Archive for modern
April 4, 2007 at 2:36 pm · Filed under websites, video, modern, contemporary, apple, RESfest, tronic studio, misnomer dance theater, chris elam, myspace, balinese dance
Posted by Sloan
Just a heads up about a dance company that’s doing some really interesting things both online and off…
I first saw them on myspace (a great way for companies to connect with more people). Then I found their website and blog, which is full of videos, info, rep list, calendar, tons of press. Very impressive. Chris Elam is the director/choreographer, (you can see a video interview of him here). He says he is heavily influenced by Balinese dance. (I took Doug there for his birthday a few years ago, but we were so destroyed by our jet-lag that we missed our one opportunity to see a traditional dance performance! ugh! maybe next time.)
So check out their videos, especially this one done by Apple about Misnomer’s collaboration with Tronic Studios (how cool!) for RES Digital Film Festival.
Their next performances are April 12 & 14 and NYU’s Skirball Center, followed by tours in the Ukraine, France, and Turkey.
Recent Posts by kristin sloan
February 23, 2007 at 3:14 pm · Filed under modern, TONY, break dance, computer vision, dance technology, contemporary
| | Posted by Tony Schultz
Here is another dance using my interactive time-machine system.
There has been some talk over on Great Dance about intellectual property rights as it relates to dance. Creative Commons is a beautiful thing. The idea that someone can own the rights to a dance seems absurd to me. All dance is derivative because it is about communication. The idea of owning a dance seems as silly as owning a word. The dance below quotes Viola Farber, Merce Cunningham, Christopher Williams and B-Girl Angel. Like DJ Spooky says, it is in the remixing of culture that we find something original. Feel free to steal this dance. Perform it exactly as I did if you like. Play the video however you like, just give me a shout-out, keep it intact and don’t use it to sell anything. The music Emptyness by Gahnah was also distributed under a Creative Commons Non-Commercial License.
Enjoy 
Recent Posts by tony schultz
December 4, 2006 at 9:02 am · Filed under dance, dance event, CATHY, brazil, modern, review
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| Posted by Cathy
This weekend the Compañía Nacional de Danza, directed by the choreographer Nacho Duato, was here in São Paulo and I went to the theatre to check it out. I was really curious to see his works, as I had heard a lot about them. Plus, it was another opportunity to see more of modern dance, and now, the more I can watch, the more I like and learn to appreciate it.
Nacho Duato has been their artistic director since 1990, and what he wanted was to innovate, and create an identity to this company. So, he added to the repertory many of his creations and works by Jiri Kylian, Forsythe, and many of the nowadays world-renowned choreographers.
The evening consisted in three choreographies, all of them by Duato: Por vos muero, Castrati and White Darkness.
Por vos muero is a work that was inspired by the Spanish Music from the XV and XVI centuries, Spain’s golden age, and also poetry by Garcilaso de La Vega.
The women were in dresses with very long and big skirts and the men in shorts. The music was very nice, and the choreography was light, soft, and beautiful. There were several small pas de deux and also the whole group dancing together.
Castrati is about male sopranos who suffered the castration during puberty in order to keep it as a soprano, so it would never get mature. They were common in italy during the 16,17 and 18 centuries.
A very interesting theme to explore in a choreography, and I must say, the result was a very very strong choreography only with men. They entered the stage wearing black outfits, and showed their powerful technique. The audience was in awe and moved. The language used in it to show this process made the suffering so clear in the dancers face and movements, and the choreography was fast and demanding. It was actually my favorite in the night. It was the kind of thing that you simply can’t take your eyes off, and you start to feel it with the dancers. It was quite magical.
The company has very good dancers and their technique is really clean and well worked.
White Darkness ended the evening with emotion and a lot to think about. A very polemic theme: the drugs and their effects over the society.
Indeed, all I can say is that it really makes us think about.
The music is by Karl Jenkins. It starts with a beautiful long-limbed dancer running across the stage to reach the powder that came from the ceiling. She tries it and is immediately affected: other dancers enter the stage, make crazy steps, and then, they also run towards the drug that was lying on the floor.
From this part to the end, it is shown how that woman becomes completely dependent on the drug, and the choreography gradually becomes something sad and dark.
The finale was the peak of the entire day: the same dancer under a rain of a lot of powder over her head, and it doesn’t stop and the light is just on her.
I believe now that dance can bring to us subjects like this for example, that is present in everywhere in this world, and although being polemic and painful, all it did was to make us think. How a single choice can change a person’s life forever (and also the people around this person), the consequences, and if there’s a way to solve it or not, and many other unanswered questions.
What I liked is how he didn’t show HIS point of view: he created a whole situation and the audience was the one responsible to judge and make its own perception over the subject.
