Sun, 11 Mar 2012 16:46:24 -0800WeeblyFri, 02 Mar 2012 15:34:43 -0800http://www.mayagingery.com/2/post/2012/03/la-convention-center-february-25-2012.htmlActually it was last Saturday, but I'm going to post anyway.  A Post-post. The name of my new piece is "Not for Nothing Do We Wait". It's a site-specific, durational, dance-theatre work for 8 dancers and a violist. It was created specifically for the visual and performance art event "Unspace-Ground", held at the LA Convention Center as part of a day of symposia entitled ARTspace, that was itself part of a larger event, the 100th National Conference of the College Art Association. Whew. Many layers of organization, many layers to my piece. I would say this piece fell neatly into place.  I was thinking about the status quo. The convention center site, visually, physically, and literally epitomizes that status quo to me. Large, unyielding, and intractable.  I was thinking about the political climate in this country (USA). I was thinking about how CHANGE just can't happen because there are too many special interests with WAY too much money, and all the politicians are bought and sold. I was thinking about site-specificity and if it could bring new life to the subject of dance, by not being about dance at all, but about how bodies move in specific types of environments. In this case, a hard concrete environment with token plant matter encased in more concrete. They chose to plant palm trees and ficus, both plants with hardy root systems that if left alone will eventually break through their concrete prisons. In any case, we dressed in grey, the color of concrete. The color of prisons.  We traveled slowly, trying to infiltrate the consciousness of the space.  We carried small cardboard suitcases, a material that is sturdy but in direct opposition to the intractability of stone. Concrete and Paper. Both man-made. Both used in industry. Concrete for roads, bridges and buildings.  Cardboard for making boxes to transport products over those roads and bridges to those concrete buildings designed to capture your money.  Capitalism. Supply and Demand. Nature in the service of Man. Those suitcases held our interests, our hopes and dreams, our souls and we carried them with us, traveling into the dance, and bringing the audience with us.  But the dance was about CHANGE, why it's so hard to change and the only way change can happen. And that is to change.  We put on some clothes, we spoke our feelings about the status quo, we became kinetic butoh sculptures of the convention center. We circled, we fell, we got up, we circled some more.  We took off our clothes and felt naked. We did a waltz to the status quo, searching for anything to cover our nakedness as we danced. We looked foolish, but it didn't matter, because something had changed.  We undressed and fell into formation and left the space together, still interested in the self, and realizing there is no escape from it. ]]>Wed, 14 Sep 2011 14:46:44 -0800http://www.mayagingery.com/2/post/2011/09/anatomy-riot-101011.htmlI did a piece I called "Capitalism", though I'm still thinking about that title.  I was wearing a dress made of an American Flag.  It seemed kind of silly, but I was trying to make a point. It wasn't me dancing. It was an idea.

Show Box LA presents Anatomy Riot # 43
Man Greater Than His Ten Fingers

Monday, October 10, 2011 @ 8 pm
Blankenship Ballet at Alexandria
The Alexandria Hotel
501 S. Spring Street
2nd floor ballroom
Los Angeles, CA 90013

Taking its name after a line in the Rig Veda, Man Greater Than His Ten Fingers is an evening of dance and performance that stresses diversity, community, and collaboration. Asking artists to speak to their respective practices in solos and sometimes pairing them with those so far out of their realm, the performance will feature work that speaks of family, of history, of tradition, of parts of ourselves now dead but lingering, of the sublime, of that which is superhuman. 

Featured artists range in a variety of practices and spaces, exemplifying and stretching what we know as dance and performance, sound and music, sacred and secular, high art and low art. They include Ariel R. Campos, Brian Getnick, Maya Gingery, Kingsley Irons, Cynthia Lee, Shyamala Moorty, Leopold Nunan, Anna B. Scott, and more.
]]>Wed, 14 Sep 2011 14:43:32 -0800http://www.mayagingery.com/2/post/2011/09/la-collective.htmlOctober 9, 2011
The LA Collective, a group of musicians, movers and artists that explore the improvisational  
An informal showing of recent work.
8 pm @ Pieter Performance Art Space Dancehttp://www.facebook.com/pieterpasd
420 West Avenue 33
Unit 10
Lincoln Heights
Los Angeles90031 ]]>Wed, 13 Oct 2010 14:44:25 -0800http://www.mayagingery.com/2/post/2010/10/body-without-organsnew-show.htmlOCTOBER 17, 2010
7 pm
@ Pieter PASD
420 W. Ave. 33 in Lincoln Heights, CA 
www.pieterpasd.com


BODY WITHOUT ORGANS, a new dance theater work Concieved, Directed and Performed by  Maya Gingery with the collaboration of Visual and Performing Artist Brian Getnick and featuring Archie Carey on bassoon, shakuhachi and electronic interfaces.

