movementpants can dance

vtr

2011-03-28T18:06:00.000-07:00

unttled

2011-03-20T00:15:00.001-07:00

For the late night crew

2010-10-27T22:59:00.000-07:00

Ideally, it's around 2am. TV is not an option because a) you don't have one and b) who watches TV anymore.

But TV wasn't so bad. Remember all the moments, the memories. All the hours spent in front of the tube, soaking in collective pop-culture refereances which come in so handy these days at the office or at home watching TV. Don't tell me you haven't made at least a few friends over recollections from your favorite Golden Girls episodes. No? Well, I have. Maybe just one friend, but still, my point is made. TV wasn't so bad. There were limits. Limits are exciting. Not limits themselves, but the idea of pushing them. Remember butt on NYPD Blue? Now with the internet, on the other hand, there are no limits. That's good too, but if it really is 2am and you're frying your brain on continued information over-load, have I got a video for you. It's what watching TV would be like if it were a form of meditation.

Also, this is an unsolicited music video for the song "Dep" by Javelin. They are from Rhode Island and live in Brooklyn, just like me/

Ivory Tower or Sagan? (2007)

2010-06-22T01:39:00.000-07:00

From The Vaults!

2010-06-21T21:21:00.000-07:00

Looking through an old hard-drive, found an old movemementpants joint.

3D -) MANIFEST

2010-01-24T21:19:00.000-08:00

Some video of Movementpants performing 3D -) MANIFEST at Zinc Bar at a poetry reading hosted by Rebecca's friend Dotty. It was interesting to share a stage with poets for an audience of...poets. Their sensitivity to imagery makes them wonderfully receptive participants. For anyone who is interested, I highly recommend dancing for poets.

It's been a long time

2009-09-26T12:53:00.000-07:00

We shouldn't have left you, without some dope beats we step to. I don't know about you, but I am in full and total support of this Balkan beat movement, epitomized by the music of Zach Condon and his band Beirut. Here is a clip from the latest version (2.0) of La Spectra where Movementpants simultaneously embraces his music and ourselves as fools. And if the below is not enough, here's pt.II, III, and IV.

Nasty Nas in her area

2009-06-26T13:44:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the latest edition of Movementpants' spotlight on talent! Nasim is a Movementpants collaborator. She is half Iranian and half Polish and plays the guitar. She also, until recently, had a wonderfully mysterious apartment in Crown Heights. It was the type of place where one could get lost in spacetime and yet feel completely at home in two places at the same time. Also, she had wonderful furniture, including some fabulous antique Persian rugs, that she displayed without any shame whatsoever. Here is a video that seeks to simultaneously capture the captivating disorientation of Nasim's former apartment and her shameless enjoyment of it's manipulation. Bon Apetit!

SO Lucky

2009-03-30T21:10:00.000-07:00

Movementpants has been performing on fairly consistent basis these days. However, with fans all over the world, and the nature of live performance being such that unless you are there the moment it is happening, you can't see it, many of our fans have been unable to see our performances. Many other live performance companies and artists have the same problem, so they document, or live-stream it or come up with other ways to engage their audience (as I've mentioned in a previous post...remember, only 80% of what you read here is bullsh*t). These efforts, while mildly engaging, never really seem to capture the feeling of actually BEING there, experiencing the event live, watching us respond to music in real time. You know, dance. That dance performance thing. Well, it turns out we, Movementpants, and our fans, are extremely lucky, because we have Anne. Anne is extremely talented. One of her talents is cinematography. Another is live Foley effects. Check out some of her work below, and feel what it's like to be....IN Movementpants! Oh, and don't worry if you don't get it...you kind of had to be there.

WILM 690

2009-03-26T15:51:00.000-07:00

Coming this summer to the Brick Theater's "Antidepressant Festival", WILM 690, Pirate Radio.

Music by Chris Becker off his cd "Saints and Devils".

Man and Crane

2009-03-20T18:17:00.000-07:00

Upcoming...get involved

2009-03-02T08:26:00.000-08:00

Movementpants will be performing "La Spectra" at the the Tank on April 23rd and 24th at 9:30 pm. We've been working on this piece for over a year, experimenting, researching, playing and performing, and are very excited to be able to finally premiere it in NY this spring. But, we're not there yet. Indeed, we are still working days and nights. If you don't know, the new thing with dance companies is for them to post video of their rehearsals. Well, we are, according to ourselves, a dance company, and who are we go against the flock. So here's some of our last rehearsal where we hyped up what used to be a duet and made it a trio.

