About Us, Dancers

Dancer Profile: Ashley McCullough

Editor’s note: Check out one of our newest dancers, Ashley, in her first performance with Code f.a.d. Company on September 13, 2014 as part of SPARKcon 2014. We will be performing “Dinner” as part of the early danceSPARK showcase, from 11am-1pm on the main stage! 

Ashley McCullough

1. What is your earliest memory of dancing?
I remember being in dance classes as a young sapling at 2 years of age. I was a shy, quiet kid… didn’t say much in public and was serious about the things I did, especially dance. At class while all the other kids, who were 1-2 years older than I, would run around, hang on the bars, etc., I was the only one waiting patiently at the bar in first position. I remember feeling frustrated with how the other dancers acted… I was there to dance! An example of my commitment is present in a home video of me doing bourrees across the floor when my little ballet slipper started to come off. Knowing that a dancer does not stop in a middle of a performance, I ignored my shoe and continued onward.

2. Where can we find you when you’re not dancing?
Practicing yoga, most likely upside down… or in the kitchen creating vegan masterpieces.

3. Describe your perfect day.
A warm run near a body of water watching the sun rise higher in the sky, followed by some yoga, ending with a dip in the aforementioned body of water and an interpretive/improvisational dance in the sun to dry off. Later enjoying a nice vegan dinner and a show with my husband.

4. What’s playing on your ipod currently?
My “Yes ma’am!” playlist including the likes of: Mumford and Sons, The Civil Wars, Sleeping at Last, The Beatles, Queen, Styx, The Piano Guys, Bon Iver… and various lesser known artists.

Welcome, Ashley, to Code f.a.d. Company!

 

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A Day in the Life of a Code f.a.d. Board Member: English Sall

My day begins similarly to most people, luckily right now most of my day doesn’t start until 10:30 so I get to sleep in a bit.

English Sall with her dog.

English Sall with her dog.

9am- Wake up to my dog Dyson licking my face, or trying to push me off the bed.

9:15- Need coffee now.

9:30- Coffee brewing, pop tarts poptarting

10am- shower, get pretty

10:20- This Tuesday especially picking out an outfit was somewhat stressful. It was my first day of Graduate School so I wanted to look it. How does one look relaxed, intellectual, friendly and chic, all with one pair of jeans and a blouse? I changed into dress.

11am- before heading to class I break out the GRE flash cards and attempt to memorize meanings of words like Acclivity and Askance. Using them in a sentence sometimes helps ie: “Studying for the GRE is like climbing the acclivity of Mt. Mitchell” or “When I tell people my name is English many tilt their head and glare with askance”.

12:30- After painstakingly studying flashcards for an hour or so its time for me to head to class.

1pm- After walking from one end of NCSU to another into a non air-conditioned classroom, instead of exuding relaxed intellectual bad-assness my outfit now just exudes sweat and possibly BO. Lovely.

1:20-My professor walks in and as we wait on our last few classmates to join us he begins talking about projects he has done with Wake co. Sheriffs dept. and Lehman brothers. He told the best story about how he was on the phone with someone at Lehman Bros. the day the market crashed. I continue to fall more in love with my chosen PhD program IO Psychology throughout the next 1.5 hours of class.

3:00- We get let out early and I walk home.

3:30- Home at last. Time for a snack of Perogies filled with cheese and mashed potatoes? I think so!

4pm- The rest of the afternoon consists of me returning emails, studying for the GRE and doing homework (which is mostly readings).

7:30- On Tuesdays my husband Will has a really late class at UNC so this is the one night a week I am tasked with making dinner (because anyone who knows us knows that he is the cook in our family and I am not. The oven for me is a place to dry socks and gloves once one comes in from the snow). However, Tuesday is my day to try and make a delicious dinner for the both of us.

7:45- Realizing I should have probably started cooking a little while ago, didn’t realize the process of thawing something takes 985 days.

8:00- Lima beans catch fire; put fire out with a beer. Incidentally discovered a great new ingredient to add to lima beans.

8:30- Hubby is on his way home!

9pm- Dinner of chicken, rice, and beer soaked lima beans is served.

9:45- After dinner walk with the dog.

10pm- My husband and I watch a new episode of The Mentalist, making bets on who Red John really is.

11pm- Ready for bed, laying down with a good book (Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahmenan, I highly recommend it) and dozing off to sleep.

-English

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About Us, Dancers

A Day in the Life of a Code f.a.d. Dancer: MacKenzie Buice

MacKenzie Buice

MacKenzie Buice exploring her new surroundings!

