One by one the seasons change and peanut butter begins

I woke up yesterday morning to Fall. It seems like Mother Nature woke up Saturday morning and realized it was October and needed to cool things off a bit. Walking to the grocery store and back home brought back so many memories of France. In many ways I am living a parallel life to my time in France. However I don't have the luxury of having Laine here as a piece of home to hang out with and comfort each other. 

This week went by SO fast! I can't believe it. I'm excited for the next 2 weeks to pass as quickly so I can be home for a few days soaking up the SLO life. Until then I must really dig in and get a lot of work done. 

Yesterday while looking at kittens up for adoption at the local shelter I happened to look up the band The Acorn to see if they've done anything lately. It seems they have put out a new album and allowed me to fall in love all over again!

Images from the week...

Monday I woke up to fire trucks on my street

I made peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

Click on Read More to see my recipe for Peanut Butter muffins with jam centers for an easy to go version of a PB&J.

The Intimacy Chronicles: Under Over Through

The latest section of The Intimacy Chronicles I filmed this during Finals week while the Calpoly studio was free. I have been working on a few of these phrases for a while and a few I made up while there. The music I stumbled upon was super inspiring and wonderful. It is by The Knife in collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock. it is 11 mins of wonderfulness.

I had a lot of fun playing with this material, it was a good release after finishing my last final.

enjoy

The Intimacy Chronicles: Under Over Through from Lauren Chertudi on Vimeo.

Trains

I took this video on the train to Paris from Rouen it is the perfect example of what it felt like to be on a train


music by Eddie Vedder from the Into the Wild soundtrack

Study music for the dancer mind

I am slightly obsessed with Steve Reich and his music, I use it to study A LOT. I find it easy to focus and block out the world while listening. I feel almost as if it transports me to a new place.

this is one of my favorite pieces he has composed

it reminds me of rinding on trains in Europe and the peace that the trains always gave me. Hours to just look out the window and the world around me and think. There was no problem too big to be solved on a train ride. My favorite train ride is Rouen to Paris /Paris to Rouen along the Seine.

The Intimacy Chronicles: Boxes and Curves Inspiration

Heima is the Sigur Ros movie that inspired my boxes and curves improv

take a look it is beautiful music and beautiful videography

Part 1



Part 2



Part 3

My Nugget of Presence

here is the phrase created for my nugget of presence, I plan on speaking french phrases at the end when the hands move towards the ears and drop. To read the ideas behind the phrase see posts Presence and Presence 2

A couple of the movements are inspired by other things as well. The hand follows the veins on the inside of the arm comes from a line of poetry my friend Corey wrote while in France. And the head nuzzle on the shoulder and the hand that curls to a fist comes from a guy I knew in France as well.

Music by Sigur Ros

Enjoy

Nugget of Presence from Lauren Chertudi on Vimeo.

The man I want to marry! Seriously

These are the coolest videos EVER! I plan on marrying the man in the second video "My passion, my job, my life!!!" He's everything I want in a man: cute, talented, lives in Paris, and is a B-boy

Made in Paris from tomson on Vimeo.

My passion, my job, my life !!! from tomson on Vimeo.

French Press Shots

Taken while in France by Laine Riley Fall 2009

France Dance Photos 2009

View more presentations from LChertudi.

The Initmacy Chronicles: rules and restrictions

Part 5!

I finally got my hard drive recovered from my old laptop and I was able to recover the lost dance videos from it (YAY!!!) This piece was all about using a very limited space (seriously limited!). It is the hallway between my room and Fran's. The doors go to the toilet and the shower that we shared.

I wanted to work with the limited space and see if I could fill it up, fit large phrases into small spaces, play with height vs length, etc. I wish I had been able to film a bit more in the space but this was all captured right before my laptop died and I had no space on my camera memory sticks for videos if I wanted to continue taking photos for the last month of my time abroad.

I remixed the phrases in the video a bit and set it to music by School of Seven Bells, song I am under no disguise.

The Intimacy Chronicles: rules and restrictions

The Intimacy Chronicles: rules and restrictions from Lauren Chertudi on Vimeo.

