Connecting People, Misnomer Dance Theater

Christopher Elam jumps. A 50-foot wall shoots out from his feet. Misnomer Dance Theater’s Director has the ground spinning beneath him. Structural forms emerge from his every movement, building a city through physical inspiration.

In the motion capture technology world, the rules bend. “In some ways it’s similar to what one might envision in their body while dancing. But the beautiful irony for a dancer is that you’re very much rooted in the reality of space: the length of muscles, how far you can jump. Only in our minds [can] we extend those concepts,” explains Christopher Elam, Misnomer Dance Theater’s Artistic Director.

His ten-year-old downtown dance company is on the pulse of technology. Bridging artistic genres, Elam collaborated with the multidisciplinary company Tronic Studio in 2006 to experiment with the digitization of movement. Motion capture – often referred to as mocap – has long been used in video game imaging and animation. Now dance is entering another dimension.

“Chris’s style is very much about the physics of dance,” says Jesse Seppe of Tronic. “He’s tweaking reality and…almost defying gravity. We didn’t want ballet or traditional dance. We were much more interested in composition and the experimental side of his work.” Seppe and his partner Vivian Rosenthal approached Elam with just a narrative idea for a mocap shoot. In the rehearsal process, they began to explore the theme of the creative process itself with a blend of movement and graphics.

Like any dance for camera work, the challenges were different than those in choreographing for the stage. The frame directs the audience’s eye, and actions must be repeated and adjusted to achieve the perfect take. It’s no one-shot deal. “You feel like you’re dancing with your ghosts,” Elam says of creating movement within an invisible space that would only become reality in post-production. In the animated piece, every move the dancer makes generates a new 3D building or element in a city being built. “If I’m choreographing a movement where I turn my head and a shape is supposed to come growing off my back, I need to know how long is that shape going to be. If I’m giving an impact of an action, I need to know whether to give a thrust or a gentle petering.” It takes imagination.

Dance and science bonded during the half-day mocap shoot. Elam and his dancers wore suits with multiple reflective markers Velcroed on their joints. “It’s not your typical costume. All the little silver balls fall off your body pretty quickly, especially if you’re partnering with another dancer and lifting them,” says Elam.

During motion capture, multiple cameras circle the room (known as the capture volume) to track the location of each body marker in space, explains Doug Fox, a technology consultant and blogger who has presented research on the topic at the Kinetic Cinema program in Brooklyn, NY. “Motion capture is so valuable because it’s an authentic rendering in animation of the actual movements of dancers.”

“The entire room is mapped out for the software so it can record the XYZ coordinates of the markers. Then the motions are digitized,” says Seppe. A skeletal outline of stick-like diagrams can be played back in real time to be sure the kinetics are recorded as fully and accurately as possible. The data collected is then applied to a character in the 3D software. In this case, it’s the dancer whose movements inspire the creation of other structures.

Initially, Misnomer Dance Theater’s project was set to be the opener of RES Fest (one of the earliest global digital film festivals), but the deal fell through when plans changed for the festival. Tronic Studio and the company are still looking for a final sponsor to help complete its last stages, but in the meantime Misnomer has had other collaborative projects.

In addition to being one of the first modern companies to livestream their performances online and pioneer arts marketing initiatives, they emerged in 3D yet again. Icelandic singer Björk’s 2008 music video, “Wanderlust” featured Elam’s choreography and dancers. While shooting, he coached Misnomer members Brynne Billingsley and Coco Karo through a tumbling sequence in front of a green screen. The final version is a rich visual of movement in an unusual setting.

Dance and animation form a cohesive relationship, particularly for Misnomer. The aesthetics that make dance enjoyable onstage translate well in the digital realm. So often, only ballet is viewed as otherworldly, but with motion capture even abstract movement becomes tangibly, and more engagingly, foreign.

“If you’re shooting mocap for a video game that has soldiers in it, you want to cast ex-military because they move correctly,” Seppe explains. “If you’re doing something that’s really poetic and using the body to speak as the voice, I think a dancer is the right person to look at for that.”

Taylor Gordon
misnomer.org

First published in Issue 9 – Spring/Summer 09 - Arti$tic Reinvention, Poster Issue

In the piece, choreographed by Dresden SemperOper Ballet’s resident choreographer, David Dawson, principal dancers Yumiko Takeshima and Raphael Coumes-Marquet made a memorable impression, not just because of flawless pirouettes, arabesques, and grand jeté’s, but because of Yumiko’s design of sleek fitting costumes that made every muscle stand out.

The Japanese native began her design career with the determination to construct an outfit a dancer wouldn’t have to pull, tug, or adjust during a rehearsal or performance. She traded a toaster for a sewing machine and started sketching different designs of leotards in her spare time, experimenting with a variety of stretchy fabrics for all shapes and sizes. Her vision and patience for perfection paid off when she finally created a leotard she could wear to class. Her fellow dancers envied Yumiko’s style and began begging for their own; this marked the beginning of a second career.

“As a dancer I am always looking for a comfortable fit, because I wear these clothes all day long,” she notes. The most important aspect is the “fit” of the leotard. “I focus on a tight looking waist and a wide chest because when you present yourself as a dancer, you want to be open.” Yumiko’s designs also focus on individuality by giving the customer the chance to customize every piece. You can choose your own fabric and color from the classic black nylon to an aqua microfiber, or from a rose colored velvet to a saffron colored georgette.

Yumiko’s recognizable name in dance has given her an opportunity to become a brand everyone can remember. With stores in New York, Spain, Germany, and Japan alongside a long list of retailers, her fashion career has been incredibly successful. Even celebrities like Madonna, who ordered 12 Yumiko leotards for her 2008 “Sticky and Sweet” tour, are taking notice of this fashionable and flattering dancewear.

Whether sitting a table with David Dawson sketching ideas for a costume or rehearsing for a show in a studio in Germany, Yumiko has embarked on an unusual journey where she can share her two full-time passions with the whole world.

Kendra Ratliff

yumiko-world.com

First published in Issue 9 – Spring/Summer 09 - Arti$tic Reinvention, Poster Issue

RE: Movmnt’s Refillable Trendy Aluminium Bottle

REfresh, REfill, REcycle

We urge you to join the REvolution, a movmnt for the REgeneration

Movmnt Magazine is launching a new campaign in partnership with dance studios, conventions, competitions, and festivals to help bring awareness to our daily habits that pollute the Earth. Habits that can easily be changed by each and every one of us. As members of the artistic community, we have the duty to lead by example and stop using plastic bottles like kleenexes. We can refresh ourselves and recycle with one simple gesture: refill our own bottle.

Movmnt introduces re:, an aluminium bottle that will not only save the environment, but also save you money. Buy your own bottle now for only $10 +$2 s/h to start the REvolution. Get involved with your community, Dance Studio, Competition, Yoga center, GYM, etc… and contact us to create a personalized bottle. Make re: available and become an environmentally conscious water drinker.

With 29 billion plastic water bottles being consumed each year in the US alone, and of that 312 million are from dancers, it’s no wonder that studios and retailers are jumping for joy at Re: If just four towns per state offered Re: bottles instead of water bottles, 6,240,000 plastic water bottles would be saved. And, if 10 dance studios per town gave their dancers Re: bottles for one year, that would save 1,560,000 in wasted plastic bottles. A studio of 250 dancers can consume up to 156,000 water bottles per year, amounting to 624 per dancer or 1.07% of the overall water bottle consumption debacle.

Over 90% of water bottles end up in the garbage every year, while 17 million barrels of oil are used to produce these plastic water bottles in the United States alone. That’s enough to fuel more than 1,000 cars for an entire year, or total a cost of $936 per year if you only drink an average of three bottles of water a day. At $2.50 a liter, water is more expensive than gasoline, making a metal water bottle appealing not only to the environment, but also to your bank account.

There is no limit to how many times you can refill Re: as well as no limit to the amount of style you exude while sipping from Re:’s chic innovative aluminum design. In fact, in most parts of the country tap water is not only perfectly safe, but also more tightly regulated than bottled water, giving you a legitimately healthier reason to refresh with a Re: bottle.

Re: is an aluminum refillable bottles come in four flavorful colors; sangria red, aquamarine blue, shimmery silver and forest green. They feature a wide mouth for easy drinking and come equipped with a carabiner clip that attach to backpacks, tote bags, dance bags and the like. Movmnt’s trendy designed available in 4 different colors is sold only RE’ cost only $10, for the same quality product generally sold in retail around $25. per bottle, although bulk orders are customized to specific events at a discounted price. For orders over 50 bottles, please see the contact information below.

Movmnt is also partnering with retailers like Universal News, which gives them an opportunity to co-brand items like key chains, lanyards, bottle holders, and more. These accessories involve popular brands in the Re:sellable experience, and gives their logo high visibility with an eco-friendly edge and a pioneering body-conscious product. Movmnt does the legwork, the co-oping brand provides the artwork.

When a company or dance studio wants to become a part of the RE initiative, Movmnt helps set up a cost effective fresh water station in order to economically refill RE.

We urge you to join the REfillable aluminum bottle REvolution. Get your own bottle now, and become a REmember at movmnt.com/re

REmember: REfresh, REfill, REcycle

Member of Boxxet Network, inc Mixxed Green (Green and Sustainability)

Here with Janet Jackson, Meet a rare and brillant dancer: Teddy Forance

We first encountered Teddy Forance when Mia Michaels selected him to act as her muse for Movmnt’s “In Bed with Mia” Feature, photographed by Koury Angelo. Ever since, Teddy has spread his wings and continues to perform with outstanding artists like Janet Jackson as one of her lead dancers on tour, and has been a successful dancer working for various productions like Shrek Goes 4th. His roster is ever expanding. Movmnt had the opportunity to snag a conversation with this talented young dancer and discovered some of his true ambitions.

