omgelladonovanposts

[omgelladonovanposts]

words from the wise

hearing Raph talk really emphasized for me the transient, living, and ever morphing nature of hip hop. The readings and RIZE touched on this as well. How hip hop is constantly evolving and changing and in the streets not practicing for even two days can make you outdated in terms of what moves are new and relevant. I think this is really unique to hip hop, and isn’t necessarily the same with ballet or modern, where changes are gradual and often take years, not days to occur. This to me, really speaks of hip hop as a form of communication and expression, adapting and changing to meet the expressive needs of the people who are performing and practicing it. 

i also thought his discussion of what hip hop is and isnt was very interesting and what intrigued me most was the idea that hip is built upon the foundation of so many other, older dances that continually morphed, changed, and were added to and were directly related to the music that they were dance to. this also speaks to the evolving and changing nature of hip hop that reacts to and responds to the current social situation. Also related, is the codification of of hip hop as a style and whether or not that is authentic. hip hop on the stage has codified elements, as does hip hop on the streets, and Raph argues that to move forward, hip hop must be codified so that there is a universally understood language with which to communicate. 

[omgelladonovanposts]

The man, Rennie

I thought the archeology of Rennie Harris article was genius. The person that wrote it is brilliant, and I want to have coffee with him. The first time I ever heard of Rennie Harris was this past summer at Cleo Parker Robinson Dance. Cleo and Rennie have a close relationship, and one of the summer guest artists, Brandon “Peace” Albright had worked and studied with him. After learning about him in that context, it was clear that he is an absolutely essential dance icon.. funny that I’ve never heard of him before... hmmm. 

I’m super interested in several aspects of Harris’ life and work, first and foremost his emphasis on peace. One of my biggest points of contention in understanding hip hop is the culture of violence that naturally accompanies it, considering its roots in the street culture of ghettos where poverty and violence are inextricable parts of life. Harris notes, that because he grew up in the hip hop culture and can as such claim it as his own culture, he feels comfortable refuting the violence in it. In the article it states that he is tired of the violent connotations in much of hip hop, and in his own work aims to focus more on peace and healing. I don’t necessarily feel that I am equipped to comment much further on this topic, as I don’t feel I can responsibly claim hip hop culture as my own, however I do know that the world needs more leaders in peace and healing and that dance is the perfect medium through which to express and promote those ideals, and well as to process and illuminate the harder and more brutal aspects of life, including violence, without promoting violence. 

I am also extremely interested in Harris’ process of putting a street dance form on the concert stage. I went down a deep Harris Youtube rabbit hole yesterday and watched excerpts of a lot of his works. I think he’s brilliant. He talked in the article in length about his emphasis on creating community on the stage. The article states that often, when people view concert, they think the communal element is gone because it is on a stage, but in hip hop community is absolutely essential.  In Harris’ work, he relies on improvisation to keep his work alive even in the codified format of a concert setting. This added component of immediacy inherently creates community, as the dancers have to be tapped into one another on a deeper level than normally required of concert work in order to respond to one another in the moment. Additionally, Rennie talks about how in the structure of the cypher, everyone is judged on their own individual solo and how successfully they execute each aspect, ie top rock, six step, flares, freeze, etc. This is part of the battle mentality, creating an environment of competition - BUT Harris also notes that it is the total communal energy created through the individual expression of each person that is of final importance, that is what the audience is ultimately judging. In other words, how can each persons individuality contribute to the overall communal energy to create a sum great than all its parts. 

Also... on the super interesting question of what could be considered a ballet, can Harris work be considered a ballet? I think in some aspects yes. It has the long involved plots, the narrative, the specific characters, the social themes and messages... so in that, yes. However!! and this is a big however, calling something a ballet inherently asserts ballet as the gold standard. The fact that we have to compare all other forms to ballet implies that ballet is some sort of objective, unquestionable standard to which everything else can be related and compared, and I don’t think thats the case. I think we need to move away from the ballet dominated world and start considering other options. 

[omgelladonovanposts]

You wanna fight, bro?

Hip hop yayyyyy im so excited to be on this section. I don’t know much about hip hop but I am super interested to learn more. Of all of the new things I learned in these readings, what struck me most was the emphasis, which was touched on it all the readings to different degrees, about the culture that accompanies hip hip. Unlike a lot of the dance forms I am familiar with (ballet, modern, jazz) the movement of hip hop is but one part of a something much bigger and more encompassing and that fascinates me. In ballet and modern, though there are of course political and social contexts that accompany them, the movement itself feels very separated and isolated from other aspects of life. It lives in a liminal space and doesn't coexist organically with the daily proceedings of life. Hip hop however, as an art that started in the streets, emerged inextricably linked to music, graffiti, and social structures defined by street culture. The part of the culture in which I am particularly interested has to do with interpersonal relationships and the ways in which the dancers relate to one another within movement. For instance, the reading talking about the importance of bragging, boasting, and generally approaching one’s opponent in a cypher with a competitive attitude. All of this is part of the “battle” mentality, with the dance seen as a battle to be won. This makes sense in the context of hip hop’s origins, growing out of Ghettos in New York where violence permeated many facets of street life and culture. 

