Archive for artists
October 8, 2007 at 1:05 pm · Filed under dance, artists, books, training, teaching, TONY, dance technology, sarah lawrence college, blog, education, michel foucault, discipline, pedagogy, thoinot arbeau, orchesographie
This fall I am back at Sarah Lawrence College teaching Dance and Technology. All of my students are smart, engaged and still unsure whether I am really crazy, or just pretending. We have set-up our own class blog where we discuss readings and communicate about building dance machines. The blog is appropriately located at http://dancemachines.blogspot.com. Come over for a visit. Other folks seem to be taking interest. Matt Gough wrote an incredibly encouraging post you can see here.
For readings we have started out with sections from Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish. Here is a part of that conversation.
Locating dance within Foucault’s framework of docility is both difficult and provocative. In attempting to pin dance to this trellis it becomes apparent that dance is slippery and cannot be easily categorized. It is clear however that discipline and dance are deeply entangled. Natasha spots this in the body of the soldier.
These men of the 17th-late 18th centuries were molded into figures with upright postures, programmed steps and structured attitudes; compare to ballet, especially, where all of these are instructed from an early age. Even the goals are similar - achieving honour and respect (of movement), grace, alertness, agility and strength. The quote on pg. 136: “A body that is docile that may be subjected, used, transformed and improved”, is applicable to any dance class or performance, even improvisational. We are constantly subjecting our bodies to our aspirations and limitations, using the body and our knowledge to further its abilities for the task at hand, transforming it (whether in attitude or structure) to execute movements and improving it for the short-term goals and the long-term benefits.
Foucault opens his section on docile bodies with a reading of Montgommery’s 1636 military manual La Milice francaise. It’s description of the dancerly pikeman, who ‘will have have to march in step in order to have as much grace and gravity as possible’ resonates with Thoinot Arbeau’s dance manual Orchesographie. Written less than 50 years earlier, it had illustrated the strong linkages between choreography in the court and on the battlefield.
Thinking that making a dancer is just another instance of creating a docile subject (be it a soldier, factory worker, school child, or mental patient) can be uncomfortable to say the least. Janet points out how subtle power mechanisms can operate to form the subject.
For example the idea of coercion - that the power structure is being so fully and well imposed because of the fact that it’s being slipped in the back door, so to speak. “Small acts of cunning endowed with a great power of diffusion, subtle arrangements, apparently innocent, but profoundly suspicious,” (p. 139). It’s not being beaten into people, it’s “proper” execution is being rewarded. It is being made convenient. I think that these ideas have a very great relationship to the more “open” versions of modern and contemporary dance technique. Even when we are not working from highly stylized and codified techniques, we are still being instructed by a teacher, being ordered into levels, being auditioned for placement and so on. Therefore if we are properly disciplined in WHATEVER is the “proper” kind of “technique” (even if that is merely a general body awareness?), we are being subject to a certain power structure based on WHO decided what is “proper”.
We are inside a discipline machine with all of the spatial and temporal markers Foucault describes. This class demonstrates that. A component of the dance {1,2}/3 or graduate study in the department of dance at Sarah Lawrence College. The class is physically located in a distinct place within a time table. The time and space within the class is also divided and in doing so controls the physical activities of the participant bodies. Some stand, some sit, some on the floor, some on chairs, some speak, some erase, some write and some read. We move inside the computer for a spell. Then there is time and space designated for dancing. Our bodies and activities are seem well placed within space, time and the structure of the academy.
But, Sarah Rosner pushes back with a contrarian maneuver.
I think the thing that hit me most about the idea of discipline via the control of movements is how much i DIDN’T feel like it applied to my experience of dance.
And Sarah Richison voices related discontent, but finds in it a contradiction.
say you revolt. are no longer docile. escape from prison. you find some way to do some other dance. so you move off and do your own thing and someone follows you. someone wants to do your dance. are you then the new discipline? yes. you have manipulated their body, right.
For those of you who were looking for straight answers I fear that we have none. Instead we are left with a set of contradictions and a general understanding that dance is slippery, at times obedient and located, at other times disobedient and dislocated. Here are one, two, three, four dances, two made inside the institution and two made outside. Dissect them with regards to this contradiction between dance’s discipline and disruption.
Recent Posts by tony schultz
July 13, 2007 at 6:55 pm · Filed under SLOAN, backstage, dance, artists, video, art, podcast, photographers, hermes, gerard uferas, paris opera ballet, hermes gallery, photographs, exhibition
Posted by Kristin Sloan
WING018 | Gérard Uféras | In The Company of Stars
A few weeks ago, I stopped by the Hermés Gallery to talk to Gérard Uféras on the day that his exhibition, In The Company of Stars, opened. The photographs in the exhibit were taken behind-the-scenes at the Paris Opera Ballet over a two year period, and are part of an upcoming book of the same name.
I was really struck by how well he understood the feeling and emotions of the living environment within a dance company. These are beautifully intimate shots that are not staged and use no additional lighting. As he says, he learned to breathe with the dancers. I understood that to involve learning how the dancers move and react, and then trying to place yourself within their space and time to illuminate those moments with light and film. The backstage scene is also not new to Gérard. He has previously published books that capture the fashion and opera worlds from behind the curtain. (The Fabric of Dreams, Un fantome á l’Opéra, and L’Etoffe Des Reves.)
