C'est intéressant w/c 17 Aug 2015

NYTimes: Ballet Life, Unfiltered and Uploaded to Instagram
A cool article about the use of the social media photo platform by ballet dancers. I use it all the time for work, as the dancers in my company share the most interesting content themselves.

Music: Kolaj - The Touch
Song of the summer! As simple as that. I can't stop listening to it.

Arvo Pärt

There was an opinion piece in The Guardian blog last year about the overuse of Arvo Pärt's music in film soundtracks. "This is music that drops jaws in any context", said the journalist. "Lest Pärt's sound begin to work in the opposite direction, jolting us from our involvement with a film as we recognise what a cliché its use has become, it is I think time to give it a rest."

I think the same could be said about its use for dance. There was even a special event held the Guggenheim in New York where only dance pieces set to Pärt where performed (plus a piece by installation artist and photographer Sophie Calle). Here is a random list of dance pieces set to Pärt's music I was able to find within one hour of internet searching:

Miguel Robles to Tabula Rasa
Wheeldon's Misericordes to Symphony No3 for the Bolshoi
Wheeldon's Liturgy to Fratres for New York City Ballet
Wheeldon's After the Rain to Tabula Rasa and Spiegel im Spiegel
Alonzo King's MAP for Lines Ballet
John Neumeier's Othello (Spiegel im Spiegel and Tabula Rasa)
Ulysses Dove's Dancing in the front porch of Heaven for Royal Swedish Ballet (to Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten)
Susan's Marshall's Kiss for Pacific Northwest Ballet
Jessica Lang's De Profundis for Colorado Ballet
Matjash Mrozewski's Castle Nowhere for Royal Ballet (3rd Symphony)
Lynne Taylor-Corbett's Code of Silence for Carolina Ballet
Andrew Simmons' Through to you for Royal New Zealand Ballet (Spiegel im Spiegel)
Inbal Pinto Dance Company's Shaker
Mui Cheuk-Yin’s Season N for City Contemporary Dance Company in Hong Kong
Paula Conduit for her own company Vortex Dance Theatre - the piece Es Sang Vor Langen Jahren is used in her dance work Conduit
Leipzig Ballet's The Great Mass, by Uwe Scholz
Araiz's Numen for Group Motion Dance Company
In the Middle of the Moment - Uri Ivgi and Johan Greben for Scottish Dance Theatre
Three Pieces for Het -Van Manen for Dutch National Ballet (Psalom)
Johan Inger's Walking Mad
Mats Ek - Smoke for Sylvie Guillem
Mary Anthony Dance Theatre - Lady Macbeth

Now why is this music so popular with choreographer? I have looked for interviews where choreographers would explain their choice of music, but haven't found anything.

Critic Susan Yung said 'Pärt’s compositions invite collaborators into a shared space, a helium-filled elysium' and, Bjork, when she interviewed him for a BBC documentary, said 'I like your music very very much because you give space to the listener, he can go inside and live there'. Is it this 'space' that Pärt creates that attracts choreographers? It is easier to choreograph a piece to his music?

Arvo Pärt's works also have this power, universality and beauty - they create a special atmosphere. Does that make it easier to choreograph as well? But then, are choreographers choosing the easy option by letting the music take such an important role? Or is it actually more difficult to create movement that matches the resonance of the music?

I don't have answers to any of those questions, but I do wonder if it is not time, like in movies, to give Pärt a bit of a rest before we get bored of it.

All the dancers in the house...

wish they were in that video.

(Choreography inspired by Bob Fosse's work, no less)

An article in the Guardian about the lack of black ballerinas. It rightly points out that black male ballet dancer do better than black girls.

The Proms programme has been announced! 9 weeks of classical music every night. I couldn't handle that, but some people do go to all the performances! From a first glance at the listing, there are 8 I am keen on.

Mayra Andrade on Later with Jools Holland

The Cape Verdean singer Mayra Andrade was on the music show Later with Jools Holland last week, here in the UK. Here is a special performance recorded for the Later website. The song is called Tunuka.




Mayra will be in concert at the Barbican in London in March!

Stevie Wonder - Free

So we have to pay 30% more rent from next month, or leave, so I guess we will look for a new flat. How depressing! This one is so nice.

And now Andreas Scholl is ill, so no concert on Monday. I was looking forward it! Shitty week end so far, we can def. say.

Any form of uplifting music is therefore much welcome this week end. Like that song, for example.

Barbara - Le mal de vivre

Back in the limelight

The wonderful Luz Casal has managed to wack out the tumour that was diagnosed in her breast earlier this year, and has a new album out in Spain. It's already Disco de Oro (40 000 units sold)
Rock on girl! Short hair suits her well by the way!

Find out more about her new album Vida Toxica and her forthcoming tour on her website!

More Dolly

She is really quite funny that woman! 2You'd be amazed just how much money it takes to make a person look so cheap!" hahaha Enjoy

Son De La Frontera - Fiesta

Music

The new Britney Spears album is out, and apparently it's good. The scary thing is that the Guardian goes as far as publishing a "In praise of..." section to her. "The new album is often brilliant. And what is most brilliant is its musical risk-taking (...) Pop is almost unique in having commercial successes who go on to use edgier sounds. In a small way, Britney Spears continues that long, chequered tradition." Who would have thought?

A big article on the Quebec band Arcade Fire in the Guardian too. Their second album is one of the biggest selling of the year. Here is one of the paper's explanation for their aversion to celebrity: "There is the shadow of the French Quebec pop scene, packed with artists unknown outside of its confines, but who apparently "sell as many records as Arcade Fire do worldwide, just in Quebec" [says the Arcade Fire singer]. "In Montreal, we're not celebrities at all, those people are celebrities," says Butler. Parry nods. "Occasionally, we've noticed that people are kind of surprised, like, wow, you've done really well, you're nearly as big as Jean LeClerc." HAHAHAHA

Some great fado singers will be at the South Bank Centre on Thursday. Let's hope there will be some tickets left on Wednesday when I get paid, otherwise, I won't be able to go.

Jacqueline Du Pre - Elgar Cello Concerto 1st movement

Am quite poor this month because I have to save! save! save! money for my holidays next months (in 4 weeks now!!) New York will be miiiiine!

An article on the young people of Japan who are a bit lost, have no money, and can't afford a place to live.

Being poor, I haven't been doing very much. Anyway, here is a piece of music I really enjoy.

Famous in Sweden

Sorry, been a bit lazy/busy these past 10 days. But I'll try to make up for it today!

First, I am famous in Sweden! Kind of! My neighbour, the artist Tuija Lindström, filmed me rehearsing some flamenco steps in my patio and turned it into a video installation, which is shown as part of her exhibition Roman Road at the Galleri Sprinkler/Nasby Cafe in the island of Öland, a very pretty place apparently. Here is pic of the vid at the gallery.

Tuija Lindström, Benjamin Lalague. (Yoohoo! I am a muse!)

Tuija is a great photographer too, here is a pic shown at the exhibition. She's also done some great work based on flowers and photoshop. Unfortunately, she is moving back to Sweden at the end of August. :-(

Tuija Lindström, Blue Eyes

3 big ETA arrests, something we can only be happy about. A long article about how they did it in El Pais, which says it is the biggest blow to the terrorist organisation since 2004

I haven't written about it, but the Ballet Boyz gala at the Royal Festival Hall was really really good. Wayne Eagling's Duet (to the music of Wagner's Tristan and Isolde) was beautiful. I also loved the freshness of Five Brahms Waltzes in the Manner of Isadora Duncan. If those names sound off-putting, I am sorry, it's not intended! The evening was also very funny, thanks to the video links of the Ballet Boyz backstage. Read some reviews. A pic of Belinda Hatley dancing Five Brahms Waltzes


Went to my first Proms of the year on Tuesday, to listen to Verdi's MacBeth, which I really enjoyed. The director has a bit of a mad vision (the witches are gypsy girls), it had a lot of humour, which made easier to follow. I tried to watch the Orson Wells movie and had to stop, it was just so heavy. Here, as an opera, with Verdi's music, it was much easier to digest!

Music and dance

Went to see La Vie en Rose yesterday. Great performance from Marion Cotillard! Mixed reviews: I was a bit moved, Michael not at all, and our friend Simone cried for the final 20 minutes. You?

Dancer Carlos Acosta is one of the best around. And he is hot. The Guardian wonders why he is not a bigger star. As some people say in the comments: maybe simply because he is a dancer, and dancers, male in particular, are just not that famous?

What is the future for music retailing? I wonder. The last CD I bought was a Miles Davis classic for £3... A good article on what is going on here in the UK.

And finally, Angelique Kidjo is coming to the Barbican in september! Am really really excited! Here is a vid of her live, singing Tumba, a song that always brings me up when I am feeling a bit low! So much energy. Might be the tune for my first dance at my wedding, but I need to check with Michael first...

Israel Cachao Lopez - Barbican - review

A brilliant concert from the creator of mambo! Yes! The CREATOR of mambo! He is 88, and, in the 30s, introduced African rhythms to the Cuban danzon, creating a new sound, the mambo. Lopez still plays the double bass with aplomb and fun. I feel so lucky to have seen him play live.
His entire band was amazing, playing masterfully and being very entertaining, obviously enjoying being on stage all together.

Check out this video I took towards the end!

Luz Casal sings Negra Sombra

Janet Baker - Absence (nuits d'ete, Berlioz)

Ha, how I like YouTube... it makes posting so easy when I cant be bothered! I just need to find a video I want to share and hop!!

Here, the magistral Janet Baker sings the fourth song from the cycle Nuits d'Ete (summer nights) by Berlioz (1840)

Done!

Gute Nacht

From Schubert's cycle of songs Winterreise.
why did we never study such things when I was taking music lessons?

Mercedes Sosa in Europe, soon!

My favourite singer, the Argentinian Mercedes Sosa, has recently announced a tour of the U.S.A in April, and that she will soon "be coming over to Europe, where they have been waiting for me for a while now".

Mercedes Sosa is 71 (she was born in 1935) and was in poor health for a while, but, after losing weight, her health and her voice are back! On the 28th, she will be performing in Cosquin, Argentina, at the National Festival of Folklore, with Leon Gieco and Victor Heredia, two singer-songwriters who wrote tunes for her.

Sosa sings some traditional songs but also became famous for her involvement with the nueva cancion movement of the 60s, which combined "traditional Latin American folk music idioms with progressive and often politicised lyrics" (I am quoting Wikipedia here)

My favourite CD of hers is Mercedes Sosa en Argentina, a recording of concerts she did in Buenos Aires in 1982, when she returned from her 3 year exile (At a concert in La Plata in 1979, Sosa was searched and arrested on stage, and the attending crowd was arrested) This CD includes some pure classics of the Latin American repertoire, written by the greatest: Silvio Rodriguez, Bola de Nieve, Antonio Tarrago Ros, Atahualpa Yupanqui, Leon Gieco and more... Her voice is at her best, and the reaction of the crowd is wild. I get really moved everytime I listen to it!

I cannot wait for her to come to Europe.

I may have posted this already, but here is a video of her singing Violeta Parra's beautiful "Gracias a la vida"

Jacques Brel - Amsterdam

There's nothing like a Jacques Brel song to stir you up.