*Editor’s note: This represents a day in MacKenzie’s life back in August 2013 – when she first moved to the area and joined Code f.a.d. Company. MacKenzie now works for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in Cary when she’s not in dance class or rehearsal. MacKenzie made her Code f.a.d. performing debut in our Beetlejuice dance at the 2013 SPARKcon.

In July of 2013, my husband Mike & I moved to the Triangle from Massachusetts for his new job. We absolutely love the area, and I’ve been enjoying a busy/lazy summer of settling in and getting used to my surroundings. Because of the move, I left my very normal routine, full-time job, friends, and family behind. A typical day these days is a bit atypical while I job search and get a lay of the land. Every day is a new adventure!

9:00 – Out of bed, shower, dress (I have the perk of sleeping in a bit while on the job hunt!)

9:30 – Head into Raleigh

10:00 – Internship: To keep busy, network, and get a little more experience in my field I have been interning with North Carolina Theatre’s Development Office. I’ve worked in development/fundraising for the past 3 years and having left a job in development in the social services sector, I’m now looking to transition in arts or higher education fundraising. The past 2 months at the theatre have been awesome! My work has focused on reception events for donors, organizing direct mail campaigns, and grant writing.

1:00 – Break for lunch

4:00- Wrap up more work & leave theatre, hit grocery store to pick up something for dinner and head home.

5:15 – Get home, check new job postings, and apply to anything new and exciting! Procrastinate and whine about not wanting to go to the gym…

6:30 – Finally get my butt to the gym. I’m back into training mode for my 7th half marathon in September, and running is always such a love/hate relationship for me. It’s a struggle to get to the gym, but once it’s over I feel great! I get in my miles, some lifting and ab work, and head back home.

8:00 – Shower & make dinner.

9:00 – Somewhere along the line Mike and I developed a 9:00 PM dinner time and its stuck. (Probably a habit we should break…)

9:30 – Dinner is followed by an episode or two of Lost. We didn’t get into it during the original run, but the whole series is now on Netflix and we’re sucked into to watching little else. Just started season 5, so many questions!

10:30-11:30 – Hit the sheets, always get in a few pages of whatever book I’m reading before my eyes get too tired and then it’s ZZZZZ…

-MacKenzie

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Reflections on 2013

beetlejuicearms

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice! (at SPARKcon, photo by roguemark)

Well FAD fans, another year is ending so it’s time to take a look back at all the lovely moments of 2013. Here are a few of the highlights:

January 13 & 25: The year began with our last two performances of Julep as part of the NC Dance Festival tour. First, a Sunday matinee at UNC-Wilmington then a Friday evening show at UNC-Charlotte.

February 5: New sections of Finding Place are performed at Artspace in downtown Raleigh as part of their First Friday open gallery festivities. (We are in the home stretch for the full show premiere by this point; I’m surprised we could even break from rehearsal for these three mini-shows!)

Finding Place premiere

Finding Place premiere in PSI Theatre, photo by DC Dance Photography

February 22 & 23: This is the big one – the full premiere of Finding Place at the Durham Arts Council‘s PSI Theatre! Wonderful stories, great music, exciting choreography, and touching film segments combined to create our third evening-length work in just five seasons. (And this one was completed in only nine months… needless to say the company was ready for a break following this show!)

March 13-16: Again this year, I traveled to the American College Dance Festival’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Conference to represent the company and teach classes. With class scheduled at 8am this time, the turn-out was smaller than the last year, but still about two dozen collegiate dancers got to learn parts of Finding Place choreography (in addition to getting in the company’s traditional technique class).

April 28: We perform Journey at NC Dances in Cary, NC. Journey was originally created for NC State University’s Panoramic Dance Project, so this marked the first time Code f.a.d. dancers got to perform the work. We also brought in a guest dancer for this show – Sarah Putterman! We hope we get to work with Sarah more in the future.

May-July: Code f.a.d. Company was quiet this summer, but there were certainly creative juices still flowing, preparing for the busy fall season ahead.

August: The company finds two new rehearsal “homes” for 2013: Barre-Up and Cirque de Vol Studios. Holding our Saturday classes at Cirque de Vol has given us the opportunity to make this the first season we open company technique class to area dancers, and we have had a great time inviting more folks to join us a few Saturdays each month! Following auditions after one of these open company classes, we are also pleased to welcome three new dancers to our group: MacKenzie Buice, Krystal Lynch, and Anna Maynard. You can expect to learn more about all of these lovely ladies in the coming months on the blog. Rehearsals are also in full swing for Dear Nature, our new work inspired by the Artspace exhibition of the same name, including artwork by Natalie Abrams, Mi-Sook Hur, and Cynthia Camlin.

