Yesterday was a beautiful 90 plus degree day downtown Annapolis. The sun was high and scorching, the ground sizzled like hot sand and a breeze blew every half hour. It was a beautiful day for dance.
Brigid Myers
Although Mother Nature didn’t change her plans to give us a nice 75 degree day, at least she didn’t rain on us! Dragonfly Dance Experiment had a wonderful performance at the City Docks in Annapolis.
We performed an hour show to a very warm audience (pun intended). The show started with a duet, “Before Bed” choreographed by Dragonfly’s director, Megan Morse Jans and guest choreographer, Stephanie Yezek. Jans and Yezek recently performed the piece at the Oxford Fringe Festival and the British influence was a light hearted and fun start the show. Next to perform a self-choreographed solo was Dragonfly, Sarah Keller. The feeling of falling in love was represented by her sweet choreography that melted the hearts of our audience. Following was the Dragonfly premier of “Build, Run, Speak” a piece choreographed by guest artist, Becky Radway, artistic director of Becky Radway Dance Projects based in New York, New York. The three section piece performed by six of the Dragonflies is based around the creation of a working machine. Remember, “If you build it, he will come.”? Well, we built it and the audience flocked to see.
The second half of the show included some Dragonfly favorites and a new duet. “In Her Hands” choreographed by guest artist Stephanie Yezek was performed by four Dragonflies. This intense performance of powerful movement was a great addition to the works presented at the Docks. Dancers jumping for their lives as it would seem, didn’t give up even in the heat. To cool things off (and not in a temperature sense) a duet featuring Jillian Barber, Dragonfly Rehearsal Director and Megan Morse Jans was a light hearted petite allegro. The dancers seemed to be playing a bit of cat and mouse as they tried to one up each other in a friendly and delicately choreographed competition. It was a fun piece that brought smiles to the glowing (hopefully sunblocked) faces of our audience. Closing the show was “Like a Peach” a sweet and thoughtful piece in Dragonfly’s repertoire. The piece represents the challenges of adapting to mother-hood and closed the show by putting the baby to bed.
Dock Side Dance was yet again a fantastic evening of dance offered to a wonderful community of supporters. Anyone who would sit on the 100 degree brick for an hour is a lover of dance and we are so very thankful for that! Next year bring your beach umbrellas because we will be there shine or shine!
A group shot of the Dragonflies looking beautiful is what I have decided to post in the place of an action shot of myself with a red face. :)
As promised, I wanted to share the details for my upcoming performance with the Dragonfly Dance Experiment modern dance company. I never in a million years would have thought I would be performing in a dance show. Last summer, after a gracious invitation from the amazing Megan Morse Jans, I started taking class with the Dragonfly Dance Experiment dancers. I thought that would be enough, but after Megan asked me to rehearse for their upcoming show, I couldn’t say no. If you would have asked me even then if I thought I would ever participate in an evening length dance performance, I would have told you, “Never”. Never say never, my friends. Hope you can make it to the show!
Sunday, February 21st @ 2:30pm
Pascal Center for Performing Arts
101 College Pkwy, Arnold, MD 21012
I am participating in another flash mob project with Dragonfly Dance. This one is recreating a Flash Mob from Oprah’s 24th Anniversay Concert. We will be teaching the dance to 200 non-dancers at a corporate event in downtown DC. I had rehearsal with 15 other dancers on Tuesday night to learn the choreography to the Black Eyed Peas song. Wednesday and Thursdayare the performances that will be taped. I don’t know if I will be able to get a recording of our actual performance, but here is the Oprah/Black Eyed Peas performance. Pretty stunning.
If you want to learn the dance yourself, there is a video on Oprah’s website that shows you how to do it!
A little while ago I posted about starting to dance again. I have been taking class with a company, DragonFly Dance Experiment, for a couple of months. A few weeks ago, the director asked me if I would want to perform with them. I, of course, said “Yes!”, but I am (for obvious reasons) really nervous. It has been a long long time since I have been on a stage. Really my last performance was on the court. The basketball court with the Diamond Gem Dance Team. That is not exactly what I would compare to improving modern movement. But I am just going to have to get over it and jump in.
The first piece I started rehearsing with the company is a Flashmob piece. For those that do not know what a Flashmob is (I had to look it up myself) here is the Wikipedia definition:
“A flash mob (or flashmob) is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual action for a brief time, then quickly disperse.”
So for our purpose, we come together and perform an improv and choreographed work in a public place and then go our separate ways. We did our first “performance” this past Wednesday, downtown Annapolis. This is going to be an ongoing project and I can’t wait to see how it develops. Maybe you'll be lucky enough to be where we are one day...or you can watch it on youtube.
(Unfortunately, this video is cut off on the right side which is where I am standing most of the time, so you can watch it on youtube here.)
In what feels like a former life, I used to be a dancer. I danced ballet with the Ballet Theatre of Annapolis (now the Ballet Theatre of Maryland) until high school. Once I got to high school I participated in my high school’s dance company, expanding into modern dance and contemporary styles. In college, I joined the Dance Team and performed at football and basketball games where I learned to do Russian jumps and switch leaps. I took ballet class my freshman year, but then dropped it because it was at 8:40am and once in a while I was lucky enough to be invited to dance in a piece for one of my dance major friends. I thought about changing my major to dance a few times, but never had the courage to do it. And after college, I started working and stopped dancing.
This past week was jammed packed with exciting events and Wednesday night was no exception. My good friend, Graham was in town doing a dance workshop and a performance in Takoma Park. Graham and I danced together in high school and became close friends, but I hadn’t seen him in years. We had a quick visit in Philadelphia 6 years ago and his wedding in Salt Lake City the year before that. It was so nice to get to pick up right where we left off and hear about all the “where are they nows” of his family and people we knew from high school. I went to the performance with my friend, Jill, who teaches dance at Annapolis high school. Graham performed with his brother, Joel, a series of improv pieces, choreographed works and music. Graham performed a solo improv piece, a dance with his brother and a choreographed work in a modern style. Graham has always had a very unique movement and it was really fun to recognize it right away as something familiar. His brother’s story is a pretty amazing one. Joel was in a car accident with Graham and the rest of their siblings when we were in high school and Joel was 9. As a result of the accident, Joel is paraplegic. Joel performed a dance with Graham and did three of his songs from his band, Seriously Evan. Joel has grown up to be a very cool guy and it was fun to see how he has found to express himself in this family of dancer artists. It was a pretty emotional display of art followed up by dinner at an Olive Garden in a rough part of town, but it was a really great night.
One of my best friends from high school, Jill, is the dance teacher at Annapolis High School. Jill and I danced together since we were 6 years old and some of my best life memories were when we danced together in our high school dance company. Two weekends ago, I went to her end of the year performance. She has done an amazing job working with her students and developing a dance program from nothing. Annapolis High School pulls from some of the low income neighborhoods in the area. It is not easy to get students involved in arts in any high school let alone in an area where the families can not always financially support extra curricular activities. She not only got students involved, but motivated them to excel and choreograph their own pieces in the performance. She has been there for four years and now has a company, junior company and dance classes during the school day. To me, the most amazing part of the performances was the end, when her group of seniors got to the microphone to say their goodbye. They thanked her for inspiring them and said that they will always remember what they had learned from her. She is really making an impact on those girls’ lives. She is just like our high school dance teacher who will always have a place in our memories of someone who inspired us to be more than what we were.
