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TAKE A LITLE TIME FOR CULTURE
Living out here in the
hinterland of apple orchards and vineyards, I was delighted to come across a
couple of up-to-date dances as I am
frankly bored with classic ballet , not so much as their incredible technique
but the use of the same old stories, no matter how great they were 200 years
ago. There are a very few Groups out
there who ask "How can I utilize an old story
and make it it into
modern culture? I've already mentioned the fabulous movie made by Carlos Saura,
a Spaniard, featuring Antonio Gades, who has a Flamenco School of Dance in a
very modern building, Gades is rehearsing his contemporary idea of Bizet's
'Carmen" and significantly finds a young , beautiful student who fills
part , at least in Antonios mind. He
guides us all the way thru he rehearsal, with all manner of Flamenco ; older
women, who really know how to dance & sing, to guitarist such as Paco de
Luca, some fighting using canes for
damage and rhythm. This is one video you will want to own. Which I did. Done about 1970. I recently found another version of 'Carmen '
by Gades & Saura. It was a performed in the Teatro de Madrid and a
different version of the movie, but so well done.
I became interested in
the derivation of Modern Dance, which seems to have originated in North
America, so I started with Ted Shawn, who seemed to be breaking the mold a bit,
but he mostly had a male dance group due his preference for homosexuality.
Maybe around 1916, But from his group
came Ruth St. Denis, around 1916, and then, thank Allah, Martha Graham came out
of that group. Then from there was Merce Cunningham and even later, Twyla
Tharp. I got into all of that as I had met Cunningham in later fifties to help
him set up a show in Scottsdale, then a small western type town in Arizona. By
the way, Martha Graham died of old age and alcoholism and not by losing her
scarf around a playboys sport car. (Sorry)
Anyway, back to some
great dancing for your enjoyment on You Tube. I might add that the artists
Stella, Raushenberg and Jon Cage (music) worked with Merce for quite a while. Cages music was
the perfect foil for Merce’s movements.
Next, I found Twyla
Tharps 'Barishnikov does Sinatra’, and I was shall we call it
"enchanted".
Now I've set you up for
the ultimate (so far) interpretation of the Tango by Roland Petits' .
'Bolero'. Petit was the choreographer
for the Le Ballet de Paris, the oldest ballet company in the world. (Yes,
before the Bolshoi) .He used the music "Bolero" by Ravels and with
only two dancers (Takes two to Tango,eh) did an exemplar art job of producing
the ultimate tango, using Massimo Murro and Lucia Lacarra, she on points and he
throwing her around except succumbing at the end to full blossoming love. I
would like to watch it more but the Bolero music is the kind that sticks in
your mind. I can't imagine how many years I took to clear the dancers' brain.
Wee, these will keep you occupied for hours on end but you will gain
from it.
This all got me thinking
about the reason and derivation of dance or 'Movements" as the
highly esteemed and revered Georgi Gurdjieff calls it. he was an /Armenian
(Russian) mystic who escaped Russia just before the revolution of 1917. He
gathered a small group of "Seekers of Truth" and bounced around the
Caucasus, evading capture by one side or the other. He was (is) a very
controversial figure as no one seems to know what he was teaching. Anyway, he
had studied much of the esoteric dances of the monasteries of the East and
incorporated them in his teachings. His legacy is mostly from his music that he
had Thomas de Hartman, who had done some work for Bolshoi Ballet, which spawned
several CD's of the music One of the first was performed by Kieth Jarret, The
jazz pianist.
The derivation of
Dancing turns out to be too much for your humble ranter to document, but at
least let me get in a rough outline to begin;
Who began dancing around
after the apes? Or do apes do it?
1. Did Mr. Caveman dance around the fire after a
good kill?
2. Were the first dancers
organized to transmit sacred knowledge?
3. Each. Country seems to
have a dance for festive occasions, where the whole village got involved, such
as the "Greek" dances to the tune of the balaliaika.
4. When did the first
dances performed for an audience? Who were the audience?
