Reversible Review of Secrets & Motion

Barry Duncan has become an avid dance enthusiast since he began collaborating with Monkeyhouse. We are thrilled when he participates in our performance packs and are always eager to see the palindromes he produces in response to the concerts. His reversible reviews often capture the subjective and visceral experience of watching choreography. Monkeyhouse thinks that they add an exciting layer to dance writing and so have offered to publish them as an ongoing feature of our blog. And, don't worry if you missed Luminarium's Secrets & Motion at the Armory, you can still catch it at Boston University Dance Theater on November 1 & 2. For more info, click here.

by Barry Duncan

SECRETS

(LUMINARIUM)

MOTION

pm

a

last

I

fire

paper

I

faded

light

ur

time

sees

its

era

rot

deep

sin

I

sat

left

one

no

hush

to

me

so

phases

I ran

I keep

I peek

in

arises

ah

pose

moths

uh

one

not

felt

as

in
I

speed 

to

Ra

rest

I 

see

semi

truth

gilded

a

fire

paper

if

it's

a

lamp

Copyright (c) 2013 by Barry Duncan

Good Things!

  

*  Congratulations to Courtney Wagner and Jim Peerless on their recent engagement!

*  Monkeyhouse has a new intern, Danny Foner!  Keep an eye out for more information about him soon!

*  Longtime friend and supporter Leon Hovsepian just became a father, TWICE!  Congratulations, Leon!  And welcome twins, Leo & Logan, to the Monkeyhouse family!

*  Speaking of interns, four of our graduates headed off to college last month!  Best of luck to you Laila, Elyssa, David & Katelyn!  We can't wait to hear all about your adventures!

*  In addition to raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for The Jimmy Fund, the amazing Zach Galvin, sang the national anthem at Fenway Park last week!  Check out all the amazing work he's done with the Jimmy Fund Walk and maybe even get your walking shoes on!

*  Luminarium and Monkeyhouse Mused together!  In early August members of the two companies joined together share our creative processes and it was great fun for all!

*  Andrew Mudge's beautiful film The Forgotten Kingdom had its Boston showing last week.  Please go check it out if you can!  Congratulations on a job well done!

 

* Mara Blumenfeld, who gave Karen the original Princess Pamplemousse hat, is costume designing The Jungle Book at the Huntington Theater in Boston.

 

* South African actor, Nick Boraine is also in Boston this month for a five week residency with Global Arts Corps at ArtsEmerson. Monkeyhouse first met Nick when we both were performing at the NYC Fringe Festival in 2001. You can see him in free showings of the documentary, Truth in Translation ,and a workshop of a new project about the peace process in Northern Ireland.

 

* Our favorite palindromist, Barry Duncan was named Artist of the Month by the Somerville Arts Council!

 

*  Monkeyhouse reached over 400 "likes" on Facebook!  Thanks to everyone who spread the word!  We'd still like to keep going, so if you haven't already, tell the social media world why you love Monkeyhouse! 

 

What are your good things this month?  Share with us HERE! 

Getting to Know Barry Duncan: Part 1

by Courtney Wagner

C: For those who don't know, what is a palindrome?          
B: A palindrome is any phrase – letters, numbers, symbols – that reads the same forward as backward.  Though I'm more comfortable with letters, numbers can be surprisingly versatile and useful.

C: When do you use numbers in palindromes? Do you do all number palindromes or use them within a longer one with words/letters?
B: While I'm sure I've never written a palindrome of any length with only numbers, I've become more confident with numbers since 2010.  The most common use for them is probably a person's age or a date.  When my friend LeeAnn started a new job on the 29th of September, I made “9-29” the middle of the congratulatory palindrome I presented to her.  In my palindrome about Greenward, I give the street address (1764), which becomes the amount of a transaction (46.71) when it comes back the other way.  But sometimes I get a little more daring.  

