not so funny games

my sister lent me the movie "funny games" and erk and i watched it last week. half way through i started to call and text her frantically. WHY did she recommend this movie to me?! i found it so disturbing and upsetting.

this is one of those movies that is considered brilliant (at least by my sister, whose opinion i greatly value) because of the "idea" of the movie. not the movie itself. what i mean is, you will not enjoy watching this movie. that is the point. it is torture to watch, but the director acknowledges this, pokes fun at the fact that as the director he can address you, the audience, and that you are captive-ly his.

there are a couple of those "breaking the fourth wall" or whatever moments, and without them you would be convinced that haneke (also director of amour) is just a twisted man. and maybe he is, but he's twisted and smart/talented.

and i will admit that the more time that passes from having watched that movie, the more i can acknowledge his talent; if nothing else, it is a movie that you do not easily forget. however, just like any other art, i want to be able to somehow enjoy a movie...while i'm watching it. like experimental music that may be brilliant, but hard to listen to, i think for now i would rather read about such artistic endeavors and save myself from the full two-hour experience.

dance again

so glad i had that ugly experience a couple of weeks ago at koresh, otherwise i would have never found my new favorite dance class.

for half the price, half the number of students and a half of an hour longer, i found a class that is monumentally superior to the class i was taking earlier this year. no disrespect to my former teacher, but she was not a dance educator. my new teacher is. she teaches at temple. in fact, a couple of her students were taking this non-temple class last night in an old church (which made me feel a bit like an old woman, but that's ok/true in the dance world). it made me miss my college dance classes; miss this more comprehensive approach to dance.

the language of a dance educator to describe movement is at times technical, and other times a series of comical analogies. this is the way i have grown to appreciate and understand movement; both in my own body and in other people's. i didn't realize that this was such a basic and fundamental part of what was missing from the classes at koresh.

this new class also kicked my ass- both physically and mentally (it's been a while since i have been asked to, "now try that whole combination on your left side" - so good for your brain and your body!)

hoping this is the first of many steps toward having dance become a more significant part of my life again.

shut up, little man

if you want to watch a film present very interesting ideas born from a not so interesting story - i recommend this film.

if you want my sister to say the words "little man" just prompt her with the words "shut up..."

i think i liked hearing her say the title over and over again and cracking herself up more than watching the movie. but i'm glad i saw it. the ideas and questions it puts forth are worth thinking about.

architecture of loss

is the name of a new stephen petronio dance
i haven't seen it, but i like the name

oscar

my acceptance speech haiku 

thanks for the award

cue the crying, props to my

fellow nominees

photogrpahy

i can't find the battery charger to my camera battery. 

i miss taking pictures

capturing moments 

and finding perspectives

uptown

 set

encounter

align

(still) life

 

ask courtney

 

shorts

ciao

caught my eye

actually the story caught my ear on the radio. interesting what your looks can do.
check out the project here 

but if you haven't heard the "this american life" on ortiz, check that out first. 

"earth" without "art" is just "eh"

i saw this quote on someone's facebook wall and...it struck a chord :)

an artist

i went to see this movie last weekend. 

i liked it

not as much as other people did, but it was definitely sweet, nostalgic, and at times, very clever. 

their were several pieces that resonated. 

one was simply how much it reminded me of singin' in the rain; a movie that i religiously watched with my grandmother and we would re-watch certain scenes over and over and choke on laughing so hard (scenes such as this one below). 

the artist takes place during the same time period as singin'; when "talkies" were coming out. there is something very sweet about this old-school style film; its humor, its charm. images such as the one below are so simple and so compelling. 