Dear Nature at Artspace, photo by Anna M. Maynard

Dear Nature, photo by Anna M. Maynard

September 6: First Friday at Artspace brings the partial premiere of Dear Nature in Gallery 2. Just like in February, we performed three 10-minute shows throughout the evening, to packed crowds!

September 12: Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice! Stuck right in between our Dear Nature performances came 2013 SPARKcon, and being we have participated in the festival for the past five years, we couldn’t let this one slip by without a Code f.a.d. appearance. The company invited some guest dancers from AWW Performance Company to join us in an interactive performance following the Beetlejuice theme (chosen by this year’s filmSPARK organizers). The show was complete with the super talented Todd Buker (composer to much of our work) performing as the sandworm!

September 18: Back to Artspace for the full Dear Nature premiere, and it was such a great experience to perform in the gallery among the artwork that inspired the piece. This show also marks the debut of two new artists in our ranks: composer Julia Price and poet Jessica Mansell Temple! We are excited to work with both Julia and Jessica on more new work in 2014.

October 12-13: I attended the NC Dance Alliance’s Annual Event as our company representative to teach classes (more Finding Place repertory is taught to high school attendees and professionals) and to speak about our dance films in a lecture/showing with other dance filmmakers based in NC.

Gerren roams through the audience during the performance at Masquerade

Gerren performs during Masquerade

October 25: Masquerade! Thank you to all who attended our fall fundraiser cocktail event, Masquerade. If you were unable to attend and would still like to support our work, we accept tax-deductible donations securely online through our fiscal agent, Fractured Atlas: http://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/fiscal/profile?id=4584

November 13-17: Destination by Michael Kors (one of our fashion-inspired dance films) makes it into its first big film festival! I traveled to Wilmington to attend Cucalorus for the screening (and got to see many other films and speak with filmmakers of all kinds at the events – inspiration was gathered for many new works to come).

from the film, Destination by Michael Kors

Destination by Michael Kors

December 6-12: The last performance of 2013 was on December 6 in Winston-Salem, as part of Movies by Movers IV. We performed a few excerpts of Dear Nature, adding video projections to those sections we took and titling these portions A Few Southern Legends. I’m excited to turn some of these sections into stand-alone dance films in the coming year. Also, across this entire week I was honored to have the opportunity to teach dance students at Jordan High School in Durham, NC. The advanced “company” dance class worked on a dance film project while junior and senior-level technique classes learned Horton modern dance technique.

And there it is… well, was. What a great year 2013 turned out to be for Code f.a.d. Company – lots of new faces and new dances! So, what does 2014 have in store for us? I’m tempted to just say wait and see, though I’ll give you a hint to be on the lookout for new dance films (hopefully) hitting the festival circuit in 2014. (And don’t worry, we’ll post some clips and photos from the shoots online, too.) Thank you for continuing to support the work that we do, for supporting dance, and we wish all our fans a very Happy New Year!

See you in 2014…

-Autumn
(Code f.a.d. Artistic Director)

A Few Southern Legends

A Few Southern Legends

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About Us, Creative Work, Dance, Dancers, Perfect 10

Dear Nature: Week 3 (part 2)

Open company technique class, August 24.

Open company technique class, August 24.

I’m adding in a second post for Week 3 (following our weekend rehearsal) mainly because of the wonderful company technique class we had on Saturday. This is the first season we have been able to open some of our company classes to community dancers, and so far the response has been great! We had eight dancers join our company and apprentice dancers on Saturday morning, which is probably the perfect number so our space doesn’t get too crowded yet we have lots of extra dancer-energy jumping around.

I certainly love teaching class, so much that sometimes I wonder if I should keep choreographing? Wouldn’t life be easier if I just concentrated on teaching? The answer is surely yes, but I know I miss creating new art when I’m not. (That hasn’t happened very often lately, but I do still know that!) Besides that, a huge element of being a choreographer is also being a teacher – at least in small companies without rehearsal directors or dance captains, etc. It is my responsibility to teach each dancer to perform the material the way I envision, even if that changes slightly based on the nuances of that individual dancer.

Over the past five seasons with Code f.a.d., I’ve had the pleasure of working with many of the same dancers for all those 5+ years. I’ve had the joy of teaching technique class and teaching my choreography to these dancers for so long that it feels easy now. (Well, relatively easy.) While the dancers have kept their own individual performance styles, we have all merged into a collective vision – a unified style of movement. This is the only reason why it is possible to create dances with Dear Nature over such a short amount of time. These dancers are wonderfully dedicated (in addition to being talented), and have absorbed anything I’ve taught them over the years. (It is also worth mentioning one of our cast members in this work is a much newer company member, only in her 3rd year with Code f.a.d. while the rest are in their 6th. Kristina is learning quickly!)

