Archive for March, 2008
March 31, 2008 at 8:56 pm · Filed under dance, MATTHEW
A few nights ago, I went to see the “show” Fuerza Bruta in a converted bank on the east side of Union Square. I put show in quotations because this 70-minute evening defies categorization. It’s part performance art, part dance piece, part circus act, part rave, and all of that adds up to a unique and thrilling night.
My friend Dan decided to take me for my birthday, but I must admit I had no clue what to expect. Having seen the show De La Guarda a few years ago, which was created by the same group, I only expected to be dazzled and scared for my life. After we handed over coats and bags to be stored for the proceedings, we entered into a large black box of a room. It was already filled with hundreds of people by the time we arrived, so we sandwiched our way in and got closer to strangers than I ever care to again.
Little did I know the close proximity was hardly something to be afraid of in comparison to the show. We were herded around the space to allow for various set pieces to make their grand entrances, each one more frightening than the next. There was a man running on a treadmill contraption in the center of the room as a wind machine hurled objects at him. There was a pair of women running on the walls of the theater as they chased each other and tumbled through the air. Most jaw dropping of all, there was a section of the show that included the entire ceiling lowering to within an arms length above our heads, while water flooded over it and women performed an acrobatic water wonder show.
The creators of the show have pulled out all the stops, and it’s the type of show that plays into all of our fantasies as performers. I even got to participate in it at one point. A man stormed through the audience before stopping right in front of me. As he yelled gibberish in my face, he grabbed my wrist and pulled me into the center of the room while people closed around us. We began dancing together and then he stopped and stood as stiff as a board. He handed me a mysterious square and instructed me to smash it over his head. Not exactly how I expected to spend a Friday night, but I wasn’t complaining. Here are a few pictures I took during the show! Check it out for yourself!
(The show began with a man running non-stop in the center of the room.)
(The lights shifted and we craned our heads to see this pool floating across the ceiling.)
(A dancer stands for a moment on the ceiling which lowered to inches above our heads.)
(My friend Cody senses impending doom as the ocean lowers above us.)
(A dancer rests in the water right above my head. One of my favorite pictures I’ve taken.)
(Group shot after the show ended. We were all soaking wet as they turned the water on the audience for the last five minutes. It’s a great ploy to ensure people buy Fuerza Bruta shirts. Maybe we should do that at performances of Swan Lake. Give the audience the experience of being IN a lake and hose them down, then sell amazing shirts as they leave the theater…)
Recent Posts by matthew
March 31, 2008 at 5:30 am · Filed under dance, research, writing, DEBORAH, dance history, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
A bulletin board near my flat, plastered with posters about dance concerts, yoga and Pilates classes, and folk dancing.
I promise I’ll start posting the meat of my experience soon, but I decided that one more post of context might be helpful. If you want to see what I have written up until now, you can check out the blog on my website, which has posts from my first 6 months in Israel. I have also been assembling a set of links to Israeli choreographers, companies, studios, performance venues, festivals, and dance associations on my website’s links page.
Now a bit more context about some of what I will post here on The Winger:
I have always gravitated towards research that involves interviews with dancers and choreographers. Our art form is passed down body to body, and so it seems to me that our art form’s history can best be gleaned and understood through a similar, personal form of transmission. In the past, though, the conversations I have conducted have remained in raw form, stored on mini audio cassettes and painstakingly transcribed so that I could quote and cite the interview subjects in my writings.
My current research is also centered on interviews with dancers and choreographers, but there are a few differences in my practices and my goals. Besides the switch to a digital voice recorder (hallelujah!), I am now viewing interviews not just as raw material to be incorporated into academic writing but as ends in and of themselves. Inevitably, my written work can only hold a small bits of what I learn in each interview, and large amounts of interesting, important information remain tucked away in my files because it is not directly relevant to my particular research question. But how much richer would our history be if this material could be accessible? What if other practitioners, scholars, and dance enthusiasts could hear more of my interviewees’ voices, both literally and figuratively?
These questions have surfaced time and time again since I entered the field of dance scholarship. I did not embark on this particular research project with the explicit goal of addressing these issues or with the idea of making my interviews more accessible to the larger public. Indeed, at first I just was wrapped up in familiarizing myself with the Israeli contemporary dance scene! Over the summer, I screened a few videos of the Batsheva Dance Company and the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. I also read as much English-language writing about Israeli modern dance as I could prior to arriving in the country - old copies of the magazine Israel Dance, reviews of Batsheva from its founding in 1964 to the present, and academic articles by writers including Ruth Eshel and Gaby Aldor in journals such as Dance Research Journal and The Jewish Folklore and Ethnology Review. Once I was in Israel, I put my eyes and my body to work so that I could gain my own perspective on the dance scene. I spent my first few months attending performances, watching selected videos at the Dance Library of Israel, observing classes at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, and taking classes throughout Tel Aviv. I wanted to be as informed as possible before formally interviewing practitioners.
I spoke informally with people in the Israeli dance scene during these initial months but finally felt ready to interview dancers and choreographers in January. While schmoozing before a seminar on Jewish texts and Hebrew culture at Alma Hebrew College, my friend and fellow classmate Steve Ornstein suggested that I podcast some of my interviews on his website IsraelSeen, which hosts several blogs about Israeli society and has featured podcasts with major figures in Israeli culture. Brilliant! A new road on this journey opened up . . .
We got to work immediately. Steve has generously loaned me the use of an even-better digital voice recorder and microphone as well as his expertise in editing audio. After each interview, I type up my notes, mark them with time codes, and create a rough “edit plan” of how to tackle what can be anywhere from 40 minutes to 2 hours worth of material. Then we upload the sound file on his computer and trim it down to a more manageable 30 to 40-minute discussion that (we hope!) will be compelling for a wide range of listeners; the finished product is not the complete interview, but it is much more than what I could ever quote or cite in an article. I should note that all of the people I have interviewed so far do not speak English as their first language, but nevertheless, they are wonderfully articulate about their work.
So this is just a teaser of things to come . . . I’ll start posting interviews here on The Winger as well, and I will include links to the pages on IsraelSeen so that you can check out even more goodies like additional photographs and, best of all, links to short video clips of choreography by Israeli artists!
p.s. If you live in New York, or if you visit the city, I highly recommend a trip to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. Besides the circulating collection, the dance division has an absolutely amazing assortment of films, videos, and DVDs featuring works by choreographers from around the world. It’s a great place to spend a rainy afternoon!
Recent Posts by deborah friedes
March 30, 2008 at 5:52 pm · Filed under dance
Welcome to a new series called ‘On my way to work’…
This time, from my hotel to the theater in Los Angeles. The architecturally prominent Walt Disney Concert Hall.
(you can see the Dorothy Chandler, where were dancing Swan Lake this week, in the right corner across the street)
How do you all feel about this? Architecturally significant? or a metal blob?
Recent Posts by david hallberg
March 30, 2008 at 4:53 am · Filed under dance, photography, photographer, PATRICIO, ballet de santiago
Estamos en plenos ensayos de este ballet con coreografía de André Prokovsky, es sin lugar a dudas un ballet lleno de emociones fuertes y que al público no lo deja indiferente, esta claro que se necesitan interpretes exelentes para el, tanto en lo tecnico como en lo interpretativo. Durante estos días he tomado algunas fotografias pero me parece que al pasar de los dias encontrare aun mas instantes que capturar, siento que en la medida que los bailarines van descubriendo mas sus personajes el lente de mi camara tambien descubrira mas momentos memorables. Marcela y Luis, son dos increibles artístas y ya puedo al ver estas fotos, darme cuenta de lo maravillosos que estaran en Ana Karenina.
Recent Posts by patricio
March 29, 2008 at 5:28 pm · Filed under dance, CANDICE
Alright, whatever you had planned to do tonight, toss those plans aside or put them off for later in the evening. Laura Peterson Choreography is performing downtown at DNA tonight and the show is amazing! I saw it last night and could barely stay in my seat for much of it.
The dancers are literally throwing down and throwing themselves and each other around to the sweet sounds of Led Zeppelin. There is a gorgeous and heart wrenching pas between Christopher Hutchings and Kate Martel and a solo danced by Kathryn Harris so savagely it is beyond my powers of description. And Laura of course, is radiant as always with her eerily precise movements that still somehow allow for abandon, not to mention her fierce hair.
I can’t recommend it enough–it reminds the audience that dance shows can be as exciting and energizing as a rock show. There are only two shows left, today and tomorrow, so run, don’t walk!
{View of the empty and cleaned up space after the show. The set is amazing and the lights are magic.}
To view a clip, click here.
Recent Posts by candice thompson
March 29, 2008 at 4:20 am · Filed under studio, media, video, teaching, TONY, dance and technology, science, space, physics, apples, computer graphics, opengl, education, performance, school, pedagogy, astronomy, learning, hermes, arts, double feature, animation
Last month I wrote a guest post on Matt Gough’s blog quodlibet titled math skills. It addressed the question of what fundamentals of physics and mathematics should be included in the dance technology curriculum.
Since dance-tech is in its infancy and still forming as a field this is an open question. This issue is not simply about inserting math and science into an arts curriculum but more so about how these two worlds partner. The action is reciprocal, math and science inform the dance and dance-tech provides new ways of knowing math and physics.
Force is one of the central landmarks of physics pedagogy. Gravity is Newton’s force.
And to use the force you must learn the force.
Simulation is a great way to learn about forces.
So is dancing.
Recent Posts by tony schultz
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