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American Dance Festival – The Joy of Movement

by James Fuller ’10, Artist Development Fellow: 2009

The American Dance Festival (ADF) is six weeks of dance classes, performances and panels held every summer at Duke University.  This summer, I attended ADF as a six week school student.  Students usually dance six to eight hours a day, and attend performances throughout the week.  Too much happened for me to describe the whole festival in one post, so I’ll start with my first class of the day.

At 10:15am on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, I would start my day of dancing with a two hour class taught by Gerri Houlihan.  The class was called “The Joy of Movement”, and was based in the techniques of Jose Limon and Lar Lubavitch.  On ADF’s one to five scale of difficulty, the class was listed as a five because Ms. Houlihan wanted to focus on advanced artistry and musicality rather than on basic technique.  Despite its difficulty, “The Joy of Movement” more than lived up to its name.   The energy in the class would build with each combination, and by the end of the class, we would all be smiling and bounding across the room.

Ms. Houlihan’s teaching was a testament to the power of positive reinforcement.  She was never negative or condescending, but would yell out useful corrections and earned praise.  Ms. Houlihan had a full voice, and would sing and shout encouragement throughout class.  It’s not surprising that she has been one of ADF’s most popular teachers for years.  Throughout the summer, former students who dance with some of America’s most famous modern dance companies would drop into class to pay their respect.

Everyone in the Ms. Houlihan’s class danced with complete commitment, and it was exciting to see my peers improve.  I feel like I improved as well.  Ms. Houlihan’s combinations helped my dancing become more daring and rhythmically dynamic, and by the end of the summer, I was able to do deep lunges and swoops that had always escaped me.  Ms. Houlihan, the other students, and the class’s superb musicians never let me settle for less.  More than anything else at ADF, this class reminded me why I love dance and find such joy in movement.

San Francisco, New York, New Music, and the Boston Globe

A very happy Fourth of July from Victoria Aschheim. As the Office of the Arts knows, the configuration of my Artist Development Fellowship changed from my original plan. Instead, my Fellowship began at the San Francisco Symphony, where I studied with Raymond Froehlich. This study wonderfully evolved into lessons with Trey Wyatt and Jack Van Geem as well. I am grateful for the generous warmth and welcome of Ray Froehlich, Trey Wyatt, and Jack Van Geem (of the percussion section) to the San Francisco Symphony and its fine premises, and for the kindness extended to me there during my Fellowship stay, with an invitation additionally to attend rehearsal of the Symphony under the baton of Maestro Michael Tilson Thomas. Also, I am appreciative of Resident Conductor and Wattis Foundation Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, Benjamin Shwartz for discussion of musical topics. While in San Francisco I was invited by Nora Pirquet (cellist in the San Francisco Opera and Harvard College alum) to attend rehearsal at the San Francisco Opera of their production of George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, a great treat too since I have done academic research at Harvard on the work of George Gershwin, and Gershwin’s xylophone writing (in Porgy and Bess and in An American in Paris) is prime element of orchestral percussion study. It was the first time I had experienced a live performance of Porgy and Bess. Thoroughly memorable!

My work in San Francisco was followed by travel to New York City and greatly appreciated, intensive lessons at Juilliard with Daniel Druckman of the New York Philharmonic. I look forward to my work with Mr. Druckman continuing in August. Attendance at the New York Philharmonic performance of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem under the baton of Maestro Lorin Maazel rounded off my first set of lessons with Mr. Druckman. It brought back so many memories of Festivalensemble Stuttgart, a summer music festival I attended. I performed in the chamber orchestra in Britten’s War Requiem under the direction of Maestro Helmuth Rilling and Maestro Robin Engelen, with Torsten Schonfeld, Solo Timpanist of the Berlin Staatskapelle, as the percussion section coach. We also recorded the War Requiem during the festival, so it was interesting to observe Maestro Maazel’s interpretation! Our recording is here
http://www.amazon.com/Britten-War-Requiem-Hybrid SACD/dp/B0019M82BW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1246585434&sr=1-1 and on iTunes!

Participation in the New England Conservatory Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice, supported by the Artist Development Fellowship, had a most delightful conclusion for me when I discovered that my performance (and my name) was included in the review in the Boston Globe of the marathon concert that concluded the 2009 Institute. Of the 36 pieces performed in the marathon concert a handful were singled out for inclusion in the Boston Globe review, which described the Lukas Foss piece in which I performed: “percussionists Victoria Aschheim and Masako Kunimoto working inside the instruments’ cases – and the combination of clanging, buzzing, and slow-rolling scales was mysterious and magical.” The Boston Globe review concluded by noting the “flair and enthusiasm” of the Contemporary Performance Practice Institute, an altogether gratifying conclusion to the work at the 2009 Institute. I am deeply grateful for having been selected to receive a 2009 Artist Development Fellowship.

