I showed the video of ballets C de la B's piece, Ashes, to a friend and he made me laugh saying: 'Why do people always look like tramps in contemporary dance?'
Hummm... yeah... it's true that they often look like they are wearing their own rehearsal clothes, or are in their underwear...
Budget issues, most probably?
But it's not always like that, of course. See Guillem/Maliphant/Lepage's Eonnagata and its Alexander MacQueen costumes. I also had a look around and saw this video for Inbal Pinot & Avshallom Pollak Company, from Israel (part of Dance Umbrella 2009). Great coiffures!
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Les ballets C de la B
Love the music in that trailer, and there is some interesting stuff going on with a trampoline!
Coming to Southbank Centre next week.
Coming to Southbank Centre next week.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Clod Ensemble's Under Glass @ Village Underground
Went to East London on Friday to see the Clod Ensemble and their show Under Glass. I wasn't really sure what to expect from 'a collection of human beings contained in a series of glass jars, cabinets and test tubes', except that it would be different to what I had seen before.
I was not disappointed. Everything was different from the moment we arrived at the venue. Tucked in an alleyway, me and my friend couldn't find the place, until we noticed this massive wall painting indicating it. Duh.
There are lots of people outside having tea and cigarettes, who tell this is indeed the place we are looking for. It turns out that they actually were the cast having a break between two performances. Pretty chilled out!
Before the show starts, an usher makes an announcement: 'There will be moments of complete darkness. Please follow the ushers, who will tell you where to sit. When you have to move, the area you are moving to will be lit. Ushers might ask you to sit on the floor or crouch to ensure everyone can see, please follow their instructions.' I get quite excited. We are led to a rectangle of light and asked to sit on the floor.
Under Glass is made of eight individual pieces: eight characters, each in their own glass case (a test tube, a jam jar, rectangles, squares...), each prisoner of their own world and their own minds. Only one of them speaks, an older lady who talks to someone on the phone. She is one of those grannies who know everything that goes on in the village, spending her time hiding behind the curtains, looking out and calling her friends to share gossips. Her text is a poem by Alice Oswald, and it describes a disturbing place at the end of the world, where nothing is quite normal:
'so many names in this place not many of us left
living on the last we can find can you hear this
somebody out peering out not me noticed the least likely the very soul of respectability
eating something in the cemetery not rats I hope are you listening'
Each character is intermittently illuminated: the old woman, a shy girl, a big woman in water, a couple on the floor who look very much alike and who are confined to a small circular spacelike twins in a womb, a tall woman in a black victorian dress who spends most of her time looking at herself, an office worker stuck in his very small office, unable to stand up in it, a girl in a small jar, another girl lying on grass.
There is a bit of dance (in the shy girl for example, who like a wall flower is confined to a thin strip against a wall), some humour, a score made of strings and rumbles, and in the end it creates a very immersing and poetic experience.
After the show we went for vietnamese on Kingsland road and the police burst into the restaurant to arrest a man in the toilets. You gotta love London on nights like this.
More about the Clod Ensemble.
Review of Under Glass and image from the Guardian.
I was not disappointed. Everything was different from the moment we arrived at the venue. Tucked in an alleyway, me and my friend couldn't find the place, until we noticed this massive wall painting indicating it. Duh.
There are lots of people outside having tea and cigarettes, who tell this is indeed the place we are looking for. It turns out that they actually were the cast having a break between two performances. Pretty chilled out!
Before the show starts, an usher makes an announcement: 'There will be moments of complete darkness. Please follow the ushers, who will tell you where to sit. When you have to move, the area you are moving to will be lit. Ushers might ask you to sit on the floor or crouch to ensure everyone can see, please follow their instructions.' I get quite excited. We are led to a rectangle of light and asked to sit on the floor.
