Stop Dragging My Heart Around.

2010-03-12T03:39:00.000-08:00

As depressing as the title of this entry sounds, I am doing well. I am wearing a pair of boy jeans (nice and loose and cozy), which reminds me of a certain friend of mine. This particular friend of mine reminded me of a Cougar Town episode, with the same title as my post.
In this episode, the main character, Jules, talks about how her neighbor, Grayson, is her "someday guy". The someday guy (or gal) is the person that you can see yourself with in five, ten, fifteen years. The person that you look at and think "I could really see myself making a life with you". I was really pleased to see that I was not the first person to have that feeling, and as silly as my guilty pleasure tv show is, it is great that they bring in great thoughts like this one. It made me smile. So think about your someday guy or gal and I hope it makes you smile.

Bruno Beltrão/Grupo de Rua Review

2010-02-06T13:56:00.000-08:00

photo borrowed from Seattle Magazine

I obtained some last-minute tickets to this week's sold-out debut of H3 by Grupo de Rua in Portland. This is the group's first US tour. The choreographer is Brazilian Bruno Beltrão, whose hip-hop and street dance fusion style of dance is not what I usually take myself out to see. I was feeling adventurous, and I trusted the group that brought them to Portland (White Bird's) judgement. The cheap, last minute tickets helped convince me too. This performance was part of the White Bird "Uncaged" series, where they brought in contemporary artists from around the world to non-traditional spaces around Portland.
The performance was in the Bison Building in NE Portland. The old, converted warehouse was a great space for this unusual piece. My friend and I chose front row seats, so we were only ten feet away from the floor-level stage. I could see the sweat dripping off of a dancer's nose at one point, and all of their breathing and movement sounds were that much louder, which really enhanced the experience. Keeping in mind that I spent ten years of my childhood dancing classical ballet, and am also a theatre nerd, here are a few things that really struck me about the performance:

Use of lighting: The simplicity of the space and focus on movement was enhanced by the minimalistic use of lighting. There were very few colored lights, which were used for a short period of the 50 minute performance. Most of the lighting came from white lights above and on light trees at the sides of the simple stage. There was also a light cord around the stage that was at one point the only light source. At another point in the show, one of the dancers brought one of the light trees on stage and was moving it around while others were dancing. Several times in the show, the illumination was partial, with only a few low-set lights on the light tree showing only parts of the dancers.

Use of music and sound: The first half of the show was done either with no additional sound or with a street-sound soundtrack running through it. This gave a very raw feel to the energy of the dancing, and also helped emphasize the sounds of the dancers. The second part of the show had some music which enhanced the particular sections of the performance very well. A particularly intense section had sounds that startled the entire audience, almost as if they were mimicking a gunshot.

Contrast between rage and awkwardness and sudden movements with control and grace and flow: As a dancer, I notice things that perhaps the normal concert-goer may not. I was not sure what to expect from this performance, I had never seen a professional hip-hop group, and I had no idea what kind of street dance came from Rio De Janeiro. What struck me was the fact that many of the movements that the dancers were doing were not what I was used to seeing on a stage. They seemed jerky, and awkward at times. Watching more closely, however, I could see how much control was put into the unusual movements. Each fall and each hesitation was very clearly controlled and planned. Even just listening to the landings of the dancers, I could tell that they were purposeful, despite how odd the angles were, and how fast some of the dancers landed. In the second half of the show, there were a lot of movements that I felt carried a lot of rage, but were simultaneously controlled and graceful. It was terrifying to watch the dancers dance through what seemed like a fight scene.

Amazing sense of body and space: There were moments when I was afraid the dancers would run into each other. The amount of energy that they had on a fairly small stage was amazing. At one point, two dancers were dancing in unison, with no music, and with their backs to each other. This shows, of course, the use of their feet and breath as indicators to the other dancer. But the fact that they could come so close and interact almost like a mirror was astounding. Fellow theatre kids may recall a partner game where neither leads, but you must act like each other's mirror. When they did this with dance on the stage it was breathtaking. The intricate movements that they mimicked, and the way they interacted also reminded me of another theatre game, machine. Where the movements of one person trigger the movements of another. Even with only two dancers, the coordination of movement was amazing. Another example would be the segments that included some or all of the dancers running backwards in circles together on stage, coming close but never running into one another. Simply the sound of feet moving so quickly and the suspense and worry that the dancers would collide made my heartbeat quicken. The third example, and probably the one that impressed me the most, was the cases where dancers would run at each other from across the stage, leap, and in mid-air interact, and then continue in their own direction. They grabbed each other by the waist, clapped hands, etc.

Body language: This falls under the bizarre but controlled movement category, but I found it especially striking. The rooster-like head movements, and some that made me think of angry horses, or gorillas ready to fight were very impressive. They contributed to the raw feeling that I felt throughout the show. It was so alive and so honest but simultaneously it was flawlessly choreographed and executed with so much control and strength.

Each dancer had their own forte that was very visibly used within the piece, which I find is unfortunately underused in many parts of the dance world. The fact that each dancer had his own niche in the machine of this show spoke wonders both about the choreography and the way the troupe works as a whole. Overall, I was very pleasantly surprised to find an amazing dance piece that absolutely blew my mind both for artistic and physical reasons. If you get the chance, I highly suggest seeing them, especially if you have history with dance or theatre, this piece is very captivating.

The Inevitable Food Post

2008-08-09T13:29:00.000-07:00

I knew I'd have to post food one of these days! It's just part of being vegan, I think. After laying in bed for 2 hours after I woke up today, I decided to make "breakfast". Banana pancakes with chocolate-banana chocolate sauce with crushed hazelnuts on top and strawberries on the side. The banana craze is due mostly to the fact that there were very cheap organic bananas at the produce place I go to. A friend of mine got birthday banana-bread for this same reason!

Anyway. The banana pancakes I altered (of course... when do I ever follow a recipe?) from this http://www.vegfamily.com/vegan-recipes/entrees/brainless-banana-pancakes.htm recipe that I found online. I used maple syrup as a sweetener, and added vanilla extract and cinnamon. The chocolate sauce was 1/4 cup of soymilk, heated up plus half a Chocolove 70% dark chocolate bar (melted, of course), mashed in half a banana, added some vanilla extract, and some maple syrup. Yumm.

That's all for today :)

Adventures, Food, and Thoughts.

Stop Dragging My Heart Around.

Bruno Beltrão/Grupo de Rua Review

The Inevitable Food Post