AMAHL and the NIGHT VISITORS special addition

James Sewell, the choreographer of "Amahl and the Night Visitors" always said I could do something different with the village people...so this year, with some American Sign Language (ASL)classes under my belt, I launch out! One of the villagers will be a little drummer girl who will be accompanied by Amahl's pipe, the hidden drum of the page, who ministers to the kings, and Amahl's widowed mother, who needs a little cheer in her life. The kings even get in on the act and give Amahl a lift when (s)he cannot manage the moves with cane. Hope you enjoy this little augmentation of the storyline and the only true dance segment without lyrics...but it will have its own little tale.... those who are deaf in the audience and understand ASL will know that part if I have "glossed" the sentencing correctly. Do you know what glossing is? It is restructuring the sentence structure for simplicity and the limitations of sign vocabulary...full sentences might be abbreviated to a shorter phrase with main ideas. In a culture of text-ers and internet, ( think how awesome those technologies are for deaf people?!) sign languages have always been their own code, perhaps the first shorthand, literally! (pun intended). I posted on article on AMAHL for the Houston Deaf Network, and have tried to inform that community, and those churches that serve such populations, to bring their congregants for a wonderful show.... a great outing for families, groups, troupes, Mentoring programs and senior citizens....a great intro to ballet and opera for our youngest, for it is under an hour!!!!made for tv, right?

I have also been haunted by the comments of a young lad, who in our post performance Q&A, "when's the sequel?" I thought that prospect delightful and can imagine many little rivulets of narrative that come bubbling up...who knows? I might attempt it, or at the very least a prologue or epilogue in years to come. What do you think happened before or after? If you haven't seen it, you will have to come first, and let me know how you envision the context or bookends of this sweet homespun tale.

HB at Miller

Having missed the era of Stanton Welch as a dancer with Houston Ballet, I have only my own bias as dancer from a different time in that company's stature, while I am still on its adult faculty. I will offer here no comment on his work, but will send kudos to him for his selection of the work of others. Having hobbled over to Miller to see some of the repertoire I couldn't get to this year, I experienced a delightful evening of dance in the usual cool of a May night in Houston! A brief entry of my thoughts of that night....
Having been in a book club, where we seem to be reading the first book of authors whose second and third books were even better, I was struck by the similarity of seeing the first work of Nacho Duarte. Interesting to see the seeds of movement vocabulary, his resonance with music solidly identified with country, and the weightedness that eventually moved over the balletically trained sextet of dancers. Houston Ballet has beautifully trained and nuanced professionals, and while Emily Bowen is exploding all over the map, and Kelly Myernick handles the material maturely,both are sharp tools in the dance-maker's pocket. The partnering and men's work was also seamless. The choreography was grounded in this earthy, bird-like, and tool yielding shapes, fenced in agrarian landscape. Lovely promise in that work of the better yet to come, indeed!
Then there's Twyla....man, that lady can craft! Saw this work "in the upper room" with her company and on ABT, although hearing Phillip Glass back then was a bit tedious, our ears have gotten used to its landscape and the context for pure movement it allows. This ballet not only stands the test of time, its innovations stills seems fresh and exciting. . In particular the work horses of Ms. Myernick and company, whose stamina astounds...this piece has got to be like running a marathon, and the exhilirating climax had me shouting. When exhaustion make guys pull in for 5 pirouettes, because technique kicks in with relaxation--- standouts were Oliver H. and Simon B.---its transcendence exemplified. That Twyla swing of the arms, and shake of the shoulder (due to her boxing phase) ain't so easy to look natural, and the attitude in the face and shrug of the shoulders should be a bit smug....those guys aced it! Hats off to you! Signature Twyla stuff--the jogging forward and backward, the tennis shoed set vs. the quick footed pointe shoe birds, flitting through, the lifts and the reversals and the insouciant nonchalance, all had their moments with this cast. Still an awe inspiring work even if it's as old as some dancing it.