Another new thing with dance comapnies is to engage their audience in new ways. Why? Since they are a part of theater,and theater is dead (that's what they say anyway...if you don't believe me go check out "Really Bad Plays: 1 night, 8 awful plays" at New York Theater Workshop this Thursday night (3/5/09)), everybody is scrambling to keep they're loyal audiences engaged in between performances. Hence, blogs...rehearsal footage...remixing dances...and this. So, for our upcoming show, we are taking suggestions for songs for warm up numbers. You know, dance numbers to get your audience juices flowing. Just e-mail us your suggestion, or include it in a comment on this post. All entries received by March 21st will be entered into a lottery drawing and the first song chosen will have a dance made for our show in late April. There's only one criteria for your entry. It must be 3-5 minutes in length. And it must be a song...no soundscapes of you going to the bathroom like we received last time. So holler at us!!

Expansion amid the recession!

2008-12-22T20:16:00.000-08:00

Despite the grumblings of the Movementpants Board of Directors, the company has decided to expand this blog's content. From this point forward, I, as chief artistic and executive officer of Movementpants, will include posts about things other than Movementpants. I know what you might be thinking. How can they afford to expand their operation in the midst of a depression? Well, we've really been forced to cut the fat from around our operation and since we are all about transparancy here in the office, we'd like to share some of the changes here at Movementpanst:

1) I, Adrian, will hereby be writing all the blog's posts. No more writing staff.

2) We canceled our holiday party and have pulled our "pizza fridays" program.

3) I will reimburse the company's coffers for personal trips I've taken.

Now, let's get down to business. I'd like to take opportunity of this blog to share some thoughts and feelings on contemporary performance here in NYC. You know, there's so much mediocrity out there that it's a downright shame to not shout out the awesome. In this case, the awesome is a one-man band called Joyengin. The lone member is Walker Adams. He plays drums, keyboard, and sings at the same time. The professed goal of the band is to spread joy to the world and based on what I saw a couple of weeks ago, it's impossible to deny that he does that very effectively. There are a few videos of his stuff on Youtube, including one with excerpts from the gig I attended, but they don't do justice to the experience. Here's one that comes closest to the mark.

File Under: NuMime

2008-12-17T15:13:00.000-08:00

Thanks to a generous grant from the Nation Mime Institute for Advanced Movement Studies, Movementpants Dance has been exploring new ways to make this art form somehow relevant again. This is what we came up with.

Livin' La vida Strata

2008-11-12T07:52:00.000-08:00

La Strata the 411...

2008-11-11T09:46:00.000-08:00

So a couple of weeks back, I may have aroused your interest in Movementpants latest work titled "La Spectra" with a beautiful photo taken by my friend and collaborator, Olek, of the company in equally beautiful costumes...also by Olek. Incidentally, we are having a board meeting to discuss whether we should change our name to "Olekpants". Anyway, now that you are mildly aroused (interest-wise), here is some more photos (above) and information on this project.

La Spectra began as an exploration of neurodiversity. Neurodiversity is an idea that asserts that atypical neurological development is a normal human difference that is to be tolerated and respected as any other human difference. As we've begun to develop this piece in rehearsals, the show has evolved into some sort of vaudevillian side-show where the cast-offs from a long lost Fellini film have resurrected themselves from the cutting room floor and again delight in the earthly pleasures of entertaining a (mostly) live audience. Sounds interesting? Well, sounds can be deceiving so we implore you to look at more pictures, and if that's not enough, please come see us perform at...

a) NYCties/NAC fundraiser at Touch on November 12

b) The Mary Anthony Dance Theater on December 12, 13, and 14th

We will be continuing to develop and perform this piece throughout the winter and spring so we would alternatively love any feedback and/or performance opportunities that may come our way from you, our reading audience. Enjoy!

"New Movementpants is the bomb!"

2008-10-20T17:46:00.001-07:00

Stay tuned for information on where to check Movementpants latest work, "La Spectra".

News Corp is the bomb!

2008-08-05T12:03:00.000-07:00

Well, I guess we must be doing something right if Rupert Murdoch's team is noticing us. Recently, Movementpants was hired by the extremely popular Fox Television show "So You Think You can Dance" to produce some exciting choreography for their show. The only direction they gave me was that it should be "happy". You know, it's prime-time television and all. Anyway, the powers that me must have made some technical error because our video never aired...but that's why I have this blog. To reverse the mistakes made by big media.

