michaelmas and a dance video, black is beautiful

 

 

 our dear friend daniel from the limon company dances in this beautiful video from folklore urbano nyc. he's the one in the hat dancing in times square with five other dancers.

----

today is michaelmas, when we acknowledge the struggle to vanquish the dragon that seeks to lay waste to our community. every year we make the harvest loaf, symbolizing the transformation of adversity into birth and resurrection with the help of st. michael.

 

st. michael's harvest song

 

in autumn saint michael with sword and with shield

passes over meadow and orchard and field.

he's on the path to battle 'gainst darkness and strife --

he is the heavenly warrior protector of life.

 

the harvest let us gather with michael's aid;

the light he sheddeth fails not nor does it fade,

and when the corn is cut and the meadows are bare

we'll don saint michael's armour and onward we'll fare.

 

we are saint michael's warriors with strong heart and mind,

we forge our way through darkeness saint michael to find.

and there he stands in glory; saint michael we pray,

lead us into battle and show us thy way.

 

anonymous

we had our harvest bread with kale and sausage soup. 

 

these are difficult days and i'm finding strength through faith, family and friends. i read an article from the nyc anthroposophical society which was interesting and helpful in putting the current chaos of this country and the world in perspective and is helping me to persevere. i watched the debate (greg didn't . . though he read along via the twitter accounts he follows) while texting about it with korrina and chanda (who is staying at emily's tonight). the current administration has allowed our government to become a circus, with the school bully running around, unchecked. the rest of us struggle to reinstate balance, logic and love.

visiting with the limon family

morgana, chanda and i met greg at the joyce theatre today to see the limon dance company. they were performing mazurkas, she who carries the sky (created especially for roxane d'orleans juste), nocturne for ancestors (choreographed for the company by sean curran), and psalm.

it was an evening filled with beautiful dancing and i think both girls were inspired with ideas for their own dance pieces they're working on for ellen.

morgana with daniel and his new little girl (seven months old), violetta.

my favorite piece that they did this evening was psalm . . it seemed so fitting since we've been reading about hildegard of bingen, and i find both uplifting and transcendent.

here pablo talks about rehearsing psalm, and a little bit about what jose meant in creating it.


in 2006 morgana performed at the joyce with daniel and several other members of the company in a piece called day on earth. it was choreographed by doris humphrey in 1947 to aaron copland's piano sonata (written in 1941). in the above excerpt, morgana comes on at 1:09 and is dancing with roxane and raphael boumaila (who was so moving in tonight's performance of psalm). here you can see an excerpt of morgana's dancing friend lina performing the role (it is the second movie on that day). they shared it together from 2006 to 2008. here you can see some pics of daniel with whom he calls his "other" daughter from the same week.

it was wonderful to see everyone again. they are a beautiful company with heartfelt and emotional pieces of work that i love, but that are, alas, seemingly no longer so cherished by the majority of people in today's world. it's not easy for modern dance companies to find donors and a wide audience, and dances are really a part of the times in which they are created. i just relate more to the older times than the current times. merce cunningham understood the ephemeral nature of dance when he disbanded his company after his death. the farewell performance was held across the street at westbeth, where he had his studio. thankfully, morgana attended that night with her friend deychen.

last met class, last limon class . . and dining out

i followed the class today, to get a picture of them sketching during the talk. today it was about stained glass.

 

the second hour is spent in the art studio . .


there's always the few who are the last to finish . . i saw the same mamas and papas each day . .


working with "stained glass." first they did a sketch . . and then they cut out the gels. of course she's still working on it . . it's sitting next to me on the piano bench as i type, waiting to be finished.

after chanda's met class, we walked from fifth avenue and 81st street, to 71st street between third and second avenue. it was morgana's last day at her limon intensive, and they were presenting their work: excerpts from psalm, a choreographic offering, and mazurkas. you can see chanda to the right of me, alex to her right, and clyde to the right of alex.

 pleased as punch . . but sad to have it all end . . 

 the limon faculty is on the bottom right, pablo (company member and teacher extraordinaire), roxane (associate artistic director), and carla (artistic director).

hayley, morgana, emma and lina (emma and lina also dance with morgana's modern dance/choreograpy teacher ellen robbins . . )

after saying good-bye to everyone we went to have tea at the erik kayser cafe a few blocks away. well, i had . . coffee and a yuzu tarte. they had salad and onion soup.

yuzu: a citris fruit from east asia . . believed to be a hybrid of mandarin and iching papeda (never heard of that one . . ). 

then it was homeward bound to walk the dog and feed the animals . . 

and then we met amelia and joanna who treated us to dinner at bus stop cafe (with dessert at chocolate bar). 

it was a fabulous night and a great way to end an already very full and fun day. tomorrow we drive to connecticut for a week at sturbridge.

songs for the city

 on my way to meet chanda this afternoon, i passed magnolia bakery and heard a piano playing in bleecker park across the street . . i had to investigate.

 it was a man playing a sing for hope piano . . we had our very own piano in bleecker park . . so exciting.

he was playing a grateful dead song . . do you recognize it?

----

and here's two pics from morgana's limon intensive with betty and fritz:

fritz, betty and morgana . . (she can't remember the other student's name),

and with samantha geracht and francesca todesco . . (rafaël and daniel in the background).

open class with debbie

we finally made it to manhattan movement and arts center for morgana to take an open bar class at 10:30 am with her ballet teacher from last year, deborah wingert. there was an end of year gift to be given. we would have taken it months ago, but deborah had been out of town since june. while the open class went on, i noticed a lot of young men arriving for the next group that was to use the studio space. curious as to what dance class it could be, i checked the schedule by the studio door and saw "limon foundation." oh! i turn around and see carla across the room surrounded by a crowd of young dancers! it was a nice surprise. they were in the midst of auditions and were to see 40 men and women throughout the day. morgana was happy to talk with carla and roxanne. afterwards, we headed over to manhattan plaza to welcome home tessa and cindi and . .