Once upon a time, Hanna Jane and I went to Mexico, took a boat ride, snapped some pictures, were entertained by the crew, put on wet suits, lathered sunscreen on, and then ...
BOOM!!!!!!
... a huge humpback whale breached out of the water!!! The huge animal just threw itself out of the sea! After a few blissful moments of massive weight defying gravity its tail finished the dive. We then saw it shoot water out of its spout, a bow to acknowledge the passengers encore and applause. It was amazing! I feel so connected to that whale, so inspired and so proud to have witnessed such an event! And to think I didn't even know the whales name!?
This is the way I feel towards myadorable, incredible,wonderful,phenomenal, spectacular,extraordinary,precious sister Hanna Jane and her performance as Annie at the Centerpoint Legacy Theater that closed last night.
I was so fortunate to watch her three times! She got better and better every night. Her loud voice, her dimpled smile, her uncanny resemblance to the optimistic orphan Annie, her courage, her consistency and the love she shared with the audience and other member of the cast on stage was absolutely inspiring to me.
Everytime Hanna sings "Tomorrow" with her big smile and clear sound tears come to my eyes as I think of the truth of the lyrics, "the sun will come out tomorrow" and contemplate what a stellar and sweet person Hanna Jane is and that she's my sister is. "When I'm stuck with a day that's gray and lonely, I just stick out my chin and grin and say"...where's my Hanna Jane? She makes me so happy and so proud. I could not ask for a better little sister, she is perfect. "I don't need anything but [her]."
The way your performance brought so many members of our family and extended family together has been such a blessing in my life over the past month. Seeing Grandma and Grandpa Gemperline, Granny and Al, The Whites, Grandma's cousins, Joe and Jan, and so many others was so fun! We wouldn't all get to see each other so much if you didn't give us an excuse to get together and celebrate!
Here's to you H"annie" Jane! You mc"Grew" so much! Duh! ;) and taught me so much too! I cannot wait to see what you will accomplish next. Thank you letting me be involved and giving all you had on stage for me and for everyone else. Many people's lives have been touched and I know my life has been changed. I love you!
I had the most wonderful time getting to know the artwork of German film artist, Leni Riefenstahl in great detail this semester. I created my own art in the style of hers for my humanities and dance and technology final projects. It has been soooooooo awesome! Leni and I are kindred spirits for suresies! Here's here amazing and inspiring story and my journey through her theories. She began as a dancer, as I believe we all do, experimenting with all the magic found in the movement of our bodies. She took up dancing because she wanted to experiment, she wanted to see if she'd be any good at it. Boy was she! She quickly became successful and was highly sought after as a dancer. But as fate has it she suffered a terrible knee injury. Waiting in a lot of pain for a late train to arrive to transport her to a doctor a mountaineering film advertisement caught her eye. She was so intrigued by the idea she missed the train. So she went to see the movie.
She knew what she saw was something innovative and new and it resonated with her! She loved the majestic German mountains as the setting, as opposed to a traditionally contrived movie studio. So she determined herself to star in these mountaineering films and sought out the film maker, Dr. Fanck.
While searching for Dr. Fanck she ran into the star of the film she observed at a hotel. She immediately told him of her presumptuous plan to star beside him in a film. She gave him her pictures and pleaded that he send them with her resume to Dr. Fanck. She was utterly irresistible and convincing and wrote to Dr. Fanck that he could not turn down her request, but that Dr. Fanck could do with the information as he wished. To which Dr. Fanck replied, "Well you best take care of your relationship with that woman, she's going to be Germany's next star!" And again, because she desired it, she landed the opportunity she was seeking.
Leni Riefenstahl's endurance, courage, and determination made her the perfect mountaineering woman film star, and the only one. She climbed large mountains and crossed gigantic chasms bare foot and without ropes. She even conceded to have a real live avalanche fall on her! (With the assurance of a monetary bonus and that she would be dug out afterward of course.) There seemed to be nothing this woman couldn't do! Especially if she wanted to. So when Dr. Fanck kept correcting her on set she realized she was right, he was wrong, and she wanted to be the director.
She began to direct and star in her own films. Following in the style of Dr. Fanck using the beautiful German wilderness and forest lands as the backdrop for her fantastical and adventurous films, such as "The Blue Light" about a witch who controls magical blue glass in a mountain cave.
As she pursued her art work in the medium of film, Hitler rose to power. She was not Jewish, nor was she in Germany during Hitlers first appearances and book burning (she was in Iceland at the time filming as a heroine fighter pilot saving ice climbers in Antartica, ya know, no big.....my eye! So COOL!) so when she returned to Germany she honestly had little notion of the implications of the rise of the Nazi's, AND due to a dance performance by the beach in a film Hitler saw and commented on as "mesmerizing", Leni joined into Hitler's circle.
At Hitler's request Leni Riefenstahl created "Triumph of the Will." A very artistic documentary on the Nazi party that won many awards at first, but then with the outbreak of WWII won her a load of troubles and a plug in her directing career. Leni Riefenstahl is criticized of glorifying and supporting the Nazi party but for her entire life Leni denied she was ever was a supporter of Hitler, she was, she argues was simply a commissioned artist. Politics and art never EVER overlap in her opinion. The artist has no responsibility to the statements their art portrays, they are just responsible to make good art, which she did. After that film she denied anymore of Hitler's requests to have films made. Her next project was then, "Olympia." A documentary on the 1938 Berlin Olympics. It was on this movie that I took inspiration for my own, specifically the diving sequence.
