Thursday and Saturday April 10 and 12th at 7:30 pm

Senior Dance Concert Palmer Auditorium Show A

“Once I found my mother but she told me I was not her son. Sometimes I think my life would be different if she had not left us. My father began drinking then. Now he doesn’t care about me. He doesn’t care about anything. He breaks everything. I used to have nice things. He broke them. ”

“On the one hand freedom is good. You do everything you want. Nobody can refuse you anything. But on the other hand I miss my grandparents, the poeple who raised me up. I am alone here and miss their warmth.”

These are a few of the photos I took myself of street children in Peru. I had a very personal experience this summer getting to know the children, have conversations, getting them to trust me and talk to me. I also witnessed many sad moments that were brought up in my piece conceptually. Many nights I was followed home by children begging for money and I think I experience a lot of guilt during my stay in Cusco because i felt so helpless in helping them. Making this piece allowed me share my feelings with an audience to channel my feelings through performance art. I think the piece really ended up being theatrical for this reason and relyed on the mood and atmosphere the dancers created. The lighting was also key in creating the mood of street or ally way.  Images are so powerful and really are imprinted in people minds as are many of the images I witnessed during my trip. I hope that my piece is able to spark an image in people’s minds and allow them to ponder over the issue and acknowledge that there are children out there living in extreme poverty and in vulnerable conditions. If only to make them feel sadness, empathy for these children I feel that I have achieved my goal as a choreographer. 

These are images that I found during my process that inspired me to create movement, lighting ideas, and conceptual ideas. Street children in many cases sniff glue and have hallucinations, they sniff glue in order to get rid of hunger pains and depression, it is an escape root that leads them towards a disasterous future.  The photo of the pipes helped me imagine what I prop I was looking for. Also the photo with the children and candles inspired the candle idea. Although I witnessed a lot myself while in Peru and Moscow revisitng the images and realizing how global the issue is allowed me to further expand my idea and movement vocab. IT also allowed me to give the dancers an idea of what these children experience and the dangerous atmosphere they live in.

  http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://bp1.blogger.com/_qfVd_gP_ZK8/Ru_qApTSzEI/AAAAAAAAAIE/BsAs7HolG8M/s400/070104picoftheday.jpg&imgrefurl=http://deep717.blogspot.com/2007_09_18_archive.html&h=234&w=400&sz=31&hl=en&start=96&sig2=cjT8OaP7XDrDVIntBsldmw&tbnid=pTbn1GOWdQJVdM:&tbnh=73&tbnw=124&ei=TaQOSL_aMaXKgALUyr2NCQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dstreet%2Bchildren%2Bsniffing%2Bglue%26start%3D90%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

philip glass music I was considering using with a beautiful simple video that proves that a minimal image can be powerful. it is simple yet somehow haunting and something that would be really interesting in a projection.  I have based some of the videos I have recorded on my own from this minimalism and simplicity of this video of nature, the invisible wind that lightly blows the bird house, a mystical atmosphere. The video compliments the minimalism of the music and is almost trance like, hynoptic.

a video where I really enjoyed the energy of the duet and the feelings it evoked. An magical energy I wanted to use but translate into a new story, rather than it being romantic in my piece the energy was a longing for a loved one that was a mother but the boundaries between intimacy are thin and there should be a feeling of uncertainty in the relationship. I also very much enjoyed the space in which the duet is performed and the stillness yet personality of the other characters viewing the duet. 

amazing technology and lighting used in this video: I will comment on this

This choreography really allowed me to look at how lighting can be used to set an atmosphere and to surprise the audience and make them aware of the light. The idea of light, shadow, and disapearing really played a huge role in my piece and for this reason having the oppertunity to use it in such a way really enhanced the movement and idea behind the piece. The use of candles also allowed me to play with and break the common notion of lighting on stage.

Street Child

Music and Lyrics by Rubén Pérez.

He was alone on the street were he was born.
Nobody noticed him: he was on his own.
8 years old; no home, no future, no fantasy,
had never know his own damn family

He tried to fly, to survive, to reach the sky;
the sun was high, the day looked right:
It was his chance to get away.
But life was though, the street was cruel…
He couldn’t smile
cause he was nothing but a street child.

No encuentra a nadie. Su casa está vacía.
El rostro al viento; sólo siente el pegamento.
Hay quién lo mira sin compasión, sin simpatía;
Apenas siente el frío; no le queda aliento.

He tried to fly, to survive, to reach the sky;
The sun was high, the day looked right:
It was his chance to get away.
But life was though, the street was cruel…
He couldn’t smile
Cause he was nothing but a street child.

He turned 13. Had lost his smell.
He was all dirt. He met a girl
and found a new way to fool hunger with his friend.
She was the place where he could lay.
Love came around; lost innocence…
They didn’t realize their son was on the way.

Quiso volar, sobrevivir, llegar al mar.
Amanecía, era un buen día
para escapar.
Pero la vida no le deja respirar
porque no es más que un niño sin hogar.

Quizá algún día encontrará un lugar donde soñar
con un vida de verdad.

How can this be? We think of ourselves so high
that we forget about the rest. It’s not alright.
So sing this song with me, let’s give some voice to those who can’t speak.
Hay mucho por hacer; no hay nada, nada que perder.
Life was so though, the street so cruel…
He couldn’t smile
cause he was nothing but a street child.

A song that I found along with lyrics. I like that it is in a mix of spanish and english. The tune is beautiful and the accent of the singer is very relevant. Things like this song and the images I posted earlier allowed me to get back into the mindset of what I felt like while I was with the children. It becomes difficult to keep the memories fresh enough to use them to create choreography and motivate new ideas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sR0qF4WZuA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl7mSbZrCf0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbKMBQoDUVo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJmsxP-S2qY&feature=related

These are a few of the slide shows that provided me with images to use in making movement and scenery.  Each time I would watch them my insides would churn. They portray more of a global image of the situation expanding it from the one I know in Peru and Russia. It really allows me to realize that the issue of street children is one that infiltrates most third world countries and some first world countries where the disparity between rich and poor is so large. I was considering useing some of these images as well as projections in my piece but decided that I wanted to get the message across purely through the movement and expressions of the dancers which I believe I achieved. I wanted to leave the audience with the freedom to tell their own story and get what they wanted from the piece rather than force an interpretation and images on them.  But I was interested in using the element of framing images in the piece, as if they were photographs from a different time and place. A glance into a different world for the audiece to raise awareness and thoughtfulness.