Currently Reading: The Art of Coming Home by Craig Storti

I'm currently reading The Art of Coming Home written by Craig Storti for obvious reasons.

To quote the book on Stages of Reentry because it seems very relevant:

1. Leave-taking and departure
2. The Honeymoon
3. Reverse Culture Shock
4. Readjustment


According to this... I'm in Stage 3.

My Journey of Reverse Culture Shock (or is it just regular Culture Shock?! I'm confused) part 1

Greetings from Singapore!

I've been here for a little over a month now and it has been a whirlwind of emotions. I am still playing tourist in the city/country that I grew up in and also my birthplace. It has changed so much since I left over a decade ago. 

Oh, little red dot. You have reinvented yourself. I don't recognize you anymore. 

The last time I visited was 2008 and even then, I was a foreigner in a place that was very much my home growing up. 

Some changes based on my observations:

1. The once deserted Marina Bay area is now a sprawling behemoth casino & shopping center known by residents as MBS a.k.a. Marina Bay Sands. 

2. Tanjong Pagar has become a mecca for working expats in the nearby financial area to get expense account dinner & drinks. The old shophouses are now turned into multiple trendy eateries, bars, spas, lounges. 

3. There are so many new condo buildings all around the island! The housing market in Singapore is robust and thriving. Rental rates are through the roof here (even more expensive than Manhattan!)

4. Lots of younger expats. I've noticed that there are a lot of foreigners working here that are around my age bracket. When I was growing up here, most of the expats were older and had families. Now there are quite a number of folks that come here are single, un-married, no children, and younger. 

5. New shopping malls crowd Orchard Road and they are also building up shopping centers in areas that were predominately residential neighborhoods. 

Will post more observations in my next post....

Culture Shock....or rather Reverse Culture Shock

The humidity and heat. I'm constantly sweating. Some days, it will rain and I feel grateful for that because its not as hot. Living in tropical weather has never been comfortable for me. My hair has sucked up all the humidity and moisture in the air resulting in flat, limp, greasy, and life-less hair.

Ugh.

I miss my easy-to-style hair. I like to curl my hair and in the States, I don't have to apply gobs of products to make the style stay put (with the exception of Summer in the East Coast). I have to apply lots of products here and it will still fall limp at the end of the day.


I talk and act differently but yet I look like everyone thus resulting in weird stares. I'm feeling the "hidden immigrant" role that everyone in the TCK world talks about. Back in New York, everyone is from all over and the society embraces the crazies. You have to really work hard to stand out. I stand out here because I talk and act differently but if I were walking on the street, you wouldn't peg me as different. When I open my mouth to talk or make a social faux pas, everyone stares. They are probably either thinking I'm a) an idiot or b) a snob for speaking and acting differently. *sigh*  I'm neither here nor there.  

Such is a confused TCK.

More to come....

TCKs are like family

TCK Meetup during the Annual Dumpling Festival 2011

I've been co-event organizer for the New York City Third Culture Kids Meetup group for a couple years now and loving how I've forged really good friendships through the group especially the other organizers (Hi Aradhana & Eddie!).

I haven't written much about the group because I've been busy organizing events and coming up with ideas for the next meetups as they have been varied from formal discussions to picnic in Central Park (we just had our 2nd annual picnic!) to also promoting Chameleon to TCKs and booking performance gigs for A.H. Dance Company to perform Chameleon in different cities (and my other jobs as well!)... time seems to be limited.

I'm a member of several organizations and meetup groups but the one that has seemed to make it onto my social calendar is a TCK meetup. The biggest reason is that I really like meeting TCKs and connecting with them on the level that my non-TCK friends (I have plenty of non-TCK friends) seem to overlook or just don't understand.

TCK Picnic in Central Park 2011

TCK Picnic in Central Park 2012; Photo Credit: Aradhana Hinds

These meetups are super fun and sometimes we have a HUGE turnout and other times, its not as big. Most important of all, we create a warm environment to include TCKs and non-TCKs alike.

TCK Picnic in Central Park 2012; Photo Credit: Eddie Nwabuoku

I meet a lot of TCKs and especially the past few years since performing and touring Chameleon to different cities. I always try to meet up with the local based TCKs. I think its because I need to find my grounding and get the inside scoop on what the city has to offer from the TCK standpoint of view. I'm friends with a lot of TCK/Expat folks in the research world and the online communities so its always nice to put a face to the online persona. In TCK terminology, I'm what you would call a "screamer" but I didn't use to be this way.

We are setting up a TCK Summer book club and our first book is Ruth Van Reken's "Letters Never Sent". I am reminded by her letters the private journals I kept chronicling my very frustration for not "fitting in" or that "no one understood me" and that I would always be alone, etc. It came from a deep dark place of depression and anxiety that left me extremely troubled. Finding out that there are others similar to me, I sought out to find TCKs through Livejournal (before all the social media we use today) and through my universities' online message boards to find local TCKs. I then used my artistic creative talents to make a production based on my story and other TCKs stories using dance and film as my senior project. Years after that, TCKid, Facebook, Denizen, highly visible famous TCKs, and more publications on TCKs surfaced and I went back to the ideas, literature, and production elements to create Chameleon.