My most creative use of numbers (Arabic and Roman) is in a series of palindromes I composed late last year.  Harvard University celebrated its 375th anniversary in 2011, and one of the celebratory events was an exhibition (and a book) of photos by five photographers from the Harvard News Office.  I wrote 6 PALINDROMES FOR 10 EYES:  A TRIBUTE TO 5 HARVARD PHOTOGRAPHERS.  There was one palindrome for each photographer; the sixth palindrome (the only one with numbers) was about the reception for the opening night of the exhibition at 1730 Cambridge Street on the 3rd of November.  Here it is:

5, eh? Two wine. Pix I spot. No? Visit. It's 1730. Sit? Never. It's as time was in a f-stop's eye. I made, “Wow!” I saw it on 11-3-11, not? I. Was I wowed? Am I! Eye spots fan. I saw 'em. It's astir.  Event is 0371st? (It is IV on top.) Six I pen, I. Wow: The 5.

It starts and ends with a number (as well as containing the words “two” and “six”), and the date is a natural middle.  I remember being very pleased with “It is IV on top.”  IV (4) added to 371 makes 375. IV can also be pronounced as “Ivy.”

C: When and how did you become interested in writing palindromes?

B: In 1981, I was working at Encore Books in Philadelphia.  I saw a wordplay book (by Willard Espy?) that had a section on palindromes.  Something just clicked when I read them.  I thought to myself, “I can do this.”

C: How would you compare the palindromes you wrote in 1981 to work you have now?  I imagine it is the type of skill that develops with time?
B: Oh, there's no comparison.  In 1981, when I was just beginning to learn about reversibility, I was like a baby making its first gurgling and sputtering attempts at language.  Now, thirty-one years later, I have achieved fluency in the language.  If I was a baby then, now I'm the chatty old windbag who sits behind you on the bus and just won't shut up and makes you desperate to reach your stop.  

Palindrome writing is like any exacting discipline, like any craft that demands a long apprenticeship. First, you learn how to build the machinery.  Next, you learn how to operate the machinery.  Finally, you learn how to hide the machinery.

C: I did some googling and was reading some blogs about palindrome communities in forums and other such websites...what is the palindrome community like?  How would you describe it?  Where do you fit into or how are you involved in it?
B: If there is a palindrome community, I'm definitely not involved in it.  Or, to put it another way:  I belong to a palindrome community of one.  I've always followed my own path, and the results have been gratifying.  I guess it's the same in every field.  If you hope to achieve real excellence, it's usually necessary to break away from the pack, go your own way, rise above the prevailing mediocrity.

Barry Duncan in Brooklyn

Barry & Monkeyhouse

Monkeyhouse has been collaborating with Master Palindromist, Barry Duncan on a new piece for the Against the Odds festival (Look out for details about festival dates soon!).  Many of our supporters have been curious about how Barry thinks in reverse and this weekend folks in Brooklyn can find out first hand...

Making Nothing Happen:

The Strange Poetics of Barry Duncan, Master Palindromist (and his friends).

This is the first event of ArtHelix (formerly The Bogart Salon) that will take place at their temporary event space, The Seltzer Room, 102 Ingraham St. on Friday, November 16th (through to November 18).

Beginning the weekend of November 16^th-18th the very first gallery exhibition of Barry Duncan, the world’s greatest palindromist, will be producing in real time a master work of artistic/poetic reversibility in situ. Like a modern day Michelangelo, Duncan will work on his large scale palindrome from a scaffold, creating for his audience an original master work of reversibility, but now for the first time his method of seeing the world “backwards” will be laid bare for all to witness. Alongside Duncan a host of artists (among them, Lisa Levy a self-proclaimed artistic psycho- therapist) will be working near Duncan interpreting his other palindromes in their own distinct styles. Using the famous adage of W.H. Auden that “poetry makes nothing happen”,  the gallery space will be a bee hive of poetic activity, but not in the traditional method of poetic recitation, instead the gallery will try and make visible the act of poetic process through art.

With an additional overlay that all during this time an independent filmmaker from Brooklyn, Michael Rossi, will be documenting this event for his forthcoming film on Duncan, entitled The Master Palindromist (see the trailer for this at www.rossifilms.com). So witness the poetic act firsthand, while all involved, including the artists and the audience, are offered to a session of “therapy”, and as all of this is being filmed. Thus, the mind of Duncan is made concrete, and visible…a poetic version of “Being John Malkovich” that allows for playfulness, connectivity, and strangeness, all crucial components of the actual artistic act, which are usually only inferred from the work in an exhibition, are now made central as the exhibition.

