Pina Bausch - ...como el musguito en la piedra ay si si si...

7 men, 9 women.
A woman on all fours to the front left of the stage, two men enter, lift and carry her. She screams. She stops when they put her back down.
She stands up, the men enter and lift her up, passing her from one to the next.
She then hugs one of the male dancer and they fall to the floor, her body towards the left, his towards the right. Their legs are pulled and they have to separate. They run towards each other again, and are separated again.
A man slowly pours water on a the head of woman who is sat on a chair. She puts make-up on at the same time.
A small female dancer doing a solo, in a pink dress, with hints of kathak and bharatanatyam dance: knees out, feet stamping, open hands with thumbs up, elbows leading the arms.
The same small dancer hiding under a black coat at the back of the stage, and suddenly coming out 'Hello! I am here' and running around, a bit like a kid, jumping from a chair, running off stage 'bye bye bye!'
A man on a chair welcomes all the female dancers, who enter one by one from stage left. 'Bienvenida! Que bella eres! Dame un beso!' He gives them a kiss as they walk past. As one leaves, another comes in. 'wow wow wow! La pequena!'
A woman walks across the stage with a wooden fish on a leash. 'I want to teach my fish to walk. Walk! Walk fish walk! No swimming! Walking!'
The white set slowly breaking and fragmenting, leaving black cracks, as if an earthquake had happened.
A woman lies on the floor, her long hair trailing. A man comes and lies so his head rests on her hair. She slides away.
Green, red, beige, white, pink flowy dresses.
A man lies on the floor and covers himself with a long black coat. He slowly moves the black coat up his body. A second man lies behind him, his feet next to the shoulders of the first man. As the coat gets to the first man's face, the second man takes hold of it and moves it along his body. A third man comes behind him. The first man then goes behind the third man and so on.
A male dancer runs from one side of the stage to another, an older dancer in tow, who tries to catch up with him, grabbing his jacket.
A line of seven female dancers, all lying on the floor, looking up at the audience, propped up on their forearms. Cue a series of arms gestures performed in unison: they slide up, and down, tap the floor, touch their faces. Six men do the same.
A woman holds her right wrist. She pushes it down and her right arm follow the movement in a big circle. As the wrist and hand come back to their original position, a man is there to catch and kiss it.
Many, many beautiful solo dances full of flowy movements, mainly through the arms, and often lead by the hand or the wrist, and if there is force or power in there guiding the whole body.
A man wearing a jacket but no trousers, in red high heels.


Some of the music used in ...como el musguito en la piedra ay si si si...
Violeta Parra - Volver a los 17 (obviously)
Victor Jara - Deja la vida volar

Pina Bausch - Nur Du

This piece had more 'tanz' than the previous piece in the season, Viktor, the atmosphere was less dark. The set was large, wide redwood tree trunks. Here are some images that have stayed with me.

Seven or so pure dance solos, all involving mainly arm movements but all a bit different. Wavy hands and arms, big circles, a repeated step kick to the front and a fall to the back, a little finger man travelling along a neck.
An arm chair made of three men, a woman resting on it.
A lifeless woman being made to stand on a chair, then slowly lowered down to the floor by a man holding her only by her hair. Another woman stumbling across the stage, repeatedly falling forward, only to be caught at the last moment by a man. A song whose lyrics sing 'I will hold you' in the background.
A giant blown-up whale.
A small paper house on fire, in the middle of several couples dancing tango.
A glamorous lady lying down on a bed made of six kneeling men, who move up and down in wave. 'Under my dress I am naked! I am sorry hahaha I am so sorry!'
A man in a big blue ball gown, with diamond necklace, saying Hollywood quotes: 'I always remember faces, but for you I'll make an exception.' 'In this town they shoot too many pictures. They don't shoot enough actors.' 'With so many ugly people around, no wonder they pay us so much money.' 'Everything good in this movie was made by me. Everything bad was made by others.'
A man with black wings moving up a tree.
A woman standing on the stomach of a man who is lying down, moving up and down with his breath.
A woman in a black coat and short dress runs to a tree: she takes down her pants. She runs to another tree: 'Haha there's another one' and takes down another pair of pants. Repeats it two more times.
A woman practices the rolling Spanish r 'Ferrrrrrnando. Rrrrrrrregina. See, I can do it, he cannot.'
A self-defence practice class taken to slow-motion, as a woman silently and slowly demonstrates tricks to fight back your assailant with a knowing look to the audience.
Twenty five men ironing their shirts.
Water in big plastic bags.
A plastic bag attached to a man's neck, turned up to go over his head: water is poured in it to cover it. He wears underwater glasses and looks at us, magnified, bubbles coming out of his mouth.
A dancer remembering her football cheerleading routines from high school 'oh my this one, this one, this one is great' she gushes: 'ACTION! A-C-T! I-O-N! A-C-T! I-O-N! Give us some action! yeah!' jumps jumps jumps, a little sadly 'oh that was great'.