Dance Matters

WHY DANCE MATTERS

..in a world of couch potatoes, we need to move...even if it's only our fingers reaching up to the heavens as we yawn in the morning like the tendrils of a paperwhite, we need to move! Toe tapping, fingers drumming, woodpeckers drilling, lawn workers mowing---we need to move! Dance unlocks spiritual depths, its images sear souls, dancers embody life as we know it. Where would I be without dance? I am pondering that question as I recover from a hip cleanout (40 years is a long time to be turning out!) in hopes of gaining a little more time in the profession. Who would I have been without seeing dance on television and taking that first creative dance class? That is a question I will never know the answer to...but how has it enriched my existence? Kept me in good health and shape, better than my siblings, I'll warrant. Given me a living as a classical ballerina ( a black one in a practically all white world) and given me expression as a dance maker. Revealed gems of history and culture to me, showed me how to love and to be disciplined and to stick to your dreams. It takes tenacious pursuit---to be a dancer. Every decision impacts its practice, from what I eat, to what shoes I wear, to how much sleep I get , to...who I am without it? To see it is the beauty we crave; to feel it is to feel the heights of joy and the depths of sorrow we cannot fathom. Dance is the persevering spirit that transcends the limitations of body and mind. It reaches into old men and makes them cry, it transforms teenagers longing to be understood, it lives in the play of our children. It is such a natural expression. I imagine life without dance as a stagnant pool, that muddies and dries up for lack of restorative replenishment. Dance has mattered to me and even if I don't get to be one of its performers or makers in a public way one day, I will still dance before the LORD as David did, regardless of what anyone thinks. It is not only an acceptable offering before the audience of ONE, but a fitting joyful response to LIFE abundant and free.

dancing a dozen...

Putting on twelve not- so -easy pieces-- 7 of which are not new to me, but are to most of the dancers--keeps everyone on their toes, needing to do their homework(keep working on movement during the odd off-time in the fluorescent light of a mirror-less studio). SUITE LOUIS is some of my most difficult and rhythmic compositions and am grateful when its veterans say they remember the rhythms, if not the steps. Trying to figure out the ins and outs of two casts in certain roles and adding in text, solos, and some of the new segments in a social commentary is an endless jigsaw puzzle. The new J-5 piece in tribute to the young MJ and his brothers is a refreshing delight...Of course, there are the lyrics I'd been singing wrong for years...if you can believe it, I was in the Michael Jackson fan club as a little girl, and these are the first 45s I bought---the songs of my youth. I learned how to groove to this stuff! It's fun trying to translate that into bodies a generation younger... all sorts of moves surprise me and I relish the movement memories my body holds that are unlocked by our sense of hearing! Then there is the assembling of audio and video clips from comedians I grew up on....Flip Wilson was (and still is) my favorite comedian who is family friendly, as was Cosby, though his was a bit bent; and of course the fruitless search for a clip of Richard Pryor minus an f-bomb in every sentence! Thanks to my loving partner ( a tough job --- being my husband and collaborator, God bless him!) and Flip Wilson, we did find one straight up comedy routine with few words and lots of movement---Richard Pryor was quite a mover! "Playing the Dozens" has really profoundly disturbing history and impact on our self promotion as Black people, and it is difficult to educate, question, and offer some comment in dance on its (d)evolving form of sparring. A challenge I might only scratch the surface on this go-round, tying all these strands together...Certainly the "I Have A Dream" speech is a wonderful balm in an age where rhetoric is cheap and lacks vision......well I need more days like today in terms of productivity and inspiration. Thanks for the prayers...keep them coming!

Preparing for Si Se Puede

As we prepare for our 12th season, I am reflecting on the multi-facets of thematic material upon which our seasons are based. Loose themes that reflect the year, an image, a play on words...metaphors and common language, like "playing the dozens" an African American version of what became known as "your mama" jokes....I look forward to exploring the audio files of famous black comedians upon which my sense of humor was shaped (alongside Monty Python!)...more on that in later blogs.

HUELGA/STRIKE.
I started a section of Si Se Puede last week in my endless pursuit of the tarantella....my first siting of ballet on television as a child, was of Balanchines' famous one with Patricia McBride and Edward Villella....it indeliby captured my imagination and changed the course of my life (I remembered individual steps when I later got to see that piece performed live at Kennedy Center by NYCB some 30 years later). I began taking ballet lessons, as my mother saw my attention held by Dance in America back in the day, and after five boys she found an English lady who taught ballet to black students (as well as white), and gave me the opportunity she never had in Houston...so I have been wanting to do one justice as a dancemaker (and tambourine player---I danced a tarantella, as a child in RAD exams with a tambourine I still have)....so in a sense I am making it now---but about injustice! An earlier failed foray with this music is now to be redeemed...it occurred to me that the italian? legend of tarantellas was that you danced the poison of a tarantula spider bite out of your system...wouldn't migrant workers have encountered spider bites too, working among the vegetation? All the more so, they would be needing the release of dance and song, even after a hard day's sweaty work. So I will use this music now to portray the many huelgas (strikes) and nonviolent protest methods by which Chavez formed unions, forced better working conditions, improved farm implements, banned pesticides, and increased wages. Exploring images of the mounting dissatisfaction, organizing the labor movement and that collective feeling of empowerment...how to multiply the few bodies I have? (mirrors, images, shadows, film?). It is exciting to me to capturing with movement the growing foment of being exploited and realization that we are always more powerful united---whether we are standing, marching, sitting, boycotting or fasting. The music captures the "we're not going to take it" attitude, the righteous indignation of honest, hardworking agricultural workers the world over.

MISA/MASS
Another new section of Si Se Puede is to include yet another new incarnation (in a real spiritual sense, every work is an incarnation)...."Misa Criolla" was introduced to me by my husband long ago, but it didn't really speak to me until Cantare Houston asked me to do a collaborative piece in a church with them to it.("Some music has its time, honey" I responded when my husband balked at why I'd hadn't used if before now, at his behest). Now I contemplate how I might incorporate this mass sung and composed in Spanish by Ariel Ramirez into "Si Se Puede" ... intersecting the story of Cesar and his accomplishments on behalf of migrant workers with my (and his)Catholic upbringing and those images.... Going into a Catholic supply store was oddly interesting---to find candles among all the other things like vestments, communion hosts brought back lots of memories…..However, back to the choreography---already the Kyrie is done---with candles---and will serve as a processional marking the 50,000 people who mourned Cesar’s death in 1993.

In preparation for tomorrow's rehearsal, tonight I listen to the Sanctus, and Genesis and Gospel images come to my mind….of the Triumphal Entry, of leaves and robes laid out for the Messiah in the roadside, mixing with images of working in fields(you shall now toil in the garden), hiding (like Adam and Eve from HOLINESS) in bushes, taking a siesta in the shade(resting in the Savior), as farm workers might all over the world.

The Credo offers me yet another forum for my Nicene and Apostles Creeds movement vocabulary/imagery....I made the Nicene Creed for a nun friend teaching the trinity at a Catholic girls school and have performed it with translations in French, Chinese and Spanish (next German!) This solo, based on the Nicene Creed, I just performed publicly with SODC last season. I usually only perform in churches (as I did at a Lutheran Church in Tomball last Sunday) and yet, there is another(The Apostles Creed), which is a more participatory version I always envision a whole congregation doing (and did with my church one Sunday with Rich Mullins Creed)! And now in Spanish, with Mr. Ramirez's score as old as me---it will be fascinating to see what I can pull if off with 6 dancers...if not seven....I may have to be in this one myself! or not.

More to come on other sections as they evolve….

Seen and Unseen

"SEEN AND UNSEEN" is a programmatic theme for dances that will intertwine several layers of meaning, exploring the visible and the invisible. The Black History portion of the show will have a several works with focus on the life of Frederick Douglass, loosely based on excerpts from the "Narrative on the Life of Frederick Douglass" with assorted musical references from classical renditions of folk tunes, to hollering work calls. This work will be told as story in sections sensitively choreographed to highlight to children what slavery was like for a child, as well Douglass' thoughts on education as the first step toward freedom. There will be also be new work rifting off of Ralph Ellison's Invisible man, entitled, Invisible No More, in celebration of the recent inauguration of President Obama. Among reprisals is my 1998 version of "all that you have is your soul" featuring the music of Tracy Chapman; and "Sabbathday" a work using the music of The Shakers, whose inventive legacy and movement oriented worship welcomed people of all races.