 

it is indeed the times that we take away certain tools that we are forced to be more creative with what we have (in this instance the absence of voice/sound to tell a story/express a feeling)

what also struck me was the bigger theme of technology changing our world, and what could potentially happen to those not able/willing to change with the times. those changes are also opportunities to reinvent oneself - an uplifting possibility/ending/realization for an artist.

resolutions

  

despite the fact that last year's resolutions didn't come to fruition (running the nyc marathon and starting to learn russian), i think there is something meaningful about setting goals and articulating them. it is the first step of many in getting something done. i couldn't think of any resolutions this new year's eve, but i have not given up on the idea, even if it comes late. i just saw this video and it felt like the beginning of an idea. what idea? not sure. a dance, a project, a field of study, a hobby of reposting youtube videos...all of the above.

avocados

i recently discovered that my sister has a blog.

not my big sister - after resisting the idea of having a blog for several months, she now has two!
skip rip or play is a shared blog with friend and writer lindsey anthony; the two movie lovers review the latest and (sometimes) greatest films.
then 4321luckymamma is a personal blog, dedicated primarily to collecting quotes from any one of her four kids (apparently one of the 9 month old twins is already putting sounds together to make words, but i have yet to witness this linguistic miracle).

not the eldest of my little sisters - for several months i have been reading her personal blog la rubia liberal (the liberal blond). this blog is almost like a diary of her young adult life - reflections on herself, her environment, her feelings and thoughts on both. perhaps it's because of her age/this time period of her life, or perhaps it's because she's so damn mature - but her writing is like a map of her route into womanhood.

not my littlest of little sisters - she recently started a blog dedicated to "life on the beach". sort of like a collage, she arranges photos/videos/music into a montage of her own creation. this too serves almost as a time capsule. not only of our time but of hers - where she is in her life and what "strikes a chord" for her as a recently turned 12-year-old.

it was my middle-little sister, emi, whose photo blog i only very recently discovered. and although i knew she was a creative person and an excellent cook, i didn't know quite how talented she is. her photos are quirky,

with a great eye for angles/perspectives/voices.

and she loves avocados that's why it's the name of her blog. 

funny how much i have learned about people (even in my own family) through their blogs.

namesake

last sunday i went to see the opera, carmen. it was my first time seeing it, or any other opera (unless you count the time i saw part of an opera in italy, but left before it was over...)  despite being indirectly named after the protagonist, i knew virtually nothing about the story of carmen before this past weekend.

the music was oddly nostalgic. I was reminded of piano pieces I had learned as a kid; tunes i had heard in a hum, but never knew their context. it was both familiar and totally new - as was the character herself. i had known carmen was a gypsy and that her story was one about love, but i had no idea how manipulative and somewhat villainous she was.

i am not used to hearing my name spoken when not directed at/about me - "carmen" is not that common here in the states. so, during intermission, when i overheard two women talking about how mean "carmen" was, i felt almost uncomfortable.

the opera was nice - i don't know if i am a big fan of the form itself. but finally learning the story was interesting. it felt almost like learning a bit of long-lost family history.

gone

i just spent the last hour working on the audio track for a silks piece i am making with a classmate (entitled: thelma and louise). my computer died (wasn't plugged in) and didn't save any of the changes i made. all the work i did: gone. pretty annoying. especially since sound editing is time consuming and i am not very good at it to begin with. luckily, my computer saved which windows i had open in firefox (because that's super useful). the image above was on one of the pages. i found it appropriate.

art

i took a group of 5th graders to el museo del barrio today. as i was listening to them comment on works of art - things they saw and interpretations they had, i thought - "kids are so smart" and sometimes, perhaps without meaning to be, they can be very profound.

the mere notion that kids are somehow more sensitive to art then some of us bigger folk reminded me of the movie above; a wonderful documentary questioning the validity of modern art in general, and the value we place on it. while i think the movie exposes some inconsistencies between what we practice and what we preach as art connoisseurs, i DO think that kids, by nature of being less trained, are better able to interpret art more openly and easily

caught

last night i went to the joyce to see david parsons. the company performed one of its most well-known pieces: caught.

this solo dance utilizes a strobe light impeccably times with the dancer's jumping and leaping to create the illusion that the he is floating in the air. the effect in person is sort of amazing. the video does it no justice because anyone can edit film to look like all kinds of things. believe me when i say this clip has not been edited to trick you (however, it has shortened a 6 minute dance into one minute) but this link is actually what the dance looks like in person.

