Blogs

Bailar el verano/ Seminarios en Buenos Aires y Córdoba

 ¿cómo cuenta un cuerpo? 

¿de qué hablamos cuándo hablamos de composición física?
¿que premisas/ paradigmas/problemas/ preguntas están en  juego en el Arte contemporáneo hoy día?
¿cómo y desde dónde dialoga la danza con ellas?
¿porqué la danza teatro NO es la suma de danza + teatro en el sentido literal de cada una de esas palabras?

Destinado a estudiantes de danza, teatro, músicos, cantantes y artistas de cualquier disciplina interesados en iniciarse en el lenguaje compositivo de la danza teatro o
con deseos de profundizar en él.

 

Algunos objetivos:

Entrenar desde un cuerpo consciente, perceptivo y despierto elementos técnicos y compositivos propios de la danza teatro como género a saber:

la danza como acción física,

 

el cuerpo en estado de danza,

 

la danza con lo que ya hay:

 

cuerpo, espacio, tiempo, arquitectura,

la sensorialidad y la escucha como fundamentos del trabajo,

improvisación y composición,

dramaturgismo en danza.

3 fechas 1. del 13 al 17 de Diciembre del 19 30 a 21 30

2. del 3 al 7 de Enero de 19 30 a 21 30

3. del 14 al 18 de Febrero de 19 30 a 21 30 

Aranceles seminarios en Buenos Aires: 

 

$ 190.- cada seminario (dos seminarios $ 360.-)

 

Danzar el Hábitat, cuerpo espacio y soporte.

Seminario en Córdoba, Senderos del Monasterio, Valle de Punilla

info completa y detallada en

 http://danzarelhabitat.blogspot.com/

danzarelhabitat@gmail.com

Vacantes limitadas solo se reserva con seña previa por el 50% del arancel. Podés solicitar el Nº de cuenta por mail o acercarte personalmente a Casa Puán previo
concertar una entrevista

al teléfono 011 15 4189 2930

vaciadeespacio@yahoo.com.ar

Para ver trabajos previos nuestros podés mirar este mismo blog y también:

http://noseteocurraquererme.blogspot.com

http://deleuzeoelcuerpoeuforico.blogspot.com/

Te sugiero leer este artículo:

"La impureza como goce o el fallido intento por acorralar a la danza teatro en una definición"

El cuento de navidad de Auggie Wren
Paul Auster

Le oí este cuento a Auggie Wren.
Dado que Auggie no queda demasiado bien en él, por lo menos no todo lo bien que
a él le habría gustado, me pidió que no utilizara su verdadero nombre.
Aparte de eso, toda la historia de la cartera perdida, la anciana ciega y la
comida de Navidad es exactamente como él me la contó.

Auggie y yo nos conocemos desde hace casi once años.
Él trabaja detrás del mostrador de un estanco en la calle Court, en el centro
de Brooklyn, y como es el único estanco que tiene los puritos holandeses que a
mí me gusta fumar, entro allí bastante a menudo.
Durante mucho tiempo apenas pensé en Auggie Wren.
Era el extraño hombrecito que llevaba una sudadera azul con capucha y me vendía
puros y revistas, el personaje pícaro y chistoso que siempre tenía algo
gracioso que decir acerca del tiempo, de los Mets o de los políticos de
Washington, y nada más.

Pero luego, un día, hace varios años, él estaba leyendo una revista en la
tienda cuando casualmente tropezó con la reseña de un libro mío.
Supo que era yo porque la reseña iba acompañada de una fotografía, y a partir
de entonces las cosas cambiaron entre nosotros.
Yo ya no era simplemente un cliente más para Auggie, me había convertido en una
persona distinguida.
A la mayoría de la gente le importan un comino los libros y los escritores,
pero resultó que Auggie se consideraba un artista.
Ahora que había descubierto el secreto de quién era yo, me adoptó como a un
aliado, un confidente, un camarada.
A decir verdad, a mí me resultaba bastante embarazoso.
Luego, casi inevitablemente, llegó el momento en que me preguntó si estaría yo
dispuesto a ver sus fotografías.
Dado su entusiasmo y buena voluntad, no parecía que hubiera manera de
rechazarle.

Dios sabe qué esperaba yo.
Como mínimo, no era lo que Auggie me enseñó al día siguiente.
En una pequeña trastienda sin ventanas abrió una caja de cartón y sacó doce
álbumes de fotos negros e idénticos.
Dijo que aquélla era la obra de su vida, y no tardaba más de cinco minutos al
día en hacerla.
Todas las mañanas durante los últimos doce años se había detenido en la esquina
de la Avenida Atlantic y la calle Clinton exactamente a las siete y había hecho
una sola fotografía en color de exactamente la misma vista.
El proyecto ascendía ya a más de cuatro mil fotografías.

Cada álbum representaba un año diferente y todas las fotografías estaban dispuestas en secuencia, desde el 1 de enero hasta el 31 de diciembre, con las fechas
cuidadosamente anotadas debajo de cada una.

Mientras hojeaba los álbumes y empezaba a estudiar la obra de Auggie, no sabía qué pensar.
Mi primera impresión fue que se trataba de la cosa más extraña y desconcertante
que había visto nunca.
Todas las fotografías eran iguales.
Todo el proyecto era un curioso ataque de repetición que te dejaba aturdido, la
misma calle y los mismos edificios una y otra vez, un implacable delirio de
imágenes redundantes.
No se me ocurría qué podía decirle a Auggie; así que continué pasando las
páginas, asintiendo con la cabeza con fingida apreciación.
Auggie parecía sereno, mientras me miraba con una amplia sonrisa en la cara,
pero cuando yo llevaba ya varios minutos observando las fotografías, de repente
me interrumpió y me dijo:

- Vas demasiado deprisa.
Nunca lo entenderás si no vas más despacio.

Tenía razón, por supuesto.
Si no te tomas tiempo para mirar, nunca conseguirás ver nada.
Cogí otro álbum y me obligué a ir más pausada mente.
Presté más atención a los detalles, me fijé en los cambios en las condiciones
meteorológicas, observé las variaciones en el ángulo de la luz a medida que
avanzaban las estaciones.
Finalmente pude detectar sutiles diferencias en el flujo del tráfico, prever el
ritmo de los diferentes días (la actividad de las mañanas laborables, la relativa
tranquilidad de los fines de semana, el contraste entre los sábados y los
domingos).
Y luego, poco a poco, empecé a reconocer las caras de la gente en segundo
plano, los transeúntes  camino de su
trabajo, las mismas personas en el mismo lugar todas las mañanas, viviendo un
instante de sus vidas en el objetivo de la cámara de Auggie.

