Dance 287 - Lighting for Choreography Fall 2019

For the final week of the lighting blog posts I wanted to post photos from my trip to visit my sister who is expecting! She is waiting to deliver as this moment! We went to a Christmas tree lighting and it was one of the most romantic things I have seen in a long time. The family life was in the air and manifest from a passion of deep love between her love for her husband. I have felt a very Hallmark type of feeling since seeing these lights and I think these trees are very emblematic of this feeling. The jumbling of hues and their vibrancy brings about a strange surreal atmosphere that only enhances surreal feeling. They each have a feeling (especially the blue ones) of their own but combined they truly transform the park into a fantasy land! Looking forward to visiting this place again with my 1 year old niece next year!

 I took these photos during tech rehearsals of New Slate this past week. It reminded me of "passion" in an interesting way. Passion makes me think of fervor and frenzy. When I think of passion, I think of uncontrollable, intense feelings. The photo on the left reminds me of the feeling of frenzy and intensity. The way the light is both striking and diffused at the same time makes me feel the uncontrollable excitement that passion can produce. The photo on the right makes me think of passion in another sense. This type of passion is the passion that makes all the work worth it. It is the ongoing feeling that drives me to continue when the work gets hard and the morale gets low. The lighting in this piece is stark and bare, it reminds me of the time when passion comes in to save me. D=It is during these stark, vulnerable times that the passion for what I do makes me continue on and makes it all worthwhile. As the quarter comes to a close, I am thankful for the passion. It

Passion My Destiny   Stretch, ___ dance, Scatter into the sky.  Fly, before I die. Drift, Float away, Delicate wish from a weed. Faith, slip away.  Passing breeze, conceal with despair, Lifting my body into the sky. Inhaling the air, dangling down. Where is home?   "Poof"   The destiny of dandelion. Passer by,  unrewarded eye. The light falls, Echos of solitude. Touch me with your wanderer's breath.  

© (2019) UC Regents, all rights reserved. Photo by Leandro Glory Damasco Jr.  In preparation for this year's New Slate dance concert, I spent several hours working at tech-rehearsals. During one of our final run-throughs, this photo was taken of my dancers soaring in mid-air. The crimson colored "cyc", down-lighting, and the back-lit triangle were all collaborative ideas put forth by my lighting designer, Nita Mendoza and I. In particular, the triangle symbol represents fire in the ancient practice of alchemy. Our intention behind the lighting was to create a warm environment that supported the dancers internal passion and pursuit of self elevation.  

Lampyridae This quarter I was selected as a choreographer for the New Slate Dance Concert. It was an amazing experience because it allowed me to share my passion for tap dancing. Although I wasn’t a performer  in the show, I was blessed with a cast of talented dancing musicians. It was actually the first time that I’ve been able to work with a large group of “true advance” tappers. Not only did they bring my choreographic vision to life; they inspired me with their commitment, intelligence, unity, and their aspirations to further the exposure of tap at UCI. The name of my piece was entitled Lampyridae, which is the name of the species of insects called fireflies. The dance represented individuality within community togetherness. During this process we all became family. The glass jar in the photo with black and silver text was a gift from my beloved fireflies. Inside is a battery pack covered by a thin sheet of white wrapping tissue paper. It’s connected to a string of white

This post is about how grateful I am for Professor Alcaraz sharing his passion for Lighting with our class. As fall quarter draws to a close, I am struck by how quickly one's mind can be influenced and made to grow for the better.  Through our professor's thoughtful instruction about light, my world has opened to seeing and creating new possibilities.  Take the first image below...at first glance, the bright orange and yellow light could possibly be a fire and the thick smoke it produces.  But if we widen the lens, we see the warm light of the sun, beaming through clouds in the sky above.  I love how my perception of light has been piqued through this experience.  Although I know the class is over, I know for sure that I will always now appreciate lighting design, whether divinely created by Mother Nature, or by a talented TA.  So yeah, as I watch this gorgeous Sunday Sunset, the feelings I have are appreciation and excitement for my personal en"light"enment! Onward

© 2019 UC Regents, all rights reserved. Photo by Leandro Glory Damasco Jr.  This weekend I had the honor and the pleasure of working with Savannah Van Leuvan, a first year graduate lighting designer with New Slate 2019. My piece was called "Qualitative Dispute" and this picture captures the final moment of my dance. One of my main passions in life is dance, and I am so grateful for the opportunity to focus and grow in what I love to do. The piece initially starts off in a stark, isolated world where everyone is very robotic with their movements and eventually, the viewer begins to see moments of different people breaking off from the conformity within the group. I remember Savannah and I were brainstorming about how the piece was going to end, and at that time, I had not choreographed the end of the piece.  My piece was mainly about feeling isolated in a vast world and the feeling of the need to compete with others to get to the "top". I realized that

It is interesting to see the infinite possibilities that lighting can create. From Tech Rehearsal to Show week, the lighting process developed as Savannah made changes to help make my vision come to life on stage. Savannah had such passion and drive to make this piece shine in the New Slate Show. I was also very passionate to create something spectacular. Without her, my vision would have never come to life. I had my first Tech rehearsal with her on Friday but the lighting was much dimmer and there was only the city landscape, no cyc with pops of color so we had to alter these changes to make the lighting brighter on the dancers and to add color to the cyc. Since we had lots of changes to make, we had an extra Tech rehearsal for my piece on Sunday to include all the alterations. On Sunday, we spent 9 hours together and my dancers performed the piece at least 10 times. We were the first ones to get there at 1:30 pm and the last ones to leave at 10:30 pm. The piece dramatically cha

