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pherank

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Everything posted by pherank

  1. Now that comment really made me laugh! Minstrel Cakewalk American Dance craze: The Big Apple Big Apple dance at The Savoy Ballroom The Jitterbug and the Lambeth Walk - check out the woman in the audience at 1:10 Daisy Richardson - 1940's Jitterbug Dancer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE2AUn_kvMY Suzie Q dance with Ina Hutton and Orchestra http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FvJvcZMn3U The Tranky Doo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKXdy7Fie2I&list=PLOB9NY2mkoHEG02X-c0KDAXwbWgOAwo6P
  2. I've been doing my best not to say anything about the personal relationship scenes - but, Dr. Detroit sent a rather strong message: not exactly of rejection, but more one of passive-agressive punishment. He's obvioulsy waiting for DeBona to jump through some hoops to prove herself. But his timing is way off - he should have come through for HER at this point. He's got to demonstrate that he respects her (and that would include DeBona's career commitments). I definitely get the feeling that he doesn't think she's doing serious things (like he is). DeBona just needs to get that the best thing she can do with her life is shuck it all and wait on Dr. D hand and foot. ;) I do feel for DeBona because her other obvious option is to get back together with a rather "young" Rex Tilton, who really needs more time learning about life (ideally). But nothing ever happens when you want it to. Tilton has possession issues too, and spent the entire 1st season of the show being happy about DeBona's behavior. And then there's Bennett talking about some rule she and Ruud have where they can't talk to each other at work. Seriously? How unworkable and childish is that? Well now we know.
  3. http://www.sfballet.org/tickets/production/overview/hamburg-2014?utm_source=mail2&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=14SubscriberHamburgBalletPriorityAccessMKTNG
  4. I personally think that has an awful lot to do with it. And is probably why we don't hear much of the Prokofiev music accompanying the ballet. And any dancers that didn't sign on to the show will necessarily be omitted.
  5. "If all the episodes were like this one, I could like the show more" - unfortunately for me, I felt that this episode underscored everything I don't like about this program: no context for the ballet moments, but constant repetition of each person's relationship 'problem'. Bennett feels her marriage isn't working and the stress is ruining her dancing; DeBona can't decide between Doctor "Feet of Clay" Detroit, and Rex Tilton, who wants recognitiion, but is very nervous about having to earn it. And we literally hear about these situations 3 to 5 times an episode, every episode. It isn't the fault of the actual people/dancers that they are portrayed in this manner - these are the choices of the director, editor, writers (there are writers for this?!!!), and production crew. As Jayne points out above, there are actually other dancers in BW - we just don't hear about them, and the cameras manage to never show the rest of the company in group scenes. Which must take some work, but I would rather that work be put towards educating the audience about the Cinderella ballet by Ashton, and ballet dancing in general. It's amazing that this show never takes the opportunity to explain why people would want to do this thing called "ballet". The depiction of "opening night" was, as Jayne says, false - it was not the actual opening night for BW, and the entire episode made ballet performance look like a comedy of errors. But we did get to see everyone in costume, even Ian, who promptly has more bad luck and injures himself right out of the production. The costume scenes were very anitclimactic for me. I have to stick with one of my original comments that BP is not really a show about ballet, it's about the relationships of dancers who happen to be in a ballet company. And what we see on-camera isn't necessarily representative of what is going on off-camera (especially with Bennett/Ruud).
