Elaine Summers

537 Broadway #2nd FL, NY NY 10012 email: elaine@elainesummersdance.com

Thank you so much for your support: Anthology Film Archives, Duart, Emily Harvey Foundation, Experimental Television Center, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, New York University, New York Women in Film and Television, Orphan Film Symposium - Dan Streible

Summer 2010 -
We will be hosting NOT-FOR-PROFIT: 501C3 WORKSHOP & DISCUSSION. This is not to be missed for anyone who is interested in 501C3 organization. A wide range of topics will be covered - 1. Should you or shouldn't you; 2. What would it give you; 3. How to structure; 4. Q&A session. WHAT: NOT-FOR-PROFIT: 501C3 WORKSHOP & DISCUSSION WHO: Douglas Burack: Lutz & Carr WHEN: Tues, July 27, 2010. 5:30 - 8:30 PM, FREE ADMISSION WHERE: 537 Broadway #2 (bet Prince & Spring St.) Please R.S.V.P. Email: elainesummersdance@gmail.com with subject '501C3 WORKSHOP'.


Photos of Illuminated Workingman by Paula Court and Robert Lowe Thanks to NYSCA, NEA, SUNY Buffalo, Dr. Gerry O'Grady and the city of Buffalo. NY.

Crow's Nest at Danspace/St. Marks Church, 3/18/2010, with Dancers: Meg Chang, Jill Green, Gabriella Hiatt, and Kiori Kawai

We will be posting the amazing music that enthralled and captivated us at Elaine's Danspace/St. Marks Church event: Jon Gibson's haunting flute solo for Windows in the Kitchen, Pauline Oliveros and her singers' Tuning Meditation made Crow's Nest a truly immersive experience; and Carman Moore and his Skymusic Ensemble provided the drama and flair to the new piece Improvization with Sun+Moon+Stars.

Today, we post an excerpt from Tuning Meditation by Pauline Oliveros and her singers. It was an emotionally evocative experience to hear approximately 40 singers communicate through pitch and tones.

The Tuning Meditation

Begin by taking a deep breath and letting it all the way out with air sound.
Listen with your minds ear for a tone.

On the next breath using any vowel sound, sing the tone that you have silently perceived on one comfortable breath.

Listen to the whole field of sound the group is making.
Select a voice distant from you and tune as exactly as possible to the tone you are hearing from that voice.

Listen again to the whole field of sound the group is making.
Contribute by singing a new tone that no one else is singing.

Continue by listening then singing a tone of your own or tuning to the tone of another voice alternately.

Commentary:

Always keep the same tone for any single breath. Change to a new tone on another breath.
Listen for distant partners for tuning.
Sound your new tone so that it may be heard distantly.

Communicate with as many difference voices as possible.

Sing warmly!

Pauline Oliveros

Special thanks to Pauline Oliveros and all the singers for this music.
Singers: Amy Carrigan, Ben Richter, Damon Baker, David Haiman, FitzGerald Taryn, Gwen Deely, Jim Ross, Jesse Scherer, Kristin Norderval, Jamie S Davis, Marcus Lindner, Maria Stankova, Martha Oatis, Meg Ryan, Megan Cauley, Melanie Hedlund, Myles Robert, Nicholas Croft, Peri Mauer, Richard Lainhart, Sachi Issui Minigishi, Sheila Donovan, Shiau-uen Ding, Terri Guest, Theresa Rosas, Sakura Suzuki, Yo Park, Vincent Clappsy, Vicki Beerman, Tom Blatt...

And Raphaele Shirley for the recording.

First run through at Danspace Project, 3/11/2010, from L to R: Meg Chang, Jill Green, Douglas Dunn, Gabriella Hiatt, Kevin Ho, Kiori Kawai and Elaine Summers

We think Elaine Summers Dance+Film+Web Company
Improvization with Sun, Moon, & Stars - SkyDance/SkyTime/SkyWeb was a big success. We will be posting videos and photos here soon - but in the meantime, here are some reviews and articles.

