Art & Authenticy

I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again.

Falling for Dance was an interesting experience, not interesting meaning “oh it was quite lovely” but more on “holy crap, what just happened?” kind of feeling.

It was a kind of baptism, sort of like how Tyler Durden poured lye all over the main character of Fight Club’s hand and clutching him to make him feel his hand being eaten away slowly.

Five years of English class made me have a certain kind of expectation about art.  Art was supposed to hide a profound countercultural meaning behind the surface.  Every element of a piece was supposed to have symbolism and be a metaphor for the plight of the Polish workers in the 19th century or the struggles of middle-class women in South Africa or something.

I was wrong.  This show opened my eyes.

There were no muddled metaphors or a detailed discussion of Pre-Stalin politics in Russia.  It was an expression of emotion, of a feeling.  I had completely forgotten about it.

There were four acts, and each act had a different essence.  What struck me most was the second dance, Afternoon of the Faun.  It was dramatically different than the other three dances.  It was raw with energy and was slightly tinged with homoeroticism, which was exactly made it more interesting.

The backdrop was not the kind you would see in normal ballets, it was black, and gave off an axe commercial feel.

This was done on purpose.  The original Afternoon of the Faun consisted of a man and a woman, the one we saw at Fall for Dance was a ‘modernized’ rendition that gave a homosexual interpretation, which I found quite fitting.

The other dances were not something I enjoyed.  I partially blame my inexperience with the art form.