Conversation with David Benaym, Editor in Chief and Publisher of Movmnt Magazine

David Benaym: What is one of your biggest dreams?

Teddy Forance: I’m really focused on performing while I am young to get as much experience as possible. My ultimate goal would be to travel around the world exploring every style of dance. Whether it’s a tribe in Africa or in class in New York or L.A. I want to investigate all inspirations that this artform has to provide — finding the roots of dance.

DB: Any other dreams?

TF: To be in a show that Mia Michaels creates from scratch. She is my biggest inspiration and I would love to see what would happen if her direction and choreography were put on the same stage. Lately I have been working on getting back into as much ballet class as I can to transform myself into a whole new dancer, which will give me the opportunity to audition for contemporary dance companies around the world.

DB: What have you been up to in 2009?

TF: I’ve been working with Michael Rooney a lot. I did four Honda commercials, and we just did Dancing with the Stars.

DB: Were the commercials dance related?

TF: No, they weren’t dance related, it was more about capturing natural human movement… just how to capture people exiting a vehicle and knowing where to put the camera to get the right angle.

DB: What else have you been focused on lately?

TF: I’m also focused on the business side of my life. I’m 21 and I need to think about my future so I can be prepared when I start a family. I’ve really been inspired by a lot of people around me like Mia Michaels, Tony Testa, and Wade Robson to think about both the art side and the business side. That’s why it’s been crazy for me lately.

I’ve also been working on Shrek, it’s coming out next year.

DB: You were on tour with Janet, what’s it like working with her?

TF She is a sweetheart and keeps us disciplined in rehearsals so we will be ready for performances. The second she enters rehearsal her energy is greatly respected and we know that it’s time to step up!

DB: You were one of her lead dancers on tour, right?

TF: Yes, it was an honor to step onto that stage and share with the arena what I do personally. My character’s name was “T5” the chosen warrior.

DB: But you’re a very peaceful person.

TF: That’s why they chose me for this role because of the way I control my movement.

DB: Does Janet consider herself a dancer?

TF: She considers herself many things, I believe a dancer is one of them. Her movement sits deep inside her body especially because she made the music so she knows every little accent. Her experience is obvious when she steps onto the stage giving us that much more confidence to soar.

DB: Do you consider yourself a dancer?

TF: Absolutely! It’s my driving force that keeps me aligned and focused on my life’s journey.

DB: You’re one of the rare dancers with a moustache, if not the only one, where does that come from?

TF: (laughter) That’s from my dad.

DB: So you’re just carrying on the family legacy then?

TF: Yeah, I guess so.

Jeremy Kost knows fame. In the age of digital media, he has secured a name as a leading celebrity photographer using only his Polaroid camera. So why was he in Southeast Asia during New York’s Winter Fashion Week? Because the artist within him instead chose to experience and chronicle the annual King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament in Thailand.

Here Kost chronicled his travels throughout Thailand where, instead of shooting this or that starlet once again, he captured citizens (and pachyderms) of a far away culture for the very first time.

More Information: jeremykost.com

Text by Rami Ramirez
Graphic Design by Andrew J Newman

Pop has never been so un-sexy! As an independent popper and an avid fan of the genre, I’d like to discuss pop sexuality — what it means, how to spot it, and what to demand of Generation AI (American Idol), as we push the turn of the decade. Sex in music is hardly ever where you’d expect to find it, and nowhere near where American Idol is looking. Something about the cable wrapped around my neck. The strain on my back as I tighten the screw. The fleeting melody that I seize by the ankles, and pin to my chest. This battle of knowing, and not knowing; writing, and recording music — this process — is sex. Good sex. Life-changing sex. Everything else is just the morning after.

Personal Journal Entry Summer 2007

The sex appeal of a pop artist is based on what you’d want from them in bed. It’s about talent and, at least, the promise of longevity, if not the real thing. Generation AI may have talent, but with its emphasis on overnight success, it lacks longevity, or even the promise thereof. Longevity in pop is fueled by the idea that you can’t continue to be successful if you don’t have your finger on the mainstream pulse. It’s defined by a marked interest in one’s environment, and because of that, relates directly to process, which is an artist’s instinct to evolve, and better understand his or her relation to the immediate moment and space.

American Idol contestants audition believing they’ve already arrived. “I’m the next American Idol,” they boast. Concerned with votes, they seek validation that they’ve already made it, in the form of a crown and contract that says their hard work is over. They forget that pop is nothing if not a grand romance between artist and audience, and that process is its gesture of camaraderie. It’s the only gesture that says an artist is still living in the same world as his or her audience. As soon as an artist claims to have arrived, whether explicitly or subliminally, they lose sight of process, and become un-sexed. Their work will either become recycled, like Maroon 5’s self-caricaturing LP It Won’t Be Soon Before Long, or unrealized, like Fantasia’s premature debut Free Yourself.

The problem with Generation AI is the blind pride it bestows in its “artists” and the valor it associates with their loss of process. Because of the Internet and independent distribution, major record labels, on the verge of destruction, desperately play it safe. They sign American Idol contestants based on proven fan bases, and resign bands like Maroon 5 based on reliable sounds and images. None of it has anything to do with quality of work. What proliferates the mainstream, as a result, are inexperienced non-artists and watered-down former artists, both of which leave pop sexless and sterile, yet, still, royally received.

So what do we have to watch out for? Well, major labels weren’t always such terrible barometers of “sexy” pop artists. They were actually pretty damn good at it up until about the turn of the millennium. Technological circumstance has made it such that they no longer have the foundation to take risks, and accordingly, have to die out, sooner rather than later. This leaves decision making up to you, the audience, for the first time in history. It’s important that you not fuck up.

I’ve written this column as a guide to understanding what you should demand of your artists: The dialogue to welcome, and the nonsense not to tolerate. With the power in your hands, don’t let a talented group like Maroon 5 get away with a sub-standard follow-up record. Certainly don’t make it Number 1 on Billboard. Pressure them. Make them do better work. Because they can. As for American Idol, have fun with it! It’s a great show. Just don’t buy the records unless they move you. Life is too short to settle. Remember that pop is a romance, and choose as though your heart depends on it.

• AI – Someone who claims to have arrived artistically, whether explicitly or subliminally, forsaking process in their words, actions, work, or any combination thereof.
• Process – An artist’s instinct to define, evolve, and better understand their relation to the immediate moment and space.
• Longevity – An indefinable artistic commodity only achieved by continued process.
• Pop – The grand romance between artist and audience, initiated by talent and enlightened by process.

By Mario Spinetti

myspace.com/mariospinetti
mariospinetti.com

I have to admit that I am not a fan of American Idol. In fact, I call it American Yodel. No one ever sings just one note. They warble and wail and riff all around it. I thought it was a fad that would fade away, but I was wrong. The country is fixated on American Idol, and Broadway has taken notice.

When Frenchie Davis was kicked off of Idol for appearing on an adult website she got an offer to join the cast of Rent, then in its 7th year. People knew her name and came to see her, as if she were a star. Stunt casting? They capitalized on her name to sell some tickets. It’s been going on for years on Broadway. When Toni Braxton was down on her luck, Disney picked her up and dropped her into Beauty and the Beast (and dropped the keys of the songs). She was a star and people came to see her. So what’s the difference?

These days the definition of a “star” can simply be someone you’ve seen on television over and over again. In the ‘90s it was John Tesh, now it’s anyone who’s been on American Idol. Simon Cowell dismisses contestants as “too Broadway,” but Broadway can’t dismiss reality TV so easily. American Idol “stars” are all over the place: Diana DeGarmo in Hairspray, Clay Aiken in Spamalot, Fantasia Barrino in The Color Purple, Taylor Hicks in Grease, and Constantine Maroulis in Rock of Ages. Tamyra Gray has been in both Bombay Dreams and Rent. And she was good! When Josh Strickland was cast as Tarzan, all of the news stories included the fact that he was a national finalist on AI. Yes these people all started out on Idol, but they wouldn’t have made it on Broadway if they didn’t have the talent to back it up.

Soon producers went a step further. It was no longer enough to take the cast offs from television. Why not create your own star? London’s How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? was the first show to use a television competition to cast a musical. The series was a huge hit when it debuted on the BBC in 2006. It made a star out of Connie Fisher, and The Sound of Music opened with the largest advance ticket sales in London theater history. It was such a sensation that even the runner-up, Aoife Mulholland (also known as “Irish Maria”), was cast in the West End production of Chicago.

Here in the U.S. we’ve had Grease: You’re the One That I Want and Legally Blonde the Musical: The Search for Elle Woods. The Grease show was basically an hour-long commercial seen by 8 million viewers a week. The revival opened on Broadway with a $14 million advance, making Broadway stars out of Laura Osnes and Max Crumm, and ran for almost sixteen months. That’s not a huge run when you look at shows like The Lion King or Phantom of the Opera, but considering that there had already been a revival of Grease a few years back, it did respectable business. Osnes is now taking over the role of Nellie Forbush from Tony Award-nominee Kelli O’Hara in the Lincoln Center Theater revival of South Pacific.

Legally Blonde, the TV show and the musical, didn’t have the same luck. The reality show ran for 8 episodes on MTV. Bailey Hanks took over the pink reins in July and the show closed in October.

The problem with these reality shows is that there is no reality in them. The audition process and performances are both so contrived. Auditioning is stressful enough; show that part of it. On the other side of the coin, the people who get down to the wire actually do have talent. Many of them are told to mask their performance history to make it look like they are being “discovered” on TV. There’s also the entertainment factor. When you see a plus-size Sandy or a 40-year-old Danny it’s not a far cry from the early American Idol audition of William Hung.

So far we’ve been spared the horror of other reality TV stars coming to Broadway. Can you imagine The Apprentice’s Amarosa as Nala in The Lion King? Or Janice Dickinson as The Drowsy Chaperone? Okay. Maybe that one could work. And we are still creating our own stars on Broadway. For every Frenchie Davis there’s an Audra McDonald. For a Diana Degarmo coming from television, there’s a Kristin Chenoweth going to television.

