DCDanceBlog

I’m a pacifist and I cover my eyes when people fight on screen. But I just came out from the new Bond flick and, …I had no idea violence could be so beautiful. The most interesting stuff I’ve seen this month is without a doubt Casino Royale, with Daniel Craig as double oh seven.

There is this long stunt scen, in the beginning of the film, with all the ingredients that a Bond stunt usually has -the jumping from one high platform to another, the smooth rolling when hitting the ground, the landing on a vehicle in motion etc- and, maybe I’m just starved for some action, but I drooled over the spacial patterns the actors created. The choreography, yeah I’m going to call it choreography, and especially the choreographic use of the set design, was just so amazingly powerful.This scene, which is set in Africa, in Uganda I think, was clearly inspired by Parkour, the French street art, which my brother pointed out, because the way the actors were bouncing from one wall to another and shooting through the air like missiles over the roof tops just felt very aesthetically similar to Parkour. Some moments, it seemed like the idea was not to get from point A to point B, but to do it with as much beauty as possible. This was purely physical and as far away from the tricks that involved trucks exploding and such, which much of the movie was about. After all it’s Bond.

There was also one moment, about 1.5 seconds, so very short and kind of hard to catch, where a man comes running behind two women (at least I think it was two women, it happened so suddenly) and as he pushes through right in between them they get thrown to the sides. This is of course a very violent moment (far from the most violent though) but the effect of this trio -the man crushing through the women and the women being forced to the sides- created a very interesting movement and I was thinking, just a small part like that, a second or two, must take quite a while to create. It made me wonder what kind of equipment they wear not to get hurt.

I feel a little guilty for allowing myself to indulge in such terrible stuff like this. Is it ok to see beauty in bodies getting hurt? Of course, it’s not the seemingly pain that is compelling (I’m so not into that stuff). No, it’s the vocabulary that comes out of thremendous force being used in a way that’s not quite possible in a traditional dance rehearsal. We wouldn’t have many dancers left in DC if we tried i don’t think.

Oh, so I see now, after some googleing, that it is in fact one of the people who developed Parkour that is acting in this stunt scene! His name is Sébastien Foucan,(click on the picture series to the right, it’s worth it). And I see that Blogcritics.org writes this about the use of Parkour in Casino Royale:

“The terrorist he chases is the creator of the free running and
jumping aerobatic Le Parkour, Sebastien Foucan. The physical art form he created, Le Parkour, is heavily influenced by Asian philosophy; as Foucan says, “The art of moving from one place to another with fluidity allows you to see your environment differently. The quest’s goal is to become a part of the environment in order to develop your mind and body.” Le Parkour is best demonstrated by closely watching the opening free running chase scene, trying to keep your eyes on Foucan during the chase. Even though wires were clearly used in some of the chase scene shots, most moves were pure Parkour, and it is a delight to behold. One could not imagine any Bond other than Craig’s —even Sean Connery’s — able to keep up with Foucan. This is a brilliant chase scene that sets the tone for the rest of the film. Another appropriate title for this film could have been Run Bond, Run.”

Convinved to go check it out yet? And don’t you love the reference to Run Lola Run? Bond and Lola, quite intriguing I must say.

this has been a pretty good week for lotta and me. biggest is that her piece got accepted to be in the maryland choreographers showcase in january!!! very, very major–esp since about 60 groups auditioned and only about 7 got in! what’s so funny is that at first i think she was kind of down about it, feeling like the piece wasn’t completely authentic, and that she hadn’t put herself totally into it and couldn’t really stand behind it. but the reality is that she did it almost as a challenge to herself, to see if she could put something together in a month to audition–and she totally did! so that’s a very major victory.

by the way, just for the hell of it, here’s a review of last year’s showcase that my friend the dance critic kate mattingly wrote for dance view times. i just came across it.

so that’s pretty major news. and i had news too, not as impressive but good to me. i auditioned for dance antonini–didn’t know much about them, but loved their description (something about organic movement, release technique and improvisation, all of which are my total cups of tea) and thought i’d go for it. the audition went ok: it started out alright, then went downhill in terms of my performance, then improved again once we did a combination. it’s funny how that can be–i watched myself while we were warming up and doing exercises, and i looked so bad! very stiff and almost unfamiliar with certain basic modern techniques. but once we started really dancing, the rest fell away and i could MOVE, which i’m comfortable doing, and it felt great. anyway, so i got in, which was terrific for my ego and definitely excites me. it’s odd since i know very little about the company, but i got a good vibe from lou antonini himself, and i liked his movement. and they rehearse at night, which is all i can manage, so that’s great. i’m excited to be dancing more soon.

it’s funny how things like these–getting an audition, getting some approval for your work or quality of movement–are so important, even though in part they’re sort of superficial. but ultimately we want to be as good as we can be, and figuring out how far along that path we are right now means asking other people to assess us. it sucks, a lot of the time, but it’s necessary, i guess, and can be a good thing.

i just wanted to quickly post this article by sarah kaufman in today’s washington post, about ed tyler’s work that showed this weekend at the clarice smith center. i don’t have time to write more right now, but do want to wholly agree with the statement that he was beloved as a teacher, perhaps more than as a choreographer - at least to me.