Rivkah French discusses her creative process as a modern dance choreographer, how the pandemic is helping focus on her true purpose, and how Patreon supports her work. She also advocates for the LGBTQ community in dance. Follow her at https://www.patreon.com/Rivkahfrench, https://www.instagram.com/rivkahfrenchchoreography/, and https://www.facebook.com/RivkahFrenchChoreography/. Check out her piece Concrete Flow at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8MdQ-8Kdd0.
DanceTalks with Rivkah French: Full Transcript
Hosted by Andrea Cody, Director of Dance Houston. Originally released September 14, 2020. This transcript was generated automatically and may contain small errors.
Andrea [0:00]: Hello and welcome to DanceTalks I'm your host Andrea Cody today at all 28 2020 and my guest is Rivka French and academic type. So I found I actually was required to take an elective and college thought ballet would be the random silly thing I could do. I dropped into a ballet class, hated it, loved
Rivkah French [0:50]: It, hated, hated it, hated it, hated it, hated it, hated it, hated that I was going to commit myself to, learning to dance,
Andrea [1:12]: Really with the goal of choreographing because
Rivkah French [1:17]: That was the thing that excited me the most, was to create dance. And I had
Andrea [1:22]: Always sort of wanted to arrange when I
Rivkah French [1:27]: Look back, I see now that, I love dancing so much, in high school, and with friends and I씬, and I love sort of, of, And so I joined a dance company, dropped out of college in my fourth year, I had been these amazing 2am performances, to doing an entire Tom Waits ballet calleddebone Machine., another show called Y2K, all about the end of the world. So that was around the year 2000,, I was getting some training from him the year 2000. And
Andrea [3:23]: I realized that I was getting some training from him, but you can't just have one teacher. And I was to get it all. So
Rivkah French [3:29]: I went to the Met and really was surrounded by education. I felt like, it at the time allowed me met my artistic collaborator Robert Thoth who said,
Andrea [3:52]: I'm musician and I want to learn how to
Rivkah French [3:54]: Do film so, what if we got together and did, you, you know, dance, original dance pieces with and then we could also make dance films as well. And within a year or two of the work with him, which is, of, of, of, I, of, of,
Andrea [4:10]: Of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of the, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of,
Rivkah French [4:29]: Getting grants and commissions we decided to go ahead and build for that a theater in the east end and that was 100 C black box that really was just a wonderful part of my life to build that kids program there to the exhibit hall to start the Houston fringe festival,
Andrea [4:53]: Have weekly classes, and then I also got to live there. So you can see my cat. I'm going to start reading. I'm going to read a Martha Graham's autobiography. So yeah, we did that.
Rivkah French [5:15]: And that took me to finally realizing, oh, I don't really want to run the theater and the festival and a studio and a dance company and all of these other things. So I finally stepped away in 2016 to become an independent choreographer, which is what I'm doing now. And just really following my passion and only doing
Andrea [5:39]: Performances and shows that I am excited to do.
Rivkah French [5:44]: So, yeah, in a nutshell, that's been my dance journey. Awesome.
Andrea [5:50]: I've seen most I've seen most of it. I've loved it. I like loved going to tonight theater
Rivkah French [5:56]: It was the last love the shows you guys did there and just a whole when you were to support the community To come in and have a day So yeah
Andrea [6:48]: Themselves and you know when in you produce events where you've got dozens of or even hundreds of different groups and ideas and vicious, you know, and a lot of things. And part of the reason
Rivkah French [7:24]: Why was because I was a lesbian in the closet. And so when you
Andrea [7:29]: Have a secret or something that you're not admitting to yourself or into the rest of the world,
Rivkah French [7:34]: You I at least, you know, use that sort of what I mean to fuel and to, to like create in other ways, which was good. I mean, at least I had a positive outlet. But I was definitely, I was living a double life and I wasn't happy deep down. So when I finally admitted to myself, okay, I'm gay, and I've been, like, hiding this for so long, and I want to be a whole person, and I want to have all the parts not only explore that part of myself and like enter into really satisfying romantic relationships
Andrea [8:25]: From then on, but also it opened something up in my work and I would say definitely my choreography
Rivkah French [8:34]: And the kind of art I was making got a lot less angry
Andrea [8:39]: Because I had just been like, oh, and this like internal struggle, you know? So, and I think that happens with age anyway,
Rivkah French [9:13]: To like take things less seriously. but this has got to happen. So once it happened, it was like,
Andrea [9:20]: Phew, yeah, that was worse, but nothing that I couldn't deal with,
Rivkah French [9:26]: That I was not prepared to and then my art became lighter and more joyful and I feel like a lot of things about it really improved. And now I'm at a point where only am I, you know, an activist and a leader in the LGBT community and get to empower my community in that way and be a resource for people who are also struggling with some of those issues and be a stand for their healing and their empowerment and their expression I project.
