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dance journal for TAPS0310, Modern Dance, at Brown University

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Bug or feature?

The great firewall does not block tumblr / associated pr0n.

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Not sure if this is a clear photo, but look at how my leg capillaries dilate! So blotchy! Today's run was fairly unpleasant. I kept thinking about technical things and it was also hot. I shipped a bug and have been feeling paralyzed ever since. Not a sensible way to deal with it, I'm sure.

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Riccardo Cocchi & Yulia Zagoruychenko - Rumba Demonstration (by 37even)

Watch how his hips and center move just a millisecond before she reacts. That delay is what makes rumba wonderful.

edit: skip to about 0:25. YouTube embed / share didn't seem to be able to skip for me.

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Decision

Hence, I'm making it a point to support independent art dance / art music. 

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This is what I want to do! The explosiveness of salsa with stillness and control. and foot pointing.

[but there is so much salsa and all the shops that will teach this are in far-off lands where Ukranian mothers drive their long-legged sons]

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so adaptive!

I still think it's really cute when dance teachers lead 'arm plies.'

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Modern Masterpieces - PNB

Oh man, this was a great program. Really, something for everyone.

http://www.pnb.org/Season/12-13/ModernMasterpieces/

Like Balanchine? Concerto Barocco. I don't think Balanchine works for me -- this piece was undramatically and dully male-centric, e.g. 8 maidens stand in a V; leading male and female dancer run over one side of the V holding hands above the maidens-in-Vs' heads. Maidens only move when leading pair runs over them. 

The movements also lacked acceleration. It seemed to be all about hitting positions, with no variation in the rate of getting to those positions. 

Mozart Pieces was tolerable but not really memorable. Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven (Ulysses Dove) was extremely compelling for me -- the lighting was great, and people /accelerated!/ There was running and falling and use of the ground  I guess I also like use of wide-second plies.

[I think it's hilarious when dance classes have students do 'arm plies.']

In the Upper Room was fantastic. I've seen a bit of Twyla Tharp's stuff in the documentary we watched in class, so I knew she used elements of social dance in her works; But there was tap dancing and cool spinning and enough chaos to look cool [my friend Bryan thought that it was messy, but I guess I'm used to dancers being purposely non-synchronized: I always imagine that one of them does something unchoreographed in rehearsal and the choreographer says, YES! I love it! do it that way every time!] Music was quintessentially Philip Glass, and stage effects were well-utilized. 

also, tap dancing motifs! Tee.

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lovely leap!

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A set of beautiful lines by another racquetball player.

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Inten-sati

There's been a gym under construction near my apartment for the past season, and it's finally ready to open in January. I stopped in today to take a look and to partake in the free classes they had for their soft opening \ open house.

The one I signed up for was called Intensati. It seems to be a brand, just like Zumba, and best summarized as "sometimes awkward aerobics with chanting." 

http://www.satilife.com/intensati/

So the workout today was like this (the great thing about associating memories with words is that I can remember all of it) -- each line repeats four times in a call-and-response fashion with a strong rhythm. So for the first line, the instructor asks, "Are | you | powerful | now" and the class responds, "I | am | powerful |now". I also worked on my 'keeping a straight face!' muscles.

I am powerful now (legs wide, bent, cycling fists around each other between knees - this was hard because my fists have no coordination and kept hitting)

I am accepting now (legs together, straight, cycling hands above head in reverse direction -- I found this very hard because I felt like I would hit myself in the face, as well as the other hand with the one)

I am strong now (hits left and right to the forward diagonal)

I feel great now (raise the roof)

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I am ready to change (facing left forward, right knee to chest)

I am willing to change (face forward, legs wide, right and left feet to butt.)

