Dance Xmas

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Had a slightly dance-themed Xmas. Got tickets for a triple bill at the Royal Opera House (which includes Christopher Wheeldon's Danse A Grande Vitesse - love it) + the Balletboyz DVD Encore (which includes a piece I love, Propeller)

I highly recommend Encore - just what you'd expect from Ballet Boyz: great choreography (Will Tuckett, Liv Lorent, Bonachela...), insightful interviews before each dance piece, and a really interesting 'director's commentary' with the Ballet Boyz talking about the dance being performed.

I also watched "10 years of Riverdance" (it DOES count as dance!), "Mamma Mia!" (which I guess is choreographed so also counts as dance...) and Dance 4 Film on Channel 4 (also called 4dance 2008).

All the dancers in the house...

wish they were in that video.

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

Birds can dance

This is from the New York Times Magazine Year in Ideas 2008.

Avian Dancing By REBECCA SKLOOT

If you aren’t one of the millions who have already done so, go immediately to YouTube and search for “Snowball the Dancing Cockatoo.” There you will see a large white bird balanced on the back of an office chair, bobbing his head, stomping his feet and doing something that — until now — scientists believed impossible: dancing just like a human.

This is good fun. It’s also good science: Snowball’s videos are changing the way researchers understand the neurology of music and dancing. Aniruddh Patel, senior fellow at the Neurosciences Institute in California, got the link from a friend. He saw not just a funny bird but also a potential solution to a scientific argument dating back to Darwin: some researchers say that human brains have been specially wired by natural selection for dancing, because dancing confers survival benefits through group bonding. If that were true, according to Patel, you would see dancing only in animals that, like humans, have a long history of music and dance, which no other species has. The fact that only humans dance has long been seen as evidence supporting the evolution argument.

So Patel sent an e-mail message to Snowball’s owner, Irena Schulz, and asked to study her bird. “The obvious question was whether he was just mimicking somebody,” Patel said. To answer that, he made CDs of Snowball’s favorite song (“Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” by the Backstreet Boys) at various speeds. Schulz videotaped Snowball dancing to each version, and then Patel graphed Snowball’s movement against the music’s beat. “Like a child, he synched to the music for stretches of time, then danced a little faster or a little slower, but always in a rhythmic way,” Patel says. “Statistically those periods when he’s locked onto the beat are not by chance — they really do indicate sensitivity to the beat and an ability to synchronize with it.”

What’s most interesting to Patel is that this ability is present in birds but not in primates, our closest animal relatives. “This is no coincidence,” he says. Patel says dancing is associated with our vocal abilities, not musical hard wiring. Humans and parrots are two of the few species with brains wired for vocal learning — hearing sounds (like words), then coordinating complex movements (lips, tongues, vocal cords) to reproduce those sounds. Other animals who have this ability: dolphins, seals and whales. “In theory,” he says, “they may be able to dance, too. We just don’t know it yet.”

50 years of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre

The special gala celebrating 50 years of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre sounded like it was a great night, if you read the NY Times review of it.

They also have a short video about Alvin Ailey. Check it out.

Below a piece from his most well-known work, Revelations.

Impressing the Czar @ Sadler's Wells - review

GO GO GO! This is surreal, crazy, funny, superbly danced, especially Act 2 In The Middle, Somewhat Elevated, where things get serious and technical and are all about the purity of the movement.

I didn't know what to expect, and I was blown away.

Video with bits from Act 2 and Act 3 (yes it's the entire company dressed as schoolgirls...crazy, I said)

Sangre Flamenca @ Peacock Theatre, London - review

It was a pretty good show, though me and my flamenco friends (I take flamenco dance classes) found it very cheesy at times.

Lead dancers and co-founders of Nuevo Ballet Espanol Angel Rojas and Carlos Rodriguez are very good dancers, but at times, their mix of flamenco and contemporary dance doesn't work very well, particularly when danced to a moody (read: boring) soundtrack.

I found the second tableau, between 2 guys and a girl, particularly dreadful. There was some imaginative stuff in there, but lord, they just tried too hard.

Also, Angel kind of milked the applause at the end of his solo. First, he danced, then came to the front of the stage and danced some more, but no one really applauded afterwards. Why? Because we were not impressed, that's why! His footwork was fast but only in short sections - little build-up, no time to think 'wow this is crazy, he is amazing!"

When they stayed close to pure flamenco (eg Carlos' solo, in particular), that's where it was beautiful.

Richard Alston Dance Company

From Richard Alston Dance COmpany's Shuffle It Right.

