TORSE: LEFT SCREEN [ on dvd ]
~ sounds of dancers feet squeaking on tarquette or thumping in the landings from jumps
~ geometrical movements and spatial formations
~ split video screen
~ clumsy unison work
~ structure features groups ranging from 10 down through to 2, with isolated solo work
~ split screen is a viewing decision – binocular
~ regimented movement with held and posed waiting interludes – regimentation is a theme
~ preoccupied with tendus – the tendu is the central driving movement force
~ vertical ‘balleticality’ – a narrow movement vocabulary tightly bound up in mummy wrappings that keep the arms stuck out at the sides all the time – this is the coppelia doll as a wooden anatomical artists modelling toy (stripped of her frilly clothing) – marionettes on the open stage clunking around as per the stringed manipulations
~ the formality keeps the space spatialised (intimacy is sporadic, fleeting, and also formal) – spatialised space is where space between is consciously maintained
~ the spacing and regimentation is an obedience to structural demands
~ height competitions between the more and less flexible
~ as the space connects and divides the space-between so too do the small rectangular video screens sitting alongside one another (like two square eyes) within the larger screen (the skull)
~ the darkness that borders the lit dancing space is mirrored by the dark screen on which the two smaller screens sit
~ the dance is a classroom with lots of technical dance exercises being practiced – or the classroom has migrated to the stage
~ the right screen turned blue and was empty of image and dance momentarily – sky? – and then the previous dancing screen resumed
~ dancers enter and exit from the bordering darkness
~ these are fine articulate dancers who a have a casualness in the feet which makes them seem noticeably sloppy in the numerous ballet moves and extensions
~ more waiting in posed classical tendu positions with arms in 3rd
~ the dance of the almost-ballet that has been around so long now that it has its own completeness and can’t be said to be an almost-anything anymore except itself
~ grid patterning
~ the sounds of jumps inserted again – this is conscious because the sparse electronic score died down in order for the feet thumps to be amplified unaccompanied
~ patterns on patterns on patterns
~ the patternated body
~ forcing/labouring the big jump – the ground is woven in floor travelling sequences (mostly box step variations) and pushed off for jumping
~ punctuations of little partnering and lifting moments – the sporadic and structurally isolated nature of these make them like a motif that emphasises the off-the-ground and relentless airborne nature of the dance
~ everything is off the ground and up – retirés, relevés, demi-pointes, arabesques, sautés, beats, cabrioles, assemblés, battement, extended and lifted port-de-bras – this is a mad hot-footing on hot coals
~ there is so much anti-ground it becomes a battle and the dancers lose – eternal body flights of the flightless
~ flight is the desire and after a time and with relentless perseverance, the illusion gets believed – the argument for the possibility of unassisted human flight is won
~ facings are mostly camera (i.e. front) oriented – the camera never leaves its fixed location centre front, it only zooms in and out to dissect or enlarge particular groupings or individuals – but the body and choreography also utilise circular pathways and multiple facings that orient the front of the body in other directions
~ gaps and spaces are harnessed
~ repetition is a dominant factor – it is as if the dance is going over and over itself like a photocopier producing endlessly varied versions of a piece of material in an attempt to… what?
~ it’s like a tickertape or court transcript that goes on and on trying to… and now it just flickers out inconclusively, but not till it has reintroduced a movement that takes the dancers down to one knee for the second time – the first was at the beginning
~ the overall impression is of a community of uni-skinned dancer/androgynes busily and concentratedly carrying personal semi-largish basket-bundles of space in front of them as they travel around, across, through, in, and out of the performance area (which is hot on the feet) (– it’s also like an egg and spoon race) – perhaps the space-baskets have their clothes in them and they’re on the way to the river
_______________________________
~ sounds of dancers feet squeaking on tarquette or thumping in the landings from jumps
~ geometrical movements and spatial formations
~ split video screen
~ clumsy unison work
~ structure features groups ranging from 10 down through to 2, with isolated solo work
~ split screen is a viewing decision – binocular
~ regimented movement with held and posed waiting interludes – regimentation is a theme
~ preoccupied with tendus – the tendu is the central driving movement force
~ vertical ‘balleticality’ – a narrow movement vocabulary tightly bound up in mummy wrappings that keep the arms stuck out at the sides all the time – this is the coppelia doll as a wooden anatomical artists modelling toy (stripped of her frilly clothing) – marionettes on the open stage clunking around as per the stringed manipulations
~ the formality keeps the space spatialised (intimacy is sporadic, fleeting, and also formal) – spatialised space is where space between is consciously maintained
~ the spacing and regimentation is an obedience to structural demands
~ height competitions between the more and less flexible
~ as the space connects and divides the space-between so too do the small rectangular video screens sitting alongside one another (like two square eyes) within the larger screen (the skull)
~ the darkness that borders the lit dancing space is mirrored by the dark screen on which the two smaller screens sit
~ the dance is a classroom with lots of technical dance exercises being practiced – or the classroom has migrated to the stage
~ the right screen turned blue and was empty of image and dance momentarily – sky? – and then the previous dancing screen resumed
~ dancers enter and exit from the bordering darkness
~ these are fine articulate dancers who a have a casualness in the feet which makes them seem noticeably sloppy in the numerous ballet moves and extensions
~ more waiting in posed classical tendu positions with arms in 3rd
~ the dance of the almost-ballet that has been around so long now that it has its own completeness and can’t be said to be an almost-anything anymore except itself
~ grid patterning
~ the sounds of jumps inserted again – this is conscious because the sparse electronic score died down in order for the feet thumps to be amplified unaccompanied
~ patterns on patterns on patterns
~ the patternated body
~ forcing/labouring the big jump – the ground is woven in floor travelling sequences (mostly box step variations) and pushed off for jumping
~ punctuations of little partnering and lifting moments – the sporadic and structurally isolated nature of these make them like a motif that emphasises the off-the-ground and relentless airborne nature of the dance
~ everything is off the ground and up – retirés, relevés, demi-pointes, arabesques, sautés, beats, cabrioles, assemblés, battement, extended and lifted port-de-bras – this is a mad hot-footing on hot coals
~ there is so much anti-ground it becomes a battle and the dancers lose – eternal body flights of the flightless
~ flight is the desire and after a time and with relentless perseverance, the illusion gets believed – the argument for the possibility of unassisted human flight is won
~ facings are mostly camera (i.e. front) oriented – the camera never leaves its fixed location centre front, it only zooms in and out to dissect or enlarge particular groupings or individuals – but the body and choreography also utilise circular pathways and multiple facings that orient the front of the body in other directions
~ gaps and spaces are harnessed
~ repetition is a dominant factor – it is as if the dance is going over and over itself like a photocopier producing endlessly varied versions of a piece of material in an attempt to… what?
~ it’s like a tickertape or court transcript that goes on and on trying to… and now it just flickers out inconclusively, but not till it has reintroduced a movement that takes the dancers down to one knee for the second time – the first was at the beginning
~ the overall impression is of a community of uni-skinned dancer/androgynes busily and concentratedly carrying personal semi-largish basket-bundles of space in front of them as they travel around, across, through, in, and out of the performance area (which is hot on the feet) (– it’s also like an egg and spoon race) – perhaps the space-baskets have their clothes in them and they’re on the way to the river
_______________________________
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