Invisible Photography

Some photos of this year's Invisible show taken by Kristy-Anne Swart at www.upandawaystudios.com. In the end, the spoken word piece HAIR was taken out due to time restrictions, so for the time being it is only available for viewing here on this blog.

Lobby at The Grand.

(Missing a member.)

Great job from our aerials team!

A snapshot from guest Dianna David's closing piece.

This year's organizers in front. Thank you for giving us a wonderful stage to perform on.

It's a Wrap!

Calgary's flood took the spotlight in our lives recently, but I thought I'd get started on the many blog posts that I have owed to readers for a long time. As they say, some semblance of "normality" is good after something big happens. Calgary's infrastructure will need working on for some time to come, but at least the damage has stopped for the time being (as in, the waters making it worse have receded).

The week before the flood was the wrap up of the Invisible show. It ended safely without any further injuries, thank the skies - and all the more so, as in one of the pieces a wobbly chair was brought out that shouldn't have been used and it ended up going to me, so I really had to compromise the movement and be careful during the dance!

I went to physio during the week after and apparently my knee is still not at the point of strength that I thought it was getting to. There is still a long (possibly lifelong) road of strengthening and conditioning for my leg, but it may be a good opportunity to push myself to be the strong and healthy person I want to be.

This was one of the hallways in backstage Theatre Junction GRAND. I didn't know this hall was signed by performers until I saw a fellow dancing friend's picture of their team signing the hall after the show was over. Thus unfortunately for the GRAND (yes, for the GRAND ^^ ), my name never made it onto this hall.

Our venti-sized Starbucks to get us through the night. Mine is the Iced Caramel Macchiato on the right.

An unrelated Venti Caramel Frappuccino photo I took on a different day, for international viewers to get an idea of Starbucks size in Canada. I don't carry a ruler around with me so had to make do with the hand and utensils. I fell in love with the caramel frappuccino while living in Japan. Japan's version of the Java Chip Frappuccino, my previous favorite, tastes different than how it is made in Canada. I didn't like the Japanese version as much, so I started trying other drinks and hit upon the caramel frappuccino. The price of a venti is expensive in both Canada and Japan, but in Japan your Venti size is about equal to Canada's Grande size. Despite the smaller venti, people's eyes still followed me everywhere every time I ordered such a large venti. (≧▽≦)

One of my teams backstage in the waiting room prepping costume and makeup.

Some of the other dancers backstage.

The eye makeup I came up with for one of the pieces. The photo is actually due to the not-so-great lighting quality of the iPhone 4S camera.

Had fun with the makeup, as usual. No false eyelashes though for lack of time between pieces!

A rehearsal shot that fellow dancer Angie took of one of our pieces.I freestyled this move and was honored to have our choreographer Nicole use it in the piece.

Danced two piece with this team. This black one represents breakthrough in the inner mind, the ego's firm refusal of abuse and degradation.

After breakthrough comes a Brand New Me. Photo missing one dancer.

Foolin' around. (#^.^#)

Group photo of those involved in Invisible. It was hard to get everyone in one place with the scheduling so the photo is still missing some people.

Lastly, a picture with Invisible guest Dianna David from Vancouver.

...And it's a wrap! Looking forward to more great things from our artists in the future.

Something to Say - Contemporary

Something to Say 2012 is finished! Actually it was finished about two weeks ago, I just haven't updated the blog. This picture is one of my favorites.

Photo by Up and Away Studios' Kristy-Anne Stewart (I find the blog interesting and easier to navigate). Thanks for capturing many great shots for us and your efforts in making the photos available to the team!

For the Culture Rebel blog, which has posts regarding the show's concept as well as some very well written comments, please click here.

This show was put together by the MPact Dance collective (click for bios).


