Performances this weekend!

Here's a shot from the Nora Gibson Performance Project's Temporal Objects. We're sharing the bill with Irish choreographer John Scott. Tickets are still available here: PDP Presents Nora Gibson & John Scott Thanks to Philadelphia Dance Projects for the opportunity!

Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers is hosting an Open Dialogue on Saturday from 4-5pm. It's FREE! See some of Be/Longing and chat with the artists at CHI MAC Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers.

Please share this exciting weekend with me!

Reminders

"We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobiles, rather than by the quality of our service and relationship to humanity." ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Random act of culture at 30th Street Station to bring awareness to
Dance for Children with Special Needs.
Photo and program by Brian Mengini. 

Photo shoot for KYL/D. Photo by Matthew Wright.
KYL/D's Be/Longing Performance at Drexel's Mandell Theater

Photo by Nora Gibson - experiments in Light.
NGPP's Temporal Objects at the Performance Garage.

It's a blizzard-y, blustery February! Upcoming Events

Snow drifts swirl. Ice coated limbs threaten to break in the wind. I hope you're staying warm and safe! February has announced her arrival - and it's going to be busy! (I'll take some time in the coming weeks and months to reflect, post-performance... thanks for staying in touch!)

So, here's the line-up:

Dance/UP (Dance/ USA Philadelphia) is once again sponsoring Dance in Public Places. This is an awesome opportunity for the public to see the creative process in action. Stop by the 2nd level of the Gallery at Market East and check out art in action all month! Here's the link for more information and the line up of artists - Dance in Public Places
I'll be there-
Thursday, 2/6 with freSH|blood
Thursday, 2/6 with the Nora Gibson Performance Project
Friday 2/7 with Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers
Thursday, 2/13 with freSH|blood
Thursday, 2/20 with the Nora Gibson Performance Project
Friday, 2/28 with Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers

NGPP at Dance in Public Places in 2011. Photo by Bill H.

NGPP at Dance in Public Places in 2011. Photo by Bill H. 

NGPP at Dance in Public Places in 2011.
Photo by Bill H. 

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Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers is performing at Temple University's Faculty Dance Concert on Feb. 7th & 8th.
Liu Mo will be performing Moon Dance (one of my favorite KYL/D pieces - you've got to see it!) and the company will be presenting an excerpt of Be/Longing. The concert will also feature works by Temple Faculty and guest artist Larry Keigwin. Check out Keigwin and Company and get your tickets here.

Here's a short clip of Be/Longing  from our performance at APAP. (Click the link to go to the Instagram video).

Photo by Matthew Wright

Liu Mo in Kun-Yang Lin's Moon Dance. Photo by Lindsay Browning

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Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers will be presenting a lecture/ demonstration at The Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush on Feb. 14th. Dancing is a great way to celebrate Valentines' Day!

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The Nora Gibson Performance Project premiers Temporal Objects, February 27-March 1 at the Performance Garage. Presented by Philadelphia Dance Projects with John Scott from Dublin, Ireland. Of Temporal Objects, Nora writes, "This half-evening length piece has grown out of my interest in fugue analysis, and my work with lighting designer, Clifford Greer, to integrate lighting and choerography as equal voices in the work. As the piece developed, those foundational elements led to further questions about how time and memory are perceived, as the manipulation of light and movement patterns began to resemble instances of recollection in the mind, and how memories, themselves are replayed and re-patterned. Elements from distant points in time: the baroque, romantic era, and the present were invited into the same moment as objects co-existing in the conscious mind." Get your tickets here.

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Interested in taking class with me? I'm teaching:
   Intermediate/ Advanced Modern Dance at CHI MAC Tuesday 2/11 & 2/18 from 4-5:30pm
   Ballet Barre every Saturday morning 11:30-12:15pm at CHI MAC
   Dance for PD, every Saturday morning 10:30-11:30am at CHI MAC
Check KYL/D's class schedule for more details about classes at CHI MAC and the other amazing artists who are teaching: CHI MAC Class Schedule

And if that's not enough dance for you, check out Merilyn Jackson's preview of Philly Dance for the Spring season in the Inquirer: Dance Preview

Deepening roots & extending branches into the New Year.

