If we tried to harmoniously blend the trials and tribulations of the families who experienced the Dust Bowl with the current mortgage crisis that has been inflicting the entire nation as of late, we would probably get something close to the Builders Association’s “House/Divided”. Directed by Mirianne Weemes, “House/Divided” seeks to juxtapose the famous Joad family from John Steinbeck’s highly renowned The Grapes of Wrath with today’s financial mortgage crisis. Weemes and her colleagues produced this piece by incorporating media straight into the performance itself. This means that during the performance, scenes from real video clips were used as well as live videos of the actors and actresses speaking. These types of media were intermingled into the live-action play itself, and in all honesty, I’d have to say that it created too much tension and confusion for me to keep up with.

In saying that I did not like the media intermixing with the live performance, I am siding with the Phelan perspective from Dixon’s Liveness. Phelan’s perspective says that the media should be kept separate from live performance because it detracts from the piece as a whole. On the other hand, there is also the Auslander perspective which basically says that media and live performance can work fine together. In fact, Auslander states that “Dance + Virtual = Virtual”. This shows that Auslanders considerably favor media in live performances. However, in “House/Divided”, I believe that the media side only made me more confused. I didn’t even know the performers at the end of the play! By using media heavily in the piece, Weemes did layout a lot of information that could have otherwise been unknown, but with too media, the play became more diluted, and I felt like it was more a television documentary with some living people performing on the side.

I am not aiming to bash “House/Divided” because I am probably too uninformed about both the Dust Bowl and the current financial crisis to even have a say. However, from an outsider’s perspective who doesn’t know anything at all, I must say that I did not truly grasp the concept of “wrath” or anything of the sort. I wouldn’t go so far as to completely side with the older woman who first commented during the after-show talk; however, I would say that the older woman’s point was valid. I mean, the play as a whole was enjoyable– the props were nice, the see-through house was cool, and the use of media was very modern– but I cannot say that the play as a whole was successful.

Analytic post-modern dance is what we now call one of the many phases of post-modern dance. The term “post-modern dance” was coined in the early 1960s by Yvonne Rainer, a choreographer in the movement, but it was not until the early 1970s that analytic pst-modern dance emerged as an independent style with its own aesthetic code. Analytic post-modern dance, as wrote the first person to study it in print (Michael Kirby in The Dance Review), was focused on the “interior view” of dance; there were no restrictions on what kinds of movements were acceptable in terms of visual appearance because movement was considered by the analytic post-modern choreographers to be a result of decisions, goals, concepts, and problems, not just aesthetically pleasing poses and transitions. As long as a movement or stance adhered to those rules and principles, regardless of whether it was pleasing to the eye, that movement was considered dance.

Analytic post-modern dance also rejected musicality, forced meaning, imposed classification and characterization, clear moods, and atmospheres. This school of dance used props, lighting, and costumes in purely functional ways: dancers performed in sweatpants, T-shirts, or casual everyday dress and danced in silence in plain, well-lit rooms. Analytic post-modern dance was, in a way, an attempt to redefine dance after the 1960s-post-moderns tore apart any and all standing definitions.

One dancer/choreographer who had a hand in shaping the movement was Tricia Brown. In the early days of post-modern dance, when the school as a whole was struggling with bringing new uses of time, space, and body to the art of dance, Tricia Brown danced on a chicken coop roof and in a parking lot, pioneering the “unconventional stage,” the new performance space. Brown also developed, with choreographers Yvonne Forti and Dick Levine, “violent contact” improvisation and later, alone, Accumulation Pieces and Structured Pieces, which explored movement devoid of expressive effects or references. The two experiments of sorts pioneered new ways of moving that became accepted types of dance, and as analytic post-modern dance took on momentum as a movement, Brown started her own company, the Tricia Brown Dance Company, and collaborated with many other by-then-established choreographers (including Rauschenberg and Judd). Tricia Brown was completely entwined in the analytic post-modern dance movement and was a pioneer of many of its most striking characteristics.

Pina Bausch’s “…como el musguito en la piedra, ay si, si, si…” was anything but post-modern dance. It was a spectacular mix of lights, props, special effects, and countless mini-segments targeted to make the audience chuckle in amusement. Post-modern dance focuses on the expression of uninhibited, instinctual movement, without the help of costumes, lighting, props, or special effects. Pina Bausch’s dance uses all of these to add to the performance, making them the central feature of the show, rather than the other way around. The choreography of Bausch’s dance was centralized around the relationships and tensions between men and women, showing them in a comedic, romantic, and even exaggerated light. In contrast to post-modern dance, which is characterized by loose, natural movements, Bausch’s dance uses very choreographed, aesthetic movements that are pleasing to the eye.

Of course, there were visible similarities between the performance and those of post-modern dance. They might sound like arbitrary observations, but there were moments of eccentricity in the Pina Bausch piece that are analogous to the raw, equally unique moments of post-modern dance (especially with regards to contact improvisation). One such moment includes the scene in which a woman walks across the stage with a potted tree strapped to her back. She sits on the other side of the stage, sits down, and then another female dancer walks on stage with a glass of water, helps the woman carrying the tree drink it, and leaves. Not long after, the woman the tree gets up and walks off the stage the same way she came. Again, this similarity is quite arbitrary, but to the untrained mind, these eccentricities are quite prominent. The focal point of this scene in the Pina Bausch, however, is the tree that the woman carries, not the woman herself, and this is the stark difference between Pina Bausch and post-modern choreographers is most visible.