Andrea [11:02]: But yeah, so integrating you know all the parts of myself has been really
Rivkah French [11:07]: Important for me and I just didn't have a choice. I was just too unhappy to keep going the way I was going. And there's a point where like, if
Andrea [11:16]: Something's wrong, just ignore it. Don't worry, it'll get worse, you know. It'll just be perfect. Either a line, those are your only two options. You have to like, actually
Rivkah French [11:27]: Be yourself and so and I've also been on a really wonderful
Andrea [11:58]: What's that? What's been the spiritual journey? Well, I started with therapy. I was
Rivkah French [12:07]: So anti-rel-religion and anti-spirituality in-general for a long time. So it took a long time for me to get there. And basically I was anti-church because of the anti-gay thing. that really kind of brought me the wrong way, obviously. And all the problems that are associated with organized religion and what people do with what started
Andrea [12:39]: Out as a pretty great message, you know. And then on the other
Rivkah French [12:43]: Side of that, I, I had a dad who was bipolar and who claimed to be an eastern philosophical like a Buddhist�
Andrea [12:54]: But he sort of took
Rivkah French [12:58]: Those teachings and manipulated them in a way that was very unhealthy. And so my whole life I thought that stuff was wacky and BS and not for me at all. So I was just an atheist for a long time and I was very angry at a God that I existed. Wow, of Eastern religions and, and philosophies.
Andrea [14:21]: So it was literally, it took me to get into my,
Rivkah French [14:26]: Before I was even, open to spirituality. And it took me, for me to get there. And through that, become someone, who's not in denial, of bigger energy, that I'm part of, and that I came, from of God's love and to, to expand the collective consciousness, to expand on God. So, like,
Part 2 (15:25)
Andrea [15:25]: It kind of takes a lot of the pressure off. Like,
Rivkah French [15:29]: Oh, I'm not like being judged by an angry, God all the time. I'm actually, I am that God, I am of that God. And spe,
Andrea [15:39]: And to some that would be blasphemous, you know, and that would be like, hey, you're going hell, even hell then, then it's all good. Right. Yeah, I think hell is something. Hell is something that
Rivkah French [15:52]: People created to control other people and to
Andrea [15:56]: Punish themselves. You know,
Rivkah French [16:00]: And so there are people living in hell on earth right now, and there are people living in heaven on earth, and so I
Andrea [16:06]: Choose heaven on earth. Awesome. Yeah. Well, tell us about your work,
Rivkah French [16:37]: Tell us about your style, you know, for those who haven't but I always wanted the influence of other styles. So always being open and available, to bring other things into my, my work has been important to me, not only with multi media aspects of bringing dance film into live performance. a,
Andrea [17:04]: I'm having projections on dancers are going to be part of the story or doing like live feed stuff
Rivkah French [17:11]: Up and all kinds of technology potential. That's always been a really fun part ofureau of it,
Andrea [17:17]: And also telling stories through dance, but having to be abstract. So basically, I love
Rivkah French [17:27]: I love big theatrical shows on a large concert stage. I love small sites specific immersive interactive work. I love- I love- I love making dance for film and- and integrating all sorts, of the technology to Houston in 2012 the Buto, Chi and Chinese opera influences and his work have really impacted me in ways. And same with African dance, when I see it, you know, African hip hop jazz, all of those styles have influenced me. In just in the past year or two, I've thought, gosh, I thought, four answers and we're in front of five different murals in
Andrea [19:07]: Houston doing hip-hop
Rivkah French [19:10]: Influence but it also had a lot of the Asian style contemporary short piece to some kind of poppy music for the second song is a lot harder. The first one is more smooth and it's I think it, it's a fun. bringing together of really cool mural, visual art of Houston and lots of different dance styles and very different dancers who come from different backgrounds, but who can all do interesting things. So that's on you to my last big show was called bodies of light and that was much more Asian style. you would look at it and think puto dance right away because
