With AXIS Dance, seeing is believing
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By Mimi Honeycutt
Dance, like song and drama, is an intimate expression of the feelings that seethe or flutter just below the surface. When performers find new ways of expressing themselves, the audience too experiences a new, exciting connection to emotion and life.
AXIS, a contemporary dance company, has taken dance to new heights for the past twenty years. Soon, USF students will have the opportunity to see and even learn from the people who make AXIS great. Judith Smith, artistic director and executive producer of AXIS, can say just why AXIS is so unique in the world of dance. “What really sets us apart from other contemporary dance companies is the fact that some of our dancers are disabled and some are not disabled. I would say our movement vocabulary and the work that we create is very different than what a standard dance company could do.”
Indeed, in an AXIS show, wheelchair-bound dancers flit across the stage and one-legged dancers perform full routines. Yet, while some may view these disabilities as a hindrance, Judith argues that they are freeing. “The way someone moves in a power chair or a manual chair and the way that movement is incorporated into the choreography ends up being very different than what a traditional contemporary company can do.”
Of course, much like a film depends on the skill of the director, it is the choreographers who utilize the dancers’ skills that creates a spectacular show. This is where Ms. Smith comes in. ”The really fun part of my job is that I get to look around at different people, at different choreographers working in the field today, and different composers and musicians, and develop projects based on people I think would work really well with the company and whose artistic and choreographic point of view would work well with our ensemble.”
But nevertheless, certain aspects of AXIS must call for particular qualities. Ms. Smith continues, “Most of the choreographers that we work with are those who think outside the box and work collaboratively. They incorporate nontraditional dancers into their movements, but I think that the way they work with us is not much different from the way they would work with another dance company. It’s just that they have to learn a little bit about how each of us as individuals moves and how we move together. Because we commission work and because we are not a company that works with just one choreographer, our repertory is very diverse. The pieces that get created end up being a really great reflection of AXIS and our movement vocabulary. That’s what’s really fun for us being a repertory company.”
Theme too plays an important part in dance. After all, most dances tell a story. AXIS is no different. “For AXIS in general, most of our work was very directly about disability. After 10 years of working collaboratively just within the company, we split apart, since some of us felt that we needed to branch out. We thought we could say more about ability and more about dance by not always addressing disability as a theme. So, themes that emerge in our work are always a reflection of who choreographed the piece. It really depends on the choreographers and what they come into the company wanting to do with us. And it’s fun because we basically turn ourselves over to them as an instrument. The creative process is what keeps us hooked.”
As for the upcoming show, Ms. Smith offers her thoughts: “It is a very sexy, driving piece of work. I think that it explores relationships in a way that some of our work has not been able to reach. It’s a very sensual, emotional, driving piece.”
“You really have to see this company to begin to understand what we’re about, or even believe it,” she says. “Because it’s not like ballet where you can say ballet and everyone can conjure up an image. If you talk about dancing and disabilities together, I think that peoples’ brains kind of go blank, because it’s not something you see on TV or in the movies or in the performing arts every day.”
Seeing is believing, and art makes one see things in ways one never did before. Be sure to check out the upcoming Fall dance concert, and witness something you will likely never see again.
Tags: AXIS, dance, drama, Scene, show
There’s Something Cold About the Way You Play
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"I'm this close to being Bono!" Coldplay, a band that originally called themselves 'Starfish' began recording in London, England in 1998. The quartet has gone through a transformative career since then in terms of sound and image. Sky Madden writes on her personal experience with Coldplay's life line starting in 1999. Above, Chris Martin appears with Coldplay at Giants statium in October 2008.
Sky Madden | Staff Writer
The first time I ever heard Coldplay was a couple weeks before high school started. I had snuck in through the basement of the house where my then-girlfriend was babysitting. We were watching MTV2 in the master bedroom. Awkwardly snuggled up on a mountain of duvet covers we ate whatever we could find from the pantry that wasn’t baby food. Sometime during the middle of the night Coldplay’s “Shiver” video came on. There Chris Martin, Will Champion, Johnny Buckland and Guy Berryman played in a modest, white-walled recording space. They were nerdy and sweet. Terrible swooping camera angles moved circularly as the crescendo ensued just before Chris opened his mouth. I remember feeling warm and comfortable in that moment and later on that falI would feel the same when I’d go to my girlfriend’s house and we’d fall asleep to the slower tracks of “Parachutes” (2000). Later that year, she would leave me for the captain of the lacrosse team. He was blonde, handsome, tall and had it for her for months and months. This time she couldn’t hold off. The rasp of Chris Martin’s voice would become a thorn in my side, but alas the non-desrcript and aloof young men would yet again provide important tracks to my youth’s romantic soundtrack sagas.
