tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62103413410304022412024-03-05T15:11:40.925-05:00MoveMuseRambling Dancing, Dancing Ramblings.zenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12845575419668150985noreply@blogger.comBlogger44125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6210341341030402241.post-72231270184709894202009-12-27T14:26:00.006-05:002009-12-27T20:36:12.397-05:00the reddi check internet battle saga minutes.because this should be preserved:<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>provocation:</i></b></span> <br />
<object height="265" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/DmJe2POWZXQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/DmJe2POWZXQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="320" height="265"></embed></object><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>inspiration: </b></i></span><br />
<br />
<object height="265" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/OCQqqZ8PltQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/OCQqqZ8PltQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="320" height="265"></embed></object><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>response:</b></i></span><br />
<object height="265" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/1HpKNhyCu_A&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1HpKNhyCu_A&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="320" height="265"></embed></object>zenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12845575419668150985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6210341341030402241.post-3906208556856587162009-12-08T00:06:00.000-05:002009-12-08T00:06:34.632-05:00snodance with mereworked footage of the <a href="http://dansperiments.blogspot.com/">union square dansperiments</a> <br />
<br />
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union square, death, silver and gold, snow stormzenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12845575419668150985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6210341341030402241.post-33254154419888776092009-12-07T23:56:00.004-05:002009-12-07T23:59:49.043-05:00<span id="profile_status" style="font-size: large;"><span id="status_text">"dancing is powerful; it's how i experience my own wildness."</span></span><br />
<span id="profile_status" style="font-size: large;"><span id="status_text">jennifer monson</span></span>zenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12845575419668150985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6210341341030402241.post-53086185313522168072009-11-11T13:56:00.002-05:002009-11-11T13:58:09.757-05:00people on the train.i saw four people get on the train yesterday. they sat together.<br />three were missing half their teeth.<br />all were grinning.zenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12845575419668150985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6210341341030402241.post-15094787529926092952009-11-01T09:46:00.002-05:002009-11-01T10:03:54.489-05:00touching."Greatly in need of comfort and support, I said to Elder Corelli, “I don’t suppose you’d let me hug you?”<br /><br />He shook his head. “You know I can’t, Sister Welker.”<br /><br />I stared at my hands, tangled in my lap. “Can I hold onto your shirt sleeve, then?”<br /><br />He nodded, so I grasped the edge of his sleeve between my thumb and forefinger and held it, trying to pretend it was a form of human contact that offered any solace.<br /><br />In any event, it was all I had."<br /><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/fashion/01love.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=modern%20love&st=cse">(from The New York Times: Modern Love</a>)<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />How often do we find ourselves in the position of approximating touch?<br />Old sweatshirts.<br />Songs.<br />Foods.<br />Dance.zenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12845575419668150985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6210341341030402241.post-69644490143320916592009-07-28T20:59:00.002-04:002009-07-28T21:03:17.970-04:00Goodnight Moon, Goodnight Merce.<object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/h8ENaI70cDg&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/h8ENaI70cDg&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="385" width="480"></embed></object>Goodbye Merce. You're off to space!<br />You'll be missed but you left us with much.<br /><br />Here's some antique and newer footage:<br /><br /><object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/NLOWy3ys8Ag&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/NLOWy3ys8Ag&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="385" width="480"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /><object height="385" width="640"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/jJsl6gORMi4&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/jJsl6gORMi4&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="385" width="640"></embed></object>zenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12845575419668150985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6210341341030402241.post-1449787732085431032009-07-20T22:34:00.002-04:002009-07-20T22:36:40.984-04:00Side Project!Hello Friends!