Tag: art

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Ten Chi

Last night saw the piece Ten Chi by Pina Bausch. Almost three hours long…professor and Maryanne… Anyways. Some sections I really enjoyed- the grunting woman killing the pillow; the rubbery sinewy solos (ooh, palindrome!!) by the men in black; the incessantly falling flower petals; the Asian woman sweeping across stage supported by two men. Maybe those sections stood out because the rest was not so captivating.

What was the point of the show? What was the connection to Japan? The piece was funded in part by a Japanese governmental agency, I think. A little something I read in the program, (which could have had a bit more in it to shed some light on performance). Many references to Japan – My car is Toyota, my TV Sanyo, my VCR Samsung…; the tour guide with the backpack; the whale on stage; the bowing section between two women.

The piece was constructed of short vignettes, some dancing, some talking, occasionally a woman in a silk dressing gown was lifted by a large blonde man, a pillow was thrown, a pillow was killed, various ways to wear a white handkerchief were modeled, men were carried on stage and their hair stood up, a woman had her dress ripped off, a man lifted a woman and carried her around the whale tail while she mimed swimming (VERY CHEESY!!), an Asian dwarf came on stage riding an ostrich, well no that did not happen but if it had, it would have fit right in….on and on these vignettes came and the snow/flowers/dandruff fell.

I did not understand the point of all these vignettes. Were they impressions of Pina’s time in Japan? I could not sense an arch, but I could an overall structure. In 3 hours she had plenty of time to create one. First a dance section, then a talking section…this is dance theater after, must have talking. It was a 3 hour variety show, that ended with a dance off – each of the performers showcasing their skill to loud music. The crowd roared and leaped to their feet. Why, why, why, why, why?

final though:
Let us not confuse budget with genius

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Steve Martin

Finished an article in the recent New Yorker, the one with the Jack O’Lantern that looks like Cheney on the cover. The article, written by Steve Martin, is about his start in comedy. A sentence struck me-
“…there is no harm in charging oneself up with delusions between moments of valid inspiration.”

Also something from the article about the Animal Collective by Sasha Frere-Jones –
“…imperfection is necessarily part of the process.”

(damn, they have a myspace page. I do not like myspace. It is ugly)

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Dumbledore is gay

Who the #%@%#!@# cares if a fictional character (that might as well be asexual cuz the books are not about his love life) is gay ? Can you say free press? J.K. Rowling is probably worried that she is fading out of the limelight, well is she? I have no idea. I read the first book, thought it was okay and tried the second, but thought it was complete crap, so never finished it.

But dropping a “bomb” like this on the public seems like a way to get people all abuzz about the books again without having to write another one. Maybe there is a kid somewhere who hasn’t bought all the Potter books yet and this stunt is a way to squeeze a few more dollars out. This lady must be loaded. Isn’t the series over, yet? Are they going to be able to finish all the movies before the actors start having kids? Aren’t the actors already pushing their age range?

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Contemporary dance

Well, I guess there is a definition of contemporary dance. Not sure how reliable that definition is and not sure how good of a term “contemporary dance” is. Definitions that are related to time are tricky. What is after contemporary? Post contemporary? People should drop the time aspect and give dance a name that explains what it is. Contemporary doesn’t define anything but time – when it happens/happened. In the definition yoga is part of contemporary dance and yoga is 5000 years old. Yes, it is just one of the things drawn upon. Contemporary dance, maybe should be called “and the kitchen sink dance” because everything is fair game.

How many of those things does one need to incorporate to be a contemporary dancer? If I just use Horton, Hawkins, Cunningham and Humphrey does that make me contemporary? No! Cunningham is the most recent and he hasn’t been contemporary since the 60’s. Okay, they used Ipods. Making a man a priest makes him neither celibate nor honest.

Couldn’t someone use tap and be “contemporary”? Or how about square dancing? Is that not contemporary? I am sure people are creating new square dances all the time. And ballet? New balletic movement is created all the time. Not sure how long it takes before some moves join the canon of ballet.

This definition is another instance of people valuing the tool over the logic or aesthetic. Dance is so much more than techniques about the body. Dance is the art form that uses the body to address various logics (stories, topics). The more I think about the term “contemporary” the more I dislike it. I have contempt for contemporary. Vague, vague, vague.

“What kind of dance do you do?”
“Oh, I do ‘of the present time’ dancing.”
“Interesting”

Labels, labels, labels…we do need them.

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Remembering when you could remember

Found some footage of a couple old pieces. My favorite one, Zamboni, came from an exercise I did during the first workshop I did with Mary Overlie. Workshop was in Montana. Boulder I think the town was called. Tiny place. Maybe 300 of paved road. The only intersection had just a stop sign. The other piece, very similar, I thought I had lost the footage of it. But there it was. An old badly labeled Hi8 tape. Labeling is very important. What is knowledge if you don’t know here it is.

That is what everyone needs a place to store information…a know ledge! Get it? ha ha ha.

But back to memory. As I was watching “i love the smell of Napalm in the Morning” I remember remembering the some of the moments that happened in the dance. Now I can’t remember the movements anymore, but can remember when I could remember. Or do I just want to remember? The last time I watched the piece must have been 2002. I was still living in San Diego. I was staying with friends. M., S., and L. were living together, somewhere in North Park. The dancing looked decent to me then, but I remember that I had eaten a pot brownie and it was kicking in. Watching it now 5 years later the dancing looks a little clunky, but some cool moments. It would be nice to do the piece again, except this time with a lot more flowers, about 1.5 ft deep.

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Risk & Innovation

I am sure that I have railed about this before, but am currently working on a CA$H grant for TBA. How is your proposal innovative and risky? Risky for whom? for what genre? What direction is risky without violating firecodes and getting arrested? How about doing a piece involving racism and pedophilia while killing goats on stage, but do it in different theater from the audience and have them watch it via live feed. Throw some filters on and PRESTO innovation, risky. Don’t forget the dancing dwarf who speaks backwards.

Innovation/risk/cutting edge – all tired terms.

Or maybe it just speaks to my lack of imagination, that I do not know what direction is innovative and risky.

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Bruce Nauman is a Contact Dancer

Body Pressure

Press as much of the front surface of your body (palms in or out, left cheek or right cheek) against the wall as possible.

Press very hard and concentrate.

Form an image of yourself (suppose you had just stepped forward) on the opposite side of the wall pressing back against the wall very hard.

Press very hard and concentrate on the image pressing very hard.

(the image of pressing very hard)

Press your front surface and back surface toward each other and begin to ignore or block the thickness of the wall. (remove the wall)

Think how various parts of your body press against the wall; which parts touch and which do not.

Consider the parts of your back which press against the wall; press hard and feel how the front and back of your body press together.

Concentrate on the tension in the muscles, pain where bones meet, fleshy deformations that occur under pressure; consider body hair, perspiration, odors (smells).

This may become a very erotic exercise.

© Bruce Nauman 1974
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Royalty

Europe has/had royalty. The US does/did not. Whether or not the Bushes/Gores/DuPonts etc are royalty is another topic. Royalty has a history of supporting the arts. Has the state in Europe replaced royalty in terms of art funding? Is the reason the US has such a poor record for funding the arts because the US never had royalty?