Clanging Space

what better way to spend a dreary day in chicago?

so *nsp*r*ng!!!!

teehee... finally!!!!

you're going to watch these and i'm not going to have to say anything else.

Face Ballet by Sam Gershman:

The Chicken or Egg Dance by Victor DeTroy:

encore une fois

pretty much a meditation on the same thing... with Hannah playing her melodica.

Untitled from Johanna Morris on Vimeo.

who is that.

right.

believe it or not, this did stem from the bug. i won't tell you how...because i'm still working it out. clap if you believe!

i love the shades and the sunlight flapping through.

this is just a snippet of a movement thought for the piece i'm working on.

Untitled from Johanna Morris on Vimeo.

bug: hello august.

don't get bored! it's a bug. you can skim this and get the idea. just some smaller ideas that i'd like to expand on. i really will, this time.

i came into the studio and i just couldn't ignore him...

we shared the space together and i wanted him to at least have a posthumous debut. ceremonial, really.

lately, just feeling small movements. could be the weather.

Untitled from Johanna Morris on Vimeo.

hiatus.

workshop with tere o'connor, day 1

taking a comp workshop with tere o'connor. he simply asked us to make a little phrase in 7 minutes (no pressure, no strings attached) and then we WROTE about them. bagh. talking. on the paper. but it's a good exercise... thinking about various audience members' perspectives (from religion to mathematics) and picking out little parts of the phrase that could correlate somehow. he calls them anchor points and i know i've ranted to people about this before (or rather, written in proposals... those are like rants, right?) about needing to create access points for everyone.

anywho. the second one was created by scrapping the first one and then creating a new one based on the writing. basically, a new phrase bearing the written ideas in mind but not a literal translation thereof. it's time to kill the dream of ever becoming a liturgical dancer.

to see some of the ideas in my writing, read below the videos after you watch them. also, those are squints and not sneers. i can't see.

pt1

7.6.09_pt1 from Johanna Morris on Vimeo.

pt2 the last bit was added on because i forgot it. also, bear in mind, kitchen space is limited. gonna take out the fridge and the stove soon if my roommate doesn't mind.

7.6.09_pt2 from Johanna Morris on Vimeo.

IDEAS (yeah my ideas seem like bs now looking back but that is to be expected):

3 masks

no sequence or cohesive, singular idea

animals (dog, bird)

scultural moments.

and i'll add this one:

asldkfja;weijra;lgkn dslkfj!!!!!

hand and deflating.

first of all, after i made the first video my internet stopped working until THIS VERY EVENING! so.

if only it were possible to present such minute somewhat private movements better. or rather, present these little moments in the way that you yourself experience them - small and delicate. have to say though, the video captured how i first saw it quite well.

here's a little shout out to freaks and geeks.

6.23.09_hand from Johanna Morris on Vimeo.

this one is just an exercise, inflating and deflating like balloons in the macy's day parade. i feel like the execution was a little undercooked but just wanted to get something out tonight. crumple crumple FOOM!

6.30.09_balloons from Johanna Morris on Vimeo.

a little diddy.

just another subway foot pattern. again, by that i really just mean that the placement of my feet on the floor line up "with the tiles" - ie perpendicular, parallel, diagonal, and divide space in even increments.

if you got my email maybe (or not, doesn't matter) you could possibly make a subway foot pattern and i'll gladly post it!

6.22.09 from Johanna Morris on Vimeo.

feet!!!!!

two projects in my head: zombie dance and feet. am trying to focus on those for the next few blogs posts, anyhow.

why it is always the subway platform, i don't know, but here's another diddy that came to me whilst waiting for the train... actually, i do this a lot, sometimes unconsciously. it's like a game. keeping feet very precise and only allowing the them stay within the confines of the tiles (right angles, parallel, diagonals, splitting tiles in halves and quarters). no formula, just neurosis. so i tried to recreate it (or apply the "rules") in the studio.

video one: little feet (the basic foot pattern that i came up with)

video two: long feet (basic foot pattern and then repeating, mixing, changing direction, etc)
only if you want to see it: click here
but it would be fun to do it in a little space crowded by people.

video three: big feet (i left the little square i was working in and put my docs on).
Moving big was much more fun, actually!!!

video four: arms (using a --gulp-- choreographic device: create arms separately and put together).
I don't have the guts to show the video of the arms and legs together... let me work on it more first.

