May 3, 2016
By Celine Kiner
“This is the last time we’ll be dancing together just us, as an entire class,” Jordan told the cypher on Friday night as we gathered before our final performance. “So make sure to be really present.”
April 4, 2016
By Celine Kiner
“Janeen and Michael Damian will be here in just a few minutes,” Vice Dean Gates said with a mischevious smile. “So you might want to change into some nicer clothes, because they’ll be looking at you for potential future film casting.”
March 15, 2016
By Celine Kiner
Bill T. Jones walks into the room.
He watches the selected group of eight BFA dancers perform their solo for his piece, then tells them to repeat this movement inside a clump of the rest of us, whom he has instructed to circle the room once in fifteen minutes. We learn a rhythm that Ardyn has choreographed into her solo, because he tells us to.
Janet Wong, his co-artistic director, teaches us the rules of the wave while his dancers Antonio Brown and Talli Jackson walk the eight dancers (now the nine, because Trevor has been added into the mix) through choreography based on a few phrases, their own solos, and a couple set tableaus.
March 7, 2016
Graham technique is notoriously difficult. Dancers everywhere will tell you that it’s just really, really hard. There’s no way around it: to achieve the aesthetic that Martha Graham herself wanted, you can’t just copy the shapes. The entire technique revolves around intrinsic sensations of the body, around feeling stretch and contraction the way they are supposed to feel, not in relation to the placement of your leg or the angle of your elbow.
February 1, 2016
By Celine Kiner
A single and momentary exhale enveloped PED 207 on Tuesday: in the midst of a demanding period with Victor Quijada and the extreme physicality that his movement requires, two dancers from Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan quite literally graced us with their presence. Chou Chang-ning, rehearsal director and senior dancer, led the class.
December 29, 2015
By Celine Kiner
As we face 2016 and reflect on our first semester, we want to keep the expansive wisdom from our USC Kaufman faculty in mind. Here are the top ten quotes from 2015, coined by our favorite professors, guest teachers, and artists-in-residence:
December 24, 2015
Zippora Karz has the most beautiful long legs; her line is impeccably clean. Working with Professor Karz as one of USC Kaufman’s artists in residence is not just humbling, but engaging–her story is so incredible that it is almost unbelievable, until you hear it straight from her mouth.
December 16, 2015
By Celine Kiner
This post is addressed to this year’s USC Kaufman applicants: those who have submitted their essays and résumés and eagerly hit refresh each day, awaiting an invitation to a live audition.
First off, last December, I didn’t even think I was going to receive that invitation. The invitation email both surprised and terrified me; if I was going to attempt an audition, I would have to shape up. Applicants, don’t worry. Should an invitation come to you, take a few deep breaths, and sign yourself up for lots of classes before your audition date.
December 6, 2015
By Celine Kiner
Sometimes, this program is so surreal that I have trouble grasping the idea that I am a part of it.
Usually, my blogs read in sequential order of whatever weekly events have transpired. This one is going to be different, because it absolutely has to start at one particular moment–a moment that made sense out of my entire semester, and simultaneously made me realize how very fortunate I am to be here.
November 19, 2015
By Celine Kiner
William Forsythe returned to USC last week after working with the Paris Opera Ballet and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago; his first words to us were, “It’s good to be home.”
In the two weeks that he was here, engaging and innovative principles flowed endlessly out of his thoughts and into the space; he directed us into structured improvisation that sparked not only movement, but also thought.