Andrea [19:54]: The dancers were in. the dancers were in all white body paint and
Rivkah French [19:58]: Basically nude, just in a. thong and nipple covers and the movement was very sort of surreal and there were lots of big dancey athletic parts of it but then some of it was very slow as well and sort of
Andrea [20:14]: Meditative. So that was a full length show that happened
Rivkah French [20:17]: At a beautiful site called the Glass Crescent which my friend Nestor Tocchi, his wife Marianaiana,
Andrea [20:25]: Owns and runs avant's avant-garde and they're just like this incredible power couple. He made
Rivkah French [20:31]: His studio available to me and it's called the Glass Crescent because it's in the shape of a crescent and, and one, the whole half just glass, beautiful glass window that he, I
Andrea [21:09]: So yeah, so that was kind of a fun, sort of genderqueer
Rivkah French [21:14]: Experience, you know, of bodies. It sort of is reminiscent of like, what statues come into life, or aliens exploring what it's like to be in a human body, and it ended with sort of like a gay marriage at the end of like me and Amy Phillips were dancing at the top of maybe a wedding cake and the under this giant white skirt. And they all emerged from out of the skirt. And
Andrea [21:40]: Then it was, it was kind of, I described it as like, it's like a sensate orgy, like from that,
Rivkah French [21:46]: But the dance version, like G, but it's still like super, sensual and beautiful and very gay. So that was really fun.
Andrea [21:58]: We'll put a link to concrete flow in the notes to the show. for bodies of light is that I have excerpts of it public the full version is
Rivkah French [22:12]: On so you have to become at least a two-dollar a month subscriber to see the full-length documented version of it oh
Andrea [22:21]: Man what a great idea right back to the
Rivkah French [22:29]: Whole. You know Mozart and they'd be just had a few rich people support of them and they were able to spend all their time making money. I know it's
Andrea [22:41]: Not that easy but that concept
Rivkah French [22:44]: Of like people who like your work just pay you like a commission or a monthly fee, and then you?re free and then I'll share like personal writings and here's what I'm up to and videos with like just me talking about life and definitely more of a personal side. really and then some of that is put out onto Instagram, Instagram and YouTube. Just for everyone, you know, because anytime you're content producer, you know, provide the public with something free. You know, you want to share it and then for the people that really want to give them an option to have more if they're willing to support you at So, you know, when someone supports me at the hundred dollar a month level, they the producer name producer of my next and you know, but if they can only do it to the other or if they're still going to get the instruction of the you know so I feel like it's a really fun and to engage with the and make enough money to keep your work going, you know, which a lot of people are struggling with right now, more than ever.
And so I recommend it to anyone who has, you know, some people in their life that they think would support them and who really read their work. I want to tell you what I'm going is. to, you know, start to traveling the world, doing tours that she wouldn't be able to do.
Andrea [27:09]: So honestly, that's a really lofty goal, but to see that it's possible, you know,
Rivkah French [27:16]: Is what kind of being in the game, like wow, she so much ability to impact so many people, and do so-much cool
Andrea [27:26]: Stuff, I don't know if I'm not just going to say the other S-word, so, wow, I want to be, I want to be that woman, yeah. And I love that it really encourages people to donate to you, I mean, regularly, and it, without any, like, overhead, overhead, or fiscal sponsor,
Rivkah French [27:45]: Or, yeah, there's no typical
Andrea [27:49]: Like process with like I think you'd get into that in the arts a lot? With Fractured Atlas, yeah.