What we like to call Pre-Pro

Pre-Pro, ie. pre-production, or in my case, quite literally: pre- being a pro.

But that’s rather the point of making this film, aside from the desire to tell the story itself: taking on a project that will hopefully be a catalyst to push me further from the pre- and closer to the pro.

I’m suddenly faced with terrifying new possibilities and no more excuses, I now finally have the time, resources and support to make exactly the film I want to make.

So now, with two months before shooting is to begin, I am running around to production meetings, breaking down scripts into shot lists, creating schedules. I’m also wishing I’d paid more attention in my high school math classes which I’d sworn I would never find useful (since I’d be going into film and not finance). Not that I now am looking at finance as a back-up career (though in my more panic stricken moments I’ve thought about diving into psychiatry). I do happen to have a rather annoying problem to solve, involving trains and time. My options: A. sit down at a train track crossing all day and wait for the train to pass so that I might record the time, B. find out the distance between the train’s starting point and the crossing I want to film, then using the high-school math I didn’t pay attention to, the starting time and the speed of the train, figure out what approximate time it’ll reach the crossing, or C. rewrite that scene not to require a freight train in the first place.

Unfortunately, I like to make things difficult for myself, so C isn’t going to be an option.

I’ve started getting confirmations for crew, and the next big task for me will be locationing. Finding a house to work in will be both pivitol (since so much of the film takes place in Scott’s house) and one of the more difficult tasks I have, since most of the shooting will be at night and therefore inconvenient for whosever house we are using. The logistical things are just a matter of steady work. When it comes to the day we begin shooting though, I will have a slew of decisions in every scale of detail. Those are the decisions that haunt my thoughts at the moment.

Have you seen “A Beautiful Mind”? Crowe’s character is followed by his hallucinated friends that hang around in the background, but never really leave him, even after he’s regained his so-called sanity. That’s Scott and Jesse for me at the moment. I practically have conversations with them about their histories, their personalities, their habits, as I drive to the grocery store. You could call me the nosy chauffer. (Don’t worry, I’m not actually hallucinating Scott and Jesse in the backseat of my car–when that happens, I’ll probably have to stop driving for fear of causing major accidents).  It is a real  balance that must be struck, between details and the bigger picture though. Not to loose the story for the details, nor to loose the details that give humanity to the story. I hope that in the end, if the characters that I’ve written are real enough, alive enough, then the story will emerge as any story would unfold between two people thrown together by circumstance.

So. Nerves I have plenty, because finally getting the chance to prove oneself comes with the chance of failing to prove onesself. But with those anxieties comes a great deal more excitement at the freedom of exploration, and the realisation that this type of work is exactly the kind that stretches me in all the directions that I love; creatively, intellectually and organisationally. Plus, directing allowes me to exercise a tiny smidgen of that childhood trait of mine: bossiness.

I am finally making though. And the experience is like one of falling in love: giddy, tingling, light touches of butterfly wings fanning my centre, and the pounding of a heart which is either a product of excitement or of sheer terror.

Artist Development Fellow Spotlight: Dancers

Among the Artist Development Fellowship recipients this year are two student dancers and one recent graduate: James Fuller ’10, Julia Lindpaintner ’09-’10, and Lauren Chin ’08-’09. We’ll post a longer report on their activities at the end of the summer, so consider this a preview:

Lauren Chin ’08-’09 is headed to two dance festivals this summer. In June, she’ll attend Springboard Danse Montreal, a three-week opportunity to collaborate with emerging choreographers and professional dance companies, culminating in a workshop performance. In July, she’s off to DanzFest in Cattolica, Italy, founded by Christine Dakin, former Radcliffe Fellow and Artistic Director Laureate of the Martha Graham Dance Company, as a professional-level intensive workshop in Graham technique and repertory, Paris Opera Ballet technique and repertory, Butoh, and Gyrokinesis.

Julia Lindpaintner ’09-’10 will study the techniques of three different choreographers at their respective schools in New York City: José Limón, Paul Taylor, and Mark Morris.

James Fuller ’10 will train at American Dance Festival in Durham, NC, which will involve attending six weeks of dance classes, as well as watching performances by over 16 dance companies in residence.

Check back in August for their reflections on these experiences.