Under Glass is made of eight individual pieces: eight characters, each in their own glass case (a test tube, a jam jar, rectangles, squares...), each prisoner of their own world and their own minds. Only one of them speaks, an older lady who talks to someone on the phone. She is one of those grannies who know everything that goes on in the village, spending her time hiding behind the curtains, looking out and calling her friends to share gossips. Her text is a poem by Alice Oswald, and it describes a disturbing place at the end of the world, where nothing is quite normal:
'so many names in this place not many of us left
living on the last we can find can you hear this
somebody out peering out not me noticed the least likely the very soul of respectability
eating something in the cemetery not rats I hope are you listening'
Each character is intermittently illuminated: the old woman, a shy girl, a big woman in water, a couple on the floor who look very much alike and who are confined to a small circular spacelike twins in a womb, a tall woman in a black victorian dress who spends most of her time looking at herself, an office worker stuck in his very small office, unable to stand up in it, a girl in a small jar, another girl lying on grass.
There is a bit of dance (in the shy girl for example, who like a wall flower is confined to a thin strip against a wall), some humour, a score made of strings and rumbles, and in the end it creates a very immersing and poetic experience.
After the show we went for vietnamese on Kingsland road and the police burst into the restaurant to arrest a man in the toilets. You gotta love London on nights like this.
More about the Clod Ensemble.
Review of Under Glass and image from the Guardian.
Dance Film 09
Dance Film 09, Scotland's Dance Film Festival, is back from 21 to 30 May, featuring musicals, documentaries, short films and workshops. Sounds like a pretty nice mix to me.
More info here, and a trailer of some of the movies being shown below.
More info here, and a trailer of some of the movies being shown below.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Hagit Yakira - Oh Baby @ Cloud Dance Festival, Jacksons Lane
Headed all the way to Highgate to Jacksons Lane for one night of the Cloud Dance Festival (it ran Friday 24 - Sunday 26 April) for what was a pretty long evening of dance (7.30pm start, end past 10.30pm)
And following some good (Jennifer Essex in Washed and the quote of the year: "Have you ever been on a date because you were too lazy to commit suicide?", Rancidance's Musicology) and quite bad stuff, came on Hagit Yakira and Takeshi Matsumoto with Oh Baby, choreographed by Yakira.
It started with Matsumoto singing what sounded like some sort of Japanese nursery rhyme (though I can't be sure!), smiling to the audience, gently and with humour, before he was joined by Yakira, who was her singing in Hebrew (I believe!)
The choreography was very physical, with lots of jumps and collisions between the two, reflecting the dynamism and crazy mood of Yakira, who started giving orders to her partner: Hug me! (he hugs her, drops her, she falls on the floor) Hug me! Stay! Fall! (they both fall on the floor) Hug me! Stay! Fall! Turn to the left. Another turn to the left. - in their relationship, she is the one making the decisions, she is the choreographer.
But when she orders him Talk to me! He stays silent, until, after she repeats her order again and again, getting angrier and angrier, he makes a face and starts screaming like crazy, venting his frustration.
The mood of the piece throughout is very humourous and witty. They flirt, play with each other, she bosses him around, they kiss... All in all, this was my favourite piece of the evening: fun, full of energetic movement, it left me with a big smile on my face.
And following some good (Jennifer Essex in Washed and the quote of the year: "Have you ever been on a date because you were too lazy to commit suicide?", Rancidance's Musicology) and quite bad stuff, came on Hagit Yakira and Takeshi Matsumoto with Oh Baby, choreographed by Yakira.
It started with Matsumoto singing what sounded like some sort of Japanese nursery rhyme (though I can't be sure!), smiling to the audience, gently and with humour, before he was joined by Yakira, who was her singing in Hebrew (I believe!)
The choreography was very physical, with lots of jumps and collisions between the two, reflecting the dynamism and crazy mood of Yakira, who started giving orders to her partner: Hug me! (he hugs her, drops her, she falls on the floor) Hug me! Stay! Fall! (they both fall on the floor) Hug me! Stay! Fall! Turn to the left. Another turn to the left. - in their relationship, she is the one making the decisions, she is the choreographer.
But when she orders him Talk to me! He stays silent, until, after she repeats her order again and again, getting angrier and angrier, he makes a face and starts screaming like crazy, venting his frustration.
