Thursday, August 2, 2007
continued....
i mean, not the dancers are reconstructed. the dances are reconstructed. but what is the "true" isadora dance. or is the more important truth, the oral histories of what she did....
i am still interested in this idea of Mary is reconstructed through the interpretations of artistic imagination. what is historical imagination? whose imagination?
i am still interested in this idea of Mary is reconstructed through the interpretations of artistic imagination. what is historical imagination? whose imagination?
technique and documenting
"i refuse to subject my body to a practice that subjects my body" - my cranky response to ballet as the technique lens that seems to be the only one.
documenting: do we hold on to/catalog all our stuff? (jim belushi's old tennis shoes sold at auction) or do we create alternative methods for revealing our histories? i could show a clip of a dance i made in the 70's, but what is more interesting (to me) is talking about it because i can frame it in how i understood how that led to here. isadora duncan - there is no footage, well there is a fragment through a hedge that we can't even be sure is her. and yet the dancers are reconstructed.... more later
documenting: do we hold on to/catalog all our stuff? (jim belushi's old tennis shoes sold at auction) or do we create alternative methods for revealing our histories? i could show a clip of a dance i made in the 70's, but what is more interesting (to me) is talking about it because i can frame it in how i understood how that led to here. isadora duncan - there is no footage, well there is a fragment through a hedge that we can't even be sure is her. and yet the dancers are reconstructed.... more later
technique
i showed five minutes of my piece last night - to the DANCE community. dancers that intimidate me because of their power over an accepted technical foundation (ballet) which i have worked to confound/protest/counteract for my whole career as a dancer. but face to face with this certain EYE i get nervous. but i did it.
this morning with ruthie in the kitchen - she apologizes for not being there. she says sarah told her about it and did a little of the movement.
i wonder what/how she chose to interpet
ruthie said sarah flung herself (limbs in disarray) and then crashed into the window/wall.
that is one moment, true.
but the majority of the dancing (from my perspective) is that carefully constructed gestural work.
i am immediately shamed. to have let this community see my raw side. because that particular moment is unchoreographed, is a few seconds where my instruction to myself is to hit a place of uncontrolled.
this is interesting to me.
i don't know how to make sense of it just yet.
but as i read Judith Wilson's article "New (Art) Histories: Global Shifts, Uneasy Exchanges"
I wonder why in dance studies there is no critique that i have found yet, of the locking into ballet as the foundational structure from which modern and postmodern dance align themselves.
something....
story:
at the high school where i do the Jacob's Pillow program: one year, an english class. they were reading "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man". The teacher and I had decided that we would use movement as a way for students to track and explore the recurring water imagery and its devolpment throughout the novel. Three young women made an amazing, passionate movement sequence for their study. Tracking three water imagery changes. In preparation for the sharing, one of the young women couldn't be there. They asked me to dance her part. I paused: should I "correct" her dancing, make it more aligned to a stronger technical base, or actually try and learn her idiosyncratic, released dance? The politics made the choice hard, too. At the sharing would be all the people from Jacob's Pillow, including the Executive Director. I would be "seen" dancing - how did I want to be seen? To who were my allegiances - the politics/power of my field, or to the student?
I chose the student.
ah well.
story of my life.
love, c
this morning with ruthie in the kitchen - she apologizes for not being there. she says sarah told her about it and did a little of the movement.
i wonder what/how she chose to interpet
ruthie said sarah flung herself (limbs in disarray) and then crashed into the window/wall.
that is one moment, true.
but the majority of the dancing (from my perspective) is that carefully constructed gestural work.
i am immediately shamed. to have let this community see my raw side. because that particular moment is unchoreographed, is a few seconds where my instruction to myself is to hit a place of uncontrolled.
this is interesting to me.
i don't know how to make sense of it just yet.
but as i read Judith Wilson's article "New (Art) Histories: Global Shifts, Uneasy Exchanges"
I wonder why in dance studies there is no critique that i have found yet, of the locking into ballet as the foundational structure from which modern and postmodern dance align themselves.
something....
story:
at the high school where i do the Jacob's Pillow program: one year, an english class. they were reading "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man". The teacher and I had decided that we would use movement as a way for students to track and explore the recurring water imagery and its devolpment throughout the novel. Three young women made an amazing, passionate movement sequence for their study. Tracking three water imagery changes. In preparation for the sharing, one of the young women couldn't be there. They asked me to dance her part. I paused: should I "correct" her dancing, make it more aligned to a stronger technical base, or actually try and learn her idiosyncratic, released dance? The politics made the choice hard, too. At the sharing would be all the people from Jacob's Pillow, including the Executive Director. I would be "seen" dancing - how did I want to be seen? To who were my allegiances - the politics/power of my field, or to the student?
I chose the student.
ah well.
story of my life.
love, c
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
a start
Hi Ann, I think I have created a blog. If so, here is where I am at. Working with Ben Pranger in the "Expanded Field" course - I am going to use this opportunity to start working through some of the performance (issues) issues of what I want to explore with The Annunciation.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)