Taylor 2 Dance Company - Review

On Thursday, March 27th, 2008 at 8pm, I attended a performance by Taylor 2, the sister company of Paul Taylor Dance Company, at the Miller Center for the Arts located on the campus of Reading Area Community College in Reading, PA. This was the final performance of this beautiful new center’s debut season. For those of who may not know, Paul Taylor Dance Company is a world class modern dance company, and Mr. Taylor is considered by some to be the greatest living choreographer. Taylor 2 consists of 6 talented young dancers, 3 male (Justin Kahan, John Eirich, and Nic Ceynowa) and 3 female (Alison Cook, Jamie Rae Walker, and Latra Wilson) who performed 3 classic Taylor pieces: Arden Court, Runes, and Company B.

The show opened with Arden Court an upbeat and light piece easily appreciated by the audience. The dancers moved to excerpts from Symphonies Nos. 1,3,5,7,8 by William Boyce. I was extremely impressed with the dynamic grace of the male dancers as moved about the stage. The choreography illustrated a series of playful relationships between the dancers that kept the crowd entertained from start to finish.

Runes was dark in every sense of the word, a sharp contrast to Arden Court, its content dealt with the concepts of magic, ritual sacrifice, and evolution. This piece had movements that were harsh and grounded, again contrasting the flowing airiness of the first piece. This piece required the active thought of audience members to decipher its message. I believe, as I mentioned in “Selling the Underground", that presenting artistic products that require thought reduce their mass appeal. This simply means that fewer people will be able to appreciate the depth of the work. I personally had mixed feelings about this piece, but I spoke with the Cathleen Stephen, Director of the Miller Center, and she told me that Runes was her favorite of the three pieces presented that evening.

The night ended with Company B, a work expressing the sentiments of Americans during World War II with music by the Andrews Sisters. The themes celebration and sadness during wartime are relatively universal, and are especially relevant to America in the 21st century. The most moving number was “There Will Never Be Another You” in which a couple grows increasing further apart until the male departs to join of marching procession upstage, leaving his female counterpart collapsed to her knees and staring off in anguish. It literally gave me goose bumps. Company B was my favorite piece of the evening and I felt it was an excellent way to end the night.

If any of you are interested in seeing Paul Taylor Dance Company or Taylor 2 they are currently touring Pennsylvania as part of the NEA’s “American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius” initiative. I will also be attending two performances (April 11th & 12th at 8pm) at the Rose Lehrman Arts Center located on the campus of Harrisburg Area Community College in Harrisburg, PA. For more information on these upcoming events or to purchase tickets go to the RLAC website: http://www.hacc.edu/rose

Links Related to this blog:
Miller Center for the Arts: http://www.racc.edu/millercenter/index.html
Paul Taylor Dance Company: http://www.ptdc.org/
Rose Lehrman Arts Center: http://www.hacc.edu/rose/

The Paradox of Internet Communication

Technology allows us to communicate with people around the world, yet it is isolating us from one another. The internet is a powerful tool, able to bring the world directly to us. Because we can now experience the world in a virtual form, we have become less likely to venture out into the real world. Detachment is becoming a way of life.

I, for one, am tired of having my most meaningful conversations with a computer. Text based communication has become increasingly pervasive and is eroding our ability to interact face to face. I have personally witnessed an instant message sent between roommates while they were in the same apartment; People sitting next to each other in the back seat of a car conversing via text message. I acknowledge that people are still communicating, possibly more so than in the past, but their method of communication is causing social skills to atrophy. This has been exacerbated by the use of social networking sites; to make new friends one must simply click a button. I suppose that this level of attachment shields us from the pain of rejection, but it also diminishes the positive emotions associated with friendship.

I implore you… GO OUT AND TALK TO SOMEONE! Sit down and have a conversation. I promise that you will experience something that you can’t get sitting in front of a computer screen. REAL HUMAN CONTACT.

I am well aware of the irony of using a blog to lament the digitization of humanity. In an attempt to absolve myself from complete hypocrisy, I’ve decide to draft this blog in a diner. I even went so far as to have 2 girls in the booth next to me read over my draft. They approved. I close by reminding you, we may live in a digital world but it is still populated by humans.

NYC Pictures

My friend Rachel finally uploaded the pictures from our trip to NYC last week. The first two pictures are of her at the Museum of Natural History. The last 4 are pictures of us at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I hope you find them interesting.

Stay tuned...

One down... Two to go

I’ve been accepted to Carnegie Mellon Master of Arts Management program and they are offering me a scholarship of $13,000 per semester (renewable as long as I keep my grades high). I’m excited to have been accepted and shocked that they are offering me so much support money. They have an amazing program, probably the most academically intensive arts administration program in the country. The only negative is the location, Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh has a very strong arts community, but I was kind of looking forward to studying in New York City. I suppose that I could still do my internship with a dance company in New York City but that may not be worth the effort, because Pittsburgh have several dance companies that tour extensively. Carnegie Mellon is one of the top universities in the country and they are offering me a lot of aid money to go there.