Tags: Coldplay, concert, Event, Review, Scene
Role Models
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Jim Taugher|Staff Writer
“Role Models” is a film about two slacker guys, Danny (Paul Rudd) and Wheeler (Seann William Scott), whose jobs are to go from school to school selling an energy drink called Minotaur, which is funny in itself. Danny is sick of his job and his girlfriend is sick of him. One day everything piles up and Danny goes a little crazy, leading both Danny and Wheeler to have a date with the courts. Danny’s girlfriend (played by the wonderful Elizabeth Banks), also Danny’s lawyer, presents them with two options: either spend time in jail, or serve over a hundred hours of community service. They are then set up with a community service program called Sturdy Wings which is a big brother-type program for kids and is run by it’s founder; the hilarious ex-junkie Gayle Sweeny (played by the hilariously painful Jane Lynch). Wheeler is paired up with the foul-mouthed Ronnie who winds up stealing the show, and Danny is paired up with nerdyand genuine Augie (Christopher Mintz-Plasse of McLovin’ fame). Mintz-Plasse still plays the nerd as he did in “Superbad”, but this movie is a definite step forward from his branded McLovin character. He pulls off the role with charm and sensitivity.
Tags: critique, movie, Review, Role Models, Scene
Dia de Los Muertos: Dancing with the Dead
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Anne Sivley | Foghorn Staff
A dreary Halloween weekend came to a vibrant ending in the Mission district October 24th. Thousands of people congregated at 24th and Bryant to celebrate Dia de Los Muertos (or Day of the Dead for us gringos). The crowd was incredibly eclectic, as people of all cultures and races have embraced the traditional Mexican celebration. Young children and old couples mixed in among beer-toting twentysomethings. Many were dressed in bright, traditional garb with faces painted like Misfit-esque skeletons. Orange marigolds and flickering candles illuminated the motley crowd.
Tags: day of the dead, Dia de los muertos, Event, Mission District, San Francisco, Scene
San Francisco’s got MILK
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This past Tuesday I made my way down to the Castro for the premier of “Milk”, hoping to spy a celebrity or two and ended up seeing quite a few more.
A relatively low key event (low key for a movie premier that is) the crowd on the street was only a couple hundred strong which just made it easier to catch a glimpse of the likes of Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch, Diego Luna, James Franco, Diane Lane and Mayor Gavin Newsom just to name a few. I got to talking to the guy standing next to me who happened to be an extra in the movie and he told me that tickets to go inside and watch the premier with the stars evened out somewhere around five grand and included an after party for those who could afford it. If you hadn’t heard about the screening, it’s no surprise. Word is publicity for the film is being kept to a minimum for now but is scheduled to be set into full swing after the presidential election has been decided. So be on the lookout in the next couple of weeks for trailers and ads to start popping up.
Tags: Castro, Film, Harvey Milk, premiere, San Francisco, Scene
“SYNECDOCHE [Sih-NECK_doh_kee], NEW YORK”
Posted by pacotacomike | Filed under Film
By Sky Madden | Foghorn Staff
Acclaimed screenwriter Charlie Kaufman makes his directorial debut with “Synecdoche, New York”. It opens in San Francisco tomorrow Friday, Nov. 7th. Kaufman’s previous works “Being John Malkovich” (1999), “Adapation” (2002) and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” (2004) have asked audiences to let the hand of existentialism come out of the big screen and massage their brains relentlessly. This time, Kaufman reaches even further into the absurdist abyss with character Caden Cotard in his new script, “Synecdoche, New York.” Cotard, played by Philip Seymour Hoffman, is a tired American playwright, frustrated with pluming bills and paranoid of terminal illnesses. His contentious wife, Adele, played by Catherine Keener bruises Caden’s mental state with her outright detached life philosophy. Adele understands romantic love to be mere projection and that the more you know someone in this way, the more disappointing they become. The brutal estrangement of his wife only elevates Caden’s spiraling state as he attempts to finally execute a biographic play–the play that might save him from a life of meaninglessness.