Rivkah French [27:56]: Or with having a fiscal sponsor either with getting
Andrea [28:00]: With running. I mean you know that running an on-profit is no
Rivkah French [28:04]: Joke. It's a it's a full-time job and so
Andrea [28:07]: You can tell people hey donate to my nonprofit and you'll have a acceptable donation and people like hearing that
Rivkah French [28:15]: For someone like me who just wants to be mean and mean and pick all my pride It's super ideal. I mean, But it they handle everything else and people who do want to make a tax deductible Donation you just have to go through my fist was like waiting in the wings ready to do that but they're not the ones who do the Patreon. So it's important, I mean I think we all are learning, you know obviously if we didn't already know
Andrea [28:50]: Now we know you gotta be flexible in this world as an artist as a person and sometimes so to now. So like I would imagine you don't have to do all of that effort but like
Rivkah French [29:48]: Are you still able to do the work you wanted to do you want to do. Yes absolutely it's it's not as stable it's not as guaranteed you know as when like okay no that as an on-profit we're gonna get operational funding from And if all goes well, we're gonna keep this one from the foundation and this one from Texas, you know, arts commission. And so you,
Part 3 (30:25)
Andrea [30:25]: You know, it's like, you know, I can literally if I want to, I
Rivkah French [30:30]: Can make a dance project for very little and
Andrea [30:34]: Perform it for free if me. if I just want to dance.
Rivkah French [31:08]: This is not working look you only funded one dance thing last year what's on and then he was able to change the panels to be more representative with dance because he looked inside you know I think we need more people need more
Andrea [31:24]: Dance representation so that while all that was in process all time and
Rivkah French [31:30]: Just not a lot of city opportunities for individual choreographers that sorted out.
Andrea [31:39]: So I started, I really had some good, good galleries.
Rivkah French [31:45]: And I was like, okay, I like dancing, I like seeing dance for sure in places where there's great visual, art happening or great videos. being shown in conjunction with exhibits. And so I perform, I did some, I got commissioned for station using contemporary art and then, and they're just amazing. If you, whoever's listening, if you haven't been there, go, they're always doing, really, well, I'm wonderful, artistic exhibits, and, supporting the community in a lot of ways. And so I, the 2016 election, me and my friend Ayokumle, who the poet from Nigeria, we were like, we're
Andrea [32:34]: So angry, we're so angry about Trump. Let's make a show that's really political. So he's, and I, in front of this torture exhibit,
Rivkah French [32:45]: By and then Houston Center for Contemporary Art.
Andrea [32:57]: Houston Center for Photography, HCP. Yeah, I got commissioned by them
Rivkah French [33:02]: To do bodies of light excerpts in conjunction with a really great exhibition they had Asian artists so it fit aesthetically very well, his style of that alienation and sort, belonging to two cultures
Andrea [33:15]: But not feeling like he belongs to either one
Rivkah French [33:18]: And then also the Contemporary Arts Museum so I got to curate a night of dance, instead of choreographing the We'll recreate a nightclub setting because Stonewall was, you know, an awesome nightclub where like this hideous of the gay translucency hung out. And so we recreated that visual exhibition going on, showed their work. And then I, instead of it all, I made a
Andrea [34:12]: 10 minute history.
Rivkah French [34:15]: Video history of 50 rights, which of weeks, and really
Andrea [34:20]: Into I get I learned a lot.
Rivkah French [34:25]: And a cry a lot because there's there's a tragedy. Tragedy. It was a beautiful experience and so yeah museums have been a great resource for me as an individual artist and« and I plan to continue that literally it was aותרly it was a lot of the
Andrea [34:56]: Number of calling it was a lot of e-mailing like hey I used to run a non-profit and I used to have this sort of thing with my identity and have this credibility and now I'm just floating out here in the It's not what I want to perform and like somebody, you know, so you really have to like make new connections and network, but also like use your, the people that
Rivkah French [35:23]: Your available resources like Nestor, Years, you know he had this great art studio, and that's where I ended up you come to me and listen to all kinds of all the time I'm like most, like most choreographers, so I'm just obsessed with music and when I hear a song that's amazing
Andrea [37:10]: That sometimes gives me an idea for a dance yeah. Yeah. And it's a
Rivkah French [37:15]: Onset of like, you know, well I'd and then ideas just start dropping in visuals when every time I go to a dance concert I bring a notebook and I write down ideas that I get inspired to see which I haven't seen a lot of dance in a while of course but even watching videos.
Andrea [37:38]: No I do that I do that too and I did it going to hand writing sometimes because it's a dark and you're just like chicken scratching going I don't know if you can figure that. sometimes I'll write it twice just in case and pull the notes it out and literally I wrote the same line over and over on top like I wrote different words over on the same sheet of the, that's so funny that Zergis Soleil did that to you. I'm like, whoa, the deepest plie ever. and like, how that way, or if I see something that's cool
Rivkah French [38:50]: But makes me think of another thing, you know.