Una vez que llegué a conocerles, empecé a estudiar sus posturas, la diferencia en su porte de una mañana a la siguiente, tratando de descubrir sus estados de
ánimo por estos indicios superficiales, como si pudiera imaginar historias para
ellos, como si pudiera penetrar en los invisibles dramas encerrados dentro de
sus cuerpos.
Cogí otro álbum.
Ya no estaba aburrido ni desconcertado como al principio.
Me di cuenta de que Auggie estaba fotografiando el tiempo, el tiempo natural y
el tiempo humano, y lo hacía plantándose en una minúscula esquina del mundo y
deseando que fuera suya, montando guardia en el espacio que había elegido para
sí.
Mirándome mientras yo examinaba su trabajo, Auggie continuaba sonriendo con
gusto.
Luego, casi como si hubiera estado leyendo mis pensamientos, empezó a recitar
un verso de Shakespeare.

- Mañana y mañana y mañana - murmuró entre dientes -, el tiempo avanza con
pasos menudos y cautelosos.

Comprendí entonces que sabía exactamente lo que estaba haciendo.

Eso fue hace más de dos mil fotografías.
Desde ese día Auggie y yo hemos comentado su obra muchas veces, pero hasta la
semana pasada no me enteré de cómo había adquirido su cámara y empezado a hacer
fotos.
Ése era el tema de la historia que me contó, y todavía estoy esforzándome por
entenderla.

A principios de esa misma semana me había llamado un hombre del New York Times y me había preguntado si querría escribir un cuento que aparecería en el
periódico el día de Navidad.
Mi primer impulso fue decir que no, pero el hombre era muy persuasivo y amable,
y al final de la conversación le dije que lo intentaría.
En cuanto colgué el teléfono, sin embargo, caí en un profundo pánico.
¿Qué sabía yo sobre la Navidad?, me pregunté.
¿Qué sabía yo de escribir cuentos por encargo?

Pasé los siguientes días desesperado; guerreando con los fantasmas de Dickens,
O. Henry y otros maestros del espíritu de la Natividad.
Las propias palabras "cuento de Navidad" tenían desagradables
connotaciones para mí, en su evocación de espantosas efusiones de hipócrita
sensiblería y melaza.
Ni siquiera los mejores cuentos de Navidad eran otra cosa que sueños de deseos,
cuentos de hadas para adultos, y por nada del mundo me permitiría escribir algo
así.
Sin embargo, ¿cómo podía nadie proponerse escribir un cuento de Navidad que no
fuera sentimental?
Era una contradicción en los términos, una imposibilidad, una paradoja.
Sería como tratar de imaginar un caballo de carreras sin patas o un gorrión sin
alas.

No conseguía nada.
El jueves salí a dar un largo paseo, confiando en que el aire me despejaría la
cabeza.
Justo después del mediodía entré en el estanco para reponer mis existencias, y
allí estaba Auggie, de pie detrás del mostrador, como siempre.
Me preguntó cómo estaba.
Sin proponérmelo realmente, me encontré descargando mis preocupaciones sobre
él.

- ¿Un cuento de Navidad? - dijo él cuando yo hube terminado.
¿Sólo es eso?
Si me invitas a comer, amigo mío, te contaré el mejor cuento de Navidad que
hayas oído nunca.
Y te garantizo que hasta la última palabra es verdad.

Fuimos a Jack's, un restaurante angosto y ruidoso que tiene buenos sandwiches
de pastrami y fotografías de antiguos equipos de los Dodgers colgadas de las
paredes.
Encontramos una mesa al fondo, pedimos nuestro almuerzo y luego Auggie se lanzó
a contarme su historia.

- Fue en el verano del setenta y dos - dijo.
Una mañana entró un chico y empezó a robar cosas de la tienda.
Tendría unos diecinueve o veinte años, y creo que no he visto en mi vida un
ratero de tiendas más patético.
Estaba de pie al lado del expositor de periódicos de la pared del fondo,
metiéndose libros en los bolsillos del impermeable.
Había mucha gente junto al mostrador en aquel momento, así que al principio no
le vi.
Pero cuando me di cuenta de lo que estaba haciendo, empecé a gritar.
Echó a correr como una liebre, y cuando yo conseguí salir de detrás del
mostrador, él ya iba como una exhalación por la avenida Atlantic.
Le perseguí más o menos media manzana, y luego renuncié.
Se le había caído algo, y como yo no tenía ganas de seguir corriendo me agaché
para ver lo que era.

Resultó que era su cartera.
No había nada de dinero, pero sí su carnet de conducir junto con tres o cuatro
fotografías.
Supongo que podría haber llamado a la poli para que le arrestara.
Tenía su nombre y dirección en el carnet, pero me dio pena.
No era más que un pobre desgraciado, y cuando miré las fotos que llevaba en la
cartera, no fui capaz de enfadarme con él.
Robert Goodwin. Así se llamaba.
Recuerdo que en una de las fotos estaba de pie rodeando con el brazo a su madre
o abuela.
En otra estaba sentado a los nueve o diez años vestido con un uniforme de
béisbol y con una gran sonrisa en la cara.
No tuve valor.
Me figuré que probablemente era drogadicto.
Un pobre chaval de Brooklyn sin mucha suerte, y, además, ¿qué importaban un par
de libros de bolsillo?

Así que me quedé con la cartera.
De vez en cuando sentía el impulso de devolvérsela, pero lo posponía una y otra
vez y nunca hacía nada al respecto.
Luego llega la Navidad y yo me encuentro sin nada que hacer.
Generalmente el jefe me invita a pasar el día en su casa, pero ese año él y su
familia estaban en Florida visitando a unos parientes.
Así que estoy sentado en mi piso esa mañana compadeciéndome un poco de mí
mismo, y entonces veo la cartera de Robert Goodwin sobre un estante de la
cocina.
Pienso qué diablos, por qué no hacer algo bueno por una vez, así que me pongo
el abrigo y salgo para devolver la cartera personalmente.

La dirección estaba en Boerum Hill, en las casas subvencionadas.
Aquel día helaba, y recuerdo que me perdí varias veces tratando de encontrar el
edificio.
Allí todo parece igual, y recorres una y otra vez la misma calle pensando que
estás en otro sitio.
Finalmente encuentro el apartamento que busco y llamo al timbre.
No pasa nada.
Deduzco que no hay nadie, pero lo intento otra vez para asegurarme.
Espero un poco más y, justo cuando estoy a punto de marcharme, oigo que alguien
viene hacia la puerta arrastrando los pies.
Una voz de vieja pregunta quién es, y yo contesto que estoy buscando a Robert
Goodwin.

- ¿Eres tú, Robert? - dice la vieja, y luego descorre unos quince cerrojos y
abre la puerta.

Debe tener por lo menos ochenta años, quizá noventa, y lo primero que noto es
que es ciega.

- Sabía que vendrías, Robert - dice -.
Sabía que no te olvidarías de tu abuela Ethel en Navidad.

Y luego abre los brazos como si estuviera a punto de abrazarme.

Yo no tenía mucho tiempo para pensar, ¿comprendes?
Tenía que decir algo deprisa y corriendo, y antes de que pudiera darme cuenta
de lo que estaba ocurriendo, oí que las palabras salían de mi boca.

