Ramblings

Question: Is choreography the same as improvisation in terms of dance? We had this deabte in class today and I honestly see them as maybe not the same thing, but definitely 2 processes which cannot be done independent of the other. I find that one cannot choreograph a dance without improvising to some extent. It may not be to the extent of creating well planned and carefully thought through movement, but even just the idea behind a movement that comes to one's mind, to me, is still a constituent of the art of improvising, as Michael likes to say. And when he says "art", I personally define it as the thought and time put into the creative process and the actualy execution of an idea and the translation of that idea into some sort of visual or audio representation, be it visual art, music or dance. That is my definition of "art", but what Michael actually perceives what that word means may be totally different. According to my Widget dictionary, art refers to the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a usual form...producing works primarily for their beautyor emotional power. It can also mean a skill at doing a specified thing; typically one acquired through practice. And I certainly agree that improvisation takes a lot of practice and that's why I agree with the statement that improvisation is not the same as just fooling around and dancing on your own in a club for instance. Personally, the element of improvisation which is most significance and of the highest level of difficulty to master and attain, is the ability to translate all the images, phrases, words, thoughts, sounds, into some sort of movement that makes sense to your fellow dancers, if any, and to the audience and maybe even to yourself. More often than not, I find myself improv-ing, but not necessarily moving the way I visualised in my mind's eye; it may look interesting and may evoke certain emotions in a spectator, but it may not always be what I had intended it to look like, which on the other hand, totally doesn't matter. I am all for the explorative nature of dance and how organic and raw and honest movement is. That's what dance is all about and I hope that it never loses that essence of itself.

VIN

A Tree, horses and a checked piece of cloth

Today's fabulous outfit

Almost Lover

The weather has been positively frigid and many degrees lower than my ideal. And so cute outfits are harder to come by, but I think I was still able to wear something that I felt really good in and that's all that matters. So costume designing for Jesse's piece is facing a roadblock. I absolutely have no idea how to dress males and this includes a girl who has to look like a boy. And I only ordered certain items recently and when they are going to arrive, I have no idea and I'm starting to worry a little. I hope I don't screw this up. Other than all these problems though, I feel really good about what I have dressed the cast in and right now it's up to them to MAKE IT WORK, from the words of Tim Gunn, probably the nicest person in the fashion business today. I went to Starbucks for some solace and study time. I spent 2 hours or so completing much of my homework and so it's time to just chill out and lounge in my room/house.

AfterImages is coming up and it's approaching real fast. I dont know if I'm ready for it. I just want to do the choreographers of the pieces I'm in justice. A whole week of tech and such awaits and my life has definitely got to be put on hold...again. This semester seems to have been full of such weeks of crammed activities and restless days. Gone are the days of reading a novel in bed with my pjs still on at 2 in the afternoon, with a cup of ginger tea by my bed. Those halcyon days.

And so I really want to get a marilyn when I get to London. My good ol' source of inspiration if a brother reassured me of my decision. He got his tragus pierced and agrees that a sparkling mole above my lip would look really pretty and awfully sweet. I already have a beauty mole there so just adding a little glimmer to it is going to look pretty awesome. I'm just trying not to think about the pain as for now. I heard it isnt too bad, though it does hurt a little, but this is coming from soneone who had had her tongue pierced and she was basically comparing the pain of piercing her upper lip to that of her tongue. So there's obviously no contest there. I hope to have a picture of myself with my marilyn posted really soon.

Que Pasa?

I wore my new H&M skirt today. I really do love it. Finally, a pretty long black skirt to add to my wardrobe. I have a few questions that were brought up in various classes today which really sparked my interest and intrigue. The first of which was brought up during my movement anamysis class where we were being given some background information of Rudolph Laban. He believe that movement is intentional and human beings move to satisfy needs. Jesse was definitely contesting it and there was a little debate between Michael and him. I do think that Laban probably could have worded his statement a little more clearly to emphasise that it is the effort that he is concerned about. That as opposed to animals, we humans move with an intent coupled with the capacity to perform an action in a spectrum of ways and energy levels. I believe that Laban was trying to say that both human beings and animals move with intention and with the purpose of satisfying one's needs, but humna beings are superior to animals because we are able to choose the way in which we approach the task of for instance, picking up a water bottle. And this idea is known as 'humane effort', effort which we force ourselves to put into performing an action, a characteristic that is absent in animals. Instead, they have very strong instinctual natures.

The other question which really piqued my curiosity and got my brain kind of whirling was are movies like the colosseum? In terms of feeding entertainment to the masses through violent scenes and action. It was brought up by a kid in my Psychology class and my goodness, I actually do think it makes a lot of sense. After all, the colosseum did serve to entertain and maybe even brianwash to a certain extent, the public. And isnt that what movies are all about right now? The violent and graphic ones about brainless and far-fetched situations of course. Hence, the question of whether violence in movies today affect the minds and thought processes of the younger audiences and influence them to do criminal things still stands and is very relevant. I truly see the purpose of the colosseum and all that had happened in it being to warn its spectators of challenging the government and so doesnt that have a really strong influential nature? My conclusion is that movies today, indeed are the replacement of the activities that had gone on in the colosseum.

Just some food for thought.

Walker

A picture taken in the Walker Art Center...illegally. We didn't know whether we were allowed to or not and so we just decided to give it a shot. At least we managed to get 2 good shots. I was introduced to the art movement known as Fluxus, which I am really intrigued by. It as something to do with how everyone and anyone can be an artist and their art work pretty much involves everyday, mass produced items. It does remind me of Pop Art, but maybe a little less severe and in-your-face. I should reseach a bit more about it. It was the first time I had heard of it and I like being in the know. You know, having your finger on the pulse.

You'll Never See Me Again

Here are some new purchases I made over Thanksgiving break in my new favourite city of all time- Minneapolis! Give it up! And my outfit for the day. I got the jeans from H&M for a steal! It cost me a mere $10. I was unbelieveably lucky. Pretty much everything I bought over break is from H&M. That's the store for me. It's all I need and it was the only store I bought anything from when we made our trip to the Mall of America. To hell with every other clothing store. We also visited the Walker Art Center and our original plan was to view the Frida Kahlo exhibition that is going on right now, but alas, the queue was a mile long and we weren't about to waste precious time standing in line. Too bad, it would have been really great. I got a souvenir though, a compact mirror with 2 of Frida's paintings on it. It's pretty amazing. Pictures of it will be up some other time. I also finally got my hair cut and honestly, bangs are the way to go for me. I'm just looking forward to wearing some of my new gear soon!