the art of bodies in motion



Friday, December 26, 2014

IMPRESSIONS FROM FRANCE: Xavier Le Roy's "Sans Titre"

at Théâtre de la Cité International, Paris
as part of the Festival d'Automne
December 8-13, 2014

Xavier Le Roy has not made his new work Sans Titre for us, the audience. He has made it for himself, for the sheer pleasure he gets out of seeing how we respond as he breaks theatrical conventions and protocols. He does not seem to be interested in anything about his work except our reaction. In this regard, as a scientist conducting an experiment, he is very sincere… MORE


Photo © Jamie North.

Saturday, December 20, 2014

IMPRESSIONS FROM FRANCE - House of Hermès

Dance, Art, and a Fashion House Collaborate
"New Settings" presented in Paris at
Théâtre de la Cité internationale
November 3-15, 2014


“A business generating nothing but profits is poor indeed.” - Pierre Alexis Dumas, President of the Fondation d’entreprise Hermès

I went to see each of the five works that were funded this year by the Hermès Foundation's "New Settings" program. This program supports performance projects that bring visual and performing artists together in what we in the US would refer to as “a collaboration.” The aim is to expose these artists to new skills, to “spark a dialogue between their creative processes” and enable new forms to emerge. The criterion is excellence.

It is an interesting bit of not entirely useless information that the word “collaboration” is colored here in France with strongly negative memories of Nazi ‘cooperation’ during WWII. In all of the written material on New Settings there is not one reference to artistic collaboration, and yet, from a US-based English language perspective, this is what New Settings is all about: coming together as a team with diverse skills to explore and create new works and new forms… MORE (to read the article on New Settings, click here)



















I was astonished by the beauty of the feather saddle that was in the showroom window when I went in to interview Catherine Tsekenis, the Director of the fashion house's foundation.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Movement Journey

You are invited on a Movement Journey with Ann Moradian. Incorporating elements from yoga, dance, the martial arts and improvisation, we'll release old patterns, habits and ideas and meet and embrace the new.



10 January 2015, 14h-16h
Paris Yoga Shala (M° George V), 40€
9 rue Magellan, 75008 Paris
Registration requested, but drop-ins welcome.



Friday, November 28, 2014

Moving into Autumn

Ann Moradian is a series of photos by Alex Vanagas.
Moving into Autumn

Struck. Photo © Alex Vanagas.


Part of the Web. Photo © Alex Vanagas.


Calling the Sun. Photo © Alex Vanagas.


Monday, September 15, 2014

THE LIFE OF LIGHT AND SHADOWS

A Reflection on:
The Art of Dale Chihuly in the Denver Botanic Gardens
June 14 - November 30, 2014

THE LIFE OF LIGHT AND SHADOWS
© Text and photos by Ann Moradian. All rights reserved.



Strolling through the Denver Botanic Gardens in August at noon might not always be the best idea. The sun can be brutal and unforgiving. It often feels like the desert begins in your own back yard. But this year Colorado had rain, and I think we hit the gardens in the midst of the most glorious week possible. Everything was a-bloom and a-blossom.

Not even to mention the Chihuly Exhibit! A riot of blown glass of all colors poking out, weaving through, nesting, preening, sprouting, flaring, pulsing…








… shimmering. By the time we turned the first corner on the path, everyone we met was beaming with delight. You couldn't help but smile at the beauty and the whimsy.







We passed alongside proper corridors of cut grass, with large classical vases gushing little white flowers. Strange red and yellow lily pads floated on a dark pool of water, partly hiding the reflection of a towering nest of opaque pink glass.

There were crowds of people, but they seemed to disappear in the silent cacophony of flowers and leaves and sunlight. Just a gentle breeze now and then wafting through, with an occasional burst of laughter or chatter -- more like the sound of birds than people.






I found myself marveling at the fine artistry at work almost everywhere -- the color combinations, the embrace of each garden as we weaved through the shifting life and landscapes -- even our pathways.

The Japanese Garden is the only place that felt a bit staid (unlike Portland's Japanese Garden, which is the best I have seen so far in the US). But Chihuly went to work here as well, with dozens of floating pods reflecting quietly on the water's surface. Variations in blue that deepen and lighten according to the shifting sky.




I was fascinated, again and again, by the reflections. This was multiplied tenfold by Chihuly's installations: the interplay of the art with the garden, the flowers, the terrain, the color of the sky and the light bouncing off of or seeping into the glass, the shadows caressing or looming over the layers below...






...and above all (or below all) the images cast on and through the water. It was a feast for the soul, as the eyes tried to take in everything all at once: the most obvious and tangible first, then surface reflections and shadows… then the layer beneath the water… The wind would ripple across the water, and everything came alive in its own strange dance.

We came upon "Monet's Garden", a masterpiece of sky and water, glass and plant life. I can imagine sitting here days on end, simply watching the surface of the water change with the shifting sky.




The Greek myth says that Narcissus fell in love with his own image reflected in a pool of water, but for the first time I wonder if it might have been the sky floating by behind that entranced him so. As a new picture forms moment by moment, the flowers reach up to kiss the sky.