Some of the music used in Nur Du
Simon Diaz - Tonada de Luna Llena
Simon Diaz - Luna de Margarita
R. Carlos Nakai - Stone Mirage
Harry Connick Jr - The Last Payday
The Platters - Only You
Alfredo Marceneiro - Mocidade Perdida
Elis Regina - Alo, Alo, Marciano
Dinah Washington - Blowtop Blues
The Clark Sisters - Sugartime
Rudolfo Biagi and Hugo Duval - Mariposita
Orland Silva - Neusa
Amalia Rodrigues - Libertacao

Pina Bausch - Viktor

There is no way I can even try to write a review of a Pina Bausch work. I am seeing 10 this month. Erm.
So I'll just share some of the images that stuck in my mind. Add yours in the comments section! There were so many tonight.

Viktor
women in long evening dresses holding gymnastic rings and swinging in the air
a woman fountain, spurting water from her mouth
a man washing his face and body from the woman fountain
a dead couple being married
female dancers serving bread and jam tartines to the audience
a row of close-knit java couples slowly moving across the stage, and down some stairs into the auditorium
three hilariously bad waitresses with back problems
a hooded, crooked man with a cane, directing the dancers
three dogs for auction
two sheep
a fairytale with no happy ending: 'all is death'
a woman running on the stage, saying 'good evening' to the audience, before checking the time on her invisible watch and realising she is late and running out for something, only to return
sweeping arms, small gestures and flowy hair
earth being thrown down an earthy wall, and falling across the stage. it sounds a bit like rain.
smoking and puffing
a story about one's grandmother told while skipping around the stage: 'I was born in a bunker'

Crazy dance from the archives - 1

Some kooky, crazy, not-sure-I-can-quite-believe it dance videos.

Dear Quincy 1968

Not sure where to start with this one. The music obviously brings up completely new associations nowadays, and I actually get the whole Austin Powers movements after seeing this video: the wacky poses, jerky arm movements, walking in funny fashion, it's all there.
The female dancer is Carmen de Lavallade, one of the major African American dancers of the 20th century, and she is perfect as the sultry and cold seductress. Only her opening walk looks effortful: for the rest, she is in charge.

The choreography is by Geoffrey Holder, who is de Lavallade's husband, but I haven't been able to find out what this was filmed for unfortunately.

Eurovision: Loreen's clever staging

I watched the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday. It was pretty entertaining to have in the background while getting ready for the night CHERYL at the Shackelwell Arms.

The winning song, Euphoria by Loreen, is catchy, makes you want to dance, and is very much of today. What I noticed though was how its staging was very different from that of the other contestants.

The Eurovision show stage is always ginormous, even though rules state that there can only be six performers on it at any one time, and changover between acts can only take 45 seconds. That leaves very little options to create striking visual images, and often the stage looks really empty and staging is dull.

Chuck Arnett - 1970s costume designer

A ballet costume designer who also worked in gay leather bars and helped create an iconic gay visual identity? Now I'm interested!