Will leave you with a massive smile on your face. Highly recommended! They are touring the UK this November.

Update 4/11: A short feature on Richard Alston in today's Guardian.

A glorious pic

From Australian Dance Theatre's new work, G, coming to London soon.

An article on La Lupe, the queen of Latin Soul!

Morphoses @ Sadler's Wells

The evening started very well when, at the Lilian Baylis cafe (near Sadler's Wells), there were a lot of people and I had to sit down right opposite... Christopher Wheeldon, choreographer and artistic director of Morphoses :-) I heavily eaves-dropped on his conversation with an important man in a suit (they were talking programming and new creations) and asked him to autograph my tickets.

I then found out that the great black ballerina Aesha Ash wasn't with the company this year, but would be back next year, which is alright I guess... Come back to London Aesha, please!

Overall, Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company brought an evening of great dance. Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon's Fool's Paradise is just a wonderful piece of modern ballet - I really recommend you see it (a short clip below)

There was a world premiere by a Canadian choreographer. It had some great movement, but the music was just too repetitive (it was by Steve Reich) to bring out any emotions, I felt. No accelerations, no real accents, no slowing down - the same basic rythm all the time. I found it pretty hard-going after a while.

The night also included a new Wheeldon ballet called Commedia. More light-hearted and fun, it was really good.

Haha

An hilarious series of notes people found on the street, and that are being collected in a book.
They are just too funny.

30 Rock won four Emmys on Sunday, which is absolutely fantastic news. Let's hope it brings them more viewers, and a 4th season.

Went to see Emanuel Gat Dance at Sadler's Wells on Friday. Tickets were only £10, wherever you sat - a great initiative, though I am not sure it was enough to encourage people to see contemporary dance and fill up the 1500 seats of the auditorium. The company performed 3 dance pieces, including Winter Passage, which I already saw 2 years ago. Two guys in long blue dresses danse to some stongs from Schubert's Winterreise - I found it very melancholic and moving, but maybe it was just the music? The last piece, called Through the Centre, was my favourite: the whole company on stage (about 10 of them if I remember well), bright colours, dancing to some crazy organ/guitar/jazz combo (the music is actually the recording of a live jam performance, with audience applause included) with energetic and dynamic movement that really worked with the music. I loved it.

Also went to the dancEUnion festival at the Southbank Centre, where they had lots of free contemporary dance performances happening. I really enjoyed seeing the Italian dancer Marcella Fanzaga appear onto the cafe terrace outside the Royal Festival Hall, walk slowly, as if sleepwalking, hug surprised passers-by and coffee drinkers, dance, hug some more, before slowly leaving, moving from hands to hands. The music was very sad at the beginning, then a brass band gypsy piece followed, before returning to something calmer. What was interesting was seeing the reaction of people: some people were freaked out, didn't like being the centre of attention, others ignored her completely, one man hugged her back, another lifted her in the air.
It may sound a bit wnaky, but actually it was quite poetic.

The performances by Galili Dance were really fun and energetic, while dancer Tina Tarpgaard's show looked amazing too - she danced, filmed herself and created exciting projections at the same time. It looks pretty scary on her website, but it wasn't!

And finally, went to see the lobby of the Daily Express building as part of Open House. Bring on Art Deco!

Mega Picasso

We will have Rothko, Bacon, Warhol, Miro and Calder in London, but it seems like the major blockbuster exhibition of this autumn/winter will be Picasso et les maitres in Paris, held by the Louvres, the Musee D'Orsay, the Grand Palais, and the Musee Picasso.

The exhibition will showcase over 200 works from the most pretigious public and private collections, putting Picasso next to his masters: Velasquez, Van Gogh, Goya, Manet and more...

It sounds very impressive. I hope I can make it there.

How it came about: here.

Spring Awakening @ Lyric Hammersmith

The Tony award-winning musical Spring Awakening is coming to London next January. I know very little about it except that it won some Tonys and is running at a place I would love to work at.

So I've checked it on youtube and it looks pretty cool. It's based on a 19th-century German play by Frank Wedekin, that got banned many times for openly talking about the sexuality of teenagers. There's rape (though not in the musical version - ha Broadway!) and death and suicide and all sorts of tragic things like that. The music is more rock than showtunes, and what I've heard so far sounds great.

Particular favourite is the first number, Mama who bore me. Just seeing this vid made me want to buy tickets. OK, they're kind of just yelling like loonies at some point, but it's a pretty powerful song no?



