MAE: NEW MOVING IMAGE VIDEO POEMS

NEW  Moving Image Video Poems from MAE:

WELCOME!!!

Within the alternate reality of MAE, The Movement Artists Ensemble, there have been HAPPENINGS!

 In February, after summoning our Terpsichorean guides, we went back into the studio for more movement/filming sessions. The resulting films, available to view below, mark the continuing path of MAE-- an ensemble of women who are moving into their mid-life years and beyond-- bold, creative women, fearless in their explorations of the body's ability to speak and create in its ancient language of movement. 

We describe our films as, "moving image video poems," and offer them for your amusement, amazement, confusion, curiosity... perhaps Truth & Wisdom, and, we hope, a soupcon of pleasure.

Please don't forget: Use the Comments section to leave us your response to our work. We want your likes, dislikes, or any other reactions or reflections-- we are needy in that way!

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Pianta, from Glimpse

The word "discover" goes back to the Latin dis- and cooperire, meaning to remove the covering-- one discovers (uncovers) something that was already there but previously unknown.

Glimpse is a non-narrative, moving image video poem which "uncovers" an ephemeral feminine energy, at once impressionistic, tranquil, self-possessed, curious and contained.

In non-narrative presentations the viewer can become an inner as well as an outer observer-- witnessing her own emotions, thoughts, memories, and images as she watches the images shown outside her in the film. In this way, the experience of non-narrative Art can become an uncovering of the inner self, as well as outer discoveries. If one does not view non-narrative art in this way, one does not "get it."

View...

Pianta, in Headed Home

     Headed Home began as an abstract improvisation-- no prompt, nothing in mind. But within moments, it became a task in building something that eventually led to a burden that we were dragging behind us. The theme of a journey often comes up for us, and so it was with this piece. There is purpose here, and direction, but there is also disorientation and drift, there is struggle-- all set within the sensual, breathy strains of Keiko Takeda and Paul Rosenburg's music, which itself is a recorded improvisation between the musical artists' saxaphone and piano.

 

  

View...

Lethe, as you may remember, is a Greek term for the River of Forgetfulness, as well as the name for the Spirit of Forgetfulness and Oblivion with whom the River was associated. The movers of MAE had no thoughts of this when we began to improvise this video poem. Wendy (pictured above) discovered a stray "oar" (some kind of pole whose original use we never discovered) in the studio and the improvisation unfolded without words or plans . There are truly times when we long for nothing more than to drift in the mythological river of forgetfulness... or Lethe.


  
     

 MAE ON MAE

Pianta, Yulia and Nancy

View VIDEO of Discussion
MAE ON MAE:
What's it Like? 

    MAE members, Yulia, Pianta, Nancy and Gwyn discuss their process and experiences of creating movement improvisations for the purpose of making experimental videos. 

                                        
                                      

 

I've come to a place where I feel
I am able to just forget the camera...

                    --Gwyn, MAE Facilitator

When the person is really involved in the movement and you can tell they're not thinking about anything other than just experiencing movement-- that's when I think it's really fascinating.     --Pianta                                                                                                                                                                

I like the intuitive nature of it, reading it energetically rather than  having to think about a dance move or a pose or an appearance...               --Nancy      

                                                      

   You can come with a horrible mood and then suddenly, it's like a birthplace of  Freedom!     --Yulia

 GLOW IN THE PARK--

AFTER TWO WEEKS OF STRESSING about my film installation for Glow in the Park, Escondido, the entire event sparkled with majick beneath a full moon the color of a peach!

Howie, my son, and Greg, my hubby, produced and built the final design of the screen, which turned out to resemble a sail caught in a spiderweb! How artistic is THAT (?!). Glowing mason jar lanterns framed the "sail" as our moving image video poems flitted across it!!!

The lanterns were painted w/glow paint,  & lit from the inside with tiny colored led lights and glow sticks. After sunset, they began to glow like jars of captured incandescence!


WITH THE UNIQUELY-RIGGED screen & jelly jar lanterns, mine was surely the lowest tech installation of the entire event. I had been worried about that beforehand, but after seeing the result,  decided that low tech was not a bad thing, nor was it even relevant to the purpose of the overall event.




