Sunday, May 10, 2009
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
To dream...
"You have to have always a dream...and I have only one dream, that's to dream all my life."
Augusto Boal
...he's on to bigger and better things.
Augusto Boal
...he's on to bigger and better things.
Monday, May 4, 2009
The Union Square (Dance) Experiments
We include in our pattern a man sitting on a railing.
We sunbathe upside down, but only upside down in relation to the scores of people who are in the same position right-side up.
We lean against a pole, and then another, and then another.
We stand still—not a particularly noteworthy activity—unless it’s raining.
We jostle to get by each other even though we’re in the most expansive part of the Square.
We glance side to side.
We sit next to people we don’t know.
We turn look back and forth, watching the watchers, taking them in, connecting to them gesturally, but also dancing.
We make circles around a certain center, each larger than the last until we gradually eat up all of the space of the square, including bodies one at a time.
We turn trashcans into islands, and jump between them.
We look down drains, we look at each other, we look at the rest of the people in the park.
When they look at us, we say hi, wave, or wink, destabilizing the distinction between performing and “just being” in the park.
…
We become them, we become us, we become we-and-them.
VISIT the Union Square (Dance) Experiments at this link.
http://dansperiments.blogspot.com/
Do you see yourself?
Come dance with us.
We sunbathe upside down, but only upside down in relation to the scores of people who are in the same position right-side up.
We lean against a pole, and then another, and then another.
We stand still—not a particularly noteworthy activity—unless it’s raining.
We jostle to get by each other even though we’re in the most expansive part of the Square.
We glance side to side.
We sit next to people we don’t know.
We turn look back and forth, watching the watchers, taking them in, connecting to them gesturally, but also dancing.
We make circles around a certain center, each larger than the last until we gradually eat up all of the space of the square, including bodies one at a time.
We turn trashcans into islands, and jump between them.
We look down drains, we look at each other, we look at the rest of the people in the park.
When they look at us, we say hi, wave, or wink, destabilizing the distinction between performing and “just being” in the park.
…
We become them, we become us, we become we-and-them.
VISIT the Union Square (Dance) Experiments at this link.
http://dansperiments.blogspot.com/
Do you see yourself?
Come dance with us.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Trisha Brown - Planes
Planes, 1968, 2009
Brooklyn Academy of Music
We sit in darkness and numbers. Lights flood the stage revealing three dancers lying on a canvas that shifts with the morphing projections that dance across it.
No wait—they are hanging!
Anchored by holes in a large set piece, they look like childhood toys: Barrel O Monkeys hanging from a Connect Four Set. Black and white costumes divide their bodies front and back but as they move, distinctions blur and they become bodily mobius strips, carefully negotiating gravity and the projected landscape. They rush through space (while moving slowly), lie in the fetal position underneath distorted footage of a woman’s legs, then fly through the air many miles above ground. They share space with a developing fetus and then wander barren earth, the images (16mm footage by experimental video artist Jud Yalkut) define them as well as their spatial orientation. They flip between walking, flying, and lying down. As we watch, and as our brains attempt to reconcile these changes, we undergo similar changes. The effect is one of being on an elusive, illusive roller coaster in which we fly while sitting still in our seats.
What are the building blocks of a human being?
The Human experience?
What are the building blocks of our environment?
In their pared-down costumes, the dancers become elementary units of life amidst the various forms (projected on the wall) that life takes. Animating the changing landscape with these dancer bodies, Brown weaves space travel with being born.
We hurtle to earth and crash into consciousness. What are the implications of this?
Brooklyn Academy of Music
We sit in darkness and numbers. Lights flood the stage revealing three dancers lying on a canvas that shifts with the morphing projections that dance across it.
No wait—they are hanging!
Anchored by holes in a large set piece, they look like childhood toys: Barrel O Monkeys hanging from a Connect Four Set. Black and white costumes divide their bodies front and back but as they move, distinctions blur and they become bodily mobius strips, carefully negotiating gravity and the projected landscape. They rush through space (while moving slowly), lie in the fetal position underneath distorted footage of a woman’s legs, then fly through the air many miles above ground. They share space with a developing fetus and then wander barren earth, the images (16mm footage by experimental video artist Jud Yalkut) define them as well as their spatial orientation. They flip between walking, flying, and lying down. As we watch, and as our brains attempt to reconcile these changes, we undergo similar changes. The effect is one of being on an elusive, illusive roller coaster in which we fly while sitting still in our seats.
What are the building blocks of a human being?
The Human experience?
What are the building blocks of our environment?
In their pared-down costumes, the dancers become elementary units of life amidst the various forms (projected on the wall) that life takes. Animating the changing landscape with these dancer bodies, Brown weaves space travel with being born.
We hurtle to earth and crash into consciousness. What are the implications of this?
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