It's Mid July!

It's Dance=Music Series: Moonlight! 

Today is the second show for Dance=Music Series: Moonlight! Will you be joining us? It's at 3pm, at Toccata Studio, 19b, Jalan SS2/55 47300 Petaling Jaya (above Poh Kong SS2). We had an amazing show last night, with rather enthusiastic young members in the audience. It is always a pleasure to have children be exposed to the arts; their curiosity and wonder know no bounds!  

July has been busy and fulfilling, so far! In the first weekend we had Cake Project #13, where three dreamers submitted their proposals for a chance to kick start their projects; Lee Siew Min's idea, Art Elongation, is to connect the community to art by gathering people together to draw and paint on the same canvas. Second presenter, Teo Wey Herng, wants to organize a workshop titled Building Blocks for children to teach them about stories and the art of story telling. Third presenter is dancer Lee Ren Xin, whose proposal B.E.D. is a piece of dance theatre discussing the ideas and stories about resting and beds. 

 Lee Siew Min: Art Elongation

Teo Wey Herng: Building Blocks.

Lee Ren Xin: B.E.D 

 The audience listening in rapt attention.

The vote! Our cake sponsor did an amazing job 

with the Hummingbird cake, yum! 

Stay tuned for more updates about events! Thank you for reading. (: 

Today we're sharing a TED Talk that inspires us! Watch it, or save it for a Saturday afternoon, and come join us on Sunday. (click on the quote to get to the TED talk!)

1. Béatrice Coron is a papercutter artist who tells stories with layers of papercutting. 'But the result is always to have stories. So the stories, they have a lot of possibilities.' She became an artist only at 40 years old! Art and creativity has no age limit, friends! 

What do Creative People Say?

5 days to CAKE Project #13! Today we bring you 13 quotes on creativity by those of the creative ilk! 

Edward de Bono of 6 Thinking Hats says: 

We need creativity in order to break free from the temporary structures that have been set up by a particular sequence of experience. 

Edwin Land, the co-founder of Polaroid tells us to not fear failure: 

An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail. 

Controversial performance artist Marina Abramovic is a bit stern, but speaks the very truth: 

Your ego can become an obstacle to your work. If you start believing in your greatness, it is the death of your creativity.

Classic Hollywood star Marilyn Monroe (really, she needs no introduction) reminds us of the humanity in creativity: 

Creativity has got to start with humanity and when you're a human being, you feel, you suffer. You're gay, you're sick, you're nervous or whatever. 

The great American poet of the 1920's T.S. Eliot remind us how anxiety is absolutely normal:

Anxiety is the hand maiden of creativity. (x)

Contemporary dancer and choreographer Twyla Tharp reminds you to make creativity (creating) a habit:

Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is the result of good work habits. 

Yo-yo Ma, a world renown cellist and the founder of the Silk Road Project, says this about creativity: 

Passion is one great force that unleashes creativity, because if you're passionate about something, then you're more willing to take risks.

The powerful and inspirational African-American civil rights activist, Maya Angelou (may she rest in peace and power), believes that creativity is an innate quality:  

Everybody born comes from the Creator trailing wisps of glory. We come from the Creator with creativity. I think that each one of us is born with creativity.

Beyonce Knowles (who needs no introduction, the Queen Bee of pop music!) says creativity is her life: 

If I weren't performing, I'd be a beauty editor or a therapist. I love creativity, but I also love to help others. My mother was a hairstylist, and they listen to everyone's problems - like a beauty therapist!

Impressionist painter Henri Matisse reminds you to be courageous about your art: 

Creativity takes courage. 

Ken Robinson, who writes about creativity and finding one's passion says this: 

Creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value. It is a process; it's not random.

Yoko Ono, a musician, artist and most known for being John Lennon's (of the Beatles) second wife, says this about her music: 

I always believed that my work should be unfinished in the sense that I encourage people to add their creativity to it, either conceptually or physically. Back in the 1960s, I was calling for 'Unfinished Music,' number one, and number two, with my artwork - I was taking unfinished work into the gallery. And that's how I was looking at it.

