as a photographer; paid to record the unrehearsed art that develops from bodies making movement together to the beat of an unpredictable score played by live musicians. According to one of the original Contact Improvisation practitioners, Nancy Stark Smith, a “jam” is more easily defined in the negative: “It’s not a class, it’s not a rehearsal, it’s not a performance…[it’s] where people at different levels of practice are able to interact with one another through a form.”[1] They bumped and jumped and ran and fell and lifted and held. They touched. It’s fascinating all the ways we can touch – it’s not just the hands that are privy to this sensual, human experience. The top of the head, the back of a knee, the ribcage – they connect too. I was excited by what I saw – I was scared. How does one become open to such vulnerability? Most of the dancers were strangers to one another; it was the Texas Dance Improvisation Festival[2] in which undergraduates, graduates and teachers coming from different parts of Texas gathered to practice this niche dance form that requires its practitioners to safely and sensually touch. A slender, blue-eyed man curling on top of a burly, bearded man; a stocky, elderly woman being held and set on the ground by an eighteen year old girl; a short, unyielding woman effortlessly shouldering a tall, nimble man. The lack of gender conformity was inspiring – all of a sudden, the possibilities are endless.
Images taken by me at my first jam:
Contact Improvisation (CI) dance began in 1972. Steve Paxton is generally recognized for starting CI, but Paxton and many other practitioners involved during the inception of CI allocate founding credit more diffusely to include dancers such as Nancy Stark Smith, Nita Little, Daniel Lepkoff, among others. Since the 1980’s, Nancy Stark Smith has come to be seen as the leader of the CI community. Over the past four decades, CI has been defined in myriad ways: as an art sport,[3] a physical conversation, a technique of nonviolent protest.[4] For this project, I will define CI as spontaneous movement that relies on information from forces of nature, namely gravity and momentum, in addition to sensual information provided by fellow practitioners, in order to create an improvised dance. Daniel Lepkoff stresses the continuity within CI: “…ultimately, [CI’s] initial stance of empowering individuals to rely on their own physical intelligence, to meet their moment with senses open and perceptions stretching, and to compose their own response remains intact.”[5] Despite tremendous growth of the community to every continent in the world, CI remains the same: thoroughly rooted in a physical premise and yet free to adjust to changing social and individual realities.
Nancy Stark Smith and Steve Paxton
I am interested in the potential of CI dance to enact feminist ideals on an individual and societal level concerning hierarchy, sexuality and gender. Significant scholarship has been written on CI’s connections to postmodernism and its complication of hierarchy, sexuality and gender.[6] The original contribution of my work is to connect Contact Improvisation dance to feminist performance art and feminist theory. I will argue that CI is a complex feminist practice. The relationship CI has to feminism is complex because it is not inherently feminist, but enables women to have a feminist experience. I will show that it is a dance form that is particularly compatible with feminism by first showing its historical proximity to feminist performance art and subsequently analyzing how CI continues to provide a way of exploring sexual-sensual boundaries while breaking both the gendered dichotomy of movement and traditional hierarchical forms of organization.
[1] Nancy Stark Smith, “Contact Improvisation Today,” Writings on Dance, no. 21 (Summer 2001): 25.
[2] Texas Dance Improvisation Festival (TDIF) began in 2009 and featured three days of classes, jams, and performances. The TDIF mentioned occurred in 2010 at Rice University in Houston, Texas. Jordan Fuchs, “The First Annual Texas Dance Improvisation Festival,” CQ Contact Improvisation Newsletter 35, no. 2 (available only online at http://community. contactquarterly.com/) (accessed December 16, 2012).
[3] “The first time Simone Forti saw Contact [Improvisation] she said ‘Mmm, it’s kind of like an art sport’. And we used that term for a long time.” Nancy Stark Smith, “Contact Improvisation Today,” Writings on Dance, no. 21, (2001): 22.
[4] Danielle Goldman, “Bodies on the Line: Contact Improvisation and Techniques of Nonviolent Protest,” Dance Research Journal 39, no. 1 (2007): 60-74.
[5] Daniel Lepkoff, “Contact Improvisation, A Question,” Contact Quarterly 36, no. 1 (2011): 40.
[6] For more discussion see: Cheryl Pallant, Contact Improvisation (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2006). or Cynthia Novack, Sharing the Dance, Contact Improvisation and American Culture (Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1990).