<br /><br />I've been absent from my post...I'm working on a video blog with friends at the American Dance Festival.<br /><a href="http://littledanceseverywhere.blogspot.com/"><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 51, 204);font-size:180%;" >http://littledanceseverywhere.blogspot.com</span></a><br /><br />See you there.<br /><br />Little Dances Everywhere.zenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12845575419668150985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6210341341030402241.post-44945404231271601972009-07-01T19:42:00.002-04:002009-07-01T19:47:05.277-04:00July 1 Dance o' the DayJuly 1st.<br />Locopops.<br /><br />Starring: Bourbon Pecan and Ginger Lime.<br /><br /><object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/zm0mKmuZx0s&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0xcc2550&color2=0xe87a9f"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/zm0mKmuZx0s&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0xcc2550&color2=0xe87a9f" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>zenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12845575419668150985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6210341341030402241.post-27398048947366305362009-06-30T15:58:00.002-04:002009-06-30T16:02:08.484-04:00Pina Bausch's Next MoveToday the world lost another great dancer, performer, artist, and icon, contemporary choreographer and visionary, Pina Bausch. I reviewed her recent work, <span style="font-style: italic;">Bamboo Blues</span> only a few months ago.<br /><br />I've always loved this clip - from <span style="font-style: italic;">A Coffee with Pina</span> by Lee Yanor.<br /><br />Here's an excerpt.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/4MK5Hbvuf3k&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/4MK5Hbvuf3k&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>zenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12845575419668150985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6210341341030402241.post-35295218290850120342009-06-29T21:57:00.003-04:002009-06-29T22:15:47.801-04:00H. Art Chaos WTF?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQPN-OAGOcyjj4nPYFwy9r1AUXIaqZbrmGPQdNwb5EzuxqsMkQ3qBsj3lfQH2k2-TUnewiFy_UB8grSg-pndgIIf4Xvj5L715lBR3vi0Du5BZH9sSTSmjXKYIxFZed0Qbq2seaG1C-h5E/s1600-h/4_HAC_EtsukoMatsuyama.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 302px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQPN-OAGOcyjj4nPYFwy9r1AUXIaqZbrmGPQdNwb5EzuxqsMkQ3qBsj3lfQH2k2-TUnewiFy_UB8grSg-pndgIIf4Xvj5L715lBR3vi0Du5BZH9sSTSmjXKYIxFZed0Qbq2seaG1C-h5E/s320/4_HAC_EtsukoMatsuyama.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5352938607192727698" border="0" /></a><br />Just came back from the H. Art Chaos show - the fourth performance in American Dance Festival's lineup "Where Ballet and Modern Meet".<br /><br />I was promised "provocative and powerful dance as you've never seen it before" but throughout the evening, I felt I had indeed seen it before - in high school dance competitions, in soap operas, in heavy metal concerts, in melodramatic opera scenes, in the circus.<br /><br />H. Art Chaos is, ADF assures us, "one of Japan's top dance companies" but I found the work almost unwatchable. In the first piece, <span style="font-style: italic;">Flowers of the Bones</span>, a woman begins dangling from the ceiling in a harness to eerie horror-movie music. She writhes and bounces, thwacking her arms and legs well beyond their natural range of motion, and finally descends where she is met by a chorus of other thwackers. The costumes were kind of cool - long mermaid tails that spouted confetti but overall the piece was empty affect...kind of like suicidal hair-dancing.<br /><br />The movement language seemed to borrow from martial arts, kabuki, maybe a little butoh in the white-faced aesthetic, ballet, and...drill team? Layouts, split leaps, fan kicks, and (yes) chair dances that climaxed with all of the chorus draped over their chairs backwards, one hand extended towards the audience. WTF?<br /><br />The second piece was <span style="font-style: italic;">Rites of Spring</span>, first performed in 1995. More of the same - virtuosic solo dancer twacks some more while her oppressive chorus throws chairs of her. She slits her wrists, climbs into the bath tub, then emerges from the bath tub, spins really fast in the air on a harness, and then gets back into the bath tub. More hair dancing.<br /><br />Sakiko Oshima, director of HAC include the following in the program: "While refusing to be placed in advance, we explore artistic ecstasy through chaos."<br /><br />Umm. yes.<br /><br />I can't help but feel that something was lost in translation. Like the liner notes and the explanations of the pieces in the show, the language was garbled. Clearly someone somewhere thought it had artistic merit. What piece/cultural context/background info/translation am I missing?<br /><br />Let me know.zenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12845575419668150985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6210341341030402241.post-17851662842523915802009-06-26T18:06:00.005-04:002009-06-29T22:16:34.124-04:00Advice from OhadLast night Ohad Naharin joined the ranks of great choreographers like Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Alwin Nikolais, Alwin Ailey, Bill T. Jones, Mark Morris, Trisha Brown, and Pina Bausch in recieving the Samuel H. Scripps ($50,000) Award for Lifetime Achievement.<br /><br />He accepted the Scripps award before Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet performed <span style="font-style: italic;">Decadance</span> (2007) which includes sections from ten of his earlier pieces. But before leaving us to a buffet-style helping of his choreography, he directed the following words to all the dancers in the audience:<br /><br />(from the words I scrawled on my program)<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: courier new;font-size:130%;" >Get rid of all mirrors - I lived -- years without mirrors.<br /><br />Copy...yet only copy the good things.<br /><br />Feel free to change your mind.<br /><br />Spend time outdoors, look at the sky.<br /><br />Be silly - not stupid. Be able to laugh at yourself.<br /><br />Have no secrets. Live and dance like you have nothing to hide...<br /><br />...and if you win an award, make a short speech.</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Decadance</span>, July 25, 2009, Durham Performing Arts Center, Durham, NC.zenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12845575419668150985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6210341341030402241.post-1983522069032264762009-06-23T22:16:00.003-04:002009-06-23T22:45:06.267-04:00Emanuel Gat: Winter Variations<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.americandancefestival.org/performances/2009/images/2_EGD_MiaAlon.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 318px;" src="http://www.americandancefestival.org/performances/2009/images/2_EGD_MiaAlon.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Photo: Mia Alon<br /></span></div><br /><br />Two men stand off-center on a massive swath of stage. Dressed alike in blue-gray shirts and drab pants, they begin by hardly moving, accompanied by an ever-increasing drone of speakers suspended overhead.<br /><br />They match, mimic, and mirror each other like shadows, brothers, friends, or two parts of one soul in an hour-long duet that progresses from separation to junction, from gentleness to violence, from grace to awkward stumbling, exploring the potential of simple movements like walking on knees.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Winter Variations</span>, created and performed by Emanuel Gat and Roy Assaf, premiered yesterday at Duke's Reynolds Theater as part of the American Dance Festival. Set to music by Schibert (<span style="font-style: italic;">Die Krahe),</span> Strauss (<span style="font-style: italic;">Four Last Songs</span>), The Beatles' (<span style="font-style: italic;">A Day in the Life</span>), and Riad al Sunbati (<span style="font-style: italic;">Awedt Eini ala Rouyack</span>), the movement was often gestural and tactile - rooted in simplicity but woven with complexity. As the dancers walked on their knees in arcs around the stage they crossed in and out of the harshly lit areas on stage. Often they crawled into dark spots but were never totally obscured. As the lighting changed, or as they moved to different areas of the stage, their bodies changed too. Upstage in blinding illumination, their edges sharpened, moving like line-drawings in a brilliant rectangle that served as a counterpoint to the vast shadow that covered the upper area of stage. Only minutes earlier they had traded shirts in the cover of that near darkness.<br /><br />Moving throughout light and shadow, space and time, music and silence, the two men anachronistically illustrate relationships: with self, other, and outside.zenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12845575419668150985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6210341341030402241.post-2075968782519512482009-06-16T22:40:00.005-04:002009-06-16T22:43:21.120-04:00ADF: May We Have This Cyberdance?Reporting from Durham, North Carolina!<br /><br />Check out American Dance Festival's Blog Project: "May We Have This Cyberdance" / "Dance of the Day" by Mark Dendy and ADF faculty and students.<br /><br />Today is Cyberdance inauguration day! Keep checking back for daily dances.<br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><a href="http://www.americandancefestival.org/cyberdance/">http://www.americandancefestival.org/cyberdance/</a></span>zenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12845575419668150985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6210341341030402241.post-91251755568041694382009-05-10T23:00:00.005-04:002009-05-10T23:05:36.588-04:00ghost dance<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo4oQnLVX02P7mc_NW3fgY-YtwCBn7mrPtB6lIJm-iUmVEV7ecmssHLWt8ujUAmNiFsHQNCnfBqS81_zVV8LTvV8YQqsQ7O1H7Rui5Wz6kW_uvKl1SahfRedzoCDgj1Bq0ECsGtIHR9qI/s1600-h/Photo+26.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo4oQnLVX02P7mc_NW3fgY-YtwCBn7mrPtB6lIJm-iUmVEV7ecmssHLWt8ujUAmNiFsHQNCnfBqS81_zVV8LTvV8YQqsQ7O1H7Rui5Wz6kW_uvKl1SahfRedzoCDgj1Bq0ECsGtIHR9qI/s320/Photo+26.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5334396386190282722" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFqo_-70mDIpNkZ8Avrfy5EhTqFezHRPCjYhfJ1-BwDI67xhmZs4SVyZZKOOhFiNIkze0rxW_AKfSOGxJHPNyvnfei5bv5PuBK5Fr23lXT7rU_i0zp4q560GpvtRFj30kY806TZQdHafk/s1600-h/Photo+18.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFqo_-70mDIpNkZ8Avrfy5EhTqFezHRPCjYhfJ1-BwDI67xhmZs4SVyZZKOOhFiNIkze0rxW_AKfSOGxJHPNyvnfei5bv5PuBK5Fr23lXT7rU_i0zp4q560GpvtRFj30kY806TZQdHafk/s320/Photo+18.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5334396872646366914" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1QWkL2TQplAn1uPxFrvbINVFT58JQbMwopuLKs99ipqeMdw7wnailvxBZA8zAlKeJw_8jbU5hAoCgHJvwm0ecFol8h2ABp6f_LlM77-c3gIweRWK1amQX6OlfsBqaEsyhyRjnGqops34/s1600-h/Photo+27.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1QWkL2TQplAn1uPxFrvbINVFT58JQbMwopuLKs99ipqeMdw7wnailvxBZA8zAlKeJw_8jbU5hAoCgHJvwm0ecFol8h2ABp6f_LlM77-c3gIweRWK1amQX6OlfsBqaEsyhyRjnGqops34/s320/Photo+27.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5334396130252525282" border="0" /></a>zenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12845575419668150985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6210341341030402241.post-49152701674629216262009-05-06T22:47:00.001-04:002009-05-06T22:49:15.633-04:00To dream..."You have to have always a dream...and I have only one dream, that's to dream all my life."<br /><br />Augusto Boal<br /><br />...he's on to bigger and better things.zenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12845575419668150985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6210341341030402241.post-32877964929008561022009-05-04T09:23:00.005-04:002009-05-04T09:31:24.905-04:00The Union Square (Dance) Experiments<span style="font-size:130%;">We include in our pattern a man sitting on a railing. </span><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">We sunbathe upside down, but only upside d</span><span style="font-size:78%;">own in relation to the scores of people who are in the same position right-side up. </span><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">We lean against a pole, and then another, and then another. </span><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">We stand still—not a particularly noteworthy activity—unless it’s raining. </span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">We jostle to get by each other even though we’re in the most expansive part of the Square. </span><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">We glance side to side.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">We sit next to people we don’t know. </span><br />We turn look back and forth, watching the watchers, taking them in, connecting to them gesturally, but also dancing.<br /><span style="font-size:78%;">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. </span><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">We turn trashcans into islands, and jump between them. </span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">We look down drains, we look at each other, we look at the rest of the people in the park. </span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">When they look at us, we say hi, wave, or wink, destabilizing the distinction between performing and “just being” in the park. </span><br />…<br /><br />We become them, we become us, we become we-and-them.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />VISIT the Union Square (Dance) Experiments at this link.<br /><a href="http://dansperiments.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 255);font-size:180%;" >http://dansperiments.blogspot.com/</span></a><br />Do you see yourself?<br /><br />Come dance with us.zenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12845575419668150985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6210341341030402241.post-64470155582193266112009-05-02T23:39:00.002-04:002009-05-25T11:44:20.491-04:00Trisha Brown - Planes<span style="font-style: italic;">Planes</span>, 1968, 2009<br />Brooklyn Academy of Music<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqgTQ0r6Ki-LhFqOIEomfQ85TvTNEAjvyiiPcDxXlqEeiI-AdWDKA0wwhThK5aplFHS4DTYNmA8EQJneeGcA8FVG3tn9vj5GblvcPgZaleY933uNEtwaTVGBfi8ctRhKozdPfr779Q7oo/s1600-h/9373600.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 255px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqgTQ0r6Ki-LhFqOIEomfQ85TvTNEAjvyiiPcDxXlqEeiI-AdWDKA0wwhThK5aplFHS4DTYNmA8EQJneeGcA8FVG3tn9vj5GblvcPgZaleY933uNEtwaTVGBfi8ctRhKozdPfr779Q7oo/s320/9373600.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5339787786129977890" border="0" /></a><br />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.