tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4481691725314537521.post2794328111109917476..comments2023-09-20T14:34:21.102+02:00Comments on Postcards from the Gods: Not “I”Andrew Haydonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05568061302451610140noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4481691725314537521.post-25542302668507088522007-12-05T01:15:00.000+01:002007-12-05T01:15:00.000+01:00La TEMPESTAD, Arts MagazineAndrew,I want to get in...La TEMPESTAD, Arts Magazine<BR/><BR/>Andrew,<BR/>I want to get in touch with you, by e-mail or msn. I work as an editor for a mexican art magazine and we are looking for someone to write a review on Needcompany´s Deconstruction.<BR/>My Info:<BR/>Oscar Benassini<BR/>www.latempestad.com.mx<BR/>benassinioscar@gmail.com<BR/>oscarbenassini@hotmail.com<BR/><BR/>Thanks.Oscarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11456863862214381888noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4481691725314537521.post-61394489410485212912007-11-28T18:58:00.000+01:002007-11-28T18:58:00.000+01:00Since you asked for pointers for “understanding” c...Since you asked for pointers for “understanding” contemporary dance here are some. I would like to remind the performance “The Tip of the Tongue” by Plasma – Project 8 (Switzerland). Especially the very beginning when little robot brought the sigh saying “Relax, there is nothing to understand”. In my opinion it is very often the case when we talk about contemporary dance. Of course choreographers usually have in mind what they want to say, but it is not always things that could be verbalized without difficulties (in a way that’s way they create dance not theatre performances). Things that are said here are more relevant to so called “pure” dance. But there is physical dance, dance theatre, etc. The thing is that words “contemporary dance” cover huge range of forms and styles, that sometimes can be called theatre, sometimes even opera. Yes it is quite hard to comprehend or decode dance performances with “theatrical” mind. I am not just saying that, I was there few years ago. When I started my communication with this form of art my teacher told me: “you will learn to understand it only by watching”. Now, after 4 years I can say that she was perfectly right; it is the best way to understand it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4481691725314537521.post-6461485453907500572007-11-28T18:50:00.000+01:002007-11-28T18:50:00.000+01:00go and see henri oguike when they next go to londo...go and see henri oguike when they next go to london: 12-13th march at the queen elizabeth hall. i'm not just saying that because my friend is in the company and i know him, he is really worth catching: http://www.henrioguikedance.co.uk/<BR/><BR/>i'm awfully glad you've ventured into the world of dance, andrew. and yes, it is difficult to write about, particularly with contemporary. you could say the difference between reviewing ballet and avant-garde contemporary is similar to the difference between previously performed scripted plays and new devised work (there is plenty of repertoired contemporary, so i'm trying to be careful with my wording here) and yet you manage to discuss divised work, so why not this?<BR/><BR/>i think it's just one of those things that takes time to get 'into' and obviously watching it in bucketloads helps.<BR/><BR/>i know it's more mainstream than you like, but you know who to ask for free roh (standing) tickets don't you?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4481691725314537521.post-36186131073228467022007-11-28T13:45:00.000+01:002007-11-28T13:45:00.000+01:00Do salamanders shed their skin, then? Well I never...Do salamanders shed their skin, then? Well I never.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4481691725314537521.post-38443653662992332342007-11-28T01:03:00.000+01:002007-11-28T01:03:00.000+01:00I have to echo ott karulin, A beautifully humble, ...I have to echo ott karulin, <BR/><BR/>A beautifully humble, honest piece Andrew. <BR/><BR/>I came to theatre late - when we first met at NSDF in 2003 I had read fewer plays than I had fingers and seen fewer even less. I came to this alien medium with, as Alison's header always reminds me, a 'monstrous hunger' - devouring everything I heard about. Reading reviews in the paper and sitting in the theatre department of James Thin in Edinburgh reading the play afterwards. In part I think this was a hunger to <I>know</I> theatre; to know what I was talking about, essentially. But fundamentally it was a desire to understand. <BR/><BR/>However, I often found this a futile and depressing way