MEET KATHERINE WELLS PERFORMING IN SOL Y SOMBRA FEBRUARY 17-18, GARAGE 8 PM

BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW!
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/214316

Where are you from? Sunnyvale, CA

Where did you study? Western Ballet School

How long have you been dancing? I began my training 19 years ago.

What got you into dancing? After many years of dancing around the house and refusing lessons, it wasn’t until an older sister started taking jazz. Then I wanted to be just like her.

What dancer(s) or people inspire you? Samuel Roberts

What inspires you to keep on dancing? Dancing gives me the greatest, most direct and deepest access to who I truly am. This along with the desire to share and tell stories is more addictive than anything. Even more than ice cream:)

Who are your role models? My mom. She’s my hero.

Outside of dancing professionally, do you have any hobbies or other interests? I have had a journal since I was 5. I always have something to write with at all times. I have also been obsessed with salsa dancing since I lived 3 blocks away from a salsa club in Denver when I was 20.

Have you ever used your talents for the good of the community? Volunteering performances and teaching for various benefits and outreach.

What was your most embarrassing dance moment? Being the most downstage dancer in the corps for the ballet, Paquita and facing upstage 16 counts early.

BONUS PROJECT. B. DANCER INTERVIEW- MEET TRISTAN CHING

Tristan, a new addition to Project. B., has been a part of the rehearsal process for the preparation of Sol y Sombra which premieres on February 17-18 at the Garage.

BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW!

https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/214316

Where are you from?
Ventura, California


Where did you study?
I started with jazz and tap (and even a bit of Scottish Highland dancing) at a local studio. Once I got more serious about ballet, I started to commute down to Westside Ballet in Santa Monica. It was run by two former members of the Royal Ballet and New York City Ballet, and the training was excellent. I used to do my homework in the backseat of the car while my mom drove me down. I also came up here for the summer sessions at the San Francisco Ballet School. Looking back, I think those summers were the beginning of my very deep and very fond attachment to the San Francisco dance community.

There were only two ballet classes a week at Stanford when I was a student, so I took Cal Train up to the city to take open classes at LINES. I also started to explore modern dance with Diane Frank's very rigorous and pure technique class at Stanford. 


What got you into dancing?
I have really bad asthma and couldn't play outdoor sports when I was little, so my mom started me in dance classes. I loved it. She and I used to take tap classes together. 


What dancer(s) or people inspire you?
So many! Not the least of which is the group of dancers in Sol y Sombra... they are serious about the work, serious about their art, and yet don't take themselves too seriously. I feel like I should be paying to participate in the rehearsals, not the reverse.


What inspires you to keep on dancing?
The fact that I am a bad and insufferable person when I don't.


Who are your role models?
My mom, for her unwavering ability to find joy in life's simplest pleasures. My husband, Mark, for his emotional generosity and clarity. And Kara Davis and Tianne Frias for their curiosity, their passion, and the way they constantly reinvent themselves.


Outside of dancing professionally, do you have any hobbies or other interests?
Tango tango tango.


Have you ever used your talents for the good of the community?
Not nearly enough. I recently taught a modern dance workshop in Kolkata (Calcutta). The level ranged from classically trained professional dancers to victims of sex trafficking who had never taken a formal dance class but had come to dance as a form of healing. It was an amazing experience. I would like to incorporate that type of community service into my life, hopefully sooner rather than later.


What was your most embarrassing dance moment?
It's a tie between the time my leg fell asleep onstage and I had to do the waltz in Sleeping Beauty by dragging it around, and the time I was doing a site specific work with Robert (Moses). It was at the needle exchange behind Safeway, and we were supposed to-- well, blend in. I wore some holey pants and a huge, hygienically challenged coat. During one of the shows, I heard someone gasp and say, "Tristan! WHAT ARE YOU WEARING?!" It was my mom.

MEET NORMA FONG PERFORMING IN SOL Y SOMBRA FEBRUARY 18-19, GARAGE 8 PM

BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW!
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/214316

Where are you from? Sunnyvale, CA

Where did you study? California Institute of the Arts

How long have you been dancing? Professionally, for about 7 years, but I began taking dance classes 19 years ago.

What got you into dancing? 
I would have to say, indirectly, my mom. She put me in a ballet class when I was five years old but I absolutely hated it. Several years later, I randomly went up to my mom and asked to take ballet again. I haven’t left since.

What dancer(s) or people inspire you? 
On an every day basis, my peers. On a weekly basis, Michael Jackson.


What inspires you to keep on dancing? 
The passion for music, musicality, rhythm, and movement. The love for the adrenaline rush that results from taking a physical risk. The satisfaction of achieving and conquering a challenge. 

Who are your role models? 
My parents and my brother.

Outside of dancing professionally, do you have any hobbies or other interests? 
I enjoy singing, playing the piano, sometimes together. I also like to read, drink beer, and play video games; sometimes together:)

Have you ever used your talents for the good of the community? 
I teach Chinese Folk Dance to children in Chinatown. I also had the pleasure of helping Project. B. with the Spark mentorship program. Along with the other dance companies I dance with, I also participate in outreach to various elementary schools.

