Author: Eli McClain (Page 1 of 2)

Ralph Lemon’s production, Scaffold Room, had me leaving the theatre in a terrible mood with a splitting headache. This avant-garde performance art piece was not what I had expected it to be. After hearing it was”sexually explicit” and “not what Lemon used to do”, I googled the piece and read a little bit about the piece. Many pages used the term “lecture-performance-musical” to describe Scaffold Room. The performance, in my opinion, accurately represented the phrase.

The show began with the squeaking of a mattress atop the scaffold room. The first performer jumped on the mattress as videos were projected on screens in the set. As the performance continued, the woman in the room spoke, sang, moved around the space and proceeded to change your clothing as well as put on a wig. As she spoke and sang I felt as if not only I but everyone one around me was uncomfortable with the vulgar and explicit language. The projection panels were moved around the performance to create different defined spaces. It is difficult for me to discuss this piece because while watching the performance I tried hard to forget what was going on around me. As the second woman took the stage and began her section of the piece, I became annoyed the performance. The length and vulgarity of the piece seemed unbearable to me. At the moment which the high-pitched screaming blasted through the performance space, my exhaustion intensified. After what seemed like five minutes, the painful screaming finally stopped. This piece concluded with the men dancing to an electronic remix of a song. This was the only section of the performance that I enjoyed, however with a splitting headache, it was difficult to fully appreciate it. Because of the lack of within the piece, it is difficult to call Scaffold Room a dance performance. Like Jeanine Durning’s -inging, Scaffold Room would be considered a performance art piece instead. Just because they have been created by choreographers does not mean that they have to be dance performances. While it is understandable that we saw Jeanine Durning’s piece for your theatre aspect of the class, I am unsure as to why Ralph Lemon’s piece was incorporated into our curriculum when we could have seen another type of dance being performed.

Eli McClain

Analytical Post-Modern Dance arose in the 1970’s and centered around the structure of movement in performance. This phase of Post-Modern Dance continued to build upon the experimentation works of the 1960’s. Many of the terms used to describe this phase of Post-Modern Dance seem out-of-place in the realm of dance. Sally Banes uses “impersonal”, “goal-oriented”, and “objective” to describe the choreographic works (Banes XXI). As Glenn mentioned, movements were isolated in a somewhat scientific light in order to highlight the thought of movement itself. The Analytical works stripped performances of their “expressive elements such as music, special lighting, costumes, props…” (XX). Focusing on repetition and patterning of simple movements, choreographers created pieces using performers that were not trained in dance. This differed from past dance genres in which a technical vocabulary and movement set was required and performers were trained in specific techniques.

One of the other important choreographers in the Analytical phase of Post Modern Dance was Trisha Brown. Her piece Accumulation (1971) she focused on simplistic movements that were repeated and then altered in specific patterns. As the performance continues, it becomes more complex; the lengthening of repeating chains of movements creates an intricate choreography that increases in difficulty as it progresses. Trisha Brown also worked with a variety of performance spaces including using the walls of rooms and the sides of buildings. In these pieces she worked with the idea of gravity and the apparent balance between flying and falling as her dancers repelled on the walls. Much of Trisha’s work was done in silence, with selected pieces having spoken words aspects to them and very few incorporating music. Both Brown and Steve Paxton joined the improvisation group names Grand Union in early 1970 and continued to do group work as well as their individual choreography. The group helped choreographers share their ideas as well as test out new and experimental choreography while working together to create new improvisational pieces. Trisha Brown, Steve Paxton and the Grand Union all played an important role in the expansion of Post-Modern Dance analytical phase.

Eli McClain

The photo that I have chosen to analyse is André Kertész’s Montmarte shot in 1927. I was drawn to this photo in part because of its brightness. At first glance this scene is calming as the open landscape invites the viewers in. Kertész follows the rule of thirds in this photograph. The long set of steps takes up two-thirds while the pavilion below takes up only one. This placement causes a shift in perspective and elongates the steps making them the main focus of the photograph.

I enjoyed how the shadows spanned the scene and added to the simplistic composition of the photo. The small figure in the top left corner of the scene gives the photo movement. The placement of the figure towards the frame provoked thoughts of urgency for me. It seems almost as if they are running and will proceed to run up this long set of steps. I thought it was interesting how André focused on the location as the subject and left the person as a small blip in the larger story.

I think Kertész’s photograph somewhat helped me to formulate my ideas for framing my photo. I would like to focus my photo on something calming; a landscape during the sunrise perhaps. Using the rule of thirds, I hope to create an interesting sense of perception. Because I will be in a car all morning I think that I will be able to capture an intriguing shot. I am not sure how I will incorporate movement into my shot yet but I would prefer to have it be more subtle and not the main focus of my work. I enjoyed looking through the photographs online and while I did enjoy this one more than the others, I believe that a lot of them have aspects that I could utilize in my piece.

