http://www.stichting-stec.nl/flatlannd2augjasminemerrijn.html

with some time passed since my last entry, i present a few more photographs from the showing. these were provided by matthijs jansen, photographer for id11.

henning plays "our house" as the audience wanders towards our house


jasmine, henning, and the audience watch the video version of jasmine projected on the wall


the audience watch jasmine's film on the ceiling; allison's eye watches the room in her piece


the gathering after the showings are through

from our showing!

some photographs taken by id11's photographer during our house's showing

far left: the audience watches in the dark bike closet the video on the roof that jasmine filmed

left: me taking a moment in allison's piece

below: allison performs her choreography in a piece linked to the one pictured on the left










left: from within the small closet, jasmine's hand peeks out into the crowded room

below: me in allison's piece

We lived together, schooled together, studied together, worked together and stood in front of a blue wall ... together(yeha)!









shot and posted by henning

crunch time

Netherlands – Delft – 12:53h – blog time

I'm having a cup of pickwick's green tee. A beverage my friends would consider rather rare to find silently boiling in front of me. I'm a coffee addict. Something my doctor keeps complaining about and my former director would have called 'a good boy'. Trying to be healthy, that is. With so many dancers around me being all flexible, in shape, eating healthy and sh... (should work on my language – sorry). This weekend will acquire a lot of work, effort and awakeness to accomplish our goal of shooting Jasmine's movie, putting the furniture into Merryn's closet (which would be Jasmine), putting the final finesse in Allison's piece and getting my untrained, out of shape old bum up on the roof. Caffeine needed, for sure! So green tea seemed to be the right choice.

We don't need to worry, though, 'cause today Jolanda brought over a cricket. I assume it is a lucky one, even though I did not run across the highway holding the cricket to prove my assumption. That wouldn't have proven much, anyways, concerning the dutch acceleration temperament. Still, it's a lucky one, although it has a temper. It is … complaining ... much. Standing on the cupboard, doing knee bends, stretching it's head up high, shouting … one gets the impression it must be of Canadian decent.

Shshsh-BOOM!

Just now, three shoes were thrown in my general direction. Canadians^^! Sis is eksaktly se riesson wai ai schuud noot wörk in ä kommuunitii in wwitsch ai äm ä minorätii. Just kidding. The girls are lovely, working hard and highly understanding ... me being an artistically uneducated, second language speaking, not used to creating beautiful art all day, German-man in Delft. But I think I need to get going, 'cause the girls seem to be indecisive whether or not they should put me in a not big enough box. If I want to have a say in this, as well, I should maybe be part of the deciding process. So, fare thee well, eat drink and be merry(n)!

hihi

by henning

a lovely note from a reader

this dear note came to me via email from jasmine, sent from a very sweet reader and friend:

"I am so pleased to have followed this project and to feel connected to the process. I have eagerly been awaiting this final post and look forward to seeing the pictures and the video clip.
I can only imagine the scene with musician hanging out a window, projected images and people cramped in small places. I am sorry you were unable to film Jasmine in the closet segment but look forward to whatever gets put together. It reminds me of the Dance Fest in Rotterdam, as any site specific work, it is temporary fleeting, in the moment, unique never again to be repeated exactly; especially when the audience's presence shapes and alters the context so much. Congratulations to all and rest well. With Gratitude,
Love,
Catherine"

henning on the 'line. i snuck this shot; i don't think he knows i have it.
henning:"Are there any other shots I don't know of?"


and some pictures from the artist drink after our showing

so many more pictures!

with many thanks to henk kuipers, photographer (among other artistic trades) and husband of our friend liset, i post some photos taken the day we danced with the rabbits. you can see the rest of his photographs at http://www.flickr.com/photos/henk-kuipers

and there's liset!

to sum up the final weekend...

sadly i write this entry not from holland, but from the air (though i won't post it 'til i'm back on the ground). for our final weekend on the project, troelstralaan 156 had no internet, leaving the full house of myself, allison, jasmine, and henning to live without email, blog, and connection to the outside world. i'm left with much to write and many photos to upload, post-residency.

FRIDAY henning and i had a really nice late-night chat when he arrived unexpectedly after midnight the night before. so i awoke somewhat too early and groggily this morning, and made a cup of tea before class. allison and i had a big day planned, like many of our other days that last week. we made a trip to the foto place, where we printed photographs that hope had taken, to display as an installation on her behalf; our headshots and an artist shot each; a few pages of photo collages, which we put together in a little thank-you booklet to present to our gracious project organizers, rolina & paul. we held a rehearsal for allison's piece, and we cried over the lack of internet (which had shut down that morning).

allison setting up the installation & doing some repairs on the house / me painting the walls over from the first showing... thanks to our couch surfers for the spraypaint!

DINNER ON A BOAT (almost) to reward ourselves for our week of hard work (and to satisfy a little tradition me and allison sort of have) we went out for a special dinner that night - our only meal out in the whole trip. we wanted dinner on a boat on one of the canals, but we remembered too late that it was friday night, and the boats were packed. we found a spot beside a boat: a table in the setting sun, right along the algae-covered canal with a brass band playing down the street. mmm and the food was delicious! the setting was perfect (save that we weren't necessarily on the boat).

jasmine arrived later that night, and we spent the evening drinking wine and singing songs – literally, kids songs. we saved the rest of the work for the following day, and stayed up way past bedtime, like we were teenagers again.