The mood of the piece throughout is very humourous and witty. They flirt, play with each other, she bosses him around, they kiss... All in all, this was my favourite piece of the evening: fun, full of energetic movement, it left me with a big smile on my face.
I wish I was that good at PR
Wow big credits to the PR person who managed to get the Guardian to write and publish this piece about Shobana Jeyasingh's new work Just Add Water?
'A dance about paella and pumpkin pie? Judith Mackrell on the long love affair between choreography and cooking'
What da what???!!!! Thin thin thin it seems to me.
Their video of the rehearsals (with an interview of Jeyasingh) is worth it though.
'A dance about paella and pumpkin pie? Judith Mackrell on the long love affair between choreography and cooking'
What da what???!!!! Thin thin thin it seems to me.
Their video of the rehearsals (with an interview of Jeyasingh) is worth it though.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Make war on yourself
Extract from Order my steps by Evidence, a dance company. Coming to London 7-8 May at Southbank Centre.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Forsythe's Synchronous Objects for One Flat Thing, reproduced
Still from annotated video illustrating the complex system of cueing in One Flat Thing, reproducedCredit: Synchronous Objects Project, The Ohio State University and The Forsythe Company
Back in January, I was looking at William Forsythe's videos from his CD-Rom Improvisation Technologies and wondering what we could do now that computer and film technologies have progressed so much. Well it turns out Forsythe was on it too: his latest project, called Synchronous Objects for One Flat Thing, reproduced, is a collaboration with the Univeristy of Ohio and launches on the 1st of April.
From the press release:
'Focusing on Forsythe’s complex ensemble dance One Flat Thing, reproduced, the project presents an original collection of screen-based visualizations (video, digital artwork, animation, and interactive graphics) that reveal interlocking systems of organization in the choreography. The project aims to appeal to a broad public from diverse fields including but not limited to dance (...)
This research is a process in which choreographic ideas are the source of information for the composition of unique visual objects. These objects enable the ideas in the choreography to be quickly grasped in their entirety and suggest new interpretations.'
The teaser video and images look stunning, I am really looking forward to seeing more.
Full press release and images from the Synchronous Objects website. There is also an essay by Forsythe. To be honest he kind of lost me after about the fourth paragraph but I kept reading and it started making sense. Choreography can now exist outside of performance, outside of the body, and this project gives choreographic thinking a new outlet for expression (I guess?!)
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Dance and disability
A video from the New York Times about Gimp, a New York City dance company that includes disabled dancers.
A good opportunity to shout out to Candoco Dance Company, very well known in the UK for their fantastic work integrating 'disabled and non-disabled dancers' as they say. It has been running since 2001.
A good opportunity to shout out to Candoco Dance Company, very well known in the UK for their fantastic work integrating 'disabled and non-disabled dancers' as they say. It has been running since 2001.
Are we overdosing on Swan Lake?
Asks the Times, in a very interesting piece where Debra Caines asks top companies what's going on and why there are so many Swan Lakes being performed in London this year.
"Any national company has to have a Swan Lake because it is the very definition of classical ballet. It is the standard of measure and you have to keep it alive" says Kevin McKenzie, AD of American Ballet Theatre, who is performing Swan Lake in London this week. But "my heart sank when I realised that we and the Royal were performing Swan Lake at the same time,” McKenzie says. “If we had known, we would have looked to do a different repertoire. If the economy weren’t so bad, people might come to see both, but who is going to do that now?"
"Any national company has to have a Swan Lake because it is the very definition of classical ballet. It is the standard of measure and you have to keep it alive" says Kevin McKenzie, AD of American Ballet Theatre, who is performing Swan Lake in London this week. But "my heart sank when I realised that we and the Royal were performing Swan Lake at the same time,” McKenzie says. “If we had known, we would have looked to do a different repertoire. If the economy weren’t so bad, people might come to see both, but who is going to do that now?"
