Archive for dance criticism
April 28, 2008 at 5:26 pm · Filed under dance, writing, reviews, performances, TAYLOR, dance criticism
(Cedar Lake’s “Glassy Essence” - Since my camera wasn’t working I borrowed one of Matt’s photos already posted on the Winger here.)
Over the past week I have been at the theater every single night – not performing, but watching, and writing.
With my second career (dance being the first…ideally…) starting to blossom, I’ve had the opportunity to do a lot of dance writing lately, both for print and for the web, and both features and criticism. I’ve been lucky enough to see a LOT of great performances with my pen at hand recently, where before I would never have even considered looking for entertainment. Most of my life I was trained to believe that ballet was the only option, the ideal option, in the dance world. But now that I’ve joined the New York City dance scene from a position besides “student” – now being professional and a writer – I’ve had my eyes open to a slew of other opportunities just as exciting as pure ballet.
Here’s just a sampling of some of the works I’ve been to over the past week…I go through spurts of time where I hardly make it out of the studio or away from my laptop to see anything, and then I have periods where I can’t get my hands on enough tickets to the theater…like now!
There are so many performances I could include here…Ballet Tech,The Kirov, Rebecca Kelly Ballet, Yasuko Yokoshi, and more…but here are a few in detail…
*Cedar Lake’s Glassy Essence was very cool. I missed the Blogger Preview fellow Winger Matt and others posted about, but got to see it last weekend. You can see other blogger reviews here from Matt, Evan, Philip, and Tonya. And the Times review here.
An excerpt from MY review on ExploreDance.com:
As the dances come out and step off the dance floor into the crowd it’s like they purge from a magic mirror. Suddenly an idolized image becomes real. The dancer is a person, not a fixture on an untouchable stage. And yet they remain in their own reflective world, refusing to make eye contact but sifting through the audience with high sensitivity. The audience revokes as if the dancers’ auras cast them aside…
(Petronio’s “Beauty and the Brut” photo by Chris Woltmann)
*Stephen Petronio’s Company at the Joyce a few weeks ago was also great, in a different way.
My review excerpt (full review here):
His style changes throughout the evening, keeping the eye intrigued. A common theme is his juxtaposition of movement versus stillness, where a single dancer holds a pose as if anchoring down the nearby storm of legs and arms. His dancers often cringe and repulse as if a weighted marble were traveling through their bodies. It falls out of nowhere, slips through the path of their veins, gains momentum, and rolls out a fingernail or toe for eternity.
(Take’s “Looking for Water” photo by Phil Echo)
*I also went to a blogger preview of Take Dance, a company founded by former Paul Taylor dancer Takehiro Ueyama. Their performances will be at the Miller Theater at Columbia University May 15-17 at 8pm. He also has a piece in The New School’s spring performance at Ailey next weekend.
It was such a nice morning. Take’s choreography is very free and released, with lots of swinging and throwing of the body. All the dancers looked like they were enjoying themselves so much. It seemed so natural for them, almost to the point that they were so comfortable it seemed they good be improvising just from their own internal impulses of movement. I wanted to get up and move! Everyone was extremely gracious, and we even got pieces of bamboo symbolizing good luck as a departing gift.
It was interesting to see the process as well, as they worked through lifts and tough spots in between running the pieces. Being that close to the dancers was cool too, because you could share their energy entirely, feeling the landing of their jumps through the floor of the Duke studios.
With the obsession of our culture with behind the scenes action (“the making of…” special features on DVD’s, outtakes, blogs, etc) it seems so right that dance companies reach out like this and expose their process. Through open rehearsals like Take’s or online outreach like Cedar Lake’s glassyessence.com, the creative internal processes of the dance world are starting to spread. Isn’t it what happens behind the curtain what makes life interesting for us artists?
Writing about dance has given me new ways of accessing performances and thinking about these issues surrounding dance. Does anyone else find it easier to understand abstract movement when translating to words? I’d be interested to hear about other people’s opinions and experiences at these and other performances!
Recent Posts by taylor gordon
January 23, 2008 at 4:36 pm · Filed under dance, guest, TONY, dance technology, interactive, research, sarah lawrence college, students, education, dance teacher, performance, project, choreography, discipline, pedagogy, process, learning, intelligence, fun, dance criticism, dance lesson, social network, improvisation, Julie Cruse, VICKI, choreobot
For the last meeting of my class last semester, 12-21-07, I had Julie Cruse of Ohio State’s EMMA Lab as a guest to share her research in developing Chorebot VICKI. VICKI stands for Virtual Improvisational Choreographer / Kinetic Instructor. She a virtual automaton who guides a dancer through a structured improvisation using randomly generated verbal cues. Upon initializing VICKI she describes her purpose.
