My favorite solo that i have created this decade hands down belongs to Kendall Teague performing Paper Magic. His solo (3:58-4:26) incoperates every single element that i love about dance/movement. Most importantly for me the process was fun. We had a great time while making it! The transitions are clean the angles are askew. The movement is explosive and dynamic. The music with the dance just make sense. We give you level changes, strong technique and even skateboarding coordinations. Trust me its in there, but really subtle. Try and find where it is.
Finally found a video of William Forsythes ballet One Flat Thing Reproduced. Im posting another video of Forsythe talking about choreography and technology as a tool for preservation.
enjoy.
Take something away from this too. The man is brilliant.
Feeling pulled apart by horses is the final installment of Thom Yorke Tuesdays! I have posted this before but the bass line is soo funky that i had to close the year/decade off with this track.
Ever since my freshman year in college(2000) I have not jammed harder or strained harder trying to sing any other song aside from this track. Idieoteque might be one of Radioheads best songs ever simply because they decided to make a dance record and its fucking dope!
of course this is my opinion so if you disagree try going to someone else’s blog read they’re pick and piss off.
2009 is coming into the home stretch ya'll. Its been a great year i must say. I have been lucky enough to stay busy with projects ranging from concert, film, gala, installations, and even sketch comedy. I have been very fortunate to be able to work with some great artists of all genres. A big THANK YOU to all of collaborators. You know who "YOU" are!
I wanna send this off with a lil fun clip that Alex and I did in Studio G a while back. The piece is titled idig. idig is excess material that did not make it into Micro Machines and Dinosaurs because it would not have flowed with the rest of the material. I like to consider this clip a "Bside", also another fine example of me having too many artistic influences and River dance was one of them? Ultimately its about the art...... More to come next year via film, concert, web, installation, fashion, print and everywhere else we can squeeze ourselves into.
Everyone have a safe holiday season and a great New Year.
Best Hustle of the year was an obvious choice for me. Every Tuesday is Thom Yorke Tuesdays on my blog. Every Tuesday i have had a new track that he's released over the past 3 months. Thats a lot of music. I could not think of any other artist that have had turned out so much work in one year with touring, recording, performing and some leaking. Heres a break down of why Thom Yorke wins biggest Hustle of 09.
This year Mr.Thom Yorke has been a busy man. He and his band Radiohead had done a few shows in Latin America and in the UK. Later Yorke performs a solo set during the Latitude Music Festival last summer where he played songs from the Radiohead catalogue, The Eraser and a new soulful song called Present Tense. In between performing Yorke has pissed off the likes of Kanye West and Miley Cyrus telling them to not have such a huge "sense of entitlement." Next without fail Thom and Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead the musical virtuoso/lead guitarist/multi-instrumentalist/resident composer at the BBC orchestra made a tribute song to the late UK war Veteran Harry Patch whom had passed earlier this year. (Patch was the oldest survivor in the UK from WW1). Jonny had composed the song using an all string Orchestra while Thom used the text from Patch during one of his interviews talking about the horror of wars. In true Radioehead fashion they recorded the track in a church. A couple weeks later the blogoshpere is lighting up with a secret leaked track from the band called These Are My Twisted Words. With no explanation where this song came from or what it was for, talks of new albums were all over the message boards. A theory that was quickly debunked by Yorke himself. (Later confirmed by Ed). With the rest of the band on hiatus Thom went on what I would call a "musical killing spree". Announcements that he had contributed a new track to the tween phenomenon New Moon of the Twilight saga had a lot of people questioning his musical integrity including myself. The song titled “Hearing Damage” is easily the best track on the album with a line up of Grizzly Bear, The Killers, Band of Skulls and tons more Indy acts. Thus no one being able to question how refined this mans taste is along with an exceptional vocal and musical talent.
Within the rest of "09" Yorke had released a vinly LP titled “Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses”, sang during climate protest, re-mixing tracks for the hip-hop artists Doom and starting a new band with Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nigel Godrich, the drummer from R.E.M. with the multi-instrumentalist from David Byrne.
I like to the think that Yorke is having a mid life crisis and trying to get out as much as possible. Never in my wildest dreams would i ever imagine a track of Twilight would become my favorite song of the year. Thom Yorke made pigs fly out of a cold hell and we thank him for it.
2009 marks an incredible year for me in terms of artistic revelations. 10 years in the making. Finally found my own voice and working style, which to me translates to honesty. Honesty as in not trying to be like anyone else but to delve into yourself and environment to find inspiration in between both worlds.