Thursday, March 19, 2009
I too want a giant tambourine to dance on
Carmen Amaya, probably the best flamenco dancer of the 20th century.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Miyako Ishiuchi
1906 17Credit: Miyako Ishiuchi
Photographs by Japanse photographer Miyako Ishiuchi are currently on display at Michael Hoppen Gallery in London, until 16 April. From their website:
'In ‘1906 to the skin’, Ishiuchi creates portrait of Butoh dancer Kazuo Ohno, who was born in 1906. For this unusual exploration of a man, Ishiuchi turns her attention to human skin –studying Ohno’s scars and the effects of aging on his body, the patina of which convey a person’s history. No shot captures his face or personality; instead the series is an intimate study of the strength and vulnerability of a man through close up images of his skin. The results are celebratory and full of warmth. Ishiuchi says: “His skin is unusually beautiful. It is smoother than silk, warmer than wool, suppler than cotton, stronger than canvas.”'
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Los Abrazos Rotos - trailer
It's not dance-related, but Almodovar is my favourite film director, and the man managed to include some Pina Bausch into one of his films - the guy has balls!
Almodovar's new film, Los Abrazos Rotos (Broken Embraces) comes out next week in Spain. In the UK later this year I'd imagine.
Plus below a genius short inspired by characters from the film - hilarious!
Almodovar's new film, Los Abrazos Rotos (Broken Embraces) comes out next week in Spain. In the UK later this year I'd imagine.
Plus below a genius short inspired by characters from the film - hilarious!
Thursday, March 05, 2009
Eonnagata reviews
The Times - 3 stars 'Gorgeous in many ways, especially visually, yet dull in others, Eonnagata feels like a work that hasn't yet found its focus.'
The Evening Standard - 2 stars 'Eonnagata works as a reverse synergy, with the baffling sum less than its intriguing parts.'
The Financial Times - 'Eonnagata does not ultimately hang together and falls far short of a coherent show.'
The Independent - 'It can be beautiful, but it is a static experience.'
The Daily Telegraph - 'While never less than interesting, it is as if the admiration that each of the trio has for the others has blunted the clarity of their individual visions. The effect is attractive but blurred, an evening that is both too full of ideas and too short of the means to develop them.'
The Observer - 'You leave gorged with artifice - the lighting, the couture, Guillem's still-fabulous développé devant - but wondering what, if anything, lies behind it all.'
The Evening Standard - 2 stars 'Eonnagata works as a reverse synergy, with the baffling sum less than its intriguing parts.'
The Financial Times - 'Eonnagata does not ultimately hang together and falls far short of a coherent show.'
The Independent - 'It can be beautiful, but it is a static experience.'
The Daily Telegraph - 'While never less than interesting, it is as if the admiration that each of the trio has for the others has blunted the clarity of their individual visions. The effect is attractive but blurred, an evening that is both too full of ideas and too short of the means to develop them.'
The Observer - 'You leave gorged with artifice - the lighting, the couture, Guillem's still-fabulous développé devant - but wondering what, if anything, lies behind it all.'
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Dance is co-existent with life
DANCE. Every age has had its dance, and the fact that dance has not perished is evidence of its value to mankind. The fact that there has always been dance compels it to be accepted as an old and deeply rooted human activity whose foundations reside in the nature of man himself. The universal interest in dance rests upon the fact that it carries on and systematizes an activity that is operative in everyone's experience: it is co-existent with life.
Margaret N. H'Doubler, University of Wisconsin.
From a 1946 Encyclopedia of the Arts (Philosophical Library, New York)
Margaret N. H'Doubler, University of Wisconsin.
From a 1946 Encyclopedia of the Arts (Philosophical Library, New York)
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Live webcast of Hofesh Shechter's double bill - Friday 8pm
And dance house Sadler's Wells makes the dance headlines again (see previous post already) with its live webcast of In Your Room/Uprising, tomorrow from 8pm UK time.
The double bill is performed at another venue, the Roundhouse, in association with Sadler's Wells.
It will be interesting to see how it shows on screen - do watch it and let me know what you thought!
The double bill is performed at another venue, the Roundhouse, in association with Sadler's Wells.
It will be interesting to see how it shows on screen - do watch it and let me know what you thought!
