The Dance of Evolution (or the start of art)
November 27, 2007
Every Tuesday, I look forward to reading the Science Times and Health section of the New York Times. Although I never excelled at science in school, I always manage to find an article that sparks my interest. Today’s Science Times has an article on the evolution of art, a topic that deserves more attention. I am particularly struck by (and agree with) the argument that the arts arose to bring people together and serve as community-based activities. The article’s author writes:
“Through singing, dancing, painting, telling fables of neurotic mobsters who visit psychiatrists, and otherwise engaging in what Ms. Dissanayake calls “artifying,” people can be quickly and ebulliently drawn together, and even strangers persuaded to treat one another as kin. Through the harmonic magic of art, the relative weakness of the individual can be traded up for the strength of the hive, cohered into a social unit ready to take on the world.”
The author also points out the pleasure that people get from the arts. Even as she clumsily danced the hora – taught by a neurobiologist! – at a symposium on the evolution of art, she felt “free and exhilarated…just as a dancing body should”.
I’d love to hear others’ thoughts on the start of art. Is the artistic impulse innate? Or is it learned through culture? Or is it a combination of both? Has art in the Western world become too individualistic and focused on the “elite stage”, and less focused on community? Read the article here.
Autumn Beauty
November 25, 2007
I spent Thanksgiving with my parents and sisters at our lake house in the Adirondack Mountains, about 45 minutes north of Saratoga Springs, NY. It was a cold but beautiful weekend. Although Thanksgiving morning was rather gray and rainy, the sky cleared by mid afternoon and there was a beautiful sunset. Here are a few photos taken from my house, and one of me stretching out my legs and feet in the car. A 3-hour car ride is tough on a dancer, but luckily the scenic route up I-87 makes it more tolerable. If you look closely, you can spot some colorful trees along the road.
Dancing Trees
November 24, 2007
On Thanksgiving morning, my roommate, Jenny, and I took a stroll through Central Park. Trees in New York City seem to change color a good month or two after the rest of the east coast and on Thursday the park was sixty degrees, the trees were in full yellow and oranges and everyone was out taking a pre-dinner stroll.
Jenny, a painter at the New York Academy of Art, commented that the trees looked stunningly anthropomorphic. The stark contrast between the dark brown bark of the limbs arching elegantly through the yellow and orange leaves was breathtaking.
(click photos to enlarge)
‘Tis the Season for Nutsqueezer
November 21, 2007
Starting this Thanksgiving weekend is two full months of the one ballet that makes most bunheads and ballet aficionados groan with distaste – The Nutcracker. Where does this widespread displeasure amongst dancers rise from? Is it having danced a Mouse as youngster and then Snow as a teenager over and over and over again? Is it the insipid, overplayed Tchaikovsky score? Is it the massive amounts of tinsel, fake snow, classical sparkling tutus, rat costumes, and contrived smiles that smother the stage?
It’s all these things. And dancers certainly aren’t alone in our aversion to the ballet. A recent article in the New York Times discusses how jaded so many people have become when it comes to the Nutcracker and what it is that makes this ballet is so “unkillable.”
I’ve found that many of my non-ballet friends think of Nutcracker as the epitome of ballet and therefore have shunned ballet because of their own aversion to the spectacle that is ‘Nutsqueezer.’ This is like eating a piece of cheese that you don’t like and deciding that hence forth you dislike all cheese everywhere . Now that’s just not fair to cheese. And it’s not fair to judge ballet based on Nutcracker. Nutcracker is the farthest thing from the kind of ballet that I enjoy- the kind like Morphoses, or Room, where the dance itself is beautiful and stirring, not just entertaining in the most gaudy sense. This is my main gripe against Nutcracker. I’m sure that for millions it’s an awe inspiring and a beautiful holiday tradition. And certainly I wouldn’t discourage anyone from including dance as part of their holidays (on the contrary- more dancing, please!). But this holiday season, whether you find yourself running to Nutcracker or being dragged to a show, just remember that one Sugar Plum Fairy doesn’t represent all pointe shoe clad dancers.
Idan Raichel Concert
November 21, 2007
On Monday night, Allison and I saw The Idan Raichel Project in concert at The Fillmore at Irving Plaza. After waiting for nearly two hours in the cold because of a major lack of organization from the venue’s staff – the show was general admission – we saw an amazing concert. Along with Idan, who was on the piano, there were three or four singers, two guitarists, a drummer, and some guys on the trumpet, saxophone, and trombone. Quite an ensemble! The space was fairly small and there was no seating. Although we were packed in like sardines and stepping on one another’s toes, everyone was dancing to the music and really getting into it. In this post, I wrote about the indivisibility of movement and music, which really showed since the audience was on their feet for the whole time. Near the end of the performance, Matisyahu came on as a surprise guest (in the last photo). He was energetic and powerful. Overall, it was a fabulous evening of live music.
