(Fondation Cartier, 28 July 2013)
The past exists only in what one is today. Today is when one leaves a mark on tomorrow. In the interim, to exist is to remain alert and hopeful, and to reason. To die is to wish to be never seen.
A work of art that is remembered is an innovation in method as well as in representation. The gratification from accomplishing both is necessary to motivate a breakthrough.
29 July 2013
14 July 2013
"Sally Meets Stu" by Ate9 dANCEcOMPANY
(Fais Do-Do, 13 July 2013)
Aristotle believed that heavier bodies fell faster.
Science progresses because it tests, not canonises, its hypotheses. Art progresses as it discovers new ways to design experiments (which help the viewer discover his preferences and offer to him new perspectives on others) and to gratify. Classical ballet only seeks to gratify. Preserving the traditional means of gratification is an end in itself, for classical ballet.
Contemporary ballet, as contemporary science, does not appeal to authority. Its priority is to enrich the vocabulary. Ate9 is the experimental quantum mechanics of dance. Ate9 ventures into the world where the classical intuition fails. Once-in-a-lifetime events are as exotic to an individual as quantum phenomena were to the classical physicist. With evidence scarce and premeditated reasoning incomplete, individuals act in ways that do not conform with others' expectations.
One can get by with classical physics alone; one can neglect surrealism, censor irony, and dismiss the quantum phenomena at the heart of contemporary dance---but not if one yearns to understand completely and communicate parsimoniously.
Danielle Agami's ballet is intense, direct (not literal), and immediate. It is of precarious peace and of the urgency of the moment. To act and irrevocably err is better than to waste oneself on chores and indecision.
Aristotle believed that heavier bodies fell faster.
Science progresses because it tests, not canonises, its hypotheses. Art progresses as it discovers new ways to design experiments (which help the viewer discover his preferences and offer to him new perspectives on others) and to gratify. Classical ballet only seeks to gratify. Preserving the traditional means of gratification is an end in itself, for classical ballet.
Contemporary ballet, as contemporary science, does not appeal to authority. Its priority is to enrich the vocabulary. Ate9 is the experimental quantum mechanics of dance. Ate9 ventures into the world where the classical intuition fails. Once-in-a-lifetime events are as exotic to an individual as quantum phenomena were to the classical physicist. With evidence scarce and premeditated reasoning incomplete, individuals act in ways that do not conform with others' expectations.
One can get by with classical physics alone; one can neglect surrealism, censor irony, and dismiss the quantum phenomena at the heart of contemporary dance---but not if one yearns to understand completely and communicate parsimoniously.
Danielle Agami's ballet is intense, direct (not literal), and immediate. It is of precarious peace and of the urgency of the moment. To act and irrevocably err is better than to waste oneself on chores and indecision.
13 July 2013
American Ballet Theatre
(The Music Center, 11 July 2013)
Balanchine's "Symphony in C" is a firework---a routine that is simple, aesthetically pleasing in its synchrony, musicality, and understatement, a routine that is about nothing in particular, but has been found to please, just as Bizet's accompaniment.
By contrast, Balanchine's "Apollo" is affectedly theatrical, dated in its narcissism. To prevent a work from evolving is to condemn it or confine it to a menagerie that is of interest only to historians and choreographers. Jazz standards and classical music are resilient because legally malleable. A performer of Bach's Cello Suites is under no obligation to imitate Rostropovich; a Berlin interpreter is under no obligation to imitate Astaire. A dance is not a precision instrument built to meticulous specifications, but a conduit of emotion, which originates with the choreographer and musicians and infects dancers and the audience. To starve the dancers of that emotion by replacing the artist with the technique is to abuse their bodies (for the dancers would be doing something they do not understand and hence would not live when life could have been at its fullest).
In Ratmansky's "Chamber Symphony," with Jason-Hartlinesque intensity and playful curiosity, the protagonist discovers that it is easier (and more gratifying) to inspire dozens than to control one. Creativity is spurred by bewilderment and the failure to fit in.
Balanchine's "Symphony in C" is a firework---a routine that is simple, aesthetically pleasing in its synchrony, musicality, and understatement, a routine that is about nothing in particular, but has been found to please, just as Bizet's accompaniment.
By contrast, Balanchine's "Apollo" is affectedly theatrical, dated in its narcissism. To prevent a work from evolving is to condemn it or confine it to a menagerie that is of interest only to historians and choreographers. Jazz standards and classical music are resilient because legally malleable. A performer of Bach's Cello Suites is under no obligation to imitate Rostropovich; a Berlin interpreter is under no obligation to imitate Astaire. A dance is not a precision instrument built to meticulous specifications, but a conduit of emotion, which originates with the choreographer and musicians and infects dancers and the audience. To starve the dancers of that emotion by replacing the artist with the technique is to abuse their bodies (for the dancers would be doing something they do not understand and hence would not live when life could have been at its fullest).
In Ratmansky's "Chamber Symphony," with Jason-Hartlinesque intensity and playful curiosity, the protagonist discovers that it is easier (and more gratifying) to inspire dozens than to control one. Creativity is spurred by bewilderment and the failure to fit in.
7 July 2013
Hitchcocked
(Fais Do-Do, 6 July 2013)
Theatre shows how little one may need to change the world. Pretend that the world is the way you want it to be. The chances are, you are not alone in that vision. Others will join in the pretence and nudge the world in the desired direction.
Theatre shows how little one may need to change the world. Pretend that the world is the way you want it to be. The chances are, you are not alone in that vision. Others will join in the pretence and nudge the world in the desired direction.
1 July 2013
Starbucks on the Third Street
A waiting room. A check-in counter into a world dignified, inclusive, relaxed. A wormhole.
Traversed, it opens onto the Third Street, dignified, inclusive, relaxed; foggy, fluid, forthcoming; carrying and caring for the world's Parisless Parisians, angelless Angelinos, sanctified by the ocean breeze Santa Monicans, wrapped into or flaunting ideals, eyeing the stars, from the gutter or laterally, by stroke of good fortune and taste, to the mingling of voices and guitar tunes, bouncing off the soaped pavement, the lit-up storefronts, spilling into the side-streets, lulling the alleys, taming the night.
Driven by a maxim and the promise of sun, a barista attends to the journey of the civilisation.
Traversed, it opens onto the Third Street, dignified, inclusive, relaxed; foggy, fluid, forthcoming; carrying and caring for the world's Parisless Parisians, angelless Angelinos, sanctified by the ocean breeze Santa Monicans, wrapped into or flaunting ideals, eyeing the stars, from the gutter or laterally, by stroke of good fortune and taste, to the mingling of voices and guitar tunes, bouncing off the soaped pavement, the lit-up storefronts, spilling into the side-streets, lulling the alleys, taming the night.
Driven by a maxim and the promise of sun, a barista attends to the journey of the civilisation.
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