DECA at Joyce SoHo!

“You have to love dancing to stick to it. It gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive. It is not for unsteady souls.” —Merce Cunningham (1919—2009)

A friend of mine posted that quote a little while back. And conceptually I got it, but it wasn’t until I started working with dancers that I really understood. Conveying ideas and telling stories without words. Using their bodies as the brush to paint the stage with their movements. But unlike music or paintings where notes can be written and read off of staff paper, or repeatedly seen in a museum, dancers create their art live on stage each night leaving their impression of once on an audience member and exposing them to a moment of fleeting beauty.

Throughout the month of April Decadancetheatre (aka DECA Crew) performed a series of shows at NYC’s Joyce SoHo and I had the honor of joining them on stage as their DJ. Decadancetheatre is a Brooklyn based Hip-hop dance crew and under the direction of Jennifer Weber, DECA has been able to fuse Hip-hop movements with contemporary dance. One piece that they became known for is their interpretation of Igor Stravinsky’s The Firebird.

My introduction to DECA was when I was invited to back them at last year’s Fringe Festival, where they performed When The Sky Breaks.

Fast forward past a couple local shows and gigs in Tennessee and Miami and we arrive at Joyce SoHo. It is here that Jennifer Weber and company performed a series of shows that consists of 3 pieces one of them being a brand new piece inspired by Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

I wish I could say that we hit the ground running but we did encounter some technical snags in the form of, not one, but two faulty VGA cables for the projector, a problem we were trying to remedy all the way up to the opening of the doors. And although we were able to have the video element of When The Sky Breaks, there was no time to fine tune it’s presentation. Stumbling out of the gate with our shoelaces bound together wasn’t exactly the start we were going for, and it set the mood for the night. But that’s what happens when you borrow a pair sneakers with knotted laces instead of running in your own. What’s more it was the night New York Times came to review our performance. Luckily the author was sympathetic to our technological plight and reflected it in their review of the performance.

After getting through that rough part we started the next shows anew with a brand new VGA cable and a much more powerful projector. And every show after that first one progressively got better by leaps and bounds. Our mood and energy were focused and there was fine tuning by Jen every night during the few hours before the doors opened each night.

Being that I am new to the dance environment, this time before the shows allowed me to see a little bit of what goes on to make a show like this work. And by doing that I saw that the process is like the process of any form of art. Whether it be music or painting, a single note may be too much, or a particular shade may not compliment the bigger picture. Watching them dance I see that each movement has its place and meaning in the entirety of the piece.

This time before each night’s opening also allowed me to appreciate more the role of lighting and how it helps complete the dance pieces. As Jen tightened the movments of the dancers, lighting designer, Erik C. Bruce, fine tuned the lights. During these pre-show moments I saw that the type of light, its color, how it fades in and out, its brightness, its placement, and of course, whether it’s on or off are all carefully choreographed to create mood and context to the dancer’s movements.

The preparation and the continued hard work led us to better performances, and although we felt good after every show and proud after our performances we were happy to see that our pride was solidified by a review of the show in The New Yorker’s Culture Desk. I personally have never read a review that was so thorough and detailed that the author picked up on smiles and facial expression from the dancers.

Read entire review here

Music, movement,and lighting are the elements of the show and with the guidance of Jen, the eye of Erik and the talents of Taeko Koji, Adaku Utah, Megan “Megz” Alfonso, Sylvia Clark, Casandra “Defy” Rivera the pieces are given life and soul.

Thanks you for allowing me to be a part of this.

And to our absent family: Lucile “Frak” Graciano, and Nadia Lumely, we miss you and hope to be reunited on stage soon!

April 26, 2012 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Dance, DECA, Decadancetheatre, DJ Boo, Hip-hop, Jennifer Weber, Joyce SoHo, NYC, Vivaldi, When The Sky Breaks | Leave a comment