The bottom line is American Idol stars help out at the box office. They can boost sluggish ticket sales and give a show another angle and story to pitch. Do we want to keep seeing Broadway being cast from television? Not really. When they take Lauren Graham out of Gilmore Girls and put her into Guys and Dolls, it’s not all that different. At least with American Idol’s cast-offs we already know they can sing before we get to the theater.

Frank Conway

*Frank Conway is the Associate Director of Corporate Sponsorship and Production Services
at Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS ( bcefa.org). This is his first contribution as columnist for Movmnt Magazine.

Robbie Nicholson - Photo by Adrienne Canterna

“There is a line between dreams and reality. Comitment is what breaks that line.”

Robbie Nicholson, Performing Artist, Bad Boys of Dance

badboysofdance.com

Jazz music combines syncopated rhythm and improvisation, deliberate distortion and the undoing of a well-known melody. Sometimes hard to follow, it’s always unique and different to each listener. If jazz were a movie it might alternate between a breakneck pace and gentle lulls, an abstracted story line, and a cast of characters with an intense emotional pitch. It might look something like “The Local,” a film that depicts the seedy underworld of the Brooklyn drug trade.

The movie tells the story of Noname, a drug mule who barely survives the everyday trials of his desolate existence. When he is offered a large payout to rescue Claire, a heroin addict held by the militant gang that Noname works for, he believes he has found a path to salvation. The film’s tagline, “You can change your lot in life” suggests that the heart of the story lies in this transcendent message. But the story is much more elusive than that. While it incorporates some of the familiar elements of its genre—drugs, violence, sex, redemption—the film is a tune unique unto itself.

Before making films, Dan Eberle came to New York City ten years ago as a jazz musician. After playing the jazz guitar professionally for a time, he switched gears and began writing manuscripts, turning the third one into “The Local.” On making the transition from a musician to a film maker, Eberle asserts that “the compositional skills that you acquire as a musician and particularly an improvising musician are absolutely transferable.” He established his film making chops in 2006, winning the Best Feature Award for his film “JailCity” at the Avignon/New York City Film Festival. But “The Local” is the first film (he also made Vicissitude in 2005) that has brought him a distribution deal. Eberle attributes this to the fact that it’s the closest thing he’s done to a genre film.

The film captures its fair share of drug deals and fight scenes, some of which reach a gruesome crescendo. Yet there is an artfulness throughout that provides respite from Noname’s hellish journey. Filmed in New York City, Brooklyn’s Flatbush, Red Hook and Williamsburg provide bold imagery and the dull but comforting sound of the subway train. In addition to a moving soundtrack, ambient sound and a barely perceptible gong score absorb the visual blows. The film’s intensity is heightened but also counterbalanced by the space that fills the dialogue. At times silence allows tension to mount. At other points, it gives the viewer space to catch up with the onscreen emotional intensity.

Female characters in “The Local” provide both a stillness and vulnerability that contrast with the ferocity of often-crazed men. Throughout the film, Claire is seen lying naked on the couch. The only emblem of her former life is a pair of red Jimmy Choo high heels. When a baby girl winds up at the drug lair, an instinct arises in Claire and she displays some signs of her own will. The third female character is Anne Thompson, an elderly woman who gets a delivery from Noname. Although brief, her scenes are powerful. While she’s new to the big screen, she’s no novice to performing. Her role is played by Janet Panetta, a veteran of American Ballet Theatre and founder of the Panetta Movement Center in Manhattan. While casting the role of Anne, Eberle was looking for someone, “who was a really distinguished older lady but would still be really sexy and just have this kind of irrefutable wisdom and appeal.” When Noname comes to Thompsons’ apartment to drop off her weed, she is wise and provocative, flirting with the handsome delivery boy, but also offering sage advice and genuine interest. Panetta is a natural on screen, in no small measure, a product of her career as a dancer. She declares, “I was known as a dramatic dancer. I was trained to never add any external flourish to a movement or a character, to always find an innate truth in the role. The job is to bring that out of the role, not superimpose anything on it. It’s about authenticity, and that is the same in good acting.”

Eberle jokes that as a jazz musician he was more of a “dictator,” but making films requires “more collaboration than anything I’ve ever done.” Drawing from the local talent pool, the entire and crew are from New York City with the exception of a Canadian fight director and one British actor. An important element this musician turned writer turned filmmaker brings to his work is a sense of himself as an audience member.

He claims that you don’t have to understand a film to appreciate it as long as it illustrates some type of a human experience that people can relate to in their own way. Just as a good piece of jazz is often a reinterpretation, a solid film takes a familiar scenario and hides “the quarter note as they say, so that you can almost imagine all this other stuff going on.”

By Lauren Brown

insurgentpictures.com

The Local came out on DVD, Netflix, and Amazon on October 20th.

Erin McCarley is an emerging singer-songwriter with an authenticity and honesty that’s incredibly rare. Her debut album, Love, Save the Empty, is a smart piece of alternative pop, filled with autobiographical lyrics and rich melodies. And her star is on the rise. She recently wrapped the “Ten Out of Tenn” tour and a series of dates with fellow singer-songwriter Joshua Radin. Following the album’s release in October, she’ll be bringing her heartfelt songs to the masses as part of the Hotel Cafe tour.

McCarley’s journey as a songwriter began when she took a detour from the ‘80s pop she grew up listening to, and found herself drawn to more confessional artists like Patty Griffin, Jonatha Brooke, and Fiona Apple. She admired their ability to channel life experience into song, but wondered if she could do the same. “I think I struggled with the desire of wanting to do it, but the feelings of inadequacy, of not being able to do it, kept me from writing,” she says. “But when I moved away and really started developing my own self, and experiencing more, I was able to say something, and start writing.”

Moving to San Diego after college proved instrumental in her artistic growth. After hearing a few of her songs, a listener might be surprised to learn McCarley grew up in a happy home environment, with loving parents, and very little pain to speak of. She had such an ideal childhood that she experienced something of a wake-up call when she moved out on her own.” [My childhood] gave me an unrealistic view of everything,” she confesses. Seeing things anew in San Diego also became the foundation of much of her writing. A lot of her music is about bridging the gap between fantasy and reality, and the pain that comes with it.

Being such an autobiographical writer does have its drawbacks though, as McCarley occasionally has come to regret putting herself out there so openly. “It’s not the best feeling,” she admits. “The more I do it, and the deeper I go, I take everything personally and I’m pretty sensitive. I want people to feel what I felt, but in their own way.”

She tends to be a little uncomfortable when discussing such personal songs as “Hello/Goodbye,” or “Lovesick Mistake,” but believes they become more real as they grow and more people hear them. “I think what I wrote was a more sub-conscious thing and I didn’t realize the honesty that was happening, so it felt safe,” she explains. “And in the process of getting it heard, you kinda get wrapped up in the business part of it. Then you get back to the root.”

Erin Mc Carley captured by photographer Laura Crosta for Movmnt Magazine

The ‘business part of it’ played an important role in getting her music out to a mainstream audience. Many first experienced her songs “Pony (It’s OK)” and “Pitter-Pat” on the CW’s One Tree Hill.

As an artist, she had to question whether she welcomed this kind of exposure. “I like it. I always ask for a scene description and make sure it makes sense,” she explains. “Because people are very visual, and when they see [the show] and hear that song, they’re gonna connect. I don’t think that’s a bad thing if you’re picky and true to what the song is.”

Instant connection is something McCarley felt in her musical partnership with producer/co-writer/keyboardist Jamie Kenney. The two spent many twelve-hour days over the course of two years putting together the songs that would make up Love, Save the Empty.

“He didn’t press his ideas, he wanted it to be truly me, so I felt comfortable to not have any inhibitions around him.” “Pony” was the first track to come out of those sessions; a song about moving forward and doing what you were meant to do, it became something of a mission statement for her as an artist. “At the time it was sort of a pep talk to myself, but also to a couple of girlfriends who were in jobs that were comfortable but not fulfilling in any way,” she shares. “I guess it was a theme song for me at the time.” Other standout songs from the album include “Blue Suitcase,” a pointed take on religious hypocrisy, and the title track, which tackles a parent-less world and a lack of role models.

Now on the cusp of stardom, how would Mc-Carley describe her music and who she is as an artist? “What you’ll sense is… sad, with a hopeful edge. I mean I’m not a depressing person to be around, but there’s definitely a dense fog of some sort.” For such an insightful artist, boasting a bold album filled with catchy hooks, meaningful lyrics, and a true sense of purpose, the real hope is that her success will one day match her talent.

Text by Rob Brock
Photos by Laura Crosta

erinmccarley.com
myspace.com/erinmccarley

“Pressing Away Fears, Pushing into the Future”

Ashley Bouder, Principal, New York City Ballet

Almost twenty years into their turbulent career, Mercury Rev has outdone itself even by its own standards with the bands latest offering, Snowflake Midnight. Beamed down from space and into your speakers, Snowflake Midnight’s nine songs all possess an otherworldly sense of transience made all the more numinous by singer/guitarist Jonathan Donahue’s trebly, ethereal vocals. Tracks like the paradoxical “Snowflake in a Hot World” ruminate on transformations within nature, and the delicate state of elements in crystallized stasis.

While the epic “People Are So Unpredictable (There’s No Bliss Like Home)” observes that even in our most uncertain moments, there is always something—in this case, the idea of “home”—to give us comfort during life’s downturns. Sonically, the music matches up to the grandiose themes. Ambient waves wash over electronic pulses before being capsized by monumental rock-opera breakdowns, only to be softened up and smoothed over again. In this sense, there is a cyclical aspect to Snowflake Midnight that is no happy accident on the band’s part, but instead a fully realized scoring of the unpredictability of nature and all its wondrous transitions and transformations.