Also, the Lyric Hammersmith is doing some £10 nights, where all (ALL!) tickets are only £10. Isn't this the best deal ever? I've got my dress circle tickets booked already. Can't wait.

Elaine Stritch in London!

Wow what a summer! After seeing Mercedes Sosa in concert, I ran into another mega legend, Elaine Stritch. She was taking a walk in town, in the middle of Soho Pride( of all places!)

So exciting! Elaine Stritch is a big Broadway star, and she's been in London doing a show with her biggest successes. I didn't go because the tickets were bleedin' expensive, but hey I saw her on the street!

Went over and said hi and said I loved her work in 30 Rock (she plays Alec Baldwin's mother and she is hilarious) and asked if she would be in the 3rd season and she said she would! Horray! (Is that a scoop?)


Here's a vid of her singing, and another from 30 Rock.

Went on a pretty nice tour of some of the east end of London today, checking out graffitis and galleries along the way. Very interesting, I recommend it!
More info on the Comment Art website.

I might go again, this time with a camera, so I have some pics to show.

Found this video of Mercedes Sosa singing on Mexican television in the 90s.

Lots of things to notice in this video:
- the awful pink and gold ensemble the presenter is wearing
- how Mercedes thinks her mike is not working at the end of song 2, and keeps asking for it to be turned on. She is banging the mike making big gestures - hilarious.
- two awesome songs. The second is my current favourite: Maria Maria by the Brazilian Milton Nascimento. ae -ae-a-ae-ae-ae-e-e-eeee
- La Negra dancing about, moving across the set - a huge difference from her concerts today where she remains sat on a chair. ela she is older now, so it's ok.

Olympics

Quite an amazing opening ceremony no? I watched it this morning (up until the entrance of the teams, cause it just gets too boring at that point)

The question now is how will London top that in 2012? We're all a bit worried. Good luck to whoever has to organise it!

Mercedes Sosa!

Shame on me earlier for saying I hadn't seen anything worth blogging about recently.

Of course I saw someone great in concert, and that person was the legendary Mercedes Sosa!
Despite her old age and past health problems, even though she had a folder with the lyrics in front of her and spent the whole show sat on a chair (except right at the end, for a tremendous Luna Llena and Maria Maria) she gave a great concert.

She is a true legend of Latin American music and it was such an awesome experience to be at one of her concerts, surrounded with Argentinian, Brazilians, Cubans etc, all totally in awe of her. She is their sister, mother, best friend, she and her music mean so much to them, it was magical to feel it.

Al Jardin de la Republica, Alfonsina y el mar, Zamba para no morir, Piedra y Camino (great version with a young harmonica player) and of course Gracias a la vida - she sang them all!

Also, I never thought I would see her live, what with her age etc but it has happened. A dream came true that night!

To La Negra, with much much love.

Chus Lampreave!

I love the Spanish actress Chus Lampreave, who appears in many of Pedro Almodovar's movies.

The only movie I've seen with her, by another director, is El Verdugo by Berlanga, and she is in there 2 minutes.

Pedro Almodovar gives her a well-deserved hommage on his blog. When I went to the Almodovar Q&A at the BFI for the release of volver, I wanted to ask him about Chus, but I wasn't picked. His recent post asnwers my question!

"Chus Lampreave is something more than a regular in my films. She’s an adorable person who still has a child’s innocence and capacity for surprise, even though her life hasn’t exactly been a bed of roses. She is the closest thing to the idea of an angel. A person who is naturally good. When someone like her crosses your path the best thing is to hold on to her and not let her get away for a long time. I always have a meeting pending with her, to talk, to feel her marvellous optimism and her enthusiasm at the mere fact of seeing each other and telling each other things (...)
When I offered her the role of Mother Street Rat in “Dark Habits”, her only objection was that she thought it too long, too important, and she should only do little, unimportant roles. Exactly the opposite of what any actress would tell you. Chus belongs to an atypical, wonderful race of actors who gesticulate very little. Or who don’t gesticulate at all, but their faces only reflect truth. I’m talking about geniuses like Buster Keaton, Totò, Bill Murray, Pepe Isbert, Robert Mitchum… Fortunately I managed to persuade her to play the role of the secret writer-nun in “Dark Habits”. Since then she is one of the most important emotional references in my life."

One of her best bits is obviously in The Flower of my secret. Almodovar talks about how they rehearsed it on his blog. Read it!

Earthquake in China

Dujiangyan, China
Two parents mourn the death of their child in a school collapse
Photo: Stringer Shanghai / Reuters
From this NY Times slideshow