act/re/act

In Conversation with Ruth Zaporah

Join me to start a new season of act/re/act with this amazing conversation with Ruth Zaporah. Active in improvisational performance since the 1960s, Ruth shares her wealth of knowledge about improv, Zen Buddhism, and navigating the world as an improvisational artist. The creator of Action Theater, Ruth has a unique lens as an expert performance and a highly regarded teacher. Check out this conversation as I'm sure you'll find much to learn within.
 

Conversation between Daniel Burkholder & Cass Tunick

In this, the final episode of the second season of act/re/act, Cass Tunick returns, but this time to interview Daniel - a bit of a role reversal.
We touch on an array of subjects including dance improvisation, performance, the Feldenkrais Method, freedom, making choices, how to relate to music when improvising, and a story about my grandfather who was a bricklayer.
Find out more about Cass here: http://www.cassieterman.com
Find out more about me here: http://www.danielburkholdertheplayground.org
Find out more about the podcast here: https://actreact.podbean.com
Enjoy!
 
PS. if you have any ideas of people whom I may want to interview for the third season of act/re/act podcast, please send suggestions to daniel@danielburkholder.com Thanks!

Conversation with Audrey Chen

Welcome to my conversation with Audrey Chen, a wonderful and captivating musician who I have had the pleasure of first seeing her perform in the early 2000s in the DC/Baltimore area, where we both lived at the time. I have also collaborated with Audrey in a work commissioned by The Kennedy Center and have had the opportunity to perform with her a number of times, but not in a number of years. It was a pleasure to catch up with her, hear how her improvisational practice has evolved, and what she's up to these days.
See Audrey's complete biography below. 
In this conversation, Audrey and I discuss practical considerations in artistic decisions (or, how one's life can dictate artistic choices), parenting, being surprised, the importance of exercise, training, her use of voice and cello, and the difference between performing in an ensemble, a duet, or solo. Was a great conversation! 
Find out more about Audrey here: www.audreychen.com
Listen to some of her music here: https://soundcloud.com/audreychen
Find out more about me here: http://www.danielburkholdertheplayground.org
Find out more about the podcast here: https://actreact.podbean.com
Enjoy! 
 
Audrey Chen's Bio:
Over the past 16 years, Audrey Chen's predominant focus has been her solo work, joining together the extended and inherent vocabularies of the cello, voice and analog electronics. More recently, she has begun to shift back towards the exploration of the voice as a primary instrument, delving even more deeply into her own version of narrative and non-linear storytelling. She derives her sound material in a continuous process, championing the "in-between" and overlooked. Regardless of instrument, her mode of experimentation touches both the abstractly beautiful and the aggressively unsettling, creating a kind of curiously imagined architecture, non-prosaic song or ritual that reaches beyond gravity or language.
 
Recent projects, aside from performing solo, include her long-running voices duo with Phil Minton, duos HISS & VISCERA with modular synth player Richard Scott, BEAM SPLITTER with Norwegian trombonist Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø, and the “romantic noise duo” AFTERBURNER with Doron Sadja (electronics/light projection). Past projects include work with German conceptual artist John Bock, a duo with NYC abstract turntablist Maria Chavez, and a quartet with Nate Wooley, C. Spencer Yeh, and Todd Carter. Her new projects include a double duo/quartet with BEAM SPLITTER and STREIFENJUNKO’s, Eivind Lønning and Espen Reinersten and MOPCUT with Lukas König and Julien Desprez. 
 
Among her more recent album releases include, "By the Stream" with Phil Minton - Subrosa (Brussels), "Hiss & Viscera" with Richard Scott - Sound Anatomy (Berlin), "Rough Tongue", BEAM SPLITTER'S debut LP - Corvo Records (Berlin) and her long-awaited new solo album "Runt Vigor" - Karl Records (Berlin).
 
American born but currently based in Berlin, Germany, Chen has performed across Europe, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, Taiwan, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, and the USA. 

