Archive for directors
December 6, 2007 at 9:58 pm · Filed under dance, blogs, directors, germany, new york city, director, modern dance, choreography, contemporary dance, arts, KRISTIN O, staatstheater kassel
There began a small investigation here in Kassel about the origin of an idea. Johannes Wieland, Director and Choreographer of the Tanztheater in Kassel built his version of “Le Sacre du Printemps” around seven human-sized tanks, each filled with at least 500 Liters of lukewarm water. The idea stemmed from a piece he created and premiered in New York City (2001) called “Tomorrow;” which has become one of Johannes’ signature works. In our rendition of “Sacre,” water ends up converting the entire opera house stage into a slippery sea comprised of splashed water, buckets full of water and quite literally, hair loads of tossed water.
After our premiere, a writer for the “Süd Deutscher” Newspaper wrote a positive review of the work but inferred that Johannes “copied” a piece by Sasha Waltz, a famous European choreographer whose company is based in Berlin. The reviewer attributed the originality of the tank idea to Ms. Waltz and her work “Dido and Aeneas,” which premiered in 2005. Chronologically, the tanks of water appeared first in Johannes’ “Tomorrow” nearly eight years ago. The writer of the review failed to research Johannes’ repertory and made a false claim based on her performance-going experience.
So, where did the idea of tanks of water on a stage originate? And does it matter? Can ideas really be claimed? It seems to me (and several of my colleagues with whom I’ve spoken much with about this issue) that both choreographers found reason to use the same not-so-commonly-used prop as tools to achieve separate visions. And perhaps tanks of water have been used on stage in several other occasions, perhaps prior to both of the aforementioned pieces.
Which brings me to another issue: the writing of a review. What is going on? I was taught to write as objectively as possible when reviewing performance art, and though I did not go to Journalism school, isn’t the point of it all to educate the public? How can we expect the public to gain an interest in dance if we make assumptions without researching the facts we claim or telling the public what “I” like and “I” think about the work. Thank goodness for blogs…
Recent Posts by kristin osler
June 10, 2007 at 10:57 am · Filed under ballet, dance, choreographers, dance event, directors, SUSAN, dance and technology, musical theater, specialevents, awards, los angeles, modern dance, music video, youtube, hollywood, choreography, dancing with the stars, contemporary dance, california
| 
| Susan Kim
On Thursday night, I attended the inaugural Choreography Media Honors at the Director’s Guild of America. The entire extravaganza was presented in association with the Dance Camera West Film Festival. Hopefully, the night’s event will mark the first of many more to come.
It’s purpose: To honor the craft of choreography in and on the film media. As eloquently stated in the evening’s program of events, “Tonight we come together to celebrate the legacy of dance in media over the past two years–dance in all its various forms of expression. We have dance created to sell products, dance to tell stories, dance to make us laugh, dance to make us cry, dance created for no reason beyond that of pure self expression and artistry, exploring its relationship to film and video.”
So, continuing the work of the American Choreography Awards, the event honoured two year’s worth of choreography featured in commercials, television episodes, television variety shoes, music videos, short films, documentaries and feature films. About two hundred stand-out works created from 2004 to 2006 were nominated for recognition. Over the course of the evening, sixty-six of those nominees were revealed as the cream of the crop. Among them were some very familiar names: Fatima Robinson (”Dreamgirls“), Michael Rooney (”Jackass Number 2 Unrated,” “Think,” a Halifax commercial, “Saving Celebration,” a Target commercial, and “Flawless,” a George Michael music video), Marty Kudelka (Justin Timberlake at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards, “Transformer,” a Citroen C4 commercial, and “My Love,” a Justin Timberlake music video), Kenny Ortega (”High School Musical“), Mia Michaels (”Calling You,” from So You Think You Can Dance), Tyce Diorio (”Cell Block Tango,” from So You Think You Can Dance), Shane Sparks (”Tranjie,” from So You Think You Can Dance, and “Push It To The Limit,” a Corbin Bleu music video), Wade Robson (”Ramalama,” from So You Think You Can Dance), John DeLuca (”Tony Bennett: An American Classic“), Rob Marshall (”Tony Bennett: An American Classic“), Travis Payne (”Product People,” a Target commercial, and “Commercial Break,” from Suite Life of Zack & Cody), Robin Antin (”Buttons,” a Pussycat Dolls music video) and Michael Minden (”Buttons“). A full list of all honorees is available below.
