Thursday, December 19, 2013

WHO WILL SURVIVE IN AMERICA

So my project this past semester was a Kanye West inspired dance piece that I created and choreographed and I am strangely, ridiculously proud of it. The dream is obviously that Kanye will see it, love it, and then hire me as his choreographer/one of his dancers and then pay me a million dollars.
Anyway, the entire project was an attempt to turn a mirror to America in terms of the way we view people and situations. It wasn't an easy thing to do but I certainly think I did good work on some of it. The thing is, I put up a few purposeful obstacles for myself and that ended up really working in my favor. I generally don't ever dance to artists like Kane West; I have never really choreographed for people who aren't me and, for the most part, people who aren't dancers; and I have never been in charge of this many people before in terms of an artistic endeavor. Regardless, I think my team and I tackled the show, the "subject," and the aesthetics pretty fucking well. All shows were sold out, and during the final performance people pulled our used tickets out of the garbage to try to sneak in--it didn't work out well for them. Because of fire code. Fuck yeah, me (though lets be real, I had a pretty massive panic attack during the last performance. Because the garbage ticket douchebags would not fucking leave).
I will have the video up soon, but for now here are a few pictures of my stunning cast in performance. None of the photos have been edited, so yes. That is the real lighting. BAM.



Namaste

Monday, December 16, 2013

Where Am I

As usual It's been forever since I've written anything here. But lets be real. Only like, two people check anyway. Regardless, my next move will be to post the video of the 30 minute long dance theater piece I created this semester. To all Kanye West music. It's pretty baller. But what do I know...?
The answer to the question "where am I" is basically nowhere. Not like Beatles nowhere but waving back and forth on various spectrums nowhere. So I guess also everywhere.

That's all I've got for now. Finals week. Woo.
Om Shanti.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

The House with the Unlocked Door

Slipping over
Dreaming in doubles
Washing out the blue that stained the sheets
Outside the house with the unlocked door
Evening sun drying sweet rings of red wine
A table glowing in moontime
White dress caught
On the fence by the house with the unlocked door
Rose water lips greet you like glory
A love like where the slime meets the sand
Rise up and out of the dust-light
On the floor of the house with the unlocked door
Braided petals into roots, braided roots into earth
Hiding webs in the house with the unlocked door
White dress stained green, but fingers all clean
She said
I looked for answers in the corners of the room
When I should have looked in the creases of the universe.

-V

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Hallelujah.

So it has been a long, excruciating hiatus. However, since this blog is 99.999% for me since, I'm fine with that.
Lots of changes happening. Lots of shifts in...well, all the energy around my world seems to be novel. The atoms are buzzing faster, and it's not just the weather. The past few days I've had a lot of time to myself to think about who I am on my way to become. It's strange-- when so much is changing around you, you realize that you must change too, whether you think you can or can't, whether you want to or not.
So now, I'm listening to Jeff Buckley's cover of Hallelujah (the original is by the beautifully melancholy Leonard Cohen)... Something about this progression of chords with Jeff's voice just... makes me ache. And it makes sense with what I'm beginning to realize about myself which is not only that I have to change, but that I have to change NOW. And I have to take active steps in pursuing that goal...drag myself out of this rut, reverse this black hole in my chest that has been twisting me halfway to nothing pulling all of my loved ones under as well.

I don't know. These lyrics kill me. They're so applicable to... so many things:

I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though it all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah,
Hallelujah.


In other news, I just finished a show that was [very loosely] based on The Bacchae. It's immersive theater that takes place in a cult/rave. Here's a small still of me from our promo:

That's all for now.
Namaste.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Stay.



So Rihanna's got this new music video for her song Stay, which features Mikky Ekko (a singer/songwriter from Louisiana). Ekko actually co-wrote the song with Justin Parker, who writes songs for a few popular female artists. I've always felt kind of weird about musicians who don't write their own music, but then, I understand how difficult it is to write a song that you can really consider "good."

The video for Stay is really striking to me for a number of reasons, most importantly its simplicity. The entire video is literally just Rihanna's pretty self sitting/lying in a bathtub full of cloudy water. She's more or less makeup-less, and there has been no attempt to cover up any tattoos or beauty marks. It's unrefined to the point that you can see the pores on her skin, which is a refreshing step forward in terms of music video quality—at least in my eyes. It's really beautiful to look at this human form, especially from the perspective of art and beauty and appreciation for the female body.

There is so little effort put in by Rihanna to make this video "shine" out amongst the thousands and thousands of high quality music videos we are surrounded by today, and rather than being annoyed or frustrated by this, her effortlessness is actually really stunning. Instead of lip syncing the whole song, there are moments when it seems like she can't even bring herself to mouth the words at all (in fact, a lot of the time she doesn't).

The camera pans the span of her body, glossing over her tattoos, the contours, the murky water... I hate to say this, but it's pretty evocative on its own. My criticisms (or critiques, rather) lie in the introduction of Mikky Ekko. I mean, his voice is great and lovely and nice in the song itself, but I sort of didn't want him to be in the video. It created this weird and possibly unwanted juxtaposition between the beautiful, dark, sultry, naked, bathtub-laying Rihanna and this fully clothed, standing, curly-haired unknown. If he had to be in the video, I feel like it could have been done more tastefully (for lack of a better word). Or with more poise. I don't know. That's just me.
My only other criticism is that at the very end, Rihanna squeezes out one simple tear. I just. Agh. As an actor, in acting school... too much "actiness." Just too much. Maybe it's pretentious for me to say that, but then again, it's not. It's just honest. I know it's just one tear and it's cute and heartbreaking but I just don't think it was necessary to convey the "feeling" of the lyrics and of the melody. It was already there. But otherwise, I thought it was a really lovely video.

See for yourself:



Namaste,
-V

Sunday, February 10, 2013

I'm Back & NYCFW: Kenneth + Academy of Art U

I'm back! Hopefully for a while now. It's been a busy life. Anyway. it's NYC Fashion Week!
So far out of all the lines I've seen, I'm super impressed with Kenneth Cole's line. Perhaps it's because I'm so much of a New Yorker, but his lines were SO so crisp and clean and interesting to look at. It's haute-entrepreneur. Check these out:





Academy of Art University's "Line" was really great too, at least from what I saw. There was a really nice blend of eclectic layers and simple monochromes:






In other news, I'm currently working on 2 projects in my acting studio. I'm going to finally try posting more often, and hopefully soon I can get some personal style photos up in here. This summer I'll be working towards my Yoga teacher certification and hopefully I'll secure an internship somewhere interesting. Namaste.