One of the reasons this aspect fascinates me particularly is because of my own personal relationship with hip hop. Before coming to Ball State my knowledge of and exposure to hip hop was limited, however I always found my self thinking, “I am not angry or competitive enough to do hip hop.” I am by nature very laid back and hardly have a competitive bone in body, which makes the battle like nature and competitiveness of hip hop hard for me to relate to. I of course know that part of this is due to my privileged upbringing, but it makes me wonder about the values of collaboration versus competition. To me, collaborating with someone to together create a fabulous dance, or sequence, or what have you, is infinitely more appealing that competing with someone to see who is the best. However, I also understand that hip hop must be considered inside of its cultural context and I feel unable to speak to that from an informed standpoint just yet. 

[omgelladonovanposts]

dance on paper and what is improv

movement notation is a really interesting concept because it is an attempt to transform an ephemeral, three-dimensional art into a static, 2-dimensional form. as we all know, this isn't possible, but people still try for the benefit of preserving and being able to pass down choreography. for me this begs the question of the body as a site of knowledge. Because dance is a physical form, existing in the body it makes sense that its transmission and teaching should occur through the body, like how traditional dances are passed down through generations and how children in traditional cultures are brought up in movement practice. By writing down and committing to paper dance steps aren't we missing the spirit of dance? Something much more grand and elusive than paper can hold. However, by the same notion, i see the value in notation, especially before the advent of other technologies. It is not always possible to teach dances person to person so perhaps notation can add in the preservation and sharing of dance, which i do believe is important! That being said, no notation system is capable of recording the nuances dance requires, especially because so much of what makes dance a captivating art form, comes from the soul, and you cant capture the soul.  

In regards to Gaga and the conversation surrounding the definition of a “technique” I’m interested in what that means for improvisation. IN class there were many different opinions, some regarding improv as a technique and others not. I think that whether or not improv can be defined as a technique depends on how it is approached and practiced. There are ways to approach improv casually and fragmentally so that is would not be considered a technique, however, if approached systematically I think that it can constitute a technique, one including the mind as much as the body. learning different ways to think about movement and the body is as much of a technique as an actual physical practice, and applying this to a regular movement practice even more so. 

[omgelladonovanposts]

sorry not sorry

[omgelladonovanposts]

Romantic no more

Las Noces tells the story of a wedding and a death, but not of two different events, one and the same. In Las Noces, the wedding is the death, that of the bride. In a show of honesty very surprising for the time, the ballet tells of a wedding that is equivalent to a death sentence due to the treatment of a wife in a marriage and her loss of autonomy - bodily and otherwise. This ballet stands out from others we have looked at stylistically, narratively, and musically. Most obviously, the steps are not those of a classical ballet. While many of the elements remain including pointe shoes, jumps, turned out positions of the legs and fairly traditional port de bras, there is also work in parallel positions, an absence of classical turns and leaps, and the carriage of the body in general is less lofty and graceful and proud and more sullen and earthbound. Most notably, the movement is genderless - that is - men and women perform the same movement for much of the ballet. additionally, there is no pa de duex, and the lead male and female interact very little, their duet at the send simple, and characterized mainly by a repeated gesture of the mans arm in an upwardly thrusting first, a rather potently phallic symbol. Overall, this ballet departs from the imaginative and ethereal plots of romantic ballet and even further from the traditional male female roles that dominate the stage. And why? Well, the choreographer was a WOMAN, so for once, we get to see what life represented through art looks like to someone other than a rich white guy. 

[omgelladonovanposts]

“you’re only useful if you’re a virgin” and other lies men teach us

[omgelladonovanposts]

Classical Shmasical

[omgelladonovanposts]

I am woman, watch me be an ethereal object of male desire

[omgelladonovanposts]

wack attack

[omgelladonovanposts]

blog post 1

[omgelladonovanposts]

turn -UP

[omgelladonovanposts]

hey yo welcome to my blog. Two days down only 116 to go till graduation. i like dance. i dont like muncie. bridget is my bff. but she is sooo lame cuz she doesnt want to go to mug club.