As the darkness on the stage fades, one spot remains deeply shadowed as it forms Allison Jones’ body. The music begins as her body writhes. Each section of her body: neck, torso, pelvis, legs moves with separate yet continuous motion.

Scanner – Insulation Mix (after G.F. Handel’s Messiah)

People with hypomania are generally perceived as being energetic, euphoric, visionary, overflowing with new ideas, and sometimes over-confident and very charismatic, yet—unlike those with full-blown mania—are sufficiently capable of coherent thought and action to participate in everyday activities. Like mania, there seems to be a significant correlation between hypomania and creativity.

Credit: Alexis A Convento

A person in the state of hypomania might be immune to fear and doubt and have little social and sexual inhibition.

She looks out, acknowledging your presence. Then her gaze moves inward, her knees move toward each other in an awkward bend, her torso and pelvis reach for each other, in, individual, inherent, innate, inside, interior, internal, intimate, intrinsic, intuitive, inward.

People experiencing hypomania are often the “life of the party.”

Credit: Alexis A Convento

They may talk to strangers easily, offer solutions to problems, and find pleasure in small activities. Such advantages may render them unwilling to submit to treatment, especially when disadvantages are minimal.

Only to burst out once again.

Credit: Alexis A Convento

Pangaea – Neurons

This is not merely a dance entitled Hypomaniac, you are watching one: the performer and the choreographer. The dancer and the dance and the dance and the dance and the dance and the dance and the dance and the dance and the dance and the dance and the dance and the dance and the dance and the dance and the dance and the dance.

Credit: Alexis A Convento

Is this art or is this hypomania?

If you enjoy this dance, do you have a clinical disease to investigate?

Who brought all these party hats?

I don’t remember bringing all these party hats?

How did I even get to this party?

Why does this party feel like I’m writing a blog post?

The Current Sessions: Vol I, Issue I
August 8th, 2011
The Wild Project
New York, NY

Ishmael returns once the two have parted and begins a solo dance. It has been almost 25 years since the first performance but his body still moves with wonderful grace and intention. He grabs his crotch, feels his skin and speaks of masturbation, of self-pleasure. Felix Cruz and Niall Noel begin their own dance of pleasure. Although intention is skewed and it is difficult to see when the movement is beyond that of momentary improvisation, the boys cascade on and over each other often rubbing groins and backsides together. They don’t acknowledge each other’s presence except as bodies to touch and push and fall onto. Their only purpose is to continue touching.

Credit: Hugh Burckhardt

Jeremy returns with a large wooden plank and a pocket full of coins. As he faces away, the light creating an obscured façade, he tosses each into the air and cracks them beyond the light. A man stands with a microphone lit offstage and reads a seemingly unending list of deaths and how they occurred. At first they are suicides, then accidental overdoses, diseases, old age and finally when a boy meets another man for sex, heavily suggesting a death by AIDS we are told that as he calls his friend for a ride from a phone booth, a blood vessel in his brain explodes. Upon hearing this, the lights flash on, a loud crash is heard and all of the boys careen onstage, chasing each other around the room at full speed and with violent athleticism.

They pause in a formation facing the upstage diagonal corner. The reader begins again to speak this time of himself. He talks of boys and sex and happiness as the formation moves slowly across the stage. These boys touch each other, sometimes suggestively sexual, sometimes suggestively romantically, but always with an air of detachment. Although they look at and approach each other there is a constant lack of interest or expectation of anything the other boys are doing.

Credit: Hugh Burckhardt

At one point, a line of light creates a strip along the edge of the stage. Niall and Enrico D. Wey stand at either end and begin walking slowly toward each other. They look at each other with mild interest and Niall has a glint of distant sadness in his eyes. As they walk they pause at each other than begin walking past as if deciding to move on, only to turn around and begin the walk again. This encounter becomes faster and faster until they are running full speed at and away from each other, Niall inadvertently kicking my feet and bag as I sit just off stage in his path. They finish with a struggle up against the wall, each trying to pin the other and press their bodies together.

