Beneath the Stories We Wear, by Claire Calalo

The first day of rehearsal at the beginning of a new project is simultaneously terrifying and thrilling. For me, it’s the equivalent of the writer’s blank page (or perhaps an empty Word doc these days) because I usually don’t prepare anything before walking into the room. No music...no steps...no counts. Usually not even a solid idea about where the rehearsal will take us.

I would venture a guess that some dancers might hate working with me because of this fact. And I don’t want you to get the wrong impression--it’s not that I’m unprepared or lazy. What happens during the first rehearsal of a new piece is incredibly sacred to me, because the room of dance artists whom I know, trust, and respect becomes an incubator for the growth of inklings, the proliferation of inquiries, and the exploration of impulses. We begin by asking each other the simplest of questions, “How are you?” and follow that with, “What is on your mind?”.

From here, we discover together the questions that have been simmering for each of us, and how those questions resonate with each other or create discord. Where do the worldviews of these 10 individuals--in this room, at this moment--collide, intersect, change, or resonate with each other? What rises to the surface of our conversation and compels us to deepen our understanding through explorations in movement, sound, and storytelling?

The fcdc dance making process asks a lot of the artists who constitute the collective. As the founder and Artistic Director, I come into rehearsal with no counts but many expectations. I expect each collaborator to tell me about their personal life. I expect each collaborator to open up artistically and expose the sensitive, raw, and vulnerable aspects of their humanity. I expect each collaborator to invent movement passages, to speak words with true, personal meaning, and to critically evaluate the work we create together.

We wear many different hats at fcdc. We act simultaneously as dancers, choreographers, storytellers, designers, friends, collaborators , and people. And that last bit is the most important part, and our most valuable individual contribution. The many and varied hats we wear reflect where we come from, what we’ve been through, what our family histories are, what we do: for a living, to give us life, or to push us forward--and so much more.

I am struck by the idea of the costumes that we wear, the many stories that we embody, and the ways that we adorn and prepare ourselves for public life. For Beneath the Stories We Wear, we asked ourselves: how many hats do we wear in a single day? How about in a lifetime? How do the hats we wear both define us and constrain us? And what presumptions do we consciously and subconsciously make about others based on the hats they wear?

“It doesn’t fit…it’s getting tighter. It prevents you from looking up.
I’ve always admired a woman who can wear a hat.
I am not that woman, I am a kayak.
I am an imposter in a hat.”
(Beneath the Stories We Wear, 2015)

As we approach our second annual home season, with all of the experiences of our first home season and the last 6 years of collective dance making behind us, we look to our audiences, our supporters, and our wider community to find out how we can better connect with you. How can we engage you in our creative process and in the presentation that we finally make to you? As we invite you to witness what we’ve made, how can we also include you and your many stories, and invite you into our inquiry as we quest (as ever) for change?

Lessons Learned from Tables Turned, by Samantha Nielsen

It’s a strange and rare occurrence to sit in the audience, about to watch your own dance company perform. But four weeks ago that’s exactly where I found myself, squirming uncomfortably in the third row of the Levy Dance Salon, where for change dance collective had been invited to perform along with many other seasoned artists. I felt as though I didn’t know exactly what to do with myself, out of place on the wrong side of the stage. I was jealous of the performers that got to share their passion in front of all of us, and I was feeling left out seeing all of my good friends and fellow company members getting ready to perform.

The circumstances in which I found myself in the third row also caused me to fall even deeper into my pity party. I had recently dealt with some health issues and spent the week prior in and out of emergency rooms and urgent cares, both abroad and in the US. As in all stressful or emotional situations in my life, dance was what I wanted and needed to turn to, but that was the one thing I felt unable to do in that moment. Don’t worry though, as in all good stories, there is a happy ending.

It was just a few minutes into sitting in that third row, and witnessing people sharing their craft, their emotions, and their passion, that I was able to find that dance therapy that I so needed. I was reminded of a lesson that I’ve learned over and over again, that dance can be a healer and a catharsis for anyone touched by it, whether it be the performer, the choreographer or the viewer. I realized I was lucky to be able to watch people I love doing what they love. It reiterated to me what for change dance collective, as a company, is all about. We’ve always existed under the belief that dance can create and inspire change in a community. And I got to witness that first hand, and felt the change come over me, as an audience member.

