Dance In The Park - 6, 7 September 2008

10th Anniversary

This was the first time in ten years that Dance in the Park has had to use the sunday (Sep 7) rain date.
There were a couple of times it looked like a close call, in particular two (or was it three?) years ago.

The five neighborhoods in conjunction with City in Motion

Coleman Highlands, Roanoke, Valentine, Volker, West Plaza

Sunday 7 September 2008
The Saturday the 6th date was rained out.
Roanoke Park, Kansas City, Missouri
(rehearsal: Friday 5 Sept.)

Vanessa Gibbs, Traditional Music Society, getting ready to rehearsal for friday's tech

Rained out on the 6th
Performance moved to Sun. the 7th

Around 5:30 pm Saturday and Rained Out
(L-R on the scaffold) David Kiehl, sound; Jennifer Own, Own/Cox Dance; John "Moose" Kimball, lighting.
(Behind on the right, L-R) Michael Hogge, host, KKFI; June Holte, volunteer coordinator
Saturday 6 September 2008 at Dance in the Park

Co-Director Beth Byrd, a bit under the water - exactly 5:37 pm.

City In Motion board chair person Vanessa Vaughn-West	Early seating
Mason

Three Days in September 2008

Friday was cool with a lot of water condensing on the stage. The stage was so wet that a squeegee was brought out finally to throw water off the stage so tech rehearsal could continue. It was a constant fight all evening to keep the stage surface dry. No rain, though, just condensation. A lot of humidity. The parts of the stage close to the more powerful lights (east side) seemed to be dryer or drying.

Then Saturday. It looked wet all day, with on and off lite sprinkles and then slightly heavier sprinkles. Moose had enought tarp to cover the stage and the lights but there were pools of water on the tarp and slurpy ground all around. The weather reports were inconsistent, even contradictory. Most of the local ones said something like drying by or after 3pm. The national weather channel was saying rain into the evening. Only the national one was right. The local weather channels still have local interpreters claiming to be the source of the information which really comes from the "gubmint." So is that a version of plagiarism, or just non-attribution?

Sunday was a terrific night. Sunny early in the day, drying out the grounds, and then partly overcast skies later, but no rain. The weather forecasts this time predicted rain in the evening. But the good weather held although clouds did come in. I thought I may have felt some very, very lite drops but they could have been imagined just as well. Anyway, the rain didn't show up until early the next morning (monday).

The rain date meant small changes in the program. A larger change in the audience. The attendance was much smaller than usual. The program changes included Louis & Laura's "Pirates of the Caribbean" tango number and a good share of the Swingsters. They had another engagement on Sunday and couldn't come back for the rain date. They also had to break up the Swingsters, part of whom went with Louis & Laura on their road engagement. The three pair of dancers they returned to Dance in the Park offered a split pair of numbers, one of them filling the L&L spot on the program, the other, the originally intended Swingsters spot.

For me, shooting pictures, the light was great for the first number. I was able to use a lower ISO (400) for the first number (Jennifer Owen) which meant higher technical quality was possible. The ability to use a lower ISO means less boost given to the imaging chip and therefore three benefits:
1) the obvious one, better detail for enlargements
2) more tonal range for a smoother look, again most visible in enlargements
3) more lattitude for exposure error. A little over or under exposure is not a serious error.
The lattitude was progressively lost as the not-so-visible sun went down and the light shifted purely to stage spots. A big help though was that the lights balanced out for daylight. On a digital camera that means that all channels are boosted evenly, greatly limiting electronic noise and making image sharpening easier and cleaner.

When I balance for tungsten (yellow/reddish light) most electronic noise (blotchy-grain looking artifacts) occur in the blue channel because that channel has to get an extra boost (amplification) in order to compensate for the amount of yellow in the light source (yellow and blue are opposites). This causes the electrical charge to literally overflow the pixel sensors (photo-transistors) causing the blotchy, grain-looking artifacts which look so ugly. Essentially, this means that the blue channel is the "noise channel" while green holds the detail and red fills out the bill.

As I moved into my more commonly used higher ISOs, finally settling at 1600 for most of the show, and then 3200 for the after party at Blue Moon. The high ISO means a little over exposure and I blow out highlights, a little underexposure and I lose shadows. I think somewhere within "Travelers of the Silk Road" I moved the ISO setting to 1600 and kept it there to the end of the show.

After the intermission there seemed to be some technical problems with the lights, sometimes sputtering and going on and off or varying intensities in ways that didn't look intentional and that I didn't recall from the tech/dress on Friday. However, having said that, I should note the combining tech and dress means that the lights will almost certainly not look the same for performance and that it makes it darn hard to get pictures as the light changes constantly.

The lighting changes in the show which looked like glitches to me seemed to start with the number from 940 Dance Company and continued for the remainder of the acts to a varying amount. So, a good deal of the latter half of the show was shot at shutter speeds better reserved for people standing still, looking at the camera for a family picture. It means a lot the the latter half pictures are frustrated in clarity, too much motion blur to use.

More pictures are on the way as well as more information to fill in this page. Please return in a day or two to see photos from all the groups on stage for sunday's performance. Thank you, Mike

Owen / Cox
Modern/Ballet
http://www.owencoxdance.org

Jennifer Owen - behind her are Beau Bledsoe (guitar) and Nathan Granner (vocals/tenor)

CIty in Motion's Children's Dance Theatre
http://www.cityinmotion.org

Nritya
Indian Classical Dance
http://www.nritya.org

Reach ... a movement collective
modern
http://www.reach.org

Maggie Osgood

Two shots from the back of the stage at tech/dress on friday

Travelers of the Silk Road
Middle Eastern
http://www.reach.org

Louis Bar & Laura Cantu
(Cancellation - due to other engagement, sent in the Swingsters for a double, see pix below)
Pirates of the Caribbean
http://www.funwithstyle.com

Intermission

The Swingsters

http://www.funwithstyle.com

David Shaughnessy and Toni Dodd (front) and Emmet (back) - tech (Emmet was back for the show, David and Toni were on the road with Louis & Laura.

City in Motion
Modern
http://www.cityinmotion.org

Joanna DesMarteau, during tech on friday

940 Dance
Modern
http://www.lawrenceartscenter.com/PWD

Traditional Music Society
West African
http://www.traditionalmusicsociety.org

Vanessa Gibbs

Vesuvius
Fire Performance

After Party at Blue Moon

Uriah of Vesuvius

Yosh of Vesuvius