My favourite clip of the evening was a Nike commercial, choreographed by Luther Brown and Teresa Espinosa.
I couldn’t help but notice that almost every genre of dance but mine own dominated the ninety minute film presentation. Of those ninety minutes, perhaps thirty or forty-five seconds featured ballet, when “Ballet Russe” received an honorable mention under the documentary category. Even now, many days after the function, the thoughts inside my head are unsettled and my mind has yet to be made up as to how I feel about this. In the meantime, I’d love to hear–er, read–what anyone else might think…
For me, the best part of the entire evening had to do with the format of its presentation. The night’s honorees were not asked to approach the stage one at a time, but were asked to stand and be recognized at the beginning and end of the viewing. Adam Shankman, one of the evening’s speakers, said it best: “This is a true celebration. None of us are here to compete with anyone else to win a specific award. We’re all here to simply honor–and, celebrate–the work of all the honorees here today. (Isn’t this so much better than sitting at home in front of the television, patting ourselves on the back while watching our best works on repeat? It’s so much more fun to do it together in this theatre and cheer for each other, instead.)”
Of course, the night was even more noteworthy because I was sitting in the company of celebrities, some of whom have very recognizable names in the Hollywood community. After the special film presentation, the “real” celebration began and I met and schmoozed with Paula Abdul, Carrie Ann Inaba and Dan Karaty, along with the evening’s honorees.
Good thing I don’t get star struck!
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Recent Posts by susan kim
April 6, 2007 at 12:05 am · Filed under choreographers, new york city ballet, studio, dancers, royal ballet, directors, welcome, wingers, CHRIS, morphoses, companies
Posted by Sloan
I’d like to introduce you to the newest member of the winger family — someone whom I’ve had the great pleasure of working with (and being inspired by) on a number of occasions — the incredibly talented dancer, choreographer and now director, Mr. Christopher Wheeldon.
He’s had quite the exciting, busy, and successful life in his relatively few years (as his biography shows) and he will now be embarking on one of his biggest challenges yet - the start of his own dance company, Morphoses.
As you’ll see, he’s a wonderful person and a wonderful artist, and I’m thrilled that he will be sharing his new experiences with us.
Welcome Chris!
Recent Posts by kristin sloan
March 18, 2007 at 8:10 pm · Filed under dance, books, directors, teaching, TONY, theatre, class, Brazillian, students, education, politics, dance teacher, performance, breaking
| | Posted by Tony Schultz
Teaching is a kind of performance and through performance we do a bit of teaching. As performers, dancers should have an awareness of how their work functions; what kind of stories, or lessons, are they imparting to the audience and how are those narratives instrumental? Similarly, educators should have an awareness of the artistry in their teaching work.
Pedagogy is the science and art of teaching. As an educator, I think about how to present ideas in a way that is both meaningful and transformative. Brazilian born Paulo Freire, author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed, is famous for his contribution to educational theory through the development of “critical pedagogy.” For me and Freire, the goal of teaching should not be to reproduce a body of knowledge but rather to enable people to develop their own critical consciousness. Teachers should impart methods for asking questions rather than simply prescribing answers.
So what does this have to do with performance? Let’s turn to another radical Brazilian scholar and contemporary of Freire, Augusto Boal. This writer, director and cultural activist developed a political theatrical form called Theatre of the Oppressed. Boal used this theatric form for the purpose of radical political education and mobilization. Brazil’s military junta of the late 1960’s found this work so threatening that in 1971 Boal was arrested, tortured and exiled to neighboring Argentina where he published Theatre of the Oppressed.
Dancers should think critically about pedagogy as recipients of it, though their training, and providers of it, through their performance. The Winger is an amazing forum for opening up this conversation and engaging in transformative discourse with dancers, educators and spectators. Pedagogy and performance are intimately linked and as the video above demonstrates, dancing out ideas at the chalkboard has the capacity to create powerful movements.
Music: Ablution by Outside
This dance is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 license.Enjoy.
Recent Posts by tony schultz
February 13, 2007 at 2:17 am · Filed under Uncategorized, rehearsal, studio, dancers, directors, ANNE, ballet austin, twyla tharp, choreographer, shelly washington
| | Posted by Anne Marie
Things have been quite busy in Austin these past few weeks. We’re about to head into production this week for our performance series called “Director’s Choice/Golden”. This is one of our contemporary rep shows and I think after Serenade, Sleeping Beauty & The Nutcracker so far this season, we were all ready to get our groove on in a different way.
