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 

Dancing with props: Rehearsal video from Fall 2010

Rehearsal footage from Chameleon, Fall 2010

Dancer in the video: Lara Sofia Romero, Laura Lamp, Heather Wigmore, Sheila Klein, Tsubasa Ogawa

Choreography by Alaine Handa and Dancers

Prop Design by Natalia Krasnodebska (Check out her website! www.bynatalia.com)

More video links of dancing with the props:

Emily & Shayna's solo & monologue http://www.vimeo.com/12857959

Anna & Ivi's solo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEu9J5Gz8kA

Chameleon excerpt from "Converge" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0z7vHijLAXs

Pictures from APAP 2011

I got some fabulous pictures from the showcase performance of Chameleon during APAP 2011 at Dance New Amsterdam that I took. Enjoy!

APAP 2011 Showcase information

Jan. 7 & 9, 2011 APAP Conference Performance Showcase at Dance New Amsterdam, 280 Broadway (Entrance on Chambers St).

Jan. 7 @ 8:50 pm and Jan. 9 @ 5:20 pm.

Showcases are free and open to the public. Limited Seating.

For more information about the APAP Showcases at DNA please visit:

http://www.dnadance.org/site/performances/apap-2011/

Choreography by Alaine Handa and Dancers

Dancers performing this weekend: Ivilisse Esguerra, Sheila Klein, Laura Lamp, Tsubasa Ogawa, Lara Sofia Romero, Heather Wigmore

Prop Design by Natalia Krasnodebska

Featuring the documentary film "I am a TCK" - Directed by Alaine Handa and photography by Albert Gumilang, Rob Oandasan, and Lauryn Ishak

More Information about Chameleon:
Chameleon is a multi-disciplinary presentation about global citizens who have been exposed to several cultures in their developmental years. Exploring the notions of home, cultural identity and relationships through film, spoken word, theater, photography and dance, Chameleon draws on the insight and experience of Third Culture Kids: those who have spent a significant period of time in a culture other than their own. Home, cultural identity, and relationships in the context of multi-cultural and cross-cultural influences are explored through performance. This project is suitable for all ages and can be presented in conjunction with community arts based workshops in dance, spoken word, poetry, visual arts, jewelry design, theater, photography, and film.

New Videos posted on Vimeo!

"Frozen Memories" (excerpt from Chameleon) at the Amalgamate Artist Series Showcase from Alaine Handa on Vimeo.

Choreography by Alaine Handa
Dancers: Ivilisse Esguerra, Alaine Handa, Sheila Klein, Lara Sofia Romero

Chameleon @ Meridian International Children's Festival from Alaine Handa on Vimeo.

Choreography by Alaine Handa and dancers
Dancers: Alaine Handa, Anna Louise Herzog, Ivilisse Esguerra, Emily Mercer
Prop Design by Natalia Krasnodebska

Music in video: soulofbass, Sheila Chandra, i hate this place
Text by Alex Graham James, Leilani Chan, Edith Södergran, Anna Louise Herzog, Ivilisse Esguerra

Special Thanks to Meridian International for hosting our performance during the International Children's Festival

Videography by Nicholas Fox

A video of Anna's and Ivi's Solo

A video of Anna's solo and Ivi's solo from Chameleon @ University Settlement



Choreography by the dancers in collaboration with Alaine Handa

Each dancer was interviewed to share their cultural story. We worked with imagery, memories of smells, sounds, sights, touch, people, and events to create solos that were unique to each dancer.

Footage taken from Chameleon performance on 5/14/2010 at University Settlement in NYC

Chameleon is supported by the Singapore International Internationale grant from Singapore International Foundation (http://sif.org.sg)

Rehearsal Report

The showcase at the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP) conference on Jan. 8, 2010 went really well. We had a great audience and some folks from InterNations came to the showcase. I decided that week to interlace the dance sequences with the documentary film I've been working on. The interviews I've conducted with Third Culture Kids have spurred a lot of inspiration for the dance. It is amazing to meet and talk to interesting group of Third Culture Kids from all different walks of life. Their stories and experiences are touching and I hope that this project will help them cope with any TCK difficulties they may face. After the showcase, I met some great people who could relate to being a global citizen/multi-cultural/cross-cultural individual and dealing with the same or similar problems that most TCKs face.