Foghorn Podcast: Interview with Charlie Kaufman
“Synecdoche, New York” was written and directed by Charlie Kaufman and produced by Spike Jonze, Anthony Bregman and Sidney Kimmel. It stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Samantha Morton, Michelle Williams, Catherine Keener, Emily Watson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Hope Davis, Dianne West and Tom Noonan.
Mr. Charlie Kaufman talks with Sky Madden about scriptwriting theory and his experience with making “Synecdoche” for Foghorn Scene Podcasts.
Tags: Charlie Kaufman, interview, podcast, Scene, sky madden, synecdoche
Do you know who these ghouls are?
Posted by pacotacomike | Filed under Contest
Do you know who these ghouls are? The first three correct replies (to scene@sffoghorn.info) will win a prize courtesy of the Foghorn. The contest ends at Midnight on Halloween night. Don’t forget to leave the e-mail address you would like to be contacted at!
Tags: Contest, ghouls, halloween
A Beautiful Fall
Posted by pacotacomike | Filed under Film
When some think of a neglected arthouse film, the image that comes to mind is a modern, avant-garde affair that looks into the abyss of the human condition and returns with stylishly esoteric profundity–all on a shoe-string budget, backyard sets, and a cast of newly-graduated drama majors. By this logic, though privately financed, minimally distributed, and completely unconventional, “The Fall” barely qualifies as arthouse. It is simply art.
In a 1915 Los Angeles hospital, a young Romanian girl named Alexandria (Catinca Untaru) recovers from a broken arm. Her boredom and curiosity lead her to discover Roy (Lee Pace from Pushing Daisies), a silent movie stuntman crippled during a shoot. Apparently amused by the girl, Roy spins a fantastical story about five eccentric heroes and their quest to bring down an evil governor. Thereafter, the film alternates between the hospital and storyland, with aspects of each entwining and coloring the other.
Tags: blog, Film, Mimi Honeycutt, Review, San Francisco Foghorn Scene, The Fall
Get on your Soap Box
Posted by pacotacomike | Filed under Event
Staff Writer: Kylah Frazier
I knew there were going to be a lot of people at the Red Bull Soap Box race this past Saturday but I had no idea that there would be that many people. Later on that dayone of the MCs would announce that there was an estimated 75,000 that showed up. Dolores Park was swarming when we arrived, though I really should have foreseen that when busses packed with people passed us over and over again. The bus situation was so hopeless we ended up having to get a cab. San Francisco has an awesome public transportation system any other day but then a big event rolls around , it doesn’t matter who you are no bus is going to stop for you. Same thing happened last weekend when I headed down to the Warf to see the Blue Angels, I ended up walking from the Westfield Mall downtown to Pier 39 and back again, but that’s another story.
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Tags: Dolores Park, Kylah Frazier, San Francisco Foghorn Scene, Soapbox
Save Me
Posted by pacotacomike | Filed under Film
Staff Writer: Laurel Bentley
Director Robert Grey’s film “Save Me” provides an intimate look at the church driven phenomenon of “reassigning” the sexual preference of homosexuals. Although the idea of converting gays to the “straight-and-narrow” through prayer and religious conditioning is nothing new, it has become increasingly prevalent in recent years as gay rights continue to move forward. Filmed in New Mexico, “Save Me” is an honest, humanistic look at the conflicts between the hardships faced by homosexuals and the religious sect’s unwavering opinion homosexuality is a choice or a sickness. The film, introduces Chad Allen’s character, Mark, as a gay man with an addiction to drugs and sex that is slowly destroying his life. His brother takes him to Genesis Rehabilitation Camp where Gayle and Ted (Judith Light and Stephen Lang) run a program to help “heal” gay men of their sexual deviancy. Founded on good intentions, but run my closed-minded people, the Genesis Program provides gay men who have faced difficult and discriminated lives with a safe and loving community. Gayle and Ted take Mark in and he quickly becomes a part of the group, befriending fellow housemate Scott, played by Robert Grant.
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Tags: Film, Laurel Bentley, save me