After a successful premiere, BODY WITHOUT ORGANS: An Anti-Dance or Another Kind of Homage to Dead Heroes is being performed again in a new and improved version of the original. In the spirit of Deleuze/Guattari's concept, The Body Without Organs can never be attained but is always present, perhaps shining light on the paradox we all experience.  As in Life itself, we are completely immersed in it's web. Think Rhizome. Don't think of it as Power, but as it's antithesis. 

Butoh is it's closest ally in the movement arts.  The butoh artist searches for the authentic self through a collaboration and intimate encounter with history and environment.  The Body Without Organs, according to Delueze/Guattari, is the model for understanding our truest nature. BwO gives form to this concept through movement, light and sound.


]]>Mon, 02 Aug 2010 17:27:41 -0800http://www.mayagingery.com/2/post/2010/08/encore-performance.htmlBODY WITHOUT ORGANS was a big success.  We've been offered another evening this fall to repeat our performance.  Date is still to be determined but probably October.  Keep an eye open for announcements.  ]]>Wed, 21 Jul 2010 18:03:24 -0800http://www.mayagingery.com/2/post/2010/07/performance-sat-july-24-2010.htmlBODY WITHOUT ORGANS: 
AN ANTI-DANCE OR ANOTHER KIND OF HOMAGE TO DEAD HEROES 


Directed by Maya Gingery
Performed by:
Maya Gingery, dance
Brian Getnick, performance
Archie Carey, music


Inspired by the writings of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, ('A Thousand Plateaus) it's a butoh in the purest sense, not an imitation of white-painted bodies but an investigation into the nature of self and the intersection of other.  


"Underneath all reason lies delirium, and drift." ~ Gilles Deleuze


@ Pieter PASD
420 W. Ave. 33 Unit 10
Lincoln Heights, CA 90031
www.pieterpasd.com]]>Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:20:32 -0800http://www.mayagingery.com/2/post/2010/03/butoh-training.htmlAnnouncing a butoh training class based on the work of Min Tanaka, Kazuo Ohno and of course, Tatsumi Hijikata.  Held ever Saturday from 10-12 pm at Pieter, a new dance and performance space close to downtown and with easy access to freeways and Metro Gold Line.  Address: 420 West Avenue 33, Lincoln Heights, CA 90031 http://www.pieterpasd.com]]>Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:29:11 -0800http://www.mayagingery.com/2/post/2009/11/practicing-moving-fritz-haeg.html
I'll be leading some movement sessions for Fritz Haeg's Residency at the Center for the Arts in Eagle Rock.  November 14th - December 19th, 2009 / Center for the Arts Eagle Rock, 2225 Colorado Boulevard., Los Angeles, CA 90041 / with Eve Fowler, projects by Bodycity, and videos byJacinto Astiazarán (Practicing Moving sessions with Kate Bachler, Krysten Cunningham, Sara Daleiden,Maya Gingery, Alexis Hyman, Hana van der Kolk, and Sara Wookey)]]>Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:24:42 -0800http://www.mayagingery.com/2/post/2009/07/collaboratory-the-blue-marble.htmlI'm participating in a summer workshop on the environment that will culminate in a performance on Sunday, August 30, 2009 at Electric Lodge in Venice, CA.  Look for more details in coming months.

]]>Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0800http://www.mayagingery.com/2/post/2009/06/pina-bausch-passing.htmlI've been fortunate to have met Pina Bausch on several occasions, most recently in Wuppertal in 2008, where I performed at the Pina Bausch Dance Festival.  I saw her first US performances at the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival in Los Angeles and have been a lover of her work ever since.  Besides Los Angeles, I've seen them in New York, Paris, and Tokyo. Wuppertal was her base and so it was most interesting to see her with her home audience, who are obviously very devoted.  Several of her oldest company members performed, and they were treated like divas.
Here's an interesting article on her work: Difficult Dances: The Choreography of Pina Bausch

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