COLLABORATING WITH NK DANCE THEATRE

THE PARTY LIGHTS ARE ON REFLECTING ON MY BAGS! IT'S THE GRAND NIGHT OF
ANNE AND MARK'S ART PARTY!



LET THE DANCE BEGIN!

AND THE SHOW BEGINS INDEED!

 HERE ARE NK DANCE THEATRE AT THEIR PERFORMANCE
www.nkdancetheater.com ARE A BAY AREA DANCE COMPANY COMPOSED BY DEBBY KAJIYAMA AND JOSE' NAVARRETE.

ONCE WE MET WE IMMEDIATELY REALIZED THAT WE WERE ON THE SAME GROUNDS SHARING SIMILAR CONCERNS ABOUT ART AND LIFE.
 FROM THERE  WE TOOK THE OPPORTUNITY TO JUMP ON BOARD FOR THIS LITTLE ADVENTURE AND JOIN FORCES FOR THE FUNDRAISER EVENT FOR THE SILICON VALLEY ART COUNCIL.
I SET UP THE INSTALLATION, A STAGE FOR THEM TO INTERACT WITH AND PERFORM THEIR MAGIC.

DURING THE EVENING THEY PERFORMED SEVERAL TIMES THEIR FLOOR SLOW MOTION DANCE THAT COUNTER BALANCED THE FAST RHYTHMS ALL AROUND.
PEOPLE WHO WERE ABLE AND FORTUNATE TO CAPTURE THAT WERE FOOLED BY THE TWO WHITE LIFELESS BODIES, RIGIDLY LAYING ON THE CONCRETE GROUND
ATTRACTING A GREAT DEAL OF WONDER AND SURPRISE WHEN THEIR VERY SLOW AND CONTROLLED MOVEMENT PUT LIFE BACK AGAIN INTO THEIR SHAPES THAT SLOWLY MOULDED INTO MANY BEAUTIFUL FORMS.

LIKE GILBERT AND GEORGE THEY WERE LIVING SCULPTURES OR BETTER DANCING SCULPTURES, SUBTLY AND UNNOTICEABLY MOVING ACROSS THE INSTALLATION.
IT WAS A POWERFUL PERFORMANCE OF TWO SINGLE MAGNETS, FOLLOWING A CONTROLLED, UNCONTROLLABLE FORCE STRIVING TO REACH TOWARDS ONE ANOTHER TO BE FINALLY REUNITED.

 COLLECTING DIRT, JUST LIKE MOTHER NATURE! 

.....LADIES AND GENTLEMAN APPLAUD FOR DEBBY AND JOSE, HERE THEY ARE

THANK YOU!

'SUSPENDED SURVIVAL, HANING IN HANGING ON THE ENTANGLED DANGLE' BEFORE THE TEMPEST

THE NIGHT OF ANNE AND MARK'S ART PARTY PRIVATE VIEW.

THIS WAS A SPECIAL OCCASION WHERE I HAD A CHANCE TO ENJOY SOME RELAXATION AIDED BUT ALL THE AMAZING SURROUNDING ART AND  BY MONTALVO'S ARTISTS FELLOWS RICHARD

DUBUGNON  www.richarddubugnon.com  AND MOTOKO HONDA www.motokohonda.com PERFORMANCE.
THE TWO IMPROVISED  A BREATH TAKING PIANO DUET IN THE HEAVENLY VENUE,  ACCOMPANIED BY NK DANCE THEATRE WHO IMPROVISED THEIR DANCE.
THIS TIME I JUST HAD TO SIT BACK AND WATCH, WHILE SIPPING MY WINE!
DIVINE, I TELL YOU!

THE POP UP CAFE' CHANDELIERS

 MY CONTRIBUTION TO ANDREA'S POP UP CAFE' WAS THE CHANDELIERS. 

ON SPECIAL REQUEST FROM ANDREA I DECORATED THEM WITH WITH MY BAGS AND ADDED LIFE TO THEM WITH ANDREA'S GARDEN SUNFLOWERS WHO WERE DRYING OUT BUT STILL SO POWERFUL!

I USED THE FLOWERS, THE LEAVES AND THE STEMS TO EXTEND FROM MY PLASTIC BAGS, MIXING LIFE AND DEATH, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL WORLDS.

THIS FINAL FRIDAY AT MONTALVO WAS AN EXTRAORDINARY AND UNIQUE TRIUMPH OF DIFFERENT DISCIPLINES ALL COMING TOGETHER FOR THIS ONE EVENT CELEBRATION: A JOINT EFFORT OF MANY, MANY FORCES AND OF MANY PEOPLE'S HARD WORK MIRACULOUSLY  ORCHESTRATED INTO WHAT I WOULD CALL A SUCCESSFUL COMMUNITY PROJECT COMPOSED BY VOLUNTEERS, ARTISTS, EMPLOYES AND SO ON.