What was your most embarrassing dance moment? 
I was running offstage after a solo and ran into a shinbuster on the floor. I did a penguin face plant in the wing but I was not entirely off stage yet. Aside from making a huge noisy commotion with kicking the shins, I succeeded in getting some gasps from the audience members.

MEET KELLY DEL ROSARIO PERFORMING IN SOL Y SOMBRA FEBRUARY 18-19, GARAGE 8 PM

BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW!
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/214316

Where are you from? Mililani, Hawaii

Where did you study? University of Hawaii

How long have you been dancing? 10 years

What got you into dancing? capoeira

What dancer(s) or people inspire you? Katherine Wells has an extremely dedicated and rigorous approach to dance and art. Her work ethic and performance should be a model for all walks of life.

What inspires you to keep on dancing? Seeing my friends dance.

Who are your role models? My mom and dad.

Outside of dancing professionally, do you have any hobbies or other interests? Video games, playing guitar, martial arts.

Have you ever used your talents for the good of the community?
I enjoy teaching Capoeira and dance classes.

What was your most embarrassing dance moment?
I had to perform with a pair of pants that were not completed. For the majority of the piece, the pants dangled 6 inches below my waist revealing a whole lot of dance belt butt.

Post Performance Blues

December for Project. B. has been a culmination of a lot of hard work and dedication.  It started with the open rehearsal on December 3, performances on December 7 and 8, Spark mentorship program's Discovery Night on Dec 14, grants and fundraising coming to a close, my own teaching, rehearsals, student performances finish out the semester/year.

And if you've ever performed or been part of something that gets you on this spiral that takes you higher and higher, you'll also know of the performance blues that brings you back down.

There have been so many great things that have come out of the year.  Project. B. has now been around a little over 1 1/2 years and the momentum of our growth astounds me every day.  The lull isn't quite there yet but several things ended for me this week.  The high of all my friends and family coming to support me in shows, compliments thrown left and right, the camaraderie I felt with my dancers, the excitement and the nervous energy that comes when the stage lights and music comes on, took me on this adrenaline frenzy.

Then there's the low.  Your friends go on with their holiday plans, the dancers rest up and restore their bodies, my late nights of sewing, writing emails, checking my to do list, adding on to my to do list have all ended.  Shouldn't I be happy for that break?  Instead, I begin to doubt myself.  Was it all really a success?  Did everyone really enjoy my work?  Was it worth all the late nights?  Is it worth being so vulnerable- everyone seeing this work I seemed so longingly to want to create.

I should know that it is worth it.  I should know that it is proven by what we have accomplished this year and the many people who helped make it work.  From in-kind donations, volunteers, mentors, recommendations, advisors, donations, audience, and my dancers who have been so supportive of me and the work (9 am rehearsals- yikes!), my family, and my husband who continues to give and give, I should acknowledge the creation of this new community that makes up Project. B.

And in my post performance blues, I begin to pinpoint that what  I want is that adrenaline frenzy.  I want it to happen over and over again.  And the only way to do that is to keep planning for the future of Project. B.  The community that has been created is proof of where we can go and how we can continue.  I am very excited to work with all of them again. 


I would also like to thank the following people for all they've given to me and the company:

Dancers of Project. B.:  Katherine Wells, Kelly Del Rosario, Chin-chin Hsu, Norma Fong, and Vanessa Thiessen with    Tanya Bello

Marco Gallerizzo, Paulee and Matt Halloran, Theo, Mike Sugrue, Nadeem Jessani, Lisa Moresco, Leila Minerva-Rivers, Julie Johnson, KT Nelson, Amara Tabor-Smith, Janice Garrett, Charles Moulton, Joe Landini, Christy Bolingbroke, Kimi Okada, Krissy Keefer, Stella Adelman, Wayne Hazzard, Michelle Handberry, Kate Ahumada, Talia Baruch,  my donors, and my current dancers, Norma Fong, Kelly Del Rosario, Chin-chin Hsu, Katherine Wells, Vanessa Thiessen as well as the dancers that have worked with me in the past, Mayuko Hosoai, Diana Broker, Bethany Mitchell, Dudley Flores, and Yu-mien Wu.

It really has been a great year.  Can't wait to get over the blues.

In four months...

My last blog was at the end of my show Sotto Voce back in July 2011.  No, I haven't been on a break.  If anything, I've been working constantly and gearing up for a new project that will culminate in a performance at the ODC Theater in July 2012.

So in the process, I've hired five dancers for the 2011/2012 season, all kick ass by the way. 

Norma Fong and Kelly Del Rosario

August 2011, I was invited to show a work-in-progress for RAWdance's Concept Series.  The piece was inspired by the journals of my mom, Maria Isabel.  It was a very emotional journey but one that took me to a place I didn't think I would go with the piece.  I ended up stripping the piece of the music I had in mind and instead used poetry.  Maria Isabel will be a section of the bigger piece Sol y Sombra premiering at ODC in 2012.