- Está bien, abuela Ethel - dij e-.
He vuelto para verte el día de Navidad.

No me preguntes por qué lo hice.
No tengo ni idea.
Puede que no quisiera decepcionarla o algo así, no lo sé.
Simplemente salió así y de pronto, aquella anciana me abrazaba delante de la
puerta y yo la abrazaba a ella.

No llegué a decirle que era su nieto.
No exactamente, por lo menos, pero eso era lo que parecía.
Sin embargo, no estaba intentando engañarla.
Era como un juego que los dos habíamos decidido jugar, sin tener que discutir
las reglas.
Quiero decir que aquella mujer sabía que yo no era su nieto Robert.
Estaba vieja y chocha, pero no tanto como para no notar la diferencia entre un
extraño y su propio nieto.
Pero la hacía feliz fingir, y puesto que yo no tenía nada mejor que hacer, me
alegré de seguirle la corriente.

Así que entramos en el apartamento y pasamos el día juntos.
Aquello era un verdadero basurero, podría añadir, pero ¿qué otra cosa se puede
esperar de una ciega que se ocupa ella misma de la casa?
Cada vez que me preguntaba cómo estaba yo le mentía.
Le dije que había encontrado un buen trabajo en un estanco, le dije que estaba
a punto de casarme, le conté cien cuentos chinos, y ella hizo como que se los
creía todos.

- Eso es estupendo, Robert - decía, asintiendo con la cabeza y sonriendo.
Siempre supe que las cosas te saldrían bien.

Al cabo de un rato, empecé a tener hambre.
No parecía haber mucha comida en la casa, así que me fui a una tienda del
barrio y llevé un montón de cosas.
Un pollo precocinado, sopa de verduras, un recipiente de ensalada de patatas,
pastel de chocolate, toda clase de cosas.
Ethel tenía un par de botellas de vino guardadas en su dormitorio, así que
entre los dos conseguimos preparar una comida de Navidad bastante decente.
Recuerdo que los dos nos pusimos un poco alegres con el vino, y cuando
terminamos de comer fuimos a sentarnos en el cuarto de estar, donde las butacas
eran más cómodas.
Yo tenía que hacer pis, así que me disculpé y fui al cuarto de baño que había
en el pasillo.
Fue entonces cuando las cosas dieron otro giro.
Ya era bastante disparatado que hiciera el numerito de ser el nieto de Ethel,
pero lo que hice luego fue una verdadera locura, y nunca me he perdonado por
ello.

Entro en el cuarto de baño y, apiladas contra la pared al lado de la ducha, veo
un montón de seis o siete cámaras.
De treinta y cinco milímetros, completamente nuevas, aún en sus cajas,
mercancía de primera calidad.
Deduzco que eso es obra del verdadero Robert, un sitio donde almacenar botín
reciente.
Yo no había hecho una foto en mi vida, y ciertamente nunca había robado nada,
pero en cuanto veo esas cámaras en el cuarto de baño, decido que quiero una
para mí.
Así de sencillo.
Y, sin pararme a pensarlo, me meto una de las cajas bajo el brazo y vuelvo al
cuarto de estar.

No debí ausentarme más de unos minutos, pero en ese tiempo la abuela Ethel se
había quedado dormida en su butaca.
Demasiado Chianti, supongo.
Entré en la cocina para fregar los platos y ella siguió durmiendo a pesar del
ruido, roncando como un bebé.
No parecía lógico molestarla, así que decidí marcharme.
Ni siquiera podía escribirle una nota de despedida, puesto que era ciega y todo
eso, así que simplemente me fui.
Dejé la cartera de su nieto en la mesa, cogí la cámara otra vez y salí del
apartamento.
Y ése es el final de la historia.

- ¿Volviste alguna vez? - le pregunté.

- Una sola - contestó.
Unos tres o cuatro meses después.
Me sentía tan mal por haber robado la cámara que ni siquiera la había usado
aún.
Finalmente tomé la decisión de devolverla, pero la abuela Ethel ya no estaba
allí.
No sé qué le había pasado, pero en el apartamento vivía otra persona y no sabía
decirme dónde estaba ella.

- Probablemente había muerto.

- Sí, probablemente.

- Lo cual quiere decir que pasó su última Navidad contigo.

- Supongo que sí.
Nunca se me había ocurrido pensarlo.

- Fue una buena obra, Auggie.
Hiciste algo muy bonito por ella.

- Le mentí y luego le robé.
No veo cómo puedes llamarle a eso una buena obra.

- La hiciste feliz.
Y además la cámara era robada.
No es como si la persona a quien se la quitaste fuese su verdadero propietario.

- Todo por el arte, ¿eh, Paul?

- Yo no diría eso.
Pero por lo menos le has dado un buen uso a la cámara.

- Y ahora tienes un cuento de Navidad, ¿no?

- Sí - dije -.
Supongo que sí.

Hice una pausa durante un momento, mirando a Auggie mientras una sonrisa
malévola se extendía por su cara.
Yo no podía estar seguro, pero la expresión de sus ojos en aquel momento era
tan misteriosa, tan llena del resplandor de algún placer interior, que
repentinamente se me ocurrió que se había inventado toda la historia.
Estuve a punto de preguntarle si se había quedado conmigo, pero luego comprendí
que nunca me lo diría.
Me había embaucado, y eso era lo único que importaba.
Mientras haya una persona que se la crea, no hay ninguna historia que no pueda
ser verdad.

- Eres un as, Auggie - dije -.
Gracias por ayudarme.

- Siempre que quieras - contestó él, mirándome aún con aquella luz maníaca en
los ojos.
Después de todo, si no puedes compartir tus secretos con los amigos, ¿qué clase
de amigo eres?

- Supongo que estoy en deuda contigo.

- No, no.
Simplemente escríbela como yo te la he contado y no me deberás nada.

- Excepto el almuerzo.

- Eso es.
Excepto el almuerzo.

Devolví la sonrisa de Auggie con otra mía y luego llamé al camarero y pedí la
cuenta.

Fin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDK7_XkGmVw

The 2nd edition of InShadow Festival has come to its end!

It stays in our memory 5 intense days filled with inspiring shows; video dance sessions, documentaries, performances, masterclasses and workshops with surprising outcomes!

Vo’Arte team sincerely thanks all the artists, directors and the public who was with us in several meetings of this edition, contributing to the success of InShadow.

