I remember

I'm in! Fusebox Dance Festival

I am happy to announce that I have been chosen to perform in "Bodies in Urban Space" during the Fusebox Dance Festival in Austin. After my audition Sunday at Ballet Austin, I haven't been able to stop thinking about this project. It fuses Acrobatics, street performance, dance, contact improv, parkour and photography all in one. All of my favorite things.

I am currently training 5 days a week to achieve a  2-3 minute handstand. By the middle of March I will be walking on my hands...A lifelong dream. None of these are required, but building my strength and balance will enhance the support I can offer to the performance.

Vienna-based choreographer Willi Dorner makes his Festival debut with bodies in urban spaces, a free, traveling outdoor dance event that will use newsstands, fire escapes, and downtown office buildings to create a trail of live human sculpture. Beginning at downtown, audiences will follow this cast of 13-18 dancers on an exploration of familiar spots in city center. Austin's business district will create the scenery as the dancers give audiences a colorful, imaginative new perspective on the urban landscape. 

PAST PERFORMANCES:

01.06.2007           Baden (Austria); ‚Viertelfestival NÖ –
Industrieviertel 2007' (1 perf.)

04.07.2007              Paris, ‚Festival Paris Quartier d'été' (3
perf.)

28.07.2007           Chamarande (France), Festival ‚Urban
Connections' (2 perf.)

29.09.2007           Opera Lille, France, "Happy Day" by Christian
Rizzo (3perf.)

11.-13.10.2007       Vienna (3 perf.)

25.07.2008               Regionale, Steiermark, Austria (2 perf.)

08., 9.10.2008,      Helsinki,URB 08, urban festival (2 perf.)

26., 27.08.2008       Stockholm, Dansens Hus (5 perf.)

05., 06.09.2008       Philadelphia, Philadelphia Live Arts Festival (2
perf.)

20.09.2008               Rouen, Les Dessous du Patrimoine (2 perf.)

23.-25.10.2008      Bern, Schweiz, Festival Tanz in.Bern (4 perf.)

Bootstrap Monthly Art Meeting. March 2nd

March 2nd. The Bootstrap Monthly meeting/creative collaboration, explores the business of art with Bruce Willenzik, mastermind behind the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar. The meeting will be held at my Art Pad... 6 minutes north of downtown. Bootstrap brings together artists, collectors, investors, and business types who promote/love all aspects of the arts. 

If you are interested in attending, please RSVP below.

For a New Beginning

 

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

 

For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

 

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.

 

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.

 

Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life's desire.

 

Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

 

~ John O'Donohue ~

 

(To Bless the Space Between Us)

Thank you to my dear friend Ginger,fellow dancer and yogini, for forwarding this poem. If my heart were to spill out on this page...this poem would be it. 

I am back in my studio now preparing for a new Denver lobby that loads this week. I have been singing and dancing to Damien Rice and Franti all week. Damien's "Delicate" and "Accidental Babies" makes me cry everytime. I paint. I laugh through my tears. 

Dancing with the Wind tonight...

Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

The Places That Scare You.

"An analogy for Bodhicitta is the rawness of a broken heart.

Sometimes this broken heart gives birth to anxiety and panic,

sometimes to anger, resentment and blame.

But under the hardness if that armour there is the tenderness of genuine sadness.

This continual ache of the heart 

is a blessing that when accepted

can be fully shared with all."

--Pema Chodron, The Places That Scare You, p4

What an amazing year so far. I am truly grateful for all my teachers.

I see the tests...as gifts for growth. 

Namaste.

let's not be reasonable

Love is everything

it's cracked up to be.

It really is worth 

fighting for,

being brave for,

risking everything for.

And the trouble is...if you don't risk everything,

you risk even more

---erica long

...In each other all along.

so much 

beauty 

laughter

longing...

The Heart remains open

full

of magick.

Deeper

I am opening to concept of exploring...more than conquering.

Not confusing joy with excitement.

Allowing myself to be explored

Every crevice

corner

surface

Explored.

Taking the time...

to explore. go deeper. 

opening.

Savoring the things I've missed when life moved way too fast.

Listening. Noticing.

In my stillness 

I am 

noticing 

listening 

learning a new language

SXSW Performace

I  I have been invited to perform an interactive piece at the largest Interactive Party at SXSW in Austin on Monday 3/16. 

 I am loosely choreographing pieces for 6 individual dance "pods" for the event. 

My dance group Tribal Moon will be performing, as well as my Acrobatic Yoga troupe, Circus Yogis.

I am welcoming any color, movement, or costume ideas under the theme "Living Systems".

I am incorporating several different Performing Art groups into the Piece.

Please email me if you are interested in participating.

Maranda@bigmodernart.com

Tribal Moon Fire. Saturday. 2/28

My Fire Spinning Troupe will be performing Feb.28th 

at Copa in Downtown Austin for the African Dance  

Event benefitting the Multicultural Refugee Coalition. 

I'll be joining 2 of Austin's largest World Music ensembles that night outside. 

We'll take the stage around midnight. 

I am choreographing the program now including 5-10 dancers 

         incorporating dance, fire and storytelling through movement.

Earlier in the day (2/28) I will be teaching a fire spinning workshop from 3-7pm.

My Workshop on the 21st is now sold out.

 Please email me if you are interested in attending on the 28th.

Art as Performance.

My intention in 2009 was to expand my Artistic and Personal Edges. 

Expand

Blur

Then eliminate them all together.

I am happy to report that I will be auditioning this Sunday for a piece in the upcoming Fusebox Dance Festival. This particular program has gained international attention in Germany, Holland and France.

It integrates acrobatics, Contact Improv, dance and architecture. 

The idea of auditioning makes my stomach churn.

That's when I know I am pushing my artistic limits. Nausea. 

I'll follow up next week.

Art through Movement

Karl Frost, Director of Body Research, lead a 15-hour Contact Improv Workshop Intensive this past weekend in Austin. He was in from California with his "Human Contact Project".

 I officially have 37 bruises...and counting. 

After a few U.S. tour date stops...he is on his way to Spain, Russia and the Ukraine. I had the Pleasure of studying with Karl, a nationally respected teacher of Contact. 

He strives to make art through movement in our daily lives. He is devoted to exploration of the Self through the lens of the body.

Photo copyright Pleasant Photography 2009

I held my heart

in my hand

arm outstretched to the sky overhead

and offered it to the world.