SubscribeDecember 2nd, 2011
oh my such wonderful bodies
You can go here for the original music.
November 26th, 2011
love this steppin
July 31st, 2011
Baaba Maal – the joy and energy of life
I have some music of Baaba Maal on my ipod but I hadn’t seen the vids that go with them before today. What wonderful joy in the sheer physicality of life.
September 28th, 2010
U-min and cultural pictures
This video showed up on Wimp today. I have to say it is a miracle of human/social co-ordination both figuratively and literally. U-min is a Japanese dance group that specializes in this kind of movement. The fact that the style is so popular (see the multitude of youtube vids that appear when you enter the terms “synchronized” and “Japanese) has, of course, a good deal to do with cultural ideology. I found it awe inspiring – the precision of the co-ordination in particular.
When compared to the U-min video below, certain things really stand out.
The second routine is far better balanced with respect to individual movements and group synchronicity yet the first video has more psychological impact (at least on me). This, I think, has to do with what the routines say about identity and power. The power of the individual movements in the second video is dependent upon the group identity to make sense of themselves. They are not haphazard, not just juxtaposed, but are an outgrowth of the “community.” The clothing, for example: the four colours of the hoodies underscore the fact that, apart from the colour, they are dressed remarkably the same. It is the similarity that creates their primary identity and the colour which allows some latitude within the safety of the overall group. Then there’s the North American referent to the hoodies, the shoes, the hats: encapsulated in that is all the historical displays of power (cultural, economic, political and military) that still lie uneasily between Japan and the United States.
This nest of relationship reads back on the first video. It references the danger of an excess of similarity. The fact that the last scene takes place in a temple is significant – that and the fact that the men use their bodies to represent multi-armed gods, which in turn represents multi-faceted identity. The two feed on each other in ways similar to what W J T Mitchell calls a metapicture. The idea of metapicture is dense. It references pictures that have other pictures within them; it speaks to self-disclosure of the sort where images can be seen to present their own logic, their own rhetoric; pictures also reflect themselves or the nature of visualization; and they also call into question (by doing the forementioned) the relationship between visualized and visualizer. Metapictures problematize identity and so do U-min videos.
August 15th, 2010
Oh my…
I’ve seen this a couple of times now and I still can’t get over how amazing these fellows’ movements are.
via Wimp
July 23rd, 2010
ephemeral, yes, but art
I am always unseated by the beauty of this kind of art.
via Wimp
February 18th, 2010
The cultural olympiad, 2
My daughter and I braved the Canadian Olympic Hockey victory celebrations to go see María Pagés. I was in a lot of pain (not from the hockey win or its subsequent crazy Canucks yelling all along Granville). And there was a sold out show at the Commodore next door (Steel Panther). What a crazy walk from the skytrain station to the Orpheum. I made it through the performance and home again before I crashed — it was worth it. What that woman can do with her arms has got to be some sort of art/genetic mutation.
This, below, is her in a Riverdance production. Cultural cross pollination. Cool.
And as much as her dancing (and her company’s), the musicians and two singers left me astounded.
That bit with the shawl was really reminiscent of some of the best fancy dancers I have seen, and the voices sounded so very tribal that I felt right at home despite never having seen flamenco performed at this level.
February 16th, 2010
The cultural olympiad, 1
During the Games there is also a cultural olympiad. There are some amazing events and since I am not a sports fan, it will be (along with the experience of trying to work downtown during these weeks, the sights, and resulting pictures) my olympic experience.
The first event I went to was a contemporary dance held at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. The evening was a presentation of three pieces performed by The National Ballet of Canada and The Royal Winnipeg Ballet. The pieces were 24 Preludes by Chopin (Chouinard), As Above, So Below (Godden) and Hikarizatto (Galili).
This clip is from Chouinard’s company, and although not from 24 Preludes, it does give you a feel for her intensity and the kinds of movements and themes she presents. This bit, the first of the three, was definitely my favourite, in part because of the feel of it (see video), but also because it seems to me to a bit like a lyrical poem, presenting a world that really doesn’t have a narrative stream. I’ve never felt the world had a teleology so I’ve always felt more comfortable with world-pictures like this. I’m not sure I agree with the content of her sense of the world but I do very much feel at home with the style in which she presents what she understands. And she has women doing lifts. When I went to the ballet as a child, the fact that the boys got to do all the heavy duty stuff always annoyed the crap out of me.
As Above, So Below was much more what I expect from contemporary dance. It was most definitely a story, one about the relationship between a man and a woman. I couldn’t find a video but this picture will give you a sense of the story.
The last piece was my second favourite. Hikarizatto – the name alone was worth the cost of the tickets. Choreographed by Itzik Galili, the sense of the world that came from the dance was most definitely different – wonderful, but odd. In the last half of this very short video ( starting at about 1:15) you can see a clip for Galili’s piece. I have to say that I felt every anthropological bone in my body for the entirety of the performance. Kind of distracted from the sheer enjoyment unfortunately.