Talk Back with Peter Kalivas and The PGK Project Part II

“Talk Back” is a new interview series with dancers and choreographers.  Part II of our first interview is with Peter Kalivas, the Artistic Director of The PGK Project a contemporary dance company based in San Diego California.

Peter Kalivas in "Only" Photo by: Keith Wang

Talk Back with Peter Kalivas and The PGK Project Part II

by Rosie Trump

Discuss an influential teacher or mentor.

Unfortunately I have several people I have to acknowledge and then hopefully discuss one or two influential people.  Wendy Perron (Formerly of The Cunningham Dance Company School and now Editor in Chief of DANCE MAGAZINE) was the strongest advocate of me leaving Bennington and pursuing conservatory training which prompted my transition.  This was during a time when she was a guest artist in residence at Bennington.  Mr. Alvin Ailey whom I auditioned for to attend The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre School and who rejected me only to insist I return later to attend the school where I then entered The Second Ailey Company.  Donald Byrd for the ridiculously challenging choreography and equally challenging atmosphere he creates which helps dancers to learn self-worth.  Donald Byrd, Pat Thomas, Carol Sklaroff and Andrew Papp are my most influential teachers at The University of the Arts who taught me that I wasn’t too late, too small, or any of those other things people tell you if I was willing to work really, really hard and catch up and be what I already was; just a little more efficient, organized, clarified.

I think however still to this day my two most influential mentors’; now colleagues are John Malashock and Sean Curran.  John taught me how to trust my technique and my acquired skills and explore another way of moving.  One way was full of breath and that installed a whole other kind of power, presence and understanding of what dance does.  Sean Curran for being his tenacious, zany, and crazy self.  Joining his company at the time that I did, at the time when his company was gaining tremendous exposure and opportunity allowed me to really exercise my presence in the world in a way that I hadn’t necessarily done before.  To have someone wanting you to join them for these kinds of opportunities and to trust you with presenting their work in these kinds of times is inspiring.  His highly skilled, quirky collection of dancers created the best, most exciting, enthralling creative process both off and on stage and it was there I became most aware of the improvisational, spontaneous qualities of performance.

Name a few of your favorites: dance movies, youtube clips, books and dance songs.

Movies/Videos: Anything Gene Kelly is in, choreographing, performing.  Almost any old Hollywood Musical.  The dance sequences in the movie “Hairspray” were fresh and inventive.  Beyonce’s “All the Single Ladies” choreography is ridiculously fantastic (the first time).  The style totally reminds me of the dance wars I used to attend at Columbia University in NYC in the early 90’s.  All about “trumping”; when people first said “fierce”.

Music: Right now I am completely in love with anything produced by Hypnotic Brass Ensemble (a music group based in Chicago which is only horns).  I am choreographing a new piece to their “War” at the moment.  They perform in public spaces (subways, bus stops, street corners, etc.) around the US and the UK.

What advice can you offer to inspiring dancers and choreographers?

The best advice I give dancers specifically is to seek non-conventional ways to get jobs.  DON’T GO TO AUDITIONS if you can avoid them.  Take company class with a company you want to dance with.  Many company’s will let you in especially if you present/introduce yourself as a professional.  Don’t say the word student, recently graduated, or um..sort of…and kind a….EVER AGAIN!

Many people can dance but most of those people cannot present or represent themselves properly to the rest of the world.  It all goes back to “knowing your audience”.  The one’s who can represent or that have someone who can for them are the people who work.

For choreographers, I advise the exact same and then more.  At the beginning (only for a little while) sure you can pay an application fee, even a small production fee to have your work presented at a festival.  It takes money to make money right BUT…if you don’t go the next step and have influential people (Presenters of dance, other director’s seeking choreographers to make work for their company, Director’s of Festivals that pay fees for company’s to perform) come to see your performance via your invitation, arranging press kits and tickets for them to see you then you have pretty much wasted your time and money.  Maybe you got a review but if you don’t have anyone to send your press kit to then what good is the review?  Every time you do ANYTHING it needs to produce your next thing.

Dancing, Choreographing, teaching are part of a service industry that is called the performing arts.  If you “give” your stuff away then you take its value away.  If you don’t say it is valuable first then know one else will.   The Next step while waiting and researching opportunities is to create them.  Start your own festival, create situations for yourself that did not exist before.  Lastly, you should be cooperating with other dance companies, theatre, music and businesses that support the arts all year long. Developing relationships creates a non-competitive, non-challenging support system built on trust, mutual understanding and constant exchange.  Talk yourself up, make yourself visible, available and willing and able to be a part of and support your community.   How can your dancing, choreographing, teaching produce income for you and your company?

