RTGPC at University Settlement House – Feb.14-16

 

RACHEL THORNE GERMOND PERFORMANCE COLLAGE in “Recent Works,” a concert of Germond’s Tripod, Safety Dance, The Prudent Sky, and Shadow Box.

Dance/performance works with live video projection created between 2017 and 2019.

February 14, 15, 16 at 8 PM at
University Settlement House
184 Eldridge Street, New York, NY.

Tickets: $15
Purchase Tickets online in advance at: https://rachelthornegermond.bpt.me

Tickets also available at the door.
For more information or to make a reservation, email: rtg@rachelthornegermond.com

Press Contact: Audrey Ross
www.audreyrosspublicity.com

Dancers: Larissa Asebedo, Jacqueline Calle, Rachel Thorne Germond, Kirsten Reynolds, Sally Rhoades, Irene Siegel, Tasha Taylor, Jessica Winograd.
Collaborators:
Set/Costume Design (Tripod) by Pate Conaway
Video Projections (Shadow Box) by Charles Woodman
Lighting Design by Emma K. Rivera

Rachel Thorne Germond: Performance Collage presents the multimedia works of Germond that incorporate video projection, performance, and photography.  Originally from Rhode Island, Rachel received dual degrees from Cornell U: a B.A. in Comparative Literature and a B.F.A. from the College of Architecture, Art and Planning.  From 1998 to 2000, she received a fellowship and M.F.A. in Dance and Choreography from the U of Illinois/Champaign-Urbana, and was active in the Chicago dance community from 2000 to 2010.  Now Brooklyn based, Rachel’s work has been presented at St. Mark’s Danspace, the 92nd St Y, Movement Research, and other local venues.

 

Upcoming Shows 2018

Performance Collage #2 – Tripod New Dance Alliance’s 32nd Annual Performance Mix Festival Day 4  Sunday, June 10, 2018 at 3:00pm
University Settlement House 184 Eldridge Street, New York, NY 10002
Performers: Larissa Asebedo, Rachel Thorne Germond, Kirsten Reynolds
Visual Design and Video Projections: Rachel Thorne Germond
Costumes: Rachel Thorne Germond with Sculptural elements by Pate Conaway
Sound Score: Sound effects, Music by John Dowland, John Luther Adams.

Intrigued by a wide range of random and disparate inputs from modern life, Germond employs multiple strategies of investigation, in which ambiguous juxtapositions and new, unfamiliar languages come to life.

Rachel Thorne Germond’s Performance Collage #2 – Tripod is a multimedia performance work that grapples with the nature of movement as metaphor or analogy, versus the direct literal references possible with projected photographic images.  Tripod is a world on stage not dissimilar to everyday life that addresses aspects of fantasy, imagination, and memory. There are metal tripods placed throughout the stage space which are used both functionally and decoratively – worn on the body like a cape – and danced with as a partner.   With projected images of nature, houses, furniture, rings, and other talismans from daily life she takes us on a visual journey through an apparent rite of passage.

Germond employs an eclectic movement vocabulary that embraces pedestrian sensibility with passages of highly stylized formal technique. The sound score is comprised of nature sounds, the melancholy ballad Flow My Tears by English Renaissancecomposer John Dowland, and the haunting, funereal church bells in John Luther Adams’s And Bells Remembered. 

Also performing on Day 4 at 3:00pm: Lily Bo Shapiro Sari Nordman

New Dance Alliance’s Performance Mix Festival presents the work of over 20 artists annually in contexts ranging from traditional venues to site-specific installations to open-rehearsals to video screenings to artist talks. The Performance Mix Festival offers a wide range of avenues for audiences to engage in new explorations in dance, music, video and interdisciplinary performance by emerging and mid-career choreographers.

Their Work: Karen Bernard’s SHOWGIRLS Thursday, May 17, 2018 – Saturday, May 19, 2018 Brooklyn Studios for Dance 210 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11238 Rachel Thorne Germond will be performing with Karen Bernard, Jil Guyon, and Lisa Parra, led by Karen Bernard in collaboration with dramaturg Andi Stover ——————–

SAVE THE DATE! RTGPC Full Evening Show: Three Performance Collages Thurs, Sep 13, 2018 at  8:00PM – Sun, Sep 16, 2018 at 3:00PM at University Settlement House 184 Eldridge St, New York, NY 10002  

Performance Mix – performing June 10th

Rest in peace Russell Clark Germond

my father passed away on March 3rd, 2016 in Bisbee, AZ.

there will be a service for him in New Hampshire later this year.

he was an artist and calligrapher and taught at RISD for 25 years.

These are some of his early paintings.

 

 

 

 

Life lately…. Summer 2015

Some fun and creative activities I have been engaging in lately……………….

June

Performed in the 100’s- a lifelong dream realized  – got to perform in Twyla’s work
(even as a 100 it was utterly satisfying)  (and……. Twyla winked at me as I was practicing my phrase… )
Twyla Tharp – River to River Festival – New York, NY

July

Experimental Film VA – Cape Charles VA
Got to work with Josephine Decker!

 

Dixon Place HOT! Festival – New York, NY
July 21st  – Performed on a program with the talented James Gardella  & Brandon Fisette
Splendor Twice: Elvis + Marilyn = Gender Splendor

Another shoot with the amazing and inspiring Josephine Decker in NYC – so fun being part of a film.

