Kate Gilmore

The Pink song reminds me, in a roundabout way, of the video/performance artist Kate Gilmore. Her works have a game-like quality to them (although they are usually solo games). For example, in With Open Arms, Gilmore tries to keep a cheesy smile on her face while someone offscreen pelts her with tomatoes. Most of her work includes sculptural or architectural elements--drywall that she kicks through with pink high heels, a perforated floor that she tries to walk on with spiky heels and ends up destroying, a bucket of plaster encasing her foot. I am reminded of the old 80s show Double Dare. Check out http://www.kategilmore.com/stills/index.html .

Another vision

In keeping with Heather's pop culture ideas I have been really digging the Pink song "Sober." It's got the dramatic strings and full bellied yowling. Can we fit it in somewhere? 

I thought maybe we could sing it to chocolate while we're in chocolate eating chocolate.  I think there might need to be a ladder or two and I think some kind of Hershey's syrup maybe...

The song is all about denial and looking for yourself and being some kind of girl but not "that" girl--the one who's always up drunk and partying.  It's also got some nice "ooohooo oo oo oo's" in the high register that I think are funny.  

And, there's something to that late eighties/early nineties video quality--Def Leppard, crappy Jefferson Starship, and the shitty Heart stuff (my favs are Heart and Def Leppard--Love Bites being a personal preference) wandering through sets with dry ice and laser lights and people rigged for a cheap fly. Any way, I kind of see it in a big hair, glitter, sliding on plastic in the chocolate syrup way. Can we get some smoke and laser lights? 

Maybe it was the boca burger...

Here are the lyrics: 

I don't wanna be the girl who laughs the loudest
Or the girl who never wants to be alone
I don't wanna be that call at four o'clock in the mornin'
'Cause I'm the only one you know in the world that won't be home

Ah, the sun is blindin'
I stayed up again
Oh, I am findin'
That's not the way I want my story to end

I'm safe up high, nothing can touch me
But why do I feel this party's over?
No pain inside, you're my protection
But how do I feel this good sober?

I don't wanna be the girl that has to fill the silence
The quiet scares me 'cause it screams the truth
Please don't tell me that we had that conversation
'Cause I won't remember, save your breath
'Cause what's the use?

Ah, the night is callin'
And it whispers to me softly, "Come and play"
But I, I am fallin'
And if I let myself go I'm the only one to blame

I'm safe up high, nothing can touch me
But why do I feel this party's over?
No pain inside, you're like perfection
But how do I feel this good sober?

Comin' down, comin' down, comin' down
Spinnin' 'round, spinnin' 'round, spinnin' 'round
I'm lookin' for myself, sober

Comin' down, comin' down, comin' down
Spinnin' 'round, spinnin' 'round, spinnin' 'round
Lookin' for myself, sober

When it's good, then it's good, it's so good 'til it goes bad
'Til you're trying to find the you that you once had
I have heard myself cry 'never again'
Broken down in agony, just tryin' find a friend, oh, oh

I'm safe up high, nothing can touch me
But why do I feel this party's over?
No pain inside, you're like perfection
But how do I feel this good sober?

I'm safe up high, nothing can touch me
But why do I feel this party's over?
No pain inside, you're like perfection
But how do I feel this good sober?

I had a vision, and it involved high heels

Hi Peeps. I had a vision, and I don't know if it belongs here or in one of my performance art pieces.

Imagine: a line of men and women, all in high heels, all very sincerely singing Extreme's "More Than Words," all doing slo-mo and controlled, macho, crotch-grabbing gestures (a la Michael Jackson) at the same time. Everybody is standing and singing and gesturing except for the person on the end, who is singing AND running on a coin-operated treadmill. The audience has to put a quarter in the treadmill for the piece to proceed. After the performers get to the end of the song, they wait for someone to put another quarter in and then all shift down by 1 position, so a new person is on the treadmill. The "game" begins again.

Past e-mail, additional thoughts

Ok folks. Here is what I said in e-mail and can qualify here.

As far as history on the cakewalk, I assisted and then co-taught a class (at University of Illinois) called Dancing Black/Popular Culture (I know, I know--little white me) so I have some background on that as well as texts that illuminate historical elements. Happy to share or collaborate there. Still up for this and we can look at it given diversity of student and any emphasis on race. 

I almost feel like the cakewalk idea could be one of humilation--meaning that there would be some prize (cakes) but in order to get it you have to do your best Al Jolson, mammy, legs UP cakewalk to get it. If you're not over the top enough or minstrel enough, you get a gong (and maybe the booby prize of a crappy canned beer?).  This could be a ying-yang component with your "Let Them Eat Cake" so you either have to be beautiful, sylph-like and perfect (ballet) to get the cake or the other image. Maybe we could even flip genders so guys have to do ballet and women have to cakewalk...It sticks with the binary ideas you have set up and illustrates how both cliches are cruel and limiting. I like it as a metaphor for all groups who have to conform to a stereotype to get "somewhere" though there are some loaded racial images with the minstrel stuff (but I'd love to see white, middle class chicks really trying to get their legs high for a cake)...this would be for choreography for students and us and not random audience members because Seth is right, we don't want to humiliate strangers. Only each other and the people we know and with whom we are comfortable. There should be a smiley face icon after that. 

Here also might be a place for a teacher/student or master/apprentice binary. I can't find it on YouTube but Mark Morris' "Tamil Film Songs in Stereo" pas de deux is an excellent example of this thought. 