Later Jeremy returns to chase Felix with his wooden plank, coming close to smacking and injuring him several times. He passes the plank to Joey Cannizzaro who lands on a mattress which Niall has brought on stage. He slams the wood on the springs again and again sending the loud smacks out into the air. Each strike as hard as the last, he finally falls over in exhaustion. The mattress is used again as Joey sits casually at one end while Niall pushes Jacob Slominski onto his back into the mattress. Niall helps Jacob stand back up and repeats the process for a seemingly eternal cycle. The final use of the mattress comes as the blindfolded Arturo enters again while Jeremy follows with a goat folded around his neck. Arturo sits on the mattress and the goat is handed to him as the smell of barn and the realization that the goat is dead fills the room.

Arturo takes the goat and begins to hold it close to him as he tumbles on the mattress, he flops the goat’s head around and pushes himself on it. It becomes clear that he is making love to the lifeless goat. It might seem that this love making, which lasts longer than most would find comfortable, was some sort of avant-garde tool to shock the audience. However, with the common theme of sex, death and a hinting of AIDS, it would be difficult to find a better way to convey this troubling concept without such a disturbing image. The goat is a very beautiful soft creature. It is cute and innocent and if it had been alive, this dance would have conjured images of a young simple love. But the goat is dead. It is lifeless and the man is too blind to see it. The young simple love is actually deadly play. One can not help but feel transported to the bedside of a young couple having sex, one with HIV and the other without, they don’t know it and it must be viewed with terrifying proximity and in silent disbelief. The duet ends as a sheet is pulled over the couple. They don’t move for the rest of the piece and everyone knows that the noxious barn smell is filling the lungs of the sheeted man.

Credit: Hugh Burckhardt

The final moments include the cast coming out into the light and staring off into distance. They look as though seeing themselves in the mirror and feeling their lymph nodes. They seem to be checking for swelling, the sign of an infection. Jeremy comes again, this time grabbing each boy in turn and wrestling them until they are still on the floor. Niall stands closest to me, feeling the node under his arm pit as the last boy standing. Jeremy walks slowly to his final victim as the darkness takes the entire scene away before it can be fully realized.

For someone who has just moved to New York City and as a newcomer to the dance community here, it is difficult to really grasp its history. The generation before my own found itself reeling from an unknown virus killing many people who contributed greatly to dance among all of the other many art forms. This was also the generation where homosexuality wasn’t remotely as acceptable as it is now. The gay community was neither defined nor understood and the mysterious virus infiltrated where it only caused greater confusion. Although HIV and AIDS are still very much prevalent it is much more understood and less deadly after medicines were created to fight it. The dance community and all of the arts will never know what has been lost not only in lives but in contributions to the art. A whole community was dwindled down and my generation will never truly know what that was like or have that knowledge in our conscience in the way that the creators of this piece do. Even the dancers who performed this work recently cannot do it justice. The original piece was performed by dancers who were there and who were speaking about their current experience. The new dancers can only perform and hope that what was said could still be heard. As I watched Niall at the end I wanted to snap my fingers and have him look at me just so I could know that he was here and he was himself. The performers were speaking about such intimate subjects but they were not speaking about themselves and in this sense the entire dance had a strange layer of distancing and I couldn’t reach a place where I felt truly affected.

Credit: Hugh Burckhardt

I am not fully sure if it was because of this new generation that this was how I felt. Even during the relaying of how the list of people died, it felt as though the depictions of death were more interesting or morbid than real. In the monologues, the speaker was both self-conscious but with a mythical touch. He spoke of the men he wanted to be or of the man he had become as an almost theatrical depiction. And although the goat dance was shocking and illuminating it still did not talk of itself in a real way. I have seen HIV depicted else where but mostly in the same theatrics. Whether it is Rent or Angels in America HIV has felt like a character and less like a disease. Perhaps these examples are theater and therefor should not be criticized for not feeling ‘real,’ but maybe these depictions are so common because it is much easier to discuss these topics from a distance and with layers of mysticism then to take off the outer layer and feel the true reality underneath. The creators of THEM did not set out to make a dance about HIV or homosexuality but the common thread of violence, death, seclusion, confusion, and love all combine within this piece and discussing one can’t help give insite into the others.

