Look Over Here

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Monday, May 23, 2011

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*

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

The Wilderness Downtown.....this time, it's for real.

There's a wild world out of your front door....even when the door is on the 9th floor of an apartment building....

I saw these raccoons walking downtown in Jersey City.

Wild turkeys at George's in Minnesota.

The frozen Mississippi River....MN, Thanksgiving

Me in my "Cossack" look, as George calls it

And if you missed it last time, it's totally worth seeing - www.thewildernessdowntown.com

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Ultimate Outfit...pt. 13

Got a formal holiday event to attend? Try this on for size....

Marchesa Spring 2010 gown

Pierre Hardy suede shoe

Armani clutch

Cartier Caresse D'orchidees multistone earrings

Cartier Inde Mysterieuse quartz ring

Thursday, December 23, 2010

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.