Bounce Sneak Peek

Choreographing with Cee, Julia, Kate, Kirsten and Hilary...
(With Lykke Li's 'I'm Good, I'm Gone')

This semester I've been trying a new way of choreographing - I give movement prompts, we make movement as duets, film the material, I watch the clips on my own and rearrange / adjust the movement to the music and my ideas and goals for the piece. It seems to be working well, definitely a good way to get a lot of material quickly (and hold on to it) and get people to show their individual styles. These clips are some of the raw material. The full dance will be to Drake's remixed version of Lykki Li's 'Little Bit,' a song you can find on datpiff.com or youtube.

Still Body

Figure Drawing 03/16/11

This model held her pose for a full 40 mins, took a 10 min break and then went back to it for another 20. That's amazing. Being still and having people look at you for that long takes skill, and I admire and am thankful for people that are able and willing to take on the challenge.

Swan Lake

On Saturday I caught the last night of Pennsylvania Ballet's Swan Lake. Nobody died! That's not true - the sorcerer was killed by the corps of swans fluttering their fingertips at him. I was surprised, but somehow it worked to have a happy ending (at least a bittersweet one). Lauren Fadeley made a gorgeous bewitched swan princess with her otherworldly arching back and hypnotizing fingertips, and the corps of swans danced beautifully, a precise shapeshifting collection of fluttering skirts and graceful bird port du bras. As the black swan, Fadeley was not entirely convincing (such a shame she fell out of the infamous fouettes) and there were some unfortunate character dances (ballet versions of can-can and flamenco are odd, to say the least), but those parts were confined to middle of the dance, which was almost three hours altogether. Definitely worth it to see Fadeley's tragically beautiful and mysterious white swan self.

A little research gives two facts worth noting. 1. Lauren Fadeley danced in Black Swan. 2. PA Ballet's Swan Lake had a million dollar budget. Interesting...

Alvin Ailey

A few weeks ago I got to go to see Alvin Ailey for free (Haverford rocks!) at the Academy of Music. I saw...

Anointed from AlvinAileyAmericanDanceTheater on Vimeo.

The Evolution Of A Secured Feminine from AlvinAileyAmericanDanceTheater on Vimeo.

The Hunt from AlvinAileyAmericanDanceTheater on Vimeo.

and of course the Ailey classic...

Revelations from AlvinAileyAmericanDanceTheater on Vimeo.

The dancers as you can see have a tremendous amount of strength, charisma and vitality, and the choreography gave such a rush in watching them. It was the kind of performance where you just sit back and enjoy the thrill of the moment. Each of the pieces were distinct, as you can tell from these snippets, but as a series they were also complementary.

The Hunt by Robert Battle was particularly moving in an unexpected way. The program and Alvin Ailey website say this piece is about "the primitive thrill of the hunt," but for me the ferocity took on a greater, more universal meaning, speaking to the ways the people perpetuate cycles of violence. Sometimes the six men danced in a circle as if thrilling in an aggression fed by mob mentality, in others they separated into duets where the partners took turns at being the aggressor, all the while seemingly unaware of the hypocrisy of meeting violence with more violence.

The Ballerina Project

Speaking of gritty (city) vs highbrow (ballerina)....

http://www.facebook.com/pages/ballerina-project/22455674948

http://ballerinaproject.blogspot.com/

Ballet Advertising

These are the images from Pennsylvania Ballet's website www.paballet.org. The posters and programs for individual shows follow the same design.

Opinions? Is advertising ballet as sexual, gritty and tough good or bad? The images definitely pose themselves against the image of ballet as posh and uptight, which could be positive. On the other hand, these are totally commercially sexualized advertisements! Note that the dancers' faces are all turned away or cropped out of the picture, so that they are a bare bodies as opposed to individuals.

Art Blog

Simple layout, minimalist artist interviews, inspirational picture essays, classic Sesame Street videos... definitely worth a look.

http://www.ilikethisblog.net/