Click right here to listen to the bit online.

The best part about this is the woman who interviewed met, a former student of mine, is now making a name for herself as a journalist.  Anna Boiko-Werauch.  She was a dancer in a Modern dance company for teens called Anomaly that I directed about 10 years ago.  Makes me so happy to see young women to grow up and do amazing things!

We had a great conversation afterwards and she enjoyed her time in Seattle.

From her first impression of me and my movement, I was moved in particular my this sentence:

“She taught a phrase that was a true hybrid: modern dance swoops sprinkled with ballet attitude turns and a touch of popping and locking. But more than that, it had the imprint of an original point of view.”

She continues to write about Raja Kelly’s master class he taught while visiting Seattle and her visit to PNB.

Read this fabulous blog here.

Wendy has invited me to write the back page essay of Dance Magazine on why I choreograph for the July issue.  Will post when it is published.

Click here for a  link to a review by Michael Upchurch at the Seattle Times

Click here for an essay I wrote for the December 2011 issue of City Arts Magazine in response to this review titled “Occupy Your Ass”.

I will be giving a talk and deconstructing this current work in progress at the Project Room in Seattle, Saturday December 10th 5-6:30 pm as part of Velocity’s Next Fest Northwest.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I have spent the past 6th months in the studio kicking my own ass to be a better dancer and teacher.  I have filmed every piece of choreography I have taught in all my classes.  This is the first time I have rigorously documented these things.  If these movement studies are lucky, they make their way into my work.  So many of them over the years have been lost.  I could look at them as a sort of brain/body storming, on the road to finding the things that interest me. So far, it is proving to be highly useful, but so many tapes…

In addition to being the the studio 6 hours a week, improvising and making movement,I have been training twice a week with Eric Pranzarone.  I feel like I am in college again because of how much I am learning about the body from this man.  If you are looking for results and fascinating information from a brilliant scientific mind, I cannot say enough good things about Eric. Here is his website  spectrummovement.com (No connection to Spectrum Dance Theater.)

I also study yoga with Douglas Ridings at 8 Limbs Yoga on Capital Hill twice a week.  I have known Douglas as a dancer and performer for a decade and I have studied with him for 2 years now.  I used to hate yoga and I love it now because of Douglas.

In other excited news, a string of small scale projects and performances are coming up for me between now and October.  Dates are still being worked out, but they include Kathleen Hermesdorf from San Francisco, Reggie Watts, the City Arts Festival, a dance film out at Smoke Farm, and more…

Peace out.

AmyO/tinyrage

I will post video from the show when it is ready, but for now, enjoy this video of DBR playing with Lady Gaga on American Idol.

Click here to view the embedded video.

From Kidd Pivot Frankfurt RM’s performance at On the Boards February 17-20 2011

Here is a link to it on Artdish

This year, I will be spending lot’s of time in the studio playing and ruminating on where I am going next as an artist.  So rarely do we get time to do this.  If we want to sustain our career, we have to continually produce without much time in between to process what it is we are actually doing.  I want to create and produce, but without a specific product in mind. I have many ideas and I am excited to have the time and space to try them out without any pressure for them to ever be anything.  I am excited to be around Velocity even more as the organization transitions again when a new Executive Director is hired this Spring.

I have been a part of Velocity in every way imaginable since 1996 when KT and Michele first started out.  In fact, here is a list:

student-audience member-rehearsal space renter-teacher since 2001-administrative assistant-bathroom cleaner- floor refinisher-Bridge Project participant in 2002-self producing artist with locust- Under Construction participant and curator-Strictly Seattle faculty and choreographer 4 times-workshop participant with several out of town guest artists-co-organizer of The Big Bang when Velocity had to move out of Oddfellows-SCUBA choreographer in 2010-and now Choreographer in Residence for 2011.

Wow, that felt awesome to type that out.  I hadn’t done that before.

Velocity is important to me.  It has been a major part of why I stayed in Seattle after graduating form Cornish in 1999.  I knew I would have a place to support and be supported and feel safe to go for being an artist.  An art scene cannot thrive without this.  We go to where we can survive.

I want to help Velocity survive.   This is done by the people that walk into the doors everyday and use the space, as well as those who come and support by seeing shows, volunteering, and donating funds.

But , most importantly, it is ideas and the trying out of those ideas, because most of the time, they  do turn into something.  With the economy as crappy as it is, now is the time for our most outlandish, our most provocative, our most brave ideas to come forth and be heard and put to the test.  This is the nature of evolution and creative revolution!

My goal is to use this blog to post updates on what I am doing in the studio as well as ideas of how you can get more involved with Velocity.

xo Amy O