I agree with what she stated about how De Keersmaeker’s takes away from Steve Reich’s music. The choreography was beautiful, but it wasn’t as intricate as I wanted it to be. Watching the dancers of “Piano Phase” repeat the same spinning move over and over became very boring after a while. Steve Reich’s music needed to be expressed better in the choreography.
]]>Perhaps the intent of the show was to captivate the audience through a “trance-like” depiction of Reich’s music. Studying music theory for two years has, however, taught me to listen and watch actively. While listening actively to Reich’s music is fulfilling, the same could not be said for the dances. Maybe if I could have detached myself from the performance, I’d have a much fuller enjoyment of the show.
(I hope this doesn’t sound arrogant…but the piece “Marimba Phase” was played on two Marimbas…Xylophones and Glockenspiels are entirely different instruments. Xylophones rarely span more than 3 octaves, and glockenspiels are made of metal, usually brass. Just clarifying, as a nerdy mallet percussionist.)
]]>“The reason why this piece stood out the most was because it was not like the rest of the pieces that included lively light, sounds and dancers moving with the music. The pendulums were the focus of the music and the simple swinging back and forth was enough. The simplicity of this piece was very ambiguous and allowed the viewers to interpret what they think occurred and what the pendulums could have meant.”
I agree with DeAsia that “Pendulum Music” was the most intriguing piece of the performance due to its sheer simplicity. In my interpretation of the piece, I found the swinging of the pendulums to simply represent time. However, DeAsia’s thought that the performance can be open to ambiguous interpretations is a brilliant one. Whereas in most of the other performances, the dancers interpret the music within their dances, “Pendulum Music” involves only musical equipment. Therefore, interpretation is merely left to you, the audience.
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