During my Tech Rehearsal for New Slate, I was working with Savannah on the spacing with the lighting she created for my piece Bla Bla Bla Cha Cha Cha. We both talked about giving each couple a special for the intro of my piece. Since the stage in the Claire Trevor Theatre is small, it was a struggle to get individual spotlights on each couple so she adjusted to make the Stage Right spotlight a little smaller to help with my spacing. As you can see in this picture, each couple is in their own spotlight but the couple on Stage Right has a smaller special. From the beginning of the night, we worked with having pops of color on the cyc but Savannah's teacher said it took away from the Jazz Club atmosphere so we played around with taking out the cyc and having a black curtain. As a choreographer, I felt that we needed some color to make the dancer's pop in the piece and so we went back to adding bright colors to the cyc as you see in the picture. It was helpful to see the big pict

"Cinephile" taken by Kent Shinomae (Regal Edwards Big Newport & RPX in Newport Beach, CA) I remember one of the years I was in high school, I went to go see more than sixty movies at the theatre. I consider myself an avid moviegoer and definitely have a passion in going to the theatre to watch a movie, as oppose to watching movies at home. Due to my busy schedule, it's hard to find time to watch television when I'm at home and binge watch for hours on Netflix like many people do. Instead, I plan out times where I can take two hours to go to the movie theatre and have a one of a kind experience in movie watching that can't be done at home. The bright lights at the movie theatre create an exciting atmosphere, where I definitely feel like I'm going to see a "show." The huge sign outside the theatre listing the names of the movies showing are an effective way of inviting people to come watch a movie. Going to the movies is like an event,

As Week 9 comes to a close, my energy keeps fighting the feeling of being depleted, and I am constantly finding ways to rejuvenate my soul. I wasn't entirely excited to visit a mall on Black Friday, but it ended up being better than expected because there weren't as many people as I thought would show up for the Black Friday sales--or maybe I missed the rush. Yesss! Either way, as I was headed down an escalator, my eye caught this neon design on the wall and I immediately felt a bolt of rejuvenation to "keep going." I felt energized as my eyes followed the different colors of yellow, purple, and blue neon light. In some ways it felt like a 3-D puzzle popping out at me and the abstract lines reminded me of what it feels like to go with the flow of life because it is never the way I anticipate or want it to be! These moments of seeing light in new ways reminds me to find peace in the chaos of life and enjoy the journey. I'm trying! :)

On Tuesday evening, I ventured out to grocery store, and while parking the car, the gorgeous colors of the Pacific sky beckoned me to take a closer look.  As I stood in the the most mundane of places, Mother Nature revealed her true brilliance, turning an ordinary errand into an appreciated adventure. Tall trees hovering over me created a natural frame for viewing the dazzling pink and purple hues of twilight, as shop signs below contributed orange and yellow to the scenery. Green palm trees danced in the distance, and I could feel a playful energy bubbling up inside of me. Instead of apples, bread and butter, how about a mai tai and a bonfire? Maybe after week 10! 

One of the many things that I appreciate about living in Irvine is the air quality. I am not a meteorologist, but I am almost certain that this affects our visual perception of the sky. Most recently while walking near the Claire Trevor School of the Arts, I saw this mesmerizing display of divine creation and science. The mixture of cool blue, warm orange, and subtle hints of pink colors blended together so well that it left me in awe. As I stood there gazing into the atmosphere for a few minutes, I felt mother nature's vibrancy and warmth.      

"Step into the barber shop" - taken by Kent Shinomae (Men's Grooming Salon Sky in Honolulu, HI) Going back home for Thanksgiving gave me the opportunity to make an appointment for a much needed haircut at my usual grooming salon. While getting my haircut and sitting down on the barber chair, I noticed the reflection of the lights that felt strategically placed to create two worlds, one in the waiting area as you enter the salon and the other where grooming services are done. I first noticed three sets of light in the waiting area. The accent lighting highlighting the frames hanging on the wall, the big chandelier-like set of lightbulbs in the center of the room, and the iconic barber shop lamp with the spiraling red and blue lines all created a warm atmosphere as I entered the salon and waited for my appointment to begin. The use of this warm yellow light had a calming sensation, as if I was sitting in a cozy living room. As I made my way to the barber chair,

I visited the exhibit "American Monument" here at UCI which is a collection of elegiac pieces by artist Lauren Woods in honor of the victims of the systematic injustices of the United States of America. Here is one of the installations where the record players play the last words, actions of the individuals lost to race violence or police violence. The lighting/atmosphere in museums have always intrigued the back of my mind but I rarely every gave attention to the lighting unless the choices were marked and particularly unusual. I see this as a very deliberate choice by designers of exhibits to not distract from the works themselves but to facilitate a calm, but focused attention within the viewer. The warm lighting here is simple (in contrast to other exhibits I've seen in this space) and inviting. The subject matter is harsh so the environment must contrast this to not overwhelm the viewer. When playing the records in that space I was reminded of times when I medita

This week, these photos reminded me that although we can try to forcefully create something beautiful, sometimes it just happens on its own. This served as a good reminder at a perfect time for me with New Slate coming up. As I tried to refine my piece for New Slate, I sometimes found myself frustrated with trying to run the dance over and over again until it was "perfect." I felt nervous for most of the week about my piece -- always feeling like I needed more time and more rehearsals. These photos served as perfectly timed reminders for me that sometimes just laying back and letting something work itself out creates something beautiful. I've been so stressed the last week that I found myself stressing over every little thing. I was overthinking everything, including finding a "good" photo for this blog. As I power-walked through graduate housing on my way to take a Laban Movement Analysis quiz, I actually walked right past the wall with the reflections of light