sandik Posted August 11, 2015 Share Posted August 11, 2015 Naomikage posted this video of Hans van Manen's choreography to Erik Satie's Trois Gnossiennes -- while I know the Ashton choreography pretty well, I hadn't seen this before, and so now I'm wondering -- has anyone else made work with this score? (here's another, longer cut, with some odd June Taylor Dancers overhead shots) Link to comment
Lynette H Posted August 11, 2015 Share Posted August 11, 2015 Rusell Maliphant has used Trois Gnossiennes. Details here http://www.russellmaliphant.com/work/afterlight/ It was inspired by some of the drawings Nijinsky made - lots of curves and circles. Link to comment
sandik Posted August 11, 2015 Author Share Posted August 11, 2015 A very different approach to the score -- how interesting! Many thanks for the link!! Link to comment
Quiggin Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 Ashton apparently was immediately influenced by Merce Cunningham's Nocturnes but I think Cunningham's Satie is closer to the mark (although I have difficulty reading English tone and humor and may not be seeing Monotones correctly). Anyway Satie has been terribly sentimentalized over the years - his music is really supposed to be banal, satirical, slight dreary - a little like Andy Warhol. Added: Ashton probably knew Satie through Constant Lambert who early on brilliantly championed his music - whose form, he writes, consisted of "a series of interrupted and overlapping recapitulations which causes the piece to fold in on itself as it were ... and even succeeds in abolishing our time sense." Also " It does not matter which way you walk around a statue and it does not matter in which order you play the three Gymnopédies." Via "Cages Place in the Reception of Satie" : Matthew Shlomowitz Link to comment
Quiggin Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 3Gs 1922 - Few details but great Satiean costumes by Brancusi on Lizica Codreanu http://felicecalchi.blogspot.pt/2013/08/who-would-not-wanted-to-be-there.html Link to comment
sandik Posted August 12, 2015 Author Share Posted August 12, 2015 Ashton apparently was immediately influenced by Merce Cunningham's Nocturnes but I think Cunningham's Satie is closer to the mark (although I have difficulty reading English tone and humor and may not be seeing Monotones correctly). Anyway Satie has been terribly sentimentalized over the years - his music is really supposed to be banal, satirical, slight dreary - a little like Andy Warhol. Absolutely agree about the sentimentalizing, especially because it's a real temptation for me. I do think that Cunningham got closer to what I think Satie might have wanted, but I do love the English restraint in Monotones. 3Gs 1922 - Few details but great Satiean costumes by Brancusi on Lizica Codreanu http://felicecalchi.blogspot.pt/2013/08/who-would-not-wanted-to-be-there.html "Who would not wanted to be there?" indeed! Some spectacular costumes. I don't know the dancer at all -- anyone here have any knowledge? Link to comment
Helene Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 The headgear looks as practical as Seligman's for "The Four Temperaments." Link to comment
sandik Posted August 12, 2015 Author Share Posted August 12, 2015 It looks like a combination of early Medieval headgear and Picasso's designs for the Massine/Satie "Parade" Link to comment
Mailied Posted August 16, 2015 Share Posted August 16, 2015 Absolutely agree about the sentimentalizing, especially because it's a real temptation for me. I do think that Cunningham got closer to what I think Satie might have wanted, but I do love the English restraint in Monotones. "Who would not wanted to be there?" indeed! Some spectacular costumes. I don't know the dancer at all -- anyone here have any knowledge? Lizica Codreanu was by all accounts a wonderful romanian avantgarde dancer. She was born in 1901 and as far as I know she studied ballet in Paris (I heard that she studied also under Nijinska) but she didn't like the constraint and the order of classical ballet. Constantin Brancusi appreciated her a lot and loved her innovative approach to dancing so he made some costumes for her like the one above. He called her "Tiganca" (which means "the gipsy"). She married some journalist at the end of the '20s, divorced and opened a Hatha Yoga school in Paris. She died in the '90s. Link to comment
sandik Posted August 16, 2015 Author Share Posted August 16, 2015 All I know of Codreanu is the Brancusi text - can you tell me where I might find more information? (alas, Google was not my friend today on this) Link to comment
Mailied Posted August 17, 2015 Share Posted August 17, 2015 Unfortunately I can't find anything about her in english or french and even the romanian articles don't contain much information... Link to comment
sandik Posted August 17, 2015 Author Share Posted August 17, 2015 Unfortunately I can't find anything about her in english or french and even the romanian articles don't contain much information... Too bad -- there are so many artists in that position -- part of the development of the work, but unacknowledged in the written record. Link to comment
Quiggin Posted August 17, 2015 Share Posted August 17, 2015 Here's something from Radio Romania about a recent attempt to recreate the studio dance to Satie recordings and also some background on Codreanu - Doina Lemny: Her son tried to talk me out of it, telling me that Lizica did not have a dance career proper. Which is true. She was like a falling star. She used to dance mostly in Brancusi's studio and caught the eye of very well known artists, like Sonia Delaunay, who at that time was a costume designer. She drew the attention of Fernand Leger, but Lizica did not want to wear an outfit designed by him. Leger designed costumes for ballet performances, but his approach was rather rigid. As for Lizica, once she reached Paris, she quickly understood what was going on in the artistic circles and simply put ballet aside. She never went to a ballet school. Quite the contrary, she took up circus trainingshe used to chat with artistsShe practically immersed herself in a creative atmosphere. An artistic and resourceful personality, she used to train in Brancusis workshop, and this fascinated him. http://www.rri.ro/en_gb/world_of_culture-2526498 Link to comment
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