If you have a few minutes, and would like to see a neat You-tubey kind of thing, check out this film created by one of my co-workers during his wife’s pregnancy. My colleague is a graphic designer/artist/videographer, and his wife is a modern dancer–he created five choreographic challenges for her to conquer. An article in the Austin Chronicle describes the results thusly:
he second piece in the first part of the concert is a dance film, The Five Challenges, by David Steadman. "David is a visual artist, and he’s our graphic designer," says Hamrick. "And his wife Cherami is in the company. And when she got pregnant she said, ‘Well, I still really want to be involved. Can David and I make a film together?’ So David gave her five choreographic problems to solve. One of them – I hope I can get it right – was to make a phrase of movement that goes forward but appears backward in the film. Or something like that."
"He also gave her a time constraint," says Warren. "Each movement could only be two seconds long."
"For another she had to do 30 social dances in 30 seconds," says Nicks.
"I think they filmed it in a liquor store," says Warren.
…
"And they’re still married," says Warren. "And happily so. You should put that in there."
There’s something very cool, and very sweet about the film — and I think it’s an interesting mix of male and female energy somehow. If I was a better impending father, I would come up with something similar for Jess and me to do, though ours, of course, would have to be more verbal than visual.
Also, as a side note, I’ve been assured that Jen Percy Dowd, International Woman of Mystery Man-eating Beaver, is a regular reader of this site. Yet for some reason she refuses to make her presence known. Consider this a challenge to you, Jen: Woman up. If you’re woman enough to send snarky emails to my wife about what I’m writing, you should be woman enough to comment on the blog. The same goes for the rest of you.
