pearl lang passed away

Pearl Lang (1921-2009) passed away on February 24th, 2009. She was one of Graham's former principal dancers, she was a great dancer, choreographer and teacher. She interpreted the role of the One Who Dances in Letter to the World after Graham. I had the chance to speak with her in 2007, she was very nice and clear in replying to my answers. I am very upset about her departure. Here is a short film on her and here an article from the New York Times.

il caso de magistris

Nell'ultimo numero di Leggere Donna (n. 138, gennaio-febbraio), la pagina di Lori (p. 42 della rivista) dedicata al suo personaggio più famoso, la profesoressa De Magistris, pone un esilarante parallelismo con il caso del ben noto pm. Cosigliata!

appello Leggere Donna

blog e nuvole

Una delle mie microstorie (quelle che chiamo snapshots o istantanee) è stata scelta per partecipare al concorso indetto da Blog&Nuvole. La microstoria la trovate qui, le sue due versioni illustrate (da notamax e da Valentina Sozzi) che hanno raggiunto la fase finale del concorso qui.

il bello della e nella danza

Sabato parteciperò al seguente convegno organizzato da Lara Carelli. Il titolo del mio intervento è "La bellezza di una schiena in movimento: viaggio tra stili e tecniche".

IL BELLO DELLA E NELLA DANZA:
PERCORSI INTRECCIATI

Convegno

Sabato 28 febbraio 2009

Sala Beniamino Gigli, Teatro Lauro Rossi, Macerata
ore 17.00
Ingresso libero

carmen is a gypsy

Is Carmen a Gypsy?
Yes, she is.
Where is she from?
We do not really know?
What do yuo mean?
I mean that she never told us and she probably does not care.
I thought she was Spanish.
I am not sure about that. I know she was created by a French guy.
Right...are you trying to confuse me?
No, I am not. What was his name? Ah, yes, Prosper Mérimée.
Was it not Georges Bizet?
No, he came afterwards.
Right. But she lived in Spain, didn't she?
Yes, she did.

crisalide

...cominciò ad uscire e fu come rinascere...la luce aveva sapore e il vento odore...cosa ne sarebbe stata della sua casa-guscio? l'avrebbe abbandonata o se la sarebbe portata dietro? ancora era presto per dirlo...ma intanto il processo di trasformazione era divenuto irreversibile, presto sarebbe stata altro...

dancy mary (4)

Here I am, praying, my hands together, my face turned aside from what is really happening in the world. I wish I could move away from these yellow flowers, get out of this claustrophobic place and move! Somebody wrote something in the wall beside me, those lines express an energy which is so close and so far away at the same time. Maybe it is a sign for me to gather my strength and make a plan to escape.

adela greceanu

She is another young Romanian poet. Here are some lines from "Albedo":

The bird flies inside a big bird,
the fish swims in a huge fish.

In this world, things hide inside their features,
like in signs or in words.
They hide, revealing themselves partially.
There is, though, a language that does not hide.
It's much like music.

Adela Greceanu

This is taken from No Longer Poetry - New Romanian Poetry, edited and translated by David Morley and Leonard-Daniel Aldea (Coventry: Heaventree, 2007).
Here is a video with Greceanu reading some of her poems (in Romanian and English).

marius ianus

He is a Romanian poet I have been recently reading, here is an extract from "to the reader":

and when you want to hang yourself
because the others fail to know you anymore
think of me
I always have time for you
I stay here rooted in words

Marius Ianus

This is taken from No Longer Poetry - New Romanian Poetry, edited and translated by David Morley and Leonard-Daniel Aldea (Coventry: Heaventree, 2007). This and other poems by Ianus are available in English at this link.

anoressia

rughe (6)

is a word dead when it is said?

"Is a Word Dead When it is Said?: Relationship Between Text and Performance in Martha Graham's Letter to the World", one of my essays on Martha Graham's Letter to the World (1940-41) has been published online at this link (pdf format, not available any more). It is one stage of my present research and it is the result of years of work in libraries, at home among books and of precious conversations with dancers and colleagues.

la scoperta

Ho scoperto dell'esistenza di Leggere Donna a metà degli anni '90 in una biblioteca maceratese. Ho un ricordo vago del numero che lessi, ma quello che mi colpì subito fu l'eleganza del lay-out e l'assenza totale di pubblicità. Niente donne seminude a pubblicizzare un calzino o visi maschera a reclamare trucchi ultratecnologici. Pulizia, linearità, semplicità. Poi la recensione di testi (romanzi, poesie, critica) di o sulle donne mi abbagliò. Nomi che raramente avevo sentito in giro. Nomi che non avevano spazio (o ne avevano pochissimo) da altre parti. Testi interessanti, mai scontati. Fu come trovare una piccola ancora, piccola ma salda ancora.

