My Third Week & The Cantab

 The third week of my internship would have fallen on school vacation week, so I am going to combine school vacation week and the following week as “week three.”

As internship begins to come to a quick close, I spent the majority of my time this past week working on the phrases I have started. This includes the Emily Dickinson phrase, “One does not need a chamber to be haunted,” from my very first day on internship. I backtracked my way through the Sabrina Benaim poem, “Explaining My Depression to My Mother,” and the five variations of my “mom” movement phrase, which I will admit was quite the challenge. Lastly, I reviewed the phrase that I created from my Language Autobiography. Karen also had me do two two minute writing exercises, where I wrote down everything that came to my mind. When looking at my list, I have to laugh at how bipolar my mind was that day. I thought I would share my list of thoughts:

• “Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire, I hold with those who favor fire. But if I had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate to say that sometimes, ice is also great.” -This is a poem by Robert Frost, at least, a close variation of the poem.
• Those who dance are considered insane by those who cannot hear the music
• I thoroughly enjoy the smell of apple cinnamon bread in the morning
• I recommend talking about your period seductively. -This is a poem that I will discuss further later.
• I am much more of a cat person
• Quack a doodle doo the cow goes moo
• I really like the taste of chocolate milk even though I really do hate milk but it’s yummy so I drink it anyways

The biggest thing, at least the thing I enjoyed the most out of these two weeks combined, is my visit to the Can Tab’s poetry night. Every Wednesday night from 7:00 pm to approximately 11:00 pm, there is a poetry slam. I have never felt more at home in such a foreign place. My mom and I had the pleasure to go and experience this event, and I definitely plan to go and attend again, and maybe even read. The atmosphere, the people, the vibe... It made me feel so comfortable. It was held in a dark, crowded "basement," and when I say crowded, I mean it. The dark room kept it more honest, I believe. There were people everywhere, and my mom and I were lucky to find seats. "Seats" meaning my mom got a bar stool, and I sat on some sort of cabinet. You had to be 18+ to attend, and the only things in the room other than the crowd was a bar and a bright-lit stage with a microphone. The night began with an open mic from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm, which I learned that people wait an hour, sometimes longer, out the doors to sign up for the limited amount of 5 minute slots. I think what I loved about it the most was the honesty that poured from each open-mic speakers heart; All of their hearts really. Whenever someone spoke, I could feel the pain, the love, the passion emptying from their throats and out of their mouths, and it was absolutely heart-wrenching. The main act, Chanel Dupree, went on from 10:00 pm to 10:30 pm, and she was absolutely fascinating. She was selling a short book of poems that she had written, and after listening to her speak, I had to buy one. So shyly, I approached her and asked to buy one of her books. We began having a conversation about my name, (after she asked for mine, and told me about how she loves the name Jordan. She also agreed it's more of a girls name...but that's beside the point.) That conversation led to us talking about my internship, and how I am incorporating text and movement to create a final dance project for school. She was so intrigued, and I felt so comfortable talking to her. In my book, she signed it: To Jordan, Your name, face, voice, and overall personality is just magical! Thank you so much for supporting! -Chanel Dupree. P.S. Good luck with your internship!

Needless to say, I about died of happiness.

   The night ended with their poetry slam contest, which is three rounds of poetry, where six people compete in a 3 minute round, four people compete in a 2 minute round, and 2 compete for the title of Poetry Slam Champion in a 1 minute poetry slam. There were three judges, all of which were audience members picked at random. My mom and I became friendly with the young woman behind us, and got to help her judge each round.

   To end, I thought I would share some of my favorite lines from the night:

• "I am not as [messed] up as this poem." (Yes, I did change it to make it appropriate for this blog)
• "Nothing says 'Happy New Year' like a Celtic's 'Go [*beep*] yourself' tee shirt." (What I really liked about this haiku poem was that it was written by a woman in her late 50's. You go girl!)
• "I know what it's like to hand over a plate of my limbs to a man who has already eaten." -Chanel Dupree
• "I recommend talking about your period seductively." (This was a poem written by a woman who had read an article about a group of women that photographed themselves menstruating. The article and photographs caused a furious uproar, and many political debates. The poem and explanation is linked above. The reason I enjoyed this poem so much is not because of the humorous title, but because of how honest and blunt it was. It was brilliantly written, and the author, Kayla Wheeler, deserves much recognition for this piece of work.)

Gwendolyn The Graceful Pig: The Use of Text in Dance

Gwendolyn the Graceful Pig, written by David Ira Rottenberg, is the story about a pig that wants to learn how to dance. The story follows Gwendolyn and her friend Omar, a pig that wants to play football, and their journey to gain the grace and beauty they need in order to be successful. After being invited to multiple libraries and schools to read his book, Rottenberg thought that he could make his book more successful by inviting a dance company to dance, act, and simply tell the story as he read. The Connecting Point Dance Company took the task at hand, and created an fun, entertaining, and interactive story for the children. 

