Dance Non Fiction

A movement dialogue by: Jenna Balfe

In collaboration with: Natasha Lopez DeVictoria, Mauricio Abascal, Cassie Mills, Olivia Ramos Herrera, Dylan Romer, Daliahah Danielle Koller, Ganesha Michael Shapiro

Music by: Marcel McVay

Occurred on: June 30, 2013 at 5:30pm

Where: The Miami Performance Festival at The Miami Beach Botanical Gardens- 2000 Convention Center Dr Miami Beach, FL 33139

Press: Miami Art Zine, Editors Picks, http://www.miamiartzine.com/latest-features/editors-picks/1569-dancer-jenna-balfe-at-the-miami-beach-botanical-garden

Relationships between people are containers of the ephemeral richness of a moment. This celebration of life is passing. It builds. It develops it's own language and way of being in the world. A relationship is a practice of getting to know the world and yourself through developing a way of communicating with what seems to be "other".

Dance Non-Fiction is focused on a body-centered language development between COMPANY members. As the piece develops, cross-pollination between the movers builds a nonverbal narrative. The emphasis is to use dance/movement in a practical manner, one that supports human community and expression beyond words. By moving beyond words the discovery of a new kind of truth between the movers will beexpressed.

The language of Dance Non-Fiction is generated through the combination of practiced movement forms such as contact improvisation, modern dance, yoga and capoeiraas with therapeutic forms such as Ritual Dance, Authentic Movement and Meditation. The movers/participants are go deep into an interior space while remaining objective and non-emotional, favoring no one form but instead moving and mutating between all forms. Created is a vulnerable space, where real feeling, desires and actions are played out. It is not a "safe space" necessarily but more a hyper-real one.

Energy is essential to this work. It takes precedence over the movement itself. Conscious attention to energy guides Dance-Non-Fiction. This is further achieved in two unique ways. First, Dance-Non-Fiction calls for the audience to be witness to the relationships occurring before them. The audience is asked to put all of their opinions and criticisms to the forefront, essentially becoming a non-passive observer. Through this process of directing their energy at the movers/participants, the movers/participants use their attention to affect the piece in real time. Secondly, there is also is a non-real-time/ in-person element to the piece as well. Since some of the movers/participants in the piece live far their participation happens digitally (ie video chat, speaker phone). The movers/ participants in the piece become mediums between the energy that surrounds us all, the audience and their own personal stories.

See a video clip- click here

Dance Non-Fiction focuses on energy process and is never “finished.” The aim is to deepen and spread the message of a focused physical communication. It is valid and it feels good.

Being

  Being/April 13,2013/A Night to Remember- Fundraiser for The Miami Performance Festival / A performance piece by Jenna Balfe in collaboration with Dylan Romer/Olivia Ramos/Ganesha Michael Shapiro/Misael Soto/Dhaliahah Daniel Koller/Jacqueline Falcone/Jean Crystal

Being, reflects upon the car accident I recently was in. Through the performance of this piece I confront my own sprit and being through the process of healing and learning from a serious trauma. In this space I learn the importance of meditation and focus- key tools to finding oneself in the present. The injury in I incurred is very real, and in order to go ahead with my plans I must submit to it and believe that I can heal myself. A human, a beautiful complex summation of energy, light.

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 Click here to see a clip from Being

In the begining I confront a projected live image of myself, which is my essence. Olivia and Dylan act as conduits of my spirit via camera and projector. Eventually the projection is cast over me and I move toward the wall to explore my face. After this a video plays of  the pole I crashed into with a few different shots of me. The video is run through Time Piles which- an iphone video app by Dylan Romer, which distorts and layers the sequence of events- which I feel reflects the feeling of timelessness I encountered as I found myself thinking: “I think I am going to be okay” as I sped face first toward the pole. I fully realized that either that statement would be true, or those would be the last thoughts I had. I began to cry watching this video during the performance. After the video ended I continued to sit there without any projection on me. Next my friends came in. Prior to the perfromance, Jackie and Misael decided that they wanted to dress in accordance to their actual relationships to me. Jackie, my former roomate wore a nightgown and a robe, as much of our friendship was spent at home chilliing in our night clothes. Misael, my ex, felt that as much of our relationship was expreienced naked- in more ways than one and he wanted to be naked. Members of Company contributed in ways that were true to our practice during Company meet-ups and Bodymovement class: I gave everyone the invitation to listen to my body with their ears, Ganessha felt drawn to lean over me with his head to my center. He felt this was what he was drawn naturally to do. Dhaliahah said she would link into me, and held space moving seperatly from the group, moving intutivly guided by her own movement practice. Jean videoed the performance, giving her energy to the space being in the actual audience. They helped me up- walked me gently, lifted me onto Misaels naked back and finally moved me towards the edge of the space where they released me, standing on my own beyond the performance area. I turned to them with tears in my eyes, feeling their love for me in this actual narrative. I put my hand over my heart in gratitude and the piece ended. The audience as acted as witness, a concept I draw on from the practice of Authentic Movement creating a closed circuit of energy, a space for ritual narrative.