We'll end this post with another quote from dancer and choreographer Twyla Tharp, who reminds us that creativity is for everybody: 

Creativity is not just for artists. It's for businesspeople looking for a new way to close a sale; it's for engineers trying to solve a problem; it's for parents who want their children to see the world in more than one way.

We'll stop here, for now. Hope you've been appropriately encouraged and motivated reading these quotes; we'd love to see you this Sunday, whether as part of the audience or one who comes forward with a proposal. Though if you do have a proposal, send it to us (etoccata@gmail.com) immediately! 

Quotes taken from brainyquote.com. Check them out if you need extra motivation! 

Six days to a CAKE project Sunday!

CAKE Project #13 is less about cake and more about creativity! (We still love cake, though. We love cake. A lot.) Creativity comes in many many ways, yet when we go seeking for it, it is more often than not, very very evasive. We end up procrastinating and waiting for the elusive 'inspiration'. How do we be productive and creative at the same time?

At Brainpickings (one of our favourite websites), Maria Popova and cognitive scientist Alexandra Horowitz discusses productivity, and to a certain extent, the art of looking and observing, a skill all creative people need.

When you look closely at anything familiar, it kind of transmogrifies into something unfamiliar — the sort of cognitive version of saying your name again and again and again, or a word again and again and again, and getting a different sound of it after you’ve repeated it forty times. 

Click through to read/hear more about the conversation!

A Week to Cake Project #13!

Hello friends, July is closing in and we're already in the middle of 2014! How time has flew, indeed. Today at Toccata we're at the last legs of preparation for the first Dance Dance Dance showcase (it's tonight!), an initiative led by dancer and choreographer Steve Goh, where dancers can come together to learn and connect with each other in contemporary dance. Hope to see you tonight! 

July also means another Cake Project session! It's the 13th this time around, and we're hoping that this particular number won't jinx the number of proposals we might receive. *fingers crossed* If you have a proposal or an idea that needs funding or just a proper hashing-out or an audience - who isn't family or friend - to maybe give you feedback, send us your proposal already! We can't wait to hear you out (and maybe vote for you so you can realise your dreams). 

We'll be posting creativity-related stuff this entire week both on Facebook and here, so stay tuned! Meanwhile, enjoy the slideshow of pictures from past Cake Project afternoons. (: 

听着音乐去旅行：“山的故鄉，神的國度”──西藏尼泊爾分享會

听着音乐去旅行：“山的故鄉，神的國度”──西藏尼泊爾分享會

一個被冠為“世界屋脊”，一個擁有8座超過8000米的高山；西藏和尼泊爾，是許多人一輩子的目標。

全世界的旅人來到這裡，看渺小的人類如何用身體丈量天地，看神的子民如何從前世邁向來生，看無欲無求如何跟現實世界較量……每個人在這裡用生命的反思和辯證，給老天爺獻上最崇高的虔敬。

被群山峻嶺包圍的國度裡，有神，或許還有達爾文筆下“生命的起源”。你上輩子來過，這輩子怎能錯過？

“山的故鄉，神的國度”──西藏尼泊爾 音乐• 旅游分享會
主講人：卓衍豪（左眼）
音乐人：黄楚原
日期：2014年6月5日（星期四）
時間：8pm - 9:30pm
地點：TOCCATA STUDIO， 19B , SS2/55, 47300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
联络：016-3618504

Harmony in Oscillation - a wholesome holiday arts camp

HARMONY IN OSCILLATIONS SHOWCASE - music + dance + art
~ your heart through art

performers:
Music : Ng Chor Guan
Dance : Steve Goh
Art : Jessica Ching


for more information , contact:
phone: 016-3618504
email: etoccata@gmail.com
facebook: toccata studio
address: 19B, SS2/55,47300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.
admission : by minimum donation RM25

ideas initiated by Cake Project.