Working as an artists over the past few years I have not been so impressed or inspired by anyone since Alonzo King which was 8 years ago while I was still a student. Fast-forward 8 years later… I find Crystal Pite. The easiest way for me to sum the impact of her work on me would be the same comparison to hearing Jimi Hendrix play the guitar for the 1st time or see Micheal Jordan on the basketball court. "Game changers" i call them and I had that same sensation with her work. Pites usage of the classical vocab mixed with modern, isolations that one can easily see a Hip Hop suggestion mixed with a sense of humor makes her work stand out in a very over saturated pool of artists. Her work is able to cross boundaries with simplicity and ease while the work is actually very physically demanding. Everytime i show someone who has never seen work i see the same reaction everytime. Amazment. Pite is currently associate choreographer of Netherlands Dance Theatre and artistic Director of her own company Kidd Pivot where she dances as well. If you catch the oppertunity to see her work being performed i highly advise you to go and see it for yourself. Im sure the word Amazing might pop into your head.
Whoah we are heading into the end of our 1st decade of the 2000s. Scrazy!
Now that the year is closing to an end its always good to do a lil self reflection. Last year i was in the midst of a mental breakdown that i decided to blog about which can be found here. Not the best ideas tell what do you expect from someone having a mental collapse? This year is all good though. In a better place and figured my shit out.
This year im gonna do a "best of" in pop culture, art, music, dance, fashion and skateboarding. For the most part I will be the sole decider for the winners because its my blog and i can do whatever i want(which can be a problem) but certain categories i will be asking all of you out there for your opinions through my Facebook and Twitter. Ill take the votes and then post the winners.
I wanna start with the San Francisco Ballet Nutcracker video competition. Hands down the best video on there is "Year of the Rat". My friend Sean Conroy is a playwright and actor not too mentiom the person who is responsible for the video. Please watch and vote for him bitches!! Trust me he will win and maybe youll see me in Aspen trying to sneak into his hotel:)
Etnies is re-releasing one of the best skate shoes of all time and my personal favorite shoe called the Etnies Sal Slim. The shoes are a new take on an old classic slimming down some of the bulk and giving the once double stiched sole a rubber side with tech innovation.
Personally im stoked on this shoe and will be eager to get me a pair of the black joints.
Not until my mid twenties did i discover that im one of two people in America who did not watch Sesame Street as a kid. Today i found this pic on Dlisted and found it to be a bit odd. As i said earlier im one of two people who did not grow up watching Sesame Street so i cant judge. Because i cant say anything about this pic i wanna ask......is this normal?
Mitie marks the 1st video that we shot using the Red Camera. The film was shot about a year ago in Dr. Bacons home studio with Garen dancing.
Make sure that you watch all the way to the end so that you can get a grasp of the genius that is Dr.Bacon. Garen is beautiful too but i dont need to point that out to anyone:)
This will be the last High quality dance video that will be seen on here by us for the rest of the year. Start tuning in to this blog in 2010. For starters we will be having new dance films screened in festivals in NYC and i will be collaborating with some new companies and artists setting my choreography on the concert stage using some dope multi-media and set designs.
take care everyone and hope that you enjoy Mietie.
I am back in the bay from the "ThanksGibbing" holiday season. Unfortunately my digital camera battery decided to die on me so i cant share pics of my trip from back east:( What i can do is share some insight of a new film that is out in selected theaters called AntiChrist. German director Lars Von Trier whom also directed Dancer in the Dark directed this new film starring Willem Defoe and Charlotte Gainsburg. Anyone whom is a fan of great directing, amazing performances and cinematography should watch this film. Antichrist from the opening Prologue captures your attention and does not let up. However.......the subject matter is highly disturbing. Disturbing as in FUCKED THE FUCKED UP!!! While my friends and i were watching the film my ass went to sleep during the middle of the film as defense mechanism. During another part of the film i had to walk out the theater because the scene was way more then i could handle. Im a visual person so any graphic scenes makes me feel like im going through the same thing even though it would be impossible for it to happen to me giving my anatomy but, none the less fucked up as hell. Im sure a lot of you are asking "why in the hell would i see this film if this fool went to sleep to protect himself and walked out of the theater?" The answer to that question would be the subject matter of the film is so interesting mixed with the dynamic acting and juicy plot that ends up being way more disturbing then one could ever imagine. Dont get me wrong, after i walked out i came back in after i tried dry heaving. After the film was over my friend and i were walking home and i had him feel me in the details that i missed while i sleeping and from that point i was able to sum up the actual point of the film. The following day i was telling another friend about the film with all of the new details for a good hour or so. She was enthralled by what i was telling her but still no way in hell would she see it. ( i think she saw a lil of herself in it:) here is a summary that she sent me via email on the film.