Presence part 2

So I've been contemplating my nugget quite a lot lately and I keep thinking about my time in France and the effect that it had on my views of life and my way of living, specifically the awareness of self. I realized very quickly that I can never be anyone but my true self; therefore I should explore all the parts of me. The soul and/or spirit are ever changing and I found that every day I realized something new, sometimes it completely conflicted something I had just learned about myself.


Being unable to speak French and communicate through language opened another opportunity to communicate through facial expressions and movement. I had a lot of time in France to contemplate and think things through. I internalize naturally when I process new information or ideas. I don't like to share what I'm thinking or feeling I'd rather work through it alone and then share my conclusion (maybe). Especially if it makes me uncomfortable or vulnerable.

I keep thinking about presence and how each person's interacts, do they? I feel like presence creates those overwhelming instincts about people, almost like an aura that radiates. Some radiate more than others. Do we like to be around people that match our presence or do we like imbalance? Does an imbalance of presence create balance?


There was someone in France that had a presence, presence that I was addicted to. Sometimes it was great other times it was a nightmare. Which brought me to the idea of Charisma, is external charisma the same as presence? No because you can have a stern, commanding presence and not be at all charismatic. So, was it the presence of my friend's charisma that I liked? I don't know...

Presence

I am currently working with a company here in San Luis Called Variable Velocity Performance Group. One of the directors approached me about the idea for the new show and asked me to consider the idea of presence in conjunction with my time in France and my experience abroad. She mentioned that she might want me to say something in French. My immediate thoughts were oh no! I don't speak French, but I do know people who do.

Then I started thinking about presence and what it means to me, what it meant in France, what type of presence was needed for different situations. Specifically I thought about the stuggle in France between wanting to be noticed and having a strong presence and times when you'd rather be invisible and just blend in.

I thought about the fact that presence can also be a lack of presence not just the actual being of it. Therefore I began to play with ideas like in France I knew only a few phrases that really came in handy:

Je ne comprend pas or I don't understand
Je ne sais pas or I don't know
Je ne parle pas francais or I don't speak any french
Je parle francais un peu or I speak french a little
Je veux/je voudrais or I want/I would like
Bonjour/Bonsoir/Au Revoir or good day/good evening/good bye
oui/non, d'accord, pardon, desole, s'il vous plait/merci or yes/no, ok, excuse me, sorry, please/thank you

That was the presence I had and knew. I used them to grab attention when I needed help, or to blend in so people would think I was French. These were my tools I used them in every function imaginable. Most of the time I was a chameleon I tried to slip through the cracks appear French or European at least. I never wanted to be that American or the ugly American, stereotypes were my worst fear.

That is as far as I am in my discovery of presence in my life so far, but I will keep updating the thought process.

The Initmacy Chronicles: apologies

Part 3 of The Intimacy Chronicles


This section is the complete opposite of part 2. It is entirely based on an event and feelings towards the end of my time in France. I was very emotionally all over the place. It plays with the whole inner conflict idea. Basic human emotion as I like to say. This description sounds really cliché but I promise the movement isn't.

This video was caught late one night as my camera was dying (hence it being only 2 mins long sorry). Yay for site specific work! Space as you can tell is limited. Music by Lykke Li, song Time Flies

The Intimacy Chronicles: apologies

The Initmacy Chronicles: apologies from Lauren Chertudi on Vimeo.

The Intimacy Chronicles: C'est Ma Vie Versailles

While in France I spent a bit of time working on new material based on my life there and the people I met and lived with. This is the first installment of the project that I now call The Intimacy Chronicles. The name of the project stemmed from the fact that all these videos are based on very personal (you might say private) feelings that are very intimate to me. It is a non verbal way of sharing all the things close to my heart that I would never say out loud. Essentially these are my private thoughts.

Part one is called C'est Ma Vie Versailles

This piece is based off of an experience that truly started a couple days before the trip to Versailles but came to full bloom in a way on that trip. It is a compilation of 7 one minute improvised sections. filmed in my French apartment one afternoon. Music is by Jaydiohead, song title Change Order

The Intimacy Chronicles: C'est Ma Vie Versailles

The Intimacy Chronicles: C'est ma vie, Versailles from Lauren Chertudi on Vimeo.