Mitzi Adams – Page 4

Premiering Bits & Pieces

On August 26th, I set out to make a short film, Bits and Pieces, with my dancer Annie Heinemann. I missed my own memo on what the film was going to be about, but relied on my inimitable “Jiffy-Mix” style to arrange the day by going from different site specific locations, where I basically shot from the hip. Our footage went into the can where it sat until I could find a new in-person editor. After I accomplished that, I went to work and created the trailer. Things were moving along, and then my life was put on pause after I learned the news of my sister’s suicide. Moving through the scenes after I started things up again, I was struck by the nature of the clips I saved — unconsciously created about my sister. As an aside, I typically write poems about all my works, and so I thought I’d share the poem below which was written before I knew about my sister’s passing. Needless to say, this was a prophetic unfolding, and it’s my honor to dedicate this short film to her.

Bits and Pieces

October 3rd, 2021

Bits and pieces of a broken life… shades of memories, traumas, and old rusted cars that had driven too many miles…

A death, a gathering, cards and flowers — all part of a fine, nicely decorated package of a life, no longer breathing…

We cry, we celebrate, we crumble and sink into the long days of loneliness and grief that engulf each day… a stark reality cloaked in an outer coating of what still seems surreal.

The empty chats with well-meaning friends turn the calendar pages, one month after the next — a dry, run-down sort of relationship, that aims to build memories, but instead just ticks the time away.

The tiny hands and feet of a life that could’ve brought smiles and cheers on soccer fields, and birthdays filled with balloons and bows of brightly colored joy — lost to the ages along with all the others — middle aged, old and greying, and some just graduating…

Too many souls now mingling together in the cosmic sea of recycled energy — enjoying a laugh, a hug, and sharing bits and pieces on their lessons learned.

~MJA

Annie Heinemann in Bits and Pieces

Check out our photo album from the day!

Premiering Black and Bluish

I am happy to premiere ACD’s new duet, Black and Bluish! This duet depicts the bruising of humanity from the pandemic, in addition to the leftover wreckage from the last administration. An inane, circus-like mix of music and movement, merges with contemporary beauty in this peculiar piece that explores unconventional territory.

Dancers Selah Piett and Christopher Taylor take the stage after just a few short rehearsals to bring out the flavors of this piece made during the 2021 on-going pandemic. Enjoy this photo album of their work, as well!

Feeling a Little Blue

How did it happen that my new film, Bits & Pieces, would morph into being about my sister’s passing? The trailer (below) was surely prophetic. I had many dreams, and my unconscious mind was apparently preparing me for the worst. The day of the film shoot on August 26th, we began in a cemetery. Part of me thought, really? It’s such a hackneyed venue to use in films. I loosely was thinking of a close friend of Annie’s, (my dancer), who had experienced a recent loss. It was topical, but really not my main thrust for the film, but then again, I didn’t know that day what exactly the film would be about. Now, tuning into the depths of my soul, I honor the blue, the raw, and the spiritual knowing, that my sister is in a better place, and that this film will be dedicated to her memory. As the editing process was placed on hold after learning the news of her suicide on October 14th, it’s been a process getting back to it, with so many factors preventing its completion. After my sister’s funeral, on her birthday, October 17th, the deep, blue tones I created for one of the film sequences began to swirl in my mind. The color merged with my emotions — needless to say… I’m feeling blue.

Stay tuned for our short film coming soon!

Summer Project at Triskelion Arts

Black and Bluish, a new duet that emerged over a few short rehearsals, sheds the usual love themes and moves in the direction of warped! Christopher Taylor, a newly chosen Alvin Ailey II member, who has already done two projects of mine, joined a new dancer and friend of his, Selah Piett, to work through some of the themes that have been swirling in my mind lately. The bruising of humanity from this pandemic, and from our last administration, has left everyone feeling a little black and blue.

With a little inspiration from an old tv variety show sound clip, mixed with sound effects from an antique Victrola… a Night Gallery-feel scene sets the tone for the duet. The inane past government’s desecration of our moral fabric, led me to interject these oddities which appear within the piece. Does it work? Well, I don’t know, but I did it anyway.

