Pleasures of Collaboration

What do nine poets, four dancers, and five musicians have in common?

“Pleasures of Collaboration” Poets, Dancers and Musicians at Play
Friday, June 17, 2011 7:30 p.m.
Takoma Park Auditorium, 7500 Maple Avenue, Takoma Park
FREE EVENT


Enjoy an evening of performance pieces that combine dance, music and spoken word—and join in the fun when the audience is invited to contribute to new work. Meet characters such as the wolf at the door, Jane Bowles, a gay fetus, a sea violet, and a green conflagration.
These    experiments    in    collaboration    were developed by a multi-talented group of artists from    Maryland    and    Washington,    DC,    during Collaboration    Laboratory,    the    culminating project of Anne Becker’s tenure as Takoma Park poet laureate. Over a 6 week period, these artists, including Karren Alenier, Jodi Beder, Rima Faber, Craig Flaherty, Greta Ehrig, Kate Jordan,    James    Landry,    Hannah    Leatherbury, Ashira Malka, Sydney March, Shakaya McFarland, Ken Moss, Orit Sherman, Rosanne Singer, Patrick Smith and Yermiyahu Ahron Taub, explored the layering of movement with the voices of humans and cello, keyboard, guitar, saxophone, flute
and percussion. For more information contact Anne Becker at annebecker@bodywriting.org.

Brought to you by the City of Takoma Park’s Arts and Humanities Commission
celebrating the creative spirit of our community

Collaboration Laboratory Continues

Yet another configuration tonight - four poets, two dancers, a keyboard player and myself, with poets occasionally moving.  Hannah introduced a group warm-up based on the breath and sound which had a good centering effect.  We worked with three poems and a movement improvisation which elicited words and phrases.  A musical idea that came to me since our last session did fit the poem that I thought it might.  Lots of fun and the pieces are taking form.  Forgot my ebow and a decent pic, so used my fingers exclusively.  I personally felt as if I did more musical exploration and less relying on my own cliches.  Limitations does indeed give rise to increase.

More work and less talking kept the process alive.  The performance is on June 17th.

                           Photo by Tj Matthews

Collaboration Laboratory Session 2

Very tired after work today.  Had a quick turnaround after getting held up at work.   A delicious dinner of BBQ Tempeh & oven roasted potatoes & carrots was followed by a 10 minutes nap.  I had to grab my gear and get to the Collaboration Laboratory.  Tonight we were joined by two more poets and dancers.  After introductions of the new people and a taste of their work we dove in.

The musicians were two guitarists, a cellist, keyboards, and a wind player with a flute and a sax.  A few percussion instruments were also available.  Six poets and four dancers rounded out the team.  Three of the musicians are also poets.  Following the format of last week, a poet read a line or a few lines and then the musicians and dancers responded.  We were off and running and after the second collaboration I realized my tiredness was gone.  Sparked by the creative juices flowing about the room, I was ready to go all night.  The 2 1/2 hour session flew by.  So much was going on that it was hard to take it all in, but what I did take in was creative, funny, mysterious, deep, engaging, and much more.  Something real good is happening in Takoma Park.