Regardless, last I heard from them, the check is in the mail! Say what you will about Rupert's media tactics, but he knows how to treat his creative talent.

Springs the thoing

2008-04-28T09:01:00.000-07:00

Springs here so you know what that means in New York. Small theater company fundraising season! Everyone's got new projects, goals, tours etc. and they all need money. Movementpants is no different so we happily invite you to come to our very own FUNdraiser, The Art of Storytelling. It will take place on May 18th at Parkside Lounge, 317 E. Houston at Attorney between the hours of 5-9. There will be music by good friends Romen Rok and John Carpenter, dancing mimes, maybe some kung-fu fighting, definitely a raffle, cupcakes and, well, that all adds up to a good time. What exactly are we raising funds for? Well, Movementpants is in the midst of producing the worlds first documentary/dance-film/fable about disability. It's a very special and specialized project and we greatly need your help to make this vision happen.

Hope to see you there!

New NEW News

2008-02-23T16:07:00.000-08:00

Well, well, well. The new year is in full and total effect and and after receiving thousands of e-mails eagerly awaiting a new dance video, it's time for Movementpants first blog entry of 2008. We recently completed a highly successful run of our latest production, GrindFaust, at the Tank in Tribeca, NYC. You can watch a clip from the show here.

Also, in new news, a Movementpants collaboration with artist Olek has been declared victorious in New York gallery apexart's (self)Promotion Project. Adrian and Olek created a 30 second commercial for the gallery which will air on Channel 13 in New York this spring. Here's the fruit of our labors. Thanks to all those who voted for us.

The Commission Project

2007-12-12T06:58:00.000-08:00

As we approach a new Julian year, Movementpants is proud to announce it's latest initiative to get it's audience more involved with our creative work, The Commission Project. Do you have a favorite song? Or maybe a song that you like that you always wanted to see accompanied by dance? Or a song that has a video, but you were just really disappointed by the dancing in the video and wished that it was better? Or how about this...you heard this song and you wondered what it would be like to dance to it but you just never had the time? Oh, and here's one more. Have you ever been to a dance show and thought "This is alright, but wouldn't it be cool if they we dancing to.. (some song you like)"? Well, that is precisely why we're launching The Commission Project. It is an opportunity for you, as an audience member, to have more control over the dance you see in your life vis-a-vis the music you love. Just send us what tune you'd like a dance for and we'll make a dance for it, put it on a dvd and mail it to you.

"And they'll do this for free?" you ask. Well...almost.

Most dance-theater companies ask that you contribute $500 or more in order to commission a piece. We at Movementpants know that oftentimes even the $20 ticket price (or even a favorite TV program) will sway a potential audience member away from supporting dance creation. And that's why we'll create a dance for you to a song of your choosing for the low low commission fee of $50. You heard right. $50. That's %10 of what other companies charge. It sounds crazy, but it's true. You can have the dance you've always wanted to see for only $50. What? Uh-huh, $50. That can't be! Trust me, it is. And wait, it gets better. Because you make your checks out to our 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor, Fractured Atlas, your $50 is tax-deductible! If you find a better deal for dance-making, please let us know and we'll match it.

To get started on commissioning your dance, please contact us at movementpants@gmail.com.

Thank you for your continued interest in Movementpants and Happy Holidays!

December E-news

2007-11-28T06:27:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. There's a lot of exciting news from Movementpants to share with you this month.

First of all, we're honored to have received a commission from the Chinese arts and performance website Youku. Youku, whose name is derived from it's American counterpart, Youtube, is a site featuring many young, exciting Chinese dance artists and we are thrilled to be part of their cross-cultural initiative to introduce Chinese audiences to American dance-video artists. As you may know, the groundbreaking American website Youtube has done wonderful things for dance in America. From producing educational videos to offering a forum for emerging artists to share their work with audiences they would otherwise never have reached, they've been tirelessly inventive in promoting dance in North America. Youku hopes to do the same for Chinese dance and in order to catch up with their American counterpart is inviting veteran Youtube dancers to share their dance video techniques both with Chinese dance artists and audiences alike. As one of the artists in the Youtube stable invited to participate, I'd like to thank them for allowing Movementpants to work with Youku on this project. Please take a first look at Movementpants intercultural video, Heaven and Earth. In it, we used some traditional dance video techniques mixed with new technologies. We also mirrored this mix of traditional and innovative in the choreographic elements as well.