The exhibit will be open for one more week, until July 21st. The Hermés Gallery is located on the top floor of the Hermés flagship store on Madison Avenue at 65th St. (don’t worry, there is an elevator if you are afraid of being too tempted by the store items). I highly recommend stopping by!
Recent Posts by kristin sloan
June 21, 2007 at 11:37 pm · Filed under dance, artists, art, brooklyn, life, shepard fairey, dumbo, gallery
Posted by Sloan | via mobile phone
Recent Posts by kristin sloan
May 9, 2007 at 7:13 am · Filed under dougie, artists, friends, designers, recommendations, DAVID, japan
| | Posted by David
Just thought I would “re post” something I first posted for my trip to Japan in September. In honor of all of our favorite t shirt store! Welcome to NYC!
One of the things I was most looking forward to on arrival to Tokyo, was visiting and buying out the complete “Graniph Design” store here in Japan. This store commissions designers to create a line of t shirts to sell in their store. Granted, there is such a wide array of styles of t’s there, its a feast for the eyes (and the wallet). I discovered this store on my last trip here and fell maddly in love for it. It is the type of innovative Japanese design that attracts me to Tokyo and the people here. When I returned to NYC, I got so many compliments on the t shirts I bought at Graniph, and wore them throughout the whole year.
Well, upon my return, one of my first stops was to Graniph… As I am browsing through the t’s, loving them all, I come across a name that I am VERY familiar with… none other than Kristin’s boyfriend extrodinaire… Doug Jaeger. I was so excited to see his name there, and in a store I love so much, commissioning artists with complete individuality. And, here I thought I was so alone in Tokyo… but ‘family’ is right where you left it!
Bravo Doug!
A blurry pic of Doug’s name under his t shirt.
Doug’s t shirt is the gray one on the first shelf.
| | Posted by David
Recent Posts by david hallberg
May 4, 2007 at 2:27 am · Filed under artists, lifestyle, art, chicago, new york city, MIKI, martha graham, noguchi, hubbard street dance
Posted by Miki Orihara
Thank you to Kristin for all the instructions but I am bit slow.
Graham company had splendid performances at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art in the end of March.
*Out side of CMCA
*At opening night reception with Julie & Andreas(Long time friends and Directors for Hubbard Street Dance 2)
*At the Garden, middle of Manhattan
We presented all Noguchi/Graham pieces, Errand into the Maze, Embattled Garden, Appalachian Spring. I had a previledge dancing all three ballets (of course not in one night). All 5 performances went really well and of course I had a great time.
Well now I am back in NY, spending some time to clean the community garden where I have a plot , and have some time to see some performances around the city.
I will write more about Graham, and at the same time, things I see in NYC.
Thank you!
Recent Posts by miki orihara
April 8, 2007 at 6:00 pm · Filed under artists, culture, art, TONY, installation, new york city, politics, performance, black cherokee, otis houston, poet
Watch Black Cherokee’s video here.
Otis Houston is an artist and poet. He calls himself Black Cherokee and can be seen on the side of the FDR Drive South at the 125th St entrance, underneath the Triborough Bridge. His work consists of performance art and installations made of poetic signs and found objects which he carefully arranges. I have been watching his work for over 15 years, though he may have been creating art for much longer than this. Black Cherokee is the most prolific artist and performer I know. Since traffic is slow and constant in this section of the FDR Drive South I am sure millions of people have seen his work. In an almost alchemical transformation, Black Cherokee has turned a forgotten urban dead zone into a magical performance space.
In a recent installation Black Cherokee put up a big sign that read “Got Debt? Live Well, Eat Better, Spend Less“. Weeks before that he had a small sign up simply reading “Try“. These gestures brighten peoples lives. They are free and, unlike most roadside messages, invite viewers into a space of creativity rather than consumerism. These are gifts and am happy each time I receive one. I enjoy sharing these gifts with others and am glad to be giving some of his work to you.
I saw my favorite piece of his in the summer of 2003. Otis had hundreds and hundreds of books piled up in a sort of fortress. He was standing in the middle of this structure with books strapped to his body, on his head, his arms, his legs, all over. It looked like a suit of armor. He was shaking his arms and pointing violently at the traffic as it passed. His gesticulations had the same wild and authoritarian physicality as one sees in speeches made a Benito Mussolini or other such period dictator. Though I will not attempt a full exegesis of this performance clearly Otis was saying something about power and knowledge, performance and pedagogy, maybe even fascism. This image has stuck in my head ever since I have seen it.
See another account of his work here.
Otis is not crazy. He is simply disseminating his work by any means necessary. Any artist should be willing to do the same, even at risk of seeming crazy. In fact, an artist who is not pushing at the surface of sanity from time to time might not be trying hard enough. I am happy to help propagate his work, philosophy and ideas. Black Cherokee inhabits a space of political and artistic discourse far outside the academy. Thats what makes his work so wonderful. He is not trying to get rich or famous, he is simply doing the work because he knows it is important.
I used to think he did it to save his own life. Now I believe he does it to save our lives.
Thank you Otis.
Read some of Otis Houston’s poetry by visiting poetry.com and searching for poems by Otis Houston.
RED YELLOW BLACK and WHITE
Why can’t we Love each other
With all our might
Red Yellow Black and White
Why can’t we live in PEACE
And never never never Fight
Red Yellow Black and White
We need each other
Like the day need the night
Red Yellow Black and White
Is it to hard
For us to do what is right
Red yellow Black and White
We all know that it’s evil
We must fight with all our might
Red Yellow Black and White
Recent Posts by tony schultz
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