(Ahmanson Theatre, 16 March 2013)
It is unclear what Judy Garland is, and hence how to portray her. One could sing a little better than she did, dance a little better than she did, and pass for a star.
Judy Garland is anything but Judy Garland. Yet the play focuses on Judy Garland---not on the studio system that had shaped her, not on the husbands who clung to her, not on the public who adored her---not on who Judy Garland was.
In the play, Judy Garland is too subordinated to addictions to be free, her prospective husband Micky is too dull to be free, so it is left to her accompanist, Anthony, to deliver one-liners that the audience can take home for guidance and reassurance.
The world collapses once one asserts one's singularity, instead of waiting for the world to impose it upon one.
17 March 2013
10 February 2013
"The Little Mermaid" by the Hamburg Ballet
(Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 9 February 2013)
Whereas the absence of a live orchestra eliminates the no-man's land between the dancers and the audience, the choreographer's divorce between the dance and the music precludes the dancers from engaging with the audience. This divorce is endemic in classical ballet and is particularly pronounced in the first third of this performance. Passion is lost as musicality is suppressed in an effort not to be literal. The musicality is regained later on, as the dancers begin to dance with (not just next to) each other.
Towards the end of the ballet, one gets inured to the redundantly grotesque. Classical ballet seems to have been devised to guide ships in the fog, not to communicate subtle emotions. In theatre, verbal subtlety can be communicated from a faraway stage, whereas ballet choreographers must fear that physical subtlety will fail to reach the house's distant corners. If indeed so, then large concert halls are inappropriate for dance performances, which should be downscaled and transferred to smaller venues, akin to jazz clubs. This transfer may also cleanse classical ballet of its competitive element; more would aspire to the dramatic prowess of Lloyd Riggins, this ballet's star.
As male ballet dancers age, they mature and grow more masculine. As female ballet dancers age, they seem to lose femininity and revert to girlhood. Females may try to arrest ageing, succeed at it, and overdo it. Males, by contrast, seem to accept ageing and, in order to compensate for it, develop dramatic skills.
One cannot be an artist full time, for one needs time to simply be, and to inhabit the messages that it is the artist's vocation to communicate.
Art is an escape into an ideal world that one would wish to be a part of. If the world one inhabits is ideal in that one does indeed wish to be a part of it, then any art that does not emerge spontaneously may be redundant.
The poor like the rich more than they like art, for the luxuries of the rich are real, and hence potentially attainable. Demanding exorbitantly progressive taxation would be akin to demanding to close down museums on the grounds that the riches exhibited there are unattainable to most.
Whereas the absence of a live orchestra eliminates the no-man's land between the dancers and the audience, the choreographer's divorce between the dance and the music precludes the dancers from engaging with the audience. This divorce is endemic in classical ballet and is particularly pronounced in the first third of this performance. Passion is lost as musicality is suppressed in an effort not to be literal. The musicality is regained later on, as the dancers begin to dance with (not just next to) each other.
Towards the end of the ballet, one gets inured to the redundantly grotesque. Classical ballet seems to have been devised to guide ships in the fog, not to communicate subtle emotions. In theatre, verbal subtlety can be communicated from a faraway stage, whereas ballet choreographers must fear that physical subtlety will fail to reach the house's distant corners. If indeed so, then large concert halls are inappropriate for dance performances, which should be downscaled and transferred to smaller venues, akin to jazz clubs. This transfer may also cleanse classical ballet of its competitive element; more would aspire to the dramatic prowess of Lloyd Riggins, this ballet's star.
As male ballet dancers age, they mature and grow more masculine. As female ballet dancers age, they seem to lose femininity and revert to girlhood. Females may try to arrest ageing, succeed at it, and overdo it. Males, by contrast, seem to accept ageing and, in order to compensate for it, develop dramatic skills.
One cannot be an artist full time, for one needs time to simply be, and to inhabit the messages that it is the artist's vocation to communicate.
Art is an escape into an ideal world that one would wish to be a part of. If the world one inhabits is ideal in that one does indeed wish to be a part of it, then any art that does not emerge spontaneously may be redundant.
The poor like the rich more than they like art, for the luxuries of the rich are real, and hence potentially attainable. Demanding exorbitantly progressive taxation would be akin to demanding to close down museums on the grounds that the riches exhibited there are unattainable to most.
29 December 2012
Flamenco Dinner Show
(El Farol, 29 December 2012)
Sport teaches one how to lose, but so do various other (often nobler) pursuits on occasions that life invariably furnishes. A remaining excuse for sport is that it teaches one to take responsibility and be in the spotlight. Flamenco teaches so, too, but employs a richer vocabulary.