Also this month, Movementpants will be performing an excerpt from their upcoming show Grindfaust (featuring the music of longtime Movementpants collaborator, R. Kelly) on December 14th, 15th and 16th at the Mary Anthony Dance Studio located at 736 Broadway. Click here to find out more about the studio and the upcoming performance.

New Dance Moves

2007-11-06T22:37:00.000-08:00

Movementpants Dance has been very fortunate to receive a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation for the Arts Dance Division Services (R FADDS). We received this monetary grant to conduct research in our stated field of "Dance". We spent this sum last weekend while researching current trends in social dancing in New York City bars. As you may know, an old law called the "cabaret law" actually makes it illegal for people to dance in bars in New York unless they give the bar extra money presumably to pay "dj's" (young men and women armed with with musical tastes and music). It seems that these bars, in spite of taking extra hard-earned cash from Manhatennites, seem to offer their patrons very little in the way of a supportive environment for new dance moves. While conducting our research, we noticed that even though people payed money to dance, generally very little dancing happened, and when it did, the variety was...well, there was no variety. Dancers moved from side to side sometimes with a slight bounce, but usually with just a rhythmic nodding of the head. Different musical genres elicited different levels of bounce and/or head nodding, but the basic form remained the same. Our grant money ran out early Saturday morning so we didn't get to sample as wide a variety of nights and nightspots as we would have liked, but I think we all saw enough. So, this week at rehearsal, we decided to come up with a few variations on standard "bar dancing" techniques.

French Travel Bureau Hires Movementpants!

2007-10-25T11:46:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! We have some very exciting news for you! The French Travel Bureau for the Cognac district of France (located in the southwest of the country for those of you that don't know) recently hired Movementpants Dance to create some promotional videos for this wonderful part of the world! We had a great time getting to know the countryside and it's flaura (and some fauna too!)and were treated wonderfully by the locals. One of them even made an appearance in one of our spots!

Check it out! Let us know what you think at movementpants@gmail.com

French Ministry of Interior gets jealous of FTB

2007-10-24T22:36:00.000-07:00

Wow! So check this yarn out. Within weeks of running our spot on UCA, the Croatian national television network ( and the only market where the FTB decided to air our spot), the number of Croatian nationals visiting the French countryside tripled! Now, we don't want to take all the credit for that as it just so happens that Croatian folk-metal star Marko Perkovic aka Thompson was playing a sold out weekend at the Festival Hippie in Cognac around the same time...but that's neither here nor there. Anyway, it turns out an official at the French Ministry of Interior was on vacation in Dubrovnik (which is in Croatia) when the our video aired and absolutely loved it! When she returned to work the next week and did her usual Monday morning round-up of Croats crossing over into her country (she didn't say exactly why she does this, but it was clear when talking to her that she has an affection for Croatian men) and noticed the figures ballooning, she decided the French Interior needed to have it's own Movementpants promotional spot, presumably to get even more Croats into the country. So here it is. We worked with some of the interior of France which included, and I think I speak for all of Movementpants here, some of nicest, warmest, most appreciative people I've ever met!

Many thanks to Sandrine for the work! Vidice mo se!

Behind the scenes

2007-10-18T20:02:00.000-07:00

Well, due to the overwhelming response we've gotten for the two videos posted above and in an effort to reach out to our audience in new ways, we're announcing our first behind the scenes video.

Movementpants is a big proponent of transparency. The company videotapes rehersals and even office meetings. Even though this fact itself doesn't sound that interesting, amazingly we are not the only dance company to do so (in order to keep a competitive on-line advantage, our board of directors has instructed me not to name those companies). We've decided to post some of this footage so that our audience can get a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to run a dance company and create amazing promotional material for international destinations. Plus we believe our behind-the-scenes footage is superior to other dance companies behind the scenes footage.

The footage we have to share with you was taken during our time in France. When watching the spots we created for the M.I. and F.T.B., you might think the creative process was all fun and games, but nothing could be further from the truth. Rather than tell you all about it, please please take a look at our behind the scenes footage to see what we mean.

Thank you for your continued interest in Movementpants Dance!

Part 1

Part 2