Square Dance

Another example of relationship of movement with the music. In this case, the video is made of still photographs, and the music is Debussy. The choreography is classical and very fun to watch. The key is the use of simple elements that create an intricate structure of simplicity and varied movement material in terms of directions, floor patterns, relationships between the subject in movement and its response to the possibilities of shape, dynamics, structure...

Square Dance from Jan-Edward Vogels on Vimeo.

Colours

This video about colour follows an impeccable relationship with the music in a very simple movement pattern in terms of directions, but it turns to be visually very entertaining, and the movements of the colours dissolving in the aquatic medium is kind of hypnotic. Watch it:

Just Colour from Jesper Kirkeby Brevik on Vimeo.

I found this in a very cool blog: Lameplay © International Humor

Remembering

Remembering what it felt like the biggest of the commitments.
When a passion becomes a burden?
The importance of unimportant things.
My world vs. The world.

And then release it.
And I still have a long road to drive.
Is not the same place.

Getting in it through a different perspective.
It feels all I already drove, is fading away.
For GOOD and that's GOOD

Road to Unknown Land. I can't find a map for that.
Although the roads are still roads.
I can remember all landscapes.
I'm willing to see the new ones.
Discoveries?

Connecting with my mind.
As long as I can imagine, I can taste and feel.
Exchanging with the real one.

Yes Yes

Yes
Yes Yes
Yes Yes Yes
Yes Yes Yes Yes
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Is that clear?

Bye PINA BAUSCH

5 min Documentary

Today is a sad day as I just heard the news that dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch (Solingen, 1940) died, 5 days after given a cancer's diagnostic with 68 years old.

The last time I saw her was at Saddler's Wells (review) showing Cafe Müller (1978) and Rite of Spring (1975). She has been one of the most influential choreographers of the last decades, creator of the dance theater (Tanztheater Wuppertal) style since the 70s.

Her performances and pieces are masterpieces.

Some excerpts from her pieces. Click on the images to watch a video of the piece. There are more links further down:

Vollmond (2006):

Nelken (Carnations) (1982):

Masurca Fogo (1998):
Orpheus und Eurydike (1975)
Die sieben Todsünden - The Seven Deadly Sins (1976)
Renate Wandert Aus (1977)
Blaubart (1977)
Kontakthof (1978, 2008)
Walzer (1982)
Two Cigarettes in the Dark (1985)
Palermo, Palermo (1989)
Die Klage der Kaiserin - The Plaint Of The Empress (film, 1989)
Das Stück mit dem Schiff - The Piece With The Ship (1993)
Danzón (1995)
Nur Du - Only You (1996)
Der Fensterputzer - The Window Washer (1997)
Bamboo Blues (2007)
Sweet Mambo (2008)
Neues Stück - Newest piece (2009)


Dominique Merci danse Pina Bausch Full Documentary in French: Part 1 & Part 2

Pina Bausch's list of works
Pina Bausch's website in German
Pina Bausch, A Life in Pictures. The Guardian

A journey in Manhattan - 2

Carefully, he organized and distributed the technical material that was along the stage, and started to put everything in their covers, cases and bags. Other technicians were collecting the backdrop and gazes, and others were dismantling the sets while the last performers were leaving the backstage. There were agitated moments, the end of a long day of work, and everyone were rushing to finish as soon as possible.

He felt proud of himself for being able to meet the technical requirements for the piece as it had been a complicated show. He was thinking he should pass through the studio to check the equipment he was needing for the next job, plus leave a few lights and tripods he was not going to need for the next day. It was really late, but he thought it was better to do it in that moment than wait for the morning as it was a really busy one...

He fit the equipment in the car, said goodbye to the colleagues and head to the studio in Manhattan. He put some music, pull the window down and enjoyed the breeze of the city. He was fulfilled that after those years in NY he was assured of getting jobs in what he liked and enjoyed a wide infrastructure of jobs, contacts and chances related to his field. Plus it was nice to be that busy so he was pleased to not to have time enough to think about her that much. He had to get used that she wasn't going to be in his future anymore. Since she was gone, he used to feel vertigo when looking towards the future with the sudden increase of opportunities and possibilities life could offer.

He arrived to the quiet street and find a close place to park the car. He introduced the key in the lock which turned squeaking slightly, and the door opened. A hint of non ventilation arouse with the dust while he was stepping inside. He suddenly stood in stillness astonished as a young woman was dancing in his studio unaware of his entrance with big headphones holding her hair and her eyes closed. For one moment he was about to stand in front of her and shout her to leave. His eyes quickly checked the stuff and the studio, and saw one of the windows of the street was slightly opened. He observed his stuff was all there and blamed himself for leaving the window opened, 'How stupid was that... Jesus, I left that opened for a 2 weeks!... it seems there are no loses', he thought. And he started to look at her unawareness and a smile draw in his face feeling so lucky there had been no burglar at all.

He was supposing at some point she was going to open her eyes and see him. He observed her dancing, and felt more and more drawn in her movements and the sense of trance and freedom she was transmitting. He felt absolutely abstracted in her movements and performance, like any dancer he saw before. Her breathing was paired with movement and he started to feel more and more aroused by her dynamics, her freedom and the intensity of her movements. He dind't know how much time she had been dancing in his studio, but all of a sudden his mobile started ringing... He rushed to stop it or silenced it, but she opened her eyes and stopped. They stared each other in silence, for an indeterminate time, while her breathing was slowly going back to normal.