Conversation with Ed Sarath

Welcome to my conversation with Ed Sarath, a Professor of Music in the Department of Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, as well as the director of the U-M Program in Creativity and Consciousness Studies. He founded and serves as president of the International Society for Improvised Music, and has written two books on music, improvisation, and consciousness. 
In this conversation, Ed and I discuss jazz, free improvisation, Integral Theory, teaching improvisation, and how meditation supports an improvisational practice. Was an amazing conversation. 
Find out more about Ed here: http://edsarath.com/wordpress/
Find out more about his work here: https://www.jazzcosmos.com
Find out about the International Society for Improvised Music here: http://www.isimprov.org
Find out more about me here: http://www.danielburkholdertheplayground.org
Find out more about the podcast here: https://actreact.podbean.com
Enjoy! 

Conversation with Cass Tunick

Welcome to my conversation with Cass Tunick, a senior teacher of Ruth Zaporah's Action Theater, and an amazing performer in her own right. 
In this conversation we talk about, of course, improvisational performance, but also training, collaboration, what happens when you walk on stage with absolutely no plan, Buddhism, and the practice of getting lost. 
Find out more about Cass here: http://www.cassieterman.com
Find out more about me here: http://www.danielburkholdertheplayground.org
Find out more about the podcast here: https://actreact.podbean.com
Enjoy! 
 

Conversation with Melanie George

Finally, the beginning of the second season of act/re/act!
To start this second I have a fascinating conversation with Melanie George, a dancer/choreographer who's artistic practice is rooted in jazz dance. She is one of the few jazz dance artists, that I'm aware of, who actively incorporates improvisation in her teaching and choreography. In this episode we discuss why Melanie explores improvisation in her jazz dance practice, what she means by shared movement vocabulary, improvisation as a choreographic tool, and how to explore the known knowns. 
Find out more about Melanie George here: https://melaniegeorge.org
Find out more about Melanie's Jazz Dance Direct project: https://www.jazzdancedirectory.com
Find out more about me here: http://www.danielburkholdertheplayground.org
Find out more about the podcast here: https://actreact.podbean.com

Conversation with Alvin Hill

In this, the fifth and final episode of season one of act/re/act, I have a conversation with multi-media artist and DJ, Alvin Hill . In this conversation we discuss how Alvin began DJing in the 80s, how he prepares for a gig, the relationship he tries to develop with a crowd, DJing as an improvisation art, and his multi-media performance group, Alvin Hill Media Ensemble.
Find out more about Alvin Hill here: https://www.alvinhill.com
Find out more about me here: http://www.danielburkholdertheplayground.org
Find out more about the podcast here: https://actreact.podbean.com
Alvin's Bio:
Alvin Hill is a technology based artist whose work takes the form of performances and installations and often combines sound, still image, video, projection, light, physical computing, and DJ arts.
Enjoy! 

Conversation with Ferne Bronson

In this, the fourth episode of act/re/act, I have a conversation with Founder and Artistic Director of Ko-Thi Dance Company, Ferne Bronson. In this conversation we discuss West African dance, improvisation, how Ferne finds the dance in the transitions between the steps, and some wonderful clay pots she found while traveling in Africa. It all adds up to an amazing conversation - I'm sure you will find this converstion with Ferne as insightful and delightful as I as did! 
Find out more about Ferne Bronson and Ko-Thi Dance Company: http://www.ko-thi.org
Find out more about me here: http://www.danielburkholdertheplayground.org
Find out more about the podcast here: https://actreact.podbean.com
 
Ferne's Bio: Caulker is the founder and Artistic/Executive Director of the Ko-Thi Dance Company, Wisconsin’s oldest African American arts organization. Ko-Thi, founded in 1969, is dedicated to the preservation and expression of the performing arts from the African Continent, Caribbean and United States. She taught at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee since 1971, where she was a Full Professor in the Peck School of the Arts – Dance Department until she retired as Professor Emerita in 2016. Her research is focused on links between traditional African danced and musical forms throughout the African Diaspora. She is particularly interested in the relationship between arts training and exposure, increased self- esteem and social behavior. She is a Fulbright Scholar. Her Fulbright award allowed her to study and travel in Tanzania, East Africa for 3 months. Caulker has served on many panels including the NEA and WAB. She served on the Board of Directors of the Wisconsin Arts Board for one 3-year term.