Tag: dance

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Merce Cunningham, Part II

I recently made a trek to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) with a couple of friends for a day of culture and artistic inspiration.  My ulterior motive for our little excursion was to see a special video installation of Merce Cunningham’s work.  The exhibit is called Merce Cunningham, Clouds and Screens and is on display through March 31, 2019.

Last week’s post focused on Merce Cunningham’s background and artistic legacy.  Today I will tell you about the exhibit at LACMA.

Merce Cunningham, Clouds and Screens consisted of two installations and two video projections.  It was housed on the first floor of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum building at LACMA.

In the foyer was a work called Silver Clouds by Andy Warhol and Billy Klüver .  The label explained that the silver mylar “pillows” were originally a work exhibited by Andy Warhol in 1966.  Cunningham approached Warhol about adapting the work as the scenic elements of his dance, Rainforest (1968).  It was a fun, interactive way to begin to experience the exhibit.

Next, we spent a few minutes watching a piece called Changeling (1957) that was being projected in an adjacent gallery.  It was a great illustration of the way that Cunningham would use random chance to create movements.  The way that movements of the head, torso, arms, and legs were combined randomly created very complex and unnatural feeling movements.

After watching Changeling briefly, we were ready to enter the main exhibit, Charles Atlas’s installation, MC⁹ (2012).  Well, as ready as we were going to be.  It was a fantastic sensory immersion.  There was so much to look at.  It took a while to realize that there wasn’t any specific order or right way to experience it.  One great aspect of the installation was that if there was something that you missed or wanted to spend more time watching, it would likely be coming up on another screen in the gallery sometime soon.

The installation consisted of a black box room with nine 8’x12’ double-sided projection screens (get it, nine screens, wink, wink) at various heights and on various angles throughout the space.  Interspersed among the projection screens were a number of smallish (36” to 48”) monitors.  The screens and monitors showed seemingly random clips of various Merce Cunningham Dance Company (MCDC) performances and Cunningham himself performing.  A clip may be on one or both sides of one of the large screens, on a small monitor next to it, and on another screen on the other side of the exhibit simultaneously.  One of the gallery attendants who I spoke to said that the entire piece is a loop that runs for more than an hour.

We spent nearly an hour walking around the space, experiencing the exhibit from different perspectives.  Eventually, I let go of my obsessive desire to try to determine some sort of pattern in the way that the clips were shown on various screens at certain times.  I’m not convinced that it was completely random, but whatever pattern existed was complicated enough that it would have taken more time than I was willing to devote to deciphering it.  It was enough to step back and just let the experience happen.

In general, I find the concept of random chance in the creation of artwork fascinating.  It is one of those things that does not discard technique and virtuosity.  Randomness does not mean that the elements are not carefully considered and created.  In some ways, I would think that the component elements of a work would need to be more precisely crafted.  Cunningham was certainly a pioneer in applying this methodology to creating dance.  The only contemporary choreographer who I am aware of who is currently working in a similar milieu is Bill T. Jones.  I hope that there are others.

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Merce Cunningham

I recently made a trek to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) with a couple of friends for a day of culture and artistic inspiration.  My ulterior motive for our little excursion was to see a special video installation of Merce Cunningham’s work.  The exhibit is called Merce Cunningham, Clouds and Screens and is on display through March 31, 2019.

I find Merce Cunningham fascinating, so this will be a two-part post.  Today will be some background about him and next week’s post will be about the exhibit.

Merce Cunningham (1919-2009) was a mid-20th century, American, modern dance pioneer. 

Growing up, Cunningham studied tap dancing.  This medium emphasizes precise musical timing and rhythm, which would become foundations of his technique.  His first professional dance experience was with the Martha Graham company.  He danced with Graham for six years (1939-1945) before leaving to establish his own dance company, Merce Cunningham Dance Company (MCDC).

A prolific creator, over the course of his 60+ year career, Cunningham created 190-200 dances and 700-800 events.  A Cunningham dance is a stand-alone piece of choreography, which could be recreated.  By contrast, an event is defined as a site/time specific performance.  Mindful of his artistic legacy, he established the Merce Cunningham Trust in 2000 to hold and administer the rights to his works after his death.

His work is known for innovative use of collaboration, chance, perspective, and technology.

Collaboration

Cunningham’s most enduring collaboration was with his partner, composer John Cage.  The two presented their first collaborative performance in 1944 and continued to work together until Cage’s death in 1992.  As collaborators, they provocatively asserted that dance and music should not intentionally be coordinated.  This is a radical departure from dance convention.

Cunningham’s collaborations with visual artists included Robert Rauchenberg (MCDC resident designer 1954-1964), Jasper Johns (MCDC artistic advisor 1967-1980), Rei Kawakubo, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, and filmmaker Charles Atlas.

