hip-shot-leave-a-tone-after-the-message
I have a few things to say in response to the review linked above.
- Robert Ellis Dunn, one of the most important and brilliant dance thinkers of the past hundred years, always advised students (I paraphrase): “Watch the dance you’re watching, not the one in your imagination that you wish it was.” So: I wasn’t intending to or wanting to do mime. Gestural or pedestrian or vernacular (plain, everyday, ordinary) movement does not want to be and is not mime.
- For Mr Abelman: You might not want to mask your inability to grok an unfamiliar form with cruelty. Yes, some of the best-paid critics in America write with poisoned pens, and yes, snappy one-liners and witty bon mots are seductive. But. Please consider if that is the kind of critic you want to become.
- I believe that “modern” dance stopped being created around 1962 or so, when the postmodern moment reached its tipping point. We are now past that as well, into what I call non-canonical post-historicism.
- I actually see myself more as Fatty Arbuckle than WC Fields.
the funny thing is, that under all of the one-liners, the review actually said your piece was the best one of the four – and with that I agree. I liked W.C.’s smart and sassy remarks, so I don’t consider that so bad…
You’re right; underneath his sass he did praise all the work on the program. Compare/contrast, praise/shame, a legitimate form. But I needed to get in my own jabs. You know how I am.
funny that all this goes on as I’m re-seeing 2001:Space Odyssey as bone thrown by near-ape-man becomes satellite circling earth…
good, smart responses…but I haven’t read the review.
I would explore your true feelings within the rudder even further making each miniature move even more succulunt. there’s truly a seductiveness marked by great sarcasm(nearing self-effacemnt) & then the laughter truly brings me back (along w/ soundtrack to a work I performed)
Thx for opening your mouth, thx for taking out your handkerchief.
Forward damn reviewer’s remarks (for whatever that’s all worth).
We keep doing what we’re doing.
P.S. Tho I think what you’re calling ex-modern dance catchy schick intellectual abracadabra, I prefer saying I’m a performing artist.
Now back to sipping my chilled vino di soave & space … somehow we do move towards culture…
love ya chrissie pooh bear in his many layers of jamiejams…
Annetta, thanks for your insights. The review is in my post as a link at the top, though it doesn’t look like a link. Now there’s a second review of the show:
http://dctheatrescene.com/2009/07/13/leave-a-tone-after-the-message/
Empty words beg nothing but silence.
hey cd
now i’ve read both posts
saw nh/dh to pick up stuff
she forwarded dctheatrescene 1
nice review
i kinda don’t mind abelman’s frankness (tho biting, i admire his detailed account …which is probably why he ends up feeling the way he does about the concert –indeed was it listed as MODERN DANCE –i’ll leave the question mark out !
when going to theater i definitely come from the set up he makes w/ friend in tow, asking that perenial question what does modern dance mean?? how will i GET IT??…now ~ i feel nancy played w/ that intention quite well in magnetic east
(tho i’d tweak or at least explore a few things more…turn it even more on it’s head so to speak…dunno if you gazed out at 1st piece)
i think he encapsulated the pieces quite well / he seems to write about the movement itself…i feel the same impact…where’s the true stuff that drives performance?
(was Fields on a continual drunk?? or was it all continually catching up to him?? You do know odor travels, don’t you???! & the tummy part doesn’t have to be that way…i know from personal exploits — tummy big cuz back = weak — hmmm…like it when we stand big, tall, & strong…me friend…) i can sorta feel a tiny cop out on both parts.
so much performance
so little
whatever it takes
(which i’ve yet to go see)
uuhh hangin around this way is quite nice actually
Oh, pish. W.C. Fields was actually an astonishingly graceful physical comedian, though (perhaps like you?) he’s best known for his witty, alcohol-fueled dyspeptic rants at the idiots he’s surrounded with. I think the comparison is apt.
Dare I suggest that if you’re going to be performing regularly, you put a calendar of upcoming gigs on your site?
I know I know I have body dysmorphic syndrome. Believe me, I so love being watched that my upcoming US tour will be widely publicized. To paraphrase Fields, “A critic drove me to drink and I didn’t even have the decency to thank him.”
As offensive reviews go, this one barely makes the grade. I dare say we have both written far worse about a dance program.
While he may have piled on the poop about the show overall, your breif mention was a bit of praise. Hey, W.C. Fields was a great entertainer.
The other review was less overtly negative and a better read, but both came to similar conclusions.
I wish I could have been there.
I also wish my blog was half as interesting as yours.
I better work on it.