How did you react to the goat duet?

Were you disturbed by the violence through out the piece?

Have you seen other dances that depict or nod to HIV or AIDS?

Did you ever yearn for the sting of wet towels in the boy’s locker room?

RE:NEW RE:PLAY
October 28th, 2010
PS 122
New York, NY

Did you feel a calm and perceptible atmosphere?

Were you drawn in to the sounds of planes overhead?

Did you see the dancers as children or as images of something else?

Are you awake?

Big Octopus
October 22nd, 2010
The Rover
New York, NY

Mad Rush – Philip Glass (Performed by Aleck Karis)

Later the dancers in little black dresses walk as a crowd going in various directions and constantly cut each other off. But among the walking figures, here and there, a dancer steps out and begins her short phrase, obscured every so often by the pedestrians, only to join them and become lost once more in the streams of bodies.

The dance continues with short segments of duos and trios but imperceptibly comes back once more to the walking mass. A familiar series of solo dance phrases emerges. Although it is difficult to really grasp in its entirety, there is the feeling that this exact moment has happened before in the dance. Before knowing for sure, the moment has already passed. As the music slows again, the dancers end their dancing in a discernibly similar formation as the beginning. Only this time, the torso begins bent over and the dancers rise one at a time to leave the stage walking backward. The last woman curls herself straight, looks at the audience and walks regressively to where she began as Nicholas strikes the last key.

Did you feel a sense of Déjà Vu while watching this dance?

Have you seen other dances which make use of a large number of dancers?

Do you see potential in these emerging choreographers?

How beautiful is Philip Glass’ music?

Perceptions Contemporary Dance Festival
September 18th, 2010
Manhattan Movement & Arts Center
New York, NY

Credit: Steven Schreiber

Paul Singh stands in a spot light facing close to the audience on stage right. A man’s voice speaks casually, ‘gasp.’ His shaved head lurches back, arms crossing forward, a loud sharp inhalation emits into the space. This is followed by an ‘evil chuckle.’ Paul changes suit immediately, and the space seems to transform with him. With nonchalance, the voice continues providing more commands and Paul accepts them with believable deliverance. Soon, three more dancers consecutively add on, in assorted costumes, and join him in his responses.

Billy, Wait! – Paul Singh & Others

The voice changes course to various observations about unknown characters as the strange people on stage begin to dance. Jessica Martineau’s bloody bandages clash with Courtney Drasner’s gagged mouth, flopping handcuffs and a shirt pronouncing ‘Don’t Ask.’ Anne Merrick’s makeup is awkwardly smeared and Paul constantly trails a cloud of dust. Although the characters are dressed differently, they are often in unison bringing the dancers into a strange yet fitting little group.

Credit: Steven Schreiber

Even though the voices begin to overlap in a seemingly nonsensical way, the bits of information, convoluted as they are, begin to feel as though coming from within the dancers themselves. Who is Billy? No one in particular but rather a conglomeration of the many emotions the dancers are feeling in this stage of their lives. There is a real sense of ‘this moment in time’ as the piece unfolds. The voice is commanding the dancers and they respond in the moment and later it shouts and the dancers immediately stop what they are doing. So when the voice begins to talk about ‘the many moments it will take you to come back,’ ‘I want you to stay lost,’ ‘don’t be so obvious’ and many more, it is as though the dancers are talking to themselves and to the audience and at times trying desperately to confuse both so as not to give too much of themselves away. This piece is not overtly about anything, but there is a real subconscious underlying atmospheric presence of a choreographer and dancers speaking about their current lives and their pursuit toward honest artistic expression.

