Dancing in the woods

Last weekend company member Kevin Williamson and myself went to the Angeles Forest (approx. 1 hour outside of L.A.) to film a music video for an incredible musician, William Ryan Fritch (aka Vieo Abiungo), with LACDC videographer and super talented filmmaker - Peter Monro. It was a gorgeous setting with huge trees, a creek and other wild settings to dance in. Company member, Tiffany Sweat, was also on set as production assistant. It was an LACDC tag team effort per usual.

Highlights of the shoot were:

• making camping gear fly
• figuring out how to tear all our clothing off in one second
• using rocks and fallen tree trunks as improv partners
• dancing and running through the forest in our underwear, and trying NOT to attract bears

To say the least, dancing in the dirt was amazing and I even have some war wounds to prove how hard-core site specific dance can be. The short clips of footage I saw looked incredible and I can't wait to share the whole video with you once it is finished.

But, in the meantime, I would like to share a video of one of the best parts of the whole trip. After we were finished shooting, we went to start up our old station wagon, Bessie, who we borrowed as a prop piece for the film. Well, ol' Bessie refused to start. At this point we had only one other car, a small pickup truck, to get 5 people down from the mountain to a biker bar

that had a pay phone (no....there are no cell towers in nature) where we could call AAA and get Bessie towed. 3 people were loaded into the cab; Kevin and I elected to sit in the back with all the camera gear weighing us down. ***DISCLAIMER: This is very dangerous and you should never do this.***

Now...as dangerous as this was...it was the only way to get us all out of the woods and to some much needed food and drinks. SO, Kevin and I made the best of it. It was freezing cold, scary and HILARIOUS. Here is the video that will make me laugh for the rest of my life:

We arrived safely back in L.A. after LACDC composer (yes, we are a tight knit family), Eric Mason, picked us up from the biker bar and drove us down the mountain INSIDE his nice warm car. It was an awesome day of dancing and adventure in the pursuit of creating kick butt art.

-Kate, artistic director