The last day that Shugi, Yunyu and I worked together, we were in a long hallway at TNUA.  After filming the material from different angles several times, I became intensely drawn in to the quiet dance that was moving the space around me. Shugi and Yunyu had begun to stir space while holding time; they had shifted past the mechanics of the choreography and were ritualizing the silence into motion. It was meditative. It was vibrant. It was timeless. The dancing they were doing had a particular, luminous yet direct virtuosity.

I imagined that working this series with seasoned performers, I would experience new ways of understanding virtuosity.

What does virtuosity mean at this age? At least one answer is this: holding the space of time.

The XTE AOC Benefit is this Saturday, February 11 at 7:30 pm in the Studio Theatre at Erma Lowe Hall on the TCU campus (3000 University Drive S at Bellaire Drive N). For tickets or to make a donation to the AOC go to:   https://secure.qgiv.com/event/aocdancebenefit/

Laura Barbee in Pale Moon

Lynn Lane Photography

Twenty-five years ago, Andy Parkhurst, a senior at TCU and then president of Chi Tau Epsilon Honor Society, inaugurated a concert to benefit the AIDS Outreach Center of Tarrant County. The members of XTE have worked since then to cultivate the relationship  and support the AOC. They have continued to produce concerts yearly and in 2012, under the direction of Julie Kostelancik, began to successfully incorporate the work of professional artists in the event. In 2014, the concert was listed as one of the top ten dance concerts in the metroplex.

This year, wild goose chase dance has been invited to participate with other professionals and the DanceTCU ensemble. Please come if you are in the region and support this endeavor.

a trio of images from our film shoot today. . .

This is William Trevor’s response in a 1989 interview in the Paris Review when asked about defining the short story:

I think it is the art of the glimpse. If the novel is like an intricate Renaissance painting, the short story is an impressionist painting. It should be an explosion of truth. Its strength lies in what it leaves out just as much as what it puts in, if not more. It is concerned with the total exclusion of meaninglessness. Life, on the other hand, is meaningless most of the time. The novel imitates life, where the short story is bony, and cannot wander. It is essential art.

Over the past two days, we’ve begun to work with references to the past through a mode of moving in which Shugi now finds home. The result looks much like a cat’s cradle.

In finishing this year, I am starting my sabbatical leave. I’m working with composer Greg Biss. He is on the path to creating 13 short piano pieces in homage to Robert Schumann’s Kinderzsenen. I’ve been loosely referring to it as “The Kinderzsenen Project” but it has become more a measure of time.

I’ll be working with several established dance artists to create incredibly short works. Hence, one of my challenges: How to make a 1:40 minutes dance in all fullness?  Or (this feels even more difficult) – a :33 second dance? One path is a return: the return to the virtuosity of simplicity. Thanks to Lalitaraja for sending me in that direction.

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After two+ years in the planning stage, yesterday was the first day in the studio. Thanks to a TCU Research and Creative Activity grant and the generosity of my friends, Shugi, Tung, and Yunyu, I am in Taipei for this first adventure. Shugi and I actually began with a two-hour TaiChi class. Moving breath, energy, heat. Later, in the studio we started to talk about games, ended up building a chain of rubber bands on the spot with a cache found in the office, off lunch boxes. We strung them up in parallel as she did as a child, and then I watched Shugi find a long forgotten jumping pattern in her body.

We humans do – already – time travel. Body as transport.

Alex has been busy editing photos. I was looking through them this evening and smiling: a glimpse of summer past. Here’s one of Alex and Laura – dance making at Union Hall.

And here’s another: chatting with friends in the community who came to see our works-in-progress showing.

Laura and I are looking forward to showing Pale Moon at the Dance Gallery Festival in two weeks!