Julia Lindpaintner '09-'10 and James Fuller '10 performing a duet by Marin Orlosky '07-'08 as part of Harvard Contemporary Dance Ensemble's "Caprices"

Photo by Courtney Bryant.

Dancers’ Viewpointe 9: Inspiring a New Generation

A security guard working the Saturday, April 18 performance of Dancers’ Viewpointe 9: Rite of Passage at the New College Theatre was awestruck by the physicality, grace, and beauty of Harvard’s dancers. Having a four-year-old daughter at home, he asked me, “Where can I enroll her in ballet classes?” and “When will she begin to dance as beautifully as these dancers onstage?”
How wonderful is the moment when one falls in love with dance.

I too had a magical experience Saturday night, awestruck by the energy and performance quality of the dancers with whom I take class. Their precision, elegance, and expressiveness was unparalleled! The mix of classical and contemporary choreography, live gamelan music, and the historic Rite of Spring brought together one of the most magical performances I have seen in years. To me, the dancers of the Dance Program (Office for the Arts at Harvard) looked just like a professional dance company, with dancers and choreographers who inspire and challenge you to grow as a person and an artist.

Eve of ARTS FIRST

Right now, I’m sitting in the Office for the Arts; ARTS FIRST starts tomorrow. I know there’s something I should be doing, some phone call I should have made and several stacks of boxes I should haul around the square. Instead, I’m sitting at this desk, thumbing through the guide, and, for the first time in weeks, thinking of all those things that I’m looking forward to this weekend, as opposed to everything I should be stressing over. In the event that you find yourself in a similarly thoughtful state, and are looking for something to do this weekend, allow me to present my personal ARTS FIRST picks:

If you’re in to poetry (or like me, and wish you were in to poetry) you should really attend the Conversation with John Ashbery ’49 (Thurs. 5pm, New College Theatre). One of the major figures in contemporary American poetry, Ashbery will be recieving the Harvard Arts Medal in commemoration of his achievements in poetry, literature, and the visual arts. It’s always cool to get up close to a Pulitzer Prize winner; hearing one discuss his work is an opportunity that should not be missed.

Friday afternoon, take some time to relax outside ABP at the Holyoke Stage. Various groups will be performing, including some acoustic folk and rock performers as well as those veritable staples of the Harvard a cappella scene, the Krokodiloes and the Veritones. Friday night might be a good time to catch up on some theater. I’d suggest  the production of John Ford’s ‘Tis A Pity She’s A Whore, going on in the Loeb Ex, which never ceased to sound riveting no matter how many times I edited its guide description, or The Space Between, an entirely student production that reimagines the life of nuclear physicist Richard Feynman. The latter is happening on the Loeb Mainstage, a huge achievement for an original student play.

Saturday is when things really take off. Start your day at the Jazz Picnic (11:30am-1:30 pm, Science Center Lawn) before taking on the veritable panoply of events that is the Performance Fair. If dance is your thing, camp out in Lowell Lecture Hall; I’ll definitely be there to see friends in the Harvard Middle Eastern Dance Company, the Harvard Philippine Dance Forum, and the Harvard Ballet Company. Should you find yourself over by the pub, I would definitely check out Clink Miller’s blues and jazz performance– an amazing guitarist with a raspy voice and endearing stage presence, Miller plays with a gritty, down-home ‘twang. Right after him, at 3pm, you can hear the lighter, more pop friendly vocals of Dan Masterson. I saw Masterson perform at the Freshman Talent Show earlier this year (where I was staffing Orientation, not creeping on the freshmen), and he is nothing short of adorable and incredibly talented. Finish your Cambridge Queen’s Head set with Your Favorite Stars, a Rod Stewart cover band (for which no explanation is necessary). I’ll probably round out the day with some of John William’s Heroic Masterpieces in Sanders (performed by the Epic Chorus and Wind Orchestra) and maybe some opera in Lehman Hall.

Sunday, if I’m still standing, I’ll probably spend the day looking at things. Gallery shows are going on in most of the houses and gallery spaces on campus, and the guide includes a handy breakdown of how to walk through them. Public and performance artists will also be out and about throughout the yard; get Davis Moore to sketch your portrait and check out the Animation Projection on the side of Widener Library. When I’ve had my fill, there’s a strong possibility that I’ll end up taking a nap under one of the great old trees in the Yard, hopefully one which houses a surrealistically suspended canoe.

Feel free to respond to my suggestions or to add more of your own in the comments section. Happy ARTS FIRST everyone!!