Leni Riefenstahl focused on the human body and employed a variety of filming angles to make the divers look like demi-gods flying through the air. She was a creative problem solver! Innovative and genius! She created an underwater camera for this sequence. In "Olympia" she pioneered other filming techniques producing the first aerial shots by parachuting camera's up into the sky daily with a little tag with information for where the camera could be returned when found. She dug pits next to the pole vaulters to get beneath them, she put camera's on tracks to keep up with the runners and placed camera's on flotation devices she would pull with a rope alongside swimmers to get a close up of their face. She was so meticulous, inventive, bossy, and passionate as an artist.
So...... to follow in her suit I resurrected a dream I have had for at least 3 years now, to create dance on film in a rocking climbing gym. I thought this artistic experiment was perfect for my project because belaying, repelling and climbing with a camera would provide me with many creative opportunities. I could get many more interesting camera angles at the rock climbing gym than if I just filmed a dance on the ground. So Angela came as my crew (which Leni Riefenstahl took serious time to train ;) ) and Kennedy and Meryl agreed to be my dancers. We showed up at the gym at 6 a.m. and worked like speedy squirrels for only two hours to complete the filming. The night before Ethan Parker and I had gone to experiment and test the ropes for movement and creativity, but that all got turned up on its head once we began filming.
I have learned so much on this project! I have battled with some strong uncertainties but have found the rewards of the risk I took to create this film to be so worth it! Uncertainty is necessary, art is just the process and journey one takes with the material they have to manipulate it into the art they imagine but know they will never get to, because as one works through the process the vision is ever evolving and progressing past its original invention. Thus ever piece of art is a springboard for more artistic experiments to be come.
I created two final copies. One with my own original score and color for dance and technology and another in black and white with a Jon Williams score from "Indiana Jones." I've posted them both for you view, which do you like better?
Here's the first dance on film project I ever attempted! Boy does it stink! Nah, just kiddin, Angela was the perfect ninja/dancer. I la la la love her.
It is based off the absolutely dramatic imaginative experience I encounter every time I take out the trash. It truly takes a ninja to save the world (roommates) from such a filthy stench. But in the words of Jim Carrey as the Grinch "one mans toxic waste is another ones potpourri." Enjoy!
I love working in the morning at the Future As Seen On TV Kiosk at the mall. There are so many adorable old couples walking together. They may not have the best alignment but boy are they spritely! And lively! They are really beautiful humans! I can tell they value their body and are working I hope I age as beautifully as these folks do. Preferably like the woman below :)
I have this belief that being inspired, receiving revelation, or as I commonly say "epiph-ing" is equal to pleasure. I look forward to receiving insight because I expect to feel joyous and utter contentment. I hope for a sense of relief, a validation and a freedom from uncertainty and discomfort. I wait for oo's and the ah's and the widening of my eyes, as if the experience is synonymous with finding buried treasure that will be the solution to all my problems.
Yes, epiphanies produce Oo's and Ah's but oo and ah at what I have recently learned: Epiphany is actually painful.
I do believe true, meaningful, life changing inspiration and epiphanies will result in peace and acceptance of ones reality and promote permanent positive life changes. But only after a period of pain. But wait? Epiphany equals pleasure not pain right? This is true but as there is opposition in all things and we cannot feel the pleasure or embrace the enlightnment of epiphany without experiencing its pain first.
When we receive inspiration from the spirit new ideas enter our mind and search for a place in our brain where they can stay. This experience is much like my family in the summer time at the community pool looking for some pool chairs and small tables to put claim on. We can't find a spot to sit all together if another family doesn't leave to allow room for us. The same goes for the inspiration we receive. Ideas cannot move in and anchor in our minds if we do not remove ideas that previously existed there before.
This is the painful part or epiph-ing. You have to relinquish and let go of ideas you previously had to allow for new ones to simmer there. It is painful to let go of things you have held on to for so long, possibly your entire life. It is like when I brought souvenirs home from family vacations and had to find room on my bureau's to display them. I would have to declutter and get rid of older collectables to make room for the new ones. It hurt to get rid of my cherished paper flowers and fruit loop necklaces, but they weren't as important as my Great Grandmother's Sea Shell from Hawaii my mom had brought her, or my first pair of point shoes.
Ideas are not precious, they are not permanent. They are flags that mark the path of our intellectual and emotional progression. Understanding and realizing that has been painful to me because I have awarded some of my ideas value by the tradition of time. Ideas that I've held for years, like my first desk name tag from Kindergarten, become priceless and valuable to me simply because of the time I've allowed them in my belief system or keepsake box. But just because the thought becomes tradition does not mean it will remain eternally and forever true or beneficial to me.
Sacrificing our ideas for new ones is painful!! A simple but revealing instance of this discomfort occured when I actually started to like the color purple. I was frustrated with myself because I had detested it above all other colors before and could not come to terms with the fact that I now found aesthetic value in it. I thought liking purple would lessen my ability to truly cherish other colors because I didn't have one to hate and juxtapose my love. I could not tolerate such inconsistency or preference and it bothered me. But when I worked up the humility to understand I could redefine myself and preferences everyday I felt freed! I could enjoy all colors! Ridiculous, I know.
A petty experience but a profound one. When we have the humility to let go of our cherished thoughts and feelings we allow room for more light and truth in our lives. It is emotionally taxing to realize you may have been previously wrong and the softening of the heart that is required has no quick start warm up like on a microwave. Preparing our hearts and minds for revelation requires humility and removal of pride. Expectations of pleasure and immediate relief from doubt and uncertainty need to be dropped. Inspiration can come in a matter of seconds but takes minutes, days, months, years to grow clear enough to make a difference in your person. and I guess this means one day I may have to remove my stick from my backpack and make room for better things...if they come along. I dunno if you get any better than a perfect stick.