     MAKING NOTHING HAPPEN

Opening Party Friday 6-9pm, November 16th

12-6pm Saturday/Sunday November 17th and 18th

102 Ingraham (opposite Brooklyn Fireproof)

Win a Palindrome!

By Courtney Wagner

As if you needed more reasons to attend Your Just Desserts, let me give you one more...

Among other things Your Just Desserts will include an auction where you can win all sorts of amazing prizes, including a belt by Jon Wye, some goodies from JP Licks, some cupcakes or dance lessons.  What hasn't been mentioned is your very own palindrome!

Barry Duncan is a Master Palindromist, and has created a palindrome specifically for Monkeyhouse.  Barry has been working with Karen and Nikki all year long and the palindrome is part of Back Going No Going Back, an incredible collaboration of dance, spoken word, and projection art.

Barry will be at YJD tomorrow night, and he has even written a special palindrome about the event.  Better yet, you can WIN a palindrome by Barry!  Barry gets ideas from all kinds of things and has written lots of specialized and personalized palindromes in the past.  Don't miss the chance to meet such a unique guy!

See you tomorrow night!  You can also learn more about Barry Duncan by reading my interview series with him coming soon to C2C!

SKORT @ CCAE - Featuring Barry Duncan

by karen Krolak

It is spring and SKORTS are back in season! Around Monkeyhouse, though, SKORTS are short showings of works in progress. We have teamed up with the lovely folks at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education to give you sneak peeks of pieces that will premiere at Against the Odds this October.

Monkeyhouse choreographers will show slices of our freshest creations and ask for suggestions or advice from the audience. Show up and you could influence the future of a dance piece and be included in a soon to be released documentary film.

This month's SKORT will feature our collaboration with Barry Duncan, Master Palindromist, who has recently appeared on NPR and is the subject of a documentary film by Michael Rossi. I was inspired by an article in the August issue of the Believer Magazine to create a solo for Nikki Sao Pedro juxtaposing retrograde dance phrases with Barry's palindromes. The final product will also feature projections developed by typographer, Cynthia Roberts.


You can also catch a glimpse of a new solo being set on Nicole Harris by Caitlin Meehan. Buy tickets and get more info here.

Please note: Michael Rossi will be filming the SKORT so you might want to check your teeth for lettuce before you arrive. Don't worry, this is going to be a tasteful film and Monkeyhouse is very proud to be a part of it. Michael is an independent producer of documentary film and non-fiction television based in Brooklyn, NY. He has spent the last twelve years producing, directing, shooting, and editing on national programs for public television. Most recently, Rossi worked on The Silence, a thirty-minute documentary for Frontline. 

Tickets $5 

April 7

42 Brattle Street, Cambridge MA

7-9PM

Watch the The Master Palindromist trailer.

A Giant Patriots' Palindrome

by Barry Duncan

The photo credit: Barry's sister Sally

As you may have heard, Monkeyhouse is collaborating on a new solo for Nikki Sao Pedro with Barry Duncan as part of our Outside Voices season. Barry is a Master Palindromist (His sweatshirt, pictured to the left, was a gift from his friend Gladys on his palindromic 55th birthday.)who has created some incredibly clever and emotionally evocative texts for our piece. To give you a taste of his remarkable mind, feel free to feast on this Super Bowl inspired palindrome as you countdown to kick off.


When I woke up on Monday morning, January 23, I learned that the New York Giants would oppose the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI, giving the Patriots an opportunity to avenge their Super Bowl XLII loss.

Having grown up (in the Philadelphia area) rooting for an NFC team, and living now in AFC territory (in the Boston area), I felt uniquely qualified to write a balanced palindrome about the big game.

I tried to mention as many New York players as New England players, all the team owners, Madonna (who will appear at the half during the game and who also appears at the half in this palindrome), FOX Sports, and so on.

By Friday the 27th, the palindrome was 585 characters long; I thought my work was done.  Then I heard on Sunday that Kelly Clarkson would be singing the national anthem.  I decided to open the palindrome with the anthem and to make the ending a bit more dramatic.  On the 30th, one week after I began work on it, this Super Bowl palindrome (699 characters long) was completed.

Hope you like it.