So, thank you dancers! Thank you company dancers for dancing with me for so long, and thank you company class attendees for bringing your energy into the mix. I look forward to seeing you (and maybe a few new faces) at our next class on September 7.

-Autumn
(Code f.a.d. Artistic Director)

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A Day in the Life of a Code f.a.d. Dancer: Kelley Murphy

Kelley (and Jill) in "Finding Place"

Kelley (and Jill) in “Finding Place”

Editor’s note: Kelley showed up at the very first Code f.a.d. Company audition (back in the summer of 2008), and she’s been dancing with us ever since! See her perform next with the company at NC Dances: Sunday, April 28 at Cary Academy (free show at 7pm).

A day in my life would usually be pretty busy and full of constant activity! First of all, I wake up early to get my 7 year old son ready for 1st grade. Getting him dressed, fed and teeth brushed. Backpack in hand; we walk to the bus stop. Once on the bus, I walk home to get myself ready for my day.

I work during the day as a newborn photographer for a local hospital. We do in-room photo shoots of the artistic/creative type instead of old-school baby mugshots. I put on my work uniform, which consists of all black: pants, shirt, shoes and jacket. Glad to not have to think about what to wear… I grab all of my gear, double checking everything is charged up and ready to go. I am loaded down with my camera bag, flash, extra batteries, battery charger, laptop and cords. Not to mention a bottle of water and breakfast on the go!

the kids on a rare snowy day

the kids on a rare snowy day

I normally photograph around four precious newborn babies a day. After they’ve been photographed and edited, I give the parents a tear-jerking slideshow of their beautiful new baby. From here, I am usually rushing home to make sure I am in time to pick up my son from the bus stop. Once home, I am greeted by my other child, who is 16, and they both inform me that they are dying of starvation. Midday snack time!

After getting them fed and settled, we start on homework. It is already after 4pm and I have to be at my second job at 5. The teenager gets to help with the homework so I can change and get ready to teach dance for the next 3 hours. I teach modern, jazz and hip hop. I arrive home at 8pm, once again to starving kids. I cook dinner, get them showered and ready for bed. Sometimes I have some “me time,” but usually I am too tired to do anything but go to sleep myself. I always look forward to the days I have rehearsal with the company so I can get out by myself and do what I love… dancing!

-Kelley

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A Day in the Life of a Code f.a.d. Dancer: Gerren Mobley

Gerren as Ralph Lauren

Gerren as Ralph Lauren

Editor’s note: I was introduced to Gerren soon after I began teaching at NC State University, through Dance Program Director Robin Harris. Gerren was an alum of the NCSU Dance Company and lucky for us, was still dancing and living in Raleigh after graduation! He is another one of our dancers who has been with the company since it started; he actually worked with me also for my film project Product, which began before Code f.a.d. was “officially” founded.

It is difficult to say what a typical day in my life would be like because, like most people I know, no two days could ever quite be the same. This is even more true now that I am in my second year of law school. On a typical day during the semester, I wake up around 5:45 in the morning to get ready for school. The first thing I do is make a pot of coffee because I am generally not a functional person prior to having at least one cup. Then I prepare my lunch and any snacks to keep me going for the majority of the day. This helps reduce my temptation to go out to lunch and make poor eating choices, even though I have to admit that Chargrill and Snoopy’s Hotdogs are only two blocks away from school and are often rotated into my lunch plans during the examination period.

When I arrive at school around 7:30 in the morning, I immediately drop my books off at my favorite study corral in the library, as I am likely to be in the same spot for the vast majority of the day. I try to schedule my classes early so I can utilize the afternoons to prepare for any classes or research any cases or laws I may need for upcoming assignments. I will often stay at school literally all day, sometimes not leaving the library until 10 at night, but I do take a break between 4 to 5 in the evening to either go workout at the gym, take a yoga class, attend a Code f.a.d. rehearsal, or even teach a dance class in the evening. One of the things I have learned as being a law student is that it is okay to take a break when you need one and you should often schedule these breaks to avoid taking too much time off or not allowing your brain time to rest in between reading assignments. Plus as a dancer, it is important to not only keep my physical physique up to par, but my mental capacities as well.

picture of my coffee table preparing for my Constitutional Law II final exam

picture of my coffee table preparing for my Constitutional Law II final exam

Rehearsals require us dancers to have both physical and mental strengths because it is important for injury prevention and to retain the complexities of each choreographic piece. Prior to attending rehearsals and during my off-time, I spend a portion of the day going over choreography and listening to the music we dance to from our in-house composer (Todd Buker) in order to catch certain accents in the music and translate them into my movements.