"You told a great story. That movie you watched was too damn deep... as I gathered from your description. Wanted to find out more and found this cool article since I refuse to watch it!"
On theme overall:
Antichrist pushes these questions even further by asking us to contemplate what it would mean to portray woman not as a Christ figure but as Eve, who in the Christian theological tradition has been represented as the personification of evil and bringer of death to the world.
spoiler alert: if you dont like watching people cut off theyre own va ja jays this film is not for you.
Getting more and more into film. After the DC dance shoot i was told to start watching as many music videos as possible. Now i consider watching music videos as part of my research to better understand film and various techniques. My research leads to a lot of cool new bands and videos so i would like to share with all of you fucktards out there.
The video is a rehearsal from a new 20min piece divided into 4 sections that i recently choreographed. The title for the ballet is MicroMachines and Dinosaurs. A study of things gone wrong. We had a soft showing last weekend and i would like to thank everyone who made it out. Were still in the uncubation phase.
a very speacial thanks to my dancers. Thanks for all of your hardwork and dedication.
Kelsey were gonna get that balance in the 5z for you girl!
Natalie Portman is on this month’s cover of V magazine and I can’t help but think that I have something to do with it.
All of a sudden she is taken a new interests in dance by using the best male dancer alive Carlos Acosta (whom looks like me if you look at him from the right angles) in her directorial debut in New York I love you. Next she is slated to play a ballet dancer in the new flick Black Swan with Mila Kunis whom was my co-star in another film titled Party Monster. It does not matter that when I say, "Co-stared" I really mean I was a back up dancer wearing a pleather red skirt with a silver star on my head. Something tells me that Kunis at some point on set told Natalie about me, and how I tried to hit on her even dressed in skirt. Confidence! All im saying is that Natalie is making a lot of choices that seem to be pulling her closer to my playing field. Luckily for her im a simple man. I liked her before she started trying to impress me with her dance skills. Flattered non-the less though.
Natalie(were on the 1st name basis now) if you are reading this I want you to know that the door is open if you wanna collab and then have dinner/date me for at least 2 years. Don’t worry...I don’t mind. S’cool. S’cool.
do Judge, Jury and Executioner (Echoplex Performance). That one's an instant classic. Or of course, you could always post 'Hearing Damage' again, because that song is still the jam. Viva la TY Tuesdays! -P
ps. I so wanna just say post 'Hearing Damage' again, because it's that fucking good. But I don't know. I am loving ALL of these new tracks and I need a record out. I'm dying over here. -P
This weekend Urban Art Farm presents a “Soft Showing” of new works from freelance artist/ choreographer Brian Gibbs of TAGsf. The program is titled MicroMachines and Dinosaurs which is divided up into 4 sections. All 4 sections explore different themes of time and relationships through various parings or solos demonstrating how people respond differently pending on the situation.
MicroMachines and Dinosaurs will be presented in an "Unplugged" manner with minimal bare lighting, sparse sets, no multi-media, giving way to highlight the choreography and the dancers. Next year the piece will be presented in NYC with other top tier artists and I’m very proud to be sharing a program with them.
Tickets to the showing are extremely limited so please be sure to respond back stating what day you wanna come so that you can be insured a seat.
The showing is November 7th and 8th from 3 to 5pm at Urban Art Farm. Tix are 10 dollars at the door. Q & A after the showing.
Thom Yorke Tuesdays are back in full effect. This weeks installment is the new track for a lil film called New Moon. I refuse to explain any further but ultimately it’s all about the music.
New joints/re-edits every Thursday until we travel to DC to work with Dr.Bacon again on some new material.
Hope that everyone enjoys the material. Everything that we have done thus far is quickly becoming old. Bacon and I are both maturing independently as artist and share a common vision. Once we start working together again we will be moving into new un explored directions.
Dance maker extraordinaire and father of contemporary dance Jiri Kylian has had a huge impact on the dance community and the world. His works can be seen in all major dance companies across the globe while his artistic home is with the Netherlands Dance Theatre where he was once director. Tracing back all of the choreographers/artists that he has influenced you can easily see that without Kylian you would not have Forsythe or King. No Kylian or Forsythe means half of the choreographers working in concert dance today’s work would look vastly different and not in a bad way. Kylian has opened up the doors of possibility for dancers and dance makers with his usage of classical vocab fused with modern/pedestrian movements along with his sense of high theatre.
I’m gonna stop rambling so you can watch for yourself.
A fine example of humility and that im still climbing that social ladder. I received this message in an email this morning concerning my involvement with helping bringing in new perspective art students.
