Upcoming Raw and the Cooked Shows!

New Schedule
The Raw and the Cooked will now be on Wednesday nights bi-monthly, alternating months with another offbeat performance series at The Tank called p.art.ies. For other these and other dance events check out www.thetanknyc.org/dance.

Upcoming r&c shows:

• Wednesday, August 26th
• Wednesday, October 21th
• Wednesday, December 9th

All shows are 9:30pm, $5. Cheap beer. Come support improvised, experimental performance!

If you are interested in performing at The Raw and the Cooked, you can email tatyana@thetanknyc.org

Dancing with Feedback

A colleague of mine from Oberlin, electronic composer and multimedia artist Thomas Arsenault, recently shot some videos my way of a collaborative project we did in 2006. I thought the footage could be relevant to this blog, seeing as it deals with interdisciplinary collaboration and improvisation. At the end of the 30 minute performance, in which I play Arsenault's alter-ego, a little bear named "Marble Fresno" (check me out in those pajamas), Marble is raised to ascension by a strange creature and his brown fur is turned white. In the final scene shown below, Marble's ascension is depicted through video feedback designed by Matthew Lippincott.


Not the greatest document, but you can get an idea of how I improvised and worked with the video. Often, these sorts of elements are added at the last minute and this can be a real challenge for performers. All the conceptualizing and talking about the technology won't necessarily prepare you to work effectively with it. The rest of Arsenault's show featured a painstakingly crafted animation (where I also appear, green screened below) accompanied by a live ensemble. Check out the beautiful animation below:

Videos from April 15th Show

The following piece, scored and directed by Jake Wise, was featured as the "cooked" portion of April's show. The performers (Jake Wise, Alejandro Acierto, Tanya Kalmanovich, Emily Bielagus, and Maitreya Levanchild) ran through the piece shortly before the entire group met to discuss the evening's scores. Upon seeing it, I was moved and inspired by structure Jake had created. The piece was at once intricate and specific, and highly candid and improvisational. I asked them to perform the piece twice: Once at the beginning of the show, and once at the end. I had seen this trick used at a Philip Glass concert that my dad took me to when I was 12. The experience as an audience member was highly rewarding. Here is the first performance of Jake's piece:

Cooked/April 15th - 2009 from Tatyana Tenenbaum on Vimeo.



April 15th Raw: Lucy, Ethan, Chris, and Odeya from Tatyana Tenenbaum on Vimeo.
This improvisation, performed by Lucinda Segar, Ethan Cowan, Chris Kuklis, and Odeya Nini, was an experiment in pairing two sets of familiar artists with one another. Kuklis and Nini regularly improvise together in their band, Sing We Owls. Segar and Cowan were in the midst of making a dance, and brought some of their conceptual material to The Raw and the Cooked. The experiment shown here resulted in a collaboration that will be workshoped at Movement Research's Open Performance at Dance Theater Workshop on Wednesday, April 29 at 8pm.

Symmetry and Contrast

The April 15th edition of The Raw and the Cooked was co-curated by Jake Wise, longtime collaborating improviser (see Johnny Butler/Ensemble 46 days, two posts down). For this show, Jake created an improvisational work with two dancers, two clarinetists, and a violinist. All of the instrumentalists also contributed movement...

During the run-through before the show, I found myself deeply moved by the piece. Jake had created a tape piece to accompany the improvisation, which outlined a gradual shape. This shape was augmented by live music performed by several musicians whose movements were also choreographed. The composition of the space had a strong symmetrical layout. I was stunned by the strength of this choice, a choice I myself would never make. The entire piece had an innocence and a clarity that came from that innocence. Jake's movers were both pedestrian and traditional dancers whose various movements were often muddled or unclear. However, he choreographed them in space so clearly that this didn't detract from the cohesion of the piece. Conversely, it added to it.

My dad took me to a Philip Glass concert when I was about 14. It was a duet concert with an African instrumentalist (forgive me for not remembering the country or instrument and for lumping an entire continent together). I remember very little content of this concert, but what I do remember is that Glass opened and closed with the exact same composition. The experience of hearing something both at the beginning and end of a concert was very powerful. As a spur-of-the-moment curatorial decision, I decided to try this with Jake's piece and put it first and last on the program.

Video (clips) from Feb 11th

Here are the clips I was able to salvage from my camera before it shut off... enjoy!

Featured: Leah Nelson, Ava Heller, and Rachel McKinstry (dancers); Ryan Snow, Rus Wimbash, and Johnny Butler (musicians)


Clip 1 from Raw and the Cooked 2/11/09 from Tatyana Tenenbaum on Vimeo.


Clip 2 from The Raw and the Cooked 2/11/09 from Tatyana Tenenbaum on Vimeo.

Scores from February 11th Performance

Here are some of the scores that I made with Johnny. The collaboration was done via Photoshop (I sent him an image and he altered them).



Unfortunately we weren't able to work with color images, but I thought I would post the originals because they look so nice.



Each participant selected two scores to perform. The resulting self-identified groups performed an improvisation based on their discussion of the image...



I was pleased at the effect the graphic scores had on the improvisations. For me it was most evident in how each piece began. Each improviser had a plan (however small) that allowed them to pace themselves, revealing and negotiating their particular interpretation throughout.

February 11th, Raw and the Cooked... a little homage to interdisciplinary improvisation practices in my life

I have known Johnny Butler since college, where we both studied composition at Oberlin Conservatory. We shared the joys and pains of studying 20th-century post-modern chamber music and orchestration with a class of a dozen others.

However, both of us had other lives--his was jazz saxophone, mine was dance. Through various compromises we navigated our multiple interests. I was always in awe of Johnny's ability to synthesize his composition with the embodied practice of playing saxophone. Myself, I became more and more disenchanted with the cerebral task of writing chamber music at a desk, and fell farther and farther in love with dancing. In 2006, I found a way to fulfill my Conservatory ensemble requirement: I formed a group called Ensemble 46, which was lovingly adopted by my adviser Nusha Martynuk (who later brought Chris Aiken and Andre Gribou to Oberlin for a special workshop with the group). I would dance, Johnny would play, and we would all engage in the study scores for an interdisciplinary group.

The original group was: Johnny, myself, Matt Nelson, Andrei Pohorelski, Josh Morris, Lucinda Segar, Hannah Verrill, Sarah Hymanson, and Alesandra Zsiba ( later joined by Jake Wise). This group was the start of an exploration that has followed me to New York, and has inspired the creation of The Raw and the Cooked. This month, Johnny Butler's band "Scurvy" will be featured in full, performing scores with dancers, including Anne Zuerner, Leah Nelson, and Ava Heller.