politics of dancing

and then there's this

Suddenly, dance can be an open forum again, with the versatility to accommodate politics, dissent and protest. "Art can and does do whatever it wants to do," says Jones."Not what connoisseurs would like it to do. That is the lifeblood of art. Art breaks rules, even rules of what is considered most beautiful." For many choreographers, it is precisely the unruly, undancerly political aspects that appeal. "Dance excluded all the life concerns I was interested in: religion, politics, sexuality, psychology, class," says Lloyd Newson, director of DV8. "The people who come to work with us don't want to just keep dancing for the sake of it. They want to keep thinking."

Clear, articulate, thoughtful, with historical context. And space to write it in.

a war on reason

One of the things that occurred to me the other night is how we’ve not gone into some of the more contentious issues around the perversion of language – this may be a way of “escalating” our rhetoric in the piece (see this blog: http://unspeak.net/). The use of phrases like War on Terror – can we have, say, a War on Anxiety? Or a War on Complacency? What would be the weapons in those wars?

Q&A

Q: What is your inspiration for this project?
A: Hockey, language, and late night television. Orwell. Awards shows. Poorly-written press releases. Platitudes and power. Brad Pitt.

Q: Can you describe how this piece is being developed?
A: It is a lengthy process, but we'll get there in the end.

Q: What can the audience expect?
A: Tokens of our appreciation. It's important to recognize everyone's contribution.
It's a lot like watching the hockey playoffs - you all have to cheer the team on.

Q: Is it dance or physical theatre?
A: We'd say you can't really categorize it. Six of one, half-a-dozen of the other?

take 1, take 2

a couple of different takes on the poster - obviously not with these pics but with images just as blah and ironic... just to get the discussion ball rolling.

Uta will come and do some photos of us sometime soon.