PERFOMING ARTISTS RESIDENCY AT EARTHDANCE

I have been away at Artward Bound, a performing artists residency at Earthdance in the Berkshires mountains of Massachusetts. I will be back shortly and will return to blogging soon...Stay tuned. Xo, S

A DANCE FILM BY YOJHI YAMAMOTO

I have always admired Japanese fashion designer Yojhi Yamamoto for his vision, concept, and master ability to invent clothing that is just as thought provoking as it is wearable. Yojhi has been inspired by dance and movement for a long time as he collaborated with the legendary German choreographer and dancer, Pina Bausch for her company's 25th anniversary. So much that he even dedicated the inspiration of his entire collection to Pina Bausch in 1990.

This is a film from Yojhi's 2nd auxillary line, Coming Soon, after Y-3, a collaboration with Adidas. Max Vudukul is the director, photographer, and the vision behind the film-making. Max has always been fascinated by the forces of traction, movement, and the relationship to the human body. He collaborated with London based choreographers Ben Ash and Rachel Lopez De La Nieta on this project. The duet is performed by dancers, Robin Dingemans and Laura Wheatley.

Coming Soon explores a new philosophy through movement each season in different cities through out the world. Collaborators of their dance films from other seasons include acclaimed stylist, Nicoletta Santoro, who I got the privilege to work with when I was a design intern at Donna Karan.


images/video courtes of Coming Soon

"COMING SOON is a brand created for a generation of women and men who wear what they like without stating who designed it. Wearing Coming Soon is an act to express who you are through the essence of clothing, fabric, and cut for everyday comfort and style. "

TITLE: COMING SOON Fall-Winter 2008
DESIGNER: Yohji Mamamoto
DIRECTOR: Max Vudukul
CHOREOGRAPHERS: Ben Ash/Rachel Lopez De La Nieta
MEDIUM: Film/Dance/Fashion/Fabric
SET: London/Outdoor Set
COSTUME/PROPS: Coming Soon Clothing/Fiber/Fabric
NOTED ELEMENTS: Traction/Torsion/Fiber/Fabric/Partnering/Leaps/Jumps/Running/Duet/Spinning/Comfort/Effortless/Wearable/Second Skin/Fashion/Force

NEGATIVE SPACE

The Red Series by Christian Vogt, 1979

Swiss Artist and Photographer, Christian Vogt (b. 1946) (trained at the Basel Design School).
Christian's work spans the worlds of Advertising, Editorial, and Experimental Work including subjects in architecture, still life, nature, portraits, and erotic nudes. Christian's intention was to challenge the popular accepted notions of 'glamour' in photography. He was also interested in implied reflections, the 'picture within a picture'. The relationship between what was shown and what was left out.

Our blog logo is a portrait from the series, "12 Nudes"(1981). Tres, tres elegant. Thank you Christian.

"how, when and what comes together - this interests me, in photography, as well as in life..." - Christian Vogt


TITLE: The Red Series (1979)
PHOTOGRAPHER: Christian Vogt
MEDIUM: Photography
SET: Photo Studio
COSTUME/PROPS: Skin/Red Frabric/Cloth
NOTED ELEMENTS: Reflection/Illusion/Nude/Erotic/Red/Grey Walls/Charcoal/Skin/Negative Space/Folds/Cropped/Segments/Magic/Flight/Interpretation/Frame/Window/Partial View/Assumption/Implied/Cover Up

CAFE MULLER - DANCE IN FILM

In one of her interviews, Pina Bausch mentioned that she always wanted to dance more. That was the original intention in her beginning to create work. But she rarely danced, she was always choreographing. An exception was her performance in Cafe Muller, also featured in Spanish filmmaker, Pedro Almodovar's classic, Talk To Her. The film opens and closes with Pina Bausch's choreography. I have truly come to love Almodovar as a cinematic choreographer and the use of movement in constructing the framework of his films. The order of the scenes, the story, how it's told, how the characters tell it, the cinematography. As a filmmaker, Almodover has a talented ability to draw you into the setting and somehow you are right there with the characters, feeling their every emotion - guilt, pains, joy, frustrations, and laughter. The subtle hint of similaritities in the form of Almodover and Pina Bausch's work is the ultimate beauty of this film.

Below is the trailer for Talk to Her followed by a clip from the film's opening scene featuring Pina's rare dancing moment. Enjoy!