It has been a cathartic process for me. I'm also helping a lot of TCKs through the project and making lots of TCK friends. I am very grateful for all of those who I've met through Chameleon and through the Meetup group. My family is many thousands of miles away and to have a TCK family here is just priceless.

- Alaine

Chameleon performance this Sat @ Dance Conversations at The Flea Theater

 Photo Credit: Mei Chen Lioe




A 15 min. excerpt of Chameleon, the Experiences of Global Citizens will be presented during Dance Conversations @ The Flea Theater on March 24th at 7 pm

Chameleon, the Experiences of Global Citizens
Choreographed by Alaine Handa
Performed by A.H. Dance Company


For more information about the festival: http://www.theflea.org/show_detail.php?page_type=0&page_id=3&show_id=106


About Dance Conversations @ The Flea

Curated by Nina Winthrop & Taimi Strehlow
Dance Conversations @ The Flea is a FREE film, performance & discussion festival.


2012 Festival Schedule:


Films Playing in the Lobby
Nobody’s Darling by Marta Renzi
Seven Fruits by Pyeunghun Baik

Thursday, March 22 @ 7pm
Moderated by Gina Gibney
Jessica Ray
Movement of the People Dance Company
Vangeline
Megan Sipe

Friday, March 23 @ 7pm
Moderated by Carol Ostrow
Molissa Fenley
Maggie Bennett
Caliince Dance
binbinFactory

Saturday, March 24 @ 7pm
Moderated by Pele Bauch
Alaine Handa/A.H. Dance Company
David Appel
Beau Hancock
Talya Epstein

Sunday, March 25 @ 3pm
Moderated by Jonah Bokaer
Peggy and Murray Schwartz celebrate Pearl Primus
Luke Murphy
BARKIN/SELISSEN PROJECT
Daniel Gwirtzman Dance Company

Free Performance this week in DUMBO, Brooklyn as part of the CoolNY 2012 Festival! 

Last year, we performed a 10 min. excerpt of Chameleon at the same festival and received beautiful pictures that we used in our publicity materials all year. We performed Ivi's solo (for the last time :-(  - We miss you Ivi! Hope you're having a blast in Grad school & enjoying London!) and unveiled Tsubasa and Laura's duet that was originally a solo performed by Yoonjung.

I hope you will join us this week for another excerpt of Chameleon titled "Converge" and its the big group section with a fusion of dance styles ranging from Flamenco, Balinese, Postmodern dance, Japanese folk dance, and as always all the stories my current dancers bring to the piece!
This piece seems to evolve by the locations (professional theaters, dance studios, outdoor stage, community centers, gyms, and a cafeteria!), cast (we've understudied each other's parts, substituted, and performed it in so many times in different settings), lighting (or no lighting), with and without projection! hahaha...


Here are the details for this week!
CoolNY 2012 FESTIVAL
Program E
Feb. 2, 2012 & Feb. 4, 2012
7-8:30 pm
White Wave JOHN RYAN THEATRE, 25 Jay Street, DUMBO, BROOKLYN

Directions: F train to York Street (1st stop in Brooklyn!)
Here's a map!




View Larger Map


Some of the pics from last year's festival!
Photo Credit: Yi Chun Wu

New video posted from Toronto Fringe 2011!

I'm finally getting around to posting some video footage highlights from Toronto Fringe last summer! Here's Lauren & Tsubasa's duet to TCK Nikki's story about her experience of growing up in Japan and hanging out with other children of a different culture but embracing that culture as her own.





Choreography by Alaine Handa in collaboration with the dancers
Dancers: Lauren Calzolaio, Tsubasa Ogawa
Film: "I am a TCK" directed/produced by Alaine Handa, Film editing by Nicholas Fox & Alaine Handa; Nikki Felt appears in this film clip

For more information about A.H. Dance Company please visit http://www.ahdancecompany.com 

Happy New Year!

May your 2012 be filled with creativity, good health, laughter, and happiness!

Another birthday followed by the holiday season, and another New Year's... it seems like Nov.-Jan. is a whirlwind every year and I get sucked into it then immediately spit out suddenly by mid-Jan.

I have lots of travel plans for 2012 and hopefully some of those travel plans also include A.H. Dance Company performances and workshops....

First up for 2012 is the APAP weekend (for those not-in-the-know... it is the Association of Performing Arts Presenters conference this weekend) and we are showcasing with Jodi Kaplan's Booking Dance at the prestigious Ailey Citigroup Theatre in the Alvin Ailey Dance Centre right in Midtown/Hell's Kitchen. This is our third APAP and a different venue for us this time. There's quite the lineup of artists showcasing at the same venue so hope you can check it out! 


Speaking of APAP - we would like to extend the invite to you (our loyal readers!) to come see our 20 minute showcase. We will be presenting a 20 min. excerpt of Chameleon, the Experiences of Global Citizens