Make war on yourself

Extract from Order my steps by Evidence, a dance company. Coming to London 7-8 May at Southbank Centre.

Forsythe's Synchronous Objects for One Flat Thing, reproduced

Still from annotated video illustrating the complex system of cueing in One Flat Thing, reproduced
Credit: 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?!)

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.

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?"

I too want a giant tambourine to dance on

Carmen Amaya, probably the best flamenco dancer of the 20th century.

Miyako Ishiuchi

1906 17
Credit: 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.”'

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!

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.'

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)

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!

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!

Video - Binary form

Binary Form from shiftwork on Vimeo.

From Shiftwork.

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?

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.

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.

World Press Photo 2008 winners

I always really enjoy looking at the winning pictures of the World Press Photo Contest - nature, sport, current affairs, portraits, stories, they cover such a huge range of topics, and are always outstanding images.

The winner of the 2nd prize in the Arts and Entertainment category - singles, is photographer Jerome Bonnet for his portrait of a student at Paris Opera Ballet School. You can view the image here.

The winners' gallery can be seen here. Enjoy.

Rafael Bonachela - 62C

As mentioned earlier on this blog, choreographer Rafael Bonachela picked 6 choreographers he liked and invited them to perform at Southbank Centre. It was free so I went to check it out.

Due to the snow and stuff, I only made it on the Saturday (3 other choreographers were performing on the Sunday) but still it was pretty good. A few pics below.

Quite a lot of people turned up, which is cool! Go dance!

Rafael Bonachela wasn't there himself but did record something on video.

Adam Linder. Yes, he wanked off a gun - the 10-year-old girl next to me looked a bit horrified. His solo, set to Ravel's bolero, was interesting, but maybe with an undertone that was too violent or sexual for an afternoon audience (even a contemporary dance one). The hilarious thing was this middle-aged man who went at the front of the stage and started putting his legs up in the air and do weird things - we all thought he was part of the piece, but realised he wasn't when security came to take him out.
Credits to Adam Linder for carrying on with his performance though.

I can't really remember anything Blanca Arrieta did (sorry!), but I am quite happy with this picture.

If you went on the Sunday, feel free to let us know what it was like!

Olivier Awards

Barely mentioned in all the articles on the recent Olivier Awards nominations announcement, the dance nominees are:

Best new dance production -

Pina Bausch Tanztheater Wuppertal's Cafe Muller / The Rite of Spring at Sadler's Wells

The Royal Ballet of Flanders' Impressing the Czar at Sadler's Wells

The Royal Ballet's Infra at the Royal Opera House

DV8's To Be Straight With You at the Lyttelton

Outstanding achievement in dance

The company of the Royal Ballet of Flanders for their performances in Impressing the Czar at Sadler's Wells

The company of the Royal Ballet for their performances in Infra

Savion Glover, Marshall Davis Jr and Maurice Chestnut for their performances in Savion Glover's Bare Soundz at Sadler's Wells

I am going for the Royal Ballet of Flanders' Impressing the Czar in both categories. It totally blew my mind, it was so good!

Full list of nominees. Results on 8 March.

Tanja Liedtke - Twelfth Floor - UK Tour

The production Twelfth Floor, created by Tanja Liedtke, is touring the UK this Spring starting on the 10th of Feb in Warwick, and ending on the 27th of March in Oxford.

Tanja Liedtke was a German dancer and choreographer based in Australia. Her dynamic and highly physical choreography won her awards and in 2007 she was selected to be the Artistic Director of Sydney Dance Company. However she died tragically before taking the post.

You can find more info on the tour website.

The tour is brought by Dance Touring Partnership, a network of theatres working together to bring exciting dance to new audiences around the UK. It must be tough, but credits to them!


There is something that reminds me of Jasmin Vardimon in there.


Update 16/2: A review of Twelfth Floor in The Observer ' If this is what she was capable of at 29, what might the future have held?'

Jordan Clarke

I saw this video on the really good blog Dancing Perfectly Free and thought I would put it up too.


Vanilla Strawberry from Jordan Clarke on Vimeo.

It looks like a live Gilbert & George painting sometimes.

More Jordan Clarke's video here.