Bruce Scott

mercuryrev.com
myspace.com/mercuryrevmusic

* Mia Michaels is a world-renowned choreographer. She was recently awarded her first Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography for Calling You, created in 2006 for Fox's So You Think You Can Dance. Mia has been collaborating creatively and as a regular columnist for movmnt since its inception. Mia Michaels: The Calling - first published in movmnt magazine "Got Fame?" Issue - Fall 2007

The calling in one’s life to be a creator is a huge responsibility to the world. There is no backing down once this realization of artistic destiny takes place. It is the commitment of one’s life, the artistic version of the monk. We are being used by God to affect and change the universe, shift the planet, and hopefully leave it forever altered. Once our calling takes place, it is our duty to respect, nurture, and dig into it so deeply that there is no other way of living. It becomes our life and our every breath. Everything we experience transforms into art.

Then there are those who choose but have not been chosen. They make it a career (a business if you will) and have a different take on it. It’s a different way of life. They do it for the love of recognition, money, and fame. These people operate in a thing called the entertainment business.

So many in this business have been successful without caring about creating their own voice or vocabulary, but just copying the great ones that have come before them. They constantly continue to repeat themselves without ever considering the reinvention of oneself, and without guilt or apologies. There is truth in both these worlds, they just have different heartbeats.We are now in a time of reality TV and instant celebrity.

It’s a time of mediocrity, not too much dignity or integrity on screens all over America. I am one of those so-called instant celebrities in the world’s eyes. It just happened over night. I dropped out of the sky and became a big-name choreographer with a face. The funny thing is I am just Mia doing what I have been doing for the last 25 years, but now I am MIA! Very funny and very strange.

The fame will pass. The show will close. The trends will change. What will remain constant are the true artists, visionaries, and creators, the ones that are called. They will stand as they are until they are gone.

I hope and pray to always stay true to my calling. A creator of beauty, ugliness, and worldly art of movement. I hope to be a constant because I am called.

Mia Michaels*

miamichaels.com

First published in movmnt magazine “Got Fame?” Issue – Fall 2007

You can purchase this back issue here:

The truth is that any questions I had about Marc Broussard were answered on a subliminal level when I saw him perform live, and spoke with him in person. This Louisiana-based, son-of-a-down-south-legend, blue-eyed soul singer/songwriter is electric and the genuine article. Whether or not his recent album has that same magic is a question, but I am a believer in Marc, and that is what matters most. When artists come and go at high-speed, and we’re made to decide who stays in our hearts and who we can confide in for the long haul, Marc Broussard is a voice that may very well Keep Coming Back. The following interview takes place just after an acoustic promo performance for Marc’s most recent album release. Rambling through City Hall Park to the sounds of a saxophonist who looks an awful lot like Jazz Man from The Simpsons, we’re both wearing shades. Mine are Ray Ban, his appear to be Rolex — which is awesome . It’s also overcast.

Mario Spinetti: How do you like New York City?

Marc Broussard: I love the city just as it is, but to come out here and play shows is a dream come true. I’d love to live here at some point, but it’s obviously really expensive.

There are different spots within and without the city…

I’m pretty dead set on… Tribeca. [Mutual laughter]

Well yeah, that’s expensive.

[We reach a police rail overlooking City Hall]

So! New record! How do you feel about it?

I’m feeling really good about this record, Mario, I gotta say. It’s a record that I’ve had more involvement with personally than any of my previous albums.

Is it your first production?

I’m not listed as a producer, but yeah. Being able to voice my opinions and have them actually carried out was something new for me. I was present from top to bottom on this project, even for mixing, and there was no editing, which is great! No editing at all! Which is a fantastic way to make a record. You’ve got musicians talented enough to do it, so why beat detective* them?

That’s wonderful, and very uncommon.

In today’s world, yes.

But you’re on Atlantic Records now, and in that tradition, natural, edit-free performances are more commonplace.

It’s more in line with their history. I’m really fired up about being on Atlantic. They’re 100 % behind developing my career, not just developing a record; they’re in the Marc Broussard business, not just the Marc Broussard record business.

That’s also very rare. Again we’re talking about anomalies. You’ve got a record with no editing, and a label that’s looking out for your better interest.

Yeah, absolutely. They want to make me a career artist. They’d like to see me around for a long time, which is a great thing. It’s not just throwing my music up against a wall to see if it sticks. They actually want me to develop and foster the grass roots we’ve laid in place… and they’ve got seven records guaranteed out of me, so if it works well, it’s going to work well for a long time.

Wow! That sounds good though. If I were going to pick a label to be on for seven records…

Yeah, [Atlantic is] the best label in the world right now. And it’s because of a philosophy: having a very small, powerful roster and not trying to flood the industry with a bunch of crap.

When you were growing up was there anyone who influenced your work in a major way?

Growing up, my father [Hall of Fame guitarist Ted Broussard] introduced me to Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye. Personally though, it wasn’t until I discovered Brian McKnight around 6th grade that I really started exploring music on my own. He’s a phenomenal singer and definitely had a major influence on me. As of late, I also feel a really close connection with James Brown, just because the guy’s got so much attitude and that’s really what I want to be bringing to the table – something completely original.

What would you like to see happen with your career? Is there a goal?

Obviously we all want to sell out arenas and stadiums – that’s the dream: to sell 20,000, or 30,000 tickets a night, but it’s not necessary. Considering I’m from Louisiana, I don’t need a whole lot more than what I’ve got right now: a nice house, a very modest home. I’ve got a wife with three kids, and my kids go to the best school in the area, so I don’t really need a whole lot more. I don’t need a Ferrari, and I don’t need a big mansion. If I could have a career like James Taylor or Mose Alison – somebody that can sell 5,000 tickets for the rest of my life, I’m down with that, man. Playing places like the Beacon Theatre… I could live with that.

It sounds like you’re well on your way.

I think so! We’ve got a lot of fans out there who have been die-hards for some time. Hopefully with the release of this record, and a record label pushing things for us, we can break that ceiling and start making some waves.

If there’s one thing you’d like to be remembered for, what would it be?

I’d like to be remembered for bringing families together with my music… music that’s positive enough for parents to dig on, and funky enough for kids to dance to.

*[Beat Detective; pronunciation: \’bēt\ \di-’tek-tiv\; function: verb; definition: a process by which various computer functions analyze misplayed rhythms, and adjust them to graphic perfection. Can be used as a corrective tool or as an aesthetic effect. Comparable to airbrushing in visual mediums, it’s said to exist on over 95% of “pop” records post-dating the late ‘90s, when the tool was conceived.

I recently spoke with a group of professional engineers about Beat Detective and Autotune, which is a similar device that corrects misplayed pitches rather than rhythms, and we came to the conclusion that through years of conditioning, the expectation of most contemporary music listeners is mathematical perfection. In other words, what the contemporary listener expects to occur naturally within music is actually “Beat Detected” where rhythmic elements are concerned, and “Autotuned” where pitches are involved, such that record-makers and musicians are left with musical standards that are nearly impossible to fulfill without the aid of computers.

Interview By Mario Spinetti
Photos By Anjuli Bhattacharyya

marcbroussard.com
atlanticrecords.com

Ace of Base. The Cardigans. Europe. Roxette. And the undying, omnipresent ABA. Listing the Swedish bands that have made it stateside is not a difficult thing to do, but listening to them is.

Somehow, even though Sweden is the third largest music exporter in the world (second only to the U.S. and the U.K.), very few acts have achieved commercial, let alone critical success here in the U.S. But recently that’s begun to change. The Hives brought us a snarling, garage rock revival and Peter Bjorn and John made “Young Folks” an indie rock hit. And if Alibi Tom has anything to say about it, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Mixing Britpop and progressive influences with an indie rock feel and classical training, Alibi Tom’s debut album, Scrapbook, is a smart piece of hook-filled, melodic rock that demands to be noticed.

Formed in 2002, in the small town of Jonkoping, Sweden, the quintet—Joel Goranson on lead vocals, Joel Westergren on drums, Markus Goranson and Erik Goranson Milton on guitar, keyboards and vocals and Martin Dalby Pedersen on bass—comes mostly from classical backgrounds, which plays a role in the band’s reliance on strong melodies and harmony. Markus grew up singing in a boys choir and soon found a taste for early baroque and late renaissance music, like Palestrina.

“Palestrina’s pieces are written in a way that gives every single voice a beautiful melody of its own that fits together nicely in a structure,” Markus says. “I remember when I heard “Paranoid Android” by Radiohead and it really struck me they must have had a lot of that kind of music among their influences.”

Alibi Tom was also heavily influenced by the British music scene of the ‘90s and fed on a healthy diet of Suede, Blur, Supergrass and Radiohead. The band’s own sound is tougher to categorize, but it has a strong Brit-pop feel to it; almost The Kinks meets Travis by way of the Strokes.

Markus agrees, “Erik is a fan of The Strokes’s guitar arrangements and I kind of took Travis to heart when they released The Man Who. Joel’s high pitch vocals remind me of Fran [Healy] in Travis. I find it hard to describe our sound. It’s kind of an organic rock in a pop format.”

The band also defines itself by its stark and refreshing honesty in the lyrics. The lead single, “Fire,” “describes the inner desperation when there’s a mess inside your head, you’re trapped on a treadmill of your own thoughts and longings,” explains frontman Joel G. “Drugs of our Time” is about “the frustration you feel when you look at yourself and see how you actually spend your time. I don’t say it’s wrong doing pointless things we enjoy, it’s just we overdose on it, and I don’t think we realize what damage it brings.”

As the band embarks on a tour of Europe and the UK this October, armed with catchy hooks, insightful lyrics and an amazing live show, only two real questions remain for the future saviors of the Swedish rock scene. First, was Europe’s “The Final Countdown” played to death in Sweden as well? “Yes, laughs Erik, it was a big, big hit here too! When it came on the radio I just couldn’t do anything else than just enjoy the fantastic synthesizer that played the powerful intro melody!”