 
AS PEOPLE BEGAN TO GATHER in front of the screen, their faces lifted to the play of light and shadow before them, they seemed transfixed. Pianta, Yulia & I (the progenitors of MAE) stood among them, watching ourselves move on the surface of the sail/spiderweb, remembering the road the 3 of us have traveled together for lo! these past years.  At the same time, the dark figures gathered in the silence seemed a Greek chorus, their regard ancient as when they observed and commented on the dramas of the ancient gods, goddesses and mortals thousands of years ago.


FROM THIS NIGHT'S EXPERIENCE I HAVE LEARNED to be more open to success. To have more faith in my Muse. I have learned that my process is to forget much until the last minute & then remember it all-- and in this regard, not to be persuaded by those who say, "Forget it, c'mon, we have to go!"  Next time I WILL take the time to get my camera, my lawn chairs, my water-- preferably before time to go, but even if I only remember at the last minute!!

The support from my family was also amazing... from Greg, to my son & daughter in law, Howie & Emily; daughter Shanna; grandkids Maelee & Maxx; and my daughter, Jessie, added a huge specialness to the occasion.

A special thanks to Jessie and her friend, Jasmine, who went the distance until 11:00 pm closing and helped tear down and "strike the set." They have that special stamina of youth. Hugs to them both!

ADDITIONAL GRATITUDE to all those who saw the films that night and spoke such kind words about them; to Yulia and Pianta for sharing the adventure; and to all those who have ever moved WITH MAE, as well as those who have ever BEEN moved BY MAE.

Much love to ALL!!
                                                    --Gwyn

A Dancer's Tale

by Gwyn Henry

She continued to dance 
past the prime 
the world had appointed 
 

& as her life ran out 
she pointed her toes 
while what was in her heart

grew larger

her 
feet articulate as hands
hands fluent as poems 
 

& she did not cling 
as it all left her 
(arms & legs

as always 
clad in black)

but entered the floor

which was made of trees

she

careful as music 
thoughtful as wood

stood before the mirror 
& lifted her arms

as she grew old

THE MYLAR EPISODES...

Mylar is... 

an extraordinarily strong polyester film-like substance developed in the early 1950s. In the 1960s cellophane gave way to Mylar with its superior strength, heat resistance, and excellent insulating properties... Mylar created new markets in magnetic audio and video tape, capacitor dielectrics, packaging and batteries. By the 1970s, Mylar had become the industry's best-selling film. 

 

Sun warping time/space

SO MAE USED MYLAR to make our own "films": Below are links to view the four mylar films (moving image video poems) produced within our two days of experimentation with this substance. There seemed something magical about this shimmering surface, drifting the air currents like cloth, now solid, now diaphanous--and sometimes recalling textbook illustrations of how matter warps the fabric of time and space.

THE MYLAR EPISODES: 4 FILMS

Pianta, in Fabric of the Universe

MYLAR I: Fabric of the Universe

click to view:

http://youtu.be/1qd9H9zeYtk 

It is the silent, smiling faces that speak first, as they drift through the fluttering, crackling tunnel-- as though it whispers, as though it has breath-- the faces evoking the luminosity of children's faces as they make first contact with something magical. Fabric of the Universe can be viewed as an inquiring study of the qualities of light and texture evoked by the mylar, as well as those of movement, form, emotion, mind and spirit.

Yulia White, in Opening the Mylar...

MYLAR II: Opening the Mylar: A Meditation on Reflected Light

click here to view 

This film chronicles opening the mylar, unrolling it from its 10' tall roll. Again, the camera observes, the mover artists move, the editor experiments with criss crossing and stacking images, and the light shimmers on.

Unknown Alien Entity, from COVER

MYLAR III: COVER

 Click here to view

Featuring a music track from the Dutch group, "Audiotransparent," COVER brings forward the alien-entity possibilities of the mylar. The camera's eye contemplates the movements of a metallic creature, graceful and glittering, creating its own haunting dance. Meanwhile, quantum-size glimpses of another reality  flicker through, like the last traces of a dimension poignantly similar to our own.

                                      

Pianta, left & Yulia White, right in Butoh Fall

MYLAR IV: Butoh Fall  
 Click to view

Butoh  is an avant garde   improvisation dance /  performance art that had its origins in Japan in the 1960's. It strives to allow the body to "speak" for itself, through            unconscious movement. Originally, it sought to reveal beauty in the dark, the misshapen, the primitive, and the unknown or subconscious realms of the human psyche. Butoh Fall pays homage to this unconventional form through the intensity of the two movers, their anesthetized tempos, frozen faces, the downward pull of body shapes and gestures, the threatening sound track. Toward its end, the film offers a last interaction between the detached couple, one of them striking the floor loudly with her legs again and again, as if to awaken the other, or to shake her out of her trance. Is there light at the end of this  tunnel?                                   