-Eli McClain

While reading Jessica Sun’s Critique on Alessandro Sciarroni’s Folk-s will you still love me tomorrow?, I found myself agreeing with some of her main arguments and ideas while at other times taking a different stance on the same aspect of the performance. Nonetheless Jessica’s description and analysis of the performance was a pleasure to read. Because of the composition of this performance it is hard to describe the choreography itself. With so much repetition in the performance the reviewer must focus more on the changes in the performance environment throughout the duration of the piece. Critiques on this piece should also include the emotions and thoughts of the audience as the performance progressed because the performance is aimed towards engaging its viewers. I enjoyed Jessica’s final sentence of her review in which she says, “It was almost impossible for the audience members to talk about the performance as everyone filed out, with the constant rhythm still beating in our minds.” As I exited the theatre I still felt the beating rhythm in my chest and in my ears. Jessica’s side note at the end of the post was interesting. I myself had not thought about that connection but after reading her thoughts I began to agree with the contrasting connection between Folk-s and Venus’ How long you can hold and absence? I applaud her for thinking of that connection between the two extremely different pieces.

I saw Alessandro Sciarroni’s performance on Thursday October 1st. The performance space of New York Live Arts contrasted traditional theatres with its lack of curtains that usually block the audience’s view of the wings. Before the lights were raised on the dancers, the performance had started with the repeating stomps and slaps of the dancers feet and hands. The use of voices during the beginning of the performance was implemented as a source of communication between the dancers as all but one were without sight. I found this amazing. Without sight these dancers still performed this synchronized progression of steps and stayed in set patterns without straying. I noticed a call and repeat dimension to the circle of dancers in which one dancer would add a short segment onto the growing choreography and the rest of the circle would then repeat the pattern and continue forward.

As the lights slowly raised on the dancers I noticed the contrasting costumes of the dancers. While Alessandro was clad in lederhosen the rest of the dancers were in a variety of modern clothes that seemed hastily chosen. Questions regarding the topic of traditional versus modern ideas began to float into my head. These questions grew in numbers as throughout the performance, as experimental modern soundscapes were layered onto the traditional folk choreography. As the repeating string of choreography got to full length, the dancers began to separate into groups and later pairs to create patterns on the stage with the moving bodies. Vignettes of dance were interspersed between periods of silence. The sections of silence helped to break the fourth wall that is usually present between performers and the audience by giving the viewers the ability to see the dancers relax and walk around as if they were not performing which created a sense of community as if the theatre was one.

While in the beginning the dancers communicated using their voices, throughout the rest of the piece they used eye contact as well as small smiles and laughs to connect with their fellow performers. There were very few moments in the piece in which a dancer was not making eye contact with one of the other dancers on stage. This constant contact helped to keep dancers on the same page with timing and spatial awareness. A majority of the performance was engaging for the viewer, however, at times the repetitive choreography became too much and the brain began to unfocus from the subjects on stage. The brain drifted with the music somewhat forgetting the dancers on stage doing the same steps they had been doing when you last remembered. The changes and abrupt stopping of the music helped jolt the audience back into focus to enjoy the next segment.

While the piece was repetitive, small changes in music, patterns and choreography helped to keep the piece moving. The underlying give and take between traditional and modern aspects helped to create a unique performance. Alessandro Sciaronni’s performance had the audience laughing, smiling and stomping along to his take on traditional Bavarian and Tyrolean dance even after the last dancer had left the stage.

New York City Ballet is back at it again with their 2015 production of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. Alastair Macaulay, of New York Times, has chosen to stray from the dry critique of this frequently performed piece. He focuses on comparing and contrasting this production with those of other companies as well as commenting on the changes made in casting throughout his review. The focus of the review has been spread among a selection of aspects from the performance including, different dancers, costumes, music and solos. This correlates somewhat with Oliver’s writing in which she states, “Should the show consist of one full-length work, find three or four specific dance sections to critique” (76). Macaulay differs slightly as he focuses on different aspects of the performance and dancers while touching on certain choreography rather than focusing on the plot and rewriting what many others before him have said on the choreography and style of Swan Lake. Macaulay uses a variety of intense and descriptive adjectives and verbs to help guide the reader through pieces of the performance as if they were sitting next to him in the cool dark theatre. He speaks about NYCB’s choices in casting and adds his ideas about what he believed worked and what he did not enjoy watching. Macaulay employs some first person narrative to provide anecdotal evidence to his majorly third person narrative. His use of the first person voice is sparse and deliberate, confirming Oliver’s belief that authors should not “mix [the tenses] without cause” (91). This review on Swan Lake contained many extreme statements which at first surprised me. Macaulay described one solo as “grotesque” as well as the costumes’ color schemes as ” terrible in conception and execution”. After further investigation that these types of phrases were custom for the author and had previously been under fire five years ago because of a comment that he made about a female dancer’s weight.

I enjoyed Alastair Macaulay’s Review of NYCB’s Swan Lake. While he was critical of many aspects of the production, he did highlight certain dancers and gave credit where credit was due. Because of his vast knowledge of dance and his history as a dance critic, his reviews focus on much more than the dance itself. Because of this, the review may seem distant to readers who do not understand the plotline of Swan Lake. The review encapsulated many of Wendy Oliver’s ideas on writing for dance to create a sense of authority and provide the reader with information on the production and the ideas of the author.

