In the context of my upcoming Birthright trip, I am interested in facilitating an intentionally creative experience to document, process, and respond to my time spent in Israel. My goal in this project is to explore the idea of “dance” as movement, moving, and being moved. I believe one can move with the body, mind, words, heart, history, soul, and spirit. I also wish to explore the idea of a “company” as a community of collaborators engaging in a given mental and physical space for a given amount of time- in this context, the framework of The Defiance Project company would relate to the Birthright experience. I also hope to process, reflect on, and encounter the Birthright experience in an intentionally creative and collaborative way. I hope to use my time in Israel through Birthright as a research experience about the specific sites we will be visiting in terms of the aesthetic and energetic manifestations of their histories, how these sites relate to the human bodies that occupy them, and how to use the human body to evoke those aesthetic and energetic manifestations beyond the scope of the physical spaces themselves.

The value in this project will be in receiving the experiences we have in Israel in a physical way and also contributing to our presence in various spaces in Israel with the intentional physical presence of our bodies. I believe a sense of presence is achieved when mind and body are one- through sensation and perception. By not only receiving sensations in a passive way but also seeking sensation from our surroundings in an active way, we can achieve a true state of presence that can serve the artistic process. I also believe that the body can be a source of memory and a site on which mental and emotional experiences imprint themselves through sensation. By capturing these physical responses to and engagements with our surroundings in terms of specific sites in Israel and the other people who occupy them, we can maintain an artistic integrity upon reflecting on and documenting our Birthright experiences beyond the scope of the trip. We can also use the body as a tool for reproduction of these emotional impacts of these experiences because of the relationship between the mind and the body promoted by presence.

I plan on facilitating the project Israel Works by:

• Putting a call out for collaborators within the Birthright group
• Exploring the idea of “asset mapping” as a way to communicate our skills, talents, and interests to best serve this artistic work
• Exploring the idea of “embodied history” as a way to process our experiences and thus further contribute to that history as it exists in real time as OURstory
•  Addressing the various opportunities and setbacks offered by each of the historical and religious sites we will be visiting
• Addressing the various aesthetic and artistic possibilities offered by the various sites we will be visiting
•  Anticipating various physical responses to the emotional, political, historical, and cognitive experiences we may have
• Documenting our artistic “research” and reflection processes through writing/journal entries, photographs, film footage, historical contextualization, etc
• Communicating the artistic process in which I hope to engage through the creation and performance of a collaborative work both during the time of the Birthright trip and beyond
• Exploring the idea of process as product in terms of the artistic process serving and acting as a product created in real time, improvised, raw, fleeting, etc.

Virtual Venues Symposium

Virtual Venues Symposium: Exploring Materiality and Gesture Within Live Streaming Events

Symposium, Workshops, and Performances 

November 9 and 10, 2012

Z-Lab, UC Berkeley and Embodied Media and Technology Lab, UC Irvine

Synopsis:

The Virtual Venues Symposium involves a series of dance performances, talks, and demonstrations connecting UC Irvine and UC Berkeley using high-speed computer networks. Featuring a team of collaborating artists and technologists from both campuses, this project positions the University of California as an early adopter of telepresence research and performance. Utilizing high-performance networks, which allow for robust audio-visual environments to be shared by multiple distributed users interacting in real time, Virtual Venues connects multiple sites and participants to stimulate new collaborative practices that are interactive and spontaneous. Public performances are scheduled for November 9, 2012 - see schedule below.
(http://embodied.uci.edu/virtual-venues)

* See website for more details.

Schedule:

Friday, November 9th
On the Berkeley Campus: All events take place in Z-Lab (Zellerbach Room 170)
5:30pm            Reception - Appetizers and Wine
5:30-6:00pm   Interactive Demonstration Between UC Irvine and UC Berkeley 
6:00-6:45pm   Four Bi-Located Performances between UC Irvine and UC Berkeley
6:45-7:15pm   Talk by Jaime del Val (Media artist) from Madrid
7:15-8:00pm   UC Irvine Streaming Performances in Real Time to UC Berkeley
8:00-9:00pm   Roundtable Discussion and Responses

Saturday, November 10th
On the Berkeley Campus: All events take place in Z-Lab (Zellerbach Room 170)
11:00am          Installation by Inter-media artist Renee Rhodes (Bay Area)
12-1:30pm      Talks and Showing of Work by Participants - Brown Bag Lunch
1:30-2:00pm   Open Work Session
2:00-3:00pm   Local Performances at UC Irvine Streamed to UC Berkeley

“Konstantine” Solo Rehearsal

The Defiance Project

January 2012

Performed and Choreographed by Sophie Needelman

Misguided Ghosts- Solo Rehearsal

“Misguided Ghosts” by Paramore

The Defiance Project (January 2012)

Choreographed by Sophie Needelman

Performed by Becky Kalinowski

“Tonight” by FM Static

Performed at The Vine (San Diego, CA) July 2011

Choreographed by Sophie Needelman

Change

Movement is change; by moving we are changing. Even in a state of rest, our bodies move with pulse and breath; these movements are the foundation of life. Change is innate to our humanity and to our lived existence. Defiance is embracing oneself as a changing being- by changing oneself. Change, without judging change as progressive or regressive; it is merely a process and a product that leads to a difference based on what once was the same. Move and be moved.

Connection

Points of connection within the body are the source of initiation and engagement for movement. Connectivity allows for space to be made as a foundation for and initiation of movement. Space allows for engagement. Connection is liberating. Connection between bodies exists through the catalyst of rhythm. Our breaths and pulses are consistent and constant; the stability of rhythm is innate to our humanity and existence. We can control our bodies on a rhythmic level to connect to other bodies, connect to music, and connect to the momentum of life in space.

Presence

The Defiance Project uses the creation, expression, practice, and performance of dance to explore what it means to defy. The company behind this project manifests defiance in both the form and function, and process and product of the work it does. This work examines Defiance as:

-Presence within and because of one’s physical being, as    occupation of self through sought sensation

-Connection within and among physical beings through breath, pulse, and rhythm

-Change through movement, because and in spite of connected presence and present connection

Boundaries must first be known in order to be broken. Defiance allows us to know ourselves- because of and in spite of these boundaries. It yields the growth necessary to then become limitless as a dancer and as a human being.