Super Bowl XLVI

We now open: “O say” as is. So belt it now, hon, or if one more? Her! A rare KC. (I know.)
Had NE revenge, Bill, or no? W? On top? Same?
To get a flag: Ellis. Tip it! Won't Osi? One to NY. (Name it now.) NE position: on one.
Curt et al? Aces all. It's on! Turn a FOX on.
War day, eh? Din. Oh, sure. Now, as if it's a Feb. 5 SB. Tame?!
Set. Is opposition we felt? It's so. Two: NY v. NE.
(No risk, nor gain.)
I. Red. Now. Hut! I note: Ball up. No! Wide! Rah!
Seen Kraft (On), Mara (foot), ST (is a hero).
Tom era: W, an ad. Still? Or met Eli?
Madonna fan? Nod. Am I!
Let 'em roll. It's Dan (a Ware). Motor, eh?
As it's too far? Am not far. Knee.
Shared? I won? Pull. A bet on it? Uh, wonderin' --
I a Gronk, sir. On! Envy?
Now toss. Title? Few. No, it is opposites: EM, a TB's 5.
Be fast! If I saw one rush on, I'd –
Hey, a draw! (No XO, fan.) Rut? No, still a sec.
A late truce? No, no, no! It is open. Won? Tie? Many note, no? Is OT now.
Tip? It's illegal. (Fate got 'em.) A spot. Now on roll.
(I beg: Never end.)
Ah! Won! Kicker a rare hero. Men of iron (oh!) won title, boss. I say: as one. Pow! One W.

Outside Voices

by Courtney Wagner Eva Dean Dance joins us for Against the Odds! Photo by Jonathan Keith Remember how I mentioned how important musings are and how so many great ideas come out of them?  This has included the chance to work with other artists during guest-led musings like Eva Dean, Risher Reddick, and Lynn Schwab  as part of last year's Against the Odds.  Since it was such a success, Karen decided to make Season 11 about including Outside Voices, citing that it would be good for the company to work with other established artists and broaden our horizons and repertoire.   Nicole performing a piece choreographed for Against the Odds by Lynn Schwab Photo by Jonathan Keith What an exiting opportunity to have new works set on us!  For the upcoming season we already have several works in mind with some Outside Voices.  This includes Mariah Steele, who met with Karen after the January 2010 installment of Movement at the Mills and subsequently performed with us for with her company Quicksilver Dance in Against The Odds.  While she's been secretive with the details of what she has in store for use, she will be setting a new work on the company and it may or may not be based on some of the work she was creating for her thesis project.  Risher Reddick opened our eyes to the world of choreographed combat which proved to be a fun an enlightening study in body language, tone, and communication with the audience.  Who knew that the same simple movement performed in two distinct ways could have such a different read within the audience.  We look forward to delving deeper into this.  Happily cleared for dancing again, Nicole is excited to start working with Josh Hilberman on a new solo.  Meanwhile Karen and Nikki have been working on a piece dedicated to reversibility and a movement palindrome to be set to Master Palindromist Barry Duncan will even be featured in a documentary! Karen's and Monkeyhouse's support for Outside Voices can be seen not only in bringing in guest artists for new work, but also the C2C positions and residencies and mentoring programs.  We are happy to announce we are looking for new interns for the C2C internship for 2012 and Nicole and Karen are excited to continue to develop this program.  As you can see we have lots of exciting things in store for Season 11 and Outside Voices will definitely be playing a key role.  However, all of these extra influences will require some extra support. If you are interested in seeing more collaborations with area choreographers and opportunities for us to develop and expand, then think about supporting Outside Voices as part of our new Yearly Campaign Program.  This program is designed to allow supporters to have their donations funneled toward a certain part of the organization.  This can include infrastructure and keeping us in our beautiful Springstep home, individual company members, special projects like Nicole's work with PD, or fostering creativity and blossoming with musings and visiting artists.   For less than a dollar a day ($25/month to be precise) your donation could help directly support and fund future projects with fabulous people.  Although the Yearly Campaign is designed for recurring monthly donations, the recur option is not required and information about personalizing your donation is available on our website.   Click HERE to be redirected to our website for further information about the Yearly Campaign.  You'll find descriptions about the other facets of Monkeyhouse to sponsor as well as links and instructions.  And keep an eye out for future posts about more facets of Monkeyhouse!