August

SUMAC  Workshop – New York, NY

Just life in general….

Tuesday May 5, 2015

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

A little bit about this Mexican celebration can be found  here: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/cinco-de-mayo

Had  a decent day….  took class with Barbara Mahler at Eden’s Expressway via Movement Research this morning and we worked on lateral weight transfer… after 8 months of steady working again I am finding that by body is starting to open up again… and more movement possibilities are appearing and reappearing… especially in the ribs and pelvis. Had  a great rehearsal afterwards- a good three hours – giving myself time to work some more on what we had done in class in the morning and then moving into my own warm up — what I have come up with to get myself ready to move and not be injured in my own rehearsals. A three hour solo rehearsal can be intense. Had to force myself to take occasional breaks. You don’t realize you just keep dancing and dancing… and my “older” dancing body needs to be given a little more TLC to be at optimum performance. I have three weeks to get this solo up and running  – will be premiering it at Dixon Place’s Crossing Boundaries series curated by Marcia Monroe on Tuesday May 26th. Excited to perform again… I find I am missing performing quite a lot.

Met up with an old friend who lives in Maine now and works as a Dance Therapist. I walked down from the Port Authority to the 30th street entrance at 11th ave and met him there. I was trying to explain to him what I feel to be the connection between photographing life and making dances…  I have many ideas about the connections between dance and photography. I am not sure how to express them yet but I am hoping that in the course of the next few months I will become better at articulating these connections.

All I know is I started in photography when I first came to New York in August of 1986. Then I had a life in dance.. and now I seem to be returning to photography again as an important part of my artistic expression.. along side the 25 years of dancing and  dance-making. Photography seems easier to get out there  right now… and connects to the  world-at-large in a way that, as important as my rehearsal process is important to me and ultimately the performance of the work will perhaps relate to an audience, being cloistered in the dance studio rehearsing doesn’t. How’s that for a run-on sentence?

Photos from my afternoon – Walked down from 38th Street to the High Line entrance at 11th ave and 30th Street. For some reason this man in yellow was fascinating to me, I kept trying to photograph him without him knowing it. He was just sitting there watching people. The two pizza parlor photos were taken at the corner of 38th street and 8th ave. I love watching people eat pizza there. I have also partaken of the $1 slices occasionally after rehearsal.

Choreographic Inspiration from Cherry Blossoms at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden

Went to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden on Sunday to volunteer …. and afterwards strolled about the Cherry Blossom trees watching all the people watching each other and looking at the blossoming trees and photographing one another…. a complex and layered choreography and inspiration.

Crossing Boundaries at Dixon Place – May 26

http://dixonplace.org/performances/crossing-boundaries-4/#

Crossing Boundaries
New work by choreographers who cross cultural, geographic & disciplinary boundaries.
Curated by Marcia Monroe.

Tuesday, May 26 at 7:30pm

General Admission
$12 in advance
$15 at the door

Students / seniors $10

About the Artists

Rachel Thorne Germond has been making dances since 1990. She is a graduate of Cornell University where she studied modern dance while obtaining degrees in Fine Art and Comparative Literature. In 2000, she achieved an MFA in dance and choreography at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana where she was a Fellow.  She has presented her choreography in New York City at such venues as the Joyce Soho, 92nd St. Y, Danspace at St. Mark’s Church, Movement Research at Judson Church, WAX, Chashama, The Merce Cunningham Studio, HERE, the Brooklyn Arts Exchange, and Dixon Place

Selma Treviño is a performer/choreographer/director and co-founder of Corporeal Arts Incorporated.  Selma develops works based on the Corporeal Mime technique in the field of dance and theater as well as for academic research in the field of Performance Studies. Selma teaches at her own Pilates and Yoga studio in Maspeth which is also home for her artistic company Corporeal Arts Incorporated. She had her work performed at: Baryshnikov Arts Center, Lincon Center, Dixon Place, HERE, Center for Performance Research – CPR in New York and in venues in California, Brazil, France and Canada.

Up and running again after a long haitus

photo: The Apollo Theater (view from my seat at the Bessie’s this year)

This blog is up and running again after a long hiatus… left Chicago in 2010 after 10 fruitful years…. was in Norfolk teaching at ODU, CNU, and Hampton Universities for four years… living between NY and these places all this time .. and now exclusively New York City … (well… Brooklyn anyhow!).

Mostly right now I have photos to share… these photos are a way of taking notes on life.. my life… the lives of others I observe around me… situations, encounters, spaces, places, things that inspire me as an artist.

I am in a process of transition right now… trying to figure out if making dances will continue to be my primary expression… and how to create a sustainable life as a dance artist in New York in the year 2014, which is very different from the 80’s and 90’s. Although let’s be honest, it was never an easy choice.

Meanwhile I immerse myself in the NYC dance scene…. going to see as many shows as I can, meeting up with people, exploring new dance spaces and places, dancing, teaching (where yet?), finding ways to make money, living with a roommate again to save money, getting a cat so I am not too lonely, wondering if I am insane to return full time to this bourgeoning city.

RTG Dance blog will be up an running again soon. :)