Credit: Steven Schreiber

Have you seen other dances that use text in this way?

Did you relate to any of the vocal suggestions?

Do you know of other works that seem self-reflexive?

What was it that Billy always said?

DanceNOW [NYC] Festival 2010
September 11th, 2010
Dance Theater Workshop
New York, NY

Her Kind – Anne Sexton (text)

Basked in yellow light, her face and hands now glinting canary, Denise begins her dance. Standing, wobbling on one foot, she struggles to gain her balance. One wonders for only a short time of her technical ability. She finds her footing and now, fully grounded on her left leg, she circles her right foot in a long strikingly clear rond de jambe. Her toes reach for the space just inches from her physical length. She is strong yet awkward and unable to fully engage in her strength, a constant battle to find her root.

The Ambition Bird – Anne Sexton (text)

Her struggles begin to reach for the air with jumps and leaps and although she leaves the ground her breath is an audible gasp. She is not enjoying her flight but trying desperately to keep up with her own body. Then again, a calm attempt at another grounding. She is neither sufficiently able to engage with the air nor find a stable connection with the earth. Instead, she is trapped somewhere in between freedom and security.

Music Swims Back To Me – Anne Sexton (text)

As the dance comes to a close, Denise exhibits more and more of the bird she resembles. Her torso and head bobs up and down like the iconic top-hatted stork whose red watery insides control its drinking and later her hands flutter like small wings. Perhaps she is The Ambition Bird that Anne speaks of, keeping her up at night and which no hot cocoa can quell. A woman struggling against her societal role, rejected for rejecting, trapped in asylum, yet basked in a yellow light of ambition and listening to the swimming music, hoping desperately to come out above it all.

Credit: http://www.charlottedancefestival.org/danceintheopen.html

Have you seen other dances about the role of women?

Do you read poems by Anne Sexton or similar poets?

Have you felt this sense of desperation and hope based on your gender?

Does drinking hot cocoa help you fall asleep?

Audio was found here.

DanceNOW [NYC] Festival 2010
September 11th, 2010
Dance Theater Workshop
New York, NY

Credit: Renee Rosensteel

Down the steps into the park and through a small plaza, a small stage is placed where The Radio Show will be performed. The atmosphere is informal and without the quiet setting of a theater the traffic and passersby create a constantly interjecting background. The lights dim as they would in a theater, but much slower and almost imperceptibly with the setting of the sun. Kyle Abraham begins on stage. He stands, not waiting or watching but almost as if lost in his own thoughts off in the distance. The conversations in the audience fade and his dance begins.

Credit: See Note

His movement is forceful yet controlled and the motion of his arms are quick but choreographed. The movement never seems to stop unless abruptly and continuing once again. His fingers are sometimes spread wide open and at others closed tightly in a fist. He walks forward slowly while his fist shakes uncontrollably at his side like an old man. The other dancers join him with the same spirited movement and continue the dance.

Credit: See Note

The most striking aspect of the performance was the music choice. Based on a radio show he listened to growing up in Pittsburgh the songs used included hip-hop, R&B, talk radio conversations, older and classical music mixed in with static as well as seemingly static influenced music in between. Many artists are now starting to incorporate hip-hop or older R&B music into their dances but choose to use it ironically as a way to distance itself from the likes of television shows such as So You Think You Can Dance. The music with words and a pumping rhythm can easily become cliché and lose its artistic integrity. Kyle does not use irony nor does he allude to the words in his dancing. As the music cuts from one song to the next we are aware that the music is not propelling the dancing but rather building on to the atmosphere. As each song plays we feel the contribution of each artist in different ways to the community Kyle is portraying.