5. Only as late as 1400's did ballet (as it was called)
appear on the French scene due the the involvement of the King. Now you will know why all the moves are in
French, even in Russia
6. By 1800's the Russians
had the franchise to develope it to the
greatest extant and become the premier group for hundreds of
years.
7. But early 1900's The Bauhaus and dance schools in the US and Germany (Bauhaus) appeared were tired of the usual boring shows.
8. Was it Ted Shawn who
broke the mold around 1915?
9. Ruth St. Denis followed
suite in 1916. She had studied East Indian Dances that told stories (Although
pretty uninteiigble to us)
10. Was Martha Graham the
truly first Modern Dancer?
11. Merce Cunningham came
out of that of those studios about 1940's, utilizing the talents of avant
guarded musicians like John Cage, artists such as Frank Stella &
Raushenberg for sets and costumes.
12. Twyla Harp is about last on my list as I have Been lax these
last few years., although I thorouhly enjoy her use of Barishnikov interpreting
some of Sinatras Songs.
If you don't believe me,
see some of the Sacred Movements that Gurdjieff learned in the East and
transmitted to his students. (You Tube) The difference here is that his
'Students' were all 'amateurs & seekers'
but not professional dancers at all. Google "Gurdjieff
Dances".
13. But I did come across
some Esoteric Eastern dancers where the men danced mostly on their balls of the
foot but more surprisingly, a few had on Toe shoes, looking pretty much
like 'Pointes'. I'm trying to re-find it on You Tube. That makes more sense as
there is little creativity in dance groups, except for the leader.
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| Old BMW?? |
CALIFORNIA MILLE MIGLIA
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| ?? |
This seems to be a
secret but it happens every year at this time and the route is all around us.
the original race is still performed in Italy but it's more of a Rally as they stopped racing when a car crashed into a couple of dozen by-standers and killed them all. They will be going thru Valley Ford Thursday and we'll be in the bar of the
restaurant watching them wiz by in their old Bugatti's, Jaguars, Alfa Romeros
etc.on their return to the Bay Area For details, see California Mille. It's a strange sport group in Europe, fans
will camp and wait for days until the bicycle or old classic cars flash by in
seconds. And I suspect most of the old car owners are wealthy as some send
their cars over from Italy on a plane.
FOR THE YOUNGER FOLKS who may not know;
About the time you were
born an artist by the name Jean Tinguely built some very complicated and
incredible stable machines that don't
move but can draw, make squeaky noises
and will amuse you endlessly.
HAPPY ENDINGS
What is it about ending
books and movies with 'The Happy Ending' where everyone will be happy ever
after? I recently had Seen the most recent version of THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE
DAME where the ending was kind of obscured when the couple walked out of a
small portal of the Notre Dame, leaving me a little confused. Therefore, I
bit the bullet and procured a copy of Victor Hugo's , which he wrote in 1831. I
can't comment on the other versions of the movie but this one got it all wrong.
After two hours or so of superb acting , the director or some idiot changed the
whole sene, ergo, the entire concept of the plot. I saw the version with
Anthony Hopkins as Quasimodo (Meaning half a person) and Rita Hayworth as
Esmeralda. They didn't follow Hugo's
script as the luscious girl should end up hanging from the gibbet until dead,
while Mr. Humpback fell off of Notre
Dame but should have disappeared and found the girl on the goul pile where his entertewined
skeleton is found years later. The priest? Who gives a shit, he just died like
everyone else falling or pushed off of the church, he just couldn't stand being
I love with a teen-ager.
THINK ABOUT THINK TANKS.
I've always been a
little curious about how these illustrious schools for thought (Tank?) were
funded, so I did the obvious and googled it.
I never thought much about them, but when I discovered Cato Institute
had a FOX News person on the Board I thought I'd better take a closer look. It
turns out 2/3 of the Think Tanks' took money from Oil companies. Half are
funded by ExxonMobil, and 1/3 by Chevron. Koch, Shell Oil and
ConocoPhillips-Phillips each funded three.
Hmmmmm. Do you think that has any effect on what they are supposed to be
studying? "Staffers are clearly
instructed to check with the 'Tanks
Development Team' before writing anything that might upset contributors
