Student Posts

Posts written by students in The Arts in New York City (Fall 2017).

Fall for Dance: Trisha Brown Dance Company

Sam Gosda

The Trisha Brown Dance Company (TBDC) was founded in 1970 by postmodern dancer/choreographer Trisha Brown. They have performed all over the world and collaborated with several leading names in music, art, and theatre. These collaborators included, but were not limited to, Robert Rauschenberg, Donald Judd, Laurie Anderson, and Alvin Curran. Currently, the company consists of 10 dancers and two associate art directors. The directors are Carolyn Lucas and Diane Madden. Lucas originally joined the dance company in 1984 as a dancer. Madden joined in 1980 and has danced, taught, studied and reconstructed Brown’s work since then. The company has an education and outreach program which provide workshops, master classes, and lectures all around the world. TBDC is even being studied as a class at Bard College. The classes teach their technique, repertoire, and  their creative process. They are expanding their program with classes at New York University, California State University San Marcos, La Manufacture, Duke University, Centre National de Danse Contemporaine Angers, and Belgium’s professional training program P.A.R.T.S. The company continues to grow and will always evolve to fit the growing world.

 

 

 

Turandot Lyrics

eitanarm

Turandot was my first experience with an opera and I was not disappointed. Despite not being able to understand what the performers said, as they were speaking in Italian, you can still feel the raw emotion they had. Reading the libretto gives you insight into the personalities. This is mostly evident in Turandot’s and Liu’s words. As the ruler, Turandot has an air of superiority to her as the way she speaks is confident and insulting. She is willing to kill any suitor who doesn’t solve her riddles as she is afraid of being controlled by a man and doesn’t show any remorse doing so. Liu on the other hand is the exact opposite, she speaks softly always putting other’s needs first. What’s also interesting about Liu’s words is that she refers herself by her name instead of saying I or me. In many Asian cultures, young girls do this and it may have something to do with the portrayal of innocence. Nathaniel and I discussed that when the opera was over, the one who got the most applause wasn’t the queen but the peasant, because people empathized with how she spoke. Turandot was a gateway into the world of opera and I hope to experience more in the future.

STEAM Festival

eitanarm

The STEAM Festival was a very enjoyable experience. I expected and dreaded that we were going to present in front of Alumni while they took notes on us. However, I was pleasantly surprised that it was the opposite. The people who asked us questions were other Macaulay students from other schools. They were actually interested in our projects. I thought that the juniors would shun us and only talk to themselves, but they were very open and cared about what we had to present. The Make Your Own Station was a neat concept and it was a good way to interact with people from different schools. What I expected to be boring morning was a fun event where time flew by quickly.

Life and Death

eitanarm

I honestly regret being late for this trip. It was fascinating being able to compare the religions of the west with those of the east, especially when it comes to death. The journey that a person after death takes is so much more detailed in Buddhism than it is in many other western religions. For example, there is what’s called The Tibetan Book of the Dead that describes the steps between when a person has passed until the next rebirth. To people who are prepared, it’s a way of discovering who they are and what they want to be. For the unprepared, they are riddled with temptations and hallucinations that may cause a undesirable rebirth. You don’t really have this detailed of an explanation of death in many western religions. However, it is interesting to note the similarities religions have when it comes to the overseer of death. Western Religions like Christianity there’s the Devil who resides in Hell, while in Buddhism there’s Yama the god of the underworld, and punishes people who have done wrong. This trip has made me appreciate different religions and how they can shape people’s beliefs.

The World is Sound ~ The Rubin Museum

seherakram

Prior to our visit to the Rubin Museum of Art, I was expecting some small exhibit in the museum. I was surprised when I saw how every aspect of the museum embodied the spirit of sound, and how interactive the actual museum was. The central staircase itself had the element of sound incorporated into it, which I found very fascinating. Furthermore, the “Om” room for me epitomized how interactive, powerful, and hypnotizing sound can be. The “Om,” room was one of the many examples of how interactive yet simultaneously soothing the power of sound is.

MoMa

seherakram

The MoMa was our first trip as a class, and proved to be very interactive. The lessons prepared by Alexis beforehand proved to be extremely helpful, and it felt as if we were visiting pieces we had already become so familiar with. Seeing the pieces we had discussed in class beforehand really enhanced the element of collage in Rauschenberg’s work. Aspects of everyday life were reflected in his art, as he created breathtaking amalgamations of his experiences throughout life.