Tell us about your newest projects.

Well, I have come to realize my obsession with audiences and their engagement.  I am deeply interested in convincing artists to consider audiences more in the ways they make and present work and working on ways to make dance.   We have recently developed “San Diego Dances” which is a bi-annual “roving” festival happening in unexpected spaces throughout San Diego County.  Currently, my company produces “4 x 4 x Floor” which happens at Bluefoot Bar & Lounge the 2nd Tuesday of every month and “The Movement” which happens at 8Teen Arts & Cultural Center the 1st Tuesday of every month; happening in a bar and a gallery space immediately changes the atmosphere, place and association of performance.

Our newest project, “San Diego Dances” works to fulfill a similar yet different mission.  This roving dance festival will be carefully curated to include only professional artists and companies but still will not happen in a conventional theatre space.  The first of these will be on November 6th and 7th at DK Hair (a premiere urban salon).  Titled “San Diego Dances in Hillcrest” the festival takes the name of the neighborhood where it happens acknowledging what part of the county it has “roved” to.  This first program features six different artists and companies of various sizes.  The hair salon loses its hair cutting stations temporarily making way for a performance space that is similar to a runway at a fashion show.  The audience sits in two rows on both sides of this performance space.  Each company visits the space in advance to prepare the work they are either creating or re-setting and later each gets time to space on site.  There is a catered intermission hosted by one of our sponsors.  After the show, the audience walks beyond the performance space, past the hair washing stations towards the back of the salon, up three steps to the second level color stations where they can purchase a glass of wine and edibles inexpensively.  At this point the audience has experienced these dances in an unexpected way, in an unexpected site and had an altogether different experience and association with dance.  They have also visited a premiere salon and become familiar with it as well as our other partners.   So, we the producer create for the audience new ways to experience and engage with dance, opportunities for the audience to engage with the artists, challenges for the artists to re-negotiate ways in which the artists’ work is experienced and presented and build visibility to all of our multiple community partnerships.

In addition to the monthly events “4 x 4 x Floor”, “The Movement” and our new festival “San Diego Dances” we have been commissioned by The San Diego Asian Film Foundation to create a work to accompany a film they are premiering during the San Diego Asian Film Festival happening October 19th -29th.  The film “Concrete Jungle” is looking at urban energy and qualities found in the city and I am making a work that is working to do the same to music by Hypnotic Brass Ensemble.

To read Part I of this interview please click here.

If you would like to be featured in an interview by Reading the Dance, please send us an email at readingthedance@gmail.com

Clairvoyance, Compromise & Capitulation

I knew he would backpedal.  Even as the words, “I’ll send you some of what I wrote,” came out of my mouth, I knew I would regret ever speaking them. It’s not something I regularly practice.  Every journalist worth her salt knows better than to show an interviewee any part of the finished product. NOBODY likes the way they look on paper, I don’t care how talented the writer.

I had the courage to ask him about the gritty details, and, abashed as he was divulging them, he still gave me permission to use them in the story. But I sympathized with how sensitive the material was, so the human in me head-butted the hard-nosed journalist and offered to send him that part of the article to ensure he was comfortable with what I wrote.

Bad move.

I’m still editing the piece to his approval, though I’m certain he wants nothing more than to tell me not to write it at all. But I’m not letting him off that easily. Besides, I explained to him, I’ve already pitched it to the editor this way.

What did I learn? Check my ego. Because while I sincerely empathized with his uneasiness, I also felt very confident that he would be so impressed with the way I crafted his story he couldn’t possibly argue. He might even thank me for writing such an inspirational narrative. (His story is, by the way, very inspirational. It’s a shame he feels so uncomfortable with it.)

But as fate would have it, the editor has given me only half the space my story takes up.  So the interviewee gets his way after all.

It’s probably just as good. Because, frankly, at 37 weeks pregnant the fight in me has all but left the building.

Twepic

 The Mahabharata on Twitter: the world’s longest epic poem, all 100,000 verses of it, condensed into a series of online posts of 140 characters, maximum.  Well not quite because Chindu Sreedharan, a lecturer at Bournemouth University in the UK, isn’t actually attempting a full rendition of the epic on Twitter but he is using the story as the basis for what he calls an experiment in social media.  Nevertheless, this is still a feat of compression that would surely have met the approval of Panini; it has certainly caught the attention of 1,472 followers to date as well as that of the international and Indian press.  In an email interview with Venetia Ansell, Chindu explains how he writes his ‘twiction’, epicretold, tweet by tweet. 