The last thing I do before my day ends is try to spend some time watching television, specifically the Daily Show or catch-up with Modern Family and House Hunters on my DVR. I think it is important to allow my brain to disconnect somewhat to everything I did prior to that point. This helps me to relax and have an uninterrupted number of hours to sleep.

And this is what is a typical day in the life of Gerren Mobley….thanks for reading.

-Gerren

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Reflections on 2012

While the end of the calendar year marks only the halfway mark of the Code f.a.d. Company season, I feel perhaps we are overdue for a moment of reflection on the company’s accomplishments during this year (the tail end of our 4th and now the first half of our 5th seasons). I am personally taking some time to reflect on my life this evening, so why not do the same for this huge portion of my life that is Code f.a.d.?

2012 Code f.a.d. Company Highlights

Gerren takes Penelope for a dip in the hot tub!

Gerren takes Penelope for a dip in the hot tub!

January 1: Several company members helped dancer Gerren Mobley celebrate his birthday with a trip to Emerald Isle, NC. (This was not an official company function, but why not remember some beach fun?) I recall some dancing and handstands in the sand, playing Wii Rock Band, and lots of other fun that we may not want recorded in print…

January 26-28: The company premieres Calvin Klein: Casual Friday and Destination by Michael Kors at the Greensboro Fringe Festival – a great opportunity to test out a few of the new sections of Fashion Briefs before the BIG premiere in March.

Brooks in "YSL, Fashion Manifesto"

Brooks in “YSL, Fashion Manifesto”

February 11: Fashion Briefs photoshoot in the freezing cold on NC State’s Centennial Campus. Looking back, I think the cold was worth dealing with, since we got some great shots!

February 29-March 3: I travel to James Madison University for the American College Dance Festival Association’s Mid-Atlantic Regional and teach about 50 collegiate dancers portions of A Dolce & Gabbana Doubleheader. (Jill also is in attendance and serves as an impromptu teaching assistant for the class warm-up.)

Natalee during the Vera Wang film shoot

Natalee during the Vera Wang film shoot

March 5: Film shoot for Vera Wang: The Dress at Aldersgate Church in Durham, NC. We got almost everything accomplished in about an hour and a half, but then the zipper on Christina’s dress broke during a particularly enthusiastic back shoulder roll! I finished up the evening with a few close-ups of Natalee, but we knew there would be some missing pieces we’d have to get later after fixing the costume.

March 6-11: About half the company makes the long drive to Birmingham, Alabama, to perform sections of Fashion Briefs in a shared concert with local company, Sanspointe. This marked the first time I have traveled back to perform in Alabama since graduating from the University of Alabama in 2000; the concert was both well-attended and well-received! Read a short review here.

March 18: Finished up the Vera Wang film shoot (we got the dress fixed while in Birmingham) in the studio at North Carolina Dance Institute!

"Calvin Klein: Casual Friday" at Burning Coal

“Calvin Klein: Casual Friday”

March 19-25: This is the big one – the premiere of the full, evening-length version of Fashion Briefs! This was our first show in the Burning Coal Theatre at the Murphy School in downtown Raleigh, and we loved having a “home” space for the entire week. In total, Fashion Briefs premiered with 12 sections – one section completely on film (Vera Wang: The Dress) and most of the other 11 including live dance and video projections. While I wouldn’t rule out adding another designer in the future, for now the “live version” feels complete. The next step for Fashion Briefs is to create more dance film sections; ultimately, I hope to create a film version for all 12 parts (so that means 10 more sections to make as we travel into 2013). If you aren’t sure when the second film section happened, just keep reading! *One of my favorite memories of this concert was our “preview” night on Thursday. Lots of NCSU students were in the audience this evening – members of the Arts Village, a few NCSU Dance Company dancers, and most of my dancers in Panoramic Dance Project! I loved being able to share this work with them all, and I hope we can continue to expose the collegiate (and even younger) audience to modern dance.

March 30: Panoramic Dance Project Concert at NC State University! This obviously is not a Code f.a.d. Company event, but Gerren and myself had choreography in the show. Gerren set his three-part modern-jazz work Testimonial on the company, and I created a new Butoh-inspired work (titled Journey) for four student dancers. Perhaps Code f.a.d. will perform Journey in a future season…

April 18: In preparation for our summer project with the NC Museum of Art, I toured the El Anatsui exhibition with Education Coordinator Kristin Smith. The artwork was amazingly inspiring; it made me excited to begin the next creation!