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Photography above credited to Amitava Sarkar from "Dogan"

Inspiration for "To the Thawing Wind"

I am going to give a bit of my thought concept and rehearsal process with "To The Thawing Wind" which will be performed at Miller Outdoor Theatre on the September 12 and 13, at Weekend of Texas Contemporary Dance. Originally, I wept when first I heard the Mark O'Connor score "Appalachia Waltz" ---always a good sign that a dance should be born! I have always wanted to explore the midwestern plains girl that I am, and this music spoke of that earthy grounded landscape and the cycles of new life. I look back and think I was heading into a gentler time in my life, having met the man I was going to marry, and this was one of the gentler works I have done. The title eventually came from a Robert Frost poem, that, in summary, releases the poet to come outside after a long winter, the thawing wind at the window. To be outside and part of that new life....too many days inside at a writer's desk (or shut off in a dance studio!) with 6 months of winter make us appreciate the first signs of spring!

Initially, while in rehearsals, (back in 2003) my dancers and I called it the 'hand ballet'. The gestures are reminiscent of American Gothic, with the pitchfork and the crossed arms --- the first phrases in that grouping are the themes that guide the variations for the whole work ... I think of scooped earth and prayer, violins poised and flocks of birds traced across the sky; listening to the earth like a shell in my hand and blowing the dust away .... putting that rock in my pocket and heading back to work .... those are the images of plainsfolk, everyday gestures that are universal. There are also bound gestures that speak of yearning for freedom, yoked pairings that share the burden and teamwork which makes us stronger. Perhaps the dancers are stalks of corn (from Nebraska!), swayed by winds of summer or dry brown reeds aching for the thawing wind of spring after a hard winter. The return to the theme at end in speedy fashion becomes a flock of birds, turned in unison by the buffeting winds, as one voice---arresting in their symmetry. This time when I rehearsed the dancers, I told them we should be able to do this in unison with our eyes closed---but I peek to see if we are.

I think that's what this dance is about...but you may see something else; I'd love to hear what you see and feel as you watch it! Come out and see it at Miller on Friday and Saturday night, September 12,13, 2008

Posted by Sandra Organ Solis 9/7/08

Sandra Organ Dance Company Celebrates 10 Years of Performances

A decade can seem like a long time, but it goes by quick as a wink if you’re moving fast. Such has been the pace of the Sandra Organ Dance Company, which is celebrating its 10^th anniversary this season.

As a prominent soloist with Houston Ballet, Sandra Organ began to take stock of her life and career in the mid-1990s. She looked back at the goals she had achieved and looked ahead to what her future might hold. Her 15 years with Houston Ballet had given her a rich variety of experiences, working with major choreographers in a vast array of dance styles. There had been worldwide tours, beginning with Houston Ballet’s first tour to Europe in 1982, before she had even completed her training in Houston Ballet Academy to become a member of the performing company. And her acceptance into the company as Houston Ballet’s first African American ballerina had been a major milestone in her life.

But a career as a ballet dancer is physically grueling, typically ending when you’re still quite young, and Sandra wondered how much longer her healthy 30-year old body would take the punishment the dance floor delivers daily to all the bones and joints between the toes and the upper spine. So, she entered a period of self-examination, beginning with a book called Artists’ Way, discovering the obstacles to creativity. In the process, she drew strength from her early life to present a solo concert and build her future as a choreographer and director of her own dance company.

Sandra’s destiny to become a dancer had begun as child of five, when she saw Patricia McBride and Edward Villella on television, dancing with the New York City Ballet. Noticing her fascination, her mother found a teacher for her in Omaha, Nebraska, where the family lived. “She just happened to be a British teacher, who taught the same Royal Academy of Dance syllabus that Ben Stevenson was familiar with when I auditioned for Houston Ballet years later,” Sandra remembers.

During high school years at Omaha’s Duchesne Academy, Sandra had created a dance work every year. And when she graduated at the head of her class, she was allowed to replace the traditional valedictorian’s speech to her classmates with a valedictorian’s dance.

In seeking a new direction for her life 10 years ago, she saw her talent as a means to build a bridge between large dance companies and small dance companies. And as a person instilled with strong religious values, she has seen her dancing life as “an earthen vessel,” through which her talent is meant to be shared with others.

“I hope God’s power is magnified through my limited efforts,” she says, “and I just show up with my craft and the best gifts I can offer. And it seems like He uses that and people are touched by it. And that’s a cool thing and an easy way to filter my talent into another realm.”