Physical appearance is secondary. It suffices that it bear an imprint of one's lifestyle. The movement communicates the soul.
The presence of one is a gift from many.
Sport teaches one how to lose, but so do various other (often nobler) pursuits on occasions that life invariably furnishes. A remaining excuse for sport is that it teaches one to take responsibility and be in the spotlight. Flamenco teaches so, too, but employs a richer vocabulary.
Physical appearance is secondary. It suffices that it bear an imprint of one's lifestyle. The movement communicates the soul.
The presence of one is a gift from many.
3 November 2012
"Playback" by Raymond Chandler (1958)
Aware of the material world's imperfections, he invests little in it. He invests little in general (except in his character), for fear of loss. He stirs up his environment in order to generate the data from which to learn and using which to teach by exposure---quickly and efficiently, since his encounters are brief.
He disentangles others' lives in order to uncover a story that he can admire and inscribe himself into.
He disentangles others' lives in order to uncover a story that he can admire and inscribe himself into.
9 October 2012
ProArteDanza
(Harbourfront Centre, 6 October 2012)
"Expire": Subordinating two bodies to either mind in turn, stifling each other's voices by mutual consent, exchanging sacrifices for favours---this is a strangers' compromise, sustainable and brutal. Friendship connects those who seek to not dominate, but merge their minds spontaneously.
"We will": Unconditional respect invites trust. Then, one can generate conflict intentionally, in order to debug, not insult, nor reject. Restart until it is right. Only that final time counts.
"Expire": Subordinating two bodies to either mind in turn, stifling each other's voices by mutual consent, exchanging sacrifices for favours---this is a strangers' compromise, sustainable and brutal. Friendship connects those who seek to not dominate, but merge their minds spontaneously.
"We will": Unconditional respect invites trust. Then, one can generate conflict intentionally, in order to debug, not insult, nor reject. Restart until it is right. Only that final time counts.
3 October 2012
Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years
(The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 30 September 2012)
Warhol's goal was to diagnose---not cure, nor soothe, nor gratify. His specialty was anxiety.
Warhol's goal was to diagnose---not cure, nor soothe, nor gratify. His specialty was anxiety.
Stravinsky/Balanchine: The Collaboration
(New York City Ballet, 29 September 2012)
Many a classical ballet could have been improved had it been feasible to separate some dancers and eliminate others. A ballerina's spins and dives would have been greater technical achievements had she not been supported by the man. When a man has a dramatic role to play, it is typically one of watching the woman admiringly. Dancers hardly communicate. Their relationship does not develop onstage, but is delivered frozen in a rather dull state designed to look pretty. It often does.
Balanchine breaks with the aesthetic convention of classical ballet in Part II of the "Symphony in Three Movements." The dancing couple creates an entity that exists in its own right and imbues each constituent individual with life. The remaining dances are explorative, occasionally baroque---Citizen Kanesque in that they contain innovations (e.g., non-classical positions, no plot), but these innovations add up to a study, not a perfected work of art.
Balanchine's dances are Art Deco. They communicate little, worship the form, and suppress individualism. They worship the machine and subordination---with individuals being means, not human beings enriched and exposed in interactions with others.
One cannot blame Balanchine for not being a Hitchcock. Balanchine lacks Hitchcock's obsession with human relationships. Balanchine's interest is in that which transcends the human, and that which transcends is at risk of speaking little to humans.
Many a classical ballet could have been improved had it been feasible to separate some dancers and eliminate others. A ballerina's spins and dives would have been greater technical achievements had she not been supported by the man. When a man has a dramatic role to play, it is typically one of watching the woman admiringly. Dancers hardly communicate. Their relationship does not develop onstage, but is delivered frozen in a rather dull state designed to look pretty. It often does.
Balanchine breaks with the aesthetic convention of classical ballet in Part II of the "Symphony in Three Movements." The dancing couple creates an entity that exists in its own right and imbues each constituent individual with life. The remaining dances are explorative, occasionally baroque---Citizen Kanesque in that they contain innovations (e.g., non-classical positions, no plot), but these innovations add up to a study, not a perfected work of art.
Balanchine's dances are Art Deco. They communicate little, worship the form, and suppress individualism. They worship the machine and subordination---with individuals being means, not human beings enriched and exposed in interactions with others.
One cannot blame Balanchine for not being a Hitchcock. Balanchine lacks Hitchcock's obsession with human relationships. Balanchine's interest is in that which transcends the human, and that which transcends is at risk of speaking little to humans.
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