"Thank you so much Brain. Sorry for the inconvenience. We sure appreciate you doing this for us".
Man redefined is a radical remix of an old classic monologue from the play A Rasin in The Sun. I was asked to choreograph a solo to the famous monologue by the Lorraine Hansbury Theatre and this time around I decided to not show the movement which is beautiful but instead let you listen to the music.
After the performance at the Ritz i had the pleasure of meeting Lorraines Hansburys sister whom i asked of she liked what i had done with the monologue. Her opinion was the one that mattered the most to me because shes so close to play and to my surprise she gave my rendition her blessing. She told me that she can feel the drama and liked the choices that i had made with the dance and the music. Highlight of my night. I have to post pics too of what she had on because it was something feirce!
This is dedicated to all you who came to the Gala or the other performances at the Community Music Center in San Francisco.
A special warm thanks to Robert Birks and Stanley Williams for taken a chance on me and of course the dancers Micheal and Beth for "killin that bitch!"
I’m posting another video of Cedar Lake (try and guess who I wanna work with) performing in an installation piece. Notice how the artists are performing on ground level challenging the viewer’s perspective of dance watching.
As a viewer we are used to been seated with the stage being elevated so that you are able to catch all of the action which makes perfect sense. However, if you are walking downtown and you see street performers doing there thing you will always have the crowd circle around them while they are break dancing or whatever magical act they are doing. Same difference in the Club applies. Here’s an example: Some fool is eye balling you from across the floor trying to see what you got, next thing you know homedog is following you into the bathroom which is creepy. After you let him know that you don’t get down like that you find out that he does not either and his weird ass was trying to battle you. Wanting nothing more then to get rid of this creepazoid because lets not forget that he did follow you into the bathroom you tell him that you are a choreographer who’s been working all day and tired. The only reason why you are even in there is because you are doing a favor for a friend. With that newfound knowledge "Dude" is asking all kinds of questions about his dancing now that he knows that you choreograph. "Wait, did you see me dancing?" "NO" "So... You like make dances and did not watch me dance?" "NO" "You choreograph and did not watch me dance? But you were looking my direction. Really, you did not watch me dance?" NO NO NO NO NO!!!!!!..........And I digress.
What im getting at is having the artist perform on ground level is a very exciting thing. Maybe for some too exciting. Looking ahead too the end of the month I have a new 20 min piece titled Micro Machines and Dinosaurs that will be going up here in San Francisco. The new piece is gonna be on ground level and have 2 facings along with some multi-media and other surprises.
Pop Sensation Lady Gaga is set to team up with the world class Boloshoi Ballet in a new performance art piece that she will be featured in at the Los Angeles Museum of contemporary Art 30th anniversary November 14th. This is huge.
Pics of me in the studio and Micheal Montgomery dancing in "Man Redefined"
Hey.
Being ADHD and all everyone knows that I keep myself busy. With that said this weekend is the culmination of a lot of work.
For starters I have a silent involvement in a sketch comedy troupe called the S.H.I.T show that runs Friday and Saturday the rest of the month (started the 1st). Working with actors has been one of the best working experiences I have ever had. Not too mention I was laughing the entire time. When I did come up for air I would tell them "guys, im just a vessel” and we’d move on. Shout out to Ray and Evan for becoming the movement and surviving our “meeting” at the Pirate Ship☺
Another project that is going down this weekend is very special to me. I have had the privilege to get invited to set a piece for the Lorraine Hansbury foundation annual fundraising gala this year at the Ritz Carlton. For anyone who does not know Lorraine Hansbury is a very famous Afro-American playwright whom wrote A Raisin in The Sun, which my commission is based off of. The multi-talented Director of the Lorraine Hansbury Theatre Stanley Williams and I have had many discussions about my involvement with the theatre and how im supposed to help usher in a new audience because my work is "edgy" or "progressive". Not too big on those description of my work because that puts me out of the status quo. However I am very relieved to see an organization willing to take a chance and shake things up and do something new. I was telling Stanley that for this piece I want to have the monologue from A Raisin in The Sun be read by an actor much like spoken word. Within the context of the monologue that I have been working off of with my dancer and getting back ground insight into the minds of the characters from Stanley I noticed that having just text alone would not be enough to suffice this project. Needed to do something more so I told Stanley that I envision base, percussions and cello sneaking in and out of the background. Comparable to Mingus or cars been stuck in traffic jam blarring their horns. Only after I had completed the choreographic end with my dancer Michael Montgomery did I get in contact with Mr. David Molina a freelance music producer whom just got back from a project at Yale. Molina, Stanley and I spoke about what I had in mind for the dance so that musically speaking I will be able to set up the right tone and atmosphere for the piece to exist. We planned to meet later the following week in his studio to knock out the recording process. Originally a female actress read the monologue but it did not match what I was going for. I had Stanly read the whole entire rehearsal process and settled my movement in his deep baritone voice. Made sense to use him for the recording too. At the studio I had Stanley read a few times with some voice inflections with certain words to give it a lil more punch. I even got to do some beat boxing (my strange breath heavy attempts) and screaming falsetto that will sneak in and out the music. I’m glad that I have the trust from the director for full artistic range because I had him doing some funny lil things:) Today I looked online and the Gala is completely sold out. I will have the honor of having the opportunity to show the old mayor of SF Willie Brown and the current mayor Gavin Newsome my work and that’s pretty dope. The same night I have the same solo being performed in a different venue with other dancers/choreographers from the SF bay area. The only difference is that im having female dance the part that was originally choreographed for a man. Everyone who could not make it to the gala will have the chance to see the same piece danced and I suggest that you all go because im very proud of the work.
