1,2 Step

So I'm back at it!
Please forgive me for my long hiatus. The idea for this blog came from the feeling of inspiration I get from many things I am fortunate enough encounter - art, dance, film, friends.... - with the hope of being able to have a larger conversation about them (and the internet is a mighty large community). Originally, I vowed to only write about what compelled me, so I knew it was time to take a break when I realized I was generating content just for the sake of content. And who needs more chatter in the world????
Anyway, enough editorializing - on to the cool stuff....

I've been thinking a lot lately about how we move our bodies. It's something so fundamental, but often we are barely conscious of it. Everything from walking to dancing, cleaning, using a piece of equipment - there's this enormous range of movement in each of us, and a capacity for beauty that we rarely explore. I've found some interesting videos lately that have me thinking about movement in a new way....

Lil Buck and Yo-Yo Ma

I'm sure some of you have already seen this one, but I think it's really worth taking a second look at. I'm not always a fan of the high/low mash-up when it comes to the performing arts - I mean, have you ever seen a Rap opera that actually worked??? They too often rely on a level of melodrama that is supposed to speak to some human-thread-that-connects-us-all, but what ends up happening is that the 'edge' is polished off of both idioms, for the benefit of finding a boring beige middle ground that's supposed to resonate with everyone. Doesn't really do it for me. But with this Lil' Buck and Yo-Yo Ma collaboration, both parties bring their creativity and voice in equal measure - and the result is just beautiful and truly eye opening. And it's just amazing to see a body move like that.

Danny Macaskill

Now, this one is really different. Obviously he is extremely skilled at his craft, but the amazing part for me is watching the intense activity throughout his whole body while he does these crazy tricks. The way his torso contracts, his knees bend and stretch - the mechanics of the tricks are right in your face, and it's really an interesting study in human kinetic power. And grace. 

Lose Control (@ 0:30 - 0:55)

When this Missy Elliot song came out it was just so ballsy - in your face, unabashed. And the music video, I think, showing some of the first evolutions of Krumping in the mainstream (?), really changed my eye. The force of the dancing (especially from 0:30 - 0:50, and around 1:50 on) is really magnetic, athletic, kinetic.........and the style of it reminds me of a modern day Harlem lindy hop, like Hellzapoppin......


Hellzapoppin

There's more of these thoughts to come - this has truly been on my mind quite a bit lately....
Let me know what you think about this - how do you move? What in your day might change your step -music, mood, high heels???

Think about it..........take a second........*ping*

Story, yes; Bedtime, No

      Darren Aronofsky's "Black Swan" has gotten mixed reviews, but having been a ballet dancer and a lover of Swan Lake, I wanted to see it anyway. I'm a little skittish about anything scary or dark, but I'm glad that I was able to put that aside to see this film. Because in then end, it's just a story - and it's exactly in style of storytelling that the film's strength lies.

     The heroine of the story is a dancer named Nina, who's confidence and sanity are steadily eroded by an overprotective mother, the demanding company director, and the pressure to perform. From the first scene, Aronofsky throws the audience into Nina's world of unrelenting anxiety, progressively smudging the distinctions between stressed reality and horrific hallucination. This is, without a doubt, done with little subtlety and much heavy handedness, but, believe it or not, I think that itself contributes to the successful execution of vision.

     If you're going to get "Black Swan," you have to abandon the idea that just because a film is dramatic, or because the protagonist is a tortured soul, there is the necessity for some profound philosophical truth to be learned. That is not what this film is about - it certainly doesn't offer that, and it's not intended to. 

     What I found so fascinating about the movie is that the style in which Aronofsky presents Nina's saga totally parallels the style of storytelling that comprises nearly every narrative ballet - most of all, Swan Lake.

     Tragic heroine - check (Nina : Odette). Inescapable dilemma - check (Nina's hallucination-inducing anxiety : Odette trapped in a swan body). Tormentors - check (Nina's mother, the company director : Odette transformed by evil sorcerer Von Rothbart). Even the one person who promises an escape from plight - for Nina it's Lily - another dancer who seems to offer some friendship, only to creep in and try to snatch Nina's role : for Odette, it's Prince Siegfried - who promises love enough to break the spell, but instead falls in love with her evil imposter Odile, compelling Odette to commit suicide. The parallels were so evident to me that it became obvious what Aronofsky was trying to accomplish - not just tell the story of Nina's mental disintegration, but really make her into a modern day, fairy-tale heroine.

     Once you think about it, it's not hard to see. Nina's plight is dark and melodramatic - comparable to Nikita, of La Bayadere, or Giselle. What's more, it's twisted - Nina is shown in several strange sexual scenarios, Nikita's lover smokes opium to dream of her, Giselle revisits her true love as a ghost with an army of other dead unmarried women. "Black Swan" offers another comparison: complete inescapability from the story line - even the music in the club that Nina and Lily visit follows a Swan Lake theme. And just like a narrative ballet, Aronofsky makes big, pantomimic gestures to be absolutely sure the audience sees what is happening. On stage this is more appropriate, because you have to say something as silly as, "When I marry you, you'll cease to live as a swan and be returned to a woman's form" purely through gesture, and have it be fully understood by people in the 4th balcony. When something so overt is used in film (say, Nina's legs turning backwards like a bird's, or her arms stretching into wings), it is easy to dismiss it as cloddish. But seen in the comparative light of a story book ballet, it makes perfect sense.