                       

COASTING

Nothing serious,

just a little fun

goofing off while coasting

up the California coast--

in Studio IV

DREAMING IN THE FLOW

                             Enter the dream world as a contemplative tourist...

A Dream Documentary in Movment & Music:

http://youtu.be/w9-0EbHE_dU

   "De-Constructions"       

MAE's 3rd video poem offering

from 

January Monday's 2012




click here to view De-Constructions

MAE's Newest Films from January Session

Watch "Where Do We Go...?"

MAE   has been in the Studio for three January Mondays, conceiving, creating and frolicking in Other Dimensions!! We have encountered a surrealistic Fish, a Marvelous Mylar River, Masques, Dreams, Barriers, Freedoms, and too many other marvels to mention.

Yulia White in "Where Do We Go?"

For your viewing pleasure and for a path into investigating your own inner landscapes, we present the first of our January film set: "Where Do We Go...?"

 A visually & musically haunting improvised movement piece that might be a metaphor of how we move in life toward its end, and where we go when it's all over. Or... maybe not. What do you think?                                           

Just another moving image video by MAE, the Movement Artist's Ensemble, and Bold Hen Productions.

 Please stay tuned-- more videos right around the corner!

 New MAE Sessions Slated...

Explore your inner landscapes-- take part in the magic of movement 

& be part of experimental film

4Mondays in January/ the 9th, 16th, 23rd, and 30th

Time: 12:00 pm - 3:00 pm

California Center for the Arts ~ Studio IV ~ 340 Escondido Blvd
Escondido, California

NO FEE

Come for one, any, or all sessions. 

Contact: Choctaw44atgmail.com

 "In the Red Tent"--  

Out of the Virtual & Into the World

THE SHOW IS OVER & "IN THE RED TENT"

RECEIVED AN HONORABLE MENTION!

View the video... 

 

http://youtu.be/Ef6KlfWmjFg

OPENING RECEPTION WAS on 11/11/11. 

It is an unusual date. And the night itself was unusual for California-- 

dark and rainy...

But the Glitter-ati were out in force, and they poured into the Gallery, dedicated cognoscenti, every one.  

The usual wine and cheese table held down the gallery's center, the usual colors, shapes and forms of singular art filled the walls, and everything sparkled against the backdrop of the black night as an oasis of light, warmth, food, conversation, color, and Art!

If you attended, Thank You!  If you did not, sorry you missed it. There's always next time.

Escondido Arts Partnership- Municipal Gallery

262 E. Grand Ave.

Escondido, CA, 92025

760-480-4101

HOURS: 11-4, TU, THUR,FRI,SAT

 CLOSED SUN, MON,& WED

MAE Makes a Vampire Flick!

Link to view "RETURN" --http://youtu.be/lRv0u3sfsy8

Ok, we didn't set out to make a vampire film. It's just that some images in our latest video effort, RETURN, seem to echo images in the silent classic film "Nosferatu" by F.W. Murnau, 1922.

http://www.google.com/search?q=images+for+nosferatu&hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS325&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=R-IMTunnMKK30AH1u_yrDg&ved=0CCEQsAQ&biw=815&bih=385 [Notice in particular the elongated fingers of the vampire and the gothic, box-like doorways and coffins that often surround his image.]

The art center, which houses the studio where MAE usually films, was designed by the eminent architect Charles W. Moore http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Willard_Moore Moore was the winner of the AIA Gold Medal in 1994, an honor he shares with such icons as Frank Lloyd Wright and Buckminster Fuller.

Moore believed that architecture must elicit responses from all the senses, not just the visual. He therefore created buildings and spaces that engaged history, myth and creativity. His work generates environments that stimulate the user. In much the same way, MAE creates films that aim to engage the viewer interactively by stimulating his or her senses of memory and imagination, the psyche, dream fragments, along with all the accompanying emotions.

The art center complex of buildings-- and especially the Studio itself, with its high windows and incredible light-- holds an invisible but palpable magic. Its magic seems to be about the freedom to explore the border spaces between the mundane world, and other dimensions... those of timelessness, imagination, and the creative force which Art reveals when circumstances favorably conjoin.