May & June: Busy creating and rehearsing Finding Place. We also created this blog during these months, so go back and read our first posts about the Finding Place process if you haven’t!

Finding Place at NCMA

“Finding Place” at the NC Museum of Art

July 7: Our work inspired by the artwork of El Anatsui premieres as part of the NC Museum of Art’s Summer Dance Series! In this showing, Finding Place was about 15 minutes in length, and at the time, I wasn’t sure if it would continue to grow within the Code f.a.d. repertory. Not long after, though (and partially because of feedback received at our performances), I decided I did want to continue with and expand the piece. As you may already know, we are adding more stories, more dancing, and some film segments to turn Finding Place into our next evening-length work (to premiere in early 2013). Overall, this first part of our Finding Place experience came at just the right time to energize myself (and perhaps the entire company) as we prepared to enter our 5th season. We worked in a very fast and focused way to create the work and invited in several guest dancers for the museum performances. The energy and contributions of these new dancers (a variety of community/professional dancers and NCSU student dancers) really helped shape the work and push the company into a new process of more collaborative dance-making.

August 6-10: During my “vacation” to New York, I (of course) did a bit of company work, as well – amongst taking dance and aerial yoga classes and seeing shows! Monica and I shot the first film segment of Finding Place in Central Park; you can read more about her contribution to the piece in the August 10 blog entry here.

September 7: Julep is performed at Meredith College as part of the NC Dance Festival tour. (It is our third time on the tour!)

"Finding Place" at Vault Yoga

“Finding Place” at Vault Yoga

September 13 & 14: SPARKcon – downtown Raleigh’s Creativity Festival! Finally we get to perform (at least part of) Indulge again! Part of the SPARKcon Opening Ceremonies, Code f.a.d. – along with two guest dancers – takes Indulge to the Raleigh Amphitheater stage. This was a great opportunity to bring our work to a large (and fairly non-dance) audience, since we performed directly after the fashionSPARK Runway Show. The following night we then performed a smaller version of Finding Place in Vault Yoga’s studio space on Fayetteville Street. These smaller, more informal SPARKcon showings are a great way to really interact with your audience, and I’m happy the company was able to be involved in our 5th SPARKcon this year.

September 28-30: After a successful Kickstarter campaign to raise needed funds, we head to the NC coast to shoot the next Fashion Briefs dance film! The forecasted rain luckily held off until we got all our needed scenes done for Destination by Michael Kors. Thank you so much to all who contributed to the campaign! We are a bit behind on film editing and mailing out your other Code f.a.d. goodies (buttons, coffee mugs, and photos), but you can expect to receive all we’ve promised you in early 2013.

October 12: Two Horton/Code f.a.d. technique classes taught to dancers at Northern Guilford High School in Greensboro. The students did very well learning a bit of Julep phrasework, as well, as a teaser for the upcoming NCDF tour performances.

October 19-21: I attended the NC Dance Alliance’s Annual Event in Greensboro, NC, to represent Code f.a.d. Company and the NCDA itself (as I am a new board member to this state-wide dance organization). It is always wonderful to catch up with other dancers and dance educators from across the state and keep Code f.a.d. in their radar even if we are not performing in the concert that weekend.

backstage before the UNC-G concert

backstage before the UNC-G concert

October 26: NCDF tour concert at Appalachian State University in Boone. Kristina, Christina, and I also taught a 1950’s & space-themed technique and improvisation master class to local middle-schoolers as part of our tour outreach activities. (As much as I like teaching and performing, highlights of this trip also include the giant jacuzzi tub in my hotel room!)

November 2: Last NCDF tour show for 2012 – this time we are performing Julep at UNC-Greensboro’s Aycock Auditorium. Christina always loves this tour stop since she went to college (and danced) at UNC-G.

November 3: Company brunch! I made a zucchini frittata, Christina made pumpkin-chocolate balls, Jill brought supplies for pomegranate/raspberry mimosas… yum! I certainly needed a bit of a dance break after a packed fall season (that wasn’t over yet).

December 1: This was our most efficient Code f.a.d. Board of Directors’ meeting to date. Enough said.

December 6-9: We took part of Fashion Briefs to Dance Place in Washington, D.C., to perform in a split show with Human Landscape Dance. Since we’ve now done the two main modern dance venues in D.C., if we go back, I have my sights set on the Kennedy Center next time…

Code f.a.d. Holiday Party

Code f.a.d. Holiday Party

December 22: We had our last rehearsal of 2012 (working hard on Finding Place for the big February show at the Durham Arts Council), took a few hours off, then reconvened for the annual Code f.a.d. Holiday Party!