And finally, is it the band’s greatest desire that no reporter ever brings up ABBA again while interviewing them? Markus doesn’t mind but says, “It’s strange because ABBA is something you rarely speak about in Sweden. Sure, we’ve all heard the tunes but I’ve never owned an ABBA record myself and their music doesn’t really give it to me. Abroad it’s like a whole other thing.”

“I just have to say that I’m actually proud of ABBA,” confesses Erik. “Not that I listen to them every day, but you know…”

“There’s a Swedish food manufacturer called Abba,” Markus reveals after a brief pause. “I really like their pickled herring.”

By Rob Brock

alibitom.com
myspace.com/alibitom

Sorry, our first live tweeterview got delayed due to technical difficulties. Featured on the upcoming cover of Movmnt Magazine, Travis Wall, performer, choreographer, entertainer… will answer questions from Movmnt’s Editor in Chief and Publisher David Benaym for the first ever Movmnt tweeterview at a later time, to be announced soon. Follow movmnt at twitter.com/movmnt Follow Travis Wall at twitter.com/travisova
Thanks for your patience, don’t stop believing…

Whether spinning tracks, co-hosting for So You Think You Can Dance Australia, choreographing a piece, or teaching workshops across the country, Nacho Pop aka Nate Mendelsohn is a versatile artist within the Australian dance and entertainment industries.

On face value he appears to only be a co-hosting personality on So You Think You Can Dance Australia. However this new kid on the block has been involved in the scene for longer than his stage years. Nacho exudes a silent confidence that is not to be confused with arrogance. With his dancing feet firmly placed on the ground, his choreography is not made to receive props from the commercial world, but rather to express the voice within.

Having relocated from the States in 1999, Nacho took his knowledge of the underground street culture in New York and introduced it to the Hip Hop movement in Sydney. Nacho’s style is heavily influenced by Pop and Lock pioneers, the Electric Boogaloos. Nacho has found that Boogaloo is the only style that allows him to find deeper funk than in general Popping. Holding the foundations of Hip Hop in high regard, Nacho still considers himself a student of the underground street scene where creative leaders are constantly pushing new boundaries.

In addition to his role on So You Think You Can Dance Australia, Nacho is also a teacher at the elite Urban Dance Centre in Sydney. Co-Director Julie Williamson describes Nacho as having “his finger on the pulse of the current professional performance industry. Not only is his teaching excellent, but his understanding of the historical foundation of Popping brings an added wealth to his classes.” It is evident that Nacho inspires students to leave as better dancers, by not only teaching them what each step is called, but also where it comes from and the proper technique behind it.

Having his hand in various fields of the entertainment industry, Nacho Pop aka Nate Mendelsohn epitomizes Pop Culture. Although his twitter following may read as a who’s who of showbiz, his lifestyle is not one of flashy cars and expensive suits. Preferring slow dancing in his kitchen as opposed to lapping it up on a boat, his down to earth nature reflects his continuing success in a challenging and competitive industry.

Kristy Johnson

nachopop.com

“Dancing has always been my form of expression. I do it because I truely love it. If you believe in your dreams, they will come true.”

Misty Copeland
Corps de Ballet, American Ballet Theater
Photo © epatinophoto.com for Sansha
epatinophoto.com

Famed choreographer Shen Wei and Shen Wei Dance Arts (SWDA) will be giving two performances in Syracuse, NY on September 24th and 25th as part of the Cultural Diplomacy Symposium. The symposium will explore the importance of culture and understanding through the exchange of ideas, information, traditions and value systems across the globe.

Shen Wei, a native of China, was a founding member of the Guangdong Modern Dance Company, the first of its kind in China. After Wei moved to the United States, his debut at the American Dance Festival opened up many doors for his work to be seen on stages around the world.  He founded Shen Wei Dance Arts (SWDA) in July of 2000 and serves as the company’s artistic director. Since its inception, SWDA has toured extensively on five continents. Wei has created more than 10 works and for each work he creates the set design, costume and make-up designs.  He has won numerous awards including the American Dance Festival’s Ben Sommer Fellowship.

In February, Wei and his dancers spent a three-week residency at Syracuse University. During their residency, a triptych entitled “RE-“ was developed. The Symposium will be the first time that SWDA will perform the piece in Syracuse. SWDAlead nearly 20 master classes open to students and community members while in Syracuse, because of this, further residencies are being discussed.

In addition to SWDA’s performance, Shen Wei, along with Marjane Satrapi, Academy Award-nominated animated film director and children’s book author; Paul Salopek, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner; and David Pogue, Emmy Award-winning correspondent with CBS News will be taking part on a panel discussion on culture diplomacy on Monday Sept.21 from 2-5  for the United Nations’ International Day of Peace. Wei, himself, believes that acknowledging other cultures triggers a step towards hope and peace, often expressed unconsciously, privately, and only rarely in public.

Panel Discussion
Sept. 21st 2-5pm
Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium
Newhouse 3 Building, Syracuse University

The panel discussion will be web cast at 7 pm.

Shen Wei Dance Arts Performances
Sept. 24th and 25th, 7pm
Landmark Theater
362 S Salina St
Syracuse, NY 13202

shenweidancearts.org

Photo By Alex Pines

Some say art imitates nature. If so, the similarity between the two comes from the fact that you can no more stop an artist from producing art than you can stop the sun from rising each day. Artists seem to possess a sort of internal creative energy that keeps them moving forward toward their end goal. Not everyone is missing this drive, but many of us wish we had that focus, inspiration, and ability to stick to our belief in ourselves and in our ideas. It’s another thing to make those ideas a reality. Some people in other professions have these same qualities, but you can see them illuminated more clearly in artists, possibly because they create things for the world to see, or place themselves in the public eye with their art.

Or maybe we notice these characteristics because on so many levels art personifies the artist. Creator and created become one. More often than not, artists do indeed become their art — or it becomes them. The inherent act of creating pushes them constantly, until they simply can’t stop themselves from creating. “Create or die,” becomes their motto. And even if you don’t like their art, then their love of what they do draws you to them and makes their work appealing.

Take Criss Angel. You don’t have to like him or what he does to be intrigued by the passion he has for his art. This magician, illusionist, escapologist, and stunt performer possibly best known for his A&E Network series Criss Angel Mindfreak, has focused on creating magic since he was just seven years old. He’s devoted his life to following in the footsteps of Harry Houdini, taking on the job of disproving the notion that supernatural psychic abilities exist while constantly trying to prove he can accomplish mind over matter, and create illusions, if not actual magic.

Some may say what Angel does isn’t art at all, but sheer craziness. There are acts like the vanishing Lambourghini, the disappearing and reappearing elephant, and the five needles and thread swallowed that appear (threaded no less) out of his belly-button. That’s magic, or at least the art of illusion as we tend to know it. Then comes the other totally crazy stuff he does. Who in their right mind lies down on a bed of broken glass and lets a steamroller drive over him up to his waist? Who asks someone to run into him with their car?

And who stands around to watch? I had a hard time keeping my eye on the computer screen long enough to watch the YouTube videos of Angel per forming these “stunts.” I can’t speak for others. Maybe they are simply thrill seekers. Maybe they like the experience of a, well, mindfreak. Or maybe they watch for the exact reason Angel performs: because of the feeling his performance gives them.

All good art elicits a feeling. We connect on an emotional level with a painting, movie, dance, or performance. Angel calls this “the magic of emotion,” and he hopes the members of his audience will connect with his performance emotionally, and then reflect on their own lives. For him, getting people to experience his art in this fashion represents “the truest form of magic.” In fact, it’s Houdini’s form of magic that he emulates. He likes to tell of how Houdini’s escape from a straitjacket might have provoked the response within someone that they, too, could leave behind the constraints of their life.

So, underneath his rough demeanor and his thrill-seeking shows, Angel is looking for what all artists want: to gain satisfaction not from the act of creation itself, but from a creation, or performance, that touches viewers at a deep level. He relates, “To me it’s always been about what I can bring to my fans and how they react to it emotionally.”

Or, people might react differently; they simply might think he’s crazy. You’ve got to be crazy to do the things Angel does. Maybe it takes a bit of craziness to succeed as an artist, or at least something that looks like insanity to all us “normal” folks. Possibly, success as an artist comes down to a total belief in yourself and your work. To achieve success in art you have to give yourself full permission to express your ideas in any way you feel so moved. You have to possess the ability to focus totally upon your art to the exclusion of anything else. How many of us do that on a regular basis? Angel spends all his time producing or performing. “I don’t really get a lot of free time outside of the show. I only sleep three hours a night, because I’m constantly creating,” he admits.

Constantly creating means bringing both new and old ideas to life. An artist knows in their gut when an idea is good, or when an idea is bad. The bad ones get thrown out quickly. The good ones get used rapidly, or stored away until the time is right for them to be born. They gestate within the artist’s mind and heart and soul, sometimes until he or she can find the right midwife or birthing team to help bring that idea into the world. Then, when the idea is ready, the artist and the creative team give birth to that creation — to something totally new and innovative they have nurtured together.

That’s how Angel’s newest creation, Criss Angel Believe, a collaboration with Cirque du Soleil, came to life. When he couldn’t make it happen alone, he trusted the creative process, which in this case meant also trusting his “baby” to the talents and skills of more than one other artist. “I wrote this show more than fifteen years ago,” says Angel, “It wasn’t until I met [Cirque de Soleil founder] Guy Laliberté that I thought a show like this was even possible. I couldn’t have done it without Cirque and their vision.”

He didn’t think the show was possible, yet he held onto the script for all that time. And he held the idea in his head and in his heart. When given the opportunity, he told someone about it — but not just anyone. He told someone who had already proven he had that same artistic fire and drive, someone who had created a world of art all his own. Somewhere deep inside, Angel knew his idea was not only a good one, but that it was, indeed, possible. Otherwise he would have simply ditched it and moved on.