<br /><br />No wait—they are hanging!<br /><br />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.<br /><br />What are the building blocks of a human being?<br />The Human experience?<br />What are the building blocks of our environment?<br /><br />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.<br /><br />We hurtle to earth and crash into consciousness. What are the implications of this?zenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12845575419668150985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6210341341030402241.post-50641126750959800592009-04-28T22:44:00.005-04:002009-04-28T22:49:03.662-04:00deep time tag in union squareMr. Graydon Wetzler, video mastermind added "directional processing (indexing the orientation of discreet objects based on trajectory)" to some Union Square footage. Check out the bodily layers and corporal traces. Yessss.<br /><br /><object height="300" width="400"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4386480&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1"><embed src="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4386480&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="300" width="400"></embed></object><br /><a href="http://vimeo.com/4386480">deep time tag in union square</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user796199">Graydon Wetzler</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.zenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12845575419668150985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6210341341030402241.post-81297627226142348902009-04-19T22:32:00.002-04:002009-04-19T22:34:45.017-04:00Union Square April Pole DanceSpace graphing.<br /><br /><object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/rAEi5doH6xs&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/rAEi5doH6xs&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br /><br />Happy Spring!!zenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12845575419668150985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6210341341030402241.post-88184056744688171892009-04-19T22:13:00.004-04:002009-04-19T22:32:31.873-04:00Merce blasts off to 1980’s outer space in Nearly Ninety<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik4sJHdrGdc21Vl_f1GGDmcVQN7IIEQmXqsZj09GpKrBrv2-nA6s2PCJlo4Cbg9K-YoXhUXOoyVoIZuvlLsf6WvzQP87Hp_Q1YMTtKr1hLziz3eSxLPGFgazl_mkQg2deiksPcr7XQztc/s1600-h/merc2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 190px; height: 233px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik4sJHdrGdc21Vl_f1GGDmcVQN7IIEQmXqsZj09GpKrBrv2-nA6s2PCJlo4Cbg9K-YoXhUXOoyVoIZuvlLsf6WvzQP87Hp_Q1YMTtKr1hLziz3eSxLPGFgazl_mkQg2deiksPcr7XQztc/s400/merc2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326595256240850738" border="0" /></a><br />I snuck out of essay writing mode this weekend to check out Merce Cunningham’s latest work at BAM. Dancers in signature body-revealing unitards executed the technical tilts, sustentions, contractions, and mathematical leaps and hops that Cunningham has been working with for the past 54 years of his prolific career. I love the tension between uniformity and precision that the semi-alien dancers use while simultaneously revealing themselves as acutely human in the small wobbles and sudden intakes and exhalations of breath. We marvel at what they can do with their bodies but are aware nonetheless of the intense labor that is being produced as their muscles strain under spandex.<br /><br />Sitting in the first row of the mezzanine, I saw the dancers as separated from the enormous metal and plastic sparkly set piece that housed musicians John Paul Jones, Takehisa Kosugi, and Sonic Youth (!). Their plane was one of the familiar strips of Marley floor that are common to most dance studios, while other-worldly fractal-like projections inhabited the screen upstage. Meanwhile the mad scientist musicians produced enormous reverberating sounds while silhouetted abstractly against the scrim. I identify with Evan Namerow’s (of Dancing Perfectly Free ) complaint that parts of the piece seemed to lack cohesion but found something charming in the spacey set piece designed by Benedetta Tagliabue. It seemed to be almost scotch-taped together – part crystal, part satellite – a distinctly 1980’s version of the space-age. Sound produced by the musicians nestled in its elaborate spiral staircase structure exploded and sometimes upstaged the dancers who were, from my perspective, still dancing on a recognizable form of planet earth. Meanwhile, video projections by Franc Aleu animated screens and scrims hanging behind the dancers with fractals, water droplets, and other shapes that seemed to mix the aquatic, terrestrial, and the interplanetary.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM3S7x7Clw5MRtSqUxBsHLvcE8Tw7Pp0zDsOd9KSXRdSNODe5u-3_4qJz44QP7Ri9vV7EC76kQgrBVapRIp0mi8_PmcWk0lugtAufgkM-TfUSqPECr74Nqsddxw7lBjUmtpZZ1z8izMFQ/s1600-h/merceslide11.