dreamt of being in venezuela with my brother and steve. we were walking through the dirty streets of a city, dark, we didn't know where we were. we had flown there on a whim without any guide or research. they wanted to get inside, went to a concert that cost $75 so i waited in the lobby. i was hungry and the tough woman security guard gradually brought out trays of catered food from inside, like at the panels. i waited. laurie might have been with us too. then we were with a school trip to go down under ground, far far underground. i kept thinking of the weight of the ground above us. when we got down there most people were still in this auditorium like place but a few of us felt like doing strange movement in mockery of the authority figures who asked us to stop. then we went out much faster than we went in. in fact we weren't very far underground at all. it was like a disneyland ride. we came out into a parking lot, a different place from where we had entered. there were some big box stores and this opening where we came out, hundreds of us, which you wouldn't normally notice.
posted by Liza 29.1.07
What is love? (baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more)
you know the song. let's dance. a different love for every person, and the same love for every person. carried away, feet on the ground. burning, melting, marshmellow love. truth, half-truth, lie. sand, desert, ocean, jungle heat and frozen plain. hair through fingers, tight embrace, wiping away tears, basking in smiles and laughter. burying, swallowing, ingesting, letting go, holding on, taking in, giving away, loosing and finding, freeing and binding. a dream, a reality. a building up, a breaking down. a deep lake. a binding vow. a chance embarkation. impregnation. a slow gestation. a bursting need. sitting together, and slowly approaching from a far distance, approaching and approaching. companionship, togetherness. backscratcher and bedmaker. get into a car and ride. ride from sunrise to sundown. quiet listening, tension and release. control and abandon, consciousness and blind leaps. who knows? a game. a master plan. serious folly. hilarious heartbreak. forever. myth? important?
posted by Liza 19.12.06
I just got back from seeing Pina Bausch's company perform in NYC. Nefes. The name of the piece. A puddle of water in the middle of the stage, slowly spreading in the first half to form a circle. Like a city square centered with a fountain. Of course, the women were in flowey silk gowns to their ankles, the men in suits much of the time, sometimes barechested in dress slacks. At the beginning in towels, at the Turkish baths. All about pleasure, desire and man/woman relationships. Many solos, articulate limbs, speed, agility, long hair, bursts of flying limbs punctuated by distinctive clear gestures of the hands, structures and gestures reminiscent of Bharata Natyam, a little Kathak. Intricate partnering relationships, almost always within and defining the boundaries of her aesthetic. Playing to the audience with bluntness, using your tricks. Flirtations, connections, and a certain interchangeablility of parts, every woman and every man. The scenes that fail do so in comparison to a majority of scenes that succeed. Sometimes the dancing was articulate to a faul like someone over pronouncing every word to speak to someone half-deaf. Makes the energy to much the same, not enough modulation. But in general rhythm was well attended to. Women crawling like felines, men crawling to shake hands like beasts of business. Eating chocolates. Family photos. A wedding. Ecstatic solo in pouring water. The ocean rolling and rolling. Dizzy spins. Approaching and departing walks, smooth hips, barefoot or highheels.
posted by Liza 13.12.06
Two realities exist together, layered, intertwined: the reality of now, and the reality of firm intentions.
Throw out mental ashes and follow them.
Actually, I suppose memory is another reality too, no? anymore?
posted by Liza 10.12.06
a couple months shy of a year since my last post. feel the urge to write today due to a creative brainstorm, a bit of clearness after wandering in artistic muck. this was the direction i had today in the studio: creating movement through directing the mind to parts/movements in the body with single attention, and gradually weaving a thread of single attentions from one to one to one. For instance, my mind and body would totally focus on pressing my belly button back towards my spine--of course this causes corresponding movements in my body and through space, but that is all peripheral to the single attention in that moment to my belly button moving towards my spine. Then, the next single attention would be firmly pressing my right heel into the floor. Then, quickly following my chest moving upwards. Each single attention varies with how long it is sustained.
on the drive home from the studio i heard on the radio a call in show with this professor who works with "the center for the mind and spirituality" which i later found out is an initiative at Penn. read their website a little. maybe i could partner with them in developing this dance, have a scholarly research component, maybe get a leeway foundation art & change grant...anyways, i should head home now on this perfect fall day (it's here! it's here!)
posted by Liza 21.9.06