Credit: See Note

Within the radio conversations sprinkled throughout the performance we are introduced to varying topics. They discuss what it means to be an African American woman in a relationship. They talk about how women often change after the are in a relationship and that men often do not. “What it takes to get a man is what it takes to keep them.” All the while they stay candid and poke fun at the topics they discuss. At a point in the dance a man and a woman are dancing a duet of love and rejection among many dances where the performers do not make contact with each other. At another point, one dancer mimes to take off her hoop earrings and wipe Vaseline on her face while a second dancer chews gum emphatically while putting her hair up, ready to fight.

Credit: See Note

Near the end, a very soft cover of Beyoncés “Crazy In Love” plays.

Crazy In Love – Antony And The Johnsons

The song is reminiscent of many classical songs and Antony’s voice is hauntingly soothing. It takes Beyoncés quick and entertaining hip hop song and, using the exact same words, drives into the emotions from a different direction.
[Original] Crazy In Love – Beyoncé

The sudden reinterpretation of this song inserted into the established atmosphere of hip hop songs creates a opening to see that the many themes within these entertaining songs are universal. The topics discussed on the talk radio show, the troubling relationship between the man and the woman, the gum chewing fighter are all aspects of our different lives spoken through the voice of an urban culture. It would be no different to choose an opus from Bach that evokes the same emotion. And as Kyle says that the radio station the dance is based on was suddenly closed it becomes very clear what voice he believes was silenced. The urban voice having the same human experience as the rest yet unable to express itself in its own way. The area surrounding Jackie Robinson Park will see its apartment prices climb and the residents will watch as their landscape and community changes with the coming gentrification. Perhaps the message wasn’t meant as a warning but it’s hard to overlook their commonality and that of urban communities everywhere that have lost or are losing their voice or never had a voice to begin with.

Did you get to see the performance at the park?

Have you seen other dances with urban themes?

Do you know of other situations where a community has lost its voice?

Who he think he is?

July 30, 2010
Jackie Robinson Park
SummerStage Dance
New York, New York

Note: Photos are screen caps taken from this promotional video.

Suite No 4: IV. Sarabande – Johann Sebastian Bach

She’s decked out in a conservative gray turtleneck sweater with simple knit pattern, a knee length black skirt, hair carefully tucked back from her face and a small shiny circular lapel. The dancing begins almost immediately to combine facial and bodily gestures to convey invisible scenarios. She goes from looking shy and brushing off compliments from someone in the distance to performing a simple time step tap dance. At one point she boxes with someone in slow motion, taking a few hits herself, before she raises her arms victorious only to continue dancing until checking her pulse with her imagined watch. The movement seems to embody the ever shifting thoughts of a person left to mull through their day in a cartoon-like fashion.

Credit: http://monicabillbarnes.com

Get up (I feel like being a) Sex Machine – James Brown

The music ends and the spirit lifts with the shouts of James Brown. Two more dancers replace the first wearing similarly drab outfits. Like a couple secretaries taking their lunch break, the women begin to feel the music. They strike poses and gestures with the voice of James Brown recovering from their outbursts of movement in between. As if the voice of James Brown is bubbling up from inside these awkward conservative women, who in no way embody sex machines, they cannot control their dancing urges. The two remaining women join the first two and the gestures continue recalling many used from the previous section.

I’ll Never fall in Love – Burt Bacharach

Suite No 4: III. Courante – Johann Sebastian Bach

As Bach begins again, the four women come to the front of the stage and continue their quartet of sexy gestures. Sometimes shaking their butts or pulling down the neck of their sweaters to reveal a naked shoulder all the while pausing and shaking their heads at each other for being just a little too ridiculous and out of place. There is a constant struggle between dancing how they want to and being concerned for convention.

Credit: http://monicabillbarnes.com

It’s a New Day So Let a Man Come in – James Brown

Polk Salad Annie – Tony Joe White

The lights come on and one of the woman walks out into the audience and up the stairs, she walks out into the lobby and in again down the other side. The women on stage laugh at her and gesture as if to say, “Oh, I see what you did there, that was really clever, I liked that.” The woman then sits on the steps and watches the dance along with the audience.