Andrea [38:54]: Like, oh, I like connecting with each other. That makes me think
Rivkah French [39:09]: Like I like seeing that I want to see this Like ohm-my-god. I have-have-to-steal-that- move entirely
Andrea [39:17]: Sometimes I'm like insane even do it halfway
Rivkah French [39:21]: As well like I want to do Yeah, you know, but then like you always manipulate it because, like, stealing somebody else's photography is, like, I would never do that. So,
Andrea [39:34]: Yeah, inspiration comes from everywhere. You know, it comes from playing with kids and, it comes from watching your pets move around the room you literally, like, just
Rivkah French [39:45]: Of myself in the studio for two hours. Like, that's where the best stuff happens, you know, you know, when you just let you know, you know, you know, when you just let yourself a. And move and sometimes I'm not. and other times just being free. You know, I'm definitely gonna make a new solo. But I don't have a deadline. I don't have a you know need for it. I just really want to explore the idea of gesture and big travel. So like those things together is what interesting me right now. My last solo that I did in a cemetery, because COVID, oh, wow.
Andrea [40:29]: I, I used a game for myself that was like, what if I made a, a, a, for every letter of the outer, of the outer.
Rivkah French [40:37]: So it was like, anterior and then breath and then crest it was like there was a and so it just became this like gestural okay I'll make a solo I'll call it the ABC solo it'll be great I'll do it
Andrea [41:17]: Throw a warm storm yeah cool yeah so are you developing work now just like into Well, that's another good thing about Patreon, that it's kind of an anchor where I'm like,
Rivkah French [41:36]: Okay, these people are paying me to create content, so I'm going to create this phrase and then make sure I post how to do it, and then I'm going-� to teach a class and have choreography for that.
Andrea [41:53]: Yeah, that's a little bit how it feels right now. It's a little bit how it feels right now. what we can't live without during this pandemic. So like, we've been able to let go of a lot of things we didn't actually need, you know? A lot of things we spent money on that we didn't wasted, time spinning wheels, and like there's so many things that we've been like, oh,
Rivkah French [42:20]: I don't have to do those things anymore. It's so great to not get up and go to the office or not run all those errands that were unnecessary. But then, like on the flip side. of that, like, cannot live without dance. my truth. That's my reality. That's why I'm here is to be a dancer, choreographer realization is like, I don't know what the restrictions are, I'm gonna find a way you know to have dance in my life and if I don't then like, I don't really want to here like that's what I'm here for so I think getting really clear on that is important for people to understand what their true purpose is just be in it live in it and embrace it.
Andrea [43:34]: Yeah, so can't stop, all stop. Right, so would you do if you just had to do solos on YouTube forever. Is that okay? Yeah, but that's not gonna happen. You know I say that knowing full well. knock on the wood or something.
Rivkah French [43:58]: Yeah, like already I mean there are projects starting to come together you know. Okay.
Andrea [44:05]: I have a photo shoot next week with Ashkan who does a lot of work with Houston
Rivkah French [44:11]: Ballet dancers and man he's got great ideas and there's just always there are always people on a collaborate and create in whatever way is acceptable you for the current conditions. So I'm pretty sure I'm gonna find my duet partnerouston and I wanna슷ou a big group piece. I think it's so fun, to get a group of people together again. And I was just in a music video that, you know, one of the most we had massed long, we created the created the news for my friend Angie Hegu who's a really great singer and mover as well and so you know lots of projects are happening and they will it's just gonna get better and better you know there's just gonna be more and more opportunities to create so I don't know I'll probably go back to writing some grants for like bigger projects or the future but I literally spent a you know like
Part 4 (46:12)
Andrea [46:12]: Is that the direction to go where that there's all that freedom and all that I don't know what should I do, I guess I'll meditate on it but I'd make sense that at this point, you know, just getting
Rivkah French [46:21]: Patreon subscribers is really your way to having more freedom and to be able to save money to do bigger productions. I mean that's that's a great avenue. Yeah, yeah and it's gonna happen with unemployment but I have to have that assistance since it started and yeah, that's been a huge life saver. And you know, we always figure it out as we go, we always make it work like you know, if you're, if you're scared about that, like, just stop and look around and be like, I'm, and, every single one of us.