-'Who are you?', she cried nervously with a Spaniard accent, he felt very surprised for the question,
-'No, WHO are you? This is MY place, how did ye get in? Don't you know it's illegal to sneak on private property?', he said proudly. And she was quiet for a moment until she rushed to say,
-'I'm sorry, I just saw the window opened and... it was very cold outside... I didn't pretend to stay, I was just dancing, ... oh please, don't shoot me! I leave right now', she looked for her coat, put it on and raised her hands comically with a shy smile. He tried not to laugh at her, as he was trying to keep the seriousness of the moment, even though he found her very funny, and had an attractive beautiful smile.
-'I'm not going to shoot you, ...what do you think that all Americans have guns and behave like in the Wild West?... we had evolved from that...', he joked ironically. And he added, 'Where are you from? Do you live here?'
-'I was born in Spain, but I lived in different places, ... and I live in London, I'm here for a short holiday', she informed him. -'Listen, I rather go, it's very late now... and sorry again', she rushed and head to the door...
-'Wait!', and he stopped her -'Maybe our fate was to meet up... I work for a theater company tomorrow as a technician,... I can get you a ticket to watch the show... if you'd like to'
-'Oh really?' suddenly attracting her interest -'Where about?'
- 'In The Palace Theatre, between West 46th and 47th street...' Here's the info', and he gave her a flyer from his pocket, -'But I need to know your name to tell at the front door...'
-'OK, great, I'll go, Thanks!, ... Oh my name is Lola', she said with a smile looking at the flyer...
-'OK, Lola, nice to meet you, my name is Alan', and they shook hands, smiling, and she left.

A journey in Manhattan - 1

She was walking through the cold streets of Manhattan, held to her coat and thinking what that city could taught her those days. The city was as it is, pavements, light posts, streets, bins... the humming of the car and buses, the people walking, traveling in their daily routine abstracted in their own thoughts... Just as she was walking, observing the city, looking to its people dressed with the colors of the city... browns, blacks and grays, ...winter tones, shelter tones... looking for warmth. She has been looking for a few days a studio to rehearse but she couldn't find one due the availability and overpricing. Also she was quite excited to see the city venues and couldn't decide for one or another, as she thought that looking for it was the best way to know the city...

She was walking until she reached a crossroad with a silent street... She thought it may be a shorter way to the hotel, in theory she believed it was in a diagonal towards the direction of that quiet street. It was shop bared, with old buildings of darkened facades due the time and the lack of maintenance. She observed most of the windows were covered with curtains and the basements had the windows at the height of the floor. She took the mp3 player out of her pocket to change the music she was listening to, and the transport ticket dropped to the floor. She crouched to pick it up and realized that one of the windows were open in one of those basements. She got closer to the filthy glass and distinguish a studio of big dimensions, with fabric covered forms stored to the sides of the space and mirrors along one of the walls. It looked like an old dance studio, left abandoned and used for other purposes.

A sudden thought passed through her mind raising some kind of excitement... What if she goes inside? What if she is caught? She didn't want problems... She looked to the sides of the street and to the windows in the buildings. No one was in the street. Her pupils started to dilate and the blood stream increased. She opened the window and sneaked inside.

There was not much light, but her eyes started to adapt to the shadows and her body relaxed as the difference of temperature began to be noticed. She observed the shapes were a sort of sound system with a black cover and the mirrors had a thick layer of dust but still able to see through them. There were more items stored to the sides close to the original door of the space. There was also a sofa, a table with a light and an office chair. It seemed no one had been there for weeks. She walked around until she found herself reflected in the dusty mirrors. She smiled to the look of herself with that big coat she was wearing.

She was listening to an intriguing atmospheric music,... and she started to open her presence to the space, to let her body fill up the visual silence were she was, accompanied with her reflection.She remembered the words of a friend regarding she had to reach the point of confronting herself in the studio for being able to create, breaking the image of reality. A winter reality with a stalking loneliness in good company of the music, the worlds she dream about, the adventures she imagine inspired by the tunes... In that moment she had in her hands the chance to embody with movements those imagery creations in the bare anonymous space.

She breathed deeply, closing her eyes and started to raise awareness of her body. She imagined herself standing in the middle of the room and led her muscles listen to the music until her body started to follow it with shyness, transferring her weight from one leg to the other in a sustained plie, until the swaying began to warm her body slowly but gradually. Her body kept moving acquiring different shapes passing smoothly from one to another getting more and more fluid, faster and faster.

Soon she found herself warmed enough to reach more and more far with her limbs, picturing them as rays of colored lights, drawing the sound vibrations in a three dimensional canvas, ...towards an infinite universe, feeling the eternity of the present moment fed by the inhale and exhale of her rhythmic breath which was one with the movement. Her body changed its shape fluidly and continuously and her presence opened and filled the empty space with lights, landscapes, emotions, strokes, wishes, frustrations, and love-sickness. She drew the loneliness of her ardent soul, she danced her success and her failures, sailing the undulating wave of life, letting her body reach that millimeter more to bring the gravity to its maximum possibilities, contracting and releasing, spinning in an axis passing through the space... Her mind paired her body movement... Each image she visualized had a response in her body, bringing her to a state of happiness and fullness, letting her heart to be invaded by this intensity... she could feel her blood flowing in a muscular symphony making her lighter and lighter each moment, making that millimeter more dream in a state of ecstasy. The soul expressing its millenarian memory living in one moment all of her existence...


And there she was, in between the images, the music, the infinite movement,... dancing restless in that filthy studio of an anonymous street, that cold day of winter...

Magic is a succession of unexpected events, ackwardly familiar, which arises curiosity, excitement and an unanswered interrogation...