The first piece on the program is Stephen Mills’ “Five Flights Up”. A fun vaudeville feeling jazzy number to music by The Squirrel Nut Zippers. The “formula” for this one is pretty straight forward: group dance, pas de deux, quartet, pas de deux, group dance. But everything is just the right length so that just as you think you’ve caught your breath, it’s time to go back onstage. It’s such a blast to dance though, anytime you can ask “Can we go to the Bourbon & Champagne section?” or “Can we go to the Internet Baby part?”– it must be a fun ballet.
Here’s Reggie and Michelle in their pas de deux…
I absolutely love the moment right after this when Michelle does a bunch of pirouettes, finishes on balance, adds half a turn, then chooses to saunter out of it towards Reggie. Such sass! It makes me laugh every time!
The second ballet on our program is “Red Line” choreographed by Gina Patterson. It explores boundaries in relationships… what your boundaries are, emotionally how far you’ll let yourself go or get involved. And how far is too far in a separate relationship, and if the initial relationship can be repaired. In this one I’m a part of a love triangle in which we’ve decided that I’m the other woman. Ultimately his “wife” decides he’s gone too far and in the end leaves him. In another love triangle, they’re movement simulates their struggle, but in the end suggests that they’re going to try to repair their relationship.
Here’s one of Michelle and Eric in Red Line…
The last piece on our program is Twyla Tharp’s the Golden Section. A few weeks ago Shelley Washington spent two amazing weeks with us staging this work. Shelley really is an incredible woman to work with. By the time she was done with us everything was so clear. We all knew what to work on and even if it wasn’t quite working yet, we knew what it was, what the feeling was and how we were going to get there. She’s very straightforward either it’s “Beautiful!!!” or “TERRIBLE!”. I know terrible can sound like a harsh word, but anyone who calls everyone “Pooh Bear” or “Sweetness of Life” can’t mean it that harshly… but only to be clear and redirect you.
From left to right here’s Stephen Mills, Deborah Hay (who was visiting for the day), Shelly Washington, Michelle Martin (our Associate Artistic Director), and dancer Orlando Canova.
I’m hoping to get some stage shots this week and then post them… we’ll see. =)
Recent Posts by anne marie melendez
January 5, 2007 at 11:28 pm · Filed under dance, choreographers, dance event, artists, video, DAVID, directors, brooklyn, first performance, pina bausch
| | Posted by David
If you have ever seen Pina Bauch, you will know what I am talking about in the following sentences. If you haven’t, I hope I can shed a little light on the choreographer known as Pina.
A few weeks ago, I finally had the privilege of seeing Pina Bausch’s company Tanztheater Wuppertal at the Brookyln Academy of Music. In recent years she has been to BAM but I was always on tour. In high anticipation of finally seeing her work, she met all of my expectations.
Pina’s company was founded in 1973, after her brief time in New York at the Julliard School and small choreography elsewhere. In my eyes, and to others that have been seeing her work for years, she invented her own style of ‘dance theatre’. Something that is completely her own, and through the years, others have seemed to follow.
Her most famous piece has to be Cafe Muller, which opened the Pedro Almodovar movie ‘Talk to Her‘. In this clip you see Pina herself performing her signature work. With such commitment and artistry, you cant help but be stunned by what she does.
This was my reaction when I saw ‘Nefes’, her piece based on her love for Istanbul, Turkey. The ballet opens with two men walking out to the stage in towels, one laying on the floor, and the other over him. The man hovering over the other man, looks at the audience and says, “This is me! This is me in the Hamam!”, while pointing at the man on the floor. This is Pina’s clear reference to the Turkish baths, a tradition in that country. The work evolves and at one point a woman being lifted by a man, starts screaming at him saying, “I’M TOO FAT FOR YOU!!! LET ME GO!! I’M TOO FAT FOR YOU!!!”
Her work does not shy away from the hilarious, which is inevitably very fuuny, without TRYING to be funny.
Anyway, Tanztheater Wuppertal was a pivitol performance, in that it opened up my mind to the world of Pina…. What a fascinating one it is..
Recent Posts by david hallberg
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