Laliberté and Angel share a similar rationale when it comes to their shows. A former accordionist, stilt-walker, and fire-eater who began pursuing his career in the performing arts at age sixteen, Laliberté decided not to use animals or rings in his circus, because he believed that by doing something unexpected — by not using typical circus elements — audiences would be pulled into the performance and have a different experience. Now, teaming up with Angel, he once again is reinventing his concept, doing something no one has done before under his particular “big top.”

Believe is Cirque du Soleil’s first show sans acrobatics. It’s also Angel’s first show since Mindfreak hit television that doesn’t include his signature spectator-point-of-view-filmed feats. Instead, he and Laliberté bring to Vegas’s Luxor Hotel a dramatic and beautifully depicted tale accented with dance and illusion. “It’s been my dream to take magic in a completely different direction, and I think we are doing that with this show,” says Angel.

Like Angel needed Laliberté’s vision to bring his dream into reality, he also needed the help of two other amazing artists: co-writer and director Serge Denoncourt and choreographer Wade Robson. They offered him their unique creative minds and skill sets, adding these to the process to produce a work bearing all their unique talents. Because that’s what happens when you put several artists together: their worlds, talents, and ideas converge to create something even more unique and innovative.

While Angel may be a master at the illusion we call “magic,” Denoncourt can be called a master of creating an illusion through written words. Known as a true man of the theater with more than eighty productions to his credit, he was planning to study medicine when he decided at the age of eighteen to audition for the theater program at a Montreal college, was accepted, and became an actor. Now he couples his actor’s point of view with his ability to “doctor” scripts and draws audiences into his productions, first with visual beauty, heightened imagery, and vivid use of color, and second, with a storyline that forces them to look deeply into the characters, plot, and ultimately, into themselves.

When given the task of writing for a magic show, Denoncourt set about producing one with emotion and storyline, something he judged most other magic shows as lacking. He produced something totally new, a magic show like none seen ever before, one presenting illusions not as standalone elements but as components integrated into the fabric of a fabulous story, one that takes you deep into the mind of none other than Angel himself.

Every story needs movement. It needs to be brought to life. Thus, Robson came in to bring all the pieces together, to add energy to the project. He’s the master of creating magic and illusion in the form of dance. In fact, Robson likes choreographing best when he can tell a story with dance.

With his own take on the story, Robson added an eclectic mix of contemporary and hip-hop dance in which not one move is made simply “for the sake of movement,” but instead each “is driven by story and character.”

If Believe constitutes a trip into the recesses of Angel’s mind, as you might imagine, some pretty weird characters dwell in there. Angel stars as a surreal, enigmatic Victorian noble moving along a path of imaginative exploration. On the way, he encounters two brightly clad women, who represent different aspects of femininity, four bizarre ushers, who introduce the audience to the baroque theater of Angel’s mind, and a high-energy troupe of characters. These include rabbits (like none you’ve ever seen pop out of a hat), a two-headed woman, eagle-like creatures, and something that looks like a porcelain doll come to life. They all exist in this highly-theatrical tableau set against a backdrop of dreamlike darkness and light.

As the curtain opens on Believe, this time no one will see Angel impaled on a fence or cut in half. The risk lies in simply doing what he must, in creating his art, in accomplishing his creative goal. And, most importantly, it lies in actually living his dream, but isn’t that what we call an artist’s life? Isn’t that what we all want — to live every day with passion, inspiration, and a crazy, fire-in-our-belly sort of drive to succeed almost at all costs?

So, what do you get when great artistic minds come together? Their passion, persistence, inspiration, and perspiration result in even greater genius. In the case of Believe, you end up with the most innovative Cirque de Soleil show ever and a Criss Angel production unlike any his “loyals” have seen to date. The unique Cirque style, combined with the talent of all three artists, has produced a high-energy visual feast moved along by its story and punctuated with sound, color, movement, and, of course, illusion.

For Angel, the most amazing part of the creative process that produced Believe lies in the fact that “the vision has remained seamless” despite the fact that he asked so many creators to visualize it with him. “Serge Denoncourt has done an amazing job directing the show. Wade Robson is an Emmy-winning choreographer, and you’ll see some amazing dance numbers. It all has come together to create something the world of entertainment has never seen,” he concludes.

Angel’s belief in his ideas actually might be the most amazing aspect of his new show. If it weren’t for that belief, Believe would never have been created. If Angel doesn’t see the truth in that statement, he needs to remember a story he tells about how he named his newest creation. He says that before Houdini died, he gave his wife a code word so that she would be able to tell the impostors from the true mediums — if any existed — who said he had come back and spoken to them. No one ever gave her that code word, but Angel says he’s used it as the title of this show. Believe. How fitting.

GUY LALIBERTE A FREE MAN — LITERALLY

A bold visionary, Laliberté, knows a good idea when he sees one. After all, he reinvented the Circus as an art form when he co-founded Cirque du Soleil, recognizing and cultivating the talents of the street performers from the Fête Foraine de Baie-Saint-Paul in Quebec where Cirque du Soleil represented a revolution of sorts in the circus world; it was a totally new and innovative idea, a different type of circus all together. Laliberté believed in his idea, though, and created it. Twenty-five years later, Cirque has become the crème de la crème of acrobatic theatrical performances and the best ring-less, animal-less circus in the world.

WADE ROBSON NOT JUST YOUR USUAL CHOREOGRAPHER

Robson, like Angel, has been pursuing his art since he was very young — actually, just five years old. If you go back and watch some old Michael Jackson videos, you can see him in them and he was only ten years old. At the ripe old age of sixteen, he began choreographing for Britney Spears and ‘NSYNC and writing and producing music for these two recording artists as well as a host of others. He’s made his name as a choreographer who doesn’t see dance like other choreographers, and is sure to offer up something unexpected. He won a 2007 Emmy for his work on Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance.

CRISS ANGEL SUPERSTAR

Some say Criss Angel represents the second coming of Jesus. This 41-year old, who has been seen doing Christ-like things, such as walking on water, levitating, and being strung under a moving helicopter by hooks supposedly dug into the flesh on his back, actually grew up as Christopher Nicholas Sarantakos in East Meadow, New York. The only difference between him and the other kids was that at the age of seven he began pursuing his dream by studying mysticism, music, martial arts, and dance. Later, he created his stage persona as Criss Angel. His Off-Broadway production of Criss Angel Mindfreak had a 600-show run, and with his Criss Angel Mindfreak television show he has performed more hours of prime-time magic than anyone in history. This show alone probably helped him become the one magician to bring about a major resurgence of magic in popular culture today. Even other magicians acknowledge his outstanding talent and have named Angel Magician of the Year five times, given him the 22nd Louie Award for outstanding achievement in the art of magic, and most recently honored him with the International Magicians Society’s Magician of The Decade award.

Nina Amir

cirquedusoleil.com/Believe
crissangel.com

One of the best scenes in all of movies, in my humble opinion, is a simple one: the actress Heather Graham, in an act of equal parts exhaustion and defiance, picks up a worn leather cowboy hat and tosses it casually on a bed. It’s from the movie Drugstore Cowboy, directed by Gus Van Sant, and it’s a moment full of suspense over something so little.

What does the hat on the bed mean? It’s the king of all superstitions to a group of resourceful Portland, Oregon junkies who rob drugstores across the Pacific Northwest to feed their habit. Matt Dillon is the leader of the misfit family, whose life when not shooting up is ruled by curses, hexes and superstitions involving dogs, mirrors, and the infamous hat on a bed, which can cause a minimum of fifteen years of bad luck, and possibly even death. It marks a turning point in the film for the characters, and it becomes comic in ways that are thoroughly unusual. The matter-of-factness of the storytelling throws you off, and you find yourself laughing at serious things while having serious reactions to funny things. Your moral compass can’t find its bearings, and you are forced to look at the characters in new ways.

The great film critic Pauline Kael said, “Drugstore Cowboy keeps you laughing because it’s so non-judgmental.” That’s a good way to describe what Gus Van Sant does so well as a filmmaker. What’s right or wrong in his films is never a question, but his choice to make this an irrelevant part of his work is what allows his characters to shine. In the director’s first feature release Mala Noche, Tim Streeter plays a clerk at a dingy convenience store who is obsessed with a regular customer, a Mexican boy who shuns his romantic advances. In My Own Private Idaho, River Phoenix has one of his best roles as a narcoleptic street hustler who finds himself suddenly falling asleep at the oddest moments, scaring to death his confused customers. Nicole Kidman has her best role in To Die For, as a cable-access TV weather caster whose quest for fame leads her to mastermind an irrational plot to kill her husband. In that film, as one of the hapless teenagers she enlists, Joaquin Phoenix plays a horny, confused boy who has no idea what has just happened to him when he lands in jail for the crime. His scenes have the ache of first love that make Kidman’s character all the more monstrous.

Director Gus Van Sant on the set of Milk Photo: Phil Bray

These characters are all on the fringes of society, and they are all arguably pitiful people who find themselves in even more pitiful situations, but in overlooking class or society standards (and in some cases moral standards) they emerge as classic movie heroes, suffering from the pangs of real love, the desire to find a family, and the decision to finally grow up and take care of them-selves. In Drugstore Cowboy, Matt Dillon’s character Bob one day decides to simply stop taking drugs. The scenes make you laugh because it never occurred to you it could be that simple. His moment of clarity feels like a triumph, and it has the snap of a major movie moment. In Gus Van Sant’s films, his characters are inspiring in spite of themselves. I think that’s why we like them so much.

