IN THE DRAWING AS IT IS ON THE DANCE FLOOR Collective Choreographies exhibits thirty-six labanotational ink drawings of line dances. Using a taxonomy of tiny and precise lines, each notation corresponds to a movement within standard line dance choreography. These movements are typically specified by “stepsheets,” written instructions popularly circulated through open-source websites to learn and teach line dances. Each drawing shows 121 “dancers” in a grid of 11 x 11 “dancing” simultaneously. Each hand-drawn depiction highlights the tension between coordinated, identical movements and each unique and idiosyncratic instance. The representation of repetitive, rhythmic sameness reveals itself to be, in fact, a representation of multiplicity and difference, in the drawing as it is on the dance floor. As a meditation on coordinated movement, the drawings seek to depict the muscle memory and propulsion of group movement that directs our physical bodies more than any coherent thought when moving together. A project by Maura Chen @chenmaur Organized by @chrisevargas Opening Reception Thursday, May 14, 5-9pm Dance Lessons & Parties ($15 NOTAFLOF) ▪️Sunday May 17th 3-7pm Sugar Honey IT and Fake ID w/@abadocious00 of @bootleg_dance & @coreylubo ▪️Friday May 22nd 7-11pm Mucara Walk and Cherry Bottom Boom w/ @kkmiracle & @shitflix of @stud.country ▪️Sunday May 24th 3-7pm Play That Sax and Easy Rider (Contra Dance!) w/ @dandelion.dealer & @parishelena of @dosidontcha Print orders for select dances will be available to place opening night for pickup on closing night!!

Juxtaposing my drawing process with Davis’s articulation of the relationship between lines and accumulation, LS identifies a guiding rule that has held since I first started notating choreographies in july of ’24. The mistaken steps, the discernible difference and inevitable idiosyncrasy of individuals performing the same movements side by side, the inadvertent turns or spins in the wrong direction, the flair and flourishes intentionally layered onto synchronized footwork, these are all part of the composition, in the drawing as it is on the dance floor. I let the lines lead my pen in the same way that I feel my eye led by dancers in proximity on the floor. Adjacency creates pockets of similarity and difference as we sync up, copying each others’ high kicks or extra spins, aligning our movements, and sharply or subtly differentiate from each other, adding hair flips or kick steps or swiveling our hips. MB reminds me one night onstage when I think I’ve forgotten the choreo, “it’s in your body not in your head.” The muscle memory and propulsion of group movement is what directs our physical bodies more than any coherent thought. It’s this interdependent looseness, the social quality of coordinated movement, the push pull quality of multiple bodies in shared space, that the drawing seeks to depict. “That’s storytelling! There’s more in there than documentation!” EL laughs as we assemble the perfect matte-finish plywood frames they’ve designed and fabricated in their shop. Running our fingers over the drawings, I describe the various forms of difference and sameness in the lines, what types of movement they indicate, where the kick becomes a heel click instead, where a spin or turning vine is substituted for a vine, proffering the names of friends whose footwork I was evoking through specific choreography notations, since the cadence of movement within our little cohort of regulars has become so familiar these past three and a half years. “It’s amazing that you even see that,” EL says, “When I dance, I don’t clock other people’s movements.” tomorrow morning 9am collective choreographies in the drawing as it is on the dance floor draftingcurbside.substack.com

LS sends a Miles Davis 1988 interview this week, “Not sure if this resonates but reminded me of you. What happens in ur drawing process when u put the wrong line. Do u keep going?” To the interviewer, Davis responds without missing a beat. “A wrong line? The more… you said line… When I make a wrong line… The line isn’t wrong until after you put the next one down. Music is the same way. The sound— You don’t make bad notes. The other— the note next to the one that you think is bad corrects the one in front. Only way you can do that is by experience. Only way you can take a line that you didn’t mean to draw is to draw every day. Then you can be able to say, “well, I put this in, it isn’t too far away from the thing.” Or maybe change colors. Just the same way of composition. It’s the same way.” newsletter essay forthcoming, this thurs morning 9am, drawing details and process / show opening forthcoming, thurs 5pm next week may 14th at human resources in chinatown 410 cottage home street ! collective choreographies in the drawing as it is on the dance floor draftingcurbside.substack.com

