watch us make a dance

Beginning a new piece that I hope will become an all-terrain vehicle; we'll be working outside at times, and also in theater spaces.  I'm planning to develop the movement vocabulary by combining some processes from my earlier works Peace Prayer and disSolve subMerge.  This piece has connecting themes with one of the new songs, so it may also find itself winding through a video at some point.  I've decided to keep a separate blog along with a video journal of our rehearsal process, so that you can watch as the dance develops.  Check out some of what we've done so far, below -- and to read more about what we're doing in these rehearsals, visit our Dance Process Journal blog.

artist of the day on Fanbridge!

Woa y'all Fanbridge.com just made me their Artist of the Day! Startin' the weekend with a happy dance :)

october full moon update

Finally about to get started in the recording studio woooo!!!  So I should have more news on that soon!  I want to see what we do in the studio and maybe put a larger live band together during that process, but I'm also going to start doing a few little gigs here and there.

The first will be a shared concert with other composers.  Next month I'm performing my song "Badful Badful (The Stolen Child)" in the Student and Alumni Composers Recital at Swarthmore College.  I am working out a new live drum part for this event and will be accompanied on percussion by the Lovely and Fabulous Barbara T, who also doubles as one of my dancers.  Most of this program will be classical and/or new music, including a piece by the satirical (and occasionally slapstick) composer P.D.Q. Bach/Peter Schickele.  There are also several other exciting composers on the program and I 'm really looking forward to hearing everyone's work!  This show is free and open to the public; click here for more details.

what the new stuff is like

...so it's time for a few hints.

Some of the new songs are about places that you might recognize.  At least two of them are partly inspired by people I have known.  I guess that really doesn't give too much away -- ok, I'll try harder!  There is a Celtic-flavored song that's somewhat mythological... an up-tempo pop-rock type song that has some sort of PeterGabrielesque drum sounds (at least right now)... a kind of country-ish or old-timey sounding song... a mid-tempo slightly exotic number that's kind of rock mixed with something swampy... an 18th century flavored ditty that I don't want to spoil by telling you any more about it yet... a swirly misty kind of cosmic song that some of you might recall from an earlier version heard at UNCG...  well, I think that's enough to go on for now.  Of course I'm putting a few strangeish sounds on them all here and there -- 'cause you know, that's how I roll.

When will you be able to hear a little of this?  Sometime soon I think... most likely, before we get to summer.

hello snow angels

2 more new songs cooking since the New Year, it will be a little while til they're ready though...  It seems to be an important part of my process to work on the musical arrangements and sound atmospheres at the same time that I'm writing the lyrics, melody etc.  So, it takes a bit longer!  Meanwhile more snow comes down...  I hope you're all being watched over by your snow angels tonight.

[yes! it can only be -- the Loch Washingtonsquare Monster!]