1. Do you have any idea how long the story will last, how long you’ll be tweeting for?

It is a question of months. Some of the readers do ask me, “Oh, so this is going to take decades?” Hold on, I am not narrating the original Mahabharata in its entirety. It is a version of a version of it. It is a series of selected incidents strung together to form a comprehensible narrative – to present the original plot from a limited perspective. So it is a question of months, not decades.

2.       So what is your base text? 

The fantastic characterisation of Bhima that M T Vasudevan Nair has achieved in Randamoozham is a foundational influence. I read the book first in Malayalam, when it was being published in a weekly. Then later, I think I must have read Second Turn (the English translation) quite a few times. But my day-to-day source is Prem Panicker’s Bhimsen [a version of the Mahabharata from Bhima’s perspective – like the Randamoozham – which was written in a series of blog posts]. I use that as my main guide.

3. You’re writing this as you post and you only do 3-4 a day – how do you manage to make the narrative fit together so well and maintain an even pace? 

Thank you for saying that. Hemingway’s advice helps. I make sure I read the earlier bits, as many as I can, before I write. That helps (hopefully) with the continuity. Even then, it is quite easy to tap out something that will say what you mean to say, carry the story forward to the next juncture – but when I can, before I post, I take a second look. That helps too. Quite a few times, I have found that actually what I have got wouldn’t flow well, or I have used the same phrase, or the reader will get that bit without my really spelling it out – and accordingly made changes.

4. There’s a certain rhythm to Twitter posts because of the character limitation.  Do you think there are similarities between Twitter and poetry?

On Twitter not just every word, but every character counts – which forces you to write tight. There is rhythm to prose as well, of course, but that comes to the fore across more words, more sentences. Here, on the other hand, because of the character constraint, the writer packs in more sentences, more condensed communication in the same space. So the rhythm, the relation between every sentence/tweet, is more noticeable perhaps? Well, that’s my impressionistic take on it so far!

 5.    Do you have any idea who your followers are?  How do they like it?

The majority are Indians or people of Indian origin. There is a small but significant number of non-Indians as well – Portugese and Americans, mostly, very few from Britain so far as I can see. Most followers are here because it is the Mahabharata. It is the epic that brings them here, and they are quite interested in a contemporary retelling. A very small percentage follows the story because it is fiction on Twitter.

The reaction has been surprisingly positive. Sometimes they attribute a great deal of undeserving originality of interpretation to epicretold as well  – which, I must confess, I receive with only half-hearted protests. Very few criticisms, and none of what I would call harsh – a few people had written in, firm in their belief that Bhima was a vegetarian, so how come he’s eating meat here? And a couple of others felt that Yudhisthira was being portrayed as ‘casteist’. But apart from that, it has all been good. Possibly, the fragmented nature of storytelling has contributed to this happiness; I expect there will be more criticism coming my way when readers can read lengthy bits in one sitting.

6.       Does this episodic format mean that your readers shape the text in any way? 

I listen, and respond, intently to what readers say. Twitter provides for that very nicely. I doubt whether that changes the characterisation or the storyline in any significant way. But that has had some effects on my narration. For instance, followers wrote in to say the use of pronouns can be confusing as they are reading one tweet at a time. So I try to make sure that I use names where possible, or fairly frequently, so it is easier to understand who I am referring to. Indirectly, the interaction with readers allows me to get a feel of what they find attractive about the narration, and of course that does influence me when I write.

 7.       Sanskrit is famous for its brevity and concision – any thoughts on the potential for Sanskrit tweeting?

Could be very niche, given that the audience for the language – and this is only a guess, mind – is limited and only a small percentage of that audience would be comfortable on Twitter.

8.      And next, the Ramayana..?

Gosh, no. Not unless someone commissions me! This does become consuming, when you have other commitments to honour as well!

To read the first ‘chapter’ of Chindu’s epicretold, click here. 

To read and follow the story on Twitter, click here.

For more information on Chindu Sreedharan, see his website here.

Stairway to Heaven

Stairways, ladders, tunnels or rainbows: the way to heaven has been imagined since the beginning of time, and for some who’ve nearly died it’s been experienced. But for others, heaven isn’t a place so much as a state of mind or a state of soul.