She says:
Choreobot is designed to challenge a dancer’s movement skills, and asks the dancer to draw upon advanced improvisational interpretation. I am programmed to make dances using theme and variation as prescribed by my creator. I use textbook dance methods, but - I am unpredictable. The dancer will demonstrate as I begin my next new dance.
Read more of Julie’s description of the technology HERE at the project website.
Before the lecture demonstration Julie and I had to rebuild modules of the assembly so that we could get VICKI to talk off Intel-based Macs. Retooling software under time constraints can be terribly stressful but I am glad to report we patched things up in time for the class. Julie’s lecture/demonstration was wonderful. She took some time to explain her impetus for building the machine and gave the students a tour of VICKI’s inner workings. Next Julie fired up the choreobot and demonstrated how she danced under VICKI’s instruction. Next she invited the students to try. Watching the student’s improvisation was exciting.
The system forces the dancer to think on their toes and make quick decisions. With time I could see a dancer becoming expert at navigating in this environment. Julie has clearly taken the time to do this. For her it was the first time she was able to observe other people dancing inside her system. By the end of the class everyone was incredibly energized and immersed in conversation regarding future research using choreobot VICKI. Julie has left us with a copy of VICKI and has encouraged us to continue experimenting with and mutating the system.
Matt Gough has taken a good deal of time developing an analysis of this work. In particular Matt takes issue with the description of the work as an “artificial intelligence” simply seeing it as an automated version of Cunningham’s method of chance procedures. Julie has documented the critical discourse HERE.
I met Julie inside Sector 9 of the blogosphere. There she has made bold gestures regarding dance-technology as a field. Like Matt Gough, she has voiced discontent over the current state of dance-tech.
She writes:
When I hear dance and tech, I think - it better not be ANOTHER interactive audio/video environment. It better not be ANOTHER…
…dance contextualized by projected videos
…dancer controlled by robotics or sensors improvisation in real time that composes the score
…motion capture in real time translated to animated projections
…wearable technologies that do something with sound or video
…animated avatars in second life real time “telematic” improvising
I find such pugilistic remarks invigorating and am excited to see what trouble Julie stirs up in the future.
Recent Posts by tony schultz
November 5, 2007 at 10:38 pm · Filed under dance, school, JUSTIN, dance criticism, columbia, justin peck, fred astaire, gene kelly, ziegfield follies
I’m currently working on a presentation on a comparison of Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire for my Dance Criticism course I am taking at Columbia University. I’ve stumbled upon this clip from the film The Ziegfield Follies of them dancing side by side, and figured it would definitely be worth sharing with you all.
I love the vibe of nonchelance they have in relation to dancing with each other. The witty banter present in the song and the healthy competitive vibe present allow for an interesting scope into the comparison of the two legends.
Recent Posts by justin
September 23, 2007 at 4:42 pm · Filed under dance, books, JUSTIN, dance criticism, columbia, edwin denby
One of the courses I am taking this semester at Columbia is Dance Criticism. It is of particular interest to me, as it is provided an entirely new way of observing and analyzing dance. I am so used to viewing dance, and especially ballet, from a first hand perspective, so it is refreshing to look at it from a new angle. I am learning to pick up on specific subtleties of dance, evaluating the subjectives versus the objectives of art in general, and getting to know the writings of some of the greatest dance critics of the 20th century.
I have a particularly strong interest in the writings of Edwin Denby. He was a true poet, thus causing his analysis and criticism of dance to flow as brilliantly as the execution of Balanchine’s Serenade. Denby was a genuine devotee to the art of dance. He even danced himself for a number of years when he was younger. He was able to combine these keen elements in order to become one of the greatest critics of dance.
Much of the reading for this course is extensive, though very interesting. One aspect of it that especially excites me is that I work with a lot of the dancers that are analyzed and critiqued in my assigned writing (including Merrill Ashley, Kay Mazzo, Peter Martins, etc.). I think its kind of fun to be able to read about people that I know on a personal and professional level. Also, there are several works I have read already that really pick apart ballets that I have had the opportunity to dance. I think that [hopefully] this type of study will not only further educate me on the art of dance, but will also add depth and sophistication to my own dancing and interpretation of choreography in City Ballet’s repertoire.
Those are all the sporadic thoughts I have time for. Back to reading for now…. More to come though!
A semester’s reading in Dance Criticism
DENSE
Recent Posts by justin