Excited to share more with you next week! Please comment and let me know if you have any comments/edit suggestions/questions.
(Me presenting my thesis last month)
Eat Well Wednesday
Hope you are having a fantastic week! Today we are going to dive into calories and take a look at what 100 calories of real food is compared to 100 calories of processed food. Now please don’t get the wrong idea, eating well is not about calorie counting, it is about eating REAL FOOD and adopting a healthy, balanced diet for life. But I wanted to share this information with you because I think it is important to see the difference between “Real Food” and “Processed Food” and how much more bang for your buck that you receive when your diet consists of “Real Food.”
The problem that a lot of people struggle with is the lack of satiety with their diet. They feel as though they are always hungry, needing to snack, eat, fill themselves up. So they grab another candy bar, soda, bag of chips etc. All processed foods have very little nutritional value, therefore your body does not feel fulfilled.
It needs more.
It is craving REAL FOOD!
REAL FOOD is food grown from the earth, food that does’t come in a package, and the ingredients are not mass produced in a lab or chemical plant.
REAL FOOD nourishes your body, gives you energy, vitality, and a glow in your life. Your body also reaps the benefits of vitamins, minerals and fiber.
PROCESSED FOOD or food that is mass produced in a factory, packaged, only provides temporary satisfaction and taste. Your body doesn’t know what to do with the HFCS (high fructose corn syrup), food dyes, chemicals, preservatives and additives. Our bodies were not designed to process unnatural material.
So what happens when we do? Our body rejects it, we get sick, lethargic, or our bodies store it as fat because it is an unusable energy source. Processed food doesn’t fill us up so when think we need more. We have a bag of potato chips and then 30 minutes later we are hungry again. You grab a candy bar next and then a soda and the cycle continues.
The truth is……
We are overfed and undernourished.
We are simply not eating the right foods to nourish our bodies. The REAL FOOD that our bodies were designed to process and therefore use as energy and create vitality!!
I am a very visual person and have created a collage for you. (click image to view close-up)
100 Calories of Real Food VS. 100 Calories of Processed Food
When you fuel your body with REAL FOOD you reap the benefits of all the vitamins, minerals, fiber and other nutrients that keep us healthy and fueled for life. PROCESSED FOODS derived from chemicals made in a lab deplete us of energy, satiety, nutrients and leave us hungry for more.
When building your meals make sure to have a Protein, Carbohydrate, and Fat. This make a perfect, well balanced meal that will fuel your body in a way that will allow you to function optimally. Just take a look at the volume of food you can eat when you consume REAL FOOD vs. PROCESSED FOOD. Not only do you get to eat more, you get the many nutritional benefits that will create a healthy, strong, well-balanced body.
So, the next time you reach for a PROCESSED FOOD( Something out of a box and comprised of ingredients you can’t pronounce) remember that food is fuel and to be the best that you can be, make sure that your food is fuel that will drive you through life.
Eat Well. Live Well. Be Well.
——————————————-
Jill Wentworth is leading us Wednesday by Wednesday into making better food choices and being more healthful. Tune in every Wednesday to get some great recipes and advice from someone who really knows health. In an effort to fuel her passion to serve as well has enhance the lives of others through their nutritional choices, she started Eat Well SA(San Antonio). Her vision is to educate you on how to incorporate a healthy array of foods into your life. Eat Well is not a diet, nor does it embrace any one specific dietary agenda. She also offers customized programs that are educational and teach you the tools you need to maintain healthy, well balanced eating for your busy lives.
Take a peek into a Frame Rehearsal!
Hey Framers! Lena, Development Assistant, here! I got a chance to watch Frame rehearse this afternoon for what will surely be an epic show – Ecouter, coming June 28-29 at 8pm at Spring Street Studios!
——————
Ecouter, which means “to listen” in French, will feature two works that have premiered to rave reviews (see slide number four) earlier in our season and a completely new piece set on dancers Shanon Adams, Jacquelyn Boe, Laura Gutierrez, and Ashley Horn. Frame Director, Lydia Hance, led the four stunning artists in a fierce and fun rehearsal this afternoon in preparation for an epic evening of dance!
Rehearsal began with a “check in.” Everyone passed around a theoretical ball and took turns stating how our body, energy, space, and time felt.
tight, good, stiff, tired
frustrated, moderately moderate, high-strung-happy, high!, excited
calm, cool, beautiful, clean, open
good, free, valuable, expansive
These were a few of the words used by the dancers to convey their current states of being.
