From Page to Stage!

It feels like it's been a million years since I wrote the opening lines to my novel, Sweet Sorrow:

The whisper blew a chill across her cheek. It tickled her eyelashes and curled around the delicate pink shell of her ear. The voice of her beloved echoed in her head, calling her name, and despite her best efforts to reach out to him, her body remained stubbornly rigid.

And now it's a ballet and Nancy Evans Dance Theatre will be putting on the first half of it in less than two weeks! I can hardly believe how far it's come and how beautiful it's shaping up to be, even in its more grotesque moments (remember, there are zombies!).

When you write a novel, you have no idea where it will end up: in a bookstore or online, most likely, or just stuck on your hard drive. It's unlikely you think it will be a ballet! Except that's how it all began, with a phrase I used in my ballet class about six years ago. Costumes, lighting, bottles of potions and even a crypt! Who could have guessed when I tossed a short but intense adagio into a Halloween ballet class that it would evolve the way it has?

The most exciting part for me has been to see how excited other people get when they talk about it or hear about it. Dancers have been overwhelmingly positive; friends and family have been extraordinarily supportive; and I've had the luxury of collaborating with Nancy and her dancers, who have shared their gifts with me as I develop the story.

For the next week and a half, I'm not going to plug the show relentlessly nor will I bombard people with emails entreating them to SEE THE SHOW! And DONATE IF YOU CAN! lol...beyond today, of course. 

Here's the link to the crowdfunding campaign. This is the last week of it, just a few more days. If you can donate, that's awesome. If you can share the link, that's awesome too. As you can see we've raised 1/3 of the funds, which is still amazing - and we thank every single person who has donated or shared. You are all fantastic people and I wish/hope that you can also see the show come to fruition!
  

Collaboration part 2, Electric Boogalo: Working with an Artistic Director

NB: Anyone catch that dance movie-related reference in the title? No? Okay, it's this:



So, let's talk about collaboration again. You are the choreographer and you're working with a company that isn't yours. For whatever awesome reason, you are setting a work on some fantastic dancers. If you're smart - and you are because you're a choreographer and dancer - you will be working with them, not just setting steps on them, especially if this is a dance you are creating. Dancers are smart too and skilled and they have brains that are constantly thinking and wondering and challenging. They want to do their best and they want to do your work justice.

Because this is not your company, there is probably an Artistic Director, most likely the person who founded the company, or a former member of the company if the founder of the company has passed on or retired. It is through this person that all dance is filtered. She (or he) wants to make sure the work you're doing with the company dancers is reflective of her philosophy and fits into the repertory - or doesn't, if it's a departure from their typical material.

The AD is the guiding vision of the company, a very knowledgeable second set of eyes for the choreographer. You need to think of this person as your ally, not your foe. The AD is not there to tell you you're wrong or your movement is dumb (if this person does that, you might want to rethink your relationship with the company).

The AD is like an editor of a book. You are the writer and you have a fantastic story to tell but sometimes something works in your head but the reader doesn't get it. The editor is there to help streamline your story, to make sure one scene flows to the next, that characters make sense and don't change in mid-stream. Is the boyfriend blond in one scene and red-haired in another? That's a small thing but you weren't paying attention and it slipped by you.

In the same way, the Artistic Director notices that there are back-to-back pas de deux. She sees that a character exits one scene frightened of her lover but enters angry in the next. She asks how one scene flows into another and might suggest you move things around a bit to make things make more sense for the audience. She is asking questions the audience might ask before they ask them.

Very recently, Nancy Evans Doede, who is the Artistic Director of her eponymous company, and I met to discuss the arcs of the characters in Sweet Sorrow. We discussed scene transitions, from the practical (i.e. there will be lights in the way so you can't put Juliet there) to the philosophical (e.g. what does Romeo want from the Zombie Queen?).

The timing of a discussion like this is crucial. Too soon and the choreographer won't feel comfortable to create freely but too late and the dancers could flounder if given new material so close to performance. Nancy and I talked directly after the majority of the choreography was set so she could view it as a whole - again, she is looking at the big picture, at the work as a whole, and it's very easy to get swept up in the details just as a writer falls in love with images or dialogue she has written.

Murder your darlings.

-Arthur Quiller-Couch, "On Style" (1914)

The AD isn't as close to your work as you are so she can be honest and objective. Use her eyes. They are fresher than yours. And remember: she wants your work to look good because it will make her dancers and her - her company! - look good.

So what were Nancy and I talking about? Story. Characters. Motivation. Here is a video Jenn Logan created to give more information about the first act of the ballet. Check it out and please donate if you can:

Sweet Sorrow Story from Jenn Logan on Vimeo.

Crowdfunding and Sweet Sorrow: Bringing Zombie Ballet to Life!

Design by Jennifer Logan/NEDT

It's nerve-wracking to put your personal stuff - your thoughts, your dreams, your hopes - in front of other people and await their response.

As a writer, I spend many hours in front of my computer and living in my head that when I finally send a book or short story out to others for feedback, I want to crawl into a hole and eat Fritos.

As a teacher, I create dance on a regular basis and see nearly immediately whether something works or not, if a student can't handle the material or the combination is too awkward.