  6. Funny thing is, I had the exact same thought, and I suppose I've belabored the point elsewhere, but in order to understand the movements in a ballet like Rubies, you've got to immerse yourself in the social dance styles that it plays with, no? Dancers that have no exposure to American popular dances of the 20s and 30s are not going to get either the techniques or the references. Thus the cringe-worthy Russian performances of Rubies. Of course it would go the other way too: we can't just expect American kids to take to Cossack, Javanese or Flamenco dances, just because they are 'professional dancers'. Many of the dancers in the videos are 'amateurs', and they are just phenomenal to watch. Incredible energy. Here's another Black Bottom dance video, and it looks a bit like Ruby Keeler dancing...and there's some instruction on the steps to use. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsukq62fMA4 Collection of 1920s dances:
  7. But first, the Demonic Dance from Metropolis with Brigitte Helm - Just 'cause - sure the dancing is silly, but the film making is sooooo great. And the art deco aesthetic mixed with German medieval architecture, and expressionist nightmare visions - it all looks so very exotic now: The Black Bottom Dance, 1926 (the "Varsity Drag" title is incorrect) Cotton Club Dancers Whitey's Lindy Hoppers The Shimmy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcemYjTdvZ8 The Stroll (which still looks pretty cool): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrGLNtZ0rEg Ginger Rogers dancing the Charleston in high heels: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Myq6hg2gcWw
  8. Thanks for finding The Bat, Sandik. At first I was bothered by the lack of music in these films, but eventually it becomes quite mesmerizing...I hope there's no subliminal message coming across. ;)
  9. Lumiere Brothers film of Danse Serpentine - dancer is perhaps Loie Fuller, but I've seen disagreement about this. One commentator suggested, "The Flame Dancer is Caroline Hipple Holpin or Papinta not Fuller". You will need to close the annoying ad screens that appear on top of the video. But wait, there's more of the Danse Serpentine as captured by early film pioneers:
  10. Another engrossing interview - thanks to Christian Cudnik. Keep up the good work.
  11. The Solman quote acts as the lead in the to the article, so I think it purposefully presents the reader with the popular sterotypes before presenting a new theory about Jews and economics. "Shouldn't we be a bit on the side of the 'liturgists'?" Or as Balanchine once said, "Byzantine icons, dear." That certainly makes some sense, though I personally try not to take 'sides' as that generally translates to being on a particular 'team' and wearing their uniform, talking the right talk. That's where all the problems start for me. Dancing as a non-book form of knowledge makes perfect sense: there's lots of stored information/memory involved, but it is not a worship of "the word" (which may be why religious sects often want to ban such activities). Dance does seem to be about activites of the body and mind that are beyond language, but I don't happen to see that as a danger to alphabetic language, jsut an expression of other aspects of the mind/body.
  12. pherank