Walk A Mile In My Shoes – Joe South

After the four women have rejoined on stage the lights again come on and they once again head into the audience with the song “Walk A Mile In My Shoes” playing over head. They find one audience member each and take them back up to the stage with them. Each dancing with their new partner in their own awkward way, one holding her tall woman partner very close to her body, another so far apart to remind us of middle school dances, they have a conversation with the new presence on stage. They shake their hips at their partner and beckon them further and further up stage until they switch places and remove their lapels to put them on the new dancers. They step away from their new counterparts who are standing their just as awkwardly as the woman had just before and at once they shake their hips to the pleasing of the audience.

A Love Like Yours (Don’t Come Knockin’ Everyday) – Martha Reeves & The Vandellas

After the audience members have returned to their seats, the women take to the stage, walk to the back where confetti has been resting through out the entire performance, grab a handful and fling it up and above themselves. They put their fists in the air as they had after winning the boxing match and as the bits of color sprinkle around them the curtain closes.

Credit: http://monicabillbarnes.com

The dance relies heavily on the fine line between comedy and seriousness. Monica doesn’t believe that subjects created for humor are very funny and often she doesn’t know what parts of her dance people will find humorous until she performs and she is often surprised. Unlike many modern and post-modern predecessors, Another Parade does not demand that it be taken seriously. It does not derive authenticity from moving with honesty or through abstraction but rather by using irony to place a check on it’s possible lack of authenticity. When the dancers go from familiar modern movement to walking briskly and checking their pulses we are notified that the dancers are joking about dancing for fitness rather than art. We are not given direct clues as to when the dancers are trying to be taken seriously and when they are only joking and so we can shed our need to find meaning in the movement. I believe that Monica Bill Barnes company is trying to say that if you take yourself seriously and you are not self-aware you run the risk of being inauthentic. The use of irony portrays self-awareness and that although you are creating one image you are aware of its implications and contrasts. You reach a new level of authenticity and honesty that is easily contrived in our current culture.

Have you seen any other dances that include many gestures?

Did you find the dance funny and did you feel a connection to it?

Do you believe in the irony and authenticity argument?

Do you ever dance during your lunch breaks?

June 15th, 2010
Reynolds Industries Theater
American Dance Festival
Duke University, Durham, North Carolina

Anne Bass, Credit: Time Magazine

When I first heard about Anne Bass I wasn’t sure who she was or why the college was so excited to present the work of someone who had just created their first film. It wasn’t long before a somewhat unfortunate fact surfaced. Divorced from a Texan billionaire, Anne Bass was in possession of quite a bit of money. Now that Vassar College has lost about a third of its endowment, struggling along with many peer institutions, showing interest in a rich alumnus seems like a great idea. The unfortunate part in all this is how it affected the presentation of the film even before the projector was warm. It was difficult to look past the professional photographer, who had never been on campus before, snapping picture after picture of the bubbly conversation between Anne and the president of Vassar.

Olga Kostritzky, Credit: dancingacrossborders.net

Olga Kostritzky is one of the main figures in the documentary. Upon Sy’s arrival to America, Anne sets him up with Olga for private lessons so that he can gain some technique before joining the School of American Ballet. The myths surrounding Olga, the founder of the boys program at SAB, began immediately from other Vassar students who had taken class with her or from the ballet school. We knew before she arrived that she was never caught without her giant sunglasses, except one day when no one at her studios recognized her. The class started innocently enough. The thick Russian accent emanating softly from her short stocky form told a cute story culminating in the fact that she was wearing two right ballet slippers. After a few exercises at the bar, she told one boy that, being tall, attractive and with nice legs, he could make it as a professional ballet dancer if he would only close his fifth position. She told another that he needed to dance with his arms and that they shouldn’t stay limp at his sides. She was criticizing the two best ballet dancers in our class who rarely got a comment from our current teacher. Upon realizing this, the masochistic side of ballet was suddenly and unshakably present. I wanted her to criticize me, to tell me what I was doing wrong and be considered worth fixing. I was also terrified of what she would say and whether I would be able to fix what she wanted me to.

