Video Interview after Chameleon performance in NYC

I don't think I've shared this video with you before. I was interviewed on video after the premiere performance of Chameleon in May at University Settlement. Hope you enjoy this!

Toi interviews Alaine Handa Dance Company from Kor Spirit Barlow on Vimeo.

From Expat Arts Journal

Check out this article!

Living abroad proven to improve creativity

I found this blog via Internations and its all about Expatriates engaging in creative work. I'll definitely put it on my list to submit something about Chameleon to the Expat Arts Journal. I also have to submit my story to the TCK Book Project. le sigh.

Interesting article: No Place like Home?

I came across this interesting article written by a student at University of Sydney about TCKs:
No Place like Home?

Its a pretty extensive read but there are some poignant viewpoints that is discussed in the article but his ending punchline “No need to explain, we get it.” about going through security and immigration checkpoints at an airport is wonderful!

Little Broadway in the Netherlands

I was browsing through the Expat Women website and stumbled upon an interview of Tiffany Jansen. An American expat who moved to the Netherlands after she married a Dutchman. She recently launched her successful venture Little Broadway as a way to combine her talents of musical theatre - acting, singing, dancing - with her love of writing and teaching children. Upon reading her profile, I am finding so many similarities between myself and Ms Jansen. I wanted to highlight how amazing that she has found her niche in the Netherlands when she found very little opportunities when she first moved there. By creating her own company of bringing original musicals (she writes the scripts herself!) to the international schools for an after school activity program; she is able to teach, direct, and produce musicals in such a short period of time! As an after school dance educator myself, it is no easy feat to even get kids to stay focused on learning a dance routine for their end of year performance! (Tiffany if you're reading this - Congratulations and hope to hear from you soon!)

Ports 1961

I was going through my emails (there's quite a back log - esp. when it comes to subscribed emails) and found out about Ports 1961 clothing brand via a Bloomingdales email. Intrigued by the idea that the designer behind this brand fuses multicultural elements to create clothing that represents the sophisticated global soul. I wrote them a quick message via their website to contact me.


They went to Kyoto to shoot their lookbook last fall for their Spring 2010 collection. Their clothes are drape-y and very textural. I don't think the models used for their Bloomingdales.com showcases the clothing very well. Usually drape-y clothing needs to be tried on and will look good on regular women. The models on their website really wear their line incredibly well. I hope this line does well. I look forward to seeing what else they come out with. Check out their website: https://www.ports1961.com

Review in the Washington Post for Chameleon

Fringe's 'Chameleon' gets past the sociology jargon and into viewers' heads

By Rebecca J. Ritzel for The Washington Post
Monday, July 12, 2010

If an artist set out to create a Fringe show based on a pop-sociology book, you might assume the end result would be a cheeky joke. Consider such tantalizing possibilities as "Malcolm Gladwell in Middle School" or "The Birth Order Book (The Musical!)"

Choreographer Alaine Handa never got that memo. "Chameleon," her ruminative dance/film piece, is inspired by the book "Third Culture Kids," a sociology term for children who, for a variety of reasons -- military, missionary, the global economy -- have been raised overseas. When those kids return "home" and try to readjust, they end up, in Fringe parlance, a little screwed up.

Like the vast majority of multimedia dance performances, "Chameleon" would benefit from some editing. The show opens with a series of amateur documentary interviews, screened on a cratered wall behind the stage of the Apothecary, at 1013 Seventh St. NW. With the buzz of New York cafes in the background, young adults rattle off lists of countries where they spent their formative years.

Between clips, Handa, Jun Lee and Ivilisse Esguerra perform dances with vaguely Asian references. The actual choreography isn't terribly original, but the consistent body carriage is. All three have precise feet but relaxed, elastic upper bodies. In one memorable sequence, Lee kneels prostrate alone on the stage. Her legs hold a yoga pose while her arms churn, shoulders rotating and hands grasping. How do you get comfortable while your body is one place and your brain in another? That's great movement metaphor, and the mark of a work that encourages viewers to think more than the average multidisciplinary Fringe show does.

Performances resume July 23-25.

6:00 pm Friday, July 23
3:45 pm Saturday, July 24
2:15 pm Sunday, July 25

Click here for more info & ticketing info

On the Fringe: The Capital Fringe Festival | Stage | Express Night Out

Opening night performance yesterday was great! DC audiences are lovely. We still have tickets left for July 10, 23, 24, 25 performances so get them now!
- Alaine


A mention of our performance of Chameleon in the DC Express!
On the Fringe: The Capital Fringe Festival | Stage | Express Night Out