    David Hallberg

    Yeah, they should start using ballerinas. Because THEY're not reed thin.... They have lots of muscle tone. And it depends on the body type: a Sara Mearns or Carrie Imler does not look like a stick. Neither for that matter do Aurélie Dupont, Marie-Agnès Gillot or Agnes Letestu. I'm guessing you're thinking of the Russian predilection for super-thin body types (Zakharova, Lopatkina, perhaps), but they do have muscle, and apparently, stamina. Still, I prefer more meat on the bones.
  13. pherank

    David Hallberg

    I find it a refreshing idea: to use a dancer as model. I do tire of all the reed thin models in the same standard poses.
  14. pherank

    Maria Kochetkova

    Masha just traveled to NYC for a shoot with Gene Schiavone:
  15. Amen to that, Bart. Something that I hear quite a lot these days with regard to training or education, is, "it was just a waste of my time/or money". Because it didn't lead to an obvious job or career path. I can't recall learning about ANYTHING that hasn't proven to be useful knowledge in some manner. There's obviously been a radical shift over the course of my (and our) lifetime regarding the role of education in society, and its value to the citizenry. There was an excellent article relating to education and its effect on a society in the PBS program, The Chosen Few: A New Explanation of Jewish Success (Study by Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein). The long and short of it: education good, no curiosity and illiteracy, bad. ;) http://www.pbs.org/newshour/businessdesk/2013/04/the-chosen-few-a-new-explanati.html
  16. How fun is that?!!! I envy anyone able to go. Perhaps this should be announced in the Heads Up board as well.
  17. The subject is also timely because many graduates of the English/Humanities disciplines are currently in the news (we just don't know their names). That is because one of the larger employers of humanities graduates (especially post-graduate) is the Intelligence Community, and beyond that, the Foreign Diplomatic Corps. Of course it helps to know another language as well. But these ‘lucky’ employees are not being hired simply for their language skills, but also for their analytical abilities. A good essay topic might involve the ethics of hiring students of the humanities into the intelligence community. And is it all bad? Well not when they avert some catastrophe on behalf of their nation - then the citizens tolerate them, but when the Intelligence community just looks to be part of the problem, then the citizenry get very angry. It's really hard to tell if the present day Intelligence Community, and Diplomatic Corps, are any more or less effective than their predecessors going back 3000 years. My own mother (an Honors English major) and her good friend (an Honors Sociology major) were both approached by the NSA upon graduation. Her friend accepted. So if English majors are wondering where they can find jobs – it helps to know what firms are involved in research, analysis and writing....
  18. Hmmmm - I think you're going out on a limb here, Dirac. Film makers would definitely disagree that "any adaptation to a different medium will be lacking in something", since they often use Literature as a jumping-off point, or borrow from previously existing sources. Of course there's lots of trash cinema, but I'm not sure it holds up to say, conversely, that the only significant movies, as art, are the films that are entirely original projects. From the The Wizard of Oz to Wuthering Heights to The Graduate there are many instances of great films (of varying genres) that are largely based on books. And there's definitely an argument to be made for certain film adaptions being as significant as works of art as the original books. A number of Kubrick's best films (e.g.: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Dr. Strangelove, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining) were all 'based' on pre-existing fiction, but are beloved by fans of "art-house" cinema, and are very influential within the art form. It really does come down to the people involved, whether industry hacks, or actual "artists". The two art forms are tremendously different to produce - a novel can be slowly pieced together by a single person (or quickly if you are Jack Kerouac on amphetamines), but films, especially the Hollywood variety, almost always require a large crew of people that somehow must work together successfuly. Film making takes as much luck as chemistry and money to get a project to come off half decently. There is an element of serendipity that plays into successful film projects - fortunately that isn't as necessary for lliterature. And now back to English...
  19. Film is inescapably bound to time, and we are the beneficiaries, and the victims, of film shooting (which proceeds linearly) and editing, which manipulates time by rearranging the individual 'frames'. Literature doesn't have that same constraint, as you mention, and the reader may end up doing as much editing (with the mind) as the writer did to create the work. I find there is much more of a conversation going on in the act of reading, than we ever experience while watching a film, especially in a theatre, where presumably we are trapped for the duration. The act of reading isn't passive. Many films, imo, can be felt to "happen to us", like watching two cars suddenly collide on the street, but I can't recall reading a book and having the same feeling.
  20. The essay necessarily simplifies things, and I agree with you that our reasons for reading a piece of fiction can be varied - it's not just about inhabiting a particular character for a short while. In fact, part of the pleasure lies in having so many options/approaches to use in examining and living with a work of literature. But in order to learn of and develop all these options, one has to start down the long path of criticial thinking...and that folks, is what the humanities are all about.
  21. It depends entirely on the actual life and adventures of said used-car salesman. Or repo-man. ;) Does anyone start out wanting to be Holden Caulfield?
  22. A fine essay in the New Yorker - 08/27/13: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/08/why-teach-english.html
  23. "The San Francisco Dance Film Festival will partner with the IMZ—International Music and Media Centre, hosting the 2013 dance screen competition and conference. San Francisco Ballet and the San Francisco Film Society will join as co-presenters of the S.F. Dance Film Festival... ...Screenings will be held in the Roxie Theater and the Delancey Screening Room because the originally announced venue for the event, Landmark's Embarcadero Cinemas, canceled all bookings due to a delays in renovations. The festival will show some 50 films, including Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake, with 21 additional films on viewing stations at the Museum of Performance+Design." -- Janos Gereben https://www.sfcv.org/article/2013-dance-film-festival-expands-collaborates
  24. Yes, it's a great image and well worth having. When I open it in Photoshop it displays vertically/portrait style, so I really don't know why some apps see it as a horizontal photo. Below is a test to see if displays any better for some people, but it requires resaving the JPEG file and that always loses some data in the process...
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