The day of the shoot, I hadn’t even finished the piece! I had time before my videographer, Joel Stephen, showed up, to whip up the rest — a beat the clock kind of experience — that typically helps me to work better. My original female dancer, who was slated to be in this project, got injured, so last minute hiring became my challenge, along with my timing, to get things done. Such is the world of dance! Thank goodness my dancer’s injury healed.

After the smoke cleared from our screeching wheels, it was lights, camera, action! Amazingly, it all came together! I was super impressed by the spontaneity and talent on deck with Joel, and light board operator and designer, Conor Mulligan, who did a great job taking direction and implementing his own style. I’m sure the dancers felt a little beat-up after this 4 hour-mega event, but fortunately, they walked away without being black and blue.

A Moment in the Courtyard of Triskelion Arts in Brooklyn

Summer Film

*Annie Heinemann in action during our film shoot!*

August 26th was a very hot day in Greenwich, CT. A day that most people stayed inside with the AC cranked on HIGH! I, on the other hand, was outside all day with my veteran dancer, Annie Heinemann, shooting footage for our next film short. Along with multiple costume changes, were multiple site-specific locations — each where creative ideas poured out, as the camera merely caught the action. It felt like a grab-and-go filmmaking day. A variety pack of sorts, that started with a tapestry of footage from a cemetery; moving on to a beautifully landscaped park, with an arched bridge over a babbling brook; and then, on to grounds of Greenwich Academy, where a raw dock jutted out into a pond with a vigorous fountain; and culminated with indoor shots grabbed in the darkness of a bathroom of the lower school.

Little story boarding was going on to connect all the dots, but Annie was ready, willing, and able to pull off everything as spontaneously as I. She’s equipped with technique, style, and panache, allowing my job to be easy! With so much footage in the can, I now have the task of rummaging through all of it to create a film that I hope will dive deep into the psyche of that hot, summer day!

It’s Easy to Drown Again

In 2018 I choreographed a solo based on the idea of just how delicate human nature is, and how easy it is to drown in life. In all actuality, the piece originally was inspired by a client of mine that had attempted suicide. I was thrown by her actions, and could only guess that beneath the surface of her life, there was some deep, dark stuff lurking about. Thankfully, she recovered and with time, is now fully thriving. That was her. And now, we revisit the same theme again, only this time it focuses on one of my sisters. The barnacles attached to her sinking ship created waves in her life that caused her to attempt suicide 2 weeks ago, and now I am revisiting It’s Easy to Drown, yet again. Her stay in the hospital got me to thinking about the piece again, and how the process of making it was quite therapeutic. As I hit rewind, I am reminded that in the continuum of life, there are no guarantees… only the awareness that every day is a gift!

Above photo by Whitney Brown

Launching New Projects Soon!

Interrupted by a crisis of international proportion, coming back is not an easy task. Hybrid projects are emerging, as full stage productions are daunting, expensive, and not yet totally safe. COVID-19 has altered our lives, but as we strive to make a comeback, we’re encouraged to be arbiters of change. Summer poses new projects for ACD highlighting innovations outside the box. Watch for our announcements coming soon!

Honkin’ Red High Heels to Premiere on New Year’s Eve!

Thanks for attending our premiere! This event is now over. Please check back soon for the public availability of this film, Honkin’ Red High Heels!

This is NOT a commentary on Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale, “The Red Shoes,” but yet, I am combining red shoes with dance in an entirely different way to premiere, Honkin’ Red High Heels! On New Year’s Eve at 9pm, be prepared for about 16-minutes of a bizarre new film short from Adams Company Dance made remotely in its entirety during the 2020 pandemic. My editor extraordinaire, Joel Stephen, happily took on the project with me.

Featuring three beautiful dancers working out of their home settings, while donning their flashy red high heels, either on or off their feet — this film has something for everyone! Experience their outdoor environments melding into their rooms, and their red shoes appearing like a Cheshire Cat on a hidden branch. Tricks will be played on their soles, as their consciousness drowns in the waters of the unknown. Diving deep into the psyches of these three, bold, woman… you’ll witness the raw layers of themselves unravel in this Alice in Wonderland-like experimental film short. With music from hard-driving drum beats layered with lazy saxophone riffs, to warm piano ballads, and sad violin lines — this musical medley ends with a droning electric guitar that brings all the emotions to the surface — eerily pressing on a 2020 nerve!