I have long found the many nooks and niches, cubby holes and crannies of the building's architecture intriguing. What kinds of movement and expression might be possible from within those spaces? And what might film reveal about them?

Even though some of the spaces we wanted to use on the day of filming were not easily accessible from ground level, Yulia took to them like the seasoned rock climber she is. Her improvisational movements within those spaces, although she was greatly cramped, restricted, and confined, are amazingly creative and evocative. Her movements allowed the film's final result-- the scary jerkiness of some scenes in the film, Nosferatu, and the dark, expressionist images of many early, classic horror films.

 MAE's films beg human interaction. They are an invitation for the Viewer to participate with the world conjured by the film. The Viewer can pull that world inside of him or herself and allow it to stimulate-- "call upon" if you will-- what ever is waiting in his/her inner landscapes of memory, dreams, emotions, and response.

If you watch RETURN, we hope you participate. We hope those of your  parts that are cramped will be freed to find grander spaces.

A RED TENT FROM THE FABRIC OF THE GODDESS

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Click here to watch "In the Red Tent" - 

http://youtu.be/Ef6KlfWmjFg
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It all started when Emily gave me her old curtains... scarlet tulle with three inch metallic gold trim. "I thought you might use these for your improv dance group."
Indeed!

MENSTRUAL HOUSES-- A FEMININE HERITAGE

From "In the Red Tent"

So from Emily's old curtains MAE built an environment which turned out to be a red tent. In fact, it became THE red tent of the book, "The Red Tent," by Anita Diament. Diament's fictional red Arabian tent was inspired by traditional menstrual structures-- huts, tents, cabanas, houses, and other dwellings of endless names, from the beginning of human time. Thoroughly feminine spaces, these huts were structures for women to retire to during their monthly cycles.

The male-dominated fields of archeology and anthropology (which never had useful access to the surviving menstrual huts of contemporary indigenous cultures, because they were, after all, well... male.) But these men of science described the women's experiences anyway, surmising that in general the menstrual houses  existed because of "primitive" beliefs that women are unclean during their periods, dangerous, and capable of contaminating material objects, as well as food, and of causing sickness if not fatality. Therefore, they had to be "confined" away from the communities during their menstrual flow.

Later, female scientists, being granted access to the huts and more intimate contact with the women there, described things quite differently. They found that the women themselves characterized their experience of the menstrual hut as a place where women felt free to behave in ways they ordinarily didn't. In the hut, which they designated the holiest structure in the village, the women conducted their own purification ceremonies, and made their own ritual offerings. They were more open about sexuality & reproduction, and talked more candidly about husbands and mothers-in-law. The could be more playful and physically rough, they could smoke cigarettes, sleep late, take naps, drink endless cups of tea, flirt with passersby, and sing and dance simply for the joy of it. It was a place of intermittent escape. It provided women (young & old, post-menstrual as well as menstruating women) with a place from which to act-- to resolve village issues, to be creative and religious; to be part of the larger community of only women from which they were usually divided by family, village and household responsibilities. The menstrual huts were a place of constant flow of people and things coming in and out, as supplies were delivered: food, firewood, bedding, cooking utensils, goddess figurines, women, and ritual items all came in from the outside.

And of course everyone, men and women alike, was born in the menstrual hut-- the red tent-- and thus brought out from the inside. In other words, the spaces symbolized by the Red Tent, were where women experienced an expanded sense of themselves as effective agents and as free people. The structures offered a respite from day to day work, and a space for laughter, affection, long lazy naps, and extra cups of tea. Here, they delivered babies and even slew a few dragons. (Google: Menstrual Houses, "The Kalasha Bashali")

OUR OWN RED TENT:

Betty Backus, from "In the Red Tent"

When Emily's curtains transformed into our own Red Tent, and we began to move within it, how free our movements quickly became, how sensual and ecstatic. How the emotions of tenderness for each other seemed to arise as we gently stroked each others checks, touched hair and shoulders as one would a beloved mother or child, and as we embraced, silently asking for, receiving and giving gentleness, nurturing and comfort.

Gwyn Henry, from "In the Red Tent"

How beautiful I felt as we danced in that red tent, and how beautiful the other three women became in its glow, as if the fabric itself had attracted the energy of a Goddess, which nestled in the brilliant, diaphanous woven threads that surrounded us.

Tanya Notkoff, from "In the Red Tent"

For me, the Studio itself fell away, and a briliant desert surrounded us while the sound of camel bells seemed to hang in the air along with intoxicating incense, and a feeling of ultimate feminine joy and power-- ours to be given to the waiting World.

