it has been a bit of time since i last wrote here.  as the days roll on, we’re up to some new creative work and premiering some of this at performances this fall and showcases. first, it has been wonderful to expand the choreographic creation to the ‘collective’s’ treasure chest.  i’m really happy to be working on ‘salama’ with roshanak jaberi and melissa noventa.  it’s the first time i’ve worked with roshanak and the first time melissa has contributed her choreographic vision to the ‘collective’s’ work.  this piece resonates with the intimacy of these two dancers/choreographers and each time we rehearse it, the three of us get closer and closer, bridging the words to the music and movement.

then there’s the new piece with kevin a. ormsby, ‘multi-verse’, born out of my passion for thunderbolt writing to music as fast paced and intense.  with kevin’s sharp and acerbic movements, postures, bold and brash statements, the piece rockets along in a seeming defiance, with the words exclaiming the incomprehensible and the fixed.

one other piece is with amanda paixao, entitled ‘destination out’ which explores the drug dependency of jazz musicians and their flirtations with death.

these pieces are at the core of the new work we’re now engaged in and, through this, the development of another full-length production with the working title ‘destination out’ which i’m hoping will explore exits and departures from family, the physical life and entrance into spirit.  it will explore the hardships of family and the pain of spirituality in attempts to heal; it will explore black artist – musicians, writers, actors, dancers – who have worked to create and found themselves in trying circumstances in their efforts to survive an arts industry that diminishes their efforts; it will peek into how spirit rolls through our bodies and claims us either while we are breathing or afterward.

while we’re working on these, we are also returning to other performance pieces that we’ll be staging in october and then in either november or december.

stay tuned

charles