Zombies and ballerinas. Not kidding.

Last night... zombie night. Is this what happens in my new apartment? Movement-wise. Fear not - there were no zombies in apartment. And... welcome to my new place!

For the first clip, I did this while I was standing on an outdoor subway platform on a windy day trying to lean into the wind. Just imagine a forest of people doing this while a single body moves through them, haphazardly (of course), perhaps knocking over bodies, moving like the second video. Since I'm an indecisive person, I was just going with that instinct (or non-instinct, as it were). So the questioning of where to move my body is built into the movement. Something that occurred to me - you can "show" the audience that you're thinking by speaking, easily! "Hey you in the front row with the argyle socks!" So how can you show that you're actively thinking by moving?

Just goes with my general line of thinking lately (thanks, Sam) - how can I be more "present" in performance? To create something that is not only pertinent to "the times" but to the very moment where I inhale part of the air that you just breathed out.

Below: 1. Zombie in the wind/could be zombie forest. 2. Zombie in my kitchen/zombie navigating zombie forest. 3. Watch my newest solo! I think it's the costume's farewell performance... Gorey Prelude. Makes me want to create a group of "preludes" with no, um, entree?

1. Zombie in the wind.

2. Zombie in my kitchen! aaa! I mean, indecisive zombie...

3. Gorey Prelude:

Overdue: sentimental melody

Finally got into the studio.

This is, more or less, a structured improv. Want to make a new solo for...something.

(I realize it's kind of hard to see... i hate florescents, though)

oi.

busy busy. this week has been crazy and i haven't had much time to video tape anything new.

i'm thinking (just writing notes for me, really) i'd like to do another hallway dance here before i move - an homage.

that and the dream.

i had some dream last night where a lot of familiar faces came together (current friends and old, old lovers and new) into this sort of alvin ailey-esque performance wherein i was the worst performer.

that's not the important part.

within the piece was the only existing "original move!!!" i don't know what that means, it was my subconscious and i don't believe in original moves. nonetheless, i will share with you as best i can what it was (though the first part is some awkward, ballet, swanny stuff that i think would be great if in a bigger, more exaggerated form - gotta get my butt into a studio).

prepare to be blown away!!!!!

quiet.

monday...rainy...quiet thoughts and movement.

this is me coming back to some ideas i moved through earlier while i was babysitting. trying to recreate - couldn't quite remember all of them/the sequence but these are the basic thoughts. perhaps something to come back to later this week?

(jo - don't forget the ankle beats/head fling thing...)

saturday night. first one.

more or less feels like a random evening (saturday evening, to be exact)... actually felt the compulsion to make a little clip - could it be that i'll follow through?

...can you hear the popcorn popping in the background?

my introduction and "manifesto."

This is my idea: I simply want to start this blog not to write, but to share the ideas that pass through my body.  All I want is to have a place to present - cost free, no complicated coordinating with collaborators, no rehearsals, and no late dancers.  This blog will serve the purpose of a venue.  I don't often share my thoughts verbally because of many reasons - mostly it's just difficult.  Not big on talking. The rub is that I can't communicate well without my body; not in the dance sense of the word (because that just conjures that sort of cosmic, therapeutic definition that annoys me - let's feel each others energy and move from your spleen).  "Dance," for all intents and purposes, is just a label.

In the spirit of this quote, I will use it to fortify my forthcoming point - let's call it my manifesto: "God creates, I do not create. I assemble and I steal everywhere to do it - from what I see, from what the dancers can do, from what others do."  Thank you, Mr. Balanchine.  So, this isn't just a cathartic exercise - I'm giving up the licence to my ideas (but I do get first dibs, ha).  Instead of keeping it to myself, I'm placing it on the shelf.  If you like what you see, take it...borrow it...wear it out and throw it away.  I'm tired of being self-conscious and assuming you don't care.  If you don't, then I suppose you wouldn't have read to this point.

For the record, I hope to not write nearly this much...

Just going to start out with something slightly vintage, circa summer 2007 (ha).  I have this long hallway in my apartment and had this idea to make a dance film in it.  I shot a lot of footage but technology got the best of me and this is the only bit of edited footage that surfaced after hours of finagling and futzing (don't laugh if you watch it. I said HOURS!!!)