Dias 25, 26 e 27 de Fevereiro de 2011, no c.e.m. – centro em movimento, decorre o workshop ´performance ecology` facilitado pelo artista/ académico Raphael-Jay Ajaykumar. O workshop propõe introduzir e experienciar noções de ´ser-relacional` e ´ecologia profunda` na prática da performance. É parte integrante do projecto de investigação 8 technology, que reúne idéias particulares de ciência, tecnologia digital, filosofia (oriental e ocidental), arquitectura e arte. Destina-se a performers, actores, dança, artistas plásticos e visuais, praticantes de artes orientais, arquitectos, activistas, investigadores, filósofos, e qualquer pessoa interessada nas idéias do 8 technology, com ou sem experiência.
O workshop é promovido pelo CIAC – Centro de Investigação em Artes e Comunicação, em parceria com o Goldsmiths College, University of London/ 8technology reasearch project e o c.e.m. – centro em movimento. + info: www.ciac.pt/site.pdf

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

On the 25th, 26th and 27th February, the c.e.m. – Centro em Movimento (Centre in Movement), in Lisbon, hosts the workshop “performance ecology” facilitated by the artist / scholar Raphael-Jay Ajaykumar. The workshop seeks to introduce and experiment notions of “relational being” and “deep ecology” in performance practice. This workshop is part of the “8 technology” research project, which discusses ideas on science, digital technology, philosophy (Eastern and Western), architecture and art. It is aimed to performers, actors, dancers, fine arts artists, oriental arts practitioners, architects, activists, researchers, philosophers and anyone interested in the 8 technology ideas, with or without experience.
The workshop is promoted by CIAC – Research Centre in Arts and Communication in a partnership with the Goldsmiths College, University of London / 8 technology Research Project and C.E.M. – Centro em Movimento. + info: www.c-e-m.org/?page_id=1008

With its collaboration with producer Neil Sieling and New York City's Big Screen Project, DFA waltzes into the arena of public art as a provocative aspect of its 39th Festival.  Viewable from 29th and 30th streets, in what once was the heart of New York City's flower market, the 30 ft. x 16.5 ft. HD screen has begun to offer a visual feast of dance films from DFA's current and earlier Dance on Camera Festivals.

Could this instigate a rash of dancing in the streets, or just a subtle shift in energies? Bring a little wildness back into NYC; wink people into stop making sense - all the time? Tempt a slew of real estate developers to invest in creating atriums that inspire mingling, old-world jostling and debates?

Public screenings of dance films have brought enormously positive results. Helene Lesterlin wooed an uninitiated crowd in Troy, New York with dance on camera shorts projected on a large screen in a football field on the campus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). Her series charmed her circle to the point that RPI's Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) convinced an alum to direct his million dollar donation towards the commissioning of dance video. David Michalek, who serves on Festival 2011 Jury, stopped people in their tracks to consider his SLOW DANCING projected on four giant screens on the facade of Lincoln Center's New York State Theatre, and subsequently in Los Angeles and London. Michalek’s project dared people to slow down and wonder what they had missed by living so fast.

DFA's Floating Cinema, a free event on Prospect Park Lake one midsummer night years ago, widened the eyes of many a child. As did the outdoor screenings in the summers of 2008-2010 presented by the Certamen Internacional de Coreografía Burgos-New York,  a Spanish touring partner of DFA. Caught by surprise, businessmen broke their stride to watch; old ladies pressed up on their canes to gaze at the screen; girls broke into mad dances to the hysterical approval of their friends; fathers twirled their daughters and threw them up in the air. Dance was indeed in the air, creating a virtual call and response.

The Indian Culture has always displayed their art outside for all to see, to quietly absorb into their consciousness. The idea of bringing art inside is a Western one. Gradually though, more and more sculpture, murals and performing arts are now being commissioned for public spaces. A network of public screens has popped around Europe. The Big Screen Project, though, is the first in USA to offer, without commercial interruption, non verbal art all day long.

A tightrope dancer, as the veteran explains in THE LAST TIGHTROPE DANCER IN ARMENIA that we are showing during Festival 2011, cannot harbor any fear. How can he dance in the air with thoughts like that? So must we artists saunter into the public arena, confident that we could, just possibly, sashay right into the hearts of disarmed strangers.

Another well deserved award: Best dance film at dancescreen 2010 in category C2 "screen choreography", subcategory "shorts up to 15 min".

See the whole award lis here: http://cinedans.nl/dancescreen

We make a toast and thank the Jury, and the co-organizers Cinedans (Amsterdam) and IMZ (Viena).

We dedicate it to the team and to the family of videodance.

Cheers!

The University of North Texas (UNT) seeks an accomplished visual artist with exceptional technological expertise and experience in interdisciplinary and collaborative research to join the newly formed Initiative for Advanced Research in Technology and the Arts (iARTA). Research areas may include but are not limited to: robotics/physical computing, wearables, interactive programming and/or performance systems, HCI design and hardware/software development for the control of digital arts media. The applicant is expected to serve in an active collaborative role in iARTA and to foster and contribute to visionary interdisciplinary research between the arts, engineering and the sciences. This is an Open-Rank position; rank and compensation will be commensurate with experience.

For complete details, visit: http://facultyjobs.unt.edu/applicants/Central?quickFind=51142

I am so upset that the great flamenco artist Enrique Morente Cotelo just died, Monday, December 13, only 12 days shy of his birthday.

What a gift he had. He could make your guts burn with only a few notes. And he experimented with so many forms, always excelling.

Why do so many of the great & talented always seem to die young? Is it because someone upstairs says - "OK. You've done all you possibly can to remind the rest of them that the mysterious forces of nature are always there, available to be tapped."

Born on Christmas Day 1942 in Granada, Spain, Enrique Morente began his career in Spain in the mid-1960s, and performed at the Spanish Pavilion of the 1964 World’s Fair in New York and again in NY in recent years at BAM and Lincoln Center. Mr. Morente’s survivors include his wife, Aurora Carbonell, a dancer; and three children, one of whom, Estrella Morente, who is my favorite performer in Carlos Saura's latest film FLAMENCO FLAMENCO that Dance on Camera Festival will show on January 29, 2011.

“I like doing what comes from inside,” Enrique Morente told The Boston Globe in 2003. “If that means I’m innovating, it’s pure coincidence.”

Tomorrow is now the last day of the competition at the Fidor bank (https://banking.fidor.de/wersollsbekommen) and we're quite excited about it!

We're still in the first row, but you never know about the jokers other players might have and, lets be real - it is a game. So I see my self and all the people involved sitting in front of their computer, checking the website of Fidor every minute...

The last days we spent on writing emails and facebook messages and twitter messages and talked to people - all to mobilize the crowd so that they vote for us. This is not an easy job. It takes a lot of time. Especially if you try to make your mother vote as well. Not an easy one. Well, we need every vote.

The communication part on every platform is the most important point in the whole thing. If you know a lot of people and you make them vote for you - you made a good job in communicating your project. It also helps to ask your friends and partners to forward your request.

In the first action I sent 700 messages and emails - we have 60 votes by now. So you see what's left. But I have to admit, it is a boarder to register at a bank you don't know and all that stuff. Also the registration process is not just that you click on the project to vote. So people hesitate. It's a new way to fund project. People might have doubts and all. But never the less - we are optimistic!

If we win the competition, we will receive our first funding to produce the dance piece ROHRPOST.

Give it a try too!

