chemical brothers: let forever be

this video is somewhere near the top of my favorite videos. it's trippy as hell and the choreography is timeless. enjoy!

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așa: fire on the mountain

i purchased așa's latest self-titled album this afternoon. her video for the album's first single, 'fire on the mountain' is dope.



visit her website (www.asa-official.com)

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Oren Lavie: Her Morning Elegance

A lovely gem I found on the front page of MySpace (who knew?).

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Beautiful Change!

Preseident Obama looks so fly in his suit... just as cool as he wanna be! Poor Michelle looks exhausted, but she looks beautiful in that gown. The Obamas are such an inspirational couple--I feel such a sense of motivation and focus when I see these two together. I feel like love is real, that success is attainable and anything is truly possible. Congratulations Mr. President and THANK YOU!

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José González: Time to Send Someone Away

I'm way late to this artist, but I'm happy I've stumbled across him. He reminds me of Nick Drake, who I'm quite a fan of. I found this live acoustic clip while searching for footage of Yukimi Nagano--they are a couple and she, along with the rest of Little Dragon, contributed to his 2007 release In Our Nature. Enjoy.

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One Line

Sweet.




[source]

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Complexions @ The Joyce

I saw Complexions Contemporary Ballet at The Joyce twice this season. They presented three programs of ballets over the course of two weeks. The Company is made up of an excellent crop of young dancers, a majority of whom joined this year. They are exceptionally skillful technicians who are bursting with passion and charisma. I was pleased to see more focus on the women during the performances. The last time I saw Complexions, the men took center stage wowing us with their athleticism, while the women sort of kicked and spun around them. I was excited about the return of Wendy Sasser White, but was promptly disappointed to find that I would not see her on stage this season. Hiroko Sakakibara and Natalia Alonso were the most exciting of the newcomers to watch, while Christina Dooling commanded the stage with her presence. All of the men were beautiful, particularly Phil Orsano and D. Gary W. Jeter, II (who both have unbelievable bodies).

The closing piece, choreographed by Dwight Rhoden, Rise was set to the music of U2 and featured an incredible array of concert lighting that blew me away--by now you'll have guess accurately that I'm a total lighting geek! I felt like I was at a rock concert with the dramatic moving instruments and dazzling light effects. I especially loved the image of silhouettes against a back lite cyc. It was a high energy piece that made me want to dance and sing along. I loved it!

Another piece choreographed by Mr. Rhoden and performed on both evenings, was I Will Not Be Broken featuring a pas de deux and breathtaking solo by Desmond Richardson with live song and text by S. Epatha Merkerson. On the first evening, the duet was performed by Sabra Perry and Juan-Antonio Rodriguez. On the second evening, Cristina Dooling and Edgar Anido danced. While Mr. Richardson was on fire both evenings (he is remarkable), it was the Dooling/Anido pairing that made me enjoy the piece. I found Perry to be technically fierce, but her performance was dull compared to glare of Desmond and her partner. Ms. Dooling, however, handled the emotion expertly and better matched Desmond's raw projection.

On the evening I saw them, Rhoden's Ave Maria (performed by Hiroko Sakakibara and Simon Sliva) and Jae Men Joo's Surface (performed by Jeter & Orsano) were two of the moving and best cast duets in the season. While Mr. Rhoden's Routines, the Forsythe pas de deux and Igbal Perry's work were forgettable.

The evenings were exceptional. I quite admire the Company's versatility and they're technical prowess. Go see for yourself! Two thumbs up!

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Little Dragon @ Le Poisson Rouge

Yukimi Nagano, originally uploaded by lettuce_move.

I'm a loyal fan Little Dragon. All the stars were pointing in the right direction last night. I caught them last night at Le Poisson Rouge in the Village. Its a gorgeous place. Little Dragon and their fans are mad cool. Yukimi Nagao's voice is seamless and she sings effortlessly. It's incredible how many mediocre, talentless performers there are out there. They played music from their album and two new songs that were so much fun! I'm excited for the new album whenever that's coming.

