Modern Dance Show Now Playing
Jun. 12th, 2006 09:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebLast night I went to see chikuru and raaga123 in Requiem put on by Blue Lapis Light. This was a modern dance inspired by and located in/on the unfinished Intel building in downtown Austin.
Warning: nothing but spoilers up ahead. Well, there's also extremely poor taste and loads of ignorance.
Normally, I'm not into modern dance. It reminds me of little kids playing--running, jumping, exploring things--only more graceful. In fact, when there's an intermission, right away all the kids want to run, jump, and explore the props being used in the performance. But I like to see things friends are in, and sometimes your horizons are broadened, blah, blah, blah.
I didn't like the beginning much. Smoke blows as a dancer tries to throw her shoulders out of joint. In a very graceful way, of course.
The next part, however, was fabulous. This involved two very long strips of cloth, folded in half, hanging up in the sky so that the two ends were hanging down. So one dancer ascended each fabric strip and started doing those things like circus people can do where you wrap the fabric around your foot and can magically support all your weight on it, etc. They flowed, they spun. What I liked about it is a) the impressive difficulty, b), how pretty it looked, c) how very well it went with the music, and d) how very well the two dancers complimented each other. You could see them both at the same time doing amazing things very nicely with the music.
Rock climbers then rappelled down the side of the four-story building (and these are huge stories). Then more rock climbers rappelled leaning forward, looking down, instead of leaning back, looking up the normal way. All four did this very gracefully with the music.
A bunch of modern dancers gyrated and ran around in whooshy clothing. Not much jumping, though. Ho, hum.
Then dancers started swinging on ropes and bouncing themselves off columns and doing sideways somersaults around the columns and all kinds of other things I can't begin to describe. While hanging from these ropes, and bouncing sideways off the columns, the tendency for the ropes to hang straight down kept them always returning to the columns, but they played this as if the columns had a very low gravity. They were locked in to the ropes, so they could use their arms and legs freely, and it was very, very nice, even better than the fabric dancers except that they didn't need as much strength. Let's just say that being more graceful and less encumbered than the moon walkers I've seen on TV, it was way cool.
By this time I was thinking that I wouldn't have minded paying more than the minimum entry fee. (The fee is pay what you want, so long as it is $20, $25, or $30.)
Then there was some less impressive rope swinging. Some rappelling by four rock climbers at once, bouncing exactly at each floor in sync with each other that elicited the only "wow!"s from the audience the whole evening (yea, chikuru and raaga123!). Then some rolling around on the floor at the edge, which actually turned out to be quite cool, too. The dancers would lie on the floor of an upper story with their heads and arms hanging out over the edge. Then they could roll along the edge doing interesting things with their arms so they could look sort of like wheels and other things.
Miners stood ominously at the top of the building with their little headlamps.
I'd heard some of the dancers were supposed to be angels, but to me they looked like mourners. Who were the dead? I decided the most likely candidates were us, the audience. (I'm sure this interpretation is totally wrong, by the way.)
Then there was a dancer with one rope attached to each hip who did arm gestures and somersaults while being raised an lowered in a whooshy outfit. Not my favorite, but supposed to be the grande finale or whatever. More floor jumping rappellers. Light shows. The end!
If you are anywhere near Austin, I recommend this show. For inside information, read chikuru's Requiem entries. (I recommend reading them in order--from the bottom up in the link I'm giving you.)
Warning: nothing but spoilers up ahead. Well, there's also extremely poor taste and loads of ignorance.
Normally, I'm not into modern dance. It reminds me of little kids playing--running, jumping, exploring things--only more graceful. In fact, when there's an intermission, right away all the kids want to run, jump, and explore the props being used in the performance. But I like to see things friends are in, and sometimes your horizons are broadened, blah, blah, blah.
I didn't like the beginning much. Smoke blows as a dancer tries to throw her shoulders out of joint. In a very graceful way, of course.
The next part, however, was fabulous. This involved two very long strips of cloth, folded in half, hanging up in the sky so that the two ends were hanging down. So one dancer ascended each fabric strip and started doing those things like circus people can do where you wrap the fabric around your foot and can magically support all your weight on it, etc. They flowed, they spun. What I liked about it is a) the impressive difficulty, b), how pretty it looked, c) how very well it went with the music, and d) how very well the two dancers complimented each other. You could see them both at the same time doing amazing things very nicely with the music.
Rock climbers then rappelled down the side of the four-story building (and these are huge stories). Then more rock climbers rappelled leaning forward, looking down, instead of leaning back, looking up the normal way. All four did this very gracefully with the music.
A bunch of modern dancers gyrated and ran around in whooshy clothing. Not much jumping, though. Ho, hum.
Then dancers started swinging on ropes and bouncing themselves off columns and doing sideways somersaults around the columns and all kinds of other things I can't begin to describe. While hanging from these ropes, and bouncing sideways off the columns, the tendency for the ropes to hang straight down kept them always returning to the columns, but they played this as if the columns had a very low gravity. They were locked in to the ropes, so they could use their arms and legs freely, and it was very, very nice, even better than the fabric dancers except that they didn't need as much strength. Let's just say that being more graceful and less encumbered than the moon walkers I've seen on TV, it was way cool.
By this time I was thinking that I wouldn't have minded paying more than the minimum entry fee. (The fee is pay what you want, so long as it is $20, $25, or $30.)
Then there was some less impressive rope swinging. Some rappelling by four rock climbers at once, bouncing exactly at each floor in sync with each other that elicited the only "wow!"s from the audience the whole evening (yea, chikuru and raaga123!). Then some rolling around on the floor at the edge, which actually turned out to be quite cool, too. The dancers would lie on the floor of an upper story with their heads and arms hanging out over the edge. Then they could roll along the edge doing interesting things with their arms so they could look sort of like wheels and other things.
Miners stood ominously at the top of the building with their little headlamps.
I'd heard some of the dancers were supposed to be angels, but to me they looked like mourners. Who were the dead? I decided the most likely candidates were us, the audience. (I'm sure this interpretation is totally wrong, by the way.)
Then there was a dancer with one rope attached to each hip who did arm gestures and somersaults while being raised an lowered in a whooshy outfit. Not my favorite, but supposed to be the grande finale or whatever. More floor jumping rappellers. Light shows. The end!
If you are anywhere near Austin, I recommend this show. For inside information, read chikuru's Requiem entries. (I recommend reading them in order--from the bottom up in the link I'm giving you.)