In his new movie Milk, his subject is the real-life hero Harvey Milk, who in the 1970s was the first openly gay man elected to a political office in the United States, and who in many ways was responsible for the beginning of the gay rights movement. In the film, he is played by Sean Penn in an uncanny performance that captures the flaws and charisma of the real-life Harvey Milk, who made up for his lack of political experience with his ability to connect intensely with the people he came into contact with. Like many Van Sant characters, Harvey Milk was always distinctly himself. His sexuality was never an issue for him personally, and it wasn’t until he moved to San Francisco’s Castro District and opened a small camera shop that he felt the first stirrings of a political life.

“Before 1969, you couldn’t be an openly gay man at all,” says Van Sant, from his home in Portland, Oregon. “You couldn’t hold hands with another man, walk down the street. In Oregon, you could be arrested for making a pass at a guy in a bar. When Harvey lived in New York, he had to cruise for other gay men in Central Park, and at the Opera of all places. But he didn’t want to have to do that anymore. What was missing was being able to be out at work, to his parents, his neighbors.”

After Harvey moved to the Castro District, he began seeing signs of injustice around him. He began to voice his opinion, and he kept getting louder and louder about it. He decided to run for a position on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in hopes of making a change, but was largely unsuccessful until he courted the unlikely support of the Teamsters Union. They were in a battle with the Coors Corporation for using non-union delivery drivers, and Harvey Milk promised that he would get Coors beer out of every gay bar in the Castro. When he made good on his word, the union backed him, and gained enough support to be elected into office.

“I think Harvey had an awakening,” says Van Sant. “It happened step by step. It was a learning process in how to play the political game. But it was difficult because he was having to do that as an out gay person, which was a tough mix at the time.”

“Harvey had a very simple philosophy. He believed that if gay men and women just came out, then there would be less opposition. He believed if people suddenly saw that their close friends and sons and daughters were gay that they would have to change the way they thought. They would see how many gay people there were and start accepting the fact that they are regular people like anyone else in their lives. Simply coming out was his main rallying cry.”

Possibly his biggest victory politically was playing a key role in keeping the Briggs Initiative from being passed in California, a law that would make the firing of gay schoolteachers and their supporters (regardless of sexual orientation) mandatory. His public outcry gained national attention, and the then Governor Ronald Reagan and President Jimmy Carter both publicly voiced their opposition to the law, citing infringement of civil rights.

“It was a slow, methodical job, but Harvey was a very charismatic person, and he learned to be good at it. A lot of the basic rights that have been won for gay people were won at that time by Harvey,” says Van Sant.

In November of that same year, one of Harvey’s fellow supervisors, a man named Dan White stepped down from his position over a salary dispute. He was a fireman and an anti-gay conservative who resented Harvey for not backing his bid for a raise. When he tried to return to office, the Mayor denied his request. But before he could make the announcement publicly, Dan White entered City Hall through a basement window with his police- issued service revolver and shot the Mayor. He then reloaded it and went into Harvey Milk’s office and shot him five times, twice in the head.

Not long after, White admitted to the murders. At his trial, the defense lawyers barred anyone who was pro-gay from the jury and then brought in a psychologist to testify that his diet of junk food – specifically Twinkies – accelerated his depression and lead to the crimes. The jury gave him only five years in prison, with parole. After the verdict was read, the city was outraged, and there was rioting in the streets.

Sean Penn, Alison Pill, Emile Hirsch, and Lucas Grabeel (left to right) star as real-life gay rights activists Harvey Milk, Anne Kronenberg, Cleve Jones, and Danny Nicoletta Photo: Phil Bray.

“It was a crime committed out of frustration, and it changed things permanently,” says Van Sant. “Today, Harvey Milk’s influence can still be seen in politics. It just keeps evolving. Marriage is an issue now.”

Milk opened in theaters on November 26, one day before the thirtieth anniversary of his death. The film co-stars an eclectic cast of some of the best young talent in Hollywood in a decidedly un-Hollywood film. Josh Brolin (W., No Country For Old Men) plays Dan White. James Franco (Pineapple Express, Spider-Man) plays Harvey Milk’s lover, Scott Smith. Emile Hirsch (Speed Racer, Into the Wild) plays his longtime friend, Cleve Jones, and Lucas Grabeel, of High School Musical fame, plays a worker in his camera shop. It is fitting that the movie’s official premiere was in San Francisco and was hosted by Senator Dianne Feinstein, who was the President of the Board of Supervisors at the time, and who was one room away when Harvey was shot to death.

Over the years, there have been many different scripts and directors attached to Harvey’s story in Hollywood, including Oliver Stone and Bryan Singer (in 1985, a wonderful documentary about his life, The Times of Harvey Milk won the Academy Award). But it’s fitting that it is Van Sant who ended up making the film. Harvey Milk is in many ways a quintessential Gus Van Sant hero. The film begins with Harvey on his birthday thinking, “I’m forty years-old and I haven’t done a thing.” This line begins his journey, his search for his own voice, which is something that most of Van Sant’s characters do. He’s a modern chronicler of lost people looking for a way out.

“It’s a preoccupation of mine, I guess,” says Van Sant. “I am attracted to characters who are introspective, who are searching for direction or meaning.”

Almost all of his films are concerned with the interior journeys of his characters. He is fascinated by the processes of searching and thinking and understanding, and his films come closer than nearly any modern director to capturing those intimate moments. Some critics have labeled him as a filmmaker who specializes in troubled youth, and some have gone further to say that it’s just a preoccupation with young, good-looking youth. His most recent film, Paranoid Park, released earlier in the year, told the story of a young teenage boy caught up in a violent and mysterious happening outside of a Portland skate park. The way his camera lingered on his main character, and seemed to swoon in such a dream-like way at kids flying through the air on skateboards forced you to connect with moods and images over a coherent, straightforward narrative. His acclaimed film Elephant also lingered over gorgeous high school kids to a degree that it sometimes had the quality of distracting you from the tragedy (a high school shooting) the film was about. There is no question his images are potent and beautiful and often sexual, but I would encourage those critics to look closer. His camera lingers not as a voyeur, but in a genuine desire to penetrate the surface, to go deeper into the minds and feelings of his characters. He uses his camera, and film as a medium, to get inside someone else’s shoes. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.

“It’s not a style I have ever consciously thought about,” says Van Sant. “It’s something that has happened over twenty years of making movies. There has never been a design to it. It doesn’t come from me, but from the different characters in my films. It’s something I started out doing, and it’s something I still do. I try to see through their point of view. I did that with Harvey while making Milk.”

“My first three films, Mala Noche, Drugstore Cowboy, and My Own Private Idaho were all basically diaries. Two were even written by the people who lived them. I find myself drawn to that diary aspect of storytelling.”

One might say that Gus Van Sant has been writing his diary on film too. Lately, he seems to be searching as a filmmaker right alongside his characters. After reaching indie notoriety with his first three films, he scored a major Hollywood breakthrough with Good Will Hunting in 1997. He was nominated for an Academy Award for it and it made over $100 million at the box office. After that, he tried his hand at another Hollywood film, the Oscar- baiting Finding Forrester, about an inner city youth whose basketball crashes through the window of a reclusive Pulitzer Prize winning author, played by Sean Connery, and discovers his own writing abilities. It was the type of film Hollywood hands to talented up and coming directors that usually dull their edge and ruin their careers.

But Gus Van Sant followed up the lackluster film with a shot-for-shot remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic Psycho. It starred Anne Heche as Marion Crane and Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates. It was a major disappointment financially, but was an unheard of film-making experiment for such a high-profile project. He then shot Gerry, a movie starring Casey Affleck and Matt Damon as buddies who get lost on a hike in the desert and literally spend the entire film trying to find their way back to their car. Some people found it unwatchable, and others profoundly spiritual. Next was Elephant, based on the school shooting incident at Columbine High School, which featured long, languorous tracking shots through school hallways that slowly pulled you into odd moods that became menacing. The film won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival that year, but audiences either loved it or got lost in its dreamy qualities (the same was said of his recent Paranoid Park). He then took what he started stylistically with Gerry and Elephant and went even further with it in Last Days, which followed a Kurt Cobain-like rock star walking in a drug-addled haze through a house and the surrounding woods during the last hours of his life before he shoots himself. Almost nothing happens in the film. The concept is equally touching and frustrating.

“As audiences we have become so used to a kind of style that has been generated by an industry,” says Van Sant. “And we are still inside of it. We can’t see beyond it, and that’s not what film should be. It’s a very mysterious form, and it’s still relatively young.”

That’s possibly the best description of what his films have been lately – mysterious. He’s reminiscent of David Lynch or David Cronenberg in his ability to create dream-like moods and visual states of mind. But unlike those two filmmakers, his movies strive to communicate the pangs of changing, of being lost and capturing those first steps out. He’s a poet of self-discovery. Whether people like his films or not, they remain challenging, enigmatic and full of searching. And at this point in his career, he deserves to be recognized as the significant American filmmaker that he is.

With Milk’s wide release and its large recognizable cast, audiences will get a chance to see that as well.

By Blake Davis

focusfeatures.com

Rogue Wave is the incarnation of singer and guitarist Zach Schwartz (a.k.a. Zack Rogue), a former member of the Bay Area band, the Desoto Reds. When Rogue lost his job as a dot-comer, he headed for New York to team up with producer Bill Racine and lay down the tracks for Rogue Wave’s debut album. Out of the Shadows was privately released in 2003. A newly formed Oakland California quartet, including Pat Spurgeon (drums, samples, guitar, vocals), Gram Lebron (keyboards, guitar, drums, vocals) and Sony Westcott (bass, vocals)- later replaced by bassist Evan Farrell- embarked on a nationwide promotional tour. Rogue Wave quickly earned a spot on the indie label Sub Pop Records, who re-released Out of the Shadows in 2004.

Hazy and charmingly melodic, Rogue Wave’s debut couples pensive lyrics and ghostly, eerily whimsical strings. The opening stanza of the first track, “Every Moment,” serves as a window to the album: “Every moment that you’re here/I feel ashes on my ear/subtle difference disappears. Rogue’s vocals are airy, as if it’s trying to capture something in the ether. The lightheartedness is complemented by Simon and Garfunkel-like string combinations.

