Who Is Mary Jane?

My "headshot" for Here Now Dance Collective (taken in June of 09)

So I am currently working on my second project with Michelle Fletcher's: Here Now Dance Collective (HNDC) (herenowdancecollective.com). The first draft of "Who is Mary Jane" will premier on Feb 17th and 18th at The Garage.

Can anyone take a guess on what its about? :)

Michelle's work is fascinating to be apart of. We are never told how to think or feel. And when dealing with a subject such as "Mary Jane" (oh for those of you who may not know what Mary Jane is...marijuana...clearly a hot topic, especially in SF) its hard to make everyone feel the same way.

The piece is going to be a huge production when we actually get to premier the whole work in hopefully a year. Right now we are busy trying to raise money to do so. Michelle has great ideas though and a really supportive team. We have a composer who will actually be performing with us and many non-dancers involved in the piece along with 3 very talented dancers and myself. The show will start off with a 5 min video of people answering the question "who is Mary Jane?" go into the list section, which will represent the daily task that we get stuck in everyday, into our "joint circle/ community section" where we each are given a chance to tell our relationship with weed. The solos are so unique, some people sing, some play instruments, some dance to their own voice, some read stories and my favorite is the girl who just stands while a recording of her laughing plays (its great!). And the final section (for this round) is the "Lazy/Dazed" section. This is only the first half of what will most likely be an hour length show!

To see our promo video for this piece Go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRIArHgm8LA

I was not there for the filming of the rehearsal and filmed the interviews the following week (minus my own of course) so I am not seen too much, but I edited the video so my hand is inserted still!

Michelle's last work "BURST" was highly successful, sold out and well received by all. You can view that promo video, that I edited as well, and I am in more of at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIp4_uPqmjs

The other great thing is that this same show will also be my San Francisco debut of my own choreography. Michelle asked me to choreograph a shorter piece to perform that night so my current roommate and I will be showing an excerpt of what will be a larger work (premiering in Aug 2010!!) that I have not named yet... that piece is for another blog session.

If you live in SF I hope you can make it to our first draft of "Who is Mary Jane?" HNDC will also be premiering the final section the piece "Grass" in the Spring 2010 ODC Pilot!

Needless to say Michelle is keeping me very busy these days exploring the subject of "Mary Jane!"