Andrea [48:22]: I meanותר had some time to garden, you know, create a spiritual practice, next more with read more books or whateverustomed like
Rivkah French [48:34]: You can see it as like devastation or you can see it as an opportunity to do all
Andrea [48:38]: Those other things that you weren't doing. We're working on those you know and you know, audience members and seats or whatever, like whatever part of
Rivkah French [48:49]: Of the performing world, you were, of the time, whether you're a choreographer, event, producer, art, you know, like we have been able to do a lot of that stuff. So, like, it shows you what you miss, but it also shows you, like, what else is possible, like, you know, other, enjoyable things there are in life or that. So I know that my performance is never going away. It's always going to be a part of my life because, you know, it's an experience like he said that people without.
Andrea [49:31]: And like right tomorrow night I'm going to watch a movie.
Rivkah French [49:36]: With people at pro bar and it was going to
Andrea [49:40]: Be a drive-in but I think we're actually all going to be in lawn chairs. So mask or no, you know, mask, like we're, we're going to be there together in person, starting to come
Rivkah French [49:50]: Back more and more and more. So, yeah, people can't really live without each other年 without that sense of shared experience. So, yeah. or did shut
Andrea [51:06]: Room, like an old shoe storage, because it had been a shoe warehouse, like kind of like
Rivkah French [51:12]: A Macy's years. And I lived in this dark little room, for two years and got my some of my dance training and lots of performance experience there and just had all these conversations and experiences. But Jim, Jim Pertle, the owner, his daughter, Martha, was just a wee little toddler when I'm with Jen and people were always calling her because she would run around without shoes but she was fine for the first time.
Andrea [51:42]: And then what really caused the real
Rivkah French [51:45]: Controversy was that someone fell out of the second-story window.
Andrea [51:49]: Oh no. I think she was high
Rivkah French [51:52]: On some pretty serious drugs and I think she kind of like nodded off and fell and then got a serious injury but didn't. And so that's what caused the whole thing to shut
Andrea [52:03]: Shut down momentarily. But then Jim. Jim Pearl reopened it as just the coffee shop downstairs. Right. They're sort of hiatus. And now it's still a space, you know. Yeah. It's just as grungy as ever. I don't know if it's quite interesting
Rivkah French [52:19]: As it was then. I think that might have been the golden age, but look back on with nostalgia. So. There, there's always going to be a place for the weirdest artists to go and be weird
Andrea [53:06]: And he'd be really shocking and weird and have a lot of fun. So he still teaches this thing, he was teaching it, he's like, oh cool, yeah, yeah. He told me when you guys were rehearsing, I think it was that not to know that anybody who showed up rehearsal would be and there was like one guy who like did not have the brain
Rivkah French [54:32]: Anybody has a very interesting and captivating they have to be willing to take on their own basic and not just to work with their own basic and� modern and one or explain the concepts of basic anything. So that's really an awesome gift, but they have to be beyond the training. and how to be a, you know, a true artist,
Andrea [55:07]: That's what I'm going to take risks. Yeah. Yeah. So let's see, I wanted to ask youệh to ask you about your advocacy for the community and how, how you advocate
Rivkah French [55:23]: And why having a dancer, you know, LGBT, you know, LGBT
Andrea [55:31]: Advocate for the dance community maybe or more of a dance, so you know, just kind of how does it, what is it all about to you? Both and all I guess, yeah, because I feel like it's really
Rivkah French [55:45]: Important for the dance community to, like, it's, it's queer dancers and voices, and choreographers. and that hasn't always been the case. a, it's really been ridiculous that the majority, not the majority,
Andrea [56:06]: But a high percentage, a high percentage of dancers,
Rivkah French [56:09]: That are male, are gay, and they have been, most of the dance careers to not only straight on stage and always you know perform as a straight male whether it's embodying more of the masculine machete in their movement but also doing strictly love dances with women you know, so there's this whole side of themselves it's not being expressed, expressed is, you know, or robbed up. And then many, many choreographers spears are gay and don't get to see their, necessarily their vision for because they're dependent on funding from people who are threatened by seeing anything clear on stage and that is all changing and I'm a part of change.
