DCDanceBlog

(hope it’s ok that i appropriated this image from the great dance blog)

there is something i really love about this new post by doug fox, about taking a 5 rhythms class in ny. this is my favorite part:

A little later during the class, Tammy had us break-up into two groups. She said that everybody who wanted to dance with a partner should go on one side of the room and everybody who wanted to dance solo should go on the other side of the room. Well, guess what happened? Me and the woman who had just danced together were on the partner side and everybody else went on the other side of the room.

it sounded like doug really let himself go–really let himself move–in the class, and i love that idea. i guess it’s b/c i don’t believe dance is just for “dancers.” everyone should know the joy of moving freely!

and now i’m off to my own freedom-seeking dance retreat–5 days up at earthdance!! yahoo, i’m so excited…actually probably too excited, given that i only have 5 days for dancing/headclearing/natureabsorbing/workforgetting/lifeinspiring…not quite enough.

there was an interesting piece in the ny times today, by the writer verlyn klinkenborg. he’s a beautiful writer who has the absolutely enviable job of writing (it seems) whatever he wants, as part of the times’ editorial page. most of his pieces are observations on writing, nature, life.

in this one, he’s describing the female students in writing classes he’s been sitting in on at a college in minnesota. he writes about their hesitancy to own their observations, to allow themselves to be authorities on their own experiences–and, by extension, on experience itself. 

he writes:

And yet that is the writer’s work — to notice and question the act of noticing, to clarify again and again, to sift one’s perceptions. I’m always struck by how well fitted these young women are to be writers, if only there weren’t also something within them saying, Who cares what you notice? Who authorized you? Don’t you owe someone an apology? …It’s a delicate thing, coming to the moment when you realize that your perceptions do count and that your writing can encompass them.

i like it because i think that’s the essence of creating art: respecting your own observations and perceptions, and realizing that, when you are truly honest about what you feel and what you see, they are as legitimate as anyone else’s. i think it’s only when you realize how unique and valid your ideas are that you begin to speak w/ an authentic voice, and begin to make something that matters. or at least that’s my thinking at the moment.

here is another piece on writing that my mother sent me. it’s a little hokey, but it’s basically about making art of any sort. in sum, the writer is saying “just do it. don’t worry if it’s bad; you will learn by doing. just do it.”

yes, i think that can apply to any art form.

today’s washington post featured a review of dana tai soon burgess’s new work by sarah kaufman. she was quite admiring of it, so it’s at least clear what she likes! classical modern, that’s my impression.

i haven’t seen anything by dana tai soon burgess (i’m never sure if one calls him dana, or dana tai, or dana tai soon, for short)…except once, actually. he did a piece for the millennium stage a few years ago that was part of a larger collaborative show w/ other choreographers from around dc and baltimore. his piece featured a woman who moved with what looked like a bag (made of cloth) over her face, and it evoked to me something or someone very ancient–egyptian, even. it was by far the most mature piece in the sampler and i was quite struck by it. but i haven’t seen anything since, and haven’t heard the greatest things about him since then either.