I caught my favorite song Twice on video.

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Urban Bush Women & Companie Janti-Bi @ BAM

I'm confident in saying this is the best dance of 2008. Hands down. The collaboration between Urban Bush Women and Compagnie Jant-Bi was seamless, powerful, provoking, exquisite, and absolutely beautiful. I apprenticed for Urban Bush Women in the fall of 2007 just before they set out for Senegal to begin the process of creating Les écailles de la mémoire (The Scales of Memory) with Germaine Acogny's Compagnie Jant-Bi.

In the Artist Talk just before the performance, the choreographers discussed their creative process, citing their immersion in the harshest, most blatent evidence of African and Afro-American history to develop a truly awesome work. When asked what each had thought of the other's homeland prior to their collaboration and what they'd learned after the project, Germaine stunned me when she said, while slavery was always a part of African culture, she and her Company never imagined the horrors suffered by the Africans brought to America. She learned of the harshness of America's brand of slavery after visiting a museum in Tallahassee, FL last year. It never occurred to be that Africans wouldn't know our side of the story. The two also talked about how much they enjoyed the creative process of the project because it was a collaborative effort. They felt they were joined spiritually and they truly admired and respect each other as artists. They talked about traveling to slave dungeons, rehearsing in Germaine's open air studio overlooking the savanna and how the creation of the work was a healing experience for all involved.

The piece is filled with incredibly powerful imagery. And while Jawole said there wasn't a narrative, I did sense that it was moving with history. I'm currently reading a book by dance anthropologist Lynn Fauley Emery, Black Dance: From 1619 to Today. In the beginning chapters, she discusses the earliest recorded dance history of African slaves and she mentions that slaves were forced to dance to maintain their health. She also mentions the emergance of the Black bourgois and slave dance parties, their structures, and their importance. I found these images, among others, in Les écailles de la mémoire. It isn't surprising that Jawole would take an anthropologic approach to this work. Her last work was inspired by the life of the famed dance historian, Pearl Primus.

The piece asks questions of identity. I think these 14 dancers have come far in answering them.

Two thumbs up.

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Continuous City @ BAM

I haven't seen a stage play a some time and when reading the synopsis of Continuous City, now playing at BAM, I was game to check it out. The play tells interlocking stories of four characters, told simultaneously via irregular sized collapsing screens and comments on humanity's speedy approach towards digital media as our primary mode of communication, while first person contact becomes obsolete.

What Continuous City gains in gorgeous multimedia display, interesting videography, and fun techno stuff, it loses in content. The story is lazy. I won't spoil it, but I wish they'd spent as much time developing the play as they did the set.

One thumb up.

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My Brightest Diamond: Inside A Boy

A sweet and funny video by My Brightest Diamond

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La La La Human Steps: Amjad

Sigh.

As fanatic as I am about Amelia, I can't say I feel the same about Amjad, the newest work by La La La Human Steps presented at BAM this week. First I'll say it was remarkable to see first hand the incredible speed, precision, and power of the dancers. What I'd fallen in love with in Amelia is real. Amjad, however, was pretty boring. In the Artist Talk prior to the show, choreographer Édouard Lock described his work as a deconstruction of two iconic ballets, Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty. He's lost me there. At no point during the evening did I see a clear storyline or clear roles. I think that dance doesn't necessarily require a narrative. While it can be difficult to be both interesting and non-narrative, I think it's quite possible to dance for the sake of dancing and be compelling. It doesn't happen here. Further, the gigantic sculptures on both sides of legs, incests inspired by the forest scenes according to Lock, lowered and raised at random it seemed. Three large circular projection screens with images of pearls, branches, red fabric, blood and sleeping women seemed to be vaguely related to the stories, but also appeared at random. Without a storyline, all that lightning fast movement became pretty dull to watch; there really was no dynamic change in the dancing. Just fast. And the dancers are so thin. I mean scary thin. I'm still working on making a connection to the name. Amjad, a popular Persian name. Maybe I need to do more research.