Chance

To me this is the most fascinating and innovative facet of Cunningham’s work.  Cunningham and Cage became interested in the concept of chance in the 1950’s when a translation of the ancient Chinese text, I Ching was published in the U.S.  They began using stochastic operation (random chance) to determine musical composition and dance movements. 

Stochastic operation was employed by Cunningham in a number of different ways.  It could be used to create steps, to determine the sequence of steps, and/or even the number/composition of performers.

In order to create steps, Cunningham divided the body into parts – head, arms, torso, legs.  He would generate lists of all possible movements for each part, then use random chance to determine the movement of each part in order to create a step.  This created choreography that was often exceedingly difficult to execute.

Often sequences and dancers would not be determined until just before the performance.  Further, this was all done without regard to the music, which would be determined by its own chance procedure. 

As someone who likes to plan and prepare, this concept is mind-boggling and maybe slightly terrifying.  However, as someone who has had the opportunity to experience performances structured by this method, I find it an amazing opportunity to create great art.

Perspective

Cunningham discarded the conventions of proscenium orientation.  Work could occur on any part of the stage, oriented in any direction (not necessarily front) at any point.

Technology

The most long-reaching facet of Cunningham’s work may be his pioneering use of technology in dance – video in the 1970s and computers beginning in the 1980s.  I believe that one key reason that he was able to so successfully translate his work to the video medium is his abandonment of proscenium perspective.  Dance that is oriented to and filmed from an exclusively front-facing perspective tends to lack dimension to the viewer.  By abandoning this convention, he enabled the camera and by proxy, the viewer, to become a part of the movement.

He was an early adopted of a computer program, DanceForms which enabled him to create choreography via computer that would later be translated onto living dancers.

Cunningham viewed randomness as a positive, naturally occurring quality.  I find his dedication to the concept of chance both contradictory and inspiring.  He very consciously committed to developing and cultivating a level of virtuosity that would allow his dancers to execute movement that however randomly generated had begun as a very specific and defined idea.  In his work the movement stands alone, it does not represent a narrative or ideas such as emotions.  He was very self-consciously trying to avoid imposing his own biases upon his work. 

Next week, part II of this post will talk about the exhibit, Merce Cunningham, Clouds and Screens.

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Pointe Shoes

After my World Ballet Day post, one of my dedicated subscribers mentioned that she thought that the video of the ballerina prepping her pointe shoe video was very interesting and wanted to learn more. So today, I will attempt to briefly explain pointe shoes.

A ballet slipper is a soft shoe worn by all ballet dancers.  This type of shoe has a flexible, soft sole and is secured to the foot with one or more elastic straps.  Ballet slippers can be made of leather, canvas, or satin and are usually a flesh-colored pink (ballet pink) or black.

A pointe shoe is generally only worn by grown ballerinas.   It is the same sort of shape as a ballet slipper with small but significant differences.  First is a rigid toe box that is flat on the end.  This is the “point” that the ballerina dances on. The box is made from layers of paper and/or fabric that are stiffened with glue.  The shank of a pointe shoe functions to stiffen the sole and provides support to the arch of the foot when on pointe.  The shank can be made from layers of burlap, cardstock, or leather that is again hardened with glue.  A pointe shoe is secured to the foot with satin ribbons. 

One important part of both ballet slippers and pointe shoes is the vamp.  Both types of shoes will have a vamp that is high enough to cover the metatarsal phalangeal joints (where your toes meet your foot).  This provides important support to those joints which is particularly important for dancing on pointe.

The shape of the toe box and the hardness of the box and the shank vary among brands and models of pointe shoes.  One brand, Freed, has each shoe marked by the shoemaker as there can be variations that certain dancers prefer.  I never wore Freeds, but on more than one occasion I did witness a gal trying to find two shoes in her size from her preferred maker at the dancewear store (it was a big deal).

During my years of dancing on pointe, the brand and style of shoe I preferred evolved.  I began with the Capezio Contempora, which has a tapered toe box with a long, V-shaped vamp and a firm shank.  I have a very high arch, so the long vamp and the firm shank supported my foot well. 

Eventually, I switched to the Chacott Coppelia II, which were made in Spain.  I can’t remember why that was such a big deal, but I do remember that it mattered.  The Coppelia II was similar to the Contempora, but the big difference that made me switch was that it had a flatter toe box.  This meant that my toes were more constricted in the shoe which meant less rubbing (that is a good thing).

My last pointe shoes were Chacott Veronese, which are made in Japan.  The Veronese are more lightweight; they have a shorter, more square-shaped toe box with a firm shank.  By that point in my life as a dancer, my feet were very strong, but I was starting to feel the years of wear-and-tear.  The lighter box took a lot of pressure off of my metatarsal phalange joints, particularly on my big and pinky toes.

Anabel thinks pointe shoes are interesting too.

And that is a brief discourse on pointe shoes.  Let me know if you would like me to do another post in the future to talk about how ballerinas prepare their pointe shoes.

By the way, get excited – Ballet Season is almost here!