-Eli McClain

Throughout his lifetime, Pablo Picasso created a multitude of art forms which spanned over his several modern art movements. Picasso’s various artistic movements were jarring in their aesthetic differences; however, it is clear to the trained eye that Picasso was able to maintain certain and specific underlying elements throughout his changing movements. These underlying elements included brush stroke patterns, shading, as well as emotional projections. Picasso’s Woman Plaiting Her Hair and Girl with a Mandolin are prime examples of Picasso work that from first glance, have stark differences, but share both underlying artistic technique as well as emotional depth. Despite being painted only four years apart from one another, Woman Plaiting Her Hair and Girl with a Mandolin show few similarities in composition, color and style. The works are so distinguished that to an untrained eye, these pieces might look like works from two different artists entirely. Woman Plaiting Her Hair uses soft curves and warm skin tones to draw the viewer closer to the subject. Girl with a Mandolin on the other hand, forces the viewer to step back from the canvas and analyze the geometric intricacies and watch as the various shapes and lines connect to form the body and face of a girl. But when juxtaposed, both pieces project feelings of youth and beauty onto the viewer. While these paintings may not look alike on first glance, similarities help connect these two pieces in the timeline of Picasso’s art career. His ability to paint similar subjects in completely different styles across his art movements helps reveal his range and ease in artistic translation over time.

-Eli McClain

Picasso is well known for his abstract paintings from the cubism movement however this is only a small portion of his work. While visiting the MoMA it was clear that Pablo’s geometric abstract portraits and landscapes were extremely different than his other works. I decided to work with two paintings that were both portraits of women. With differing color schemes and compositions each painting depicts the woman in an intriguing way. I thought it was interesting how the two paintings were so different yet both projected this idea of youth and beauty onto the viewer.

In Woman Plaiting Her Hair (1906), Picasso uses a cooling blueish gray background to create a sense of peacefulness. The solitary woman in the center of the piece sits with a sense of longing on her face as she twists her hair. The warm tones of her skin radiate out of the canvas and fill the room in which she is hung. This painting was created during Picasso’s Black Period in which he incorporated a lot of styles from African art into his work. The face of the woman strongly resembles the shape and depth of the popular African masks with the eyes and nose protruding from the rest of the flat face. The face contrasts with the rest of the body. The body is created with many curves that give the the arms, torso and thighs a sense of three dimensional roundness and fullness. In the lower half of the portrait the woman’s legs are wrapped in a sheet. In the sheets creases the viewer can see some geometric shapes, some of which look fairly similar to the shapes that create the Girl with a Mandolin.

The Girl with a Mandolin (1910), is created with a variety of geometric shapes. Many of these shapes have varying highlighting and shadowing points as if many different viewpoints of the same object were brought together. The colors used to paint the body are very similar to the hues used in the background. This flattens the piece, blending the woman into the space behind her. When viewed from up close, it is sometimes difficult to differentiate between the subject and its surrounding areas. If the viewer steps backs and views the piece by trying to unfocus the eyes on particular aspects, the shapes and lines begin to connect. Picasso uses a few curved lines in this piece that contrast the rest of the blocky constructions. In this piece of art, the theme of youth and beauty is portrayed by the use of wavy done-up hair and rounded breasts.

Picasso used a variety of different styles and concepts as he moved through multiple modern art movements. His ability to create such a wide array of works truly shows his incredible talent and imagination. Because his works are so different in composition, there is plenty of contrasting information between pieces.

-Eli McClain

When visiting the MoMA I felt like I looked a lot not only at the art but also at the other people viewing the art in the museum. When reading Barnet’s writing on what art is and how we described it, I kept going back and thinking about the people at the museum. It was interesting to notice what pieces of art certain people would glance at and walk past and which ones people would stare at and crowd around. I related this to the way we view art and beauty. Many people would walk past abstract pieces and then stop in front of a piece that was more socially acceptable as beautiful. While doing this I realized that we all do this and it is somewhat due to our perceptions of what art is and what we believe is beautiful. At the MoMA we first went to look for the exhibit on cubism spend a good deal of time there. It was interesting to see the progression of Picasso’s work as he began dabbling into cubic designs before diving into the cubism movement. Many of these pieces weren’t on first glance beautiful. When viewed at a distance you could see the general outline of the subject and the mind began to connect the lines and create a better picture of what the eyes were seeing. When viewed up close you could see the detailed brushwork and intricate geometric designs of the pieces. While viewing these pieces I tried to ask myself questions about both the subjects of the works and the possible messages or ideas that could surface in the artwork. As I walked around the room and viewed the progression on pieces throughout the movement I began to get a better understanding as to what I was feeling. Each piece gave a distinct emotion or feeling to the viewer. While the viewer may not fully understand what is being represented in the piece they are able to get that message. Not everything has to be clearly shown for you to get your message across to an audience. Through the rest of the museum I tried to continue asking questions to myself about both the artists and the artworks. While I wasn’t one hundred percent engaged by the two readings I was able to use parts of them to open my mind to the different forms of artwork throughout the time periods shown. These readings also helped spark questions during the Night at the Museum event as I looked at the different pieces in the galleries.

I apologize again for my late posting.

Eli McClain