But as a choreographer (and I'm a newbie to the modern/contemporary ballet world), you have to wait until the show, when lighting and music and costumes all come together to support your choreography. You watch the audience for their response: do they laugh when they should or shouldn't? do they think your choreography is interesting or pedestrian? do they understand the story or are they confused by what's happening? All dance is a work in progress, so when the audience gives you feedback, you can makes changes for next time.

So how does crowdfunding fit in? Well...it's somewhere in between. It's not a performance so your audience can only see bits and pieces of what you're doing. In this case, it's costume sketches, a written description of the project, and some cool photos from a previous performance. You tell people what you need, what you hope to do, what you want to provide and then you wait.

It's nerve-wracking. Did I mention that?

A little history:

Me with the Zombies of 2013

"Sweet Sorrow" began quite humbly, when I "zombified" an adagio to use with Prokofiev's "Dance of the Knights" from "Romeo & Juliet." It looked really cool and was fun to do so I gave it to some teen students at a summer ballet intensive. That looked cool too so I made it a bit bigger and then got a great group of students to perform it at ARC in Pasadena for ArtNight Pasadena. We got a huge audience response so we did it again the following year with more people. And then I added on to it. And on again.

I realized there was a much bigger story to this. I came up with the backstory to the piece and then fleshed it out (so to speak) until it was a full-length ballet. Then I wrote a novel.

Courtesy Cortney Armitage

About a year later I approached Nancy Evans Dance Theatre about collaboration. They are a really creative and exciting company, small and young and eager to try just about anything. We seemed to be a good fit for each other. After a few months of working together, we showed a couple of pieces in late January. Encouraged by the response and eager to get more of the story out there, we kept working. Very very hard. We expanded the story and the cast. We re-worked some things that were awkward or confusing last time around. We clarified the story and the characters, the motivation for movement, the connection to the music and the development from one scene to the next.

Courtesy Karina Jones

On May 29-31, we will present the first act. From a few phrases to a full act! I can't believe it! It's scary and amazing but I don't feel alone in doing this. I feel supported and encouraged. I love how the dancers have taken ownership of the characters and made adjustments because they know their roles inside and out. I love how Nancy Evans Doede has helped me direct the performance, how she sees the big picture and has encouraged me to try different things, to trust the dancers, to give them the tools and let them see what they come up with. It's been a tremendous growth opportunity for me - one I am extremely blessed to have. Not everyone gets a chance to spread their wings.

The ultimate goal is a full-length ballet, which we hope to put on next Spring. Whaaaaat? That's crazy! And super exciting.

To support the May performance, NEDT has launched an IndieGoGo campaign. We're trying to raise $10K to fund the production of the show, including costumes, marketing, dancer pay, and so on. If you can donate, fantastic! If you can share the link with others, awesome! If you can attend the show in May, wonderful!  Any contribution of any kind will be immensely helpful.

So please help get the word out and bring Zombie Ballet to life!  Thank you thank you thank you from the bottom of my Undead Heart.

My first time collaborating with a professional company!

Beautiful dancers, teachers, choreographers and dance aficionados~

I'm so excited for the show with Nancy Evans Dance Theater this weekend (January 31 and February 1). A 9 minute section of my zombie ballet will be shown as part of the Friends/Family/Dance/Festival. It's a work-in-progress but I'm really thrilled at how good it looks already.

I wrote an article about collaborating with Nancy and her dancers at Dance Advantage. I interviewed Nancy herself about her work and working with outside choreographers and offered up my own list of helpful hints when you're working with other people. Here is a link to the article:

How To Work Well With Others

If you'd like to see the show this weekend, just go to Nancy's website to order tickets. And if you come on Sunday (which is Super Bowl Sunday, who knew?), simply say "What Bowl?" at the door and you'll get $5 off your ticket - for the Sunday matinee only.

Get show tickets here. Happy dancing!

Upcoming event: Friends/Family/Dance/Festival with NEDT

At the end of this month, Nancy Evans Dance Theatre, a modern dance company based in Pasadena, California, will be hosting its semi-annual festival which is always a lot of fun. They are an exciting, young and vibrant company, generously including top-notch talent in their programs. Before I ever had the opportunity to work with them, I loved attending their shows. They have a wonderful mix of humor and gravitas and they are master storytellers.

That, in fact, is one of the primary reasons I approached them about collaborating with me on my Sweet Sorrow zombie ballet. Nancy and her dancers are intelligent and thoughtful and they bring experience and their own ideas to a project, specifically their characters. I knew they would be ideal to work with. So as much as I say I'm setting the ballet on them, I'm actually collaborating with them. In the nearly four months I've been working with them, I have never once heard anyone say they couldn't do something. They try everything I ask and if my ideas don't work the way I thought they would, they are quick to help fix the problem. They don't impose their will on my material or me; rather, they seek ways to make my ideas come to fruition in the best way possible.

So mark your calendars for Saturday, January 31 and Sunday, February 1, Porticos Art Space in Pasadena. You can see a tremendous program - remarkable work from Nancy herself and other talented contemporary and modern dance companies. And you'll see 2 pieces from my zombie ballet: a group work titled Infection and a pas de deux titled Plague Pit. I'm so excited for people to see them! They are still works-in-progress but I'm thrilled about how they're developing.

More information can be found at Nancy's website: www.nancyevansdancetheatre.com