Texas Performing Arts

September 29, 2009/ Contribution by J. Elissa Marshall Today the five UT dancers in the Colombia Project, including myself, had a check in meeting with Lyn.  It was supposed to be a quick meeting about our trip to Colombia in December, but sometimes when you get Lyn talking you can’t make her stop…and I didn’t [...]

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September 24, 2009/ Contribution by Lisa Kobdish It may seem easy to blog or journal, but for me it is quite frankly a challenge. I have learned over many years of writing essays, short answer responses, short stories and more how to write a comprehensible paper. I understand introduction, body, conclusion. I know the importance [...]

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September 22, 2009/ Contribution by Lisa Kobdish Dark skies, pressure, ambiguous temperature…is it hot or cold? At this time in the semester, the cloudy weather is reflecting my cloudy mind. Lots of information coming in and out, schedules get fuzzy, time disappears quicker and quicker. But I am trying to stay on top of my [...]

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September 22, 2009/ Contribution by J. Elissa Marshall I sat in on dance grad student Alvin Rangel’s rehearsal today, and I have to say it was torture!  What I mean (before you get upset, Alvin) is that his movement is everything I want to do because it’s musical, organic, jazzy and athletic all at the [...]

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September 17, 2009/ Contribution by J. Elissa Marshall Today I sat in on UT dance grad student Chell Parkin’s rehearsal.  From what I can tell, she has a lot of interesting ideas going on that are clearly related but not quite organized yet.  She admitted at the beginning of rehearsal that she often choreographs by [...]

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September 15, 2009/ Contribution by Lisa Kobdish Yacov Sharir (UT professor and choreographer) told our advanced contemporary technique class today that he can no longer teach us technique. He can remind us if we reject certain areas of discipline, alignment, the fundamentals, but we already know technique, therefore this class will not reiterate it. What [...]

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September 15, 2009/ Contribution by J. Elissa Marshall With phase one of the Colombia Project complete I turned my focus to the other pieces in Dance Repertory Theatre (DRT).  In addition to the Colombia Project I am in a piece by UT dance professor and choreographer Andrea Beckham; however, the details about this piece are [...]

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September 12, 2009/ Contribution by Lyn C. Wiltshire If one holds the belief that things happen for a purpose – which I do – then, the dancers of Projects in Dance Performance and Repertory/DRT, Álvaro and dancers, are together for a reason that is greater than “just” the choreographic process, academic learning and ‘teaching moments’. [...]

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September 11, 2009/ Contribution by J. Elissa Marshall Today was our last day of rehearsal with the Colombians.  They leave to go back to Cartagena tomorrow.  The first half of rehearsal we just went through all the raw material we had.  It’s quite a lot, and it stuns me to think that we won’t be [...]

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September 10, 2009/ Contribution by Lisa Kobdish I noticed today how terrifyingly unnerving it is to have bystanders watch me as I attempt to choreograph. It is hard enough being in a studio alone, trying to create new and interesting motions that I can appreciate. Often times I will go through a motion over and [...]

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