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Showing posts from 2009

UW-Madison Faculty Concert

The University of Wisconsin-Madison Dance Program showcased its annual faculty concert this week, held for the first time in many years in the Wisconsin Union Theatre. While able to accomodate a larger audience, the ambience at the Union pales in comparison to the made-for-dance comfortable H'Doubler Theatre in Lathrop Hall. Poor sightlines (no rake to the main floor seating), broken seats, chipping paint, and a cumbersome tech table placed in the middle of the audience don't create the inviting, tidy and professional atmosphere of the H'Doubler. But bring the lights down and begin the program, and most of the blemishes fade away. Technically, this concert was huge. Each of the seven multi-media dances necessitated a crucial balance of staging, design, and lighting. Uncredited in the program, lighting designer Claude Heintz sculpted each piece in a meaningful, artful, and in many cases stunningly beautiful way. The stand-out piece of the evening was not by a UW fac

Farewell, Merce

It's hard to believe that another dance icon has passed from our world. Well, that is to say that on the heels of the death of Pina Bausch, Merce Cunningham has left his flesh body. But his amazing life and career will long impact the world beyond dance, beyond life as we know it. Not much can be said about Merce that he hasn't already told us. From my own outside perspective, I had one long-lasting impression of being in the same room as Merce. In the mid 1990's, he brought his company to perform in Madison, Wisconsin. Highlighting the concert was his exquisite Beach Birds at the end of which came the company bow. Merce entered the stage slowly and steadily emitting a presence that was unmatched by anyone in the room. Knowledge, confidence, clarity and calm radiated from his thin arthritic body. This was not an impostor or an understudy, this was Merce Cunningham. One of the few artists to fearlessly embrace the present and allow his work to evolve, Merce threw

Save the Dates

Here’s a sample of the dance feast you can partake in for 2009-2010 in Chicago: At the Museum of Contemporary Art http://www.mcachicago.org/performances/index.php Nora Chipaumire with Thomas Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited lions will roar, swans will fly, angels will wrestle heaven, rains will break: gukarahundi October 1, 3, 4, 2009 Lucinda Childs DANCE October 15-17, 2009 Anna Halprin, Anne Collod and guests parades & changes, replays November 5, 7, 8, 2009 Akram Khan Company & National Ballet of China bahok February 26-28, 2010 The Seldoms with Fraser Taylor Marchland March 12-14, 2010 John Jasperse Company Truth, Revised Histories, Wishful Thinking, and Flat Out Lies April 9-11, 2010 At the Dance Center of Columbia College http://www.colum.edu/dance_center/performances.php Merce Cunningham Dance Company October 1, 2, 3, 2009 Lucky Plush Productions October 22, 23, 24, 29, 30, 31, 2009 Cloud Dance Theatre of Taiwan January 22, 23, 2010 Koosil-ja/danceKUMIKO February 4, 5, 6

Remembering Pina Bausch

My first experience with Pina Bausch was through a German Dance festival in Chicago in the early 1980’s. I didn’t see her work performed live, but at the encouragement of my modern dance teacher, watched a film called “On Tour with Pina Bausch”. The film changed my perspective of dance forever. Until that point, I had only known dance as pure movement and only considered it from a technical standpoint. Bausch innovatively stretched the limits of dance technique and movement, but in a compelling theatrical way. Somehow she found a way to use the abstraction of dance vocabulary to tell concrete and powerful stories. And not only did Bausch influence countless choreographers, but she did so from a home base of the industrial Ruhrgebiet---a region comparable to Gary, Indiana in the U.S. Her influences will no doubt be felt for years to come. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/arts/dance/01bausch.html

On Dances in Theatre Plays...

Creating dances for actors requires a special skill set. Although an actor may possess great body awareness, that does not necessarily go hand in hand with the ability to grasp actual dance steps, retain them, or perform them with any sort of stylistic grace. So the mindset to approaching this kind of work from the choreography perspective necessitates patience and knowledge that compromise will be the way to best achieve the desired outcome. Often dance rehearsals for a theatre play are brief, as the actors primary focus is on scene-work and blocking. This differs from dance rehearsals in which studio rehearsal time is often dedicated to improvising and creating the movement on-site. In theatre, a choreographer must enter the rehearsal with steps and a design in mind already. But being prepared is not enough. The most important ability that a good choreographer brings to a theatre collaboration is that of story-telling. Even though a dance within a play might appear to be stri

Dancing at 100

Last week Dancing at 100 grandly celebrated a century of the presence of dance training on the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor. The four-day festivities included an historical photo exhibit, lectures, dance video screenings, concert performances and a traveling site-specific work. Several concert performances featured a blend of faculty and alumni choreography and dancers presenting the overwhelming aesthetic of strong technical dance training. There were no tricks here, only pure and beautiful dance. The choreography never hid behind gymnastics or gimmicks and very few dances in the three studio concerts used any sort of props or text. Most resonant were those pieces with a narrative thread. Ann Arbor Dance Works, the local faculty dance collective, presented a strong evening of works ranging from a sensual intricate ménage a trios choreographed by Amy Chavasse, to a simple compelling love story duet created by Bill DeYoung. DeYoung’s piece, At Last Departs , made in

Dancing with Scoliosis? Fear Not!

Medical findings rate dancers among the most prolific sub-series of athletes who have scoliosis. (Gymnasts and swimmers also rank near the top.) But do not fear! Dancing does not cause scoliosis! This statistical data, most likely came from medical records of adolescents who noticed the spinal curvature and sought a professional opinions (Non-athletes perhaps do not use or look at their bodies enough to even recognize the presence of scoliosis until they experience back pain later in life.) Being active, constantly scrutinizing ones physique in a mirror and aiming to move in symmetrical patterns is possibly why postural variations are most often noticed in dancers in the first place. And a teacher’s good eye can also detect muscle or bone imbalance. The main concern for early detection of scoliosis is to help reduce the possiblity of complications with aging. Progression of scoliosis can lead to back pain or arthritis in the spine, negative body image, and in severe cases, incre

What Moves Us -- Opening Night Concert

The World Dance Alliance-Americas General Assembly held in Madison, Wisconsin this year, christened a weekend-long conference of classes, lectures, panels and performances with a showcase concert mixing a bill of local groups with out-of-towners. For the most part, the dances were ill-suited to a venue the scope of Madison's lovely historic Capitol Theatre. A smaller theatre would have served the intimate works better and made the show feel less tiring. A few exceptions kept the audience connected to this technically smooth, but way-too-long program. Out of the thirteen pieces emerged a stunning minimalist solo with Escher-like video projections entitled "Somewhere Close to Now". In it, Philadelpia-based Niki Cousineau used simplicity and economy of choreographic form to its best. Rare that dance and video are so perfectly married, Cousineau, obviously a strong dancer, boldly chose to draw attention to the power of hand gesture, simple running, and stillness, allowing tim