Happy November Birthdays!

Happy birthday to Eva Dean, Mia Paschal, Chuck Green, Donna Rosenberg, Jon Taft, Aaron Copland, Nick Boraine, Ryan P. Casey, Courtney Wagner, Rick Frank, Remy Marin, Savion Glover, Susie Telsey, Eleanor Powell, Benjamin Britten, Laura Scanlon, Alexander Godunov, Busby Berkeley, Michelle Schlief, Mandy Patinkin, and Aaron Ximm.

Happy Birthday Aaron Ximm!

by Caitlin Meehan

I was able to do a small interview with sound artist Aaron Ximm, who provided part of the soundscape for DisArmed, which I choreographed in 2011. He had quite a lot to say about his work! He has a website called the Quiet American where you can listen to some of his recordings from his travels and read about what he does.  Also, he has a birthday later this month, so wishing him a Happy Birthday too!

C: First of all, the concept of the Quiet American is fascinating! What made you first want to record sounds on your travels, instead of (or in addition to) taking photographs?

AX: Despite our visual fixation documentary sound is a extremely powerful medium -- the challenge is just to get people to engage it in these breathless, multi-tasking days.

Temporal media generally have the capacity to engage us in a deeper way than static ones; it is easy to let ourselves believe that by glancing quickly (and most likely superficially) at at an image or even sculpture or installation, that we have 'seen' it. Temporal media -- and that includes dance and drama of course -- afford no such opportunity. They demand an investment of time, the construction of a mental space and its inhabitation. They generally operate not in what they are but in how they change; this dynamism is also engaging to our questing minds.

Sound without image has the opportunity -- if only people are willing to accept it on its terms, without distraciton -- to be more powerful still, because sound without imagery inevitably engages the confabulatory mind. Absent imagery to account for what we are hearing, our minds will *make* imagery for us, abstract, coherent, narrative, or otherwise.

This participation as a function of our own attention to this 'second sense' is why I find sound so powerful a mechanism.

Documentary sound like I work with is of course a small subsection of a medium that also incorporates music, its queen. I like documentary sound for several reasons. First, by removing agency, a field recording reminds us that the seat of the artistic experience is in the framing and perception of experience -- that what the artist does is offer objects or moments within a rich dialog of material that is not itself art, but only a vehicle for artistic experience. Remove the auteur as genius and you teach the capacity to appreciate the aesthetic wherever it is encountered. I think that's an important education in these late days.

Also, technically, there is a profound timbrel and spatial richness in every-day soundscape -- much more so than in almost all music, no matter how highly and carefully produced. Such richness affords fabulous material to manipulate and juxtapose.

And finally, speaking of juxtaposition, I am personally delighted in field recording by the experience of fabulous serendipity. Capturing or recapitulating chance juxtaposition which would seem -- seem -- to be the expression of capricious artist genius or humor is great fun and a great teacher. That notion -- of the accident as greatest inspiration -- has really come to pervade my relationship to almost everything.

C:  This is fascinating! Once you have made recordings, you layer and manipulate them to create the tracks that people can listen to. How do you decide what to change about a recording, what to add or subtract, lengthen or shorten?

AX: Much of what I do these days is NOT make such editorial decisions. There are really two strands to my work: the highly and meticulously composed, like the track Malaria that Nicole used, and the un-composed or 'naked' re-presentation of soundscape.

Over the years I have never lost my love for making very musical work with a musician's sensibility and commitment to editorial if not performative wizardry -- and the satisfaction of that work, especially at a musical level, never dims -- but I think the most aesthetically interesting and serious work I do has left that essentially behind in favor of work that uses soundscape in very different ways. E.g. that allows chance and scale and context to encourage reflection on, appreciation of, or engagement with, the richness and quality of essentially unedited and often un-ending soundscape.

I've even gone beyond that in fact, to making work that is interested in the question of what happens when documentary work is itself no more intelligible or digestible than the moments it is understood to have captured. E.g. by making work with very very long recordings (8 hours or more, 24 hours or more...) and then presenting them in a way that poses the question: do you have the time to listen to this? To sit with this? What are you missing if not? What would you gain if so? And so on.