And so everything from writing, in queer dance essays that are produced online to teaching queer dance movement workshops, which made
Andrea [57:20]: These conversations are available for dancers. We
Rivkah French [57:24]: Get to find them. We've been taught to move this way. We've been taught that women have to be strong. Let's talk about masculine, Let's talk about feminine qualities and what is it to be androgynous? Let's just expand all of it. in a way that's empowering., so we don't have to get rid of all of these things that are, all of these ways of movement that are interesting and fun to express in our bodies, but we get to the freedom to say, I, I'm going to move in a masculine way or a feminine way, regardless of my gender or orientation, and freedom to do all of it or none of it. And just, just really understand, really understand that we get to take what we want and meet the rest behind because I swear to God,
Andrea [58:27]: Next time I go into a ballet class, okay, just the men like and I've already done this in ballet
Rivkah French [58:35]: Thousands before where you knowותר will give a jump combination and say this is for the men and
Andrea [58:40]: This is for the women and the men only the boys move the bars and, and only the women see it. Like all these ridiculous rules. Like I like to jump, I like to do certain kinds of churns. Supposedly they are just for men and there are lots of men want to be pretty and
Rivkah French [59:22]: And they're not being,, his them광 and making public content that is very freelyệc like I, I feel like that has an, on its own,康 when somebody sees that, you know, I remember before I came out like seeing that like seeing that a dancer was being had that
Part 5 (1:00:51)
Andrea [1:00:51]: On her Facebook page, I was like, I, I can't believe she's so great that she does that is that people know she's gay, you know, and like now it's
Rivkah French [1:01:02]: Like it's literally just it's like a badge of honor that I wear with pride but it took a long process to do that so I want to be that for other people and then and then, and then in concrete ways of course I'm, working on a queer camp
Andrea [1:01:20]: That will hopefully happen in spring of 2021
Rivkah French [1:01:26]: And it's talking to Pride of Houston about collaborating with them on because they've got the resources and the marketing and the tools to get a lot of people out there for it.. So basically it's a group that we'll get to go out into the woods and recreate the camp experience, but it's for adults. So it's for adults. So it's for adults. So it's for adults. So it's for adults. anywhere shape or form, then you're invited to be a part of it and go out to the woods
Andrea [1:02:09]: And do artistic, like arts and crafts kind of stuff, everything from dance workshops
Rivkah French [1:02:35]: That brings the, that, that'll be more of the arts advocacy within the LGBTQ community that you mentioned. My focus, it's been more of the advocating for queer issues inside the dance floor. Yeah, like I'm just sort of, I've been in my life in different ways. And it's, it's joy and an honor to get to represent my community, my community, my community, my community and my community. And let them tell me what they want. You know, as a leader of a non-profit, and as a person who have- The amount of opportunities possible for people, like way more than I ever have or could. You know that, like, you start out with an idea of something cool that could happen, then it's all about the people you're serving.
It's all about the community and the audience and the participants and the people that you're working with having a great experience. So that's where your joy comes from. And it's like, wow, that summer camp really impacted a lot of lives. Wow, that show had so many artists express themselves, and so many people in the audience walk away forever changed, you know? Yeah. So that's all the up.
Andrea [1:04:01]: I'm really excited about this podcast too, being able to highlight artists that I know and love so well and reach people beyond COVID and barriers, beyond… beyond transportation and transportation issues. I'm going to listen to them all now. Yeah, have you heard one of them yet? I haven't listened to any of them yet. They'll be here forever. I'm so excited and can I tell you I have been going through
Rivkah French [1:04:33]: Every single one of those masterclasses doing in order like they're incredible.
Andrea [1:04:40]: What a brilliant resource for people. The teachers you hired just did stuff so and they make it so easy and like I didn't know that hip-hop pot of array was so fun compared to other pot of arrays that I've been doing my whole life, you. Also, yeah, so for those of us who are referring to the question, I'm sorry, I'm. I'm sorry to., I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, just as kind of, you know, it was a show we did together in 2016 I believe, and it was a commission, and it was a full ballet
Rivkah French [1:05:37]: Based on the Heronium-Bosch painting of the same name.
Andrea [1:05:42]: And we had a handful, five choreographers do different… sections of the work and I
Rivkah French [1:05:48]: Wanted speach, I wanted you to describe your section and how you did it and what it was like
Andrea [1:05:51]: Being a part of a show with a few contributing artists andorn like how you taught them together. Oh wow, that was an incredible opportunity because I had never heard of painting before, but if you haven't seen it, look it up, it's wild.