Eonnagata press in full force
We've had a glut of press articles on the new show by Sylvie Guillem, Russell Maliphant and Robert Lepage here in the UK, with all the newspapers interested in the story of the dancer, the choreographer and the theatre maker making a new show together on an 18th -century, sexually-adventurous prince, with Alexander McQueen designing the costumes and a bit of kabuki theatre thrown in.
I'll let you know what the reviews are like when they come out!
I'll let you know what the reviews are like when they come out!
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Triple bill @ Royal Opera House - review
Seven Deadly Sins/Carmen/Danse a Grande Vitesse
I can't believe the Financial Times' Clement Crisp gave such a bad review to this triple bill - ' it has all the attractions of Ebola fever' he said (he likes his random references, the Clement)
Seven Deadly Sins is more a show that ballet, with a big multi-level set, great lighting and the singing of Martha Wainwright. The dancing was ok, if nothing much, and I thought all the sins blended into one - lust (there was a lot of groping). It wasn't that bad.
Ek's Carmen was really interesting. I enjoyed the music, adapted from Bizet of course - lots of percussions and weird sounds, and the cast shouted a lot too, in an invented language as far as I could tell (think Spanish meets Russian meets Japanese) There was some really cool movement, very modern and angular, with lots of humourous bits thrown in.
I was worried I had idealised DGV in my head - maybe I remembered it as a better ballet than it was. Thankfully I was proved wrong. Some amazing lifts, fantastic group work, and this almost relentless music from Michael Nyman, marching and taking you on with it. It really works.
This couple was sat behind me and they had come in to see Martha Wainwright. 'Oh', she said before it started, 'there are 2 intervals, so many we can leave after the second, unless we want to see some real dance.' I turned around and told them they should stay 'the third piece is very good!'. At the end, she thanked me for my advice 'It was fantastic! Magical! Some pure dancing... I felt like a little girl... beautiful. It was also nice that there was no story to follow and you could just lose yourself into it.' Horray, a new convert?
I can't believe the Financial Times' Clement Crisp gave such a bad review to this triple bill - ' it has all the attractions of Ebola fever' he said (he likes his random references, the Clement)
Seven Deadly Sins is more a show that ballet, with a big multi-level set, great lighting and the singing of Martha Wainwright. The dancing was ok, if nothing much, and I thought all the sins blended into one - lust (there was a lot of groping). It wasn't that bad.
Ek's Carmen was really interesting. I enjoyed the music, adapted from Bizet of course - lots of percussions and weird sounds, and the cast shouted a lot too, in an invented language as far as I could tell (think Spanish meets Russian meets Japanese) There was some really cool movement, very modern and angular, with lots of humourous bits thrown in.
I was worried I had idealised DGV in my head - maybe I remembered it as a better ballet than it was. Thankfully I was proved wrong. Some amazing lifts, fantastic group work, and this almost relentless music from Michael Nyman, marching and taking you on with it. It really works.
This couple was sat behind me and they had come in to see Martha Wainwright. 'Oh', she said before it started, 'there are 2 intervals, so many we can leave after the second, unless we want to see some real dance.' I turned around and told them they should stay 'the third piece is very good!'. At the end, she thanked me for my advice 'It was fantastic! Magical! Some pure dancing... I felt like a little girl... beautiful. It was also nice that there was no story to follow and you could just lose yourself into it.' Horray, a new convert?
Monday, February 16, 2009
Mondays with Merce
It's Monday! Why not spend with Merce Cunnigham?
Every week, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company is putting a video up and goes behind the scene at the company's studios. Interviews, classes etc, it looks like there will be lots of rich and interesting content to look at and enjoy, even if, like me, you're not too sure about the man's choreography.
Can we get more websites like these please?
Originally read on Article 19.
Every week, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company is putting a video up and goes behind the scene at the company's studios. Interviews, classes etc, it looks like there will be lots of rich and interesting content to look at and enjoy, even if, like me, you're not too sure about the man's choreography.
Can we get more websites like these please?
Originally read on Article 19.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)