Comments like this are mainly notes to myself where I am so generous that I tell everyone else along with myself. I tend towards the didactic sometimes so it is essentially me saying to myself: Hey self! Stay on task. You can't change the world tomorrow or by talking at people even though your misdirected desire to be a preacher takes you there. 

I think that things should stay as physical as possible. It is easy to espouse the theory behind the games/dance/work without actually physically committing to them so that is my area of interest and practice. I also want to take a look at how general the theme of "other" is right now and see if we can personalize or rarify it in some way. Though it is necessary and relevant, as a selling point, some folks might be put off by a "versus" situation unless we can package it in a witty, clever way with a hook (which I think your "theme" taps). I am enough of an ego-maniac to call myself a teacher. Even so, I like teaching when I can trick people into learning either by charm, seduction, humor or all three. When something is funny, I am disarmed and open to accepting it. 

People are very anti-intellectual right now and don't want to feel "talked at" about difficult gender and race issues so it is always interesting to me to find a funny, ironic take on something. I am wondering how we can do that and I think right now the gaming aspect suits it well. What is the greater "game" and how can we package it as something that is intriguing, wry, and intelligent without feeling  condescending to anyone? Is it a tacky game show with a nutty, exaggerated name? Is it like a "Battle of the Network Stars" idea and can we get some interesting "guest artists" in the community to debase themselves publicly for entertainment value (I LOVED that show when I was a kid--really dating myself here)?

Battle of the Network stars in my childhood was watching people like Ron (Richie) Howard and Henry (Fonzie) Winkler compete with Penny Marshall (Laverne) and Scott Baio in an egg-toss-ladder-over-a-pond-then-shetland-pony-race kind of ridiculous competition. All were inept. All were humiliated and fell into the pond and fell off the pony. Even so they were still TV stars ...

I hope qualifying the thoughts helps make them seem less personal...

They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

Hi everyone! I've been thinking about Luc's comment about the bed. People sure are getting short-sheeted, and all the yanking of the sheets has uncovered our base needs & base greed. I've also been thinking about the movie They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Have you seen it? It takes place during the great depression and follows people competing in a dog-eat-dog dance marathon. I love the idea of people dancing for their own survival. This gave me an idea: it would be cool to do an endurance piece--a very loose, avant-garde take on a sort of dance marathon in which viewers could come watch any time between X and Y. This piece could be "about" the collapse of the economy. Like in the movie (although I am by no means suggesting we copy the movie), the dance competition could UNCOVER the base, animalistic drives of the competitors. And the competition could involve couples dancing out their interdependence on each other, their responsibility to keep on going and not let their partners (fall) down. I've been working with the aesthetics of endurance in my own work, lately, and while I've had a mostly ironic take on it--with our short attention spans, endurance art becomes 44 minute karaoke--but i can imagine a reevaluation of the notion of time post-collapse. Would it be crazy to do a 4 or 5 hour piece? Anyway, this was just an idea sparked by Luc's post about the sheets.

Kurt Hartwig

Elizabeth and I went to see Kurt's one man play at Moct Bar in the 3rd ward yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a touching play on a past relationship dealing with issues of who we were, are and will be in the face of death.  Just add movement to the layers of relevance and I'm in.  We highly recommend it.  The show is on again at 8:30pm... he's leaving for Prague next Monday to perform it at the Prague Fringe Festival.

 

We had a meeting the other day about our 2010 season.  The show that precedes our show will be titled "uncovered."  This started me thinking about our show and made me think of how the whole world is a bed and that if someone pulls the sheet one way then someone else get uncovered.  This is something I've been thinking a lot in response to the present economic situation and while identity is a huge issue, the greed present in our communities is uncovering our jobs, our schools and our safety.  

On a more practical note - we need to decide whether we will have the show on the weekend of June 18-19 or June 25-26.  Right now I'm committed to a performance with Present Music on June 18th. (this happened in the past couple days...)  This would be a solo with music and interactive design from Chris Burns.  I should know soon if Kevin chose to put the performance on the 11th or the 18th.  

We also need to decide whether we are ok with two nights or we would like three nights or four nights...  Since we don't really know what we are about to do it's a bit hard to think about the performance format.  

Another practical issue is our rehearsal format - normally we have a rehearsal period per dance piece being built.  In this case Elizabeth is also building something for Summerdances 2010.  We were thinking of creating a rehearsal period for the KSE 2010 show that would start in Feb 2010 on (just guessing here...) Mondays and Wednesdays from 2-3:30pm with a Friday rehearsal from 1 to 3:30pm and then a rehearsal time for Elizabeth's piece of Tuesday and Thursdays from 1 to 3:30pm and a Friday time of 1 to 3:30pm.  We would use as much of the same dancers in both processes which would allow us many permutations...  For example Heather and Elizabeth could rehearse for 2 weeks everyday with everyone and then I could come in and rehearse MW while Seth would work TR and then we could all meet on Friday... anyway, let us know what you think of that format.  

Another issue is the title... As I was writing this I got to liking the book title Birth of Pleasure... maybe something along those lines for now?  Birth of...  

Anyway this is a lot to think about on a blog...

Birth of Pleasure

http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?id=1214&type=book&cn=98

I've not read the book myself but I thought I would share a link to a review...

What I've read in the past few months (also suggested by EAJ) is The Mind and the Brain by Schwartz...

http://www.curledup.com/mindbrai.htm

Another Nelken Clip, Since Seth Hasn't Seen It

This blog looks great, Luc!

Hello, everyone. I'm so excited to be working on this project with you. I thought I'd begin by posting something that's been very influential to me, Bausch's Nelken.

Another Try at a blog

In this blog... we can move it to our server and we can have multiple users...

Does this work?