TITLE: Cafe Muller (1978), Talk to Her (2002)
CHOREOGRAPHER: Pina Bausch
FILMMAKER: Pedro Almodovar
MEDIUM: Dance/Film
SCORE: Henry Purcell - When I am Laid in Earth
SET: Cafe/Chairs/Wall/Concrete Floor
COSTUME: Woman's Slip/White Gown/Man's Suit
NOTED ELEMENTS: Chairs/Desks/Mirror/Tables/Old Slip/White Gown/Hair/Sadness/Weight/Collapse/Walking/Psychopathy/Psych Ward/Sleep Walking/Gestures/Childhood/Dreams/Memory

A PERSONAL TRIBUTE - R.I.P. PINA BAUSCH (CHOREOGRAPHER, DANCER 1940-2009)

photo courtesy of Von Walter Vogel Photography.
(please let us know if it is

not okay to use this photo on our blog from the original Flickr source. thank you)


How I came to know about Pina Bausch.

Two years ago, while still in fashion design school and interning in the Donna Karan Collection studio, I remember everyone being really excited and ecstatic this one evening about going to see a certain 'German dance choreographer' at the BAM Opera House. I had previously heard about Pina Bausch from a fellow dancer, Jill, who had always been obsessed with the very experimental and avant garde European modern dance companies as Tanztheater Wuppertal/Pina Bausch and the Nederlands Dance Theater. The sort of gut wrenching work you see that immediately grabs you at the core and transforms everything you thought you knew about movement and performance. Pina Bausch only toured through New York every few years, and tickets had been sold out for months! Still, I knew I had to go. I called everyone I knew in the dance world and finally landed a ticket. Till this day, thank you Adi!


An attempt to describe Pina Bausch's work.

Intention.
Passion.
Commitment.
Raw.
An Immersion in Cultures.
An Awakening of the Senses.
Emotional Orgasm.
Heart Felt.
Honest.
Life on Stage.
Human Condition.


A personal experience.

Fernando Suels Mendoza in Nefes

I took a workshop class with Fernando Suels Mendoza of Tanztheater Wuppertal/Pina Bausch at the Panetta Movement Center in Chelsea while the company was on tour here. Janet Panetta is a renowned ballet teacher, a friend of Pina, and instructs ballet classes with the company in New York and around the world. She has an extensive relationship with several European based dance companies and often hosts their classes and workshops in her studio when they tour through the city.

Fernando is a principal dancer with the company originally from Venezuela. He is with no question one of the most captivating human beings I have ever seen on stage. Watching him dance, is like watching a rare flower bloom from the inside out. Most of the dancers, myself included, struggled through the first portion of his class. It was a bit difficult to get through the exercises in the ballet warm-up while attempting to balance your attention on this dance 'demi-god' at such close proximity. We would all stare and become mesmerized as Fernando demonstrated the barre and center work, we even sometimes forgot to stop starring and begin the exercises themselves. The beautiful thing about Fernando is that he did not once play up to this worshiping act. He may have blushed in embarrassment at some instant, but for him it was all about the movement. And the intention behind it.

Halfway through the class, our focuses shifted and we couldn't help but be completely immersed in the movement ourselves. Aside from the warm up and centering exercise, nothing about this workshop was standard. the phrase work portion of the class utilized a technique of creating movement I had never experienced before. Fernando asked each of us to create a short phrase of choreography based on rhythmic tempos and the use of specific parts of the body i.e. the hands and feet moving in tandem or opposition at the same time. We were also to create the score for this short piece of work by coming up with a set of spoken words or sounds that drove and set the pace for the overall rhythm. At first, we were all confused! Most dancers do not like to speak, let alone talk and move at the same time. But once we gave into it and let go of our predisposed notions and through processes regarding dance composition, it became an exuberant experience. We would all go up in front of the the entire class and present this work, not once, or twice, but on three different occasions, each with a different text and new rhythmic elements each time. We were all so into it, including Fernando that the class went over by 2 hours of it's original scheduled end time. No one noticed.

I am ever grateful for having had this experience and to have had Fernando share his passion and craft with all of us who were there in the room that day and other days of the week of the workshop. And thank you Pina Bausch and Janet Panetta for bringing this to us. I hope that Fernando will continue and the rest of the Pina Bausch company will continue to share this amazing craft with other dancers and the rest of the world forever.


An interview with company members, Fernando Suels Mendoza and Dominique Mercy on Pina Bausch's latest work, Chili (in German)


A recent interview in Time Out New York Magazine with Janet Panetta after Pina's untimely passing.

"When I do a new piece (praise) doesn't help me. Nothing helps me. Not what I have already done. It is done. Each time you are a beginner. I want to give up, actually, but I don't...It's complicated. It all takes so much strength. I'm so fragile. It's emotional. I get little sleep. You try to sleep, but you can't. I am thinking too much. It's like my head is in the way. It seems simple, but I make it so complicated."
-Pina Bausch

TITLE: A Personal Tribute to Pina Bausch
WRITER: Shirley L. Ephraim
MEDIUM: Text/Video
SCORE: Various
SET: My Studio
COSTUME: Casual Clothing
NOTED ELEMENTS: Nostalgia/Passion/Admiration/Inspiration/Humor