Music

Music is so complex! It has no many scientific and mathematical aspects to it they I didn't know about. For example I was fascinated by the fact that sound is only really what our body creates. In class people were explaining that if a tree falls in the forest has no sound because no one is there to "hear" it. This is so hard for me to comprehend. I did not know that we as humans play such a huge role in sound and thus in music. I did however know that music has a huge affect on us. Music can completely change my mood! If I want to be motivated I play certain songs, if I want to cheer myself up I play certain songs, and if Im sad and want to stay sad there are songs for that too. But in all seriousness music really does affect me. If I hear something that, to me seems sad, I get this horrible homesick feeling and my mood completely changes. I'm glad we learned a little bit about why music can be so influencing. The tones provoke different emotions, like defeat and triumph. i think it also has something to do with association. Some sounds or songs force me to remember or think of a sad or happy time and then I form my opinion about the song. It really is so interesting, this is something that I would love to learn more about. I just have to add that I love the "virtuoso" and the fact that they are referred to as the first rock stars. I wish I could see them perform then, the music is so beautiful and they were so talented.     

World Folk Fest

Last night I had the opportunity to go to the the Wold Folk Fest in Springville. It's a celebration of numerous countries and their cultures through dance and music. The performance was held at the Arts Park on a large open stage that was in an outdoor amphitheater build into the small hill. The open stage really added to the overall atmosphere in this situation because it made the dancers and musicians so real. When I walked from the parking lot to the seating area I could see behind the stage and saw the dancers warming up or walking through their routines it was really neat. It made them real people, as if i were literally walking through their practice or dance in the country from which they came. It also helped to include the audience and allowed them to hear and clearly see all of the performers.  

The dancing was amazing! I especially loved the Korean and Chinese dancing as well as the Native American. The Korean dancing really blew me away because I had no idea it was so lively. The woman were jumping and using these gorgeous and gigantic fans to create frames and shapes across the stage. In their second number the woman came out playing drums that hung across their shoulder. They were actually playing really cool beats and rhythms. I found it really refreshing that the women had the drums, I guess I just assumed that would be something that only the men would do. At the end these two adorable little girls came out. They had the cutest costumes on, little white puffy pants with elaborate red blouses that spun like a dress around them. They were jumping so high, and in perfect unison! They were so young but so disciplined, it really said a lot about their culture and the respect that have for all that they do. The Chinese dancing was similar to the Korean, very bright and colorful and more bouncy than I thought it would be. What I noticed about the Chinese group though is that all of the woman, and there were about twenty, were the same height and shape. It made the dance look so professional and so clean. It must be a company that requires their dancers to be a certain weight and height. It really added to the lovely dance. It was as though they were flouting across the stage in perfect unison. The Native Americans did a traditional Hoop dance as their last number. I have heard about this dance before but have never seen it until last night, it was so beautiful and really like magic! The three male dancers would slowly add more hoops onto them, at first they were jumping through them as if they were ropes and contorting their bodies to go through the hoops. As they continued to add hoops they began making these absolutely beautiful shapes that mimicked birds flapping their wings and soaring through the sky. They each had at least fifteen or more hoops in their arms and interlinked all across their bodies, I have no idea how they did it!  

Though the event was to highlight dancing from around the world I felt that it was a musical performance as well. The different countries all had live bands that played for the performers. The Polynesian and Native American groups had a vocalist that would sing or chant in their own language. It was so beautiful to hear authentic music. The Chinese group put a real focus on their music. The band had many members, and i know it sounds cheesy, but I felt like I was in a movie, like i was literally in China all because of the recognizable sounds and music. One soloist played an instrument that looked like a clarinet. It was announced as the first free reed instrument. The musician came out onto the stage after the dancers with this instrument and another that looked similar but more like a trumpet. He traded of with the band as they echoed his rhythms. It was like a drummer and dancer trading off beats but with melodies. He kept switching from one to the other and in between he would whistle. This was not an ordinary whistle, I have never heard a sound so high come from a human. I don't know if he had something in his mouth or not but it was so loud and so high pitched! He continuously increased the tempo until it was so fast I was blown away and laughing because of the crazy sounds and speeds. He was remarkable. 

I loved the performance and give it a ten. The atmosphere was wonderful and the performances were so fulfilling and really beautiful. I believe that dance says so much about a culture. 

Post Modernism Theatre

"Postmodernism theatre  makes a presentation, not a representation." -Mick Walls

The Compact Oxford English Dictionary refers to postmodernism as "a style and concept in the arts characterized by distrust of theories and ideologies and by the drawing of attention to conventions." Postmodernism was introduced as a rebellion or escape from the modernist theatre. The postmodern style focuses on the idea that beliefs and rules are malleable. It stretches the viewer's mind and forces them to ask questions throughout the production rather than providing answers and resolution. Postmodernism theatre wants its audience to think. It was a movement away from "linearity" to plots with multiple story lines coming together or happening simultaneously provoking drama, known as "multiplicity." Both the narrative and characters can be split or fragmented with all the parts coming from one central idea, this also coincides with the gravitation towards multiplicity. It was less about the actual performance and more about the reflections of the audience. Postmodernism wanted the audience to create and form their own beliefs, there was no spoon feeding so to speak. It rejected high and low art and wanted the audience to be very much a part of the production and form their own opinions, and interpretations. Mele Yamomo said this is his article, "Defining Postmodernism," "To Elinor Fuchs, it is postmodern theatre that we witness the death of the character and eradication of the plot." If I understand correctly, the way that each individual interprets the production is the correct one, no further analyzation or pinpointed message is wanted. Postmodernism is a rejection of genre and style. There was even a rejection of formally scripted dialogue and improvisation was used. Postmodernism attempted to step out of reality "to create its own self conscious atmosphere" defines Wikipedia.  I think that this quote by Kerstin Schmidt really helps to explain and sum up what Postmodernism theatre is trying to achieve. "Postmodernism drama remains a theater of theory... with vital interest in the transformative processes of perception, that is, on how drama and theater are created and presented on stage." 

Here are few examples of Postmodernism productions listed by Wikipedia

Sam Shepard's "Buried Child"

Ozono Production's "Frