Nov 20 2012
You Lost Me at “Swim”
that theater as I tried to make sense of the disjointed spectacle i was observing. The lack of synchrony and th
point of modern art but if it is I don’t find it appealing. I’m comparatively old fashioned when it comes to art, ae obscure choreography left my utterly perplexed. I don’t mean to take anything away from the dancers because I’m sure they put in hours of hard work but as I’m beginning to notice that modern art forms are very difficult to interpret when you don’t have any prior knowledge on the subject. Maybe that’s the
ppreciating century old paintings and dances like the ballet or the waltz. In my opinion dance should remain what it is: dance. There is no need for it to have a deeper meaning and if it does, make sure that it’s clearly demonstrated my the performers
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Brian, you commented that you’re “beginning to notice that modern art forms are very difficult to interpret when you don’t have any prior knowledge on the subject.” Do you think if we had researched the Barnard dancers and in general the subject of dance we would have better understood the dance? I think perhaps modern art is what you make it… Even if there is something deeper behind this dance (which I’m sure there is), it seems like it can’t hurt to interpret it on our own. I see it as an exercise of the imagination.
Allow me to clarify what I meant by that comment. What I meant was that it would be easier to interpret and find meaning if we were exposed to more modern dance. As with anything, interpreting gets easier with practice. I’m not saying that one cannot take something away from the dance but that it would be easier to find something to take away if they knew what to look for.
I’m going to have to agree with you on the old fashioned dance comment you made. I can sit through a ballet, tap, or jazz performance and appreciate it completely. I’ll disagree with the comment you made about having background knowledge in the art form because watching someone perform ballet doesn’t require much thought or experience to understand. We actually don’t really have to understanding anything, it’s just nice to watch. This performance on the other hand, was not so nice to watch. I was concerned and sleepy and the lack of any idea regarding what in the world was going on just irritated me. I am ranting but I think you see where I’m coming from.
I could not agree with you more. I don’t know too much about dance but I know that was a bad performance by anyone’s definition. I think it would have been better if they got up there and did the YMCA. Instead they decided to cause me to be repelled by any sentence with the words Barnard and Dance in it.
I like how you transfered the responsibility to deliver and understand the message from the audience to the performers. I really did not have the guts to point it out. Sometimes, I feel modern dance choreographers just skip the logic and simply rely on the idea while throwing the burden of making the link to the audience.