June 1, 2008 at 8:42 pm · Filed under dance, TONY, physics, guggenheim, works & process, Karole Armitage, Brian Greene, world science festival, Jim Gates
This weekend brought the World Science Festival to New York. From Thursday through Sunday science came into focus through various lectures and performances throughout the city. On Friday night I went to see Armitage Gone! Dance present The Elegant Universe as part of The Guggenheim Museum’s Works & Process series. This new dance work by Karole Armitage was inspired by theoretical physicist Brian Greene’s book The Elegant Universe about string theory.
The work consisted of three different chapters, each based on a piece physics. First relativity, then quantum mechanics and last string theory. According to the Armitage website, this triptych is meant to “unveil the central drama of current theoretical physics” namely the incommensurability of the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics, and the promise of “string theory, which resolves the conflict and revolutionizes our understanding of the universe.” Each chapter was itself split into sections the title of which was projected through the dark on a large sheet of paper held by two dancers. I enjoyed this as a theatric pedagogical device. My favorite section was Quantum Foam.
The dancing was much bigger than the stage space. Armitage has beautiful dancers all of whom are great to watch and the Guggenheim stage is terribly small. This made it especially wonderful when the dancing came off the stage and into the aisles. I always enjoy watching dancers close up especially when they its large fast movement and you know there is a possibility you might get clipped in the head. Hey, I like danger.
Blending physics and dance is also risky. If they are not thoroughly mixed, the combination of these two ingredients can create an excess convective heat. Framing the dance work, theoretically and chronologically, was talk by Karole Armitage and physicist Jim Gates director of the Center for String and Particle Theory at the University of Maryland in College Park.
I wish Jim and Karole had spent more time trying to bridge the gap to have a conversation with each other rather than trying to teach the audience about either physics or dance. Opening up any line between the arts and sciences is valuable so I will try not to be to critical. Perhaps if they spoke about something as basic as symmetry they might have been able to have a more enlightening exchange. As it stood their conversation didn’t seem very productive for each other or the audience.
It is not that often you open up a dialogue between these two fields so I had high hopes. Physical theory and dance composition certainly have things in common regarding operations in time and space. Thanks to the Guggenheim for hosting the dance and talk. The performance of music by Lukas Ligeti held its own amidst all the high legs and high minds. The whole event and reception were enjoyable.
I hope events which help connect dance to other fields continue to be developed and sponsored.
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November 19, 2007 at 4:22 am · Filed under SLOAN, dance, motorcycle, bam, new york, cedar lake, ohad naharin, iphone, batsheva, guggenheim, works & process, frank lloyd wright, gaga
>>Hey Matt, nice to see you (albeit extremely briefly) Thursday night at Batsheva at BAM.<<
Matt did such an elegant job of explaining the evening’s piece. Both my friends and I had seen Decadance at Cedar Lake (which I understood to be a compilation of a some of his more popular pieces over the years) and it was interesting to see how this evening had a different feel. A bit less theatrical I guess, and perhaps more focused on the movement.
Earlier in the week (Monday to be exact) I took Sophs on the bike (juicing the bike up for the ride cross-town, above) and we went to see Ohad Naharin and the Batsheva Dance Company at the Guggenheim’s Works & Process series.
Every time I go to a Works & Process event I am always blown away by what a great deal it is. The theater is really incredible - also designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, it’s very intimate in a highly stylized way, directly below the famous Rotunda. The programming is fantastic, and it’s great to be able to hear the artists speak about their work (and process!) before the final version is performed in all it’s glory.
I am always a bit surprised by the audience, though. It seems like this is the sort of thing that a younger set could really get into. There’s even a wine and food reception in the Rotunda afterwards, which the artists usually attend - amazing! And yet, it seems that the majority of the audience is almost always much older. Not that there is anything wrong with that - it just seems like there are a lot of people who might be missing out! So, if you’ve never been to a Guggenheim Works & Process event, check it out! I promise you won’t be disappointed
On that note, I’ll tell you a bit about what we saw (and heard). Before the event began, there were two dancers on stage with no music, going through movements that looked fluid and intensional, but in a free sort of way. That flow is achieved through a highly defined movement language, developed by Naharin and called GAGA (apparently he wanted to call it CACA, but friends warned him that that may not be the best choice of words). The result is interestingly human in an unexpected way.