C: In some ways, I think this could be likened to modern dance. Some pieces don't have a narrative or anything "set" about them, while others do. So what is next for you? Is there a place you have always wanted to visit and record, but have not yet had the chance?

AX: At the moment my ability to work is very sparse; I have two young children and the demands that places on me -- combined with the necessity of maintaining a full-time day-job -- prevent the kind of time-intensive studio work that I did ten years ago.

I hope and trust that will change, but in the meantime I take my aesthetic rewards in smaller ways, e.g. through my return to un-mediated music making through my obsession with a contemporary instrument form called the handpan -- melodic steel percussion that looks like a UFO held in the lap, but sings like an angelic harp made of ceramic.

My next large-scale sound project will most likely be a marrying of field recording with the (manipulated) sounds of those instruments.  You can read more about my fascination with such instruments here.

C: Fantastic! Thanks for giving us some insight into your work! Looking forward to what you do next.

Getting to Know Lisa La Touche

by Danny Foner

Recently, I had the opportunity to talk with Lisa La Touche, an internationally renowned tap dancer. Her career highlights, as she writes on her website, include "New York and North American touring casts of STOMP, the Sophisticated Ladies at Harlem's legendary Cotton Club with Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, A.C.G.I with Emmy Award winner Jason Samuels-Smith, Rumba Tap with Max Pollak, Co-Director and guest artist with the Chicago Human Rhythm Project, faculty member of the School at Jacob's Pillow, and guest artist at The American Tap Dance Foundation and The Vancouver Tap Dance Society." If you're interested in learning more, you can visit her website.

DF: How did you start learning tap? What about it made it so interesting to you?

LLT: I started taking tap lessons when I was 8 years old. I had amazing parents, dedicated to finding me a fun extra-curricular activity as a kid. After soccer and piano and gymnastics, which I didn't love, tap dance stuck. My mom also took lessons as a kid, and would sometimes show me steps and I always got a kick out of it. So upon my first class on my own, I was hooked immediately. The fact that I could make sounds and music with my feet thrilled me, while also being able to dance and express myself.

DF: Many dancers and other artists are inspired by their predecessors. Are there any tappers that inspired you to pursue your passion? What do you admire about them?

LLT: Oh man... there are so many that it's hard to narrow down. I've been really blessed and honored to have many mentors and their inspiration and wisdom is timeless and endless. Some to mention: Jason Samuels Smith, Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, Max Pollak, Barbara Duffy, Martin "Tre" Dumas III, Brenda Bufalino, Dianne "Lady Di" Walker... they are all such lions and lionesses in their craft. They all, to this day, dedicate themselves deeper daily in their contributions to the art form and the community. They teach me so much about what honoring your craft means and what transpires from staying focused and connected to your own passion. Jason Samuel Smiths inspires me always to see how the level of execution can always increase, and to never get comfortable. I'm always hearing "reach" when I think of him. Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards... I never have words... not only the execution but profound wisdom and grace in her dancing and teaching, and also a truly resilient woman and a divine lady always on and off stage. Max Pollak... a prime example of the possibilities of what one can achieve while branching out and simply staying true to investing in what inspires you. He's the pioneer in incorporating Afro-Cuban music and it's legacy as a tap dancer. He has created and mastered his own technique with his in-depth endeavors to study and hone the Afro-Cuban music and culture and earn respect from its homegrown artists.

DF: On your website, you write that you like to stay connected in the NYC jazz music scene. How does your experience with tap dancing influence your appreciation for jazz? Are the two connected in any way?