Rivkah French [1:06:14]: I mean, this guy was on all kinds of crazy levels, levels of existence and history. There's a lot of, there's a lot of violence and a lot of nudity. And so I remember sort of being inspired by that when I
Andrea [1:06:34]: Came up with, you know, with Thank you. It, it was a very huge sound. It was a very complicated musical piece. That was a That's right. Yeah, you. You did the three girls by the fountain. -. Yeah, yeah, so getting to sort of like be sort of sweet and playful in that one other piece was kind of more of like a
Rivkah French [1:07:59]: Climactic like giant running and throwing each other. So, yeah, it was super cool to get to play with those different dynamic and your dancers were phenomenal. Like you
Andrea [1:08:15]: Oh, thank you. I'm, so I'll, I'll put it out a little sample of that work too. So we can refresh our memory. I think we have probably seen in a while, but it'd be really fun. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Yeah. So you, let us know kind of what your dream project is like If you were going to write a big grant, do you already know what it would be for? For the, for a big show or for, for a big event or what you've been doing, in your daydreams. Yeah, I mean there's like, I'm trying to-
Rivkah French [1:08:59]: Between the 10 that are going through my mind right now., so yeah, queer, camp just getting bigger every year is the dream for that event. getting like becoming like a. seven
Andrea [1:09:09]: Day camp, camp, coming, you
Rivkah French [1:09:11]: Can't come in
Andrea [1:09:15]: Are like choreograph. I want to,
Rivkah French [1:09:19]: Like, and, and, and, and,. And so that's the next, the most immediate, and it's going to be just like the highest quality film production that you can imagine because for me,
Andrea [1:09:57]: My new take, which is sort of always been my take on dance film, but one of my focus, the
Rivkah French [1:10:03]: Main focus of dance film for me now is that the camera is the dancer, you know, and what's possible with dance film that you can't do in a live show and really exploring that. So having, having that go really well, which I was happy that show was for the people that got to experience it. So I wanted to tour that, like, all over the world! And then I just, I'm just really fascinated with body paint and, like, I found out that Shen Wei actually did a project where he covered the stage in a canvas, just came out and they had I don't know, some sort of way to replenish, you, you know, like those cleaners tube with soap and then it just刺 distributing soap onto the sponge.
Andrea [1:11:26]: Yeah. And they're in their costumes. So they painted the full stage throughout the course of a show.然後 he cut out a square of each canvas and sold it to
Rivkah French [1:12:37]: Just to, speach through the rest of the day in the way you'd like to see us do so.
Andrea [1:12:45]: Yeah okay so something that I heard yesterday that was like
Rivkah French [1:12:50]: The Tory, that to be healthy you have to breathe
Andrea [1:12:59]: You have to have air, is your top priority you can
Rivkah French [1:13:02]: You can't survive you can? H G H G H.. H G H G H G H G H G H G H G H G H
Andrea [1:13:39]: Or you're not expressing your
Rivkah French [1:13:45]: You're gonna slow down, but you're still gonna win or die. So you have to feed yourself on the all of those levels.
Andrea [1:13:52]: I felt like I already knew all that stuff. Like I drink two pounds of water a day. I sleep for a while. I get my dreams in. I just drink celery juice before this interview, like you can believe that. It tastes bad, but it's so good for you. But like literally, I have all of those things going on except I had forgotten about the breathing part. The most important, the first one, the one you can't live without. Without for very long, I realized I was breathing like
Rivkah French [1:14:23]: One count in one count out, and Ii when you sit and like breathe in for four and out for four, and just let yourself do that, that literally is the foundation, of your health.
Andrea [1:14:37]: So like if you go through that checklist and realize like, oh, there's always like one thing that maybe I kind of skipping out on you can address that one thing or SALS. there's four
Rivkah French [1:14:48]: Things that. you're not like paying attention and it really needs your attention.
Andrea [1:14:53]: But literally that's all you need to be happy that
Rivkah French [1:14:56]: She. that's like your life you know and if you're not happy it's because one of
Part 6 (1:15:01)
Andrea [1:15:01]: Those things. that whack or more yeah so that's all my guests today has been Thanks for listening. Please subscribe and share our podcast and read on social media if you like to talk. To support DanceTalks, donate to Dance Houston. Talk to you on Monday.