Joel Stephen has been on the editing team of Adams Company Dance both on camera and in the editing room. His tireless efforts working with my zany brain, have paved the way for many projects, culminating in this last passion project, Honkin’ Red High Heels. During this pandemic, we never saw one another except on Zoom. After first sifting through hours of iPhone footage sent from the dancers’ Zoom rehearsals with me, and later sending the core files to Joel, we assembled the pieces of this weird jigsaw puzzle over a period of approximately two months. Thanks to his technical prowess and creative input, this film would not have been possible.

Check out more photos from our Honkin’ Red High Heels album here!

Farewell 2020!!!

During a year jammed-packed with so many news items it made our heads spin, not the least of which was a worldwide pandemic, it’s easier to say what we didn’t do than what we did. The dark, gloomy feelings that permeated the minds of millions of people were contagious, devouring our hearts of that sweet, uplifting feeling that seemed in a distant past. Deflecting into my artist-side became a great comfort. Considering the obstacles stacked against me, I managed to swim to the surface here and there and breathe some life into some projects.

Typically when I make new work, I write a poem or at least a statement that sums up the themes. If given the opportunity to make a new piece about 2020, the poem might go something like this:

Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrow…
We have so many tears we need not borrow…
Our collective grief will be here tomorrow…
and the next day…
and the day after that…

And so it goes, I did go on to write out longer prose, spitting out the spoiled, rotten pieces of 2020 — in the middle of the night, no less. Straight out of the gate in March, some of this fodder from my writings spilled out into the editing of my film short, Sidelined. So many fits and starts in editing this delayed the premiere til July, even though we shot the project on a cold day in February — long before we knew what was about to hit us. Read on about the behind-the-scenes of this prophetic piece here.

In the meantime, between editing, I dusted off some pieces from the archives and shared them throughout the year. Dressing up pieces from ACD’s past with social media posts, was a practice I fondly grew to like. One of the highlights, was replaying our Going Solo concert, and gathering the dancers back together for a Zoom-moderated interview about their process. My editor, Faith Marek, was on board with me on this, weaving together photo images of their solos prior to the screening. Re-purposing a whole concert was really exciting to me and the dancers, as so many folks couldn’t get to Brooklyn back in May of 2019. Check out the experience and replay here.

As October rolled around, I finally had my first Zoom rehearsals with my dancers to create Honkin’ Red High Heels. It seemed disastrous to me to be in my dingy, junk-filled basement without the luxury of a sprawling dance studio, but I was learning to adjust and lower the barre (lol!) for myself. The dancers got me, fortunately, and provided playback that proved to me that they interpreted correctly — shocking, as I thought the visual I demonstrated was more on the page of “Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrow!” Déjà vu… I was again involved in a couple months of remote editing, but this time with my editor, Joel Stephen — an ACD team editor who helped elevate this project to levels unexpected. I massaged every snippet of footage the dancers sent me on their iPhones til I got what I wanted. Though Zoom and many phone calls, Joel listened and pulled levers to make my imagination come to life! This all-remote film short was a labor of love, and if you can look symbolically into the brain of this work, you’ll see why I said it eerily presses on the nerve of 2020 — shoes burning in a fireplace at the end — need I say more!! Check out the blog on our premiere on this and look for public viewing coming soon.

Honkin’ Red High Heels Image with Annie Heinemann

Melding images of Abby Marchessault & Evita Zacharioglou in Honkin’ Red High Heels

Images in the Stream from Honkin’ Red High Heels

As I wrap up this year, and reflect back on all of its ingredients, I will proclaim that there were many silver linings amidst the muck of it all. I could linger in “Our Lady of Sorrow… “, I guess, but I think it’s best left to say that my survival strategy got me to the finish line!

Thanks to all of the dancers who contributed artistically, without whom none of this would’ve been possible!

A Halloween Treat

This trio, Short Story, seems appropriate to share on Halloween! A touch of mysterious mixed with a hint of sinister! In three sections, this REPLAY of our 2018 work is featuring dancers: Heidi Sutherland, Wade Watson, and Evita Zacharioglou. Read about this piece in our blog from that time. Enjoy!