seen from United Kingdom
seen from Yemen
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Yemen
seen from Sweden
seen from Bolivia
seen from Albania
seen from Australia
seen from Kuwait
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from Germany
seen from Germany
seen from Netherlands
seen from Yemen
seen from Russia
seen from Georgia
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United Kingdom
The Power of Movement Without Sound: Jan Martens' Work
It took me longer than normal to write this, because I had to think it through more than I normally would. Not the dancing – that was immediate, sometimes visceral and always intellectual. But what Jan Martens achieved, and whether I agreed with it. The stated premise is ambitious. 13 forgotten female voices reclaimed from patriarchal silence (by a man, but let’s let that pass). Ruby Elzy’s 1935…
The Controversial Legacy of Arlene Croce's Critique on Bill T. Jones's 'Still/Here'
A Controversial Critique of Dance Artistry It landed with the force of a bombshell. In her provocative 1994 New Yorker essay titled “Discussing the Undiscussable,” esteemed dance critic Arlene Croce began with a striking declaration: “I have not seen Bill T. Jones’s ‘Still/Here’ and have no plans to review it.” This assertion set the stage for a contentious exploration of a work deeply…
“We invite you to stay for a post-performance conversation”—these are dividing words. After a recent performance, all but one of my seatmates—several friends and acquaintances—decided against staying. I wavered for a minute as I considered keeping my friend company and the possibility of hearing the choreographers and performers discuss their processes, inspirations, and attachments—all interiors that I love. But in the end I joined the exodus, citing my own rule not to attend post-performance talks for shows I am reviewing, in service of my oxymoronic goals of maintaining objectivity and developing a singular, personal response to the work. A couple of days later, I solicited an email report from my friend who stayed, and it was bleak.
http://www.fjordreview.com/the-talk/
At one point in the piece, Lincoln actually did get showered with glitter. Keigwin’s program notes suggest that the work has to do with creating one’s own individual glitter garden, as “a nonlinear story of nurturing your authentic being.” Unfortunately, in the United States, we have a problem of allowing the people in the places where these gardens are cultivated—schools, churches, clubs—to be mowed down with bullets.
http://www.fjordreview.com/glitter-garden/
“At last a success, a real success!...It was not a matter of a hundred claquers or so. The whole audience took part, clapping, stamping their feet and even throwing bouquets - attentions that, in the manner of great lords, they usually leave to the administration. M. Sauvage’s dialogue and M. Fontana’s music played no part in this success - it was entirely achieved by Perrot’s legs. And what legs they are!
Perrot is not good looking, he is even extremely ugly. Above the waist he has the physique of a tenor - no need to say more - but from there on down he is a pleasure to look at. It is not quite good form nowadays to show interest in the perfection of a male body, but we cannot keep silent about Perrot’s legs...the feet and knees are extremely delicately formed, and counterbalance the feminine roundness of contour of his legs, which are both soft and pliable, elegant and supple.”
Theophile Gautier, review of Zingaro, opera (with dance), libr. Sauvage, mus. Fontana, for the debuts of Jules Perrot and Carlotta Grisi, February 29th, 1840.
Well, I guess a guy who can write about his MASSIVE crush on his friend’s beard would feel comfortable waxing lyrical about another dude’s legs
they DO sound pretty amazing, though.
And You Thought Ballet Was All About The Girl: A Criticism of Giselle
(If you’re not familiar with the romantic ballet Giselle, you may want to get a quick wiki update or even watch a clip from the full ballet before reading the following criticism.) Giselle isn’t really about Giselle at all. Sure, she’s the most enviable character—in the story and in the ballet. In the story, she’s a beautiful, naïve, and fragile village girl caught between the advances of two…
View On WordPress
A Report
this essay was previously published in the spring 2014 issue of leading national critical dance newspaper @frontpaper
Congratulations to Tahni and Suniti, thank you for affirming life and existence.
Portland forgive my dirty selfish parting, everything was evil so it didn't matter that we never talked at length. I didn't praise you sufficiently.
Life in Alaska still life in America. The internet tells me this life anywhere else, with certain regional differences created by systemic inequalities.
I am a digital citizen, immortal as long as computers. I should make hard copies but everything is globally available for free already and . . .
I left Portland because I felt surrounded by ineffectual art, unexamined privilege, and unhappy people. Traveling around the country the same problems. Exceptional artists are ignored and resistance is marginalized. Racism, gender essentialism, paranoia, hyper-sexualization, and rape culture the status quo.
Facebook photo envy. Beauty surrounds always. Does it discredit denunciation to admit that modern America is Heaven? We have done it—we are free!
Heaven beautiful infinities accessible through computers. Bodies in comfortable rooms with affordable food and convenient access to the means and production of art.
At one time I hated artists. Their stories the stories of any other disciplined, privileged group in modern America.
But many artists are kind and caring souls. Their resources earned not stolen. Their children the lucky ones—this is me, whose parents were both college-educated, who never joined any Party yet were able to reap in all of modern America’s myriad benefits. Who am free to live and create art.
Why aren’t these/we children of free minds, raised in free society, proud and certain of our State? Who taught us politics was only coercion and dissent?
America congratulate ourself we have won. The meritocracy though racially and sexually unjust has created sufficient comfort for the working. Our system has succeeded. We are well-treated. We are free. Anyone can, with small expenditures, put any information online.
Ursula K. LeGuin is collaborating with a theatre troupe in Portland, OR and my internet could care less. Though Ms. LeGuin eloquently and persuasively resists our modern regime. A Japanese artist painting 3D goldfish with acrylics and resin the current popular artist on tumblr.
Replacing the “ancient Japanese art of filling cracks with gold”—this as Juneau, Alaska in April 2013 had an “Asian”-themed costume party, facebook soft-lit dslr racist glamour shots, white skin glowed like apricot skins, delicious beautiful people I went to high school with. Only one white woman painted her face with white skin geisha lips and slanted Asian eyes. My facebook feed wept with angry denouncement next to happy beautiful comfortable smiles.
Ms. LeGuin’s beautiful truths have not yet been reduced into .gif form and so cannot effectively propagate. Unlike Marina Ambramovic.
Socialist Realism depicts the joyful reality of Socialist life and it’s alive and well across America. The presiding regime is just and effort is rewarded. Similar to North Korean gymnasts, thousands of whom dance in nationally-televised joyful productions celebrating the life of their State.
This is not North Korea. Our life is demonstrateably better and our internet is free.
reading an essay by Edwin Denby just makes me want to hug him…he sounds so lovely and nervous and wearied by the forces of the world. He just wants people to appreciate dance, and look at the world and aghhh