Then they got to creating.
Dance is physical. And this dance is no exception with lots of exciting and beautifully athletic moments to look forward to! But, all of the physical exertion was duly aided by a few… interesting verbal directives from our fearless leader, Lydia Hance:
“take a risk”
“find a moment of discovery”
“even if it’s just an arm…experiment with your whole body getting there”
“Accent the fingertips! like…the road rage bird, grrrrrr”
“if you’re lifting someone, give them a moment”
“smart flocking”
and, of course, the most surprising yet frequent directive:
“GUACAMOLE ARMS”
Intrigued? You should be! This piece is fantastic – I feel so privileged that I got to be a part of rehearsal today and I absolutely can’t wait to see what the final product will be!
To finish out the rehearsal the dancers convened once again for a brief “check out.” Again they were asked about body, energy, space and time.
great, hot, sweaty, sore, warm, tentative, stiff in lower back
little lower, more calm, tired, light, high and fulfilled
ok (back to work), valuable, well-spent, precious, about to speed up, over
light, wonderful as always, empty
As I walked to my car, I thought more about my own energy and how it had changed over the course of the hour and a half of witnessing dance and art and the creative process. Gratitude. I was overwhelmed with gratitude. It’s not everyday that I get to see something organic and authentic manifest in front of my eyes, in front of my camera lens. One thing is for sure: I can’t wait to see more.
————————
Stay tuned for more information on the show including ways to volunteer (and get in for free) or how to become a VIP attendee and enjoy a pre-show reception with the artists. It’s sure to be a spectacular event that you won’t want to miss, so mark your calendars now!
MFA Monday
The last installment of MFA Monday by Frame dancer Laura Gutierrez! Check out her reflections on whether or not to attain a Master of Fine Arts!
———————
Last night I was talking to Brandon, and Brandon told me about the moment when he knew he had made the right decision in returning to school to get his MFA. (I would tell you more, but I don’t want to blurt out someone else’s business!) I thought about this and realized I’m not ready to go back to a strict academic environment. Although I do miss the daily grind of technique and composition classes– not to mention the secured performance opportunities– it’s crucial for an an emerging dance professional to create his or her destiny.
Dodging MFA school set me full speed ahead on a course where I’m figuring out that in order to be an independent artist you have to become your own executive director, managing director, company manager, and agent. Performing under choreographers, working at Hope Stone, Inc., teaching at HSPVA: this mishmash of practical experience might prove more valuable and just as important as going to grad school for Dance.
Last week I read Sydney Skybetter’s article and the following passage jumped out at me:
“The world you thought you were entering is long dead, and none of the old (anti-intellectual, super-sexist, super-classist and SUPER-racist) rules of dance history need hold true for you. So go forth. The search for new ways of moving, dancing and sustaining a career is ON.
The dance world today is not the same as the one I grew up hearing about and wanting to be a part of. I’m just now at a point where I’ve learned I can mold my career the way I see fit.
———————–
Laura Gutierrez is a graduate from the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and received her BFA in contemporary dance from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. A recipient of a 2009-2010 William R. Kenan, Jr. Performing Arts Fellowship at the Lincoln Center Institute, she presented her choreography The World Within in the Clark Theater. Since returning to Houston, she has been a part of Texas Weekend of Contemporary Dance, Big Range Dance Festival, Hope Stone, Inc’s emerging artist residency HopeWerks. She was also a part of Tino Sehgals installation in the Silence exhibit at The Menil Collection and most recently performed in Study for Ocupant choreographed by Jonah Boaker at Fabric Workshop Museum in Philadelphia and Frame Dance Productions. Currently she is on Adjunct Faculty at HSPVA and is the Office Manager/HopeWerks Director at Hope Stone, Inc.
Links We Like
A great article on being an artist and a mother. Complete with spectacular analysis of second wave feminist, Simone de Beauvoir!
If you haven’t already check out our Eat Well Wednesday post for this week!
Check out my version of the recipe:
If you don’t have the “toasted oats,” you can substitute cereal! BUT, use less peanut butter/honey so it doesn’t overpower the oats
There’s only a couple of weeks left to check out the Picasso Black and White exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts! I went this afternoon and it was FANTASTIC!
