Last night's show raised $370 for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières!

Thanks to the Moment's Notice audience & performers, we were able to make two donations today, this one and another, totaling $370.

The performers were amazing, too.

Dance, narrative theater, and music, all masterful and each referencing or evoking nature. But don't take my word for it. Here's an email we received:

Doesn't everyone think last night was about the best MoNo ever? I was enthralled from start to finish -- and wowed by the high level, diversity, and gorgeous execution of the performances. THANK you all for producing this thing (and for considering the Haitian sorrow...)

If you weren't there, here's what you missed:

Margit Galanter opened the show with a solo dance. She transformed the space with a few simple props, including large paper circles on the wall and floor. Then she transformed herself, again and again. After the show, she gave away gift certificates for her Physical Intelligence body work sessions, which combine acupressure and Feldenkrais. She teaches, too. Contemplative Dance, Tuning… Definitely worth checking out: http://physicalintelligence.org/)

Owen Walker followed, doing an Action Theater solo about fatherhood, domesticity, a squirrel, life, death, and things that can/cannot be put off. He wove these themes into a tight, funny story. Owen is a superb teacher, too, btw. He leads a weekly class and he's teaming up with Linda Rodeck -- you might remember her from our 11/7/09 Moment's Notice -- to offer a workshop on Jan. 30-31: http://www.actiontheaterbayarea.com

Anka Draugelates & Cheryl Leonard played music on instruments made of reeds, stones, water, wood -- mostly things collected in nature. It was ethereal, moody, fascinating -- and hard to take our eyes off them. But, we did, because they were joined by surprise guests: exquisite dancers from Capacitor (Jody Lomask, Mayuko Hosoai, Marvin Vergara and Ashley Johnson). They're collaborating on a series of workshops and dances to raise awareness and funds for marine sanctuary, The Ocean Project: http://capacitor.org/

Olivia Corson gave us an engaging Body Tales narrative about motherhood, bats, and environmental crisis. It was personal in a way that made the political come alive, and vice versa (If you define ecological issues as political, that is. Anyway, I went home and Googled "bats dying"; now I want to do a fundraiser for them, too. Go ahead and Google it yourself. I dare you to. ) Olivia teaches her way of blending dance with storytelling, and she's gifted at creating a nurturing environment for risk-taking; here's her website: http://www.bodytales.com/

The evening ended with Rajendra Serber and Kristen Greco dancing gorgeously to another set of Anka's and Cheryl's exquisite nature-inspired music. Rajendra is just so fun, and he'll be teaching contact improv at Counterpulse in February: http://counterpulse.org/calendar/classes-and-workshops/

Thanks again to everyone who helped make this evening so satisfying! We "heart" you!

Raising funds for Haiti

We've decided to donate funds (after expenses) for the January 16 show to Doctors Without Borders, to help them help survivors of the earthquake in Haiti. We hope to see you there! (Show details are in the post below.)

Come see us on January 16!

Our next show is shaping up to be another good one. Here are details, bios, & links to more info:

Moment's Notice

Western Sky Studio
2525 8th St.
Berkeley, CA 94710

8pm, Saturday, Jan. 16
Tickets sliding scale, $8-$15

Featuring improvised performances by:

Anka Draugelates & Cheryl Leonard - music/sound art
Margit Galanter - dance
Olivia Corson - body tales
Owen Walker - action theater
Rajendra Serber - dance

..and inevitable surprises...


Anka Draugelates & Cheryl Leonard are doing a piece called "winterstillness."

Anka Draugelates was born in Munich, Germany. She is an improvisational voice artist and musician who composes both experimental and classical pieces. Draugelates studied music therapy in the Netherlands at hoogeschool nijmegen and received her diploma in 1996. Draugelates has participated in solo and group shows throughout Germany, Europe and San Francisco. She enjoys working collaboratively, and has worked extensively with diverse artists, including filmmakers, visual artists, dancers and musicians.

Cheryl Leonard is a composer, performer, improviser and instrument builder. Over the last decade she has focused on investigating sounds, structures, and objects from the natural world. Leonard’s works cultivate stones, leaves, wood, water, sand, shells, feathers, and bones as musical instruments in compositions that reveal the unique voices hidden within these materials. Leonard’s music has been performed worldwide and featured in several television and video documentaries. She has received grants from ASCAP, the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists and Writers Program, American Composers Forum and Meet the Composer, and awarded residencies at Djerassi, Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus, Villa Montalvo and Engine 27. www.allwaysnorth.com



Margit Galanter is a movement artisan and collaborative investigator. Her fascination regarding the construction and value of movement has led her to improvising for many years. Margit’s practices span forms such as the Feldenkrais Method®, Wild Goose Qigong, tuning scores, acupressure, and improvisational dance/research/performance, coalescing. She lives in Oakland, where she practices Physical Intelligence and co-curates the SEEDS Festival. To learn more about her biz, check here: www.physicalintelligence.org and for art matters, www.margitg.wordpress.com.

 For Moment’s Notice, Margit will present a chapter of Y, a long term project that investigates the androgyne and the beginning of the word.


Olivia Corson is a spirited and inspiring San Francisco Bay Area movement theater artist, noted for her powerful and transformative teaching and performance work. She skillfully interweaves movement and story, feeling and thought, the sacred and the ordinary, with humor and compassion. Corson has performed hundreds of evenings of improvised narrative dance pieces and been a much-loved teacher for over 30 years. She has also created — written, choreographed and directed — many movement theater pieces over many years, (including her pivotal one woman eco-theater show, "Third Stone From the Sun." For more info: www.bodytales.com


Owen Walker teaches and performs improvisation in the Bay Area. Originally a visual artist, he gave up brushes and paint for a more immediate medium - the expressive body. As a performance artist and dancer, Owen was captivated by Ruth Zaporah's work (www.actiontheater.com); he began studying with her intensively in the early nineties. Owen's training also includes vocal work with the Roy Hart Theater, Authentic Movement, Contact Improvisation and modern dance. Owen is a member of the International Action Theater Ensemble. For seven years he was a member of Mobius Artists Group in Boston. Owen also co-founded Four Goats and a Virgin, an improvisational theater ensemble. He has performed throughout New England, New York, the Bay Area, and in France.


Rajendra Serber was a 2008 recipient of the Choreographers in Mentorship Exchange award. He directed and performed in his own multimedia group, The RK Corral, supported by grants form the Zellerbach Family Fund, had residencies at The LAB and 848 Community Space, and was nominated for multiple Isadora Duncan Awards and Lester Horton Dance Awards. From 1996 to 1997 he was the Associate Producer of House of Dance, which was broadcast bimonthly on San Francisco’s public access channel. As a dancer, Rajendra has had the privilege of collaborating with many wonderful artists: The Residents, Scott Wells, Sara Shelton Mann, Ilaan Egeland, Jon Weaver, Kimiko Guthrie and Eric Kupers of Dandelion Dancetheater.