Dance Barter for Artist Breath - Yva Jung

Some days the life of an improviser is doubly charmed. Watch this video by Yva Jung who I happened to meet in 2008 in New York's Union Square where she was selling the breath of artists. Prices ranged from 22 cents to $121, with several 'breath samples' offered for barter (a good natured hug, a song, 32 oz Ketchup). I bartered for a 'really good dance.' Later that night I told the story while performing at a raw space in the Ambush festival (in the Brooklyn neighborhood, Bushwick) and tried to recreate the dance I had improvised in Union Square. By fluke, Yva heard about the performance, got a copy of the video from Treva Wurmfeld and created this work comparing the two events. In the audience that night were Yvonne Meier, Ishmael Houston-Jones (you can hear him laughing), Carla Peterson, a few ex-pats from San Francisco, and a bunch of artists/people from the neighborhood.


If the link doesn't work, try pasting this url into your browser.

http://vimeo.com/19192714

Laugh Scream

Ok I've learned to embed videos. Here is a recent improvised performance I'm calling Laugh Scream. Ten minute solo performance, no prescribed choreography, at CI 36, an international conference/gathering on the 36th anniversary of Contact Improvisation. Questions endure about value and representation and how sucky video is worse for dance than showing nothing at all.