…and that brings us to tonight, December 31, the last night of 2012, and what does it all add up to? Thinking back, more than the shows, the classes, or the rehearsals, I’m left thinking about the people that make this company what (and who) it is. Our board members, our artists, our composer, and above everything else – our dancers are the heart of Code f.a.d. Company.

While we did not “officially” begin as a company until the fall of 2008, this journey really began in the summer of 2006, when Jill, Christina, and I all met each other and danced in David Dorfman’s Underground at the American Dance Festival. During the following year, I met Gerren and Natalee through my work at NC State, and while neither of those two actually committed to Code f.a.d. when that official start date finally came – neither really stopped working with us either. (They couldn’t leave!) As we collected Kelley and Brooks through open auditions, the group started to solidify. We’ve gained a few others and lost a few that began with us through these past 4 1/2  years, though only one has really passed the test and stuck it out. (That would be Kristina, of course, who is going on her second year with the company.) All I can think is how wonderful it is to have these relationships weather the test of time – and the test of tempers, of injuries, of long car trips, and whatever else these seasons have thrown at us. I am so lucky to be a part of Code f.a.d. – to have these people in my life, and I eagerly look forward to a wonderful 2013 full of film, art, dance – and friendships. Thank you to all our fans who support what we do. I hope to see and meet more of you in the coming year, and we will do our best to continue sharing meaningful movement-based art.

-Autumn
(Code f.a.d. Artistic Director)

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About Us, Dancers

A Day in the Life of a Code f.a.d. Dancer: Kristina Loflin

Kristina gets ready to perform "Julep"

Kristina gets ready to perform “Julep”

Editor’s note: Welcome to the second installment of “A Day in the Life of a Code f.a.d. Dancer!” We hope you enjoy learning a bit more about what our newest dancer, Kristina Loflin, does when she’s not dancing with us.

Monday, Dec 17, 2012

8:03am – Wake up. Walk into the bathroom, look in the mirror, and scare myself. Quickly reach for the mouthwash and comb my hair into a ponytail, all to impress my dog. He’s very judgmental.

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8:07am – Walk Mackie… more like let Mackie people watch and maybe he remembers to handle his business.

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8:20am – Loudly sing in the shower, waking my husband up. Josh loves my singing, he just doesn’t know it yet!

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8:36am – Cook breakfast while wrapping gifts for the kids I adopted off the angel tree. Smoke detectors go off because I’m not paying attention. Breakfast is a little burnt, but it adds character.

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9:09am – Dance in the bathroom to the TLC Pandora station while getting dressed for work. Slowly but surely, I’m getting dressed – debating highly on long hair or short hair for the day. Ask Josh his opinion and he says, “you’ll look fabulous either way.” What an awesome husband!

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9:57am – Leave apartment looking like a true bag lady with angel tree gifts, a bag of clothes to take to the tailors, and my ever so cute Thirty One lunch bag.

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10:02am – Arrive at the tailors but she isn’t there although it says store opens at 10. As if she didn’t know I was coming… I mean she didn’t but still… come on, I’m on a schedule here!

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10:05am – Seamstress pulls up. I’m a little pissed-off at the moment but I smile anyway. She is the best in Cary so I will tolerate this tardiness but this mark goes in the book.

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10:17am – Arrive at work – 13 minutes early! I’m feeling like a winner!

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10:30am – Finally settled and ready to start the day.

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11:45am – Look at the time and sees that it’s 11:45 a.m. Holy shit, I was suppose to have an appointment at 11am! Where have I been that it has taken me 45 minutes to realize that no one is in my office?!?

*Editor’s note: Apologies for the 4-letter word, but yes, there is some cursing within the Code f.a.d. world. As a humorous additive; however, whenever the cursing comes from myself in rehearsal the other dancers laugh and say it is like hearing your mom curse. Awesome… I am seen as a mother to dancers who are mostly my own age. Anyways, back to Kristina’s day…

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11:48am – Call the potential student to see where she is (Kristina works in admissions at a local college), and she informs me that her daughter is sick. Although I understand sickness happens, I can ensure you that the phone companies are still in business. I reschedule her appointment, but this mark goes in the book (along with the tailor’s tardiness mark from earlier).

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12:49pm – Realize that I’m starting to get tired. Debate if I should get a cup of coffee or take a nap on my break. I decide against the coffee, but the idea of a nap still sounds tempting.

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at the office

at the office

3pm – Student walks in for info. I love when students walk in for info. I love the fact that I can take a break from doing follow-up calls and answering tons of emails. I love that human interaction is an option. Yay! Did I mention I love walk-ins? Lots of love! Lots of love and exclamation points! Yay, for love! Yay, for exclamation points! Yay for yay!