The end of the month I will be dancing in my 1st 20minute joint titled "MicroMachines and Dinosaurs" more on that later along with some other surprises that will be traveling me and Alex Jenkins to the east coast. All I will say about that is that it’s "NUTTY".
yet again, i found more joints online by my future babies momma Crystal Pite. Kidd Pivot was recently in Nashville performing Lost Actions so i told my good friend Mr. Chris Stuart to go check them out. He texted me that they were the most amazing thing he had ever seen in a long time and said that i should have seen the show. He told me that his jaw was agape the entire time. More importantly me being the selfish basterd that i am he said that Pite and i share the same kind of movement transitions which is the biggest compliment i heard all year.
Marcus Taylor a very talented writer along with his brother Matt wrote and produced this video for the 2016 Olympic bid. They got the other talent involved for pro bono to help the bid. Please show some love and re-post this video where ever possible and show to all your friends and fam.
Starting the October the S.H.I.T. Show will be celebrating their one year anniversary. Personally, these fellas have made me a believer in theatre again because I cant remember the last show in San Francisco that has made me laugh so much from start to finish.
I have a silent invlovement in this season and let me tell you without spoiling all the fun, working with these guys is the exact same thing as seeing the perform live. LMFAO! This shit is funny:P
A couple months ago I was approached by my former classmate from NCSA currently a dancer in Company C, her name is Beth Kazmerych whom is a beautiful artist…. A lot of soul. I worked with her on a project a couple years ago with another dancer from SFB so when she asked about my involvement in a show that she and her friend are producing i could not say no. She called and spoke to me about the concept of the show of bringing artist together to collaborate and support each other, which is exactly how I enjoy working. I was impressed with all of the work that has been put into evening even though I was basically non-responsive to the emails. My plate is beyond full this fall, non-the less this is gonna be a great show so I decided to take it on anyways. There will be a handful of other choreographers and dancers from the bay so it will be cool to see what they are up to. For me working with Beth is always a treat plus she’s choreographing too! The evening will be nothing short of fantabolous so please come out in support.
Today as i was scouring the net and happened upon an amazing find...Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails has posted on his site a new business model for upcoming indy music acts. This is not only for the rockers, rappers, crooners or jazzers. DONT BE STUPID. Mr. Reznors model can apply to all art forms. No one knows exactly what to do in the age of new media but we can all agree that social networking/new media is the new platform for getting your product and branding across. YOU no longer have to have a whole bunch of money along with managers to get you product across as well as building a fan base. My entire career has started online and im just now getting my feet wet after 2 and a half years in the game.
The devil lured me into his layer (HOT TOPIC) with promises of being posted on his site. He fed on my own blind ambitions. Thankfully, I caught on to his demonic ways and have casted him and his site off. Now he's on Twitter so I clicked the "un follow" button.
Don’t let the smile fool you. Perez Hilton is going for global domination with his wretched taste in music and stank attitude plus he calls 15-year-old girls sluts!
Anyone grown ass man who endorses the Jonas Bros probably can do a cool little trick where their heads twist 360 degrees. Just a thought.
Im gonna hook up a calender for upcoming shows this fall. We are going to be doing everything from concert dance, galas, next level dance films, sketch improv, lecture and art gallery.
Ive been working hard and steady over the past 3 months. Looking forward to getting out all of these amazing ideas. Gonna stick to my motto "when the going gets tough....DONT SUCK!
My new Moto "Dont Suck" has been deemed by some to simple or easy. I dont think so. In my eyes some people need to think my moto to themselves on a dailey. ALL DAY!
Here is a great example for DONT SUCK starring the Pratts!