- A pioneer presents dance and film. by Gia Kourlas, TimeOut New York / Issue 755
- Enticing the Senses, From Stage to Screen by Roslyn Sulcas, New York Times, March 19, 2010
- Dancing on Screen, Big and Small by L.J. Sunshine, Brooklyn Rail, March, 2010
- Elaine Summers at Danspace Project this weekend by Lana Wilson, Performa Blog

Thank you everybody at Danspace - Carol Mullins, Leo Janks, Judy Hussie-Taylor, Abby Harris Holmes, Abigail Ramsay, and the curator Juliette Mapp.

A choreographic sketch by Elaine Summers for the performance of SkyDance/SkyTime at the Solomon R. Gugghenheim Museum in 1984.
Please visit http://www.skytime.org/skytime_history.html for a history of SkyDance/Skytime.

PLATFORM 2010: Back to New York City
Curated by Juliette Mapp

Elaine Summers Dance+Film+Web Company
Improvization with Sun, Moon, & Stars - SkyDance/SkyTime/SkyWeb

March 18, 19, and 20, 2010 at 8PM
Admission: $18, $12 Members

Danspace Project: 131 East 10th Street (at Second Avenue)
tel: 212-674-8112 tickets: 866-811-4111 www.danspaceproject.org

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO
PRESS RELEASE

Jan. 2010

Remembering the delight of working with Matt Turney

"Ms. Turney was a luminous still center in the dramatically charged Graham company, which she joined in 1951 and left in 1972." - Jennifer Dunning, from New York Times, Dec. 29, 2009

Imagine the excitement of creating a dance with Matt's exquisite kinetic imagination and the excitement of capturing her dance on film.
I looked for her and I couldn't find her because she moved on to new life.

Elaine Summers, Jan. 7, 2010

Nov. 2009

We have been busy updating Skytime.org website and preparing for 3 evenings at Danspace, curated by Juliette Mapp. But here is a video sample of my work with Kiori - Elaine

Aug. 2009

We were asked to participate in A Book About Death exhibit by Matthew Rose. It is at Emily Harvey Foundatioin from Sept. 10, 2009. Please answer the question below. Thanks!!! - Elaine

FormSpring - HTML Form Builder

Aug. 2009

Elaine talks about the influence of Merce Cunningham - this excerpt is taken from an interview at Bennington College in 1980.

July 2009

We received a very peculiar letter the other day.
It was addressed to Film+Cinema Inc., and there was no return address. We know it was mailed in Oklahoma City because of post office stamp.

Inside, we found a letter and a five dollar bill. The letter reads:

"Dear Film and Cinema,
I owe Andy Warhol and Joe Dalesandro $5.00 to pay for the viewing of their film. I don't know the name of the film. But I saw it on a campus film festival. Enclosed is $5.00 dollars.

Very Truly"

We have no idea who sent us this letter - but we really would like to find out.

July 2009

It's starting to feel like a summertime and I don't care too much about NYC Summer. Too hot and too humid. When I can't get to sleep, I try to think about snow and running around in a field of snow. There should be a film about people running around in a snow field...wait, there is?
Naturally - here goes! A dancefilm by Elaine, IOWA BLIZZARD (excerpt), edited by Bill Rowley.
IOWA University, Iowa City, IOWA. 1973

Thanks to NYSCA, NEA, Bill Rowley, IOWA University - Iowa City,IOWA and Prof. Hans Breder and the Center for the New Performing Arts.

- Taketo

July 2009

Ellen Saltonstall is a master senior teacher of Kinetic Awareness. She has just co-written an all-encompassing book about Yoga for Arthritis. It is a comprehensive clear and direct knowledge of the connection of Yoga excercises that relieve pain and develop flexibility for specific problems of arthritis. You can buy it here.
I highly recommend it. Bravo! - Elaine

June, 2009

Elaine's inspiration and a dear friend Anna Halprin's Planetary Dance is this Saturday, June 20th!
It's a participatory ritual on the top of Mt. Tamalpais. Click HERE for more detail.

