Missy | October 10, 2004
(Even though this is a dance post, I hope there’s something in here worth reading.)
Recently while watching a jazz dance class prior to my own workshop class, some of my fellow classmates and I were discussing our dislike for jazz dance (this coming from several people–including myself–who’ve been students of the form in the past). There’s something too stylized and at times soulless about it. Sure, there’s an element of crowd-please (see the pyrotechnics of street jazz, the visual appeal of a line of legs a’ kicking ala broadway-style, a sexiness of that which permeates music video, and especially the debonair charm of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly) but after awhile (and particularly after years of overuse) it becomes rather tiring. (And don’t get me wrong. I like Astaire, et al. And I love Bob Fosse. I mean, if I could do the Cell Block Tango even once in my life I’d die a happy girl. My point is, in lesser hands (er, feet), jazz dance can be pretty boring.)
I bought the special-edition DVD of West Side Story, in my mind the most brilliant musical and musical-turned-film ever made. Bernstein’s complicated & furious score and Sondheim’s alternately tender & frenetic lyrics with Robbins’ idiosyncratic & innovative choreography form a cohesive energy unmatched anywhere in musical theater. One thing I admire about Jerome Robbins is that I think he sought to overcome the conventionality of jazz dance, to give it meaning and more importantly, a real place. Perhaps it was his background in the ballet world (a rigorous and exact art, although rife with storytelling) that gave him freedom to experiment with dance that danced, without being too mimetic, while still conveying mood and plot.
I love this musical so very much, even if it is dated, and the dialogue a little goofy. (Bite me, ghost of Pauline Kael.)
I’ve been watching the behind-the-scenes featurette. I didn’t realize that Natalie Wood was not the only victim of vocal dubbing in the film–pretty much everyone suffered that fate. Naturally, that introduces problems such as 1) syncing issues, and 2) an occasional ill-match of the vocal inflection with the actors’ faces (though the film bests the stage version in a couple of ways–with the marvelous prologue scene and a change-up of some song orderings–”Cool” rightly appears after the knife fight).
Anyway. I know there are at least two biographies on Jerome Robbins in existence, so maybe I should go read one of ‘em.
Oh, and this morning’s rehearsal went well. I’m bruised (physically) and my foot hurts, and I have no idea whether my choreography has any sophistication. But we all start from somewhere. I’m using Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s “Even If Love” (or, “All These Vicious Dogs”, depending on which version you hear). There’s difficulty in using music so downtempo, because you have to fill voids without overpowering the quietness, and using music with vocals is tricky because you have to strike a balance between sight and sound without “acting out” the lyrics. There are two entities intertwined, not battling and not identical. If I didn’t have to worry so much about timing of steps with the music (even though much of the choreography does not follow any sort of set beat), I would have waited until much later in the process to join the two together.
And that’s the only update on that subject you’re getting out of me for now (because, quite frankly, it makes me feel very self-conscious).
On a completely unrelated note: Michael Sicinski makes me want to seek out Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, one of Park Chan-wook’s previous films prior to the not-as-pants-peeingly-violent-as-I-was-fearing Old Boy (one of my TIFF festival faves and one of Michael’s ambivalences). Go, read. I like how deftly he gets at the meat of a film. Also, I can see why he is an academic, and why I am not.
Category: Uncategorized |
Comments Off
Tags:
On a lark I decided I wanted to go up to New York and see the last weekend (not ’til November 5th) of 