the timing of the light and the dancer's movement is in fact incredible, but there is a trick. while watching last night i leaned over and told my friend what it was. i think she was pretty annoyed that i gave it away. the power of illusion is strong

pina bausch

last night i went to b.a.m. with my mother to see vollmond by the late and great pina bausch. we have a tradition of going every fall. this year was particularly special/sad because it was the first since the choreographer's absence.

my mother had said, and i agree with her, that one of the things that marks pina bausch's work is the seamless/dreamlike quality to it. it it is hard to distinguish where one section begins and the other ends. the performers (i like this word better because they do more than dance) enter and exit the space sporadically and frequently overlapping. sometimes performers will have an elaborate "scene" on stage. and other times a single person will walk through the space, pausing only briefly to deliver a single line to the audience. these lines are often witty, funny. but the work overall is filled with different kinds of moments - from tragic to absurd.

another thing that marks pina's work for me is the way she utilizes some magnificent material to create the space for her work to exist (one year it was a mountain of roses on the stage - maybe 15 feet tall?) . in vollmond it was a shallow river of water running accross the stage, straddled by a large bolder. The dancers performed, on, under and around the boulder, as well as through and sometimes submerged in the water.

you can see a clip here. the way water elaborates and punctuates every movement is beautiful.

no pina bausch dance would be complete with out striking women in gorgeous dresses. in fact, i think she was one of my inspirations to do a dance about women last year. i always loved the way she portrayed them. and yet i cannot describe how she portrayed them. they were some brilliant balance of elegant, charming, delicate, delightful and independent. (?) maybe a picture will say it better.

cookies and wisdom

hitchcock's birds

i just came back from a showing of "the birds" at symphony space. i had seen this film dozens of times as a kid, but never in a theater.

there is something special about seeing a movie in a big dark room full of strangers (apart from the "special" prospect of acquiring bedbugs). the shared experience is a unique one. discovering how your tastes and sensibilities are similar to, or vary from, those of your neighbors when a laugh or sob (either yours or anothers') becomes audible.

the experience can also, unfortunately, be marked by someone in the front row standing up to go to the bathroom, leaving their silhouette on the screen, or talking, or texting etc etc

but one of the best experiences, and perhaps what hitchcock is best known for, is creating moments of suspense for us to share. no one has mastered it like alfred. it's what he shows you, how he shows it to you, but more importantly, what he doesn't show you that so brilliantly grips us, the viewers.

i'm surprised i didn't have nightmares about birds as a child, because even as an adult, and even recognizing that this movie is as old as it is, with it's limited (but pretty amazing for it's time) technology, and even though i knew what was going to take place in every scene before it started, i was still geniunely scared.

thanks dad for introducing me to hitchock - even if i was waaaay too young to see most of his movies at the time... i still remember them all fondly.

and thanks vio for inviting me to the screening. if you are interested in hearing what she had to say check out skip rip or play. here's vio's review.

some of us live in public

i finally saw the movie that my sister has been telling me about for months (maybe a year?) and after tony reviewed it on skip rip or play i put it on my netflix queue. what an interesting man that josh harris. he seems totally insane; an egomaniac, who, despite being somewhat despicable, is also sort of brilliant in his own way. he saw and understood things about our society before we were willing or able to see them for ourselves. why is it that so often remarkably smart people are simultaneously nutcases? this movie will make you think a lot about our society in this computer-age and possibly about your part in its chaos. i recommend this film.

perspective

a friend recently told me that i was responsible for changing the way she looked at dance - for getting her interested in it, developing her facility to approach it, and that the work i made and the way i performed somehow stood out to her.

all i could say in response was: "those are really nice things to say..."
i was embarrassed.
i don't always feel like i can/should identify myself as a dancer or as a choreographer.
in fact, several weeks ago someone came up to me at a party and asked if i was a dancer and i simply said "no".

she continued, "because i thought i saw you in a work last weekend in williamsburg...."
"OH YES, that was me..."

where does this inability to define myself come from? lack of confidence? fear of...something? i'm not sure, but sometimes i think it's not a bad idea to try and see yourself through someone else's eyes; they may have some perspective on you that you are unable to have on yourself.