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 309px; height: 207px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM3S7x7Clw5MRtSqUxBsHLvcE8Tw7Pp0zDsOd9KSXRdSNODe5u-3_4qJz44QP7Ri9vV7EC76kQgrBVapRIp0mi8_PmcWk0lugtAufgkM-TfUSqPECr74Nqsddxw7lBjUmtpZZ1z8izMFQ/s400/merceslide11.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326595397755174562" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">photo: andrea mohin</span><br /><br /></div>The concerns I had with cohesion in the first half were nonexistent in the second part of the piece. Previously shielded by one or more layers of projection-covered cloth, the musicians were fully revealed, connecting them more directly to the dance as it unfolded onstage. Moments of exploding, grating sound were juxtaposed with silence, allowing us to hear the strong ejections of breath, reminding us who was peddling this crazy rickshaw space machine.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://dancingperfectlyfree.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/merces-nearly-ninety-photo-by-andrea-mohin.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 438px; height: 292px;" src="http://dancingperfectlyfree.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/merces-nearly-ninety-photo-by-andrea-mohin.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">photo: andrea mohin</span><br /><br /></div>I was most struck by a simple movement. Underneath overlapping screens, one dancer entered the stage after a series of extremely quick, intersecting combinations had carried several other dancers back to the wings. The pulled her hands up her body and over her head, making a recognizable diving gesture. Gracefully folding, she curved downward; moments later she was joined by another dancer who repeated with her the same movement. Above them, a musicians hands demonstrated how the sound was being produced without smoke and mirrors – a Wizard of Oz-like moment in which we see the simple mechanics of rolling screws on a metal tray, amplified to sound like intergalactic collisions. Layered over the demystified music were the upside-down limbs of dancers, clearly of a different historical time, but also clearly Cunningham movers. As the number of dancers diving increased, I couldn’t help but think of passing between worlds. In a sense, Merce is going to space, layering time, and allowing us to contemplate the final leap into the beyond. With hundreds of his former dancers in attendance (they stood up to be recognized), it almost seemed like a going away party, or maybe a launching party. Merce is ninety years old. He joined the dancers for the final bows dressed in black velvet pajamas and riding in a wheelchair.<br /><br />To the moon…and beyond…<span style="font-size:78%;"><br /><br /><br /><br />------------------------------<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Read More:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">New York Times:<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/arts/dance/12maca.html?ref=dance"> "This Probably Isn't Possible But...</a><br /><a href="http://themoment.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/17/bionic-theater-nearly-ninety-at-bam/">"Bionic Theater | Nearly Ninety at BAM"</a><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/18/arts/dance/18merc.html">"Nearly Ninety: Meanings Still Pour From Movement"</a><br /><br />Dancing Perfectly Free: <a href="http://dancingperfectlyfree.com/2009/04/19/merce-cunninghams-nearly-ninety-at-bam/">Merce Cunningham's Nearly Ninety at BAM</a><br /><br /><br /></span></span>zenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12845575419668150985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6210341341030402241.post-34321549844864006672009-04-09T01:30:00.001-04:002009-04-09T01:33:41.010-04:00Union Square #2Dansperiment #2<br /><br /><object height="340" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/k450ZFoCMM0&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/k450ZFoCMM0&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="340" width="560"></embed></object><br /><br />We made it snow (Watch carefully and maximize if you want to see the secret dances).zenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12845575419668150985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6210341341030402241.post-55039569499335581272009-04-03T10:29:00.002-04:002009-04-03T10:54:46.484-04:00Union Square Dansperiments<object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ErZ0TFzWK84&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ErZ0TFzWK84&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /><object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/sDWymkd4eLI&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/sDWymkd4eLI&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="295"></embed></object><br /><br />Here are the most recent fruits of our collective labor...or at least our collective play.