4Dance 2008

Silenced, by Isabel Rocamaro (pic: Nick Knowland)

4Dance was 76 minutes of short dance films shown recently on Channel 4 in the UK (if you have missed it, you can watch it online here)

I think it will always be kind of hard for a programme like this to get an audience, but putting it on at 3.30pm on the 27th of December, right in the middle of the Christmas break, is probably not ideal. Maybe it is actually... lots of people who have eaten too much and can't move from their sofas...

If you forget the annoying presenter (drop the attitude, man!), there was some pretty good dance films to watch. My highlghts:

I really enjoyed Pontus Lidberg's The Rain - gorgeously filmed and choreographed, very lyrical (a trailer for this film is posted below)

DIY -from Singapore, it was the film that came closest to be a music video. Lots of cool shots and well-paced editing, with a great link between the movement and the music. Directed by a director well-known in his home country, Royston Tan. You can view DIY here (not amazing quality)

Lick Your Pavement - A shirtless guy in white skinny jeans dances around a camera, slowly going around it, with skateboarders passing by him all the time. Quite trendy. Great mix. One of the directors (and the performer) is Adam Linder, winner of 2008's Place Prize (to the surprise of many) You can see more of his work with Will Davidson on their website www.collectnudes.com (Funnily enough the piece is called Fuck Forever on there...)

Silenced - I normally like my dance set to music but really enjoyed this almost silent film of 2 women set in the dramatic desert landscape. By Isabel Rocamora.

Falling - this is part of the 10th Anniversary tour of Henri Oguike Dance Company.



Full list of dance films shown:

DIY
Director: Royston Tan

The Rain (2 extracts)
Director/Choreographer: Pontus Lidberg

Lick Your Pavement
Directors: Will Davidson / Adam Linder

No Man's Land
Director: Alexandre Oktan
Choreographer: Peter Chin

Diva
Director/Choreographer:Liz Agiss

Tiny Dancer
Director: Stefan Georgiou

Night Practice
Director: Susanna Wallin

In Stone
Director: Margaret Williams
Choreographer: Maria Munoz

Soma Songs
Director/Choreographer: Daniel Belton

Animalz
Director/Choreographer: Sergio Cruz

Tea Time:
Director /Writer: Lisa May Thomas

Silenced
Director/Choreographer: Isabel Rocamora

Nascent
Director: Gina Czarnecki

Fresh
Director/Choreographer: Robert Hylton

Round 16
Director: Pete Gomes
Choregrapher: Eddie Kay /Imogen Knight

10 Exhalations
Director: Roman Kornienko/ Maria Sharafutdinova

Falling
Director: Dan Farberoff
Choreographer: Henri Oguike

Strictly Bolshoi

Misericordes, credit Dimir Yusupov

The Balletboyz documentary on choreographer Christopher Wheeldon's work for the famous ballet company the Bolshoi in Moscow, called Strictly Bolshoi, was shown on Channel 4 this week.

It is available to watch online for a month. You can watch it here.

Even non-dance fans will find it interesting: it gives good insight into the creative process of a choreographer, and is also a bit dramatic (changes of opinions, unhappy dancers etc...) and quite humourous as well. The created piece, Misericordes, is shown at the end. This documentary won the 2008 International Emmy Award for Arts Programming (no less)

Not sure Christopher Wheeldon comes out very well in this but the piece is great so who cares. You can see bits of Misericordes here.

Pontus Lidberg - The Rain

Trailer for the 28-minute film The Rain, by Pontus Lidberg.

The programme 4 Dance 2008 included 2 extracts from that film, and I really liked it. Quite a nice surprise to find out there is more to see! Website for the movie here.

Dance in 2009

Two UK newspapers are looking forward to the year ahead and list what to look out for in 2009. Amongst the many artforms presented is dance.

Sylvie Guillem and Russell Maliphant's new collaboration Eonaggata seem to be what they most look forward to. Check out the Times and the Guardian.

Am particularly interested in this news from the Times that Sadler's Wells (London's dance house) has commissioned works from Maliphant, Wayne McGregor, Javier De Frutos and Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui that 'encapsulate the spirit of Diaghilev' who founded the Ballets Russes 100 years ago.

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.