Something to Say は終わりました！

本当は二週間ぐらい前終わったんですが、更新が遅くてすみません。

この写真は一番好きな写真（の中の一つ）かも。
あたしの髪、すごい時もあるんですねー～

写真は Up and Away Studios の Kristy-Anne Stewart さんのお陰です（因みにメインサイトよりブログのほうが気に入ってます）。素敵な写真を撮って、そしてショーの写真を早くくれてありがとうございます！
Culture Rebel のブログ（英語）はこのショーについていろいろ書かれています。そして、いろいろ考えてくれた読者のコメントも載っています。Culture Rebel blog リンクはこちらです。
このショーは MPact Dance コレクティヴがプロデュースしました。 MPact リンクはこちらです。

Something to Say CTV

Something to Say's director Connie Jakab and visual artist Harriet Stanley's interview on CTV here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rut_8MojW0s&feature=youtu.be

Also included are some sweet shots of the Let It Rock dancers!

The 2nd Night

So it's the second of four nights and all four nights are SOLD OUT!! Very exciting. I am so thankful to all the people who have come out and are coming out to support us. It really means a lot.

Awesome random lucky shot of my street getup.

These amazing eyes were done by makeup artist Emjay Casem (with the awesome hair next to me). Emjay and I are in one of the dance pieces together. Had to get a photo of these eyes; I feel guilty every night when I wipe my eyes off to re-makeup for the next piece in the show.

A good Material Girl shot. I wonder how my personality would appear to to people who see this photo. Introvert?

This turned out to be a surprisingly creative-looking shot.

All in all a good night (despite the fact that I stepped on a fellow dancer's pants in the crucial last piece and my face totally did the "oh shoot, I just stepped on someone's pants!" expression...so much for being a true performer). It is great to see people coming out for a cause and learning more about poverty ... and ultimately just enjoying the show.

I Want Change

Experimenting with an awesome picture that Connie took of me during filming for the Something to Say trailer. I liked the double meaning of the cardboard sign. I could make a photo reel with these! Counting down to show start and hoping we stay safe.

Something to Say on Shaw TV

The television channel came to film us working on one of the pieces for the show that starts April 4th! Raaaad. Check it out:

MAC Eyes

Trying out makeup for the upcoming show. For times like these the first place I go to is... *drumroll* ...MAC Cosmetics. When it comes to colour, especially stage colour, nothing beats MAC for me ... Though it makes me wonder what makeup Cirque du Soleil makeup artists are using. I'd like to start working with face paints sometime.

I walked into the MAC store and asked them to play with my eyes. (I was going for a grunge, feverish look.)

It reminded me that there are finally MAC stores in Japan now, and It makes me wonder if people in Japan also just walk up to the counter and ask for theatre makeup to be done on their faces. I'm pretty shy...but most girls in Japan are probably even more reserved than I am when it comes to that kind of stuff - forget guys!

I visited one of the stores when I was in Tokyo last time...and MAC prices are almost double what they are in Canada. I checked up on the internet and found out MAC was first founded in Canada, but sadly the U.S. pricing is still cheaper, probably because MAC is headquartered in New York.

...So then I played around with what my eye looked like on camera, and this was the effect. (It's the opposite eye because one picture was taken in the mirror and the other was not.) Totally changed my grunge look into something else:

The Beginning

The show takes off next Wednesday! This pic is from the first day we got together to start work on the dances. Time swept by and it's almost over already - but not the biggest part, the performances! It was a fun ride. Lots of respect to Connie, the one who started it all, for taking that extra step to look at poverty head on and learn about its many faces. For those in town, check out Something to Say April 4-7 at the Vertigo Theatre.

Conspicuous Spy

This shot is actually from rehearsal. I like the theme though...spying with a ridiculously apparent orange-clad camera (a.k.a. phone)

Something to Say Trailer

Here it is!



Produced and directed by Chris Matteo
Something to Say artwork by Harriet Stanley
Opening music by local group Boy&Gurl - I learned of them through this video, it's a good song!


 It's heartwarming for me to see more and more local artists doing their thing...props to their work and contribution to the city scene

Fingertips

 

The new polish I got today (gotta be OPI!) for the upcoming show...although I had been meaning to get this solid white for a while now. One of the pieces will be a simple costume for a quiet but powerful song with lyrics that many people can probably relate to. Between work, dance, and everything else I'm pretty exhausted, but excited for the show! Going to test this out on the digits and see if it's what I wanted...