TOMORROW at 4pm there is a lecture entitled: Variations on a Theme: Pablo Picasso and Revisiting Old & Modern Masters that is a great way to learn a little more about Picasso and his work before you see the real thing in person! I found the lecture informative and made me appreciate the art all the more.
FREE dance shows this weekend:
Tonight at 8pm: Friends with Benefits party by Freneticore! Free drinks, food, and performance – awesome night ahead!
Tomorrow at 2pm and 8pm Erin Reck presents Up for Air, a site specific piece of choreography in Herman park! Your’s truly will be making an appearance as well as Frame dancers: Kristin Frankiewicz, Jacquelyn Boe, and Brit Wallis!
HAVE A HAPPY WEEKEND FRAMERS!
Eat Well Wednesday
Here at Frame we are passionate about taking care of our bodies – enjoy healthy eating advice from our resident health guru, Jill Wentworth!
————————–
Love oatmeal raisin cookies? Than these little bite sized treats are for YOU!
These little bites definitely meet the requirements…..
- 3/4 Cup Peanut Butter, smooth
- 1/2 Cup Honey
- 1 1/4 Cup Rolled Oats
- 1/4 Cup Flax Seed
- 1/4 Teaspoon Cinnamon
- 1/4 Teaspoon Salt
- 1/2 Cup Raisins
- White Chocolate to drizzle, optional
- Warm peanut butter and honey in a microwave safe bowl for about 20-30 seconds or until soft.
- Add remaining ingredients and stir well.
- Place in the fridge and let sit for about 30 minutes.
- Roll into bite sized balls.
- Melt white chocolate chips in the microwave for about 1 minute.
- Drizzle over the cinnamon raisin bites and let set.
Jill Wentworth is leading us Wednesday by Wednesday into making better food choices and being more healthful. Tune in every Wednesday to get some great recipes and advice from someone who really knows health. In an effort to fuel her passion to serve as well has enhance the lives of others through their nutritional choices, she started Eat Well SA(San Antonio). Her vision is to educate you on how to incorporate a healthy array of foods into your life. Eat Well is not a diet, nor does it embrace any one specific dietary agenda. She also offers customized programs that are educational and teach you the tools you need to maintain healthy, well balanced eating for your busy lives.MFA Monday
Hey Framers – Here is the second installment for MFA Monday by Framer Laura Gutierrez!
Explore her thoughts, doubts, and dreams as a professional dancer considering attaining a Master of Fine Arts degree. A short but evocative pieace on her personal journey.
Part 2 of 3
I am a performer. I am a choreographer. I am an educator of Dance.
Becoming a surgeon, dentist or lawyer is not something in my future. Although, I have definitely entertained the idea.
The point is that getting my master’s in anything not related to dance is out of the question.
The only other reason I would consider getting a degree in something not related to dance is for financial stability. But, as of today, I have no clue where to start because for the next 15 years I definitely want to be teaching, creating new works and performing.
Just when is the right time to get an MFA?
I’m currently in a place where I’m re-learning and redefining my choreographic process and finding out what inspires me. As a teacher, I’m finding out what my strengths are and fine tuning my weaknesses. Last but not least, as a performer I’m finally finding choreographers that best suit my style. There are also numerous projects that I would like to complete and residencies I would like to apply for prior to going back to school.
I feel what I’m learning now is extremely valuable and the experiences I’ve had are just as important to me as getting an MFA. I will end by saying I have the hardest time living in the moment. As I do understand “Life is a Journey, not a destination.”
————————
Laura Gutierrez is a graduate from the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and received her BFA in contemporary dance from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. A recipient of a 2009-2010 William R. Kenan, Jr. Performing Arts Fellowship at the Lincoln Center Institute, she presented her choreography The World Within in the Clark Theater. Since returning to Houston, she has been a part of Texas Weekend of Contemporary Dance, Big Range Dance Festival, Hope Stone, Inc’s emerging artist residency HopeWerks. She was also a part of Tino Sehgals installation in the Silence exhibit at The Menil Collection and most recently performed in Study for Ocupant choreographed by Jonah Boaker at Fabric Workshop Museum in Philadelphia and Frame Dance Productions. Currently she is on Adjunct Faculty at HSPVA and is the Office Manager/HopeWerks Director at Hope Stone, Inc.
Stay tuned for Laura’s concluding remarks next week!
Links We Like
We hope you have a great weekend,
here are some fun links to kick it off right!