I recently read the book Stonewall by Martin Duberman, an account of gay life and activism up to the 1969 Stonewall riots, which sparked awareness for the gay liberation movement that had been developing well before then. It got me researching 1960s and 70s gay visuals: at the first Gay Pride march, in 1970, (it was then called the Christopher Street Liberation March and celebrated the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots), a banner read 'BETTER BLATANT THAN LATENT', which made me laugh and want to find out what else witty protesters had written or chanted.

I came across subdued magazine covers which included the art of Chuck Arnett, an artist famous for his murals in and adverts for gay leather bars in the San Francisco area. His iconic black and white mural for the bar The Tool Box, featuring masculine, tough-looking men, was pictured in a 1964 Life magazine article about 'Homosexuality in America', a watershed moment in American gay history. Also check out this ad for a bar called The Balcony.

Delving further, I found out that Arnett was originally a ballet dancer, who performed for National Ballet of Canada, and originally arrived in San Francisco after being a lead dancer in a touring production of the musical Bye Bye Birdie. Later on, his career in design would see him create costumes for San Francisco Ballet. Here is more info about his dance background, via the GLBT Historical Society. (I love how the Hades costume design above has a direct link to Arnett's more daring art and his depiction of men's wilder fantasies.)

Claire Danes is a mean CIA agent in Homeland but she is also a dancer

Like a large number of the US and UK's television-watching public, I am currently gripped by the TV show Homeland, starring the actress Claire Danes.

I've loved Claire Danes's sublime acting since first watching My So-Called Life back in the 90s (it was called Angela, 15 ans in France) and always thought we were not seeing enough of her around. My estimation rose further in the mid-2000s when I heard she did some dancing too, and some pretty contemporary stuff at that.

Danes started dancing at a young age, taking classes at Dance Theater Workshop in New York until the age of 14, and performed in a few dance pieces then, before moving to acting. Around 2004, she took up dancing again, taking classes with choreographer Tamar Rogoff, whose daughter had been a school friend. Danes ended up performing in two of her pieces: the solo Christina Olson: American Model in 2005, and the duet Edith and Jenny in 2007.

Claire Danes in Christina Olson: American Model. Credit Harvey Wang

William Forsythe's Artifact - The Ballet Bag

I am very proud to have written a post for the really cool dance blog The Ballet Bag about William Forsythe's Artifact, which was performed here in London recently by Royal Ballet of Flanders.

The Ballet Bag have this great list of fact sheets about a number of ballets, and they were very happy to get me on board when I approached them about writing a fact sheet about Artifact, a beautiful and dense contemporary ballet piece. Check it out here.

As you know I am trying to create fact sheets about contemporary dance classics on this blog. The first two have been on Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker's Fase and Merce Cunningham's BIPED. It takes a lot of research, hence the slow progress, but I'm hoping to add more over the next few months, including Alvin Ailey's Revelations and Jerome Bel's The Show Must Go On so check back soon!

Dance in New York

I went on holidays to NYC last week. It was fantastic, as ever with New York. Here are some dance highlights in pictures, words and videos.

I took a short pilgrimage to the Westbeth Artists' Housing on 55 Bethune Street, the home of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company for many years. I was going to the High Line, and it's only a short walk from there, I thought I had to see the place where the legendary choreographer worked from for many years. There is a photograph hanging in the lobby, signed by Cunningham. I tried to go up to the 11th floor, where the studios were, but unfortunately it was closed and the receptionist did his job pretty well!

Photo 1

Einstein on the Beach world premiere in Montpellier (France)

I was extremely fortunate to get to go to Montpellier in the south of France this Friday to attend the world premiere of the 2012 production of Robert Wilson and Philip Glass's iconic opera, Einstein on the Beach (I am working for the London venue that is presenting it in May).