<br /><br />From José Gil's <span style="font-style: italic;">Paradoxical Body</span>:<br /><br /><span style="font-family: courier new;">"Let us remember that the space of the body does not come about except by the projection-secretion of interior space on exterior space"</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: courier new;">"In truth, there is no fixed and autonomous space o the body. The space of the body varies according to the velocities of its unfolding, in such a way that it is dependent upon the time the movement takes in opening the space of the body. This time depends on the texture--more or less dense, more or less viscous--of the space of the body, which is born from the energy involved."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: courier new;">The body is not a "phenomenon", not a "visible and concrete perception moving in the objective Cartesian space" but "simultaneously visible and virtual, a cluster of forces, a transformer of space and time [...] a body inhabited by--ad inhabiting--other bodies and other minds, a body existing at the same time at the opening toward the world provided by language and sensorial contact, and in the seclusion of its singularity and non-inscription."</span><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span>Union Square is already choreographed: in the types of activities permissible in different spaces, in the orchestration of viewership - places for watching, places for acting, security guards and cameras making sure people don't act or watch out of place. Controlled mayhem, inscribed patterns, how might we confuse the boundaries between dancing and being? How might we entwine our body spaces with the spaces of others? In fact we can't avoid doing this.<br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><br />Music is for fun and to keep ourselves from taking things too seriously :)</span>zenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12845575419668150985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6210341341030402241.post-51797161777892985952009-03-30T01:23:00.001-04:002009-03-30T01:27:05.812-04:00Headless Dancing in Confined Spaces<object height="295" width="480">a different dancehall, a different creature.<param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ghVA1cxny9E&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ghVA1cxny9E&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="295" width="480"></embed></object>zenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12845575419668150985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6210341341030402241.post-49466816913311454702009-03-25T10:51:00.003-04:002009-03-25T11:02:25.498-04:00Performing Body Symposium: NYU<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWAimjbLU3eYPRBt9yeBovajtdL99nGI29BZIwcH66mqjXLamgc3m6a2TY5iDosdozD9DWM0eFE8PjyZ-dMHpBgCjZ3rfemDUxcNrHGRKVF-08Jqkx9vPQRuGHCfgwzWlL1vqWA0hNFIg/s1600-h/performing+body.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 259px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWAimjbLU3eYPRBt9yeBovajtdL99nGI29BZIwcH66mqjXLamgc3m6a2TY5iDosdozD9DWM0eFE8PjyZ-dMHpBgCjZ3rfemDUxcNrHGRKVF-08Jqkx9vPQRuGHCfgwzWlL1vqWA0hNFIg/s400/performing+body.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5317140773609780370" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Saturday 9:30-5:30pm<br />721 Broadway, NYU<br /><br />NYU is having a one-day symposium bringing together theorists and practitioners of embodiment and movement from different traditions. One of a series of attempts to bring mind and body together. Some of my perennial favorites will be there as well as a few new faces! Come and mind-meld.zenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12845575419668150985noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6210341341030402241.post-59918875203521576062009-03-24T12:54:00.006-04:002009-03-24T13:04:04.577-04:00WanderlustSan Cristóbal de las Casas: Chiapas: Mexico.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1p4i9TPP1rpwkVTPVbKMjClOBr6JKTRE6pxghOlT5qY36sZqVqrNijb6uF5mheWcTgy9SIGBff_UEusSitHCcC5tejotgATRfYPhVur9Yy5NJrNnwqmhPXi5Q_GgAzTpCeerXOnQANiE/s1600-h/IMG_1289.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1p4i9TPP1rpwkVTPVbKMjClOBr6JKTRE6pxghOlT5qY36sZqVqrNijb6uF5mheWcTgy9SIGBff_UEusSitHCcC5tejotgATRfYPhVur9Yy5NJrNnwqmhPXi5Q_GgAzTpCeerXOnQANiE/s400/IMG_1289.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316799127635976450" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">prevalent graffiti in the historic neighborhood of san cris;<br />goddesses and guerrillas.<br /><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1QbKlcIfNBWoww2O9EiwB6uVhzke_aIO7Z9gzgt3Yo1GjTY9VABjTRQQTEDBuVT6jnBRo6QP9xeliPp6m_dv9Loa2J-Z4qI8yMoI1LFyXEYRd_VEkMpdgQ8BZiEmjHAC-UoZp9Z4kq38/s1600-h/IMG_1381.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1QbKlcIfNBWoww2O9EiwB6uVhzke_aIO7Z9gzgt3Yo1GjTY9VABjTRQQTEDBuVT6jnBRo6QP9xeliPp6m_dv9Loa2J-Z4qI8yMoI1LFyXEYRd_VEkMpdgQ8BZiEmjHAC-UoZp9Z4kq38/s320/IMG_1381.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316799884166103634" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">captured outside a dance studio in san cristóbal.</span><br /></div>zenahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12845575419668150985noreply@blogger.com