I have never seen this "Monet's Garden" before, but I can't imagine it without Chihuly's sumptuous green creations. Amidst his long blue tongues of glass (that move upward like storks) and purple rods (shooting skyward like pussy willows), it looks as if the roots of the infinite variety of lily pads are just within your reach.






As the sky darkened up, ready for the next release of the thunderheads, we ambled out. Still bubbling with color and light and life.




And to think -- we didn't even see it at night with the lights on!


--
Ann Moradian


For more information on the exhibit and the artist:
http://chihuly.denver.org/about-chihuly/

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Voices and Visions of Dance: 300 Presenters, 37 Countries

A Week in the Life of Ann Moradian, for the Dance Enthusiast:

"The World Dance Alliance 2014 Global Summit in Angers, France, succeeded in its aim to create a supportive space for sharing research and creative work. It was a stimulating, inspiring and outright exhausting week, with over 300 presenters from 37 different countries sharing their voices and visions of dance with one another..." 
(read the full article)

World Dance Alliance Global Summit

at the Centre nationale de la danse

Angers, France
July 6-11, 2014


Wednesday, July 2, 2014

World Dance Alliance Global Summit in Angers

July 6–11 2014
WORLD DANCE ALLIANCE GLOBAL SUMMIT
Contemporising the past: Envisaging the future

Ann will be conducting a workshop at the conference:
'Deepening Movement Experience Through Yoga, Martial Arts and Theatre"
Angers, France

Monday, June 2, 2014

WORKSHOP: Physical Theatre

PHYSICAL THEATRE EXPLORATION
Monday, June 9, 2014 from 12h00-18h00 (20€ one-time offer!)

Colum Morgan and Ann Moradian are joining forces to bring their experience of body, being, theatre and voice together to deepen and explore embodied theatre. This first workshop is for actors and movers with performance experience. We welcome your joining us in this exploration!

Contact Ann Moradian at perspectivesinmotion(at)gmail.com


Brune Bazin, Maja Beeler, Lionel Rondeau and Jennifer Ferrari
in Ann Moradian's MEDUSA: The Birth of a Monster.
Photo (c) Alex Vanagas.


Thursday, May 8, 2014

Reflection: Bill Viola Retrospective at the Grand Palais

Grand Palais, Galeries nationales
through July 21, 2014
Paris

"Time
Cutting through the edges of water
Pulsing in slow motion
Reality dreams
the un-pondered possible"

(© Ann Moradian, April 2014)






Photo sequence by Geraldine Mignani (Thank you Geraldine!)

This exhibit is the largest retrospective ever dedicated to Bill Viola's Video Art. It can be seen here in Paris at the Grand Palais through July 21, 2014. This is also the first time in the history of the Grand Palais that video has been given exclusive place on the museum's walls. After seeing Viola's work, you will understand why. It is not 'Dance' in any traditional sense of the word, and yet his use of movement, relationships, the body and emotions is strong and clear, flowing as easily into the genre of Movement Video as it does into the genre of Moving Art. (I suppose I view everything that moves through the lens of dance.) A leading figure in New Media Arts, his interest is, Viola says, "beneath they body, and beyond."

Go if you can! It is an experience.


http://www.grandpalais.fr/en/event/bill-viola



Tuesday, April 29, 2014

International Dance Day 2014

Celebrations going on world wide include an evening of dance at UNESCO in Paris. This year, Mourad Merzouki has been asked to share his "Message" about dance:

"Every artist takes pride in his art.

Every artist will always defend the art form whose encounter has changed his life.

For that which he has sought and lost and for that which he has the burning desire to share: be it the echo of a voice, the discovered word, the interpretation of a text for humanity, the music without which the universe will stop speaking to us, or the movement which opens the doors to grace.

I have, for dance, not only the pride of a dancer and choreographer, but profound gratitude. Dance gave me my lucky break. It has become my ethics by virtue of its discipline and provided the means through which I discover the world daily.

Closer to me than anything else, it gives me strength each day through the energy and generosity as only dance can. Its poetry comforts me.

Could I say that I wouldn’t exist without dance? Without the capacity for expression it has given me? Without the confidence I have found in it to overcome my fears, to avoid dead ends?

Thanks to dance, immersed in the beauty and complexity of the world, I have become a citizen. A peculiar citizen who reinvents the social codes in the course of his encounters, remaining true to the values of the hip-hop culture which transforms negative energy into a positive force.

I live and breathe dance daily as an honour. But I am living with this honour deeply concerned. I witness around me the loss of bearings and the inability of some of the youth from the working class, growing up in tension and frustration, to imagine their future. I am one of them; so are we all. I am driven, perhaps more than others, by setting an example, to help them fuel their lust for life.

For isn’t society richer with the richness of each of us?

Culture, more than any discourse, unites. So have courage and take risks despite the obstacles and the hatred with which you will no doubt be confronted; the beauty of the world will always be by your side. Like dance has been for me. With its singular force to eliminate social and ethnic distinctions, leaving but the movement of bodies in their essence, of human beings returning to their pure expression, unique and shared.