Upon completely failing to execute a simple balancé combination with stiff legs and the wrong arms, and at this point I had started to check out from the raging psychological game in my head, she merely looked at me and said ‘You were late.’ I nodded and walked away feeling like a joke. I have never really thought it was possible to become a ballet dancer so late in life but for some reason this all effected me very much. As the film was played, I could feel myself in Sy’s place with both jealousy and sympathy. Later in the locker room I was told that Olga had ‘chilled out’ over the years. One student recounted how she would criticize her pupil’s technique along with their lives in general. The reason a dancer wouldn’t close their fifth position completely was, to her, because they didn’t care enough to, and if they didn’t care enough about fifth position they definitely didn’t care about the rest of their lives and the reason they were failing in life was because they failed to close in a perfect fifth position. On one occasion, I was told, this rhetoric made a girl cry and Olga responded by laughing. The shocking part of it all is that this is commonplace for ballet and most ballet dancers will tell you that if you can’t stand the back handed compliments and constant mental torment, you clearly weren’t meant to be a ballet dancer.

Credit: dancingacrossborders.net

So then as the theater settled down and the lights dimmed, I was fairly aware of who had created the film and the nature behind Sy’s private teacher. But there was another layer that contributed to my preconceptions of the film. With a title like ‘Dancing Across Borders,’ I knew that cultural sensitivity would be immediately measured by the audience. Vassar has a somewhat diverse atmosphere and a community that is quickly defensive when it comes to issues of race, class and gender. The screening occurred during the same week as students protested a campus-wide spring ‘Luau’ because it was insensitive and insulting to the cultural traditions of Hawaiian people. This happening just days after objections to a ‘Free Weezy’ dance party for the perpetuation of racist black stereotypes by way of Lil Wayne as well as continued disbelief at a fundraiser challenging donors to walk around the quad with a bucket of water on their head titled ‘Are you stronger than a Nigerian woman?’ So it was no wonder that thoughts of imperialism and the ‘white man’s burden’ along with a discerning eye for cultural injustice would permeate the reception of the film.

Sokvannara (Sy) Sar, Credit: Rex Tranter

So how did the documentary pass the test? I’m really not sure. In a sense, the film stayed very true to reality and did very little to paint Sy’s journey through ballet as a triumphant or extraordinary. At times it seemed to try. It mentioned how incredible his cramps were or how unbelievable it was that would learn ballet so quickly. But this was all overshadowed by Sy’s almost complete lack of interest in ballet. Almost before this had become apparent the film seemed to try and justify itself as it progressed. In it’s attempt to not undermine his Cambodian upbringing, it left me feeling as though Sy might have been better off just staying home with his family. There were two sides constantly juxtaposed and awfully confusing. Half of the film included footage of Sy working very hard to perfect his technique. It showed him learning from Olga and connecting with fellow company members. And his performances were incredibly beautiful and striking. But the other half was very stark. Sy admits that he didn’t care much for ballet when he first saw it but that he would give it a try. He talks of getting tired of Olga and the practices. During one of his performances his parents are quoted around his body saying that they don’t really understand the ballet or really care if he is doing it. There are shots of him walking around the city alone and talking about his lack of friends and how hard it was for him to break into American culture. He even mentions once about how he doesn’t feel as though he belongs in America but he so seldom goes home that he doesn’t feel like he belongs there either. He is quoted as saying that sometimes you have to do what you have to do and not what you want to do. The most enchanting performances, including a hauntingly beautiful solo performed alongside Philip Glass, are when he is told to channel loneliness and homesickness. And so as the final credits begin to roll, as Sy is reaching and pulling his body across the stage I am left not with inspiration but with unexpected sadness. It seems that Anne Bass has brought this boy from his poor family in Cambodia, introducing a path into the riches of America through ballet only to drop his identity in the ocean somewhere on the flight over, and even as he learns the technique beautifully, he is never truly passionate about it. For an art form that professes unbelievable beauty, dedication and passion, it is bewildering and saddening to see it performed so captivatingly by someone who never really wanted to be there in the first place. The art is created not for the sake of art, but for the sake of leaving Cambodia and seeking a better life. Perhaps the inspiration is supposed to come from him struggling diligently to become a beautiful ballet dancer. I suppose this would have worked if he actually wanted to be one.