Pina Bausch’s “…como el musguito en la piedra. ay si, si, si..”is a very loose portrayal of post-modern dance. By definition, post-modernism is all about the human body. It uses mundane and everyday movements as statements that everyone can be a dancer. Music and costumes aren’t always used and complex technique isn’t emphasized in order to keep the audience focused solely on the dancers. Dances following this ideal can don’t necessarily have a deeper meaning, using movements as mere movements, not as hidden statements about society’s ills. Thus, post-modern dance is both revolutionary and simple, neglecting the bells and whistles of dance while still maintaining the integrity of choreography that celebrates the human body.

Pina Bausch’s piece didn’t quite follow the criteria described above. This dance was an exploration of male-female relations; even though it didn’t make its statement absolutely obvious, it made the audience think. Bausch’s choreography was quite technical at times, yet the dancers made it flow beautifully and put their emotions in it. Moreover, music, lighting and props played a major role in this piece, which isn’t typical to post-modernism. The lighting set the mood, different props such as tables and chairs were brought upon the stage, while the magnificent Spanish music kept the audience captivated and moved. The most obvious aspect of this dance, though, was the dancers’ costuming. The women wore colorful long gowns, while the men wore grey or black suits. Most dancers wore shoes, which is another departure from post-modern dance. The collective impression this ensemble made, then, was rather striking.  As if this wasn’t impressive enough, the stage broke apart from under the dancers at certain parts of the performance, symbolizing the fragility of some relationships and keeping the audience on the edges of their seats.

However, Bausch did incorporate some aspects of post-modernism in her choreography. She incorporated short, whimsical scenes in between dance segments in order to make the performance more segmented and less traditional. Additionally, mundane movements such as eating and talking were part of the choreography, which represents the post-modernist celebration of the human body in its simplicity.

Overall, then, the post-modernism of “…como el musguito en la piedra. ay si, si, si..” is debatable. The piece contrasted the ideologies of this movement by using bells and whistles and making a societal statement, but it stayed true to the genre by celebrating mundane movements and the human body.

I chose this photo because of its striking composition and contrasts (both visual and symbolic); I like the play of light and dark and the textures in this Roy DeCarava photograph.

In terms of visuals, I like the bright sunlight and the shadows of a large building that overlay the shadows at the edge of the sidewalk, the light on another building in the upper left corner, the gentle gray shading on the girl’s dress. The diagonal of the main shadow line is not exactly at 45 degrees (it is more horizontal), which elongates the picture and makes it look like the scene is facing us, which lends an aura  of intimacy to the scene that it would not have it it was at a harsh angle from us. I also like how the triangle of light seems to pierce the darkness like a spearhead, bringing with it a beautifully gowned girl. 

In terms of symbolism, this scene offers much texture and nuance. The main subject, the girl, has recently or is about to graduate (as is indicated by the title of the photograph) but is walking directly from light into darkness, an analogy in complete reverse. She is wearing a gown, gloves, and headband reminiscent of a certain princess, but the sign in the background that presumably said “PRINCE” at one point is now falling apart and not offering; There is an advertisement for a “Style Star of an All-Star Line” Chevrolet, which she seems to be looking at, but the only actual means of transportation in the frame is a broken rickshaw. The entire scene has a sort of beautiful sad aura. 

This photograph is compositionally strong due to its observation of the rule of asymmetry (the main human subject, the girl, is off center), the rule of thirds (the girl is in the left vertical third and in the middle horizontal third), the rule of dynamic balance (I find that the distribution of light and dark is very well balanced), and the rule of diagonals (the girl’s head is on a diagonal, as is the black object very near the center of the photo, which I think grounds it all )

In the future (and specifically for Snapshot Day) I want to use more compositional rules like the rule of diagonals and/or golden ratio. Professor Grimaldi’s lecture broadened my horizons to new techniques that I did not know would improve the aesthetics of a frame (i.e. rule of dynamic composition). I love photography (I must have saved three dozen photographs on my search for this one) and now I have tools to create some myself. I especially like the (rule of?) the golden ratio; it is an old technique, even used in paintings (I like the idea that a photograph can look like a painting), and it is difficult to master but improves every picture once applied. I hope I can se it effectively in my own work.

In Lewis Hine’s photo Playground at Mill Village there seems to be a group of kids playing a game of baseball within the confines of two buildings. There are a few spectators, who are mostly children, and there is also laundry hanging above. A few aspects about this photo drew me in. The movement of the boy in the middle contrasts the stagnant on-lookers, and the boy adds depth by pitching to someone in the back. The depth of the photo is also aided by the diagonal lines of the buildings and of the street. It makes me wonder what else is in the background of the photograph. The children in the front who seem to be looking at the photograph allow for more depth; they indicate that the photo isn’t all 2-dimensional. Then there are the articles of clothing hanging that create opposing lines from the  buildings and children’s sight lines. The clothes cut across the photo in interesting patterns that are visually pleasing.

The rule of thirds is applied here as well. The darker building on the right side is the heavier third with darker, more saturated colors. Then there is the boy who is pitching and the clothes that constitute the second third of the photo. Lastly there is the whiter,  lighter third on the left side. So, I’d have to say that color is key for this photo; it allows for the rule of thirds to be applied.

I plan on using the rule of thirds in my photo. I also think that black and white photos are more interesting as well. So I will aim to use third party apps such as instragram in order to make my photo look accordingly. On my phone itself, I plan on using the grid lines that come with camera app. This will allow me to find lines within the photo, and hopefully this will make for a successful photo like Lewis Hine’s Playground at Mill Village.