Public movement

Stormy's presentation in class on Monday was very thoughtful and gave us a lot of ideas to grapple with. What is natural movement? What is performance? Is what's "natural" in one setting or at one time still "natural" at another? What is the role of other people? The unsuspecting stranger who is present at the dance; the one holding the camera and recording? And many more questions arise, including, when and where can we see her dance some more?

An article in the New York Times' Arts Beat column today adds a couple more voices to the conversation (you can read the full article here, and an earlier article here).

The article is a mini-interview about the 71-minute film by Jacob Krupnik and dancer Anne Marsen, which follows her dancing through her day, through the city.

I didn't hear about Marsen when her video, Girl Walk // All Day, was a viral hit earlier this year. But I will be watching the film as the chapters become available on their website—or possibly at the premiere on Thursday

night at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple (info on this is available on the website).

This is the earlier, short video:

Girl Walk // All Day from jacob krupnick on Vimeo.

I hadn't thought about it when we were talking about public dancing in class, but seeing this video jogged an old memory loose. Back in 1985 when I was a choreographer at Hunter College, I was living on Staten Island. I used to work on my choreography on the ferry sometimes. I didn't dance full-out, with abandon, as we saw Stormy do in the video clips from the museums, or as Marsen does in her video. And for me at that time, I thought of the pieces that I was creating as belonging on a stage with lights, costumes, and an audience. Dancing on the ferry was usually more of a means to an end than an end itself. But I do recall enjoying watching the reactions (and, sometimes, the pointed lack thereof) from the other commuters.

And on the subject of dancing in museums...

Check out this blog post from John Towsen.

He and I attended a program in which students from the École Jacques Lecoq performed movement pieces in several rooms at the Louvre, related to the artwork surrounding them.

This is a very different type of public dancing or movement performance, with groups and choreographed work, rather than an individual responding directly and spontaneously to a visual artwork. I don't think I, for one, would confuse this with natural movement in terms of something organically arising and spontaneously expressed. It is following on a tangent, but the idea of dancing in a "non-dance" space, in response to one's surroundings, loosely follows the theme.

Another example of public movement in context is found with parkour traceurs; their movement is usually improvisatory and spontaneously responsive to the environment, whether it's a country field (not too interesting in this context) or an urban street. Interaction with ramps, buildings, fences, stairs, anything that challenges the straight-line approach to movement from point A to point B and makes it a three-dimensional kinetic song rather than a monotone hum.

You can find tons of videos online, and this excellent post, also on John Towsen's blog, which includes info on the history of the form, videos, and links to more.