Shaping a concept is one matter; putting it into practice is another. It took 18 long months to settle all the legal niceties in establishing the company’s non-profit tax-exempt status. In that process the spiritual concept of Earthen Vessels eventually materialized as the company’s official title, while the Sandra Organ Dance Company (SODC) serves as its business name. In the meantime, Sandra immediately got busy lining up performance opportunities, dancers and dance works, and the board of directors needed to establish and support the company.

Its initial engagement was commissioned by Fotofest in the fall of 1998, and this was followed by two appearances at the Jewish Community Center, an evening on Miller Outdoor Theater’s Texas Contemporary Dance Festival, a commissioned evening of dance from the Golden Triangle Chapter of Links (a national association of African-American women) in Beaumont, a couple of fund-raising events and the company’s first annual Black History Month engagement at the University of Houston’s Cullen Performance Hall.

SODC’s second season was even more ambitious, numbering a record 11 appearances. In the eight seasons since then, the company has danced 43 engagements, running anywhere from two-to-nine events in a given season. Its performances have been seen by audiences and surrounding communities as far north as Huntsville all the way west to Austin. The company even performed in Los Angeles, as an emerging ensemble on a conference hosted by the International Association of Blacks in Dance.

Its dance venues have ranged throughout small and large Houston area theater spaces: DiverseWorks, the Ensemble Theatre, Talento Bilingue de Houston, Heinen Theater on the Houston Community College campus, the University of Houston’s Cullen Hall and Moores Opera House, Wortham Center’s Cullen Theater, the Hobby Center’s Zilkha Hall, The Menil Collection, the Jewish Community Center, Richmond State School, St. John the Divine Episcopal Church, Kingwood College, Miller Outdoor Theater and downtown Houston’s Barnevelder Movement/Arts Complex.

During that time, the company has partnered with nearly two dozen dance organizations, in Houston and elsewhere, and has brought students from nearly 50 schools to attend its performances. Building a board of directors, gaining financial support, establishing a stable corps of dancers, finding rehearsal spaces and surviving through economic downturns have all brought challenging moments.

Initially, SODC’s board consisted of a dozen members and now runs between 12 and 20. They include some charter members as well as new people with fresh insights to funding. Much of its early support came through individual contributions and its membership in the Texas Accountants and Lawyers for Artists. Over the decade-long span of SODC’s existence, Houston Endowment, the Houston Arts Alliance, the Mithoff Family Foundation, Target and the Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts have provided key support for SODC’s budget, which has ranged from $60,000 to $200,000.

It has been more of a challenge to build a steady corps of dancers and find available times and proper spaces for them to gather for rehearsals and performances. “Over the middle seasons – 2000-2004 – there was a corps of about six dancers who stayed with me. We were doing things a little differently than other companies at that time. We were paying them for rehearsal time and I was trying to find teaching opportunities for them in the community, so they could sustain themselves. We were doing a number of shows, we were going into the schools, doing choreographic workshops and they were contributing some of the choreography. There are a number of dancers I can call upon for special projects, but building a steady corps is a project that will continue over the next decade,” she concludes.

When it comes to rehearsing her own dancers for a performance, Sandra has been especially thankful for the opportunities provided by her former employer, Houston Ballet, and its executive director, C. C. Connor. “Having worked there for 15 years, I knew there were times when the rehearsal studios were not being used, and he rented space to our company,” she says. Since the completion of the Barnevelder Movement/Arts Complex on Texas Ave, most of her rehearsals are done there.

Tracing the history of her company over the 10-year span, Sandra says, “I’ve always had this juxtaposition of modern dancers and ballet dancers. Early on, everybody got trained in a ballet class. There was continuity of style, a balletic “line,” so that even if I did want to go in a more modern direction, they could put on pointe shoes or they could wear flat shoes and still have that balletic base. They could still do pirouettes and they could still look nice in an arabesque and things like that.

“What I’ve found now is, I have to hire either one or the other. When you can work with a corps of dancers over the years, you can get them to do both stylistically. But for different pieces now, I have to find modern dancers, and I have to find ballet dancers.” At present, she finds dancers from each category better equipped and “coming a little more to the other side now. But,” she says with a good laugh, “there’s resistance to the pointe shoe. And for those already in the pointe shoe, it’s a challenge trying to get them grounded!”