     Fairy tale ballets rarely change. The narratives hardly ever shift, and much of classical choreography is nearly 100 years old. The characters are conveniently one-dimensional, the only exception being the protagonist. What brings life to a ballet that has been performed for generations is the ballerina. Natalie Portman does just that in "Black Swan"; she brings humanity to a story that otherwise provides only caricature. Which is exactly what any great ballerina would do with a classical ballet. 

     Like it or not, "Black Swan" brings something different to the screen, by putting on film the implements of dramatic storytelling typically reserved for the stage.

     

     

 

Pardon me, boy.....

     Last night, Josh took me dancing, to Midsummer Night Swing at Lincoln Center. Oh my, that was so much fun!  There were people of all skill levels out dancing, and everyone was just having a wonderful time - it's not like one can go out and find a great band to swing dance to anytime. Last night, the Harlem Renaissance Orchestra played all the great standards (although I think I missed "Take the A Train, " unfortunately) and really kept the crowd moving.

     I grew up hearing my mom sing with a big band, so I love swing music. And Josh is a great dancer, so we can just get up and go - even though I'm not as experienced in swing as he is, with his firm lead, I pick it up pretty quickly. He's even starting to teach me some Lindy! It's just really fun.
     Anyway, now that I'm all juiced about swing dancing and big band music, I thought I'd share some of my favorite videos and songs with you.....

I love her dress, her voice, the sound of the band......and wait until the dancing starts! That's how I want to dance!

A very charming version of Chattanooga Choo Choo..


Of course, The Andrews Sisters version is my favorite...

And the pinacle of Lindy Hop greatness....

One of my all time favorite songs...

Woman Warrior....pt. 1

Sylvie Guillem in William Forsythe's In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated

Dream Sequence

I built a little daydream the other afternoon..........(this requires a little audience participation to get the full effect, so bear with me)...


Play song....

"Mind, Drips" by Neon Indian

I was a nude in a Will Cotton painting, floating on a cotton candy cloud.....

Paintings by Will Cotton

.....and see in the distance rows and rows of dancers in white (turn off sound)....

Paris Opera Ballet performing "Shades" from La Bayadere

...and I float up into space, where my cloud disintegrates....

Cygnus Loop Nebula

...and I tumble back to earth...

Tania Isaac

...down into the ocean...

Photograph by Dominic Neitz

...through a sea of jelly fish (turn the sound off)...

Jellyfish Lake in Palau

.....and other fish (turn the sound off this one too)...

Kuroshio Sea - 2nd Largest Aquarium in the World

...and eventually I wash up on the beach....

Photograph by Naila Ruechel

The End

The Body Says What Words Cannot

     In this weekend's New York Times is a very interesting article about the ballet La Bayadere. La Bayadere has long been one of my favorite classical ballets - it is a spectacle to watch with a fantastic, convoluted story of love, honor, betrayal, murder, retribution and opium induced hallucinations. The costumes are fabulous - midrift baring, sari inspired embroidery, yards of chiffon. But more than watching it, I've always loved dancing it. Each role, whether it be principle or corps de ballet, is technically challenging as well as expressive - the choreography ranges from aggressive to ethereal, even within a variation.

In the last scene of La Bayadere, Solor smokes opium to find respite from the grief of having lost his true love, who was

killed by his new wife. He begins to see visions of her surrounded by the ghosts of other lost lovers. The entrance of the 

"Shades" is one of the most recognizable moments in classical ballet - it is very technically trying for the dancer and has to be executed softly and in synchronicity with all of the other corps de ballet members.

     I found the NY Times article enlightening as to the origins of this ballet in the west (it was premiered in the US in 1980) and the woman who brought it here, one of my favorite ballerinas Natalia Makarova. Anyone who knows much about ballet and has seen Makarova dance would agree that to stage and direct this huge ballet would necessitate someone with as much range as the great Natasha. She is just as soft and lovely as Giselle as she is cunning and seductive as Odile.

Natalia Makarova as the Dying Swan

     The article announced the opening of American Ballet Theatre's season at the Metropolitan Opera with La Bayadere. Knowing that Makarova staged the production makes me want to see it, despite the fact that my second date with Josh 2 years ago nearly ended in disaster in large part due to the horrible mood I was in after having seen ABT's sorry version of the ballet. Then, it was neither solid nor delicate, the dancers (Solor danced by Angel Corella and Nikiya danced by Paloma Herrera) never knew exactly what they were supposed to be feeling at any given moment, and the corps work, which for a ballet this big HAS to be concrete, was sloppy. La Bayadere is such a huge production that without the utmost care and sensitivity it just becomes a tacky mess (some dance critics believe it to be that way no matter how delicately it is staged).

     To be honest, I am pretty skeptical about how successful ABT's La Bayadere can be. I've been disappointed by their productions in recent history. The dancers seem to go for the 'cheap shots' - turns, jumps, extension - more so than the slow, story-building burn (with the exception of one of my favorites, Julie Kent). True musicality seems to be a novelty, and emotional range has more to do with the speed of movement than true expression. And La Bayadere requires true mastery of all of these elements for the story to be told with the most eloquence. In the article, Makarova talks about "using the whole body in harmony." I just haven't seen that in ABT's dancers as of late.
    I am hoping that Ballet Theater will be able to do justice to this ballet in the coming weeks. But at least if the dancing sucks, you've got great costumes to look at.

Heather Jurgensen of the Hamburg Ballet as Nikiya

The amazing Sylvie Guillem

Svetlana Zakaharova

Natalia Matsak