And once again I was amazed by modern dance. And in this evening it was clear that it’s a language that has no limits, how you can create dance over any subject.
This image was an attempt to get Nacho. Didn’t work very well though as my camera is still acting weird
| | Posted by Cathy
Recent Posts by kristin sloan
September 29, 2006 at 12:35 pm · Filed under SLOAN, ballet, dance, dance event, events, modern
| | Posted by Sloan
A glimpse of the INSANITY outside City Center for the opening night of Fall For Dance.
I still can’t get over what a great thing this is.
First of all, it’s just amazing to see so many different companies in one evening (for $10, no less!). Second, I think it just makes so much sense.
Dance companies expect people to pay upwards of $30 dollars to take a chance and see a performance, when they might have no idea if they even like the company or the kind of dance they do. There are soooo many options for how you can spend an evening in New York, that you want to be fairly sure that you’re going to enjoy what you are spending your time and money on.
You can take friends’ recommendations, or journalists’ recommendations, but it in the end it’s really all about your own personal taste. Unfortunately companies here don’t give enough of a glimpse of what they offer (even though we have the internet and video!), so this is the best kind of preview you could ask for! And if you don’t like one company, there are four others during the evening which you might like.
I really enjoyed four out of the five pieces/companies I saw. I was really impressed by the last piece by Pennsylvania Ballet too. There was a really good part for Riolama Lorenzo, who used to be with NYCB, and she looked incredible!
The view of the sold out house form our seats, all the way up.
On the right, the Fall For Dance lounge. This used to be sponsored by our friends at Flavorpill, but I guess it’s not anymore.
So… a new goal for The Winger I believe this lounge was originally conceived as a place where the audience and artists could mingle after the show (how Winger-esque!), perhaps we can find a way of sponsoring it, or at least be involved with it, next year.
| | Posted by Sloan
Recent Posts by kristin sloan
September 22, 2006 at 10:11 am · Filed under dance, choreographers, dance event, london, composers, KATE, modern
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| Posted by Kate
Last night I went to see Merce Cunningham’s ‘Ocean’ at the newly revamped Roundhouse in Camden. It was the opening night of the Dance Umbrella which is a contemporary dance festival that has been held in London for more than 25 years.
Ocean is performed on a round stage. Arriving at the Roundhouse felt like going to the circus. The audience sat all the way around the stage, and the 150-piece conductorless orchestra sat behind the audience all around the amphitheatre. It was very odd.
The music was by John Cage and David Tudor. Tudor had made loops of electronic music with sounds from the ocean to complement Cage’s score. Foghorns and whale music featured heavily. There were digital clocks around the stage, and the dance lasted exactly 90 minutes.
I was amazed by the dancing. Fourteen dancers performed throughout, sometimes solo, sometimes in small groups and sometimes all together. Cunningham expects so much strength from his dancers. Often they would stay still in an arabeque on bent legs, or perform endless ronde de jambes en l’air. I could not imagine being able to remain so controlled throughout these difficult phrases. There were moments of pure beauty, which was enhanced by the foghorns and the oceanic lighting, which to me suggested a journey to the bottom of the sea.
However, it was a very long piece, especially as there was no interval, and I would estimate that about 15% of the audience walked out before it was over. John Cage is not for everyone (not for me) and I could hear the orchestra giggling! I am glad I saw this, because it is quite a unique production, and it was very interesting to see Cunningham technique in such detail. However, I do not think I would go and see it again! Half the time I thought it was strangely wonderful that they were actually doing it, and the rest of the time I thought it was pretentious modernist rubbish!
PS Sorry no actual photos of the venue - I stupidly forgot to bring my camera.
Recent Posts by kate bordwell
August 21, 2006 at 6:44 pm · Filed under SLOAN, ballet, dance, dance event, ads, culture, events, modern
| | Posted by Sloan
It’s time once again for City Center’s Fall For Dance event. It’s such a fantastic idea! You can read more about it in a post I made last year about our friends at Flavorpill who help sponsor the event.
My only problem is that every show is different… I wish I could go to all of them!
A little side story… two years ago, this was the first event Doug asked me out to. It was a few weeks away at the time, though, so we of course saw each other many times before we actually went to the event… but it was still our first dance date!
Tickets go on sale Sept. 10th. Don’t forget, it sells out really fast!!!
And for those of you in the UK… this is from New York City Center’s recent press release…
“A London version of New York City Center’s groundbreaking Fall For Dance Festival travels to London in the spring of 2007. Like its New York counterpart, the Sadler’s Wells festival will feature a wide variety of styles in one evening, and will introduce London audiences to many New York-based companies at accessible prices.”
Recent Posts by kristin sloan
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