January 31st celebrated KYL/D's (and my) 21st InHale Performance Series. The day also celebrated the Chinese New Year and the Year of the Horse.

Happy Year of the Horse!

According to an article in the Huffington Post (and all of their sources), the Year of the Horse is one of Fire. Fire references destruction and turmoil; Fire also represents Change. Change is challenging and can be difficult, but in the end, results in new birth. Regrowth. More fertile fields.

Of change, a wise man once advised me, "Beginnings are scary. Endings are sad. It's what happens in the middle that counts."

And the middle can be very exciting.

In terms of time, the middle seems to be the transition from the beginning to the end. An equal argument is that the beginning is the transition from the end to the middle. Likewise, the end is the transition from the middle to the beginning. Transitions become the essence of life. Of the dance.

This is why I work so hard on plies. (See Psychoanalysis-of-Plie-Part-1).

In terms of musical phrasing and counting musical time, the middle is the AND of the 1AND2 in 2/4 or 4/4 time. 3ANDA4 in 3/4 or 6/8 time. 1EEANDA2... Rhythms and time can be subdivided and subdivided. Like fire. Like change. The middle is the stuff that happens in between the end points. The numbers, the counts. The beginning and the end.

The colors/ heat/ energy of a flame transitions from one to another before extending into space, bridging the gap between the darkness and the light. Purple, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red... (references to the chakras, rainbows, sunset...)

I'm reminded that in the heat of change, we must remain calm at the center. Like the Phoenix, we are often burnt so that we can transform and re-grow.



It is my wish that during this year of endings, rebirth, healings, and change, that we remain mindful of the process and the purpose of the Fire. The beginning of 2014 has passed, and we're entering the middle... there's a lot that has to happen in the middle!

Sharing this image from The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society. May you have a mindful (not mind full), empowered, ignited, and intentional New Year!

KYL/D's InHale Performance Series is this week!

Another round of exciting performances and emerging and established artists take the stage this Friday. KYL/D's 21st InHale Performance Series is Friday, January 31st at 7:30pm at CHI MAC in South Philly. I'm excited!

Here's a bit about the show:


Get tickets here: Dance Box Office

What is your dance of service?

Photo by Bill H. Choreography by Kun-Yang Lin.

A reflection by a former student on what our time exploring Dance and Service have meant to her. (I have her permission to reprint this, but I've left out her name and some personal details of her writing).

I think differently. I see the world differently than most people I know. I don't just see with my eyes. I see with my shoulder blades and my knee caps and the bottoms of my feet and my neck and rib cage. 

I experience the world through the body I have been given to experience life. Something I have been thinking about as a performing artist and an advocate... is how much our bodies are attached to our experiences, physical and emotional. We live in a society where we are taught what goes on in our mind and what happens in our bodies are two different things. THEY ARE NOT. They are the same thing! Why do we think of our minds and bodies and souls as these disjointed appendages? They are all one entity that make up an individual.... My body IS my mind and my SOUL. THAT is why we need to take care and nurture and nourish our physical bodies, it is what allows our soul to move about the earth and mingle with the creation of the Universe. Dance has made me realize when I am experiencing emotional pain, stress, anger, happiness, my body feels it too. Sometimes, my mind doesn't even know what I am feeling and I ask my body instead - I have learned to listen. 

Readers, what is your dance of service? Through dance classes and other physical practices (Yoga, Pilates, Kung Fu, Contemplative Movement Practices), I've learned to look inward, to turn to my physical body when my environmental states seem to be in chaos. (In Yoga as a philosophical and religious practice, the physical postures are practiced to calm the mind for meditation.) Dance also can calm the mind, energize the body, and can build a sense of community. Dance can bring people together. Dance can create joy. Dance can be a form of service.

What's your Dance? How do you keep moving forward?

KYL/D's at APAP 2014

Check out one of the promo videos here

If you're in NYC next weekend, please stop by City Center Studio 4 and see KYL/D. APAP's always an exciting weekend of dance in New York and I get really excited to see some of my friends who are performing across the country, all in one place. Merde, everyone!

Check out http://kunyanglin.org/ to stay updated on KYL/D's performance at Drexel University's performance at the Mandell Theater in March. The website has info on the performance, the process, and the artists!