Song by Led Zeppelin (here or vid down below) "I don't know how I am gonna tell you, I can't play with you no more, I don't know how I'm gonna do what mama told me, My friend, the boy next door."
On a mini-vacation...those being all I get of late. Trying to catch up with some blogging late on a Friday night, only my tablet...wishing I was at GB right now. But the trip is more than worth it, good friends good food, laughs all around. It is a long way away from this act that is for sure.
This was one of those songs that reached out of a funk and said "Do Me!" So I did. The song knew what I needed. Catharsis through beauty. I had never done ballet in any of my acts before. I had to go out and buy the dances, but it is what the song needed.
In struggled for quite a while over the set, creating the background textures was easy but what to do with them was less so. I had them scroll up and down on movers, giving a more arty effect than my usual. I did not want to distract too much from the dance, cause the dance and the song was what it was all about.
This act was for someone who I was missing desperately but knew I had to let go of...
...and it really helped get me where I needed to be mentally.
Song by Lana Del Rey (here or vid down below) "Money is the reason We exist Everybody knows it, it's a fact Kiss, kiss"
For our International Show on the Fourth of July, I had wanted to celebrate my bioregion, Cascadia, which should secede from the U.S., Ecotopia style, because it is a world all its own. I searched long and hard for a song, which is not how I like to create, I want the dance to come from the song. I did not find any anthem that would be appropriate and palatable to the GB audience, knowing that even my favorites were just too local to be of interest. Flippin' bunch of hippie anarchist folk singers.
But I did come across a song in my search that evoked the opposite imagery, and decided to run with that instead. I like the heavy layer of cynicism that I feel in the song itself, though I am not really sure if that is just my bias or Lana's intent.
In all honesty this was THE hardest act to conceptualize I have ever done. I had to do research on mansions, imagery of wealth, etc. etc. I even watched the video for the song which I never do for fear of contaminating my process, but I was desperate for a direction. Why was it so hard? Because I do not idealize wealth or the 1%. I do not visualize it or my place in it. I might like fine things in my life, my mom always said I have "champagne tastes and a beer pocketbook." But lifestyles of the rich and famous...I am completely out of touch.
Limos, champagne, luxury pool, and a whole lot of cash, well that is answer isn't it? I do love the way the act turned out. Challenging myself to see the world differently even if I do not covet that life, was good. For very good reasons I was an absolute nervous wreck while performing it, not only was it the first performance after our break, but there was a special man in the audience who (for reasons that will remain out of here) was "meeting" me for the first time and I really wanted to impress him. I think I did. *winks*
