The Power of Gesture
My holiday treat yesterday was to watch the DVD, Paul Taylor: Dancemaker. I am happy these American Masters shows are available through NetFlix.
I have seen the Paul Taylor Dance Company live a number of times and have always enjoyed the performances but I'm not a huge fan. Not say… like Mark Morris where I have been known to (when I could afford it, or was given tickets) go to all the performances of a tour visit.
I took a short series of Argentine Tango classes this summer and had so much fun feeling the attitude that the movements convey in my body.
This 1998 documentary takes us from early development to finished performance of the spirited Piazzolla Caldera in which the movements are based on Tango and then extrapolated. It is passionate and full of an American sort of energy.
I have to admit that I watched the finished dance more than once last night and the cats were a bit concerned when I started dancing in the kitchen.
The documentary follows the company on a trip to India and through the vicissitudes of a period where a company member didn't make the cut and dealing with the musicians union. I liked it much better than the fictionalized Altman film on the Joffrey Ballet Andrew and I saw here last year.
According to The Great Dance Weblog there is a paucity (love that word) of decent serious blogs about dance out there now. This documentary makes abundantly clear how all consuming a life it is.
Dance is such a punishing art; one’s medium the body…
There are so many ways to be articulate without words. I enjoyed seeing (the old guard of) modern dance honored and examined in this way.
Audrey
I have seen the Paul Taylor Dance Company live a number of times and have always enjoyed the performances but I'm not a huge fan. Not say… like Mark Morris where I have been known to (when I could afford it, or was given tickets) go to all the performances of a tour visit.
I took a short series of Argentine Tango classes this summer and had so much fun feeling the attitude that the movements convey in my body.
This 1998 documentary takes us from early development to finished performance of the spirited Piazzolla Caldera in which the movements are based on Tango and then extrapolated. It is passionate and full of an American sort of energy.
I have to admit that I watched the finished dance more than once last night and the cats were a bit concerned when I started dancing in the kitchen.
The documentary follows the company on a trip to India and through the vicissitudes of a period where a company member didn't make the cut and dealing with the musicians union. I liked it much better than the fictionalized Altman film on the Joffrey Ballet Andrew and I saw here last year.
According to The Great Dance Weblog there is a paucity (love that word) of decent serious blogs about dance out there now. This documentary makes abundantly clear how all consuming a life it is.
Dance is such a punishing art; one’s medium the body…
There are so many ways to be articulate without words. I enjoyed seeing (the old guard of) modern dance honored and examined in this way.
Audrey
posted by NokoRose at 9:23 AM
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