Scott Hull, who is an excellent photographer, shot and edited this video of workingmen outside our building.

Spring 2009 Our Intermedia media screening "Making Rainbows" at the Anthology Film Archives was a success! Thanks to everyone who came out. Scott Hull took some beautiful documentations, we'll be posting them soon. In the mean time, there are few events by our friends - please click on the photos below to see the detail. Thanks!

Winter 2009

We are getting ready for our Intermedia media screening "Making Rainbows" at the Anthology Film Archives on March 28, 2009 from 7 PM. Click here for more info.

We would like to thank the Experimental Television Center's Presentation Funds program; New York Women in Film & Television; Dan Streible, the NYU Cinema Studies Department and Moving Image Archiving Program; Phill Niblock, EIF; Davidson Gigliotti, the Emily Harvey Foundation; Joshua Selman, the Artist Organized Art; and Andrew Lampert, the Anthology Film Archives.

The Experimental Television Center's Presentation Funds program is supported by the New York State Council on the Arts.

November 13, 2008

The day before the historical presidential election on Nov 3rd, 2008, Elaine enlisted several of her friends to mount an Intermedia guerilla public event. With a slide projector and several dancers we hit the street without any concrete plan of action. We were able to project images from Bari's Cafe (thanks guys!) on a north west corner of Broadway and Spring street, while the dancers danced in white costumes and a couple of white bed sheets in front of the cafe.
Elaine was extremely happy with the result and hopes to develop the piece into a new piece called "Galumphing".

Dancers: Kiori Kawai, Jessica Higgins, Joanna R Steinberg, Joshua Selman and Mark Lanham.

Scott and Mark trying few things before going downstairs.

Elaine w/ dancers: Jessica Higgins, Kiori Kawai and Joshua Selman of AOA.

September 25, 2008

Here goes the most recent performance of Crows Nest/ Solitary Geography in 2005. Crows Nest was premiered at the Guggemheim Museum in 1981 for the Intermedia Festival by Experimental Intermedia Foundation which Elaine founded in 1968. This recreation was performed at Boston Center for the Arts Cyclorama and organized by Alissa Cardone and Alla Kovgan, members of an intermedia performance collaborative Kinodance Company. Performers include Alissa Cardone, Ingrid Schatz, DeAnna Pellecchia, Debra Bluth, Olivier Besson and Laura Quattrocchi.
Video by Charles Daniels

September 23, 2008

We edited a short video of Illuminated Workingman for Elaine's interview on the Performance Art Journal.
IWM was performed at Niagara Square, Baffalo in 1975. Thirty minutes of dancefilm was projected across a 120 ft-wide screen suspended on the columns of City Hall. The film projected onto the screen captures the faces, feet and actions of Buffalo workingmen, from a man guiding a huge airliner into position at Greater Buffalo International Airport to a Buffalo Sabres hockey player gliding across Memorial Auditorium's ice. Elaine choreographed and directed the intermedia film footage, Tony Bannon filmed this beautiful documentary footage, with Caman Moore doing the music.

September 4, 2008

A new issue of Performance Art Journal (PAJ 90) just came out. Please pick up a copy and read "Gardens of Light and Movement", a 15 page interview with Elaine by a writer/artist Kristine Marx. We would like to thank Bonnie Marranca, a long time editor of the magazine, Kristine Marx, and Paula Court - whose pictures illustrate the article.

You can pick up a copy of the journal at McNally Jackson if you are in Soho area in NYC like us, or order online from MIT Press.

photo and collage by Elaine Summers (1969)

Dan Streible (of Orphan Films and NYU) have been a big help to us recently. Dan and his former student (also our most recent staff) Gabriella Hiatt have found Elainie's early film Another Pilgrim (1969-BW-41min) and we are discussing some exciting future plans.