ANDREA BLUM POP UP CAFE'

ANDREA BLUM, THE CHEF AND CULINARY FELLOW WHO CREATED THE POP UP CAFE' INSIDE OF THE VILLA MONTALVO AND COOKED FOR 60 PEOPLE INCLUDING HER REGULAR HUNGRY ARTISTS WHO SHE HAS BEEN TREATING EVERY NIGHT FOR ALMOST A YEAR NOW!
check her out, her website address is:
www.andrea-blum.com

FOR THIS OCCASION NOT ONLY NINA HAFT & COMPANY
ninahaftandcompany.com PERFORMED BUT MOTOKO HONDA www.motokohonda.com AND NK DANCE THEATRE www.nkdancetheater.com AS WELL!

MOTOKO IS A BEAUTIFUL AND EVEN MORE TALENTED ARTIST WHO WAS IN RESIDENCE HERE AT MONTALVO NOT LONG AGO. ANDREA  INVITED HER FOR HER POP UP CAFE'  TO PERFORM HER AMAZING MUSIC AND FLEW OVER JUST FOR THIS SPECTACULAR EVENT.

HERE ARE DEBBY AND JOSE FROM NK DANCE THEATRE PERFORMING THEIR TANGO DANCE.

THEY BOTH ARE FELLOW ARTISTS AT MONTALVO, WITH WHOM I ALSO HAVE BEEN COLLABORATING FOR THE SHOW IN SAN JOSE, THEY HAVE JUST LEFT TO GO BACK TO THEIR BAY AREA EVERYDAY LIFE......I AM ALREADY MISSING THEIR MAGICAL PRESENCE.......

Another collaboration with Nina Haft & Company. This time at Montalvo

FINAL FIRDAY AT MONTALVO ARTS CENTER

montalvoarts.org

In partnership with Nina Haft &Company, a collaboration about transformation through experimentation and improvisation.

Fellow artist in residence Claudia Borgna has invited Nina Haft and Company to interact with her site-specific installation commissioned by the Montalvo Arts Center.

'Mighty Like a Flower' is a team work setting for the skillful dancers to navigate through  and to choreograph into a contemporary dance ensemble that moves across disciplines.

Nina Haft has widely performed nationally and internationally, and is a well established choreographer who for the past ten years has been contributing to the Bay Area dance community with innovative work, fostering a deep experience of place.

The performing dancers are:

Edmer Lazaro

Frances Sedayao

Josie Alvite

Dannia Ciolo

UNFORTUNATELY FOR A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE CIRCUMSTANCES I WAS NOT ABLE TO TAKE BETTER PICTURES OF THE DANCERS PERFORMANCE. UPSETTINGLY I HAVE NO PROPER DOCUMENTATION OF THE MAGIC MOMENT THAT THEY HAVE RECREATED HERE ON THAT SPECIAL OCCASION: ANDREA BLUM'S POP UP CAFE'


I AM HOPING THAT THE VIDEO FOOTAGE MIGHT BE BETTER AND TO GET SOME PICS FROM OTHER SOURCES!

 Once again the dance performance was powerful and Nina's decision to have to music nor sound to the dance  kept us all silent and alert to every movement and even more engaged with the event, really quite a mystical and spiritual experience, that I personally thought quite refreshing after the whole hulla bulla and crazy energy invested by hundreds of people to make this whole evening happening......absolutely magical! Thank you Nina and to all the dancers, one more applause, one more time!

Finally i have some more and better images, courtesy of and photography by Andrea Blum! Thank you Andrea! (www.andrea-blum.com)

'Mighty like a flower' has been going through a lot!

 So 'Mighty like a flower' has been completed, the last elements have been added on, these are the ones made by the volunteers, they are absolutely beautiful, much nicer than mine, I think. They are much more fragile and vulnerable and therefore more beautiful, I say.
They also depict new shapes and forms are all mingling to the right side of the loan.
I thought they deserve a special section for themselves, were all those wonderful shapes coming out of them can be better admired.
These shapes have becoming much more transient with the sprinklers blasting at them.
I went mad when I first saw it! I stormed down the load attacking the poor gardener who replied, but is only plastic!
I then complained to everybody who crossed my way, spreading the word of the imminent disaster.
My very special section being destroyed by sprinklers! Maybe that was suppose to be the destiny of those plastic bags pretending to be roses, to be sprinkled to death with fresh water every day. Maybe they like it and I should not interfere with their course of inevitable decay and destruction and just document the changes. The fact is that after all that drama I have created, the sprinkler have now been shut down indefinitely so that the volunteers section can enjoy a prolonged life for just a little bit longer, but what about the loan and the green grass?

I realize that I need better pics to depict that section, but I physically had no time for it and when I got around it last weekend I was so bummed that another section of the installation was missing.
A cluster of 10 elements are gone and nowhere to be seen, among them was a rose covered by an umbrella that I had especially made to link the very far end of the loan to the rest of the space.

This incident really tells me how desperate some people are to own a bunch of plastic bag! So much for Public Art and Community!