Chazz Busby’s Ballet Academy
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KRISTIN SLOAN |
Ha!
From the Simpsons… and Hulu.
Archive for tv
Animated Wolf
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KRISTIN SLOAN |
An animated version of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf on WNET. Very cool. Thanks DJ and T Harrington for the heads up.
Recent Posts by kristin sloan
Dancing with the Boobs
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KRISTIN SLOAN |
Seriously.
These outfits seem a bit on the extreme side. Tonya?
Recent Posts by kristin sloan
the siren call of the internet
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MEGAN KURASHIGE |
Hello, all!
Knee surgery happened last Thursday. The very nice Dr. Frederic Bost took a bit of my hamstring tendon and screwed, bolted, and strung it into my knee. They knocked me out for the procedure, so I didn’t get to see the actual process, but he did send me home with some nice photographs of joint interiors and a neat little sketch as a souvenir. I am off my crutches and in PT sessions where I do very difficult things, like bending my knee and then straightening it again. It’s a bit humbling really.
Hang on, let me see if I can scan one of the less gory ones in…
There you go. Here are two images from inside my knee. Doesn’t everything look weirdly white and clean?
And here’s Dr. Bost’s little sketch:
As a result of sticking cameras and sharp implements into my knee, I’ve been at home for an absurd amount of time. My biggest “occasion” of late was a trip to the movies with my friends (we saw Enchanted) where I learned that people are shockingly courteous to you when you are wielding crutches. So I’m spending quite a bit of time on my couch, reading or watching movies, or pretending that I’m doing something edifying by poking round the internet. Lots of Vulture, lots of YouTube, a whole season of Extras (really funny, but lots of those moments when you cringe away from the TV because the characters are doing something so mortifying that it’s almost painful), and some Austen to top it off (Emma, to be specific). Nederlands Dans Theater has put up some nice videos online, if you want to take a look.
The Conservatory also has a new website up, with pretty pictures, shiny new video, and a newsletter that I helped out on a tiny bit. There’s also the announcement that this summer’s curriculum will include the study of “gaga” and the choreography of Ohad Naharin, along with the work of William Forsythe and Jiri Kylian. So, if there are any students out there interested, perhaps I’ll see you soon! I’ve only seen one Naharin piece (Minus 16 danced by Hubbard Street), but I thought it was incredible.
Right-o. I’m off to work on some writing. Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays and fitting in a few Nutcrackers here and there! Hm. I’ve just put “Nutcracker” into youtube and come up with a rather unfortunate looking soccer accident. Definitely time to turn off the computer.
Recent Posts by megan kurashige
So you think you can write dance?!
Posted by Ashley Byler
So, I was just reading Tony’s post on Lepecki’s Exhausting Dance and I’m thinking… what am I doing in the studio alone? I’ll tell you what i’m doing. i am trying to round up people to tell me what to do, so i am not just in there alone (or there telling others what to do).
But, no one wants to make me their subject, so far. I have been delighted with the email responses (one was a complete script of spoken word and movement direction, one a call to dialogue on desired dance moments described as “utopias”, one was a plea to reinvent Michael Jackson’s scarecrow in “Ease on Down…” from The Wiz with greater integrity to the concept of boneless walking), but there has been a real reluctance from the various artists I have implored here in Alaska to enter the studio and just make something (too many ghosts?).
They are all artists of differing media and ages and maybe the perceived exclusivity of dance as medium is keeping them from going for it… maybe they’re just busy! but, conversation around the idea has been pretty great.
My friend Ray suggested I go to a specific spot where the “humpies” (aka hump backed salmon) will be “running” (aka swimming upstream) here and film myself imitating the movement, then respond to that projected video in live performance. Another friend, Hilary,has an undulating tidal idea and Craig “King” Koch demonstrated a Norwegian net dipping gesture that could grow into something.
In general, it seems like people want to have complete ideas before they are willing to commit to setting something… SO, I have mostly just been working off of my solipsistic self in the studio. making the things that seem to come naturally, responding to the movement i’ve seen recently, like.. So You Think You Can Dance (the hit Fox network dance competition show that those of us familiar with Miss Dance Masters of America competitions find all too familiar).
Montages of externally rotated arms reaching out, long fan kicks the pause in precarious, hip lifting balances, triple turns. while i am usually less engaged with the content of these dances, i am generally taken with the range of physical approaches among the dancers (hip hop artists, ball room dancers and those studio mutts like myself that are hard to define- “contemporary”?). the spectacle is probably most worth noting. this is what a lot of united statesians are calling “dance” right now. this show is both reflecting and shaping an experience of “dance” that is already more common/ prevalent to contemporary usa culture than any social form. i’d be quite solipsistic to ignore it… i’ve been trying to identify my own style favorites in capsule size portions- a little soft shoe adoration, space hold adoration, green jumpsuit adoration, an homage to the way my elbows lock into my waist. anyway, i think this tv show is another way of scripting/ writing dance and creating subjects of aspiring “dancers”.
p.s.- i’m not totally positive about the definition Tony Schultz is working with on “subjectivity”. here is my personal, subject definition- subjectivity is the effect of some constructed ruling set of forces/ norms/ ideals to which i am a humble servant. a servitude, perhaps? So if choreography IS a subjectivity maker (as Tony quotes Lepecki), the choreograher takes responsibility for identifying and either supporting, adhering to or subverting the components of that entity. for instance, Sara Rudner was working in the studio a bit more than a month ago on a basic phrase of weight shifting and, having identified the Western penchant for legs high in the air and quick gestures of the leg (as in ballet beats), asked the dancers to throw in an improvised fast and high leg gesture on certain beats. That is one way of working this idea of subjectivity… am i mangling this word? help me out.
So i am recording my mini macdances on my maccamera. what about that writing? why don’t i just post the macvideos rather than these macwords? i’ll tell you why, i don’t know why. but i will show and tell you how the long-distance (email) written choreography goes.
Here is a picture of me and my oldest nephew, Sean. once i get everyone i love to record themselves to make things, we will start a solipsistic tribe!
Also. if you are curious about what goes on with de arts in Ketchikan, click this word.
Dougie and Sloans watching
Posted by Sloan | via mobile phone
Dougie and Sloans watching Dancing with the Stars. The judges keep giving everyone eights, regardless of the quality of the performance. Guess they are leaving it up to the TV audience and the beauty of text message voting.