September, Project. B. performed the third section of Moveable Feast at Central Market Arts Festival and I started rehearsing with the whole company as well as creating new and exciting partnerships and mentorships with people.  One of them is a mentorship program called WERK Collective.  In this program, we are mentored by Christy Bolingbroke of ODC Theater, Joe Landini of the Garage (SAFEHOUSE), as well as Nancy Quinn of Quinn & Associates.  This year long mentorship is also part of the culmination of the performance at ODC in 2012. 

I have also taken on a mentee through the SPARK Apprentice program.  Every Tuesday afternoon for 3 months, I am mentoring Ruby, a middle school student who someday wants to be a choreographer.  Along with 2 of my dancers Norma Fong and Katherine Wells, who Ruby gets to create on, I mentor and give her the tools of what she needs to become a successful choreographer.  So far, she is doing an amazing job.  Her piece will be shown at her Discovery Night in December as well as my Open Rehearsal/ Fundraising Event.

Spark Apprentice, Ruby Wheeler

Aside from being a mentor and being mentored, I've also asked several people in the San Francisco Community to be a part of an advisory board.  This Advisory Board has helped in creating a new audience base for Project. B.  At first, I thought that I wouldn't get more than 15-20 people in the room, however, my Board, who I am so thankful for, has filled this event to capacity more than twice the amount I even imagined and all new to Project. B.!  I'm really excited to meet all of them and to share with them my love of the work we are doing and the beautiful dancers they will get to see perform.

Me on the sidelines with Mike Sugrue at Project. B.'s photo shoot

October, I was able to give my dancers a chance to take a company class of sorts where I was able to use the combinations from class and manipulate it in rehearsals.  It saved me a lot of time to have to teach them new material in rehearsal and instead delved in to the creating part of it.  Janice Garrett was in Uganda for the month so she graciously gave me the chance to teach her ever amazing and popular Advanced/Professional Contemporary Class at ODC.  It was a really great experience to be teaching such amazing dancers.  I also felt honored that people supported me by taking my class.

It is now November, and our project for the month- an AMAZING Photo Shoot with Michael Sugrue.  I want so bad to go on about it but it's something you have to see for yourself.  The pictures say it all.  I also think the dancers had a great time playing, jumping, throwing....  You'll see what I mean soon enough:)
 
And December-  an open rehearsal event, a show at the Garage with the WERK Collective Artists, and Ruby's Discovery Night.

It's been a busy second half of 2011.  All really worthit!  

Sotto Voce Opening Night

Several years ago, Krissy Keefer of Dance Mission Theater, brought to the dance community an amazing program called the Down and Dirty Series; DIRT meaning dancing in revolting times.  In these times of hardship, funding for the arts keeps dwindling and getting cut, and new evolving artists like myself find it harder to receive funding and show our work.  Krissy Keefer and the Dance Brigade gave 7 artists the opportunity to show their work in their Theater for 2-3 nights, discounted rehearsal space, free lighting designer and sound tech, a theater manager, box office manager, and 30% of the box office.  What an amazing opportunity!!!

When I applied for the Down and Dirty Series, I wanted so much to be able to show my work in a bigger stage.  All my pieces, I believe, moves big and the spatial patterns that I envisioned for them needed a stage like Dance Mission Theater.  When I received the acceptance letter that Nol Simonse and I were sharing 3 nights at the theater, I was honored, excited, and nervous all at the same time.  Yes, I will have a bigger space but will I be able to fill the house with an audience?

I did the usual mass e-mail, full calendar, Dancers' Group, website advertising but I was still scared we wouldn't see any results.  So it seems that because neither Nol Simonse  and I are on Facebook, no one really seems to care about looking at the paper or email blasts anymore.  I've been resisting Facebook for so long and wondered if I should join.  I still resisted and yet was still very nervous for opening night of Sotto Voce (the title of our show).

Until about 5 minutes before the show started on opening night, I hid backstage and had knots in my stomach due to the fact that I thought maybe only 30 people would be sitting in the audience, 7 of them on the dancers' comp list.  And as I entered through the side door of the house, I look up to see that although not a sold-out house, we had a full house.  It was a beautiful sight to see friends, the dance community, and new faces in the audience.

It's funny what will make you nervous.  I wasn't nervous for my pieces at all or the tech.  Harry Rubeck, who lit my piece was so amazing to work with.  What was supposed to be a low-tech down and dirty show, turned out to be more.  He lit my pieces with so much artistry and brought out the vision I wanted to portray in my pieces.  It was a dream come true to see the dancers move to their fullest potential.  They deserved no less and they were lit beautifully.

We will see how tonight and Sunday night will go.  But I do thank Dance Mission Theater, Krissy Keefer, and the wonderful and positive staff for all they have given me.  Although under the radar, Project. B. shared our voice in a big way.

If you weren't there last night, I hope you will join us for tonight's 8pm performance or Sunday night's 7 pm performance of Sotto Voce at Dance Mission Theater.