Great article from Dance Advantage on the positive aspects of dancing barefoot. Do you prefer dancing barefoot? In socks? Shoes?
So many prettyyyy dresses… check out the best and worst dressed from the Golden Globes! Which one is your favorite? Leave a comment below! Obviously J.Lo is my fav!
I’m addicted to YouTube dances and this week I fell in love with a new dance company. Check out the beautiful dancing from the Mather Dance Company!
I’m graduating this week from Rice! In honor of this I thought I’d share this fun article on the 16 most famous kids in college. The beautiful Emma Watson is my favorite on the list – which is your’s?
I worked up quite the sweat last night at the second of four Master Classes with Erin Reck at Rice University! There are two more next week on Tuesday and Thursday that you don’t want to miss; it’s a great contemporary technique class with a wonderful warmup and unique phrase taught in the middle.
Look forward to a new MFA Monday installment
from Laura Gutierrez next week!
Houston is Inspired
From our friends at Fresh Arts:
Houston is Inspired!
There’s more to Houston than brisket, big oil, and bayous. Houston has another story to tell. The story of how this city has 
become a mecca for some of the best arts, culture and food in the country. We have a winning combination of creativity, diversity, innovation and resources to be named Forbes’ “Coolest City.” Thousands of people come here every year ON PURPOSE to experience everything Houston has to offer. Thousands more will visit, especially now that The New York Times marked Houston #7 on its “Places to Visit in 2013” list (along with Instanbul at #10 and Paris at #46). (True story.) Well, hello, Houston. That’s something to brag about.
And that’s how “Houston is…” was born. They did approximately 7,000 tons* of research and figured out that visitors LOVE Houston for two things above all else: culture and cuisine. They created a spectacular national advertising campaign to share that news with the world. And when folks working in Houston’s arts and culture community** heard the statistics and saw the campaign, they did a collective dance of joy and adopted “Houston is Inspired” as a unifying mantra for an unprecedented regional effort to celebrate our creative capital. We’re ready to let the world know that our special BBQ comes with an extra side of awesomesauce. And a bottle of champagne.
Houston: We ARE inspired. It’s time to inspire everyone around us, too. Here’s how you can help. (Especially YOU, independent artists! Make your voices heard!)
our gal pal Courtney D. Jones at the Houston is Inspired mural. Best pic of the event. We thought it needed a little extra flair, too.
Eat Well Wednesday
Who doesn’t love a blueberry muffin?
With berries fresh in season right now, it is the perfect opportunity to whip up these little blueberry treats for you and your family!
Thanks to the applesauce, we are able to omit some of the saturated fat from traditional oil used in baking. These muffins also have some whole grain benefits thanks to the whole wheat flour that replaces the traditional white flour.
These would be a perfect snack or part of a healthy breakfast. Bake up a batch, freeze them, pull them out as you need them. Pair with some greek yogurt and almonds and you have a perfect well balanced breakfast that will fuel you through your morning.
Head to the kitchen today and bake this up, they won’t disappoint!!
Ingredients
- 3/4 cups Low fat buttermilk
- 3/4 cups Light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup Applesauce, unsweet
- 1 cup Mashed bananas (about 3 medium bananas)
- 1 1/4 cup White whole wheat flour
- 1 cup All purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoon Baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoons Cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon Baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 1/4 teaspoon Ground nutmeg
- 1 1/4 cup Blueberries (I used frozen)
- 2 large eggs
Directions
| Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare 12 muffin liners in muffin tin or spray tin with non-stick cooking spray. |
|
| In a medium bowl, whisk together buttermilk, sugar, applesauce, eggs and bananasIn a separate bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt | |
| Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula until well combinedCarefully fold in blueberries | |
| Divide batter out into muffin tins and sprinkle the tops with a few extra blueberries | |
| Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.Now it’s time to ENJOY!! Eat Well. Live Well. Be Well. |
——————
Jill Wentworth is leading us Wednesday by Wednesday into making better food choices and being more healthful. Tune in every Wednesday to get some great recipes and advice from someone who really knows health. In an effort to fuel her passion to serve as well has enhance the lives of others through their nutritional choices, she started Eat Well SA(San Antonio). Her vision is to educate you on how to incorporate a healthy array of foods into your life. Eat Well is not a diet, nor does it embrace any one specific dietary agenda. She also offers customized programs that are educational and teach you the tools you need to maintain healthy, well balanced eating for your busy lives.