LLT: To me tap dance is another component of jazz. It's the same language, but different instrument. Tap is to dance as sound is to movement. It goes hand and hand to me. You have to learn how to dance and you have to learn how to play music. I've had the honor of working with some incredible musicians and they have influenced me deeply as much as my dance mentors have. Sometimes it can be a barrier to break through to have musicians be open enough to really work with a tap dancer and respect them on the same level as a musician. But upon meeting those that really do that, it's really fun from both parties to see that we really do walk the same walk... Jazz to me means a freedom to improvise and to push boundaries always in the "music," so to speak. We are composers as well - that would be the musician's term for us as "choreographers". One of the biggest highlights of my performing experiences: being on the band stand as a tap dancer with the Revive Da Live big band directed by Megan Stabile and Igmar Thomas. Having Igmar compose and arrange a song for us tap dancers with a 22-piece big band and then coming up with our own choreography composition within it was the best. And the reaction from the crowd felt like we were rock stars. This craft is truly so powerful and the advantage we have, so to speak, is the fact that we do get to dance while making our music, so music lovers always lose their minds.

DF: You belong to a tap group in New York called Tap Phonics. Can you tell me a little more about that? In other words, what does Tap Phonics do?

LLT: Tap Phonics started as my own "pick-up" company. Right now pick up companies are mostly how dancers function with their own groups. We get dancers together that we like working with on a project basis. This started for me with moving to New York in 2008. I met Brooklyn singer-songwriter Maya Azucena and she invited me to present my own group and open for one of her concerts. So I had to come up with a name, and [Tap Phonics] stuck. From then on, as different gigs came up, I pulled dancers together that I needed and it grew from there. Tap Phonics now, to me, is more of a project than a group.

I'm focusing on new arrangements and compositions and always collaborating with other artists or musicians. I think of it as "phonetically speaking." We are a group that can represent essences of the tradition and legacy of the tap dance art from, yet push past the "straight ahead" regime and find new ways to keep it contemporary. I've worked with spoken word artists, R&B musicians, MCs and electronic sounds in my projects. I'm currently working on curating a show while I'm here temporarily in Vancouver in support by the Vancouver Tap Dance Society. New works are being created as we speak which will funnel into the next Vancouver International Tap festival and I'm really excited about it!

DF: You've performed in dance festivals and on tours all across the world. What's next?

LLT: Next is working on my own conceptualized show as I mentioned before. Taking time to "be still and create." I'm very inspired lately and am composing more than I have in a while and it feels good. I've worked with so many amazing artists worldwide and only hope this will continue. In the meantime it really does feel good to take the time to work out my own ideas and build new platforms for myself and for others as well. I'm working more in Canada as of recently and am trying to bridge more of the gap between my home country, its dancers and the American tap dance scene. New York still resonates as home to me, and my roots ignited also in Chicago. It means more to me than I can express to be considered a contributor and to be respected by my American peers.

DF: And one just for fun: if you could do just one step for the rest of your life, which would you choose?

LLT: Funny as it sounds, you'll find cramp rolls and 5 count riffs in so many of my phrases. But all in all, I think in terms of musical patterns and then let that determine what vocabulary I should use.

Happy Halloween!

My Favorite Things

by Courtney Wagner

Months later, we are still hearing about people's favorite moments from the Against the Odds festival. This one came from company member Courtney Wagner!

My favorite part of ATO this year was getting to perform the blindfold duet with Caitlin. After working on the idea and some of the material for over a year and a half it was great to see it come together for performance. Since we first started work with the blindfolds in September 2011, I have loved being able to explore the possibilities I feel they offer. There is something about working with the blindfold that I find relaxing and very freeing. Not being able to see where I am or what I am doing helped me let go and be less afraid to just explore and create, especially when I had a partner in Caitlin or Nikki to guide me. Caitlin and I developed a nice chemistry through rehearsing the piece, and I think we were able to keep the choreographed movement fresh while still being able to improvise. Because I couldn't see, even well rehearsed and choreographed phrases had the potential to be altered in performance, and I liked the edge this gave to my performance. I also liked hearing the feedback and response from audience members about how it looked, especially with our costumes and Jason's lighting (which I'm sure was fantastic!). We got a lot of positive feedback and I am excited to be able to perform it again someday!

Heart & Sole Application!

by Ryan P. Casey 

Do you have a special duet that you've been itching to perform? A favorite dance partner you want to work with? A musician you've wanted to dance alongside? Here is your chance!

