From: RobDivine@aol.com Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2000 00:07:36 EDT Subject: A Divine Intro (v.3) To: NYCgoth-L@necronomi.com This is ver. 3 of the Divine Intro posted to this list, updated with bits and pieces of old and new. I've been a member of nycgoth-l since the original two moderators. Several permutations and combinations of list leadership later I'm still on here, lurking in the background, occasionally offering 2 cents here and there. I've been a member of the nyc gothic community at large for more than 15 years (first official "show" I attended in the city was Nina Hagen at the old Ritz in the mid 80's). I grew up in Maplewood, NJ (went to the same high school as Lauryn Hill and Max Weinberg - Bruce Springsteen's drummer!!) but used NYU as an excuse to move out of suburban hell, moved to NYC, graduated NYU in 1991 - the same class [or close] as Cliff (listadmin), Vanessa Miasma, and a few others (Lauren Vile, Craig Curiosity, Brian Damage - we all had cool goth/punk names ;P) I now live in the east village just off Union Square. While at NYU in the late 80's I would schedule classes around the good club nights, mainly: Communion at Limelight, Father Jeff's Ward 6 at the Bank (and various places), DJ Slave's industrial night at the Building, Dave Kendall's the Mission (now Ace Bar). Not to mention the many early renegade club nights like Purgatory and Damnation organized by fellow NYU'er Vanessa Miasma and Craig Curiosity which pioneered the dedicated goth-night format in the late 80's/early 90's. Where the goth-club scene would be today without those forerunners I could not envision. Old-school Goth - whatever you want to call it is the only thing that ever meant anything to me, muscially. Not to say I don't occasionally enjoy bouncing up and down to Deutschmachine or Once in a Lifetime, but its all Sisters, Mission, Damned, Bauhaus, Siouxsie, Christian Death, Nick Cave & Bad Seeds/B-Day Party, Lords of the New Church, March Violets, Alien Sex Fiend, Specimen, Sex Gang Children, Virgin Prunes etc. that I grew up on - nearly all of whom I've also seen LIVE. Yeah, I'm a Goth purist. By day I'm a disgruntled Systems Architect for Unisys Corporation (based at 110 Wall St.), and I do Unix and Win NT enterprise-class system installs mostly for the financial sector, and some presale/marketing. My assignment right now is installing the super duper Unisys Cellular Multiprocessing (CMP) 32-CPU Partionable NT & Unix Intel Mainframe, which is reasonably cool because no other vendor - not IBM, not Compaq, has this. I travel more than I care to, and this month alone (July) I spent a week in San Diego (hotstaging) a week in Cleveland (installing), and I have a another week in Malvern PA planned for last week of July. I'm officially one of the Goth-Yuppie/CorpGoth's on the list I guess. Somewhere in the past 10 years or so I decided I wanted to be a dancer but realized I didn't have the time or financial freedom to do it full time. So I became trapped in a business job that pays the rent nicely, but I have to steal away every free moment I can to work on my creative outlet. I've had over a decade of technical jazz, classical, and modern dance technique. I started at the Martha Graham School for Contemporary Dance way back when, and then floated around to Soundance, Movement Research, and call Dance Space Center my home today. I speciallize in Simonson Jazz technique, made Advanced in October, 1999, and made Advanced with Lynn Simonson (the originator of the technique) this past June. This is important to me b/c I have the respect and support of the Dance Space founders, and can use the solid technique as a vehicle for my own creative work. I like to think I bring (or brought, in my heyday) to the goth-club scene something different, something that raised the bar a bit in terms of goth-dance. I liken what I try to do with dance to what Requiem in White used to do with music [or any other neo-classical styled goth band] - trying to weave classical form into the standard goth-formula to create something new and dark and beautiful (i.e.Lisa Hammer's classically trained-vocal technique blended with dark and heavy guitar-work in RiW). I used to perform as part of Michael T's Cabaret Nights at Pyramid, which spawned the Black Lips Performance Theater that appeared at Pyramid and then CrowBar which some of you Geri's out there might remember. Basically I'd set a choreographed dance piece for myself and Lauren Vile (actress turned movie-maker friend from NYU) and we'd combine lip sync and dance combinations. What was funny is that we were usually the only goth-act at the time and were sandwiched inbetween a dozen drag-queen acts (i.e. Psychotic Eve, Miss Understood etc.). Everyone in the performance scene was very accepting though, and at the very first one we did in 92, Sisters' "Ribbons", we were just AMAZED that they were applauding and never really imagined there'd be a market for goth-peformance art. In our history we've performed one or more times at Danceteria, Club 58, Limelight (on Halloween!!), and of course, Pyramid where we had our start. We've performed to: LotNC's "the Lord's Prayer", Kommunity F[uc]k's "Vision and the Voice", and various Sisters. In 1997 I resurrected our signature piece, "Driven Like the Snow [the Gothic Nutcracker]" for Althea's Lip-Sync night at Alchemy (complete with fake snow!!) This is also the one piece that we actually got paid for (at Club 58 for club-promoter Wolfgang); albeit barely more than cab-fare, but a paid performance nonetheless. My current project is ~Shadows of Angels Dance Company~ (the only Goth-inspired dance company in the biz, to my knowledge). We are working on developing actual dance performance infused with styles from the goth/industrial scene, i.e. from my past experience. "We" includes myself and, if this works, collaboration with Lisa Feuer (probably my closest friend right now), an accomplished modern and butoh dancer besides being Black Tape for a Blue Girl's flutist (among her other Projekt Label roles). We're also talking to Alda Xavier who has mobilized the Rift Arts Forum which showcases dark performance artists. I've always felt that dance performance in the gothic scene has taken a backseat to music performance, writing, photography, etc. There has almost NEVER been a real forum for dance performance in the gothic scene. My "vision" is seeing live goth performance art right up there opening for goth-band events, legitimizing it as an art form - whether that will come to pass I don't know... Lastly, I'm not going to air dirty laundry onlist as I once did, but lets just say I'm single/looking. Fell in love, got hurt, changed a few things, and I'm back for more. Simply put. Yeah, despite having done the goth-boy makeup to death in the early days, being a male dancer, and calling myself "Rob Divine", I *am* straight. :) My two "children" are Godiva and Kahlua, two gray-with-white-belly pet rats who enjoy listening to Wolfsheim and eating mozerella sticks. TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS Height: 5'8" Weight: 143lbs (lean build) Hair: black hair, medium, usually in a small ponytail Background: Spanish and Asian, but born in NJ Age: turn 31 on Aug. 9 Signature jacket: long black leather trenchcoat with Sisters' Merciful Release head-and-star (old) painted on back, DIVINE in Damned lettering down sleeve Signature boots: tall skull-buckle boots, modified with a jazz boot sole and lower heel Signature moves: personal best 6-turn pirouette (Baryshnikov did 9), huge switch-jump and other aerials Fav ice cream: Haagen-Daz chocolate peanut butter Fav cigarette: Benson & Hedges menthol lights (mmm... minty!!) Fav romantic to do: slow-dancing in little hypnotic circles Long-term goal: presenting own work for Shadows of Angels Dance Company Short-term goal: landing the double tour in mid-air (two turns in the air, spotting) Thank you, and goodnight... +… Rob Divine + Patron Saint of Goth-dance RobDivine@aol.com ~News from the Divine Front~ [Dancer Portfolio] http://members.aol.com/robdivine ~In dance we are as the shadows of angels~ [Shadows of Angels Dance Company] http://neitherland.com/soadc "All the things we never needed ...I don't need them now" - Eldritch