IN THE DRAWING AS IT IS ON THE DANCE FLOOR collective choreographies(: see you soon Collective Choreographies exhibits thirty-six labanotational ink drawings of line dances. Using a taxonomy of tiny and precise lines, each notation corresponds to a movement within standard line dance choreography. These movements are typically specified by “stepsheets,” written instructions popularly circulated through open-source websites to learn and teach line dances. Each drawing shows 121 “dancers” in a grid of 11 x 11 “dancing” simultaneously. Each hand-drawn depiction highlights the tension between coordinated, identical movements and each unique and idiosyncratic instance. The representation of repetitive, rhythmic sameness reveals itself to be, in fact, a representation of multiplicity and difference, in the drawing as it is on the dance floor. As a meditation on coordinated movement, the drawings seek to depict the muscle memory and propulsion of group movement that directs our physical bodies more than any coherent thought when moving together.

Saturday night 9pm @bike_oven with @duderella and @thedumpies

happy friday the 13th ! save the date, and yes, we will line dance to this song x

Eyvind Kang — Riparian “The drawing unfolds from a non-linear dialogue between Eyvind’s improvisations on the viola d’amore, time spent down on the LA River, and field recordings in the form of written essays, film photographs, and physical sketches tracing watersheds.” — Maura Chen “I was drawn to Maura’s riverine sketches and their drawings of music — especially one made after a Julius Eastman concert we both attended. Their work recalled the Neijing Tu, which was also an intention behind Riparian. There was something real there.” — Eyvind Kang Available individually or as the discounted Cohort 1 bundle (bio link → merch section) #eyvindkang #kourecords #maurachen

legitimate awe at the generosity of this one earth, submerging again in the strong current of the river, the contrast - my body in the cold spring, my torso enveloped in a hot mountain wind blowing through the canyon, thick and heavy with transportative humidity, the water-laden air in my nose tells its own stories, has its own memories, claims nostalgia and narrative for itself - like the thickly sweet smell of creosote in the desert storm, purple white lightning cracking across the sky - and a quiet storm that blows through, unbroken - the sound of rushing water sharpening my body alive like the shocks of rolling thunder careening toward us on periwinkle and indigo stormclouds over the grey green shivering sagebrush and mountain peaks casting icy blue shadows between ponderosa pines

evaded linear time for three of the most spectacular nights of my life /watched dozens of meteors cross a sky framed out by cassiopeia and ursa major out toward sagittarius, even “that’s the comet that ended the dinosaurs,” from the bottom of our “lakebed” valley /sleeping among the mugwort in our home of mountain alliums and fleurs /swimming naked in the alpine snowmelt, in the placeness we’ve made together returning to our lake, tracing its edges, watching its reflections, thru purple pinecone foraging paths & yellow spotted rana sierrae homes & habitats [frog lyfe forev] /wide awake through a hundred shooting stars the last night til dawn breaks beyond the quaking aspen once in a none moon :: uncommon visibility draftingcurbside.substack.com/p/once-in-a-none-moon slides 7, 8, 9 thanks ofc to documentarian ride or die extraordinaire jacquie li x

delusional temporal framework / new maps, new ways of being, thru plant and star and rock identification +crabwalking and vogueing up and down the switchbacks of the eastern sierras +clambering up into pine trees / drawing four of the most deranged exquisite corpses i’ve ever seen at the lake edge in the alpine snow shadow reflections / mushroom and cabbage grilled over the open fire / this brief, illusory, totally breathtaking meatspace existence / truly an honor to turn around the sun in your light

best stargazing of mi life for solar return 32 with jb j and el . slides 2, 8, 10, & the slide 7 ! comet drawings by ride or die documentarian jacquie li x

drawing of cooper canyon falls while mt was napping in the tent in the san gabriels . golden hour afternoon last june