Thanks and good night,

Johanna for mind_the_gut

Rhode Island School of Design

Rhode Island School of Design seeks a forward thinking and experienced artist/designer, educator and scholar for the position of Associate Professor in its highly regarded Graduate Department of Digital + Media, with the expectation that this individual will also serve as the appointed Department Head starting July 2011. Established in 2003, the Department of Digital + Media offers an MFA program for approximately 30 students a year who bring diverse research interests and creative explorations of technology and the digital world to the fields of contemporary art/design, and new media practices. It is one of three stand-alone graduate departments at RISD. Because of its interdisciplinary structure and reach, the Department of Digital + Media has developed strong connections to other departments and programs both at RISD and at neighboring Brown University. The position offers a unique opportunity for a dynamic intellectual and pedagogical leader to guide the future of the department in its exploration of advanced art, design and research practices within the current cultural environment of ubiquitous digital media. The successful candidate should be an artist/designer who is engaged in the understanding of emergent, adaptive and social media technologies and their relationship with other media, disciplines and debates within contemporary theory. She/he will foster a department culture of curricular innovation in which faculty are encouraged to develop progressive teaching and research practices. As Department Head, she/he will play a pivotal role in supporting the diverse practices of D + M graduate students and forging partnerships with other graduate programs at RISD, as well as external research partners. She/he will develop the role of the Digital + Media Department as a research incubator and creative forum at RISD, and advance the Digital + Media program within the expanding field of new media and technology in art and design graduate education.

Applicants should have a terminal graduate degree in a relevant field or equivalent experience in art, design, media, computer art, or contemporary theory; at least 5 years of full-time teaching at the college or university (especially graduate) level or the equivalent; a demonstrated background and interest in academic, intellectual leadership in a graduate program; and a strong record of research and creative work.

Applicants should provide a letter of interest; statement of teaching and leadership philosophy in the context of this field of inquiry; curriculum vitae; names and contact information for three references; examples of creative and scholarly work; and selected syllabi from courses taught with examples of student work.

Review of applications will begin immediately, and continue until the position is filled. Candidates who submit their materials by January 5, 2011, will be assured full consideration.

For more information about RISD and to apply online visit http://www.risd.edu/jobs


RISD is an equal opportunity employer. We encourage inquiries from candidates who will enrich and contribute to the cultural and ethnic diversity of our College. RISD does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, genetics, or any other protected characteristic as established by law, in employment, or in our education programs.


About the Department of Digital + Media:

The Department of Digital + Media is engaged in a critical examination and exploration of the dynamic relationship of technology, contemporary culture, media, and physical objects, time and space. It offers a two-year MFA with annual enrollment of thirty graduate students with a diverse range of undergraduate and professional backgrounds. The mission of the department is to create a resonant environment for leading edge creative work and research focusing on the creative potentials of media and contemporary technologies. Embracing the broad and dynamic potential of digital media as a ubiquitous tool across many domains, the department fosters exploratory work that exhibits a high degree of innovative visual, sonic, and/or textual expression with conceptual clarity and technological insight and agility. A continuum between digital media and physical objects, virtual and actual space is emphasized.

Working from a cogent theoretical, historical, and conceptual curricular core, the department is an environment that supports diverse forms of experimentation for students. Students are immersed in a multi-perspective approach to knowledge and contemporary culture with particular relevance to their own areas of interest merged with theory and critique from other disciplines and areas of research. Through a complex understanding of the capacity of digital and new media and social practices through conceptual, critical, social, and cultural inquiry, students pursue ambitious independent work and theses. Multiple, but interconnected, core intellectual values include:

- To know how to use digital (and analog) technologies; study and understand the various perspectives of their histories and how they came to be

- To understand the implications materialized in a device or technology; why they are there and for whom, in order to challenge, critique, and interrogate the embedded assumptions and prescriptions and engage critically with technologies

- To investigate existing or make new technologies from the perspectives of artists and designers rather than from traditionally trained engineers

- To work in the areas of social practice, activist practice, and science, technology, and society studies in both material and community projects

Performance, installation, dance, film, sound, objects, two- and three-dimensions, video, glass, ceramics, architecture – any of these forms and media may be part of students' practice and research, but these forms are not the sole reason the work exists.

Photo: Charles Erickson 1992

POMEGRANATE ARTS ANNOUNCES

For the First Time in Two Decades, Full Production of the
Rarely Performed Work Will Tour Internationally in 2012-2013

The Philip Glass/Robert Wilson collaboration Einstein on the Beach, An Opera in Four Acts is widely recognized as one of the great creative achievements of the 20th century. An international breakthrough for two of America’s most celebrated artists, the production, in turn, radically and indelibly broadened what audiences might expect from opera, theater or performance art. John Rockwell, who reviewed the 1976 world premiere for The New York Times, has called Einstein on the Beach “timeless” and “an experience to cherish for a lifetime.” The production’s only two revivals to date, in 1984 and 1992, proved equally enthralling to audiences and critics. Although every performance of the work has attracted a sold-out audience, and the music has been recorded and released, few people have actually experienced Einstein live. New audiences and an entirely new generation will have the opportunity during a 2012-2013 international tour in which New York-based producer Pomegranate Arts will bring the work to major cities around the world.

Opéra et Orchestre National de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon is scheduled to present the world premiere of Einstein on the Beach at the Opera Berlioz Le Corum on March 17 and 18, 2012. From May 4—13, 2012, the Barbican will present the first-ever UK performances of the work in conjunction with the Cultural Olympiad and London 2012 Festival. The North American premiere at the June 2012 Luminato, Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity represents the first North American presentation ever held outside of New York City. The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) 2012 Next Wave Festival will once again be home to the New York premiere, having presented the 1984 and 1992 iterations. Having never before been presented on the West Coast, the production will run for two weeks in the fall of 2012 at Cal Performances on the University of California, Berkeley campus.

The tour is currently slated to conclude at Amsterdam’s De Nederlandse Opera/The Amsterdam Music Theatre in January 2013. Before the tour, in January 2012, the entire Einstein on the Beach company will be in residence at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, whose University Musical Society will host technical rehearsals and early previews.

Einstein on the Beach defies the rules of conventional opera. Instead of a traditional orchestral arrangement, Glass chose to compose the work for the synthesizers, woodwinds and voices of the Philip Glass Ensemble. Non-narrative in form, the work uses a series of powerful recurrent images shown in juxtaposition with abstract dance sequences created by American choreographer Lucinda Childs and constructed in the classical principle of theme and variation. The opera consists of four acts that are connected by a series of short scenes or “knee plays.” The performance lasts nearly five hours and has no traditional intermissions; instead, the audience is invited to wander in and out at liberty.

Originally produced by the Byrd Hoffman Foundation, Einstein on the Beach was first performed in 1976 at the Festival d’Avignon in France, followed by a European tour that summer culminating, in the fall of the same year, in a presentation at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Einstein on the Beach was the first collaboration between Glass and Wilson. For the new production, they are working with a number of their longtime collaborators, including Lucinda Childs, who will serve as choreographer, as she did in 1984 and 1992. All of these artists are now in their `70s; the production will be a cornerstone of Glass’s 75th birthday year. They are committed to passing on the work to a new generation, and so are recruiting younger artists for the creative team and cast.