SATURDAY: CRUNCH TIME we woke for class at the usual time, followed immediately by rehearsal with allison. after lunch we rehearsed jasmine's piece, got some insight from allison, and put it on the camera. she had the video edited & credited before the day was through. (it'll be on the blog as soon as she sends me the final copy!) her rehearsal / filming lasted much of the day, and we got to my rehearsal around 9 that night. it was really quite okay, though. henning and jasmine were still awake and ready to work with me, and were very cooperative and helpful in the process of putting the last threads together! we dealt with costumes, discussed the technicalities for the projection. and they dealt beautifully with my stress and anxiety level that sort of started to creep up throughout the evening. we were in bed not long after midnight...

THEN THE BIG DAY ARRIVED!

SUNDAY was sunday ever a whirlwind of a day. i can hardly even think how to recount it to you! we spent the morning putting the final touches on everything. a crew came by with beer, wine, chips & nuts for the "drink" afterwards (for which we volunteered our house, being the most appropriate one for hosting). we joined the other presenting artists at the cultural centre a half hour before the talk, just to make sure everything was going to work with the projector.

the talk itself went well: it was pretty short. i gave an overview of our living situation in the house together, a little background info, and the setup of our showing-to-be. we then each covered the inspirations for our individual explorations. most of the other artists showed some of their previous work on the projector, but ours was, of course, live, so it seemed a bit redundant to show anything ahead of time.

the group arrived at our house ahead of schedule. we rushed henning up the stairs, where he perched himself partway out the window with his guitar. as the crowds arrived across the lawn, he began to sing "our house", but a brilliantly rewritten version to suit the three of us dancers in the house. the three of us watched from the wide-open kitchen window, smiling out as person after person gathered on the backyard patio ... until we were faced with a crowd much larger than anticipated. jasmine went outside to greet them as planned. she led them in to the bike closet, where mattresses were laid across the floor, the projector poised to project the video onto the ceiling. allison, henning and i hid in the living room: me and allison warming up, henning re-tuning the guitar. there seemed to be voices and confusion beyond the door, though. it turned out half the crowd couldn't fit into the room! so the video showed twice, while we - okay, allison - humoured the first crowd until the second played through.

we pushed them to the sides of the hallway so jasmine and i could slip the projector up to the bedroom where my piece was to be. (yes, i understand how ghetto our equiptment trade-off is. we were just trying to maintain an authentic feel of how things really function in our house.) henning was a darling and played softly to the crowd from the stairway, to keep them all from getting too restless.

now, instant replay for a film is one thing. for a guitarist & dancer (when part of the show is the act of applying makeup) it's not so okay. so we squeezed everyone in. and oh boy! did they squeeze. they got nice 'n' cozy in a stifling hot room, while i shoved them away from the one small floor space needed: for the seated musician and small pathway where the door of the closet would open to reveal jasmine inside. unfortunately it was so tightly packed it was physically impossible for me to stick around. so there will be no real video of that piece to be uploaded. however, i have a genius plan to edit together the film that was projected simultaneously, with the dress rehearsal that was recorded. (depends on how creative i feel during my five-hour layover in boston)

the audience was cooperative and went with the flow of this new experience of living art! we piled 35 to 40 strangers and artists into a room about the size of my first new york apartment.



henning and jasmine during the dress rehearsal for my piece

it was easiest to manage the audience for allison's piece. at least that included using the front patio. her piece was a success and i had a really great time finally doing it in front an audience (of more than just jas and henning), and the audience received it very well.


allison in allison's piece

the showing on the whole was a really great success, i think. even though we were faced with the challenge of more people than we could fit, it was wonderful to have such a turnout! i guess allison and i did really well with our flyering ... ;) and i think it brought something very new and eye-opening for a lot of the artists, and for the locals who joined the crowd. it shook them up a bit, people who are not used to experiencing art that creates, breathes and grows as you watch it happen.

another productive day! since allison and i took our lazy day on monday, we've been set on making the rest count. so today, much like yesterday, we started class at 9am and stuck to a two-hour rehearsal before lunch. we have the material for the most part set, and are experimenting with timing and fine-tuning. detailed movement research. truly one of my favourite parts of being an interpreter: the one place my obsession with perfectionism isn't so embarrassing. we are beginning to find some really beautiful moments, in the relationship between us, and in the relationship between each of us and the camera (which is feeding live onto a television in the corner of the room, handheld during most of piece by allison). it is so much fun to play with material, and to have so much time to delve so deeply into the piece. we are playing a lot with the piece, and workshopping it in such a microscopic fashion that i've not experienced before. it's incredible to have this much time to get to know movement to the point where each second and split second matters, and each detailed eye flicker is a part of the piece - not necessarily set, but to be paid attention to.

we went to an artist's cinq-a-sept (happy hour, gathering, whatever you wish to call it) this afternoon, at the invitation of rolina (one of the two generous organizers of this project). we met mostly local dutch artists, who spoke little english. we met a rather chatty couple, lisa and pete, who live between here and new york: here when he needs to be, and in nyc when she needs to be. rolina also introduced us to the owner of the cafe (uit de kunst - a cafe with two parrots in the jungle patio out back), when we inquired about renting a canoe to take along the canal. he said he'd take us to den hoorn, so we have a canoe-renting date with this mysterious and adventure-enthusiast on friday! whether the canoe happens or not, we had a good evening of meeting interesting folks.

and the week passes on... we have two more days until the duo from groningen return, and then one day until the big day! i think it's time for less words and more pictures...

(note: the next couple pics, and the one at the beginning of the blog, are choreography by allison, and photos by hope)

following are a few snapshots from my piece, set on jasmine.