appello Leggere Donna

clytemnestra remash challenge

The Martha Graham Dance Company has announced a video competition to reinterpret parts of its recently recontructed Clytemnestra, one of Graham's masterpieces. Here is the link to all the necessary info. This is one of the last initiatives to bring the work of Graham closer to its audience. It is an interesting project and I am quite curious to find out its outcomes.

emily dickinson (while making bread for her father)

She baked bread for her father every morning. Did he know about her poetry? Probably not. He loved her, thought she was a bit wierd but was unaware of her secret. While making the dough she usually thought of her compositions. "Should I put the adjective 'my' in capitol letter or leave it like that? Should I use the term 'world' or 'society'? World, definitely."

corpoacorpo

Sono nel bel mezzo di un ennesimo corpo a corpo con la mia scrittura per terminare un saggio che si ribella continuamente contro di me (o io mi ribello a lui, non so bene). La scadenza per la consegna è dietro l'angolo e sono in mezzo ad un mare di concetti mal esposti e scrittura che non scorre...argh

la mia scrittura

giù

stava giù la bambolina,
non si muoveva da tanti anni
sopra il suo corpo saltellavano un sacco di persone
un uomo in cravatta saltellava più degli altri
era seguito da un omone in gonnella particolarmente agitato
il continuo saltellare non lasciava in pace la bambolina
che avrebbe voluto alzarsi e dire la sua ma non poteva

un giorno la bambolina si ruppe
le persone continuarono a saltellare
senza accorgersi subito dell'accaduto
poi fu data la notizia
tutti si fermarono
il loro giocattolo non funzionava più
stettero buoni per un po'
poi se ne andarono a cercare un altro giocattolo
su cui saltellare

n.b.- il titolo di questa istantanea si ispira alla poesia "L'istituzione-branco" di Wu Ming 1.

senate house

My journey to London was busy as usual. I was welcomed by the snow and a wintery weather. I went a few times to Senate House Library where I found books and articles to help me sructure a thorny topic of my research. I also went to see a couple of exciting performances of which I hope I will be able to speak in future posts.

bringing carmen back to spain

My essay "Bringing Carmen back to Spain: Antonio Gades's Flamenco Dance in Carlos Saura's Choreofilm" has been published on Dance Research (vol. 26, n. 2, Winter 2008). The myth of Carmen is one of my obsessions and I am very happy about this publication. It was hard work.

data di scadenza

Un gruppo di ragazze fuori da uno stabile. Fa un freddo cane.
Quando ti scade il contratto?
Domani.
Te lo rinnovano?
Non lo so.
Che farai?
Aspetto.
Una accende una sigaretta, è la terza di fila.
Sei contetna di questo lavoro?
Sì, abbastanza.
Speri nella riconferma?
Certo.
Che farai se non ti chiamano?
Non lo so.
Cercherai da un'altra parte?
Sì, forse.
Vuoi una sigaretta?
No, non fumo.
La pausa è terminata, le ragazze tornano nello stabile.

Infra

Other extracts from Wayne McGregor's Infra:

1

2

3

London (flash-back) - 2

Two McGregors for one. Two for one. Two performances in one day. A cool marathon. A visual feast for a dance scriber. The chance to see two works by Wayne McGregor performed by two different companies: Random and the Royal Ballet. It happened on November 2008 and it was very interesting. I saw Entity performed by Random Dance Company at Laban and, a couple of hours later, Infra (in collaboration with visual artist Julian Opie) as one of the three performances danced by the Royal Ballet for its Triple Bill at the Royal Opera House. Both were engaging works, both expressed McGregor’s vision and both were beautifully danced. However, the Royal Ballet performance stroke me as more fluid. McGregor’s style is asymmetric, with lots of torso and arm movements. The Random dancers seemed to have an earth-bound quality that did not go well with McGregor’s style (even though Random is his company), while the Royal Ballet dancers, probably due to their strong classical background, were quite aerial and his dance approach emerged as wonderfully done.

martha graham (quotes)

No one invents movement; movement is discovered. What is possible and necessary to the body under the impulse of the emotional self is the result of this discovery; and the formalization of it into a progressive series of exercises is technique.

1941