Philip Glass shared his enthusiasm about the production: “For Bob and me, the 2012-13 revival of Einstein on the Beach will be a most significant event, since in all likelihood, this will be the last time that we will be together and able to work on the piece. For audiences, few of whom have experienced Einstein apart from audio recordings, this tour will be a chance finally to see this seminal work.

In this production, my composition will remain consistent with the 1976 original. The technology of theater staging and lighting has improved to such an extent that it will be interesting to see how Bob uses these innovations to realize his original vision.

Finally, without the tremendous commitment, stamina and ingenuity of Linda Brumbach’s Pomegranate Arts team, and the commissioning partners she has brought together to support this effort, this final revival would not be taking place at all. For them I am deeply grateful.”

Robert Wilson commented, “Philip and I have been always been surprised by the impact that the opera had and has. I am particularly excited about this revival, as we are planning to re-envision Einstein with a new generation of performers, some of whom were not even born when Einstein had its world premiere.

Aside from New York, Einstein on the Beach has never been seen in any of the cities currently on our tour, and I am hoping that other cities might still be added. I am very curious to see how, after nearly 40 years, it will be received by a 21st century audience.

I am very grateful to Linda Brumbach and my manager Jörn Weisbrodt for believing in this revival from the first moment and making this dream come true in the new millennium.”

Linda Brumbach, Director of Pomegranate Arts and the Executive Producer of the 2012-13 Einstein on the Beach, said, “Einstein on the Beach is one of the most important operas of our lifetime. It has achieved canonical, even mythic, status, and yet so few people have had the opportunity to see it. It is a gift to work with artists that have such a singular vision as Philip Glass, Robert Wilson and Lucinda Childs, especially on this monumental production. I'm grateful for the heroic, committed and adventurous international commissioning partners and for the generous support of the Byrd Hoffman Watermill Foundation, Chuck Close, Douglas Gordon, Frank Gehry and Robert Wilson.”

Produced by Pomegranate Arts, Inc., the 2012 production of Einstein on the Beach, An Opera in Four Acts was commissioned by BAM; the Barbican, London; Cal Performances University of California, Berkeley; Luminato, Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity; De Nederlandse Opera/The Amsterdam Music Theatre; Opéra et Orchestre National de Montpellier Languedoc-Rousillon; and the University Musical Society of the University of Michigan.

About Philip Glass

Through his operas, his symphonies, his compositions for his own ensemble, and his wide-ranging collaborations with artists ranging from Twyla Tharp to Allen Ginsberg, Woody Allen to David Bowie, Philip Glass has had an extraordinary and unprecedented impact upon the musical and intellectual life of his times.

The operas—including Satyagraha, Akhnaten, and The Voyage, among many others—play throughout the world’s leading houses, and rarely to an empty seat. Glass has written music for experimental theater and for Academy Award-winning motion pictures such as The Hours and Martin Scorcese’s Kundun, while Koyaanisqatsi, his initial filmic landscape with Godfrey Reggio and the Philip Glass Ensemble, may be the most radical and influential mating of sound and vision since Fantasia. His associations, personal and professional, with leading rock, pop and international music artists date back to the 1960s, including the beginning of his collaborative relationship with artist Robert Wilson. Indeed, Glass is the first composer to win a wide, multi-generational audience in the opera house, the concert hall, the dance world, in film and in popular music—simultaneously.

Glass was born in 1937 and grew up in Baltimore. He studied at the University of Chicago, the Juilliard School and in Aspen with Darius Milhaud. Finding himself dissatisfied with much of what then passed for modern music, he moved to Europe, where he studied with the legendary pedagogue Nadia Boulanger (who also taught Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson and Quincy Jones) and worked closely with the sitar virtuoso and composer Ravi Shankar. He returned to New York in 1967 and formed the Philip Glass Ensemble—seven musicians playing keyboards and a variety of woodwinds, amplified and fed through a mixer.

The new musical style that Glass was evolving was eventually dubbed “minimalism.” Glass himself never liked the term and preferred to speak of himself as a composer of “music with repetitive structures.” Much of his early work was based on the extended reiteration of brief, elegant melodic fragments that wove in and out of an aural tapestry. Or, to put it another way, it immersed a listener in a sort of sonic weather that twists, turns, surrounds, develops.

There has been nothing “minimalist” about his output. In the past 25 years, Glass has composed more than twenty operas, large and small; eight symphonies (with others already on the way); two piano concertos and concertos for violin, piano, timpani, and saxophone quartet and orchestra; soundtracks to films ranging from new scores for the stylized classics of Jean Cocteau to Errol Morris’s documentary about former defense secretary Robert McNamara; string quartets; a growing body of work for solo piano and organ. He has collaborated with Paul Simon, Linda Ronstadt, Yo-Yo Ma, and Doris Lessing, among many others. He presents lectures, workshops, and solo piano performances around the world, and continues to appear regularly with the Philip Glass Ensemble.

About Robert Wilson

The New York Times has described Robert Wilson as “a towering figure in the world of experimental theater.” His works integrate a wide variety of artistic media, combining movement, dance, lighting, furniture design, sculpture, music and text into a unified whole. His images are aesthetically striking and emotionally charged, and his productions have earned the acclaim of audiences and critics worldwide. Wilson’s awards and honors include two Guggenheim Fellowship awards (’71 and ’80), the Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship award (’75), the nomination for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama (’86), the Golden Lion for sculpture from the Venice Biennale (’93), the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize for lifetime achievement (’96), the Premio Europa award from Taormina Arte (’97), election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters (’00), the National Design Award for lifetime achievement (’01), and Commandeur des arts et des letters (’02), the Medal for Arts and Sciences of the city of Hamburg (2009) and the Hein Heckroth-Prize for Set Design (2009).

A native of Waco, Texas, Wilson was educated at the University of Texas and arrived in New York in 1963 to attend Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute. Soon thereafter Wilson set to work with his Byrd Hoffman School of Byrds and together with this school developed his first signature works, including King of Spain (’69), Deafman Glance (’70), The Life and Times of Joseph Stalin (’73), and A Letter for Queen Victoria (’74). Regarded as a leader in Manhattan’s burgeoning avant-garde, Wilson turned his attention to large-scale opera.

