Today I gave my students their third midterm exam, ahead of the Thanksgiving break, and now I am completely unmotivated to do much of anything. Eventually I'll probably get off my duff and back to grading or at least doing SOMETHING productive.
Not too long ago,![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
annikusrex went to see The Seasons Canon performed by the Pacific Northwest Ballet, and raved about the production, so when the opportunity came up to watch a digital streaming version*, I jumped on the chance.
This is only the second time this particular ballet has been staged; it requires a cast of 54 dancers, which seems like it might be a lot for many ballet companies to manage. From watching the streaming version, I've concluded I'll be on the lookout for any opportunities in the future to go see it in person. The ballet has an incredible energy to it by virtue of the number of dancers involved and how it is staged and choreographed. It is expressive and organic, and includes some interesting elements in terms of how gender is portrayed (some single-gender dances that contain traditional gendered ballet dance elements, but also intentionally androgynous costumes and many intentional deviations from traditional ballet standards).
But it also made me think that it might be an interesting contrast to the Korean Mass Games. I only learned about the Mass Games after a friend was able to go visit North Korea and attended the Mass Games as part of the trip, around a decade ago. So much could be said about the Mass Games alone, but here, my main point is the contrast in how the interactions among a large number of human bodies are staged. One of the elements to the Mass Games is there is a grandstand behind the main performance where individual people essentially serve as individual pixels for a big display, changing out the color of the card they hold on cue to change the image/message behind the dance. The dancing itself is a physical manifestation of how a political view is perpetuated. The general idea seems to be conformity. The sheer number of people involved almost certainly imbues the Mass Games with a huge amount of energy, but in a lot of ways the goal seems to be a denial of the organic nature of the human form and human movement. From what I understand, it's considered a huge honor to be chosen as a performer for the Mass Games.
In any case, I'm always in awe of dancers of all kinds, again simply because dance is an embodied art.
*Unfortunately the window for this was really limited, so it's no longer available.
Not too long ago,
annikusrex went to see The Seasons Canon performed by the Pacific Northwest Ballet, and raved about the production, so when the opportunity came up to watch a digital streaming version*, I jumped on the chance.This is only the second time this particular ballet has been staged; it requires a cast of 54 dancers, which seems like it might be a lot for many ballet companies to manage. From watching the streaming version, I've concluded I'll be on the lookout for any opportunities in the future to go see it in person. The ballet has an incredible energy to it by virtue of the number of dancers involved and how it is staged and choreographed. It is expressive and organic, and includes some interesting elements in terms of how gender is portrayed (some single-gender dances that contain traditional gendered ballet dance elements, but also intentionally androgynous costumes and many intentional deviations from traditional ballet standards).
But it also made me think that it might be an interesting contrast to the Korean Mass Games. I only learned about the Mass Games after a friend was able to go visit North Korea and attended the Mass Games as part of the trip, around a decade ago. So much could be said about the Mass Games alone, but here, my main point is the contrast in how the interactions among a large number of human bodies are staged. One of the elements to the Mass Games is there is a grandstand behind the main performance where individual people essentially serve as individual pixels for a big display, changing out the color of the card they hold on cue to change the image/message behind the dance. The dancing itself is a physical manifestation of how a political view is perpetuated. The general idea seems to be conformity. The sheer number of people involved almost certainly imbues the Mass Games with a huge amount of energy, but in a lot of ways the goal seems to be a denial of the organic nature of the human form and human movement. From what I understand, it's considered a huge honor to be chosen as a performer for the Mass Games.
In any case, I'm always in awe of dancers of all kinds, again simply because dance is an embodied art.
*Unfortunately the window for this was really limited, so it's no longer available.