Join Rachel Kohn at St John’s Anglican Church in East Malvern, Melbourne, for a discussion on heaven with guests, the Rev Dr Roger Ferlo of Virginia Theological Seminary, Indigenous writer Lillian Holt, and Senior Rabbi of Melbourne’s Temple Beth Israel, Fred Morgan.

This interview first aired on Radio National’s show “The Spirit of Things” on 13th September, 2009. If you are unable to listen to the podcast below, you can read the full transcript on Radio National’s website here.

Interview: Geoff Farina

As the front man for Karate, Geoff Farina added jazz flourishes and nimble fretwork to the often barre chord heavy world of mid-’90s indie rock, touches that earned him and the band both a rabid fanbase and a lot of furrowed brows by the tattooed gents who just want to rock. Since that band’s breakup in 2005, Farina has expanded his musical vocabulary and his exponentially growing discography by delving into the worlds of folk, Americana, blues and improvisation. His current band, Glorytellers, furthers his interest in acoustic-based sounds, creating moody, exotic and spacious songs that emphasize a lightness of touch and a wistfulness amplified beautifully by Farina’s distinctive vocals. The trio released their second album, Atone, last week. The Voice of Energy caught up with Farina at his home in Massachusetts.

MP3: “Concaves”

The music that you’re doing with Glorytellers puts the focus more on acoustic guitar. What inspired this?

It has really been over the past few years that I’ve gotten back into playing acoustic guitar. I worked my way backwards through styles of guitar playing in a lot of ways. As a kid, I was really interested in Jimi Hendrix and through him I found Buddy Guy and then older acoustic blues; just going backwards. So lately a lot of the music I’ve been interested in has been acoustic-based. Really the first guitar I ever played was an acoustic guitar so it is something I was interested in. But with it seemed with the music I was writing and this band that it was a good opportunity to explore acoustic playing again.

The acoustic adds a lot to the nostalgic feeling of the album, particularly a song like “The Coldest War”. Were you aiming for that kind of mood for Atone?

With this record, I was trying to make the songs more narrative and really thinking a lot about stories or a focused idea. In the past, a lot of my songs have been really abstract so I thought it was a good time to be a little more narrative and literal. “Coldest War”, though, is very much a song about Boston. I spent a lot of time thinking about winters in Boston and that was the mood that I really tried to set with that song. Lyrically, the story is about a hybrid of people that I knew.

Does a lot of the stories that you were writing for this album coming from your own life or from fictional scenarios?

A little of both. A lot of it definitely comes from my own experience. The overall picture comes from my own live and things that have happened to me and people that I’m close to. I wouldn’t say it’s autobiographical, but there are some exceptions. There’s a song called “Awake At The Wheel” [from the band's 2008 self-titled album] which is about going on tour with Karate for a month a time and spending so much time on the road. But even then, it’s my own experiences mixed in with different stories and ideas. I’m not really interested in telling my story or something like that.

But does it have to come from something that actually happened to you or someone you know rather than something completely fictional?

I think so. There’s the Bob Dylan quote that you never write a song about something that’s not true. When I use an image or try to paint a picture, I try to have a place in my mind. Everything in those songs is some place that I’ve been or the mood of a place that I try to get across.

Does trying to capture that mood extend to the recording process?

I think so. The acoustic guitar is a really intimate instrument. The volume has to be very low so it can have that sound, like you are sitting in the room with it. The drums and vocals have to be in that same sonic environment. In that regard, the live shows have been very tricky, playing in rock clubs where it isn’t easy to simply play without amplification. But that’s the music that really inspired me over the years, blues and jazz as well. You’re standing right in front of it and hearing those instruments as they are sonically. Nothing has been amplified or made into anything else. I think it’s much harder to make music that way.

You work in some many different styles of music and guitar playing – do you actively seek out these opportunities to play within different genres or do they find you?

I’ve always considering myself simply a guitar player. Most really good musicians are very eclectic. You can’t pretend to be an advocate of one style without learning another style or coming into contact with it. My interest in jazz is coming from my love of acoustic blues, people like Mississippi John Hurt and Skip James. I’m always interested in learning different styles. And if I’m interested in some sort of element or a style that I want to experiment with, I’ll try to write a song using it. The first Glorytellers record has a lot of pretty harmonies that you wouldn’t find anywhere except in be bop. The harmony comes from a totally different place.

I’ve studied with a lot of different really accomplished musicians. I’ve studied with Tony Watt who is a bluegrass improviser. And when I come into contact with a musician that I love, I try to play with them or study with them. For example, I met Roswell Rudd who worked for many years with jazz pioneer Herbie Nichols. We played some Nichols tunes together and it was interesting to get his take on how those songs work.