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World Ballet Day 2018

I found out that October 2 was World Ballet Day and thought that would make a great excuse to talk about ballet today.

First, I had to find out what World Ballet Day is.  The first World Ballet Day happened in 2014. The original host companies participating were the Australian Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet, the Royal Ballet, National Ballet of Canada and the San Francisco Ballet participated.  2016 was the first year that it became a live Facebook event, the idea being that there would be 24 hours of dance content being presented via livestream. The livestreams include company classes, rehearsal, and other “exclusives.”

This year’s host companies were the Australian Ballet, the Bolshoi, and the Royal Ballet.

The Australian Ballet was established in 1962. Founding Artistic Director woman, Peggy Von Praagh.  She had previously directed Sadler’s Wells Ballet before returning to Australia. I found a fun, short video on their website of one of the ballerina’s prepping her point shoes: https://australianballet.com.au/tv/en-pointe-with-jade-wood.

The Bolshoi Ballet was established in Moscow in 1776. The Bolshoi style is described as “flashy” and “colorful” in contrast to the older ballet company in St. Petersburg (originally the Imperial Ballet, then the Kirov, it is called the Mariinsky Ballet these days) which is known for is pure, classical style.

The UK’s Royal Ballet, originally called Vic-Wells Ballet, was founded by Ninette de Valois in 1931. The company was granted a royal charter and its name changed to the Royal Ballet in the 1950s. Ninette de Valois had performed with the Ballet Ruses in the 1920s and credits Serge Diaghilev with teaching her everything she knew about running a ballet company. Alicia Markova and Margot Fonteyn were some of the notable ballerinas that were a part of this company.

I started watching a video of the Royal Ballet’s company class on their website and couldn’t tear myself away (here is the link to their website: http://www.roh.org.uk/about/the-royal-ballet *scroll down to almost the bottom of the page). I love ballet class. My feet are already mad at me for just watching the tendus.  However, my thighs assure me that I won’t be getting anywhere near a fifth position.

It turns out that World Ballet Day is not just for ballet.  Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater was among others participating.  I watched a bit of their rehearsal of Rennie Harris’ Lazarus on Facebook.  My first thought was, “there is a reason that rehearsal is rehearsal.” Then they got to a run-through of the work.  It was sharp! I haven’t seen Ailey perform for a while and the last time I did, I was starting to feel that they had come to rely on trotting out their greatest hits. I don’t know how new this work is, but it feels fresh and I really enjoyed. It had the signature Ailey feel without being derivative.

While I didn’t watch anywhere near 24 hours of ballet, World Ballet Day reminded me that there is a lot of dance out there and it’s not that hard to find interesting dance to watch online.  There are a couple of performances here locally in the next couple of weeks that I might manage to get out for.  If I do, I’ll let you know!

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Trying to Culture this thing up!

Fourteen years ago, I went up to the Bay Area to visit my mom.  We shopped and we lunched and one night we went into San Francisco to see the San Francisco Ballet perform Romeo and Juliet. Now, I was sure that I didn’t care for the romantic ballets (the full-length story ballets from the late nineteenth/early twentieth century) but that night changed my mind (it turns out that I really just don’t enjoy The Sleeping Beauty but that is a story for another day).

The production of Romeo and Juliet that we saw was enchanting. The performance was beautiful and moving. The music by Prokofiev is everything, it would have salvaged the evening if the rest of the production had fallen short but the sets and the costumes enhanced the plot and the dancing was very good. In particular, Tina LeBlanc was an exquisite Juliet – technically excellent and emotionally expressive, she was truly a great ballerina. After how many years, I still can feel what that performance did for me.

Now, mom is clever and generous and she came up with a brilliant scheme to get me to visit more regularly – season tickets to the San Francisco ballet! It has become a great tradition for my mom, my sister and me.  While I love dissecting the performances with them on the drive home, this is an area where I really have a lot to say. So Wednesdays will be dedicated to “Arts & Entertainment.”

Don’t get the wrong idea, I don’t fancy myself a dance critic. I generally find dance criticism (and most arts criticism) unhelpful to say the least. It makes me crazy to read a review of something by someone who feels entitled to impose their personal biases and expectations on a work rather than at least attempting to intelligently describe a work and evaluate it on its own merit.

I like to be open to different experiences and try appreciate things for what they are. That doesn’t mean that I like it all or always think that a work is well executed. I won’t hold back when I think that elements of a production aren’t up to par but hopefully I will be able to explain my opinion within the context of the form.  I mean, making time to enjoy these things is a luxury, we shouldn’t waste it on something that isn’t the best it can be.

If theatrical dance isn’t your thing, don’t tune out quite yet! Ballet season doesn’t even start until January! I will use Wednesdays to consider all sorts of things – country music, rock concerts, television, books, and probably the occasional motor-sports event. Have you been to Speedway? Don’t make that face, it’s a fun time too!