Texas Performing Arts

Thursday, December 24, 2009/ Contribution by J Elissa Marshal It’s Christmas Eve.  The whole UT gang left Colombia two days ago and despite some lost baggage as well as my nonexistent voice, we all made it back to Austin just fine.  Yesterday I hopped a plane to go home to Northern Virginia where I received [...]

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Sunday, December 20, 2009/ Contribution by Lisa Kobdish Sore feet, sweaty body, mangled hair, tight quads. By the end of today, the dancers are all pretty battered. But we have the shell to a moving, dynamic trilogy of a ballet. The shifting and liquid path of phase one and phase two has finally picked a [...]

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Sunday, December 20, 2009/ Contribution by J Elissa Marshall I just looked at the temperature in Austin and Northern Virginia, where I’m from, and quite frankly I’m astounded and terrified.  My body has gotten so used to the heat and I have become so appreciative of my own sweat that I don’t know how well [...]

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Friday, December 18, 2009/ Contribution by Lisa Kobdish Today was by far the most grueling so far. I began with a morning jog, just Chell and myself. Rehearsal began with an hour and a half of a killer class from Alvin, with brutal Horton exercises. When I say killer and brutal, I mean in the [...]

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Thursday, December 17, 2009/ Contribution by J Elissa Marshall Today we went to Barú, which is an island in Cartagena.  We got to see and rehearse in a studio space that dancers from El Colegio travel to once a week to teach dance to school children.  It was a beautiful space, and I was delighted [...]

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Wednesday, December 16, 2009/ Contribution by Lisa Kobdish Familiarity is kicking in. We walk the same way each day. We pass the same vendors. We cross the busy streets with the rest of the general public, all getting their days started. We stroll around at night, seeing familiar faces. I have been eating a lot [...]

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Wednesday, December 16, 2009/ Contribution by J Elissa Marshall Today was a weird day.  One of our UT dancers, Yvonne, was gone from rehearsal all day to go to Bogota.  She lost her passport on the first day here and had to go to get a new one today.  Then in warm up class today [...]

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Tuesday, December 15, 2009/ Contribution by J Elissa Marshall All I have to talk about is glitter!  Seriously.  I don’t know much about the costume ideas for the piece except that one section will have us covered in glitter.  It relates back to the text we’re working from called the Tightrope Walker by Jean Genet.  [...]

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On the way to Pontezuelo – Alvaro Restrepo and Elissa Marshall touring the site Alvaro Restrepo shares his plans for the future site of El Colegio del Cuerpo The UT group at Pontezuela

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Monday, December 14, 2009/Contribution by Lisa Kobdish We already have a day off. In a way I feel guilty, like we should have danced more before deserving this break. However, it has also taken a lot of energy out of us just exploring this new city and culture. Given that, I guess a break from [...]

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