of going. The real revalation was not reaching some point of (excuse the pun) critical mass, where suddenly my opinions became valid - where I had learnt the language. It was the point at which I had read enough that I had the confidence to <I>trust my own judgement</I>. As much trusting myself to like something that others don't as trusting myself to dislike something that others admired. <BR/><BR/>For this there isn't any necessary frame of reference, the important thing is having <I>a</I> frame of reference. Reading a book, or a theorist, or watching a film or listening to a song has always been as important as another piece of theatre. I think you saw my recent article suggesting that perhaps the best frame of reference for theatre is one which comes to it through a need rather than experience. I think the same can be true in criticism.<BR/><BR/>And as regards missing signs, that's absolutely your prerogative. A piece of theatre is not communication in the limited sense suggested by the idea of an audience reading the artist through translating his signs. Theatre is a dialogue, a conflict, a romance, a challenge. The audience always brings as much to it as the artist, finding their own signs and their own meanings. <BR/><BR/>This isn't rampant subjectivity. It's the kind of informed dialogue that the world should be built upon.Andrew Fieldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00837535447180621963noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4481691725314537521.post-37854460277450833942007-11-27T22:38:00.000+01:002007-11-27T22:38:00.000+01:00Sorry, stuffed the link.Heh. We have some very exc...Sorry, stuffed the link.<BR/><BR/>Heh. We have some very excellent contemporary choregraphers in Melbourne (Lucy Guerin, qwhom I'm seeing tonight, and Gideon Obarzanek) and I am fascinated by what they're doing, and am trying to educate myself. But I too feel quite at sea with dance: I know very little about its traditions and history and conventions. I tend to write about them as theatre. I figure the only way to learn how to write about it is to keep going.<BR/><BR/>On the other hand, I've never been ashamed of being ignorant. The important thing is to pay attention. Or so I reckon. You might be interested in this <A HREF="http://www.alisoncroggon.com/poetry/prynne.html" REL="nofollow">essay I wrote about Prynne</A>.Alison Croggonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08398213223487458758noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4481691725314537521.post-11080723102929805712007-11-27T19:13:00.000+01:002007-11-27T19:13:00.000+01:00Sorry, I just could not resist to comment as there...Sorry, I just could not resist to comment as there are many things to say (as the piece itself is rather long - again). Here it goes:<BR/><BR/>a. You have demolished my belief that London theater scene is something extraordinary. Thank you. Reading your and other blogs I realize that I have been right preferring international festivals for a week in London.<BR/><BR/>b. Your insecurity in experiencing dance performance is just plain cute and the emotion you wrote to this article probably one of the most honest in this blog. But remember how confused you felt seeing your first theater performances and just ten years later you claim to know where you stand in it. That gives hope. And I join you in that insecurity.<BR/><BR/>c. As for noticing the signs. Yes, a critic should be able to do that. But sometimes we fail. Watching a performance more than once and doing some homework helps to prevent that, of course, but never entirely and that should not always be a sign of wrong choice of occupation: there are more than one possibilities to experience and understand a performance and not all signs need to be decoded all the time. Though it would help. At least that is how I was taught at school.<BR/><BR/>d. As someone who has always had as much space to write about theater as one needed, I find it rather refreshing to write very short reviews and plan to do just that in my blog. It forces me to say only the most important and to make decisions - things you tend to avoid when there is no length restriction.<BR/><BR/>I will shut up now.Ott Karulinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04534356138607483721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4481691725314537521.post-68919853184335040922007-11-27T18:46:00.000+01:002007-11-27T18:46:00.000+01:00Coming soon on "PFTG":"Waves", Reconsidered!Coming soon on "PFTG":<BR/><BR/>"Waves", Reconsidered!Tom Wateracrehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01395169053115444247noreply@blogger.com