Here are the pictures by awesome dance photographer, William Hebert:

















The past couple weeks in rehearsal, I've spent working with each individual dancer on their respective solos. Their solo material is created collaboratively between choreographer (me) and the dancer. I had each dancer come up with a prose or poem about a favorite memory they have and then I had them extract specific words out of the original. The original movement phrases were created from those words. I gave specific movement ideas to each individual dancer based on their phrases to formulate a truly individual story that is unique to the dancer. The finishing touch will be interviewing each dancer and juxtaposing their words to their solo.

I hand-picked each dancer not just based on technical ability, I picked each dancer because of her background story. Her cultural upbringing, her personality, her openness to learning about other cultures. It was important to me to have dancers that can relate to the project and invest their time in rehearsal. (Dancers if you're reading this, THANK YOU! You inspire me!) They come from a variety of cultural backgrounds (more on this later...) and it is stunning to see this cultural exchange in rehearsal every week. :-)

A solo of many layers

Solo #1 from Alaine Handa on Vimeo.

This solo is a mixture of different cultures. Korean traditional dance are mixed into the modern dance vocabulary. The costume that my dancer, Yoonjung Choi will be wearing is a Indonesian inspired Batik wrap around skirt. The spoken word in the music is from David C. Pollock and Ruth Van Reken's book Third Culture Kids. There is also a Swedish poem by Edith Södergran. She is also dancing to French accordian music from the soundtrack of Amelie.

Free write & choreographed improv...

I was at a dance educators seminar held by the City Center here in NY a couple weekends ago and the theme was Nijinksky's Afternoon of a Faun since it is the centennial anniversary of the piece. We had workshops with Mark Dendy and another lady who teaches the repertory of the original Nijinsky ballet. In the afternoon, the City Center hosts came up with exercises to unleash our own personal adaptions and inspirations from the ballet. We had to listen to the music, read the poem, and free writes. I wanted to share my free writes because I ended up writing about birds in flight and travel.

"These flocking swans, these naiads, rather, fly or dive." - Mallarme (Read the whole poem here)

The vast lake of flocking birds fly high into the sky of the blue abyss. Like a giant white cloud they soar through the skies in search of a better place because the winds are changing and the weather is getting cooler. The colder months brings sorrow for those not travelling. Flying to a climate more favorable.

Free write about a time that was a moment of awareness or monumental for you:

Unsettled and constantly pining for memories, I lie awake at night longing for my memories of a home that no longer exists. Friendships I have gained and lost. Returning to an already familiar pattern of constant change. I gather. I seek. I travel. Meeting. Saying good-bye. The cycle of impermanence continues.

Alaine in the Studio from Alaine Handa on Vimeo.

Over Land and Water by Katherine Lung

Over Land and Water (2009)



Choreographer: Katherine Lung

Filmmaker: Alexander Brown

TCK Voices: Wazha Dube, Alan Garcia, Suzanne Leung, Katherine Lung, Albert Wang, Stephanie Yiu

Dancers: Elizabeth Bernal, Kurt Blomburg, Mallory Dykema, Jin-Ming Lai, Luke Olson-Elm, Duncan Schultz, Renee Starr, Chrysetta Stevens

Music: Clogs, Followed by Ghosts, Unwed Sailor

Special Thanks: Alaine Handa, Ian Knodel, Paula Mann, Aaron Rice, Collin Sherradin, Joanie Smith, Stephanie Yiu, University of Minnesota Theatre & Dance Program, www.denizen-mag.com