Click HERE to visit Dan's website about his visit to us.
Also, Click HERE to see a title sequence from Another Pilgrim (QT - 8 MB)

Original 16 mm films of JUDSON FRAGMENTS (1964) B/W - 15 min. and Windows in the Kitchen (1977) Color - 11 min. has been restored and safely delivered to Elaine's archive at the The Jerome Robbins Dance Division of The New York Public Library.
You can see the whole list of what they have HERE.

NYTimes article of Windows in the Kitchen (PDF - 500K)

Preservation of this film was made possible by a grant from the Women's Film preservation Fund of New York in Film and Television, funded in part by General Motors

Elaine Summers
JUDSON FRAGMENTS (1964) B/W - 15 min.

Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Avenue

November 13th, 2007 - 7.30 pm
PERFORMA 07 Film Programme: DANCE AFTER CHOREOGRAPHY / From Judson to the Present
Q & A afterwards, together with Yvonne Rainer

Preservation of this film was made possible by a grant from the Women's Film preservation Fund of New York in Film and Television, funded in part by General Motors

Elaine's NEW PROJECT! It will be performed on August 23rd, 8pm at Lincoln Center South Plaza. It is FREE and open to public. Click HERE for the project page, we will be putting lots and lots of stuff. - taketo

21 years ago Elaine Summers directed and choreographed an Intermedia opus for the Lincoln Center -Out-of-Doors Festival entitled Flowing Rock/ Still Waters. Now in 2007, Elaine has been invited to choreograph a new Intermedia work where the dancers are interacting with video projections of the dancers filmed during the performance of Flowing Rock/Still Waters.
Numbers of Elaine's friends will be participating: Pauline Oliveros, Alison Knowles, Thomas Kortvelyessy and Joshua Bisset to name a few.

Hurrah for Yvonne Rainer. Magnificent film/dance artist. Click here to see the detail on her Gala Performance / Dinner. See you there! - elaine

The exhibition is a work in progress "constructing the archives of Elaine Summers".

Come join us to the archiving of Elaine's choreography, Intermedia works, Kinetic Awareness, DanceFilms and much more.

DanceFilms and film documentaries will be screened by request.

Special Thanks to Emily Harvey Foundation, Friends of the New Cinema: Jonas Mekas, NYSCA, NEA, The Jerome Robbins Dance Division of The New York Public Library, Dr. Gerry O'Grady, City of Buffalo, Jenneth Webster, The Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival, The Museum of Modern Art, The Guggenheim Museum, Otto Piene, Elizabeth Goldring, Center for Advanced Visual Studies - MIT, Jacob's Pillow, Brooklyn Museum and many more .

January 8th to 31st, 2 to 7pm (or open by appointment.)

Opening Reception: January 8th, 5 to 7pm
as a part of 2007 The Dance on Camera Festival.

Emily Harvey Foundation
537 Broadway 2nd Floor NY, NY 10012
212.925.7651 email: elaine@elainesummersdance.com

Benefit Workshop with appreciation to Movement Research
Projection, camera, dance, installation.
Exploring ways of sketching for Intermedia work (film/dance/installation).
A chance to see yourself dance in video projections.
A chance to choreograph video images.
Choreographic notation with video camera.
Elaine will provide 2000 sq ft loft space with video projectors,
If you wish please bring your own video camera.
$25 per class (limited to 10 people)
"My favorite part of the class was the film. It made everyone's movement look so interesting, and the contrast between the light and the shadows of the body was really cool. It really gave me some interesting ideas for choreographing."
from Intermedia Workshops at the New World School of the Arts, Miami, FL. Oct 2006
with thanks to Dean Daniel Lewis, Dale Andree, Emily Harvey Foundation
Friends of the New Cinema: Jonas Mekas and NYSCA.

Winter / Spring 2006 -
We found a 3/4" videotape of the rehearsal for SKYDANCE by Elaine Summers with air sculptures by Otto Piene for the 2nd Intermedia Art Festival at IOWA University, Iowa City, IOWA. 1980. Thanks to NYSCA, NEA, IOWA University - Iowa City, IOWA and Prof. Hans Breder. Thanks also goes to the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at M.I.T. and the Experimental Intermedia Foundation.