In honor of Valentine's Day 2014, I am producing "Heart & Sole," an evening of dynamic duets at Arlington's historic Regent Theatre - and I want YOU to be a part of it! Applications are now open through the month of October to participate in this special evening of talented twosomes.Jazz, tap, hip hop, ballet, contemporary, modern, ballroom, classical Indian, Latin fusion -- performers of any and ALL styles are welcome and encouraged to apply to perform! Professional and sophisticated pre-professional dancers in the Boston area can submit applications and do NOT have to be affiliated with a dance company.

In the spirit of events like Luminarium Dance's 24 Hour ChoreoFest (in which both myself and Monkeyhouse were fortunate to participate this summer), I want to use "Heart & Sole" as a way to bring together a diversity of Boston dancers and showcase the engaging, entertaining, and varied dance community we have here in the Bay State. It is my every wish to make lasting friends and memories through this performance while showing off some of the best dance talent in the area!

If you want to get involved, check out the http://heartsoledance.weebly.com/ official website and apply today - or contact me and learn how you can help out. Be creative! A duet can feature two dancers of different styles; a dancer and a musician; one dancer playing two different roles.... The possibilities are boundless! Let's see the passion for dance that lives in your heart & in your soles!

Summer Re-CAP

by Danny Foner

Hello, Monkeyhouse!

As a high school student returning to school, I'm faced with the same question countless times: how was your summer? Well...

This past summer, I was fortunate enough to attend the CAP21 Pre-College Musical Theater and College Audition Prep program. This musical theater program is offered to rising juniors, seniors, and college freshmen at the CAP21 conservatory in New York City. For five weeks, I, along with eighty others, attended classes on singing, dancing, and acting for eight hours a day, five days a week. By the end of the first week, I realized that the program is described as an "intensive" for a reason. However, this time was also some of the most rewarding of my life. By the end of the program, I felt as if the five weeks had lasted both a lifetime and a nanosecond.

Though many factors contributed to this experience, one group of incredible individuals cannot be overlooked: my teachers. Across all nine of my classes, the constant ingredient was the dedication and expertise of the instructors. Every single teacher had years, sometimes decades of experience on Broadway, national tours, television, or with other professional work. Not only was the talent of the teachers world-class, their ability to imbue students with a rich depth of knowledge was unbelievable. The quality of instruction opened my eyes to countless new techniques, philosophies, and skills in the fields of singing, acting, and dancing.

The excellent instruction was fully matched by a sterling curriculum. In acting, improv, and monologues class, we learned to find and trust our instincts as actors, as well as mental and physical techniques for creating a three-dimensional, real character. In vocal technique, vocal performance, and audition technique classes, we learned the basis of proper singing technique, and applied these skills (as well as our acting skills) to the performance of a song. In tap, ballet, and jazz classes, we were both supported and challenged to learn new skills and apply them to demanding routines. For instance, my tap teacher, Geoff, who just so happened to be the dance captain for the recent Mary Poppins musical, taught us the original choreography to "Steppin' Time," a number in which jolly chimney sweeps tap dance across the rooftops of London. At CAP21, amazing teachers combine with an outstanding array of classes to produce an unforgettable experience.

However, the classes themselves only tell part of the story. This program was also an incredible opportunity to meet amazing new friends and witness some great performing art. Hailing from Argentina to New York to California and everywhere in between, we were an eclectic mix of students. Nonetheless, our shared love of theater was the glue that forged many friendships. Although I only knew them for a few weeks, I feel as if I've known some of these friends for years. Every single classmate I met was kind, friendly, and extremely talented. I have many fond memories of my friends over the summer, including some of the theater we saw. I'm not sure if you're aware, but there's a small thoroughfare in New York City that is known for putting on a good show once in a while. You probably haven't heard of it, it's called Broadway. With cheap student-rush tickets in hand, we sampled many of the local shows, including the hilarious Potted Potter, the witty First Date: the Musical, and Fuerza Bruta, an immersive piece of performance art that is as close to indescribable as I've ever seen.

All in all, I guess you could say I had a pretty good summer. If you have a passion for musical theater, I highly recommend this program (if you couldn't tell already). Now it's your turn: how was your summer? Are you excited for fall, or wistfully pining for the sunny days of August? Let me know via Facebook!