For their sophomore release, Descend Like Vultures (2005), which was written entirely by Rogue, the band opted for a louder sound, though the album is still fundamentally atmospheric. The new weight can be credited to the album’s production, which has evolved significantly since its Shadows era. There is a certain amount of relief offered by heavy guitar manipulation and harder synths, but Rogue’s cadence remains unchanged. His voice breaks through in “California,” where he cries, “Screw California/And friends that are never there… And ice that will never melt.” The album is substantial, even, as its title suggests, meaty. But Vultures is not the departure from Shadows that it initially appears to be; the differences are more cosmetic, and certainly beneficial. A mysterious liveliness is born here. Well-orchestrat- ed musical dimension results in interesting textures, and a more cohesive Rogue Wave sound.

The band’s upward climb came to a halt after Vultures, when member Pat Spurgeon was diagnosed with kidney failure. Spurgeon is a dynamic artist; in addition to Rogue Wave, he’s played in the bands Antenna, Stranded at the Drive In, Ramona the Pest, Brando, Steve Kowalski and Lessick, and released solo work as The Phantom Drummer. Fans showed their support with donations as well as many hopeful words for the fun-loving Spurgeon, the man who felt it necessary to add “ass slaps (left and right cheeks)” to his repertoire.

Rogue Wave was pleased to announce Spurgeon’s successful kidney transplant on January 12, though in the same month bassist Even Farrell officially left the band. The band has yet to declare a replacement, though they are currently performing. Their most recent show was an in-store performance at Urban Outfitters in Santa Cruz, California, on May 25th.

Serena Sandford

First published in Movmnt Magazine “Got Fame?” Issue – Fall 2007

roguewavemusic.com
myspace.com/roguewave

Movmnt Magazine presents iVAN, i-VISION, i-ANALYZE and i-NETWORK, an online mini-series hosted by hip-hop dancer/choreographer, Ivan Koumaev. After covering So You Think You Can Dance season 4 for Movmnt, Ivan met up with the crews behind the scenes of MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew Season 3.  With the start of ABDC’s fourth season, Movmnt brings you an exclusive interview with the winners of last season.  Ivan visits the one and only Quest Crew in their hotel room and chats it up backstage with Beau Fornier from Fanny Pak (ABDC season 2) about his thoughts on the judges of ABDC.

Now in its 4th season, ABDC’s has an eclectic array of competitors. The show kicked off last Sunday with Latin flavorings from AfroBoriké, the classically trained Artistry in Motion, crazy steps from Beat Ya Feet, the green-sportin’ Massive Monkees, the street savvy Rhythm City, a twangy hip hop twisted from Southern Movement, the bright lights of Vogue Evolution, and the poppin’ styles of We Are Heroes. The first crew eliminated was the funky jazz dancin’ Fr3sh.

Join the free network at movmnt.net for more inside ABDC exclusives, or check out more iVAN episodes at movmnt.com/ivan.

America’s Best Dance Crew

Movmnt attended the workshop and snapped a few pictures of the current and future Broadway stars in action.

revolucionlatina.org

Selection By Melissa Carter - Design By Justin DeWalt

Merce Cunningham, renowned, respected, and revered choreographer passed away last night, Sunday July 26th 2009, in his sleep at the age of ninety. Cunningham, who dared to take dance to the extreme through experimentation with music and art as interdisciplinary aspects of the movement, is often considered the father of contemporary dance. He was one of the first to take dance out of the narrative and make dance just for the pure dynamic expression of movement through space.

Cunningham’s collaboration with John Cage, one of the greatest American composers, pushed the limits by entertaining dance with original scores of music that had never been practiced together until a performance. Cunningham set intricate pieces of movement to counts and silence, and at the performance the dancers danced to the music for the very first time. Without Cunningham, we would never have seen some dance greats like Paul Taylor, Twyla Tharp, Trisha Brown, Bill T. Jones, and countless others who started their careers in the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.

In Cunningham’s Will he expressed that his company shall tour for only two years after his death, and then dissolve immediately thereafter. Seven decades of Cunningham shall come to a halt in two short years. The Cunningham company is set to perform a site-specific work at the Rockafeller Park in Battery Park City as park of New York City’s River to River Festival on August 1st and 2nd. It is a free event, so go if you can, it may be one of the last times you will be able to see the Merce Cunningham Dance Company free.

River to River Festival
merce.org

Photo by Annie Leibovitz

Rest in Peace Merce, may you live on in every dancer’s heart forever.

For the hotly anticipated new music video featuring Beyoncé and two dancing ladies, JaQuel Knight took the reigns as the head choreographer of a video that relies on nothing more than an incredible dance performance.

Co-Choreographer, JaQuel Knight, and Beyoncé throw up their deuces for the camera after wrapping the sixteen-hour shoot for the hot single, “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)”

After watching the past take on the monitor, director Jake Nava screams through the walls to give the ladies a few notes.

JaQuel give notes as he studies camera shots with the “B-Team” with his handheld monitor.

Ashley Everett, dancer, is finishing up final touches in the hair and make-up department, and is ready to get things rockin’ & rollin’ with the shoot.

As the crew adjusts the spotlights, the “Ladies” stand in the opening pose and wait for the Queen B to join them.

There they go! The ladies give all that they have each take, throughout the long hours.

beyonceonline.com

The Bird and the Bee’s pop-oriented lounge music on Ray Guns Are Not Just The Future could soundtrack any given day in the life, from a lazy summer afternoon, to a casual night club, to a bumpin’ dance floor. Singer Inara George’s slinky, shadowy pipes burst with an immediate singing prowess while still retaining a soft innocence. The duo’s other half, Greg Kurstin—who has worked with names ranging from Lily Allen to Britney Spears—fills out the band’s sound with beats that are spacey yet smooth. Random computer noises team with peppy accompaniment from horns, harps, even a saloon piano, and many-layered vocals create an otherworldly depth. Though George and Kurstin first bonded over their love of jazz standards and call that genre’s mother label Blue Note home, their second release steps towards mainstream standards with girlishcheerleader anthem “My Love,” and the Spice Girls in space “Love Letter To Japan.” The ‘20s tempo on “You’re A Cad” is a playful jaunt accentuated with French accordion, and reflects the youthful lean of the album’s lyrics in their giddy handling of love and dating. Ray Guns tinkers and experiments as much as it presents remarkably accessible pop songs, and so emerges as a crowd-pleaser from all sides.

Liz Levine
thebirdandthebee.com
myspace.com/thebirdandthebee

]]> http://www.movmnt.com/the_bird_and_the_bee_007321.html/feed 0 http://www.movmnt.com/brutal-dreamscape_004904.html http://www.movmnt.com/brutal-dreamscape_004904.html#comments Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:00:09 +0000 Matthew Murphy http://www.movmnt.com/?p=4904
Thirty minutes ago you were herded into a dark room, and now there are half-naked women body slamming against the ceiling. For a moment you think you are watching Girls Gone Wild: Slip and Slide Edition. But the contorted patterns the performers make, gliding through water on the other side of the plastic lowered within inches of your face, are far too artistic to have been dreamt up by Joe Francis. You are at Fuerzabruta, an Off-Broadway show concocted by the same perverse, imaginative team that made De La Guarda a sensation ten years ago.]]>

Thirty minutes ago you were herded into a dark room, and now there are half-naked women body slamming against the ceiling. For a moment you think you are watching Girls Gone Wild: Slip and Slide Edition. But the contorted patterns the performers make, gliding through water on the other side of the plastic lowered within inches of your face, are far too artistic to have been dreamt up by Joe Francis. You are at Fuerzabruta, an Off-Broadway show concocted by the same perverse, imaginative team that made De La Guarda a sensation ten years ago.

Music is exploding from speakers lining the perimeter of the floor, which is crammed with people craning their heads trying to catch a glimpse of the dream-scape unfolding around the space. It’s so loud the fabric of your t-shirt vibrates ever so slightly. This isn’t what was expected when standing outside the theater—a converted bank whose exterior hints at none of the fantastical nature of the show inside. Now you feel as if you’re at a European rave. The bustling streets of New York, only fifty feet away from where the audience stands, seem tame in comparison.

Bodies press against yours, gently guiding you to a new location as platform stages are wheeled out into the center of the performance space. Drums start pounding. There are men running through the audience, and one pulls you out into the center of group of fellow onlookers. He hands over what appears to be a square block and starts dancing up against you as he mimics for you to slam the block on top of his head. Hesitation takes over for a moment, and then you crash it down over the crown of his head, which is dripping sweat down his body, and soaking through a button down shirt. The block crumbles instantly, and the lights go black.

It is still for a moment. But the past forty-five minutes have informed you that, in here, anything can happen. What began as a strange, theatrical version of the film Run, Lola, Run, has quickly become as warped as a Dali painting. There have already been women chasing each other around on billowy metallic fabric, suspended high above the crowd, and men running through walls barreling toward them at high-speed.

Water drips onto your shoulder. The lights illuminate the entire space, as people throw their hands up in the air, dancing to the music. Suddenly you are in the middle of a torrential downpour, brought on by a hose. Some stand on the side, timid observers avoiding the water; but you want to be right in the middle of it. Everything culminates in this moment, as the crowd becomes part of the fantasy.

And then it is over. As you walk out onto the street, it seems impossible to steady yourself; it’s as if you’ve been on a moving walkway and suddenly stepped off, unable to adjust to the lessened pace. Your clothes are soaked and people begin to stare at your group of friends, dripping a path through Union Square and frantically recounting the events of the past hour. An hour?! you think to yourself. Fuerzabruta means brute force. No wonder you feel like you’ve been partying all night.

Matthew Murphy
fuerzabruta.net