Moderator Anna Kisselgoff started out by asking Naharin to give us all more details about GAGA. He started in a general way, speaking about efficiency of movement (like an animal moving by instinct), learning new movement habits and getting rid of old ones. letting go, surrendering, being more aware, a sense of flow and flotation, the relation of bones and flesh… he also mentioned how his interests in Thai Chi and Swimming were inspirations for this vocabulary.
One of the first demonstrations from the dancers (besides the warm-up intro while people were taking their seats) was to show the difference between movements that happen TO YOU, and ones that YOU DECIDE to make.
Naharin asked them to SHAKE. The dancers then slowly started to shake their bodies with intention, but in a very understated way. It was clear that THEY were making the shaking happen. He then asked them to QUAKE. Now you got the feeling that there was some force within them that was causing their bodies to start shaking. It was happening TO them. He explained that GAGA was a combination of things the we decide to do, and things that happen to us.
He then delved into a more detailed explanation of GAGA, explaining various terms that represent different movement ideas.
I’m probably spelling these all wrong, but hopefully you’ll get the idea (or perhaps someone who knows how these are spelled can let us know!).
The first one he talked about was LENA, which means source. It refers to the area between your navel and your groin, from which the direction of movement is created.
Then he spoke of BIBA, which stands for the stretching of the body away from the sit bones.
Another was LUNA, which represented the insides of your hands and feet and the bases of your fingers and toes.
Then ASHID, using the outer sides of your feet by moving your pelvis or knees, which echos into the rest of your body and spine. And then FASHI, the feeling of the feet being glued to the floor resulting in more movement in the joints.
OBA, which represents giving in, surrendering, and letting go, allowing you to be more explosive and quick. He spoke about explosiveness, and how it should happen at the beginning of the movement, and then you should just let go and allow it to continue. He gave the example of a grand battement, where the initial explosion should happen at the beginning, and you then allow the leg to continue up.
Also, Ella, which means 30%. He said the name came from a lazy dancer, but then clarified that he appreciates laziness, that lazy people change the world. Laziness forces you to be efficient, and prevents you from being wasteful.
And my favorite, GINA, which is about being silly. The ability to laugh at oneself is a virtue, he says. He explained it as “being available to be tickled”.
“It is not a matter of opinion. Mirrors are bad for dancers.”
He also mentioned how his dancers do not dance with mirrors… that mirrors destruct and disturb the dancers… that they take away the ability for a dancer to connect to things around them. I totally agree, although unfortunately still find it very difficult to trust what I am doing without ever having seen the movement on my body in a mirror. I suppose that is the curse of growing up as a dancer in front of mirrors - as most of us do. It is a tool, that can be helpful in some cases (imho) and harmful in others.
After hearing him speak of all these points of the GAGA movement vocabulary, it was fun to then see the dancers dance again, and be able to pick up on the things he described. You could now start to see some of the pattern of thought that was going on within these dancers, and why certain movements would follow others, or why they were appropriate. It was fantastic!
At other points during the presentation, he would have the dancers do small excerpts from the pieces that we would later see at BAM, but sometimes to different music than the music that is in the actual pieces. During the Q&A someone asked how intertwined the music and choreography were for Naharin, and he explained… Movement carves out space, and music marks time. Music can add character but is really there for keeping time. It is this fusion of different ingredients that creates something new.
It was definitely an amazing experience to see and listen to the process and thoughts of the artist in such an intimate setting, and to then see the finished piece a few nights later. I wished that my friends could have also seen the W&P presentation beforehand, as it really gave you a preparedness for paying attention to the movement, beyond even just seeing the piece as a whole. I wonder what the experience was like for the Cedar Lake dancers in exploring and then performing Naharin’s work. It would also be interesting to know how people who took his workshops around that time enjoyed the experience. I remember our friend Tonya Plank attended the workshop (click the link to see her description of it). I would have loved to have gone, but it was at a time when my hip pain was at its worst. Maybe next time… or perhaps if I find myself in Tel Aviv, I will stop by!
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