This experience completely re-sparked my passion and dedication to what fcdc is doing. Our rehearsal process is also the perfect platform to explore my new found inspiration, allowing everyone a chance to be heard and to express themselves in the dance. We focus on the principle that everyone can and should bring something of their own to what we’re creating, to ultimately be able to dance it and feel it as their own truth. I’m loving creating dance, knowing that people could watch something I’ve contributed to and genuinely feel something in themselves.

Sometimes you need to take a step back, or sit in the audience, to be reminded of the power of what you love. This was a feeling I got to bask in fully during our latest performance at Works in the Works just last weekend. The beauty of this performance series is that you’re seeing pieces in various stages of creation and completion. There is a feedback session at the end where you can hear people’s thoughts on your piece and give your thoughts on theirs. This was my third year performing with fcdc in this show, but no one year is like the last. This year I got to bring with me a whole new set of insights, experiences and outlooks. I loved getting to actually hear exactly in what way our dance moved the people watching it. I got to hear about the power our ten minutes of art had on someone, how we were a part of creating change.

So my hope is, through learning this lesson again, and sharing it, that I can help remind someone like me of the power of art. That I can remind you that whether you are a creator or an appreciator, you are a part of the change. And maybe we’ll even see your face at one of our shows one day, and get the opportunity to inspire a change in you!

a perspective on our process, by Rosie Ortega

Summer is winding down, the sun is setting earlier each day, and Karl the fog creeps back into the city by the bay. As one season ends another begins, that is the fcdc 2015-2016 dance season! We are back in rehearsal and excited for what lies ahead in the coming months. After a very successful inaugural home season last year, we are excited to regroup, reconnect and continue our mission of dancing for change.This idea of change is one of the constants of fcdc, not only as our company evolves from season to season, but also as we strive to bring change in the realms of social justice and equality using our collective artistic vision to propel that forward. Many of our past performance themes have focused on personal, emotional concepts that although are unique to each member of fcdc, they are also what bond us as a company.

Reflecting on the past 2 seasons I have been a part of fcdc, I have been lucky enough to watch the company flourish and progress. Although it is gratifying to complete a piece and perform for an audience, the rehearsal process leading up to those moments are the hours where I not only love to choreograph and explore new movement, but I also love to watch my fellow dancers’ artistic processes. Rehearsal is the place where the choreographic magic begins. Each dancer brings his or her own unique flair from week to week, building and collaborating as a collective to create something new.

In our last few rehearsals, we have started exploring our next project. WIthout giving away too many details, we have decided to emphasize storytelling and the many stories each of us bring to the table not only as performers and artists, but also as human beings. When we really stop and listen to more than one story, it enables us to grow and understand concepts that may have previously been foreign. I hope to hear more stories in the next weeks and months both in rehearsal and outside, and in turn use those stories to shape and guide the artistic process we practice as we prepare for the next exciting season.

January 2015 update, by fcdc collaborator Jessica de Leon

For fcdc, 2014 was a year of growth: wonderful new dancers joined our ranks, we collaborated with other talented artists and musicians, and we had the opportunity to work on a handful of meaningful projects. It was a great year filled with a renewed commitment to our mission statement. And 2015 is panning out to be even greater! We are so excited to continue work on a new piece that will premiere at our first home season at 8th Street Studios in Berkeley, February 28 and March 1.

The piece is centered around the idea that the breakage of an object can become part of its history, instead of something to be ashamed of or to hide. This theory is embodied in the ancient Japanese craft of Kintsugi. Meaning “golden rejoining,” Kintsugi takes fine ceramics that have been broken and repairs them with a lacquer resin dusted with gold or silver. The restored object is then more valuable and more beautiful than it was before.

Our collective curiosity in this topic came out of group discussions about forgiveness, expectations, brokenness, and lost causes. I am thrilled that our new company members get the opportunity to start a project with fcdc from the very beginning. Everyone has provided such wonderful, thoughtful contributions to our discussions. The democratic creative process that fcdc employs is unique and part of the reason I love working with this company. Lindsay Wakayama, a dancer that joined us this year, believes that the company and the work “benefits from listening to everyone’s opinions.” Because we are all able to contribute to the life and creation of a piece, each performer feels a sense of ownership. I feel this is especially true about this new work. Savannah Foltz-Colhour, one of our newest members, commented that our process has been “rewarding and makes the movement seem even more relatable.” Savannah says she looks forward to what will come from each rehearsal, and I can’t agree more.

The ideas we’re exploring are big and ripe with potential, both physically and intellectually. But the movement that we’ve generated is very exciting to me. Every week at rehearsal, I’m in awe of how willing each person is to be truthful, vulnerable, and open to sharing their experiences. Rosie Ortega, who has been dancing with us for about a year, said that despite the challenges of our theme, she feels like she has “a strong support system” in the people with whom she makes art. For me, one of the most rewarding parts of starting a new piece with fcdc is discovering new things about the people I dance with. Another new member, Maylise Urrutia, added, “the greater the relationship we have with each other, the more our dance language can really speak to viewers”.

I’m nervous, excited, and curious to share this new work with an audience, and looking forward to our very first home season with this very special piece.

More info at our FB event page.

Hope you can come out and see a show! More musings on the process will follow in a later post...once we're done with the craziness of producing the actual performances!

< 3 Claire

Hunting for transformation

I think the phrase is actually "haunting old stomping grounds," but I keep turning it over in my head as "stomping old hunting grounds" or alternatively "stamping old hunting grounds" or maybe even "hunting old stamping grounds"...but whatever the actual colloquialism turns out to be, the nuances of each of these images feels appropriate to some aspect of my return to the dance studios at SCU as a guest choreographer.

Passing between studios and wandering the halls of Mayer, I see ghosts of my self and of my friends as students, discovering new ways of moving, thinking, and relating to each other in the spaces where we spent so much of our college years. We thought we knew everything, and it was simultaneously becoming clear that we hardly knew anything at all.

I heard Martin Luther King Jr.'s voice in the background of a radio story I was vaguely spacing out to in the car on one of my long commutes home one night. His words washed over me and began to pick up speed on the tide of melodic cadences, and suddenly I was sitting upright, paying attention. Suddenly I was drowning in the resonance of the words surrounding this idea of a "transformed nonconformist". I came up for air too late to hear the name of the radio program or the name of the host, or any solid information that may have helped me on my many months-long search for the audio (which I still haven't found).

I was able to find out that the speech I had heard was actually this sermon. He spoke of morality and the source of an individual's beliefs about right and wrong. He talked about turning to face the people, society, or moral system that has shaped your beliefs with a critical eye, and delving deeply into a study of what ideals you hold most dear. It made me wonder, where do we get our sense of justice from? Is there a place in our own hearts or souls that is untouched by the influence of others, where our morals truly live? Without the ethical histories of our upbringing, experience, or relationships to divinity, what is it that shapes our notions of what is good, what is intolerable, what is just?

I set out to create a piece with the dancers at SCU that explores the idea of transformation. I asked them, and myself, "what did you once believe, that you no longer feel is true?" What does the word transformation imply, and do you consider yourself to be a nonconformist? Is that necessarily a good or bad title, something to aspire to? As usual, I have way more questions than answers...perhaps I have only questions and NO answers, and that's why I choreograph in the first place.

It feels both ironic and poignant to me that I ask these questions in that location. It's as if I'm still hunting on those same grounds that I traversed in college...I'm still searching for my voice, still wondering how, why, and for whom I make dances. The ground is reverberating under stamping and stomping feet as we figure out just what it means to pursue our own transformation, and who or what we want to be when we "grow up". The joyful noise of these explorations has fueled me in a multi-layered way that I'm sure I'll continue to unwrap as Images comes to a close, and beyond.

I'd love to see you at a show! Come see the piece Feb. 7-10 and please let me know what you see in it!

< 3 Claire

Yes, I could go for a 3rd viewing...

I've never had much of a desire to watch award shows. Sure, in the back of my mind I register when they're on and I want to see what everyone is wearing and watch the performances, but I don't get all that excited. Unless Idina Menzel is singing at the Tonys or something.


But this year I actually wish I was going to be home to watch the Academy Awards. Because PINA has been nominated for Best Documentary Feature, and I have a strange sense of pride in that fact. I guess this must be how sports fans feel...and to think I always raise an eyebrow when they say "we won"!


PINA was breathtaking...awe-inspiring...best movie of the year...yup all those adjectives that describe so tritely an experience that obviously goes beyond words. Well my capacity for words anyway. 


Go see this film. 

Dancer or not...go see it. Actually I'd like to hijack the next episode of So You Think You Can Dance and broadcast it instead. Those things are like 2 hours long right? Now THAT would truly educate the masses.

I think what struck me most about PINA was not the 3D (which was absolutely brilliant) or the elaborate stagings and beautiful cinematography, but the rawness that underscored all of Pina Bausch's work. It's in her dancers' ability to sit in front of a camera practically motionless, without saying a word, and express the deepness of sorrow in mourning, the complexity of laughing when you want to cry, and the elation of feeling capable of love and filled with strength. It's in her choreography as it always has been, but it's also in the solos created by her dancers, who eulogize her with heartfelt evidence of how dancing for her has peeled away the layers of artifice and left only artistry: human, vulnerable, articulate, captivating.


Anyway I'm gushing. Obviously I want to make a dance film now. I actually always have, and especially since 2009 when I created a dance called Buoyancy on ten UCI undergraduate dancers. It's about my experience working with a community in Nicaragua, and all that they taught me about survival and humanity, and I've always seen it in vignettes. Parts of it happening in the shallows of a river, others in the dirt roads of a tiny village, still others in a landfill that is juxtaposed hauntingly with the beautiful and awesome natural force of a smouldering volcano in the background...someday!


Thanks for the inspiration Pina...now and always. And come this Sunday, GO TEAM MODERN DANCE!!!


<3 Claire

Tina Fey on standards of beauty

I'm reading Bossypants by Tina Fey right now, which is such a great read, and I thought this passage was smart and appropriate and hilarious so I had to share it. 

This is Tina's "laundry list of attributes women must have to qualify as beautiful":

• Caucasian blue eyes
• full Spanish lips
• a classic button nose
• hairless Asian skin with a California tan
• a Jamaican dance hall ass
• long Swedish legs
• small Japanese feet
• the abs of a lesbian gym owner
• the hips of a nine-year old boy
• the arms of Michelle Obama
• and doll tits

I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did =).
<3 Claire

P.S. no plans on Sunday? Come and talk dance and eat cupcakes with me...doesn't that sound dreamy? 2nd Sundays @ CounterPULSE

We're on Facebook!

Does that mean that we're legit? Like how you're not really in or out of a relationship until it's "Facebook official"? 

Check us out and "like" us! Otherwise we won't know if you really do or not...

http://www.facebook.com/forchangedance

New projects are brewing...so excited!

I love being in a dance studio. Just being there. Absorbing the energies of thinking bodies and moving minds that have left their marks on the floors and their scrawled notes and drawings strewn around. You can feel the dance in the air.

I'm in the studio with dancers now working again on "in a delicate way...", trying to delve further into the subject matter and deepen the material. And all the work we are going to be doing with it has been driven by conversation. I'm un-endingly grateful for everyone who's participated.

Engaging my dancers in the choreographic process is one of the driving principles of my work, and the idea of inclusivity is something that for change dance collective is all about for me. I also think that dance audiences have much to offer that is never mined by artists. Whenever it's possible, I want to give viewers of my work a chance to participate in it's evolution.

So, getting to my point (I know...FINALLY, right?), I'd like to invite you all to keep December 11th free on your calendar. I'll be showing some work at 2nd Sundays at counterPULSE in SF, which is a free salon where artists informally show work and solicit feedback from audience members. If you're curious you can check out the link here: http://counterpulse.org/programs/second-sundays/ or look under the "PERFORMANCES" tab.

I'm also in conversations with a composer friend of mine to possibly start working on a collaboration, which will be TOTALLY RAD because I've always wanted to do that. Wish there was more time in a weekend and more money in my bank account for all these projects!

<3 Claire

what makes you feel pretty?

http://www.prissyinpink.com/catalog.php?item=1504

Jess saw this on pinterest.com and sent it to me. It's from an online boutique that caters to "Girly Girls" called Prissy in Pink. When I was a kid I probably would have given my left arm for a chance to model in their clothes! And I made Lauren model in these shoes for my last piece muahaha =) She was amazing!

I don't think I'm quite finished with "in a delicate way..." there's so much to dissect about how the game of dress-up seeps into our everyday lives. I've been thinking lately that I spend way too much time on Facebook, and what is social networking really but a way for us to present ourselves to the outside world in a way that we can control and edit and fashion. It's digital dress-up.

Little girls love to pretend they are someone else. Maybe someone older, more fashionable, more powerful. Someone who can wear red patent leather high heels and walk with that trademark affectation that only comes from the effects these instruments of torture have on your body. 

Big girls love to dress up too. It's often asked, who do girls dress up for, the boys or other women? Isn't it really for themselves, to feel more empowered as well, wielding their feminine wiles with the full force of cultural preconceptions about appearance behind them? Even if you're dressing up in a different style...any style...you project an identity loud and clear. I feel great when I know I'm properly dressed for the occasion, whether it's dance class in San Francisco or LA (two clearly different aesthetics), work, a baby shower, or hanging out with my hipster friends who shall remain unnamed ;)

And boys are by no means exempt from the dress-up phenomenon. It's part of life, it's part of everyone's daily routine, it affected everyone's childhood, it's always one of the top five categories on any good list of how to interview well or get a date. It's interesting to me precisely because it is so inevitable, often enjoyable, and yet has destructive powers as well.

I want to ask everyone, what does it take for you to feel dressed?

<3 Claire

audience participation

It strikes me that one way art changes people is by breaking up the routines, activities, and thought patterns we become accustomed to in our daily lives. Which is often great, but can also really piss some people off.

I wanted to share a picture of my most recent collaboration at PARK(ing) Day. This picture was taken by Lauren's amazing mom, Bette Linderman, and captures so well a moment of art imitating life while life offers it's opinion right back. 

I felt this girl pass by me through the "stage" space while I was dancing, and though I had no idea how expressive she was at the time, it still made me smile. I realize now that the piece is kind of all about mashup: modern dance and pop music, theatrical elements and abstract movement, and the idea of parental love and protection both supporting and clashing against societal expectations. 

I just think that the composition of this photograph really speaks to those themes, and I wish I could hire this girl for the next performance! But I'm guessing I could never re-create the way this experience changed my perception of the piece and of myself dancing in the streets, nor could it re-create the emotions displayed so honestly by the mysterious character of woman-with-shopping-bags.

<3 Claire

PARK(ing) Day Performance in Berkeley this Friday

There's no such thing as a free lunch...but there is FREE DANCING AT LUNCHTIME!!! 

This Friday around noon, at Allston and Shattuck in downtown Berkeley, across from BART. We'll be performing "in a delicate way, without being beautiful." (that's a title...not a descriptor) with some awesome Bay Area artists!

The PARK(ing) Day Dance Festival is part of Nina Haft & Company's contribution to a now worldwide event. Check out their blog: http://ninahaftandcompany.wordpress.com/dancing-in-the-streets-with-friends/

A temporary PARK in San Francisco by event originators Rebar. Check out http://parkingday.org/about-parking-day/

I am so enamored by the concept of this event: leasing some urban real estate by paying the meter of a parking spot in order to create public space for art, play, and community activity rather than vehicle storage. Totally groovy and has already changed the way I look at parking spots as I drive by and wonder...Ooh the possibilities ;)

<3 Claire

3 ways to stay in the loop!

Hi all!

Just wanted to let you know that I finally figured out how to add more tangible ways for people to follow the blog...technology is hard!

So you can choose to subscribe for emails notifications when we add a new post, get updates through your favorite feed reader (I use Google Reader to follow blogs I like etc), or you can be an fcdc Follower (in the best way that word can be construed) and show us your support without getting notifications besides your Blogger Reading List. 

Thank you so much for those of you who've already shown your interest by Following, I love you all =)!

<3 Claire

thoughts from fcdc dancer Jessica de Leon

My parents put me in a ballet class when I was 4 years old. I remember seeing my older cousin perform in The Nutcracker and I wanted to be part of that world of sparkles and rhinestones and glitter. I've since out grown that. I've been dancing pretty consistently since then, taking only a short hiatus during my squirrely pre-teen years.

I didn't develop any strong feelings about dance until college. During my junior year as a dance major at Santa Clara University a professor challenged us with an interesting extra credit project: write a dance manifesto. I'm pretty sure I was the only person in the class who actually did the assignment. And most of what I came up with was total crap. But regardless, the process of writing my manifesto changed me as an artist. It forced me to sit down and actually put into words why I love dance.

Here are some parts that I don't think are crap:

"Dance has the power to change things, on both the micro and macro levels. I see dance  everywhere. Not just in the bodies of trained dancers, but in the people walking down the street and the smell of coffee wafting in the air. I see dance in the words people speak and in the silences where words need not be spoken. Dance is a passion and the medium which I choose to express my thoughts, opinions, and feelings.

"Dance is a spiritual act that brings a person’s body into communion with things that cannot be seen, only felt.
 

Photo by Joey Brennan

 

"Dance is a conversation. Whether it is between the dancer and the audience or the mover and the unknown there is dialogue that exists. Perhaps it calls our beliefs into question or enrages us to act or it simply fills us with joy. Despite the quality of the reaction, dance makes us feel something.
 

"Dance is community. In dancing with others we share a part of ourselves that goes beyond all that could ever be said. The Hopi Indians say that 'To see us dance is to hear our hearts speak.' And dancing alone allows us to reveal ourselves in an intimate and uncensored way. Dance can bring people together when the world and its human insufficiencies have torn them apart. 

"Dance is movement. Movement is dance. They cannot be separated. And there is beauty in that relationship, that tension. The world is not still or stagnant.  Movement is constant and ever present. An English teacher once told me, 'Without the push and pull of life, there is no movement.'

"Creativity and imagination propel the art of dance in to a realm beyond definitions or explanations. And that is why it is beautiful. And that is why everyone should dance."

Since I've started law school, my perspective on the world has definitely changed. This includes my thoughts on dance and art. But that might be fodder for another blog post :)

first encounters with dance

I cannot believe it is the middle of August already. Holy canole where does time go? I haven't posted in a while, but I've been keeping the motor running...contemplating the beginning of new works, the possibilities of re-visiting choreographic ideas that have already seen performance, and thinking a lot lately about the teaching of dance and how we instruct children to use their bodies as a medium for artistic pursuits. 

Oh boy...what is art...what is the value of "self-expression"...how do we make "good dancers"...can they be "made"...ahh! So much to talk about. But as a dance teacher, I am acutely aware that I introduce my own ideas about the dancing body, aesthetics, and self-discipline to students as young as 2 years old to young adults.

I'm highly interested in how people meet dance for the first time, and how that encounter shapes their perceptions and the ongoing evolution of their relationship to dance culture. I've asked the members of for change dance collective to share a little bit of their personal histories and philosophies, and I find it speaks to the kind of dancers and dance-makers they have become. I hope you enjoy their revelations as much as I do =).

<3 Claire

Thank yous are in order =)

You guys! =) I felt so blessed and honored to have the kind support of my friends and family who came out to Fog Fest or who expressed their desire to see my work if they couldn't make it.

To that end, I put together a little video of excerpts from our dress rehearsal so that interested parties could get a sample. Just a taste! Gotta keep you wanting more, right?

Whether you saw the piece live or not, if anyone has any feedback for me PLEASE do share!! I love hearing about what people saw, thought, felt...if they liked it or hated it (especially the "why" part!) or if they had questions. Anything is helpful and you can comment on the blog or email or FB me, send up smoke signals, use a carrier pigeon...I'm open! Seriously, things you liked AND things that could be improved/explored further/revisited.

I was extremely lucky to share a stage with Lauren and Jessica, who helped me craft the piece from beginning to end. They generated movement with me, shared bits of themselves, and became invested in the conversation, which is what true collaboration is all about in my opinion. Look out for more to come on these lovely ladies in a future post ;)

A penny for your thoughts?

<3 Claire

Fog Fest is one week away!