*Editor’s note: Wow, Kristina has lots of enthusiasm! I hope she is this excited to learn some new choreography for Finding Place soon; I have a wonderful duet planned for her and Kelley Murphy. Stay tuned to the blog for some video clips to come in future weeks.

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3pm-6:45pm – I was so busy with appointments that I don’t even remember what happened. (Let your imagination be your guide…)

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6:48pm – I take a break, after my few hours of meetings with students, to talk with my co-worker. I express my need for a glass of wine. I sigh at the fact I still have another hour of work to go. She laughs and brags about how she leaves in 12 minutes. I give her an evil look and assure her that I will moonwalk out of the office tomorrow when I leave at 6pm and she’s stuck until 8pm working. Her laugh is cut short. I grin and walk away.

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7pm – I see my co-worker happily dance out of the office. She may have won the battle but the war is still in session.

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7:54pm – I start packing my belongings to go home. I began to feel excitement that I will be home in time for a deliciously fun-filled episode of reality tv! That excitement is cut short after talking with Josh. I forgot we must complete Christmas shopping tonight or it will not get done in time.

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8pm – Clock out.

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8:05pm – Arrive in my apartment complex. I admire all the pretty Christmas lights that my neighbors have put up. I think maybe I should do that and quickly think, “yea, maybe next year.”

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8:12-8:37pm – Josh and I sweep through the store gathering all the last minute details for Christmas gifts for our family members. We head to checkout, and our cashier is super chipper for it to be 8:30 at night. She must have drunk a Red Bull. (She obviously didn’t drink enough to give her wings; wings to fly away with the other United Chipper People of America at 8:30 at Night Coalition.)

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9pm – Get cozy in bed just in time for Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Goodnight world!

-Kristina

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About Us, Dance, Dancers, Travel

A Day in the Life of a Code f.a.d. Dancer: Jill Bradley Hall

Editor’s note: Throughout the coming months, we are pleased to share a bit more about our dancers’ lives (both in and outside of rehearsal). We are starting this journey by spending a day with each dancer, beginning with Jill Bradley Hall, who has chosen to document one day of the company’s recent performance trip to Washington, D.C.

Saturday Dec 8, 2012

Running past the Washington Monument...

Running past the Washington Monument…

8:30am – Morning run. The temperature was almost perfect for running – a little chilly and foggy but not raining. I had the privilege to run by some the most notable buildings in D.C., including the Washington Monument. Luckily, I had my phone and was able to snap a picture.
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9:30am –  Shower. One bathroom… four women. It takes us awhile to get everyone showered and dressed – especially considering the extra grooming required for a performance in our underwear.
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11:00am – Brunch, finally. Thank you, Panera Bread!
Holocaust Museum

Holocaust Museum

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12:00pm – Metro ride. We set off in search of museums and monuments; however, we were quickly distracted by a street arts and crafts market. I managed to find three Christmas presents for family and new earrings and a bracelet for myself! After shopping we walked through the city, across the lawn at the Smithsonian, saw the Washington Monument (for the second time today), and headed to the Holocaust Museum. Note: do not have mace in your bag when attempting to enter a national museum or monument. It’s not allowed. I had to surrender my mace and was pulled aside and searched. Once inside you are left to explore the exhibits on your own. There are no words to express the horrific events of the Holocaust. The experience [of going through the museum] was overwhelming and emotionally exhausting but one I’m thankful to have experienced. Unfortunately Kelley, Autumn, and I spent entirely too much time at the Holocaust Museum and were then running late for our call time at the theater.
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5:00pm – Mad dash back to the apartment! Quickly gather all the things we needed for the performance, stop by Subway for dinner on the go, and a bakery for a cupcake to be used in place of a cake for tonight’s performance.
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6:20pm – We finally arrive at the theater. Christina and I rehearse with Human Landscape Dance for a small role assisting in their portion of the show. Then it’s on to makeup, hair, and warm-ups. As the backstage manager begins to give us the countdown to top of show, the nerves of being mostly naked on stage begin to kick in.
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8:00pm – As “places” is called, we all strip off our sweat pants and step onstage in our underwear. The curtain is opened, the music and lights come on, and the show begins. All too soon our portion of the performance is over. I think it went well.
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9:30pm – Post show reception in the lobby. We met a couple who were attending their first dance concert, and they loved the show.
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10:00pm – Metro ride back to Dupont circle. It seemed like it took forever for the red line train to arrive!
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11:00pm – Late night dinner and drinks and then home to bed so that we can do it all again tomorrow.
-Jill
Jill performs "Regulation"

Jill performs “Regulation”

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