Monday, April 13, 2015

I Journeyed Down An Unpaved Road

Submitted by Doris Green - April 13, 2015

The fight for equality begins at birth. I say this because as a youngster I realized that girls were not given the same opportunities as boys. This annoyed me to the point that I challenged them in their own arena, the sports. I was a superb athlete and could beat any boy in the neighborhood. I did not believe that the roles that defined girls and later women were fair nor did it challenge the mind. Therefore I was determined to separate myself from the pack.

In the field of music and dance I discovered that I could do something that no one had done before. This was to create a system whereby music of percussion instruments could be written on paper, thus preserving them and giving them perpetuity. Someone told me that oil vats could make music and I did not believe them until I met Rudy King, the first person to bring the Steel Pan to Brooklyn. I was immediately drawn to it. Years Later I was invited by Priscilla Taylor to write a magazine "Steel Bands of New York" that would tell the story of Steel Band men. In honor of Women's Month, the Steel Band Association recognized my achievements in music and dance with this write up. Today the fight for equality is still an issue as women still make less than a man for the same work. Therefore the struggle continues.


People reading this write up will notice my skills of percussion notation through the creation of Greenotation. When I wrote my first drum sounds, I had no idea where this unpaved road would lead. Not only was I able to align the accompanying dance movement through Labanotation creating integrated scores of African music and dance that returns the scientific basis to African music and dance that it had before much of it was lost during the middle passage. With my work African music/dance is no longer an oral tradition but is on the road to perpetuity. The mind of a woman should never be taken for granted.

[The Steel Band write-up can be found at]: 

Saturday, April 4, 2015

Artworks by Jean Kirsten

Submitted by Charlotte Wile - April 4, 2015

Recently we posted information about Jean Kirsten's intriguing exhibit at The Ohio State University, "Jean Kirsten: For Laban":
https://uas.osu.edu/exhibitions/laban

Yesterday Jean sent me two further examples of his Labanotation inspired art. The first is shown in the photo below. The image depicts the biggest print ever (until now) of one of his works. The print hangs on the glass facade of a building in Dresden, Germany.

Note: For a larger image, go here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8Q3wiYtY7OCOUJMM3A5R0dsWGM/view?usp=sharing





A fast motion video of the print being hung can be found here:
https://youtu.be/oB8F9qozQh4


The information provided below the video is in German. Here is a translation of it I obtained through Google Translate:
"Digital Customer Solutions : ITARICON expanded its portfolio and is based on digital solutions for customers and logistics processes. The realignment is now also optically visible : a large graphic of the Dresden artist Jean Kirsten graces the front window of the company building on Wiener Platz . It shows the transformation of dance movements in the two-dimensional space and can be clearly seen by the bright green of the Dresden main station."
Jean also sent me a photo of his delightful Easter Card for this year:






















Moving Technology


Submitted by Charlotte Wile - April 4, 2015
Written by Sandra Hooghwinkel

[The following notice about Sandra Hooghwinkel's website "Moving Technology" was originally posted on the CMAlist on April 2, 2015.]

Dear all,

Proudly I’d like to present to you my new website:
www.movingtechnology.net

It’s about my work, my plans, my dreams and a great deal about LMA (as they kind of overlap ).

I’m very proud of the result, as I created the entire site myself, both design, programming and content. Please be welcome to take a look!

It also holds the LMA/LBMS taxonomy that I created and sent in a few years ago. It’s been evolved and updated since then and it’s downloadable for free.

Laminated copies can be ordered online as well, just not all at the same time please! ;-)

No need to say of course, that I’m not seeing the taxonomy as the one truth to look at the LMA system, just merely as a means to create some overview in the richness and complexity of the system for myself.

Until now it has been very helpful to me, and I just hope it can be helpful to others as well.

Inspired by the work and the community as always!

Thanks, and feel free to link my website on your own…

Best wishes,
Sandra Hooghwinkel

Moving Technology
Sandra Hooghwinkel, BDaEd, CMA
Software Developer, Dancer and Certified Movement Analyst
www.movingtechnology.net
Zwolle, The Netherlands