Another funny point I was just thinking of is that for many years, I really wanted to be a jazz musician and I played a guitar that sounded like a jazz guitar. But my best efforts completely thwarted by rock music. It was only when I gave that up and started played my Fender Telecaster that I started playing with interesting improvisation musicians. So the records that I made with Nathan McBride, I played this really loud rock guitar.

Speaking of that, you have done some recordings with an improv jazz group called Still Life With Commercials. What can you tell me about that?

That’s a really strange project. The bass player [Massimo Pupillo] put the whole thing together. I went to Italy and we ended up playing a bunch of shows and recorded that record. There’s a lot to that record that I didn’t have anything to do with, not like other ones I’ve done. I really, really love being sort of a little bit in the background. A lot of the projects that I’ve done are songs that I wrote and a lot of the focus is on how people perceive me. Projects like this are fun. I can really react and I’m put in a challenging situation and can draw on things don’t get to draw on in my own music.

I’ve noticed you have been playing a lot more in Europe over the last few years. Is that a personal preference or is that simply because that’s where the opportunities are?

Now it’s a little of both. Recently, I’ve had better opportunities over there than I’ve had here. Before I’d play anywhere people want to listen and I’ll follow where there’s interest. Things are different now. There has been more interest there in the last few years. And it’s a lot different environment.  Music over there is less of an entertainment, more of a cerebral thing. Music fans are almost like hobbyists. They’re not going to same indie rock club every Friday night. It’s not like that in the entirety of America. I love playing here too and I really enjoy it when we can go on tour here. But since Karate broke up, there’s not been a lot of interest in this band. It doesn’t fit in with what’s popular but that’s fine.

Are there places in Europe that you really like playing more than others?

Italy definitely because I have family there and I speak some Italian and my wife’s Italian. I’ve always felt really comfortable. And the fans are really vocal. They’ll make a lot of feedback. You play a show and leave with five phone numbers. They’re not afraid to come up and talk to you. Belgium and Germany, I’ve have had some great shows. Met a lot of great people there. I’m going to England soon for some solo shows. I’m really looking forward to seeing what happens there.

As a guitar player, were you particularly affected by the death of Les Paul?

I was just talking to some friends about that. The great thing about him is that he played every week in New York up until recently. And he’s an inspiration because he wasn’t just a guitar player. He was really one of the first DIY punk rockers in my book. He revolutionized recording and invented guitars and multi-track tape recording and came up with creative solutions to whatever problems came up in the studio.

What do you make of the popularity of games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band?

All I know is that I’m really bad at it. I’m better at the drums. I don’t think it has that much with playing guitar really. If the guitar now is incredibly popular, that’s not new. Guitar was also popular during the ’20s when it was the cheap, mail order instrument. And in Victorian times, guitar was hugely popular. It has always been a very accessible instrument that everyone can own for not much money. Still, it’s a great thing to have so many people interested in it.

[Video] Jern Eye interviews Zumbi (of Zion I)

Following last week’s release of “Get Right,” from Jern Eye’s forthcoming sophomore album, Vision, Jern Eye and fellow emcee Zumbi, of the seminal hip-hop group Zion I, who also appeared on the track got together to talk many things hip-hop. In addition to discussing the track, which also features fellow Bay Area emcee Mistah F.A.B., the video features Jern and Zumbi discussing the collaboration, Zion I’s illustrious history in the game, Zumbi’s upcoming projects, and more. From the jump, the mutual respect between both emcees is clear as Jern and Zumbi discuss Zion I’s impact on Jern Eye’s career as a young emcee. Also accompanying the interview, Jern Eye and Zumbi take some time out to kick their respective verses from “Get Right” acapella style, giving fans a special, stripped down look at the true lyrical talents of the two Bay Area juggernauts. Jern Eye’s new album, Vision, will be available October 13th via MYX Music Label.

BONUS: Here’s video of Jern Eye and Zumbi kicking their verses from “Get Right.”

Jern Eye

Zion I: website / MySpace

We Were Here: street art book

Jus a lil reminder that there are still some copies of this book available. It’s one hundred and nineteen 8 x 10″ pages of streety arty graffiti goodness, including a shitload of flicks, an interview with yours truly, and a plethora of other amazing artists! Yes, you heard me – a plethora!

You can buy the print version or download a PDF here. Mad props to Human and Lament for putting this together. You kids are so rad you’re radical.