Turning serious, she takes up another topic. “Coming out of the (discipline of) ballet, I want to honor women of different sizes. I wanted to make dances that are about real people, so I didn’t mind if real people walked in the door and didn’t necessarily look like dancers. As long as they could do an arabesque and looked like women, great! That didn’t matter to me. That, to me, is affirming to who I am and who most people are. So, as I say, we’re ballet dancers without the tutus and the tights, and we look like women and we look like men, and we dance like women and men. And sometimes the women are required to do some lifting.” Summing up, she says: “I just feel like, if I’m going to tell stories that are relevant to people today, I have to choose people they look like, sometimes.”

Reviewing the dance works she has created these past 10 years, Sandra feels the works she has created for Black History Month are particularly striking. “You don’t find many artistic directors telling those kinds of stories.” She mentions a piece about Harriet Tubman, or a slave narrative “where I could create a solo about a woman who lived in an attic for seven years, inside a coffin, so she could watch her son grow up. “Those are kind of unsung stories,” she says.

She mentions the honor of memorizing and using the words to a piece she created on Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech. For that piece, choreographed in 2005, she gathered a group of schoolchildren together, asking them to tell their own dreams. Her choreography incorporated the gestures they made as they spoke.

For a couple of years, her company worked with Rob Smith and his Aura Contemporary Music Ensemble at the University of Houston, where several of her dancers choreographed new works to the music on the program. She also participated in the UH School of Music’s Shostakovich Festival a few seasons back

She worked with the hip-hop company, Fly, to create dances at Miller Theatre. James Sewell’s choreography to Gian-Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors has become a staple of Houston’s holiday theater season. And in her February program at the Barnevelder Arts/Movement Complex, she staged a major work, There is a Time, by José Limón, the famed Mexican-born choreographer who established a significant modern dance company in New York during the mid-20^th century.

Sacred dance has also been an important component of Sandra Organ’s choreography since her very earliest years. While sacred works are sprinkled throughout her repertoire of dances, she is careful to maintain that SODC is not a sacred dance company. Nor is its mission specifically committed to a celebration of her African American heritage. Its mission statement speaks of goals “to promote contemporary dance, educate the public and attract a diverse audience.”

Included in that mission is the goal of having a school of dance associated with her company. In the early 1980s, she felt incredibly fortunate to be awarded a scholarship to study at Houston Ballet Academy and then become a prominent member of the company. Indeed, that had been in line with Houston Ballet’s policy since the company’s earliest years. But looking back a few decades earlier, she also remembers that “my mother grew up in Houston and she sure couldn’t do that.”

Even today, she sees too few opportunities for professional artistic achievement among young people disadvantaged by their ethnic or economic background. So, a dance academy is prominent among her future goals, “and it’s going to be either in the Third Ward or the Fifth Ward,” she says quite firmly.

©2008, Carl R. Cunningham

Sandra Speaks at Transforming Culture Symposium

Sandra Organ-Solis traveled to Austin at the beginning of April to participate, as a guest speaker, in the Transforming Culture: A Vision for the Church and the Arts. In her presentation she discussed how our physical bodies have the need to express themselves in our worship of God, going from the simple gestures of bowing and hand-clasping to the more elaborate circle and festival dances. In this session she explored five ways in which churches can make use of dance as an aid to our adoration and celebration before God.

Following the presentation, she was interviewed for the WorshipPodcast. You can download the interview or visit WorshipPodcast.com

Sandra Organ interviewed by Pacifica Radio on the Si Se Puede performance

On Tuesday, March 25, 2008, Sandra Organ, artistic director and choreographer for the Sandra Organ Dance Company, was interviewed by Alfonso Rivera on the Son Pacifica radio show. Sandra spoke about the performance of the Si Se Puede piece at Talento Bilingue de Houston. During the interview, which also featured Carlos Solis as a translator into Spanish, Sandra presented a brief history of Cesar Chavez. She also talked about the parallels she sees in the fight for equality by migrant farm workers and by African Americans.
You can listen to the interview here or download it.