“Loren understands dance, our short timetables, and the even shorter attention spans of our audience on social media. Their communication on overall strategy, editing, and executional changes makes the process go smoothly. And, Loren’s turn-around timing is always on-schedule and their warm, personal style makes the process a pleasure.”
Every March, Beth Fein in San Francisco prompts any and everyone to dance any and everywhere. Here's Deborah Slater Dance Theater in the San Franciso Public Library March 22, 2013 for Dance Anywhere
choreography: Deborah Slater dancers: Derek Harris, Elizebeth Randall singer: Rabbi Susan Leider
A slick little promo for Hope Mohr Dance's new work Failure of the Sign is the Sign, premiering at ODC Theater in May 2013.
Performers include Jeremy Bannon-Neches, James Graham, Katharine Hawthorne, Roche Janken, David Schleiffers, and Tegan Schwab. Sculpture by Katrina Rodabaugh. Photo credit Margo Moritz. Music by Caroline Shaw for Roomful of Teeth, Made possible, in part, with commissioning funds from ODC Theater and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Featuring work by Katharine Hawthorne, Mary Armentrout Dance Theater, Sara Shelton Mann, and Project Thrust.
Sometimes LRRP takes already existing footage and edits together promotional pieces, like in the case of Erika Chong-Shuch's Chorus of Stones, created in South Korea in 2011 with the Daejeon Metropolitan Dance Theater. One of my favorite things is taking footage of a lengthy show and putting together highlights in a simple and clear way that holds some essence of the work, like a poem.
Love to Erika Chong Shuch Performance Project!
I LOVE CounterPULSE!!! This is a special spot in San Francisco. It's where I landed when I arrived in 2007. Having spent many hours there both as former staff, in various rehearsals and shows as a performer, and documenting many performances throughout the year, it's been such a home for me and I know for many Bay Area artists as well! We've collaborated on many videos, my favorite being the year-end films. It's been amazing to watch how the organization has grown. Here's a peak into the land of CP 2009-2012!
2012:
2011:
2010:
2009:
can't wait for what's to come in 2013!!!
Loren R. Robertson Productions thanks all wonderful clients, colleagues, friends of 2012!
music by, yes, Boyz II Men
One of LRRP's strengths the ability to convey a story of community-based and site-oriented performance making! This year we worked with ABD Productions on their project Skywatchers, held at the Tenderloin National Forest/Luggage Store Gallery, partnered by the TNL's neighbors the Community Housing Partnership. This performance was part of San Francisco's Streetopia Festival. Take a look at this mini-documentary about Skywatchers. This short film is important for contextualizing the work and telling the story of the process, the heart of the work!
"What is REAL?" the Velveteen Rabbit asked the Skin Horse one day. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"
"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."
Check out this sweet little promotional piece for ODC Dance's annual Velveteen Rabbit at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Get tickets here!
As part of CounterPULSE's Summer Special Program, Bianca Cabrera and her Blind Tiger Society produced a full evening length piece entitled Sunk in Sleep, dance with live music and original score by Ben Juodvalkis and set design by Roel Q Seeber. Bianca refers to the work as "highly kinetic. There's singing, there's rock n' roll. It reads a little bit like a fairytale, and a little bit like a rockshow!" We got to capture the work with 2 cameras and then put together a snazzy highlight teaser. I love editing these trailer/promotional type pieces, as it makes the work so easy to share, market for future funding or productions and just look back on!
Art galleries have been a fertile place for performance installations in San Francisco. I LOVE capturing live moving art in the gallery setting, it wakes up the room(s) and atmosphere and utilizes the space in ways that allow the audience be in a gallery location differently. It’s also interesting to see what a gallery space does to a piece built for the traditional theater setting. Wonderfully, many Bay Area artists come to LRRP to capture these kinds of performances. In 2011, Avy K Productions produced a series of improvisational performances at SOMArts called The Book. It was ambitious, with live music, live painting (by Vadim Puyandaev!) and virtuosic dance, directed by Erika Tsimbrovsky. For each night, the company invited different musicians and a guest performer to join the piece in a totally improvisational way. Documenting improvisational work is a particular documentation experience that is a strength of LRRP – it requires being on the same level as the performers in terms of presence and awareness and breath. There were some beautiful and sometimes risky chance happenings that occurred from this set up and the imagery was stunning. And it was a rockin set of Bay Area dancers to boot!
Here are a few excerpts from one of the evenings:
Check out Avy K’s blog entitled dreammapping if you’re interested in spying on ideas floating around and between the brains of Avy K and their international collaborators…
Though many of LRRP's clients produce shows in the traditional theater setting, many also make dances at other sites and often in public spaces, requiring a special approach to documentation. These are some of my favorite shoots where the camera person has to be equally aware of the interrelated characterstics of the piece - its site, the performer's relationship to the site and the people in the site, the larger context of the location and time of day, how the viewer is directed (or not directed) to watch, along with the performance and presence of the bodies themselves. In honor of Epiphany Production's upcoming San Francisco Trolley Dances, I want to feature ODC Dance's Transit, choreography by KT Nelson, adapted for the 2011 "trolley tour." This 10min. adapted version was just one stop (in front of SF's main library) along a full tour around town along public transit routes. KT wanted to especially capture the different people walking through the dance as they entered or exited during the performance, and I think these moments flowed beautifully with the dance itself. (also the bike designs are pretty cool!)
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT9-hFqFTEc
One thing that comes to mind when considering the fundamentals of what I do is servicing communities, and all kinds of social spheres develop around the arts. The ODC Commons in San Francisco is one of those specials hubs that brings all walks of life under the same roof to get sweaty and DANCE, just because it feels good to MOVE! I love the joy and vibrancy of the people I interviewed for this promotional piece on the adult classes offered by the ODC School and Rhythm in Motion program - check it out. Maybe it will inspire an impromptu living room solo dance party (this happens to me all the time) or even get you to take a class...