This year has been my second year of performing “Gwen,” and I was lucky enough to play the clumsy protagonist herself, joined by Melanie Joseph, the lead of Omar. Being able to play the main character of a story, even if is requires a pig nose and ears, is a lot of fun, especially when you know that what you are doing is making the audience, filled with big eyes and adventurous hearts, laugh and smile. Gwendoline and Omar start off clumsy and awkward, but gain their elegance and grace after a day at the studio with a group of ballet dancers, taught by their teacher, Natasha, "the greatest ballet teacher in 'ze' world!" (I do advise you to go back and read that last quote with a Russian accent; It will make a lot more sense.) The clumsiness of the two pigs is the biggest hit with the children, the second being when Gwendolyn comes out to perform her final solo, the children astonished by her beautiful, “bright, [red] tutu.”

Throughout my internship, I have been using text to create movement phrases. Specifically using poetry, I take lines, words, the sound of the poet’s voice, etc, to create and rework movement phrases that I create. In similar ways, as the performers of “Gwen,” we use lines from the book, specific words, and the way David Ira Rottenberg talks as cues on how to act to fit the story. I have found it extremely interesting how one can take literature, and text, and recreate it with the body, specifically through dance. For instance, with “Gwen,” we as the performers are simply acting out the story as it is told. In comparison, I have been using poetry by taking actual words and using different sounds, shapes, letters, moods, and emotions to create various visual representations of what the poem states, or what the poet says. When working with the Emily Dickinson poem, I used one specific line to create a phrase using letters used in that specific line. The line I chose, "One does not need a chamber to be haunted," I used my body to create the letters O, D, N, H, T, and B. Similarly, when working with Sabrina Benaim's poem, "Explaining My Depression to My Mother," the word mom is used repetitively. Using the word "mom," I created five different variations of an original phrase, which originated from using the letters m, o, and m, over and over again.

My First Week on Internship

My first day at Monkeyhouse started off not at all how I expected. Nicole asked me to generate a list of things I would need to budget if I were to hold a dance performance. Of course I came up with the typical list of venue, lighting, sound, costumes, etc; Where Nicole then had me take that list and generate all of the fine details about each bullet point. Let’s just say that the list doubled in size pretty quickly! From there I generated questions that I could ask if I were to go and try to rent a space. Upon learning that I would be going into Boston on Friday to do so, this simple exercise fueled my excitement.

Throughout the week, Karen and Nicole had me work on several different movement phrases. Starting on day 1, I worked with Emily Dickinson’s poem, “One Does Not Need a Chamber to be Haunted.” I took one line from the poem, and created a movement phrase, using letters from the chosen line as inspiration. For the next day, I was asked to record that phrase in two different settings, and bring in a poem that I enjoyed. I brought in a slam poem written by Sabrina Benaim called “Explaining My Depression to My Mother.” I have watched this poem on Youtube multiple times, and on several occasions. I wanted to use this poem because of truthful and harsh reality it has when explaining what it is like to suffer from depression. Karen had me create multiple sets of movement phrases, choosing one word from the poem that is quite repetitive; mom. I worked with different paces, size, planes, and instrumentation to create a set of phrases that I can say I am quite proud of.
My last day of the week was quite an experience. I traveled to South Station by myself to meet Karen and Nicole to go look at venues for rehearsal and performance space. I don’t think it would have been the full South Station experience if a creepy old man had not come over to talk to me, but don’t worry; I certainly got the full experience! Nicole and I visited three locations, all of which were very different from each other. The Dance Complex was wide, open space, with a comforting atmosphere, and looked like your typical performance location. The space where the performances were held was a large "black box." Nothing to grab your attention away from the dancers performing. Although there were a lot of stairs, (!) I thoroughly enjoyed viewing the building, and getting a sneak peek at the ballet class. Green Street Studios was quite the opposite of the Dance Complex. Quite the "hole in the wall" location, Green Street brought an entirely different vibe to the dance world. The space was occupied so it was hard to get a feel of the size of the studios. I can respectively say that Green Street would be a wonderful rehearsal space, as the location feels built for that solely. I do have to say that the Multicultural Art Center definitely caught my attention. Although on the pricier side, I do see why it is a popular venue to hold weddings, with its beautiful ceilings, and uplifting sense of surrounding. I do feel as if this location is more than appropriate for any dance rehearsal/production. The art galleries were just the cherry on top!