Although this would seem to denounce the film, I honestly believe it should be viewed by everyone. It is an incredibly fascinating work not only in its content but in its mere existence. It causes one to question many aspects of art and dance. The film was promoted and distributed primarily because of how much money the director of the film has and she could be considered a ‘rich artist.’ She did not struggle to create this film and she never had to seek approval from art critics or grant and fellowship donors. Does this change the authenticity of a work of art? Had she enough money to sponsor Sy but not enough to make the film, would it have turned out differently? Is there a direct correlation between money and integrity of art? In the same vein, Sy’s performances were incredible even though he wasn’t passionate about them. Does one actually need to be passionate about an art form to create beautiful work? If not, does that not undermine the work of so many people who care more than anything about the art they are pursing? Isn’t that terrifying? I don’t think Anne should be criticized for wanting to help Sy and his family but when all the pieces come together, the inspiration quickly falls away and I am left with the strange story of a wealthy woman who chose a boy she liked watching dance and taught him beautifully to watch him dance ballet. He, knowing how much this could help his family, accepted what she was giving him but all the while never knowing for sure if he even liked what she had given.

Although it certainly did not set out to do so, Anne’s film portrays a perspective on dance and art that I have never seen before. One with such a lack of self-awareness or censorship that the audience is given a rare view of dance that is not often seen. It may not be great art but it is definitely a piece of work that is both hyper-realistic and unintentionally beyond disillusionment. A strange story definitely worth seeing with your own eyes.

Credit: Erin Baiano

March 31st, 4:00pm
Vassar College
Poughkeepsie, New York

Credit: Michael O'Neill

When I first learned that Merce Cunningham used chance to choreograph his dances, I assumed the performance would be unfathomable. It is true that at times the sections of dances could be ordered randomly only a minute before the performance, but I imagined whole dances where the performer had each step in random sequence to be remembered and executed with perfect precision. I dreamed that in his effort to find true freedom from oneself and the influences of one’s environment there would be nothing more than incoherent movement and placement and only the uncalculated and miraculous unison would shine through. Now that I have finally seen a live full performance I can understand that Merce Cunningham is actually… not that different from what I have seen before. At least not this piece. And knowing his choreography came first, I can begin to understand the influence his choreography has had on the art of modern dance.

Credit: J.P. Maurin

The piece included many repeated phrases and formations in different locations and directions. There were also two duets between a man and a woman, indicating some sort of relationship that seemed more about mating than love with neither partner ever really touching yet forcefully invading each others space.

Credit: Andrea Mohin

The dance begins with a soft blue background that slowly darkens to a cobalt blue. Without seeing the title, the close proximity of the dancers, the head, leg and arm flicks, their quick, stealthy movement and the way they seem to avoid each other without acknowledging each other’s existence swiftly brings the audience to the illusion of watching a flock of birds. And as the background slowly fades to a light orange, the sun begins to set on another simple day for birds on the beach.

Credit: Michael Cavalca

Have you seen a performance of Merce Cunningham before?

Do you see contemporary artists borrowing from his technique or aesthetic?

How does this dance compare with other dances you have seen about a flock of birds?

How much do you miss the ocean right now?

March 13th, 8:00pm
Joyce Theater
New York City, New York

(some images found at Oberon’s Grove)