After Einstein on the Beach (`76) altered conventional notions of the moribund form of opera, Wilson worked increasingly with European theaters and opera houses. In collaboration with internationally renowned writers and performers, Wilson created landmark original works that were featured regularly at the Festival d’Automne in Paris, the Schaubühne in Berlin, the Thalia Theater in Hamburg, and the Salzburg Festival. At the Schaubühne he created Death Destruction & Detroit (’79) and Death Destruction & Detroit II (’87); and at the Thalia he presented the groundbreaking musical works The Black Rider (’91) and Alice (’92). He has also applied his striking formal language to the operatic including Parsifal in Hamburg (’91) and Houston (’92), The Magic Flute (’91), Madame Butterfly (’93), Lohengrin at the Metropolitan Opera in New York (’98). Wilson recently completed an entirely new production, based on an epic poem from Indonesia, entitled I La Galigo, which toured extensively and appeared at the Lincoln Center Festival in the summer of 2005.

Wilson continues to direct revivals of his most celebrated productions, including The Black Rider in London, San Francisco, and Sydney, Australia, The Temptation of St. Anthony in New York and Barcelona, Erwartung in Berlin, Madama Butterfly at the Bolshoi Opera in Moscow, the LA Opera, Het Muziektheater in Amsterdam, and Wagner’s Ring cycle at Le Chatelet in Paris. For the Berliner Ensemble he created two highly acclaimed recent productions: Brecht’s Dreigroschenoper and Shakespeare’s Sonnets with music by Rufus Wainwright. Both productions received invitations to the Spoleto Festival and travel internationally. Wilson directs all Monteverdi Operas for the opera houses of La Scala in Milan and the Palais Garnier in Paris.

Wilson’s practice is firmly rooted in the fine arts, and his drawings, furniture designs, and installations have been shown in museums and galleries internationally. Extensive retrospectives have been presented at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. He has mounted installations at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, London’s Clink Street Vaults and the Guggenheim Museums in New York and Bilbao. His extraordinary tribute to Isamu Noguchi has been exhibited most recently at the Seattle Art Museum and his installation of the Guggenheim’s Giorgio Armani retrospective traveled to London, Rome and Tokyo. In 2007, Paula Cooper Gallery and Phillips de Pury & Co in New York held exhibitions of his most recent artistic venture, the VOOM Portraits, with subjects including Gao Xingjian, Winona Ryder, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Brad Pitt. The works have been shown at the Tribeca Film Festival (2006), the Montreal Film Festival (2008) and in galleries and museums in Los Angeles, Naples, Moscow, Singapore, Graz, Milan, Hamburg and will continue to tour internationally over the next years. His drawings, prints, videos and sculpture are held in private collections and museums throughout the world. He is represented by the Paula Cooper Gallery in New York City.

Each summer Wilson hosts students and professional artists from around the world at the International Summer Arts Program at the Watermill Center in eastern Long Island, an interdisciplinary performance laboratory. In July of 2006, the Watermill Center dedicated a brand new building on its grounds, including rehearsal spaces, dormitories and residences, and inaugurated a year-round programming schedule.

About Pomegranate Arts

Pomegranate Arts is an independent production company based in New York City dedicated to the development of international contemporary performing arts projects. Since its inception, Pomegranate Arts has conceived, produced, or represented projects by Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, London’s Improbable Theatre, Sankai Juku, Dan Zanes, Goran Bregovic, Lucinda Childs and Virginia Rodrigues. Special projects include Dracula: The Music And Film with Philip Glass and the Kronos Quartet; Julian Crouch and Phelim McDermott’s Shockheaded Peter featuring the Tiger Lillies; Drama Desk Award winning Charlie Victor Romeo; Healing The Divide, A Concert for Peace and Reconciliation, including artists Anoushka Shankar and Tom Waits; Hal Willner’s Came So Far For Beauty, An Evening Of Leonard Cohen Songs; and the remounting of Lucinda Childs, Philip Glass and Sol LeWitt’s 1979 classic, DANCE.

After some days of having the competition online, beeing the first in the row and having left just 3 days to vote for us - the website has an error. WOHOO. That keeps the suspense quite high...

We hope this is gone by tomorrow and some followers will vote in the last minutes in order to help us being the one getting the support by the Fidor bank.

Nothing more to tell by now - you can become a fan on facebook if you wish

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rohrpost-der-Beginn-eines-wundervollen-Missverstandnisses/179850895361439?ref=ts

We'll keep you informed!

Regards,

Johanna mind_the_gut

So we are invited to show our dance production ROHRPOST (tube mail) at the TANZWOCHE DRESDEN (dance week Dresden) in April 2011. The piece is yet to be produced - but where does the budget comes from? We started a crowd funding deal last week. I'm gonna right about it, keep you updated.

If you wanna support us as well - below you'll find the instructions for the Fidor competition.

With great help from Thomas Dumke (TMA) and some more people, we gonna try out CROWD FUNDING. Something which is kind of new - well in Germany at least.

Two ways to do so. First step is a competition at the Fidor bank. Where supporters have to register, search for our project ("ROHRPOST") and click on the >thumbs up< button. If we get the most votings till December 15th, we get our first funding. Straight from the bank. Nice one.

Second one is a platform called startnext.de. As a so called starter you create a profile where you introduce your project to the public. Supporters have to register. Now they can decide rather they "just" become a fan of the project or they might wanna donate some money. Everyone who gives in money will receive a small gift as a thank you.
We had to set a deadline. Untill that day we have to manage to get the money (through the crowd) we said we need. If we manage that, Startnext will support us as well. If not, everyone who gave in some money will get it back. Also nice.

For now we started with step one - the Fidor competition. At the moment we're in the first row. Which is very nice, but the deadline here is December 15th and the rivals never rest...

Guidance thumbs up for „wersollsbekommen“ competition:
for the new dance production by Johanna Roggan & Rebekka Esther Böhme ROHRPOST (tube mail) we are going to try out CROWD FUNDING via STARTNEXT and a competition at the FIDOR bank. If you want to support us and a new way of cultural funding – take 10 minutes and follow our instructions.
ATTENTION. The website is in German. We tell you what to do, step by step.
You have just one vote! And it has to be done until December 15th 2010.

let's go:FIDOR BANK AG – to register for the competition go to:
https://banking.fidor.de/bonus?popup=registrationif
there is no small window opening: on the very top left side is a button >registrieren< click on that
Anrede* (Bitte auswählen) >> title (please select)
Vorname* >> name
Nachname* >> surname
Nick-Name* >> nickname
E-Mail-Adresse* >> e-mail address
Passwort* >> password
(there is a security advice for your password, it tells you how safe your chosen word is)
Passwort wiederholen* >> re enter password

below all that is a field for a small hook, click on it. With the hook you agree to the SBT.
Then click on the huge orange button >Jetzt anmelden!< register now!

Wait for the registration e-mail with the link to sign in.

“wersollbekommen“ competition:
the competition is quite important and possible just by registration at the FIDOR bank. In case we win the competition, it would be our first earning to produce our dance piece.

Go to https://banking.fidor.de/wersollsbekommen
and log in with your informations you just added during the registration process.
Scroll down. There is a silver-colored field called >Nutzersuche<. Type in “ ds-x.org“ and click on >suchen< (search). On the right side of the (German) text is a thumps up sign. Click on it. That's your vote for us.
You have just one vote! And it has to be done until December 15th 2010.