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A Night to Remember

384April 13, 2013 at 3841 NE 2nd. Ave. (entrance on 38th St. across from DASH) in the heart of Miami’s Design District. Reflecting upon the accident I recently was in I will be performing a piece about healing and being present. When my vehicle was moving out of control headed directly toward a cement pole, I said to myself: "I think I am going to be ok." But in those milliseconds I realized it was either I would be ok or those were the last thoughts that I would have. Since that night I have been meditating on what it means to be present and deal with whats in front of me. I think I have learned more from the kindness of friends in this time than I ever have my whole life. In collaboration with Dylan Romer and friends: Olivia Ramos, Oly Vargas, Estibaliz Montanez and Misael Soto.

Click here to see:Facebook event

Help fund COMPANIES first performance in Grand Central Park, Miami

IF YOUR INTERESTED FUNDING WHAT IS WRITTEN BELOW PLEASE CONTACT ME: jenna.balfe at gmail.com ( I wrote it this way to avoid robot emails) COMPANY - the companion to BODYMOVEMENT class will begin our exploration of movement within this politically charged "park". Built out of the rubble of the old Miami Arena- where Michael Jackson once performed, the land itself is charged with all sorts of energy. The people who commute through and live in this area range from: homeless folks, artists, party goers condo dwellers and beyond. A goal of our work is to speak to this complexity, relate our personal physical stories to those of the landscape and it's history. We are currently designing sculptures that are based on the movements made by the movers in relation to the landscape of the park. COMPANY is open to all whom are interested, but this membership requires dedication. The membership of Company currently includes photgraphers, architects, web designers, architects, environmentalists, politicians, dancers, actors, costume designers and more. Our production is currently set to happen in late April.

 

Art Live Fair 2012

On October 27, 2012 the Body Movement Class (The End/Spring Break, me (Jenna Balfe) and Mr. Feathers (music)  held workshops at the Art Live Fair. We had two workshops and at the end of each workshop participants were asked to use their newly aquired physical information to answer a simple question with their skillz. This quick “answer”was video recorded. click here to see a video!

We explored the concepts such as:

Weight Sharing - We will lightly cover technique that will give movers the ability to share a center of gravity and find momentum to dance. The play of balance and off balance will also be touched upon.

Gesture - Playing with the concept of everyday expression and movements, we will explore and re-contextualize their meanings and use.

Dancing with someone else- Really tuning into another person’s rythym and initiative to move is an art that extends beyond dance... but for the purposes of this small workshop we will focus on trying to listen to our partner as well as inspire their movement.

Sensitivity and awareness skills- This is a group movement oriented workshop. We will play with the concept of telling the same story at the same time as one entity with different moving parts.

Body Movement Class has been an ongoing class since January 2012 (with a 2 month summer break) These workshops were helped by people who had been attending the class regularly. Because of the skills they learned we were able to more easily delve into physical play with the attendees of the workshop. Thank you to: Jean Crystal, Misael Soto, Natasha Velez, Alicia Ziatsu, Patricia Margarita Hernandez, Domingo Castillo, Natalia Sturlia and Mauricio Abascal.

Press:

Art Is About

The End

BODY MOVEMENT

Body Movement - A class based on contact improv with elements of dance theatre, improv and general playfulness. The class is open to all people ! Not just trained dancers. The goal of the class is actually to get people who are not aware of their movement capabilities to become aware of them and enjoy! Come visit!

Where: http://miadancestudio.com/

This movement workshop has a goal of engendering confidence through exploring human interaction and communication through movement. We will sample different movement styles and practices such as: capoiera, contact improv, dance improvisation, yoga and modern dance. I will direct a collaborative process of creating our own movement vocabulary based on each individual's movement style (we all have a movement style, whether we are conscious of it or not). Over time we will build a dance vocabulary based on these personal gestures and influence from other movement styles. We will learn how to create“scores,”( a set of physical instructions that can be interpreted and repeated loosley) We will learn how to read one another and recognize “triggers” that will allow us to move together and play off of each others movements creating loose scores that will enable us to jump into using a particular vocabulary in a mildly pre-determined manner.

Another goal, separate from our studio time is to take this to the streets! To other places, to the sidewalk, the median, the grocery store, the beach, a gallery, a party we were not invited too, a tree, on bicycles... The idea is to create a movement vocabulary and sense of each other in space that we are comfortable with which will enables us to create site specific works with ease. Perhaps some flash mob type things as well... Sometimes our audience will only be ourselves, other times it could be the pedestrians on a busy sidewalk or guests at a gallery...these are the details we will work out as the time comes.

Why:

We look at each other and a million or more thoughts are going on in our own individual heads... We filter/distill this muck of consideration down to a poignant expression, a linear abstraction of our emotions, thoughts and feelings intended to explain our state of being to other beings. By exploring the language of touch, sight and sound through movement we can get at these deeper truths from a perspective unencumbered by the barrage of verbal language that is tainted with pre-determined meaning. Find some freedom with the body and then spread this freedom through the streets of weird commercial beautiful Miami, a land of contradiction.

Press:

http://artpractical.tumblr.com/search/miami

http://artisabout.com/2012/12/26/art-body-contact-and-improvisation/

http://www.facebook.com/bodybodymove