What I did love was the music. Distorted and remixed, I was happy when I found familiar music, but I was really intrigued by the sections of stranger, newer takes on it. The musicians, two violas, cello and piano offered a really dark incarnation of Tchaikovsky's masterpieces. The harsh minimal lighting complemented the sinister feel of the evening, fast cutting from one extreme angle to another, casting bright white on the sickly pale dancers as they flittered around .

I hadn't seen anything by Édouard Lock prior to Amelia and I assumed that Amjad would, of course, have that familiar fast paced movement style. I just didn't expect him to take one aspect of his vocabulary and give me 100 minutes of it. There are moments throughout Amelia in which Lock plays with slow motion and stillness. I wish he had gone in a similar direction with Amjad.

One thumb up. Now, I go watch Amelia.

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Les Sept Planches de la Ruse @ BAM

I bought a ticket to Les Sept Planches de la Ruse [The Seven Boards of Skill] without really understanding what I was going to see. Promotional material described the show as nouveau cirque and a large scale take on a popular children's game, Tangram. The name actually refers to the seven block pieces of Tangram, a game in which the player can create an infinite number of figures and shapes with blocks. In Les Sept Planches, French Director Aurélien Bory collaborated with actors and acrobats from China's Peking Opera to bring the childhood humor and imagination of the game to the stage.

The huge pieces (the largest is 500 lbs) slide across the stage forming the scenery (mountains, pedestals, playgrounds, etc.), while the dancers moved on, off and through them, often traveling in that quick gliding fashion we associate with Chinese theater. I was quite impressed by the skill of the performers. There were several moments during the evening when I gasped as a block teetered and swayed into place, an actor balancing on top. Singers in the group sang Chinese songs while sliding down the blocks and a Chinese lute player appeared and disappeared with out warning throughout the evening. I enjoyed the lighting which was minimal, mostly cast incredibly beautiful shadows on the performers and on the blocks.

I went to the Artist Talk with Mr. Bory just before the show in which he revealed his obsession with geometry. He also talked about the collaborative aspect of this project's creative process and how important it was for him to also use older performers and non-dancers.

Two thumbs up! I want to go purchase a Tangram game!

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Drumadics: Constructing a Masterpiece

I met Will of the Drumadics at the first Broadway Underground I lite. Will is a bucket percussionist and Musical Director of the Drumadics. He invited me to his show at the American Theater for Actors. I caught the concert on Thursday night, opening night. This is weekend's show was the first of three phases that will eventually become a full evening work that will comment the diverse arts community in New York City as a microcosm of America with dance, theater and live music.

This evening's show was about the music. The Drumadics is essentially a "Band of Buskers". So, it doesn't really matter that the stage was bare (Will sited a technical mishap for the lack of planned visuals to accompany the music) or that the theater's lighting options were practically nonexistant and could hardly capture to essence of the sound. And I won't mention that a smaller stage would have been more appropriate for this kind of thing because black box theater with narrow riser seating isn't really condicive to shaking your ass. The music is vibrant and funky and you just want to dance to it. Even the musicians couldn't help by one-two-step the whole evening.

I remember the first time I heard them at BB Kings, I had a blast! I threw up oranges and reds, made it hot like the music. Oooohweee! I wish this youtube clip did them justice.



Two thumbs up! Go forth and listen!

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Meeting with Bodhisattva @ BAM

I saw Meeting with Bodhisattva at BAM his week and despite my fatigue, I was so happy I went. Meeting with Bodhisattva tells the story of the the Buddhist figure, Bodhisattva, through music, martial arts, and dance. I was in awe at the ease and precision of the performers. The music and the movement was very powerful, yet graceful and mesmerizing.

I read in the program that The U Theatre's director, Liu Ruo-Yu, requires his students to first learn meditaion before learning drumming, theater and dance. I think this explains the performers incredible calm throughout the piece and even when receiving a standing ovation during their bows. They were so peaceful.

Two thumbs up.