I still have two programs to hear back from, so I will reserve my decision until I’ve heard from them all. In the meantime, let me know what you would do in this situation.

I still don’t have the pictures from the NY trip, but I will try to post them soon.

Stay tuned….

Columbia Interview and NYC Trip

I had my interview at Columbia yesterday. It went alright but I'm not sure how to feel about it. I have 3-4 weeks to wait before I find out if I've been accepted. At least the process is over and now all that is left is to wait for letters from the schools I applied to. I should be hearing from NYU and Carnegie Mellon within the next couple weeks.

I spent the day in New York with my friend Rachel and we went all over Manhattan. After my interview we took the train downtown to Lincoln Center. We didn't spend any time there because there was a lot of construction. We then walked up to the American Museum of Natural History. It was interesting, but my contacts were bothering me so I had a hard time enjoying it. After a few hours at the natural history museum, we walked across Central Park to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. That museum was amazing. We only had an hour and a half because the museum was closing. We didn't have enough time to see the whole museum. We finished the day with dinner at Vegetarian Paradise 2, a vegetarian restaurant on W 4th Street. The food there was amazing. I had the Mango "Chicken" and I highly recommend it if you ever go there.

That is all for now. I'll post pictures from the trip on Sunday.

Stay tuned...

Selling the Underground

I’ve been contemplating the commercialization of underground cultural movements, and how their essence is lost in translation when they are adapted to fit the conventions of mass appeal. Although this process will affect various elements of a given subculture, my thoughts have focused on artistic movements, specifically dance. I have been b-boying (b-boying is the real name of the dance form commonly known as break dancing) for the past nine years and I would like to share my observations regarding the differences between the true art form and its commercial counterpart.

B-boying is an art form centered on foundational dance steps while relying heavily on improvisational choreography: a breaker must be both a dancer and a choreographer. Breakers must be ever ready to adjust their movements to accommodate the ever changing beats of a DJ. I’d like to take this time to clear up a common misconception. It is called breaking because it is generally done to the break beat of a song, not because you break your body when you do it. Like any other dance, breaking is about the dancer’s connection with the music. Street dance culture celebrates music, movement, and originality but these important features are neglected when we it represented in mass media.

The recent trend in Hollywood films to portray the life and culture of street dancers (You Got Served, Step Up, etc.) fail to accurately represent the art form. I believe that the main factor in this inaccuracy is the fact that to assimilate a subculture into popular requires the removal of arcane but essential elements to gain mass appeal. This process creates a superficial representation that can be enjoyed by the masses because it requires little to no prior knowledge to appreciate. Street dancing in its commercialized form has fallen victim to this artistic sterilization.

The positive side of this commercialization has been the increase in paid performance engagements for street dancers, and I admit that I have personally benefited from it. However, although the performers themselves may have a strong knowledge of their art forms, you are still likely to see a slightly inauthentic show. People like to see dynamic movement and impressive feats, because dancers and choreographers this is the type of artistic product they create. If you want to make money you have to give the people what they want.

Commercialism has not destroyed the purity of this art form altogether. Many of these dancers dance for the love of their art, and attend peer judged competitions where their skill will be most appreciated. There are also specific night spots where these dancers frequent. The artistic integrity of this subculture still thrives in underground events that can be found throughout the world… If you know where to look.

I’ll let you in on a few spots that I’ve found to be haven of street dance:

The Gathering (Last Thursday of every month at the Rotunda 4014 Walnut St. Philadelphia, PA)
Modern (DC)
Shelter (NYC)

Ivy League?

For those of you who don’t already know, I’ve applied to three arts administration graduate programs: Columbia, NYU, and Carnegie Mellon. I have a graduate admissions interview at Columbia University in 9 days and I‘m a bit nervous. The outcome of this interview will change my life significantly so I’m sure you can understand my anxiety. I’m trying to prepare as thoroughly as possible. I’ve researched the program and the program director. I have two mock interviews scheduled for this week. I’ve gone over potential interview questions countless time. Basically, I’ve done everything I can think of so that I screw up my future because of a bad interview.

I’d like to ask anyone who reads this entry to give me whatever advice you think might be helpful to me. Possible interview questions? Stress relief tactics? Anything thing you can suggest would be very much appreciated.

I’d also like to ask for suggestions on places in NYC you think I should visit. I’m already planning on going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Natural History. I prefer arts related activities but I’m open to suggestions outside the arts.

I suppose that is all for now.

Stay Tuned…