In just one week I'll be presenting my choreography for the first time in San Francisco, at the Fog Fest Summer Choreographer's Showcase at Dance Mission Theater. I'm very excited and nervous, but I am incredibly honored to be working with the talented and thoughtful dance artists Jessica De Leon and Lauren Baines, and I wanted to talk a little bit about the trio we've made together.

Through a mixture of written personal reflection, verbal storytelling, improvisation, and movement generation we have been interrogating the concept of "pretty". How has this word, and all that it represents, manifested as experience in our lives? How have we witnessed it's affects on others?

I was tickled, intrigued, and slightly horrified when this definition was the first thing to pop up in my Google search:

pret·ty/ˈpritē/

 Verb: Make pretty or attractive: "she'll be all prettied up in an hour".

Adjective: Attractive in a delicate way without being beautiful.

It's obviously a highly gendered word, it implies something aesthetic but not necessarily substantive, and in my experience, it has a way of weaving itself into the fabric of our identity in subtle yet definite ways. I hadn't ever thought of it as a verb before.

I heard an exchange between two moms once that went something like this (as I'm a visual person, I've included some emoticons to describe the emotional landscape):

"Is this your daughter?"

"Yes! (:"

"Oh she's so preeeetty!"

"D=< [in hushed tones] don't say that in front of her, she'll develop a complex!"

This got me thinking...what effect does it have on a person (and let's face it, judgment based on appearances affects females more than males...any takers on that discussion?) when they are told throughout their development that their looks say something about who they are? Whether you were the pretty little girl, the tomboy, the redhead, the skinny kid/fat kid, the nerd...did you live up to what was expected from you based on your genetic luck of the draw? 

In the dance world, we are especially prone to intense looking. I'm not really sure if I want my dances to be called "pretty" or if that would be insulting...? Is pretty one step up from cute and one below beautiful? Need I mention the size and provocative nature of dance costumes for 7 year-olds or "Toddlers In Tiaras"...eek that's probably enough said right there.

As adults we spend a lot of time considering how we look to others, and every other T.V. show kindly reaches out to help the desperately ugly or unfashionable improve their chances at success in their careers, social lives, and relationships with themselves via makeovers that range from a little makeup and a haircut to plastic surgery and thousands of dollars towards a new wardrobe. Is it really all about how it makes you feel on the inside, as the blue-haired host claims? Does our physical appearance reflect who we truly are, or do we strive to fulfill the potential imagery that society describes as our better selves? Aside from the all-knowing Google, who really defines pretty, or has pretty defined us?

As usual, I have many questions and few answers, but a lot of movement! Jess, Lauren, and I have been considering these concepts, sharing our experiences with each other, and collaboratively building the choreography. If you're so inclined, please share any thoughts sparked by this topic here and come out to see the show next Saturday at 8pm or Sunday at 7pm!

<3 Claire

Dance Brigade presents
Fog Fest Summer Choreographer's Showcase
July 8-10, 2011
Fri-Sat @ 8 pm; Sun @ 7 pm

Dance Mission Theater
3316 24th St, SF CA 94110

Tickets: $14
www.brownpapertickets.com
415-273-4633

For more information visit www.dancemission.com

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=158674777535374

The welcome wagon!

    Photography by Kim Nieva (left) and Lisa "Presley" Bates (center, right)

Welcome to the online home of fcdc : for change  dance collective

I'm Claire Calalo, a dancer, choreographer, and teaching artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. I've been cultivating the idea of starting a dance company for many years, and since I'm now re-settled in the Bay Area after graduate school, I can't think of any better time to toss my hat in the ring.


I realized in school, however, that much about the traditionally hierarchical structures of dance companies, as well as the  authoritarianism of common dance-making processes, does not work for me and for the subject matter I approach in my work. 


So here is my proposal: a collaborative effort.  I'll blog about my projects, ideas, and what's inspiring me, and hopefully I'll get to hear what you think, if you have ideas for new ventures, if you'd like to join in on any of the fun, or anything else that's on your mind!


Ultimately, I believe that great art will change you and that it should be accessible to all. Thank you for your visit, and there is lots more to come...so check back with me often!

 <3 Claire