Keith Haring exhibition at Brooklyn Museum

Believe it or not, my blog post with the most traffic ever, and pretty much consistently being the most visited every month since I wrote it, is the one about the Pop Life exhibition at Tate Modern in 2009, which includes a picture of choreographer Bill T.Jones body painted by American visual artist Keith Haring.

No need to say I am super excited that an exhibition focusing on Haring's early works is about to open at Brooklyn Museum in New York. I will definitely be making my way there when I head to the Big Apple next month. Find out more.

Dance quote

Check out my Dance quotes board on Pinterest and pass on any good ones!

A film I've made

I have a Flip camera and tend to film the most random things on it. I've created a short abstract film with those rushes. It's about the small details around us, London, snow, white noise. Hope you like it!

It's called 'That sign is completely white.' (If you watch until the end you will know why!)

Pinterest for theatre and dance

Today I decided it was time to explore what Pinterest was about, as it's been all over my twitter feed and marketing news. I had a good go at filling up some my boards, but still need to find more people to follow and decide on what exactly I want to put on there: check out my profile. I am a marketeer, so my first thought is 'what would work on this platform?'


Pinterest lets you organize and share stuff (images mostly) you find on the web. People use pinboards to organise their images around themes. You can follow people and specific pinboards. It's a pretty neat way of sharing what you like and discover new stuff.

As I was pinning away, I realised that this would very much be a cool new channel for venues. Any company that is already on instagram (eg the London's Royal Opera House) or flickr (eg London's Southbank Centre) could easily create boards based on their existing images.

Flamenco Gala @ Sadler's Wells - review

I wasn't really planning to write a review for this, but I got a bit excited about this show commenting on Webcowgirl's review of it, so I thought I should write one after all.

The Flamenco Gala is always one my highlights of the annual Flamenco Festival: three great dancers sharing the stage, all for the price of one ticket? I'm in!

This year's gala probably didn't have as many wow moments as the previous ones, but I still really enjoyed it, with a line-up showcasing the different flamenco perspectives of Rafaela Carrasco, Olga Pericet and Carmen Cortes. Just a few notes on each of them...

Merce Cunningham's BIPED

Following our look at Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker's Fase, we're continuing our tour of contemporary dance classics with this cheat sheet about Merce Cunningham's BIPED.

As a clear example of Merce Cunningham's choreography, philosophy and originality, I think it deserves a place in the list.

Background

John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Robert Rauschenberg, London 1964. Photo: Douglas H. Jeffrey

Merce Cunningham is one of the greatest choreographers of the 20th century, and one of the major names in the history of contemporary dance. He transformed dance not only with his choreography but also with his philosophy about the creation of choreography and about the relationship between dance, music and the other stage elements.

Manuela Carrasco @ Sadler's Wells review

Yesterday I joined a few of my flamenco class friends to go to see dancer Manuela Carrasco's show at Sadler's Wells, as part of ther annual Flamenco Festival.

A few things about her show, Suspiro Flamenco, left me perplexed (mainly the almost random lighting) and I would have liked to see a little bit more of both her and her fantastic male dancers. But overall, it was a good evening of very pure flamenco.

Flamenco class 31 Jan 2012

Tuesdays are always good days because I have my weekly flamenco class.

This week was particularly good, even though for a moment everyone in the class got majorly worried. Our brilliant teacher was ill so another teacher was to take over for the hour and a half we had. The worry was for three reasons:

Read more...

Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker's Fase

Contemporary dance has problems with old works: choreographers always present new pieces, and quite often older, great works becomes the stuff of legend that us newbie to the artform can never enjoy live. So I thought it would be good to start a series of fact sheets about some contemporary dance classics, a bit like the brilliant cheat sheets the Ballet Bag does, or the Guardian's Step by Step guides to dance.

Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker's Fase is one of my favourite pieces of contemporary dance. I have the DVD and saw it as part of a retrospective of her early works at Sadler's Wells in 2011. Since I am going to Paris in March to see it again (at the Centre Pompidou), I decided to start the series with it.

Piano Phase. Still from the DVD Fase, a film by Thierry de Mey