I am ready to change (facing right forward, left knee to chest)

I am changing now (jumping jacks)

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I have compassion now (balance on left, right leg bent, hands on heart)

I have love now (squat facing right, right hand on chest, left hand making 'ok' sign, looking through circle so you can love yourself)

[do it on other side]

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Ok, I can't remember the rest. there was something with a warrior, of loving yourself, of gratitude, and enthusiasm. The movement for 'enthusiasm' was good -- hands above, hands in front, hands to ground (squat), hands in front; it turned out to be a very good workout, but I can't imagine the nerds of capitol hill really going for something like this. I mean, it didn't look like they had parking, so I could only guess that they were going for the population living in the tech worker-priced apartments nearby. 

Their other classes are very indoor-rowing / spinning-oriented, though, so I appreciate the diversity. [I do not do this sort of 'ride hard! then ride harder! ok you have a hill! push through the hill!' business]

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Pacific Northwest Ballet - All Premiere

I didn't realize that not every show that features a Mark Morris piece is a modern dance show, or that there'd be straight ballet in this night. Recently choreographed ballet, certainly, but still with the soft, breaking-at-elbow arm styling that looks weak and wrong to my ballroom-trained eyes. 

I couldn't make out what the first two pieces were saying. The first had a rusty, post-manufacturing feel, and a prop: black tapes stretched up-down across a curved frame across the stage. The dancers stretched the tapes, went through it; some of it looked like it required a lot of rehearsal to get the timings right.

Second one was straight ballet; eh? I am uncultured? I dislike the style of choreography? I didn't really like the music, and the relationship between the movements and the music seemed to be "when the note hits, all our limbs go up!" with no variation of the acceleration of the limbs to match the timbre or articulation of the note.

Third one was Mark Morris -- and even though I thought the click-clacking of pointe shoes across the stage to be weird, the structure was pellucid. Maybe Morris manages to appeal to my simplicity and tenderfootedness all the while garnering praise from experienced critics; when a dancer had a solo phrase, I could see the dynamic arch of it, much like a musical phrase.

Oh, and it was performed to Hindemith. I am predisposed to liking any work that uses Hindemith, being a violist and all.

This is still playing; you should go see it this weekend.

Finally, a word to all who like seeing others in high heels: go to the ballet! Seriously, this brings out all the heel-wearing women / girls [*] of Puget Sound. It's not the most diverse crowd, but if you have mainstream tastes (white foal-legged women), go watch some feet, on stage and in the hall.

[*] There are like, 12-year-olds stumbling around in 4-inch-heels. My assumption is that they're pretty damn trained dancers and spend a few hours a week on pointe, but eh, given the other implications of heels, it's jarring.

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Amy O'Neal - The Most Innovative, Daring, and Original Piece of Dance/Performance You Will See This Decade

http://www.thestranger.com/suggests/14902377/amy-oneal

I think that's the name of the piece. I've never seen a solo dance show before and wasn't quite sure what one person could say, but Amy's performance was virtuosic and clever. Grand plies on a stripper pole and other commentary like that.

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Crystal Pite (Kidd Pivot) - The Tempest Replica

http://www.ontheboards.org/performances/tempest-replica

Saw this with Bryan Kolk. Dance like I've never seen before -- so emotional -- so engrossing, kinetic, risky, precise -- and I couldn't even get through the synopsis of The Tempest, kindly provided in our programs. It's not really describable, so I'm just really glad that Bryan told me about this. 

Nice theater, too -- it's called On The Boards and the bar is called Fubar.

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social dancing and things

Two Fridays ago I went contra dancing and the Saturday after I went social dancing. Last Sunday I tried line dancing and it was a good time. 

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getting back into it

I went to a modern dance class (Amy O'Neal) this weekend and it was great: I was panting hard after the warmup, and I think I'm still a bit sore from it.

I still have a really hard time learning choreography; it occurs to me that I could take a beginner class, but I don't know if that would help or hurt. Do I just need to try to do it more? I usually get it way better on the second week, but I don't want to be able to learn choreography in two classes -- I want to be able to dance it by the end of the first.