Thanks a lot!!!

And if you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us: mindthegut@googlemail.com

From Chris Elam, director of Misnomer Dance Theater and Founder of the Audience Engagement Platform for the Arts (AEP) www.aeplatform.org

Hi all,

Murphy, Jacqueline Shea, The People Never Stopped Dancing: Native American Modern Dance Histories. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 2007.

In The People Have Never Stopped Dancing, Jacqueline Shea Murphy explores the role Native American dance practices and ideologies played in the development of modern dance and choreography. Shea Murphy argues for a complex understanding of dance and representations of dance as legitimate historical documents and tools for gaining entry to and addressing Native American social, cultural, and political histories. Shea Murphy illustrates how Native American dance offers different representations of time, corporeality, (stage) performance, dance representation, causation, and ancestral relations in contrast to European epistemes. In this way, Shea Murphy argues that modern dance partly constituted itself against the Native American dancing body, and over its imagined disappearance and ideologies. Presenting a non-neutral, particular, and political understanding of dance, Shea Murphy links this ongoing process of “cultural exchange” and the varied shifts of dominant group ideology about Native dances to a continued active process of justifying colonialism and indigenous land loss in the name of European ownership. In so doing, Shea Murphy convincingly connects Althusserian revisions of ideology, that which “represents the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of existence,” while highlighting the (in)visibility of Native Dance as recuperative methods for Native American “theories” and “documents” as they have and continue to face acts of control and containment from state and cultural agents and apparatuses.

After a general overview of the text and conversation, Shea Murphy organizes her text into three disparate parts, “Restrictions, Regulations, Resiliences”, “Twentieth-Century Modern Dance”, and “Indigenous Choreographers Today”. Shea Murphy draws her data from a wide variety of sources, hegemonic to counter-hegemonic, governmental to popular, written to embodied signification, and anti-dance policies of the 19th century to contemporary participant-observation and interviews. Methodologically, Shea Murphy’s work is guided by two tenets: 1) to expand the narrow understanding of sources and archives that undergirds what she identifies as a colonizer’s arrogant process of “Playing Indian” (from DeLoria) and knowing the Other through representation (Shea Murphy self-identifies as non-Native American) 2) to take Native Dance as a valid source of knowledge and history in its own terms, without comparison to works otherwise canonized in Dance Studies. Although Shea Murphy states her valuing of artist intention, her interpretation of these documents seems to uncover many unintended significations and linkages to the political and spiritual historicity of oppression and racial struggle.

For example, Shea Murphy demonstrates that in culturally relative terms, Native Dance can be seen as different religious, social, recreational, story-telling and remembering practices embodied in personal and communal acts. By unearthing the rich archive of federal antidance policies dating back to 1882 and commentary dating years before this legislation, Shea Murphy shows how dance served to define Indianness in efforts of both containing threats to European, Christian ideologies about ‘proper’ documents, recording, spiritual, embodiment and economic practices. Over time, dominant rhetoric in legislation about Indian dance’s role shifted to accommodate contextual changes such that the purpose of authorizing and protecting white interests was perpetuated. In this sense, Native Dancing bodies was often (un)intentionally negotiated, defiant, underground, and/or rescripted to fit the needs of the agentive dancers and their communities.

Another important contribution Shea Murphy makes rests in framing Native Dance as a non-secular, non-Christian approach and worldview, not necessarily tied to the modern historical chronological mode of remembering the past. Such views account for Native Dance’s ability to create space or agency for Gods, spirits, and nonhuman forces. This rewrites previously privileged notions of agency (political) as dealt with in canonical race and ethnic studies texts. Additionally, Shea Murphy convincingly ties the increasing codification and management of Indianness, the efforts to denounce “fake” Indians and stage “real” “authentic” Indians, and contemporaneous movement theories to explore Delsartian and Native dancer’s notions of corporeality. Delsarte’s Christian-based theory sees individual bodily movement as the source of meaning, an expression of an emotional interiority/abstract, universal truth. The much criticized Delsartian attempt to codify a system of universal expression represented a shift from earlier Christian thought that claimed that the body could not effect change outside of itself, but also required isolation from communal action and turned away from story-telling as a main focus of bodily performance. By figuring movement as the “direct agent” of a soul, and dividing an individual’s inner “truth” of a soul from the act of interior expression externally, Delsartian notions set up the difficulty in audience’s interpretation of Native Dance as an act of communication to anything beyond the interior (i.e. kinship, spirits, nature) and the subsequent denouncement of such religiosity and “authenticity” claims of Native Dance and Indianness through institutions and popular culture (i.e. Buffalo Bill’s Wild West). The linkage in body theories genealogy between Delsarte, Native Dance, and Modern Dance forms the crucial nexus for Shea Murphy’s interventions on the many ways Native Dance was thought, embodied, and written into history.

Shea Murphy’s complex understanding of historic Native American dance choreographies and histories can inform the ways I think about Filipino dancing bodies in the U.S. Shea Murphy’s insights on different notions of time and space as represented in Native American dance and history (land loss/space available to dance) can open my definitions on contexts within which Filipinos dance. Also, Shea Murphy’s aversion of ethnographic pitfalls, paired historical and contemporary dance subject writing, and practical, particularist, political, non-neutral way of understanding dance as document/theory/tranformational/ancestral are useful models for my own investigations. Her notions of coembodiment (non-linear descent) and non-portrayal in dancing genealogy and performance provide disparate frameworks of dance from previous notions of propertied, owned, claimed, “acted” performance. Shea Murphy’s interpretation of Deloria’s argument on “Playing Indian” can be linked to Filipino studies scholar Alan Isaacs’ work on the boy scout narrative in Filipino American history and literature. Shea Murphy’s juxtaposition of early Christian and later Delsartian body ideologies versus Native Dance notions seem to parallel indigenous Filipino notions of ontology (loob/labas, an inner/outer dialectic) and power relations (utang na loob). Whereas Shea Murphy’s insight on Native Dance as historical and embodied document and personal transformational process, ancestral communication, and such all persuasively open up different comprehensions of the forces and powers of dance and different forms of agency for Native dancing bodies (historical, spiritual, political), the qualified power relations within Native Dance and how these Native power relations are theorized through such acts and documents seem like space that Shea Murphy’s analysis has room to grow. Additionally, because Shea Murphy’s investigation launches from questions of visibility (of ideological influence, of “absented” Indians, of Native American Dance in Modern Dance history) but importantly and repeatedly underscores the act of embodiment as a source of meaning, I wonder if the processes of racial formation for Native American dancers (and audiences of their representations) could be further complicated such that the performance of race is disrupted/buttressed/unaffected by the Native American concepts of time, spatiality, body, and movement. Perhaps it is because Shea Murphy’s text offers so many possibilities for imagining now-popular “worldviews” differently, it could influence a paradigmatic shift in the ways dance scholars think, write, and embody dance.

2010

About Bruno Listopad:

About DISJOINTEDARTS: