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Today, I want to commemorate my Father, Joe Olinghouse, who passed away on September 27, 2007. Even though I did not grow up with him, we shared an unusual bond. These days I miss him very much and I often find myself trying to contact his spirit and sense of humor through my creative work.
For over thirty years, he worked on a project called the Wooleys. This creature fantasy was a mythology that included a language, series of books, songs, maps, and journeys. The Wooleys tale begins as a clan of jazz musicians that become separated during Continental Drift. When the continents move apart, they go on their separate journeys – creating music, havoc, and unusual folklore. When he passed, I found boxes of his drawings, musical scores, original books, and stories relating to the Wooley clan. Here is an obituary I wrote for him back in 2007 that I never posted. Here is what I would like to share about my Father.
Joe Olinghouse, Musician and Urban Planner/Geographer died on September 27, 2007 in Apple Valley at the age of 65. Joe Olinghouse was an inspiration and mentor to many. Father to Cori Olinghouse, he will continue to live in her heart and memory as the wildly intelligent and creative spirit he was. He was loved tremendously by his friends and family and contributed an imaginative and delightful sense of beauty and humor to all of those hew knew him. Over the years, Joe Olinghouse developed unique methodologies in urban planning for the state of California and most recently worked as a planning consultant for the Bishop Paiute Tribe, specializing in their water rights and land claims. Mr. Olinghouse received a Master of Arts degree from San Diego State University in urban geography and from 1975 to 1979, attended UCLA working toward a Ph.D. in urban and regional development policy. He was one of the few selected to pursue the doctorate and study with some of the best scholars in his field. Joe Olinghouse was a tremendously talented self-taught guitarist, who not only made a hit record while attending high school, but played across Europe in his early twenties and throughout his life. Over the years, Joe Olinghouse created a jazz mythology of critters called the Wooleys. It is a journey into the imagination, lush with bumperbears, sharp-tailed noots, binglebelchers, original musical scores, and a vision for a new society rich with folklore and democratic traditions. In one wooley tale, “October Sunjoy”, Joe Olinghouse discusses the wooleys belief in an afterlife. The Sunjoy provided a vehicle for the afterlife in the “form of a condensed brilliant orange cloud that blows freely over the Karoo.” May peace and light be with him as he joins the Sunjoy, floating freely on that orange cloud over the Karoo.
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![Dear Ghost lines friends,
I’m here to bring you our third “Meet the characters” update. Elizabeth Keen, New York City based performer and educator, began working with me last year for the first time. With a fondness towards the history of soft shoe, we began by conjuring memories from her history as a performer, back to her first memories with Mary Jane Brown whose father ran a Vaudeville house.
In the studio, Liz and I began to unravel her personal movement history in a series of experimental live oral histories. With Mary Jane, who described soft shoe as a leisure time feel – where you have to be sympathetic towards your audience, Liz confessed she was a speed demon who learned to take time and enjoy dancing. Other influences for Liz include the Copasetics, Bettye Morrow, Derik Grant, Honi Coles, Jimmy Slyde, and one of our very own Ghost lines performers – Michelle Dorrance!
This month, Liz and I recently completed a month long intensive residency – taking our working further. In the piece, Liz conjures the past, continually attempting to bring aspects of her memory forward. Through a spell of remembering and forgetting, Liz attempts to reconstruct lines of history through her own stream of consciousness ramblings.
In exploring the sympathetic demeanor of soft shoe, we evolved our own scale of aspects that moves through the following expressions: from sympathetic - understated - elegant - tidy - fussy - precise - uptight - crude - slob - blob - grubby - scallywag - slut – to absurdity. Then, Liz brought in a favorite one-act play by Edna St. Vincent Millay, Two Slatterns and a King - A Moral Interlude. These excerpts have provided wonderful character inspiration!
The following excerpts from this one-act play are reprinted from Contemporary One-act Plays of 1921. Ed. Frank Shay. Cincinnati: Stewart Kidd Co., 1922. It is now in the public domain and may be performed without royalties.
[Enter TIDY.]
TIDY: I am TIDY, I have been All my life both neat and clean. From my outside to my in Clean am I unto my skin. Every day into a bucket My hands I dip, my head I duck it; And if the water plenty be I sometimes wet some more of me. This is my kitchen, where you will find All things pleasant and to your mind; Against the wall in orderly pairs— One, two,—one, two,—observe my chairs. In the middle of the room my table stands: I would not move it for my lands. My basins and bowls are all in their places; The bottoms of my pots are as clean as your faces. My kettle boils so cheerily, It is like a friendly voice to me; About my work I merrily sing, And I brush my hearth with a white duck’s wing. Oh, full is every cupboard, sharp is every knife!— My bright, sunny kitchen is the pride of my life!
[Exit TIDY.]
[Enter SLUT.]
SLUT: I am SLUT; I am a slattern, You must not take me for your pattern. I spend my days in slovenly ease; I sleep when I like and I wake when I please. My manners, they are indolent; In clutter and filth I am quite content. Here is my kitchen, where I stir up my messes, And wear out my old shoes and soiled silk dresses. My table sags beneath the weight Of stale food and unwashed plate; The cat has tipped the pitcher o’er,— The greasy stream drips onto the floor; Under the table is a broken cup— I am too tired to pick it up.
[Exit SLUT.]
Also, here are some of our rehearsal experiments, for a taste!
https://vimeo.com/68345272
Enjoy!
Yours,
Cori and the Ghost lines family
ELIZABETH KEEN As a dancer, she appeared with the companies of Paul Taylor and Helen Tamiris/Daniel Nagrin. She choreographed for her own group, The Elizabeth Keen Dance Company, which toured nationally under the auspices of the Dance Touring and the Artists in the Schools programs as well as many seasons in NYC. She has also choreographed for opera and theater Credits include: ANIMAL FARM, TEMPEST, WINTER’S TALE (National Theatre, London); LA TRAVIATA, CARMEN (Glyndebourne); CARMEN (The Met); FIERY ANGEL (LA Opera and L’Opera Bastille); GUYS and DOLLS (Goodman Theater) and A COMEDY of ERRORS, (NY Shakespeare Festival). She has taught at Sarah Lawrence College, Princeton University, the Juilliard School as well as for The José Limón Summer Dance Workshop and Perry Mansfield in Steamboat Springs, CO. She is a graduate of Barnard College and the Sarah Lawrence Master’s degree program.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/733a36d30a8da0ca1b6d753353944942/tumblr_mocyj4ugZu1rukzkko1_500.png)
Dear Ghost lines friends,
I’m here to bring you our third “Meet the characters” update. Elizabeth Keen, New York City based performer and educator, began working with me last year for the first time. With a fondness towards the history of soft shoe, we began by conjuring memories from her history as a performer, back to her first memories with Mary Jane Brown whose father ran a Vaudeville house.
In the studio, Liz and I began to unravel her personal movement history in a series of experimental live oral histories. With Mary Jane, who described soft shoe as a leisure time feel – where you have to be sympathetic towards your audience, Liz confessed she was a speed demon who learned to take time and enjoy dancing. Other influences for Liz include the Copasetics, Bettye Morrow, Derik Grant, Honi Coles, Jimmy Slyde, and one of our very own Ghost lines performers – Michelle Dorrance!
This month, Liz and I recently completed a month long intensive residency – taking our working further. In the piece, Liz conjures the past, continually attempting to bring aspects of her memory forward. Through a spell of remembering and forgetting, Liz attempts to reconstruct lines of history through her own stream of consciousness ramblings.
In exploring the sympathetic demeanor of soft shoe, we evolved our own scale of aspects that moves through the following expressions: from sympathetic - understated - elegant - tidy - fussy - precise - uptight - crude - slob - blob - grubby - scallywag - slut – to absurdity. Then, Liz brought in a favorite one-act play by Edna St. Vincent Millay, Two Slatterns and a King - A Moral Interlude. These excerpts have provided wonderful character inspiration!
The following excerpts from this one-act play are reprinted from Contemporary One-act Plays of 1921. Ed. Frank Shay. Cincinnati: Stewart Kidd Co., 1922. It is now in the public domain and may be performed without royalties.
[Enter TIDY.]
TIDY: I am TIDY, I have been
All my life both neat and clean.
From my outside to my in
Clean am I unto my skin.
Every day into a bucket
My hands I dip, my head I duck it;
And if the water plenty be
I sometimes wet some more of me.
This is my kitchen, where you will find
All things pleasant and to your mind;
Against the wall in orderly pairs—
One, two,—one, two,—observe my chairs.
In the middle of the room my table stands:
I would not move it for my lands.
My basins and bowls are all in their places;
The bottoms of my pots are as clean as your faces.
My kettle boils so cheerily,
It is like a friendly voice to me;
About my work I merrily sing,
And I brush my hearth with a white duck’s wing.
Oh, full is every cupboard, sharp is every knife!—
My bright, sunny kitchen is the pride of my life![Exit TIDY.]
[Enter SLUT.]
SLUT: I am SLUT; I am a slattern,
You must not take me for your pattern.
I spend my days in slovenly ease;
I sleep when I like and I wake when I please.
My manners, they are indolent;
In clutter and filth I am quite content.
Here is my kitchen, where I stir up my messes,
And wear out my old shoes and soiled silk dresses.
My table sags beneath the weight
Of stale food and unwashed plate;
The cat has tipped the pitcher o’er,—
The greasy stream drips onto the floor;
Under the table is a broken cup—
I am too tired to pick it up.[Exit SLUT.]
Also, here are some of our rehearsal experiments, for a taste!
Enjoy!
Yours,
Cori and the Ghost lines family
ELIZABETH KEEN
As a dancer, she appeared with the companies of Paul Taylor and Helen Tamiris/Daniel Nagrin. She choreographed for her own group, The Elizabeth Keen Dance Company, which toured nationally under the auspices of the Dance Touring and the Artists in the Schools programs as well as many seasons in NYC. She has also choreographed for opera and theater Credits include: ANIMAL FARM, TEMPEST, WINTER’S TALE (National Theatre, London); LA TRAVIATA, CARMEN (Glyndebourne); CARMEN (The Met); FIERY ANGEL (LA Opera and L’Opera Bastille); GUYS and DOLLS (Goodman Theater) and A COMEDY of ERRORS, (NY Shakespeare Festival). She has taught at Sarah Lawrence College, Princeton University, the Juilliard School as well as for The José Limón Summer Dance Workshop and Perry Mansfield in Steamboat Springs, CO. She is a graduate of Barnard College and the Sarah Lawrence Master’s degree program. -
Costume drafts - with imagery from rehearsal, stills from Ballet Mécanique (1923-4), a Dadaist post-Cubist art film conceived, written, and co-directed by the artist Fernand Lége, etc.
Dear Ghost lines onlookers,
With our second “Meet the characters” update - I’m here to introduce you to the fanstastic Michelle Dorrance!
I’ve been admiring Michelle Dorrance, Princess Grace and Bessie award winning Tap artist for many years and was lucky enough to begin working with her last Fall for a series curated by David Parker at the 92st Y. Together in a work-in-progress entitled, In Weathered Time, we began by playing with invisible forces such as weather and wind alongside elements of sliding, slow motion soft shoe, and slapstick.
Continuing our collaboration in Ghost lines, I’ve been interested in exploring Michelle’s incredibly complex footwork in a study of visual rhythm. With Ghost lines, each character will map their own sense of line through the piece – visual line, narrative line, historical line, and the comedy of line. With Michelle, we’ll be using clown shoes, leather soled shoes, and socks as her drawing instruments to conjure various line tensions and feelings of character. Together we will evolve these early explorations into an absurdist solo of rhythmic tension that draws inspiration from eccentric dance, 20’s surrealist films, and gesture line drawings.
In creating this post, I found my original e-mail to Michelle – inviting her to join this project: “I have a vision of you as a twenties flapper ghost, all a mess, with boots, messy hair, boater hat - everything is all wrong. Playing a lot with slow motion soft shoe, face, and manic conjuring.” To which Michelle replied – “I want to be in this NOWWWWWWW!”
Research inspirations:
In the news:
Michelle will be premiering her own choreography at Jacob’s Pillow this July – joining the ranks of heavy hitters - Merce Cunningham, Bill T. Jones, and Annie-B Parson as past Pillow honorees. See more in this recent Dance Magazine feature!
For Michelle’s solo reel, visit her website at: http://michelledorrance.com/reel.html
Recent mentions from our Kickstarter campaign:
- Trav S.D., author of “No Applause—Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous” recommended our project in his fantastic blog! http://bit.ly/13UHtFC
- And on Dance Films Association’s curated Kickstarter page, they referred to Ghost lines as mesmerizing! http://www.kickstarter.com/pages/DFA
Enjoy our footage from the process and join us (if you haven’t already) in making Ghost lines a reality! ;-))) Here’s the link: http://kck.st/15xFQ1N
Yours,
Cori and the Ghost lines family
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Dear supporters, onlookers, and people near and far,
In the midst of our Ghost lines LIVE Kickstarter campaign, we’re here to bring you our first “Meet the character” update!
Originally, Ghost lines began as a solo freestyle movement practice exploring the body as a conduit for transformation. I act as a kind of medium, allowing a series of imagined spaces, forms, characters, and personalities to drift through my body, take form, and dissolve again in what I describe as a continuous “gesture line drawing.” This “conjuring” is a way to remember, imagine, and invent – playing with imagery from our collective historical unconscious.
Eva Schmidt, long time collaborator since 2007, visual artist and performer, will take the stage in a Dada séance! Costumed as a shadowshaper, she is fantastical yet menacing -animated by the imagery that passes through her 2-dimensional form.
In August 2011 at The Yard in Martha’s Vineyard, I developed a solo where Eva emerges from a bag, as if from the void, to cypher out various vaudevillian line drawings. In the line drawings, we play with the meanings of the verb “to draw”. The definition of “drawing” denotes pulling (as in “dragging”), and connotes revelation, unveiling, and uncovering: drawing a playing card or a pistol, for example. See our rehearsal clips here from early on in the process!
Enjoy!
Warmly,
Cori and the Ghost lines team
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Alison Nguyen took these photographs while Shona Masarin and I were shooting Ghost line on location in Kingston, NY. The bottom photograph is a panorama created in-camera (on a Diana camera).
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Studio scribbles of a movement character “smudgy”. Playing with continuous line drawings and the comedy of line.
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Exquisite Corpse
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Drawing Surrealism
Don’t miss “Drawing Surrealism” at the Morgan Library. The show reveals a rich assortment of surrealist drawings using various graphic techniques including automatic drawing, collage, decalcomania, exquisite corpse, and frottage.
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Dadaland
Out of his nine openings framed in curls, man exhales blue vapor, gray fog, black smoke. Sometimes he tries like a fly to walk on the ceiling, but he always fails and falls with a crash on the table covered with the best crockery.
-Jean Arp
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In Weathered Time work-in-progress collaboration by Michelle Dorrance and Cori Olinghouse Created in response to David Parker’s invitation to perform in his curated “Cabaret: Triple-Distilled dances” in the Fridays at Noon series at the 92 St Y
October 5, 2012
Video by Nic Petry
"Ghost lines" is a movement practice that uses an archival impulse to conjure a vaudevillian past.
As a project, it manifests in a variety of ways – through film, live art happenings, live performance, as photos, drawings, and an ongoing freestyle movement practice.
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