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Omodaka: Kyoteizinc

When it's done well, I love dance on film. My homeslice Sodi passed along this video clip from Japanese electro-pop group OMODAKA. Performed by dancer Masako Yasumoto, the "glitch dancing" is really nice to watch. The play with costume and layers and multiplicity adds depth to the dancer's movements.

I wish artists in the States would incorporate more interesting dance into their music videos. Once you've seen a bouncing booty, you pretty much get the gist.

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Audition: DV8 Physical Theatre

www.dv8.co.uk/

I auditioned for this company last weekend. It was a six-hour process that left me really exhausted, mentally and physically, but also completely enlightened and more aware of where my path is headed. I'm going to Europe. I don't know when or how I'm getting over there, but I feel like that's where my career is. I feel like the projects that I've worked on and the people I've worked with have all been a precursor to what's to come.

Just need to say that out loud... see what comes of it.

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On: Tyra Banks' take on skin bleaching

Before even watching Tyra Banks' talk show, I guessed it would be a silly platform for Tyra's brand of grandiose inarticulate posturing, mimicking the idea of a down-to-earth inspirational and informational guru, but failing miserably because she's a fucking clown. The problem with Tyra is that she'll do a show on actual controversial topics, like skin lightening trend in the black community and MSM's unhealthy prorogation of the super waif, but she'll never delve deeper than the surface and she's completely ingenuous in the process. She's far too emotional when it's not necessary (see: vasaline give-away and "I'm not fat!") and then pretends to cry when an actual beating heart is called for (see: Chanel Iman and Keysha Cole). Top that off with her vapid awkward personality, her unconvincing "You go girl! I'm down!" monkey show, and her shameless habit of making every topic somehow be a reveal centered around her... I can't!

Case in point, the above clip is an recently aired episode of the Tyra Banks Show in which Tyra discusses the popularity of skin bleaching by black women and where the problems really stem from. First, I'll give her this: 20 minutes is not enough time to flesh out the meat of a topic so loaded as skin lightening, but I'm still annoyed by her inability to present the subject more than superficially!
What is the purpose of the doctor?
How comical is her little sidekick's "investigative reporting"?
Count how many times Tyra says "me", "my" and "I".
Why weren't the guests prepped to sound a little less foolish?
Why not find a woman who could come up with a convincing argument for skin bleaching? How little light did that lame faux expo shed on the desperation of these women while making them look even more silly?
Why not mention the statistics of women in South Africa or Congo or Brazil actually dying from the habit?
Why not mention some famous and successful dark-skinned women (Alec Wek, Angela Basset, India Arie)?
Is it me, or do the expressions on the audience's faces look choreographed?
How pointless was her chat with the three young boys?
Could she be anymore inarticulate when the words run out on her cards?

I hate to be a hater, but I more hate someone making light a subject that hangs so heavy in the hearts of so many women. And I can't give props to someone so untalented. Somebody turn that heffa's mic off... PLEASE!

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Lighting Broadway Underground

I light a show at BBKings last night! AAAAHHHHHH!!! I'm beside myself! Jared Grimes, an incredible choreographer, teacher, and creator of Broadway Underground needed someone to fill in last minute and I happened to be in the right place at the right time. I know I said I'd given up production work, but this could not be passed up. BB Kings has moving lights dude! Are you kidding?! AHAHAHAH! I'm still beaming from it. The whole night was perfect, stressful, but everything I always loved about lighting. It's similar to dance for me. You breath with the board. You move with it. You plan and perfect. Ah, I had a blast!



The line up was sick too! Jared's choreography has always impressed me. He has phenomenal vision and as a tapper/hip-hop dancer, he's just effing talented! He invites musicians to perform as well. The Drumadics blew me away! And I loved the jam at the end where audience members get to come onstage to show their shit. Had I been able to relinquish my place behind the board, I woulda been up there too heheh!

Man! The perfect start to a new week. Check out the Broadway Underground website at www.broadwayunderground.org. Next show is happening soon!

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Gnarls Barkley: Transformer (Live from Abbey Rd)

Gnarls Barkley: Transformer (Live from Abbey Rd)

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