me kissing Denise

This is Denise. She's yet another cast member of Framing Bodies: LOVE ME. I'm going to be lazy and tell you to find all the associated links in the last post.

But about Denise. You can probably tell by her expression that she carries with her a certain joie de vivre. She's not just acting here.

I was also able to trick her into participating in a work-in-progress performance installation last fall. We moved together, improvising, inside a box taped off on the floor. There were tiny mirrors, but not enough. Hence the work-in-progress status. I have a DVD of it and I think we look rather good together. We need to find a place to do this installation again, with more mirrors and a couple of other tweaks. It seems Denise is up for again being tricked into my hair-brained performance schemes. I like that in a person. I like that a whole lot.

me kissing Nichelle

This evening, the Archway Gallery hosted another showing of Framing Bodies: LOVE ME , the dance film from Frame Dance Productions. I was in it and I think I've already kissed half the cast.

Nichelle Strzepek is another cast member from the film, but she holds a special spot in the film. She was something like 20 months pregnant when we shot the thing. It was in July, in Houston, and we were all so very hot. How in the world she did it, I just don't know.

But obviously, she lived to tell the tale and as you can tell from the photo, she is none the worse for wear.

Nichelle holds another distinction in the Houston dance community. She is one of the most active and informative dance bloggers in town and probably a good distance out of town, too. Her Dance Advantage site is chock full of information about dance, especially in regards to dance education. Have a question about selecting a dance studio for class, for yourself or for your child, about what to expect from a dance curriculum and just about anything else dance ed related? If Nichelle doesn't have an answer, she probably knows who does.

But she probably has the answer. Go explore her site. You'll be surprised by what you didn't know but will be glad to learn.

me kissing John

The second former co-worker at the MFAH is John W. George. I don't know what the W stands for. And really, is it any of our business?

But that's beside the point. John was one of the more experienced people I worked with, always great for answering questions and solving problems. And ask him about antique and thrift stores. I know next to nothing about them myself, but if I ever need to know something about them, John will be the first person I ask.

I'm so glad the museum is not far from where I now work and easy to get to. Those three months there were fun times with good people. Apparently it was good enough for them that they let me come back and kiss them.

me kissing Michele

I had to be somewhere at 7:00 this evening, and the MFAH was in between work and that somewhere.

So I stopped by the museum to see my buddies there. I worked there as a temp last spring and I always enjoy dropping in and saying "howdy."

And I got to kiss a couple of them. Here is Michele, acting all surprised and whatever. Yeah, she's super-cute.

me kissing Shanon

Shanon Adams is, I admit, the dancer I know least well of the group I kissed tonight. I've seen her dance a few times, of course. She's a member of Suchu Dance and, yeah, she was in a dance film tonight. She danced with Alex in Ashley's Drain.

See how all these kissees are connected?


But she is one of the few people who has been following this blog and asked me to kiss her. So what are you gonna do?

I'm here to spread a little sweetness wherever I can.

me kissing Rosie

It seems a lot of my dancer world revolves around Frame Dance, doesn't it?

Well, Rosie Trump isn't in the Frame Dance company, but she was, like me, a guest in Framing Bodies: LOVE ME. Unlike me, she's an actual dancer and teaches at Rice University and makes live performances and dance film and . . . well, you know, everything dance. AND, not only did her film, If she needs a third eye she grows it, get screened at the JCC this evening, it was also screened in a dance film festival today in Amsterdam.

Dang, I'm kissing all the cool kids tonight.

me kissing Kristen

Kristen Frankiewicz is another Frame Dancer, so like Alex, she gets her fair share of screen time. Like Alex, she's in rehearsal for Frame's next show, coming in May (and their monthly showings as they make progress on the piece.

But that's not all. For another two weeks, she can be seen on Saturday afternoons at DiverseWorks here in Houston, preforming in the multimedia installation, A Crack in Everything (created by dance company zoe - juniper).

Her name pops up here and there, including in Dance Magazine. And yeah, she still let me kiss her, because she's cool like that.

me kissing Alex

Again with the dancers. Well, I was at the Jewish Community Center tonight for their Motion Captured screening of dance films and so I was, again, surrounded by dancers. It's a hard life.

Alex Soares is a dancer, choreographer, and dance film superstar, to judge his appearances in them. At tonight's screening, he was in two. Granted, he's in the company of Frame Dance Productions, which makes dance films (and they let me in one last year---so I can say I've danced with Alex), so that creates a few possibilities, but besides tonight's Frame Dance offering (Satin Stitch), he was also in Ashley Horn's Drain. (I kissed Ashley a few weeks ago.)

Currently, Alex is in rehearsals for the next Frame Dance live performance and working in the studio on his own choreography as part of a HopeWerks Space Grant. He'll be premiering that March 24 at Hope Stone.

He's a busy guy, but if you saw him onstage or on film, you'd know why. Which is to say, you should see him on stage or on film.

me kissing Loueva

Loueva Smith is someone I've run across now and then but didn't really get to know until last summer, when we were both in the dance film, Framing Bodies: LOVE ME.

She's primarily a poet and branching out a bit. She always has surprising images in her work and just a couple of months ago appeared in a multimedia show she co-created with Freneticore Dance Theater. Her Tenderina was the tale of a stripper ballerina, but that title doesn't begin to tell you about the truly tender story that was told through fresh images and not a little humor.

Loueva is treasure. If you see she's reading somewhere near you, do make the effort to hear her. You can thank me later.

me kissing Hot Margo

On the mini-release form I have my kissees sign, I have the fill-in-the-blank question that says, "I wish to be identified as __________"

That she wrote in "Hot Margo" tells you about all you need to know about Margo Stutts Toombs. She also gave me permission to use her full name, but we were at Archway Gallery, where she'd just sang a spicy song at a poetry reading and with that red flower in her hair . . . well, what can I say? She's Hot Margo.

Margo is one of my Fieldwork buddies. She writes and performs stories---many from her own life---that are alternately funny, heartbreaking, and occasionally shocking. She's a saucy gal and I maybe adore her a little bit.

What I most admire about Margo is that she never stops exploring. A (very) few years ago, she did an invitation only performance for her 60th birthday. She's now planning a reprise for when she turns 65. In between, while keeping a demanding day job, she's gone back to school to learn film making. Now she's getting her short films into these little film festivals here and there. How do you not adore her?

When I grow up, I want to be Hot Margo.

me kissing Maria Cristina

 So I was at DiverseWorks briefly tonight for a little meet and greet event. Of course, I was being my usual wallflowery self and just sort of exploring the current installation (A Crack in Everything) which I had seen two weeks ago with performers cavorting through it. I love this sort of thing and there's so much about this particular piece that intrigues me but I can't formulate a solid response to it, yet.

But that's another story.

As I'm exploring this fabric, on which is projected video, a lovely woman comes up to me and starts talking about the installation. Turns out she's Maria Cristina Jadick, a member of the DW artist board. We begin talking a bit about our work and I mentioned my blogs and next thing you know I'm asking if I can kiss her. She said okay.

And so I've broken through the barrier of asking a stranger for blog content. Of course, this only encourages me.

But I'm also glad to make her acquaintance. Click on her name above and explore her website. Some good, challenging, work to be seen there. I hope we cross paths again.