Yulia White from "In the Red Tent"

A SPECIAL GUEST...

Above top, Betty Backus, dance therapist, expressive arts teacher, and pioneering dance exemplar. Below, with Gwyn Henry, from MAE video, "Dancing With Betty."
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhoV2N48EG8

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MAE WAS RECENTLY HONORED to be joined for a collaborative movement improvisation by the amazing Betty Backus. Click on the link above to view the video created from that session, Dancing With Betty. Make particular note of the wondrous quote at the end of the video by Anna Halprin, one of Betty's early teachers.

And don't forget to leave a comment, should you feel so inclined. We love having your feedback.

MAE returns to the Studio...

We've been back in the Studio, improvising, playing and discovering more phantastical worlds to bring into the mundane one by creating more moving image video poems. It's Yulia & I this time, joined for one session by two small friends (See earlier video posts, below, of Dancing with the Grandmothers and Phantazein). We were also treated to a surprise visit for our final Spring session, by pioneer dance therapist and expressive artist, Betty Backus. Stills & video from that amazing session coming soon! More sessions with Betty are in the works.

Each time I approach the Studio, lugging boom box, music cd's, tripods, cameras, and assorted props, I wonder, what's going to happen this time? It feels like we've taxed our brains and wrung them dry of ideas; that we've explored every inch of the Studio's dance floor, walls, mirrors, windows, barres, nooks, and crannies, even built some of our own environments to move within. Surely there's nothing more to gain from this place, nothing left to explore & to inspire us here. But more always comes.

I am not really sure why we do this, but it is clear that we have discovered a path with a mind of its own; one which is leading us-- perhaps to some unknown end, perhaps simply for the sake of the journey. But the Way has called us, and in this lovely spring of 2011, we are answering.

For the next few weeks, as I work on editing footage, giving form to what we've done, I will be posting the videos on this blog. I hope many of you will be intrigued by what we have made.

If you can find something in our work that speaks to you, or inspires you, or touches you, or resonates with you... we invite you to leave a comment, a poem, a photo, a drawing, a slip of music... or whatever way you'd like to convey it to us!

MAE's "Dimensional Reconn"

Pianta & Yulia White in "Dimensional Reconn"

Click here to view video:
http://youtu.be/g0sN95W4Nz4 

(And don't forget to leave a comment!!)

MAE explores ethereal, multi-dimensions with movement, light, music & video. Tripping in  time & space...

Phantazein: to make visible

click on the link to view video.

http://youtu.be/Tz2LM_1NPyQ

Yulia White, Maxx McCarron & Maelee McCarron in Phantazein

Dancing With the Grandmothers

Gwyn Henry, Maxx McCarron, Dancing with the Grandmothers

Click on the link below for MAE's latest moving image poem, Dancing With the Grandmothers:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH-qlqgElA8

TO DANCERS FROM WINTER

 

...humankind has afforded itself the right to create a world that is superimposed on the visible one and to make visible a world that is ordinarily invisible. --Jean Cocteau, The Art of Cinema

January 3rd, 2011 -- POST:

Don't know what 2011 will bring for MAE. Possibilities range from new birthings to Falling Away & Rebirth onto other creative roads for each of us. From the depths of this cold Winter day, I offer a poem for MAE and for all who dance...

The Winter of MAE
(to the Movement Artists' Ensemble)
by Gwyn Henry

Gwyn Henry, Yulia White, Pianta from Shadow Feet



 Quiet now our feet & deep
our dance-less nod
dreaming perhaps of movement
dreaming perhaps of floor,
thirsting for mirrored light                   
& yes quicksilver notes
that rise us through doorways
which only our bodies can explain

Yulia White, from The Camera

like leaves whose dances
have been felled
to waiting beds of snow
we curl, embryos,
with our lives sleeping
in our bellies,

tired, spent, content                             

to lie supine

upon pale days
& thick nights

Pianta, from Out of the Red

diva's we are,
with forgetfulness
of sweat & radiant musk
& graze of hand, ricochet of hips--
no longer accepting weight
not our own
nor trusting our bones
to other bones

Gwyn Henry, Yulia White, from It's Not in the Bag

each to her own
slumber
separate

Pianta, from Shadow Work

all the rest
absent for now,
sundered & scattered,
by this fallow time.

         --January 2011     
Escondido, California