I would like to end by quoting René Char whose words remind me daily to not let anyone confine us to scripted roles.

“Push your luck, hold on tight to your good fortune, and take your risk. Watching you, they will get used to it.”

So try, fail, start all over again but above all, dance, never stop dancing!



Translation: Petya Hristova and Charlene Lim

For more information: http://www.international-dance-day.org/en/message.html

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Impression: James Thiérrée's Tabac Rouge


photo copyright Tabac Rouge

Reviewer's Notes:
Last year when James Thiérrée premiered his newest work, Tabac Rouge, he did not perform in it. In the past, the works he has made for his company, Compagnie du Hanneton, have not only centered around him as the principal performer, but have also been powered by his extraordinary skill and charisma as a performer. Hats off to Thiérrée for plunging into a new phase in his creative process with honesty, courage and moments of brilliance.

I have been a bit late in getting to this program, and in writing it up. But definitely better late than never in this case!

To read my "Impression" of Tabac Rouge for The Dance Enthusiast, click here

--
Ann Moradian

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Impression: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Fiona Shaw & Daniel Hay Gordon performing at Bouffes du Nord in Paris. For Ann Moradian's IMPRESSION of this work for The Dance Enthusiast, click here.

Photo (c) Richard Hubert Smith

Reviewer's Notes:
It all started with rehearsals in director Phyllida Lloyd's kitchen. Fiona Shaw (who you may know as Aunt Petunia in the Harry Potter films, but she has done so much more!) and Lloyd were just thinking to present something relatively informally for their friends, they said at the Q&A following the performance I attended, as a way of bringing poetry to life through theatre. And while the costumes remain pretty ordinary (simple black t-shirts and trousers), it has long left the kitchen and the UK, to travel through Greece, the US and most recently Paris at Peter Brook's dream of a theatre, Theatre des Bouffes du Nord.

It was interesting to learn that the single dancer, in the form of Daniel Hay-Gordon, was originally a chorus of 6 male dancers. Only Danny, Shaw explained, could move through the physical images quick enough to keep pace with the rhythm of her text. Brought to life vividly by this team of artists, it will be long while yet before it returns to a quiet existence in the private domain of Phyllida Lloyd's kitchen.
--
am

Monday, February 3, 2014

The Chant of Medusa

The Chant of Medusa © Ann Moradian. All rights reserved.

I do not ask to know
knowing that knowing is past;
knowing that knowing now
means living now, no more.

I do not ask to know
knowing that knowing cannot be held;
knowing that knowing cannot be held,
alone.

I do not ask to know
knowing that knowing is moving, through time;
knowing that knowing
knows only a moment.

I do not ask to know
knowing that knowing is memory
of a moment before.
Trapped in a moment, motionless
for a lifetime, knowing
a memory.
Living now no more.

Living now, no more.
Moving forward with the moment that is now
now now
now --
Knowledge carries me in its arms.
Dare I see?

I do not ask to know
knowing that knowing cannot be held;
knowing that knowing
can only be known being held.
I ask to be-held and be-hold.
Sharing this moment in time and space;
beholden to each other by membering the moment that is now
now now
now --

--Ann Moradian, July 25, 2009

Thursday, January 23, 2014

IMPRESSION: Aurélian Bory & Kaori Ito's 'Plexus'

Bory has created Plexus as a portrait of Kaori Ito, presented at the Theatre des Abbesses this month. To read Ann Moradian's IMPRESSION of the performance, please connect here to the Dance Enthusiast.


Photo © Aglae Bory

Reviewer's note:

It was a pleasant surprise when Aurélian Bory joined Kaori Ito on stage for a bow at the end of Plexus. My husband, who began his career as an engineer, was as fascinated as I was by the set and lighting. I gathered up the courage to ask if we could meet him.

He explained the construction of the set with patience and what I believe was a quiet passion. He guided us onto the stage, explaining the set’s construction as we looked at it more closely: a single string, woven thousands of times between the two platforms with microphones planted beneath and on top of the platforms. The string is ordinary and the platforms disassemble into smaller squares. It is so simple it goes beyond elegant. It is a work of art in its own right and, between performances, would be better stored in a museum than in a warehouse.

Bory mentioned that he had begun his career in physics and architecture. Clearly he has never left either discipline, but only added on others. It helped me to understand why, even if I do not love all of his pieces equally, I have been so intrigued by his work over the years. There is an element of pure mind at work in space, testing the limits and exploring with an avid curiosity.


Photo © Mario del Curto

Lighting designer Arno Veyrat has worked with Company 111 since its beginning and his work is beyond brilliant in both Plexus and Sans objet, where the lighting brings relatively static materials to life, so that they are active participants in the dance.

When I told Ms. Ito that I had been keen to see her in Bory’s work because I had seen her perform in James Thiérrée’s Au revoir parapluie and, knowing what extraordinary feats she is capable of, was curious to see what they would come come up with together. They said it was actually their mutual friend James Thiérrée who had introduced them in 2009, when they first began discussing this work. It was well worth the wait, and a piece I would happily see again.

--
AM