sandik

On 10/14/2019 at 4:05 PM, dirac said:

There's also a brief shot of young Kevin Bacon's butt, for anyone interested.

SPOILER:

 

 

 

Why oh why did you let Mrs. Voorhees in, Alice? You’re supposed to be the SMART one !!!

There's an ad for Geico insurance that plays on all the horror film stereotype, with the terrified group of young people trying to find a place to hide -- "Can't we just get in the running car?  Are you crazy -- let's hide behind the chain saws..."  Cracks me up every time I see it.

On 10/26/2019 at 11:09 AM, kylara7 said:

On the positive side of this issue, organizations like Final Bow For Yellowface and the companies that work with them are changing their approaches to motifs in ballet that have not aged well, with support and input by art and ballet historians and cultural experts.

Linked below is recent example posted on Ballet West's social media. I really like their phrasing of "moving from caricature to character". Seems like a well thought-out and much needed effort.

Thanks so much for the embedded video -- I hadn't seen it before. 

You might take a look at Arlene Croce's anthologies -- I always learn something from her.

I'm from Seattle, and have been watching MM for most of his dance-making life.  While I think he's certainly matured over that time, some of the fundamental elements in his work remain the same -- he has always had a very clear understanding of music and a sophisticated ability to work with it structurally.  At the beginning, he set a lot of work to popular music (his work to the Louvin Brothers and to Yoko Ono were brilliant in the simplicity and clarity of working with lyrics/text) and often included some snarky and juvenile humor.   People do compare him to Balanchine, in part because of the musicality, and also because of the integrity of the construction, but that doesn't always fit -- Morris' early dance training included a lot of ballet, but I think his experience as a folk dancer and as a student of Spanish and Flamenco was integral to his development.  Balanchine's home base is always classical ballet, while Morris has a broader standing vocabulary.  He will often choose very simple material (walking, skipping, galloping) that reinforces the rhythmic pattern of the score, where Balanchine or another choreographer whose primary responses are drawn from ballet will choose something from that tradition.  But they do have this in common -- if you don't like the music they've chosen, you will not have a very good time in the theater. 

I haven't seen his Orfeo, and so cannot comment on it, but have you seen his Gloria, or L'Allegro, or Mozart Dances?  They all include examples of what you might think of as pedestrian movement, but for me, that creates a connection to the viewer that is powerful and direct.  My kinesthetic response to the work is profound in these works.

I have thoughts but no time right now -- back later.

Thanks to all for the elaboration. 

14 hours ago, volcanohunter said:

Because James Kudelka was still director when she retired.

True, but it didn't hurt that she spent that time doing projects that gave her experience outside the studio.  I think that's really what I'm trying to get to -- AD is a different skill set, and the transition is a difficult one if you're coming straight off the stage.

On 10/24/2019 at 9:43 PM, perichoresis said:

All dances are too long.

- Doris Humphrey

I have a list on my hard drive of sayings and phrases I love -- this is #1.

Congratulations to them all, and snaps to Sarah Pasch for those turns.  Since your center of gravity changes about every 45 minutes when you're pregnant, they are especially great...

Publications follow readership stats very closely -- if you want to see more reviews, make sure you read the ones that you do get.

13 hours ago, naomikage said:

Such good news!

Not sure why you think this is good news -- could you elaborate?

I don't think they'll promote someone who is currently performing -- they waited quite a while before they pursued Kain. 

Welcome to the community -- there are a few of us here who live and see dance on the west coast.  Where was your studio located?

As with great dancers, it takes a lot of skill to do "nothing."

Apparently a couple of commentators on Fox News were pretty insulting about the whole response

5 hours ago, dirac said:

O'Toole's looks were indeed remodeled a bit. He was originally brunet, with a rather wild shock of hair, went blond and straight for Lawrence and stayed that way. His nose also had an extra bit of length nipped off. (He was always a striking man, he just became striking in a more conventional way.)

My Favorite Year ran and ran here, almost as long as a year.  O'Toole may have had some conventional instincts, but he could calibrate them for a part.

6 hours ago, Kathleen O'Connell said:

Fun Mavis Staples fact: Bob Dylan proposed to her, but she turned him down. 

Wow -- I had no idea!

And I keep thinking of Oskar Schlemmer and the Triadic Ballet!

And I'm a simple girl -- I want it all.

1 hour ago, Quiggin said:

I remember seeing Lawrence of Arabia back in the day at film school. It seemed like a big overstuffed armchair of a movie in faux naturalism, with its over the top wide screen landscapes and wide screen acting (with Anthony Quinn's nose looking as though it could fall off at any moment). This was in comparison to the modest New Wave films my friends and I were seeing and even the color A-grade films that those directors had graduated to, like Contempt and Blow Up. (In Contempt, which was filmed in CinemaScope, Fritz Lang says that CinemaScope is only appropriate for snakes and funerals, all the while Godard was having his mischievous ways with it.)

I'm sure this is all true, but it was still an epic event for me. 

6 hours ago, volcanohunter said:

... topped, I think, only by seeing Star Wars for the first time, on a big screen in a big auditorium. But the latter was also an experience of collective euphoria. 

Bingo.  I went with friends, a couple weeks after it opened, and we really had no idea what it would be like.  We were stunned.

"The back wall of the theater was opened for this ballet, so it was danced against the beautiful backdrop of the trees behind the theater on the Pillow grounds."  That must have been stunning.

I'm so glad that Boston is presenting these works of Yakobson's -- he was a significant choreographer who likely won't be retained in many Russian repertories.

On 8/26/2019 at 1:09 PM, FPF said:

Slightly off-topic: Yesterday was the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first slaves in what would become the U.S.A, and all of the U.S. National Parks and Landmarks held commemorative ceremonies at 3 pm to mark this event. Because Jacob's Pillow is a National Historic Landmark, there was a ceremony during the intermission--Pamela Tatge, the Director of Jacob's Pillow, made some brief remarks and then there was four minutes of bell-ringing, one minute for each century. It was quite moving.

I'm very glad to hear about this as well.  We forget sometimes that we live in a country that derives a big chunk of its wealth from this miserable business.  I've been working my way through the NYT magazine 1619 materials.  Hard and important reading.

The Nutcracker panel sounds very exciting -- I hope these will be recorded.

Oooh, hadn't seen that video before -- thanks!  Part of the issue was about modesty -- the Russian royal family was pretty conservative when it came to costuming, and you don't necessarily bite the hand that feeds you.  In her memoir "Theater Street," Karsavina talks about undergarments and some of the changes that occurred when she traveled to Europe with Diaghilev.

On 8/17/2019 at 8:52 PM, KathyKat said:

While watching (actually re-watching) a favorite YouTube video ...

Oh, you're not alone.

If I'm lucky, I'll be gone before the estate finishes cleaning out the vaults.  Prince!

On 8/24/2019 at 10:27 PM, dirac said:

Adding that if you haven't seen this particular picture in a theater you haven't seen it, no matter how large your TV screen. In fact it actually comes off as slightly less of a movie than it is, because the pacing is off -- Lean gives you several more seconds than you need with a smaller screen to absorb the images, so you're sitting there on the couch wondering why you're still staring at sand dunes.

I've never actually seen the restored version in a theater, so I will catch this if I can. Thanks, pherank.

Oh, you're in for a treat.  It was one of the first films I saw all by myself, in the early 70s, and I was just gobsmacked.  My mother used to talk about seeing it when the film was first released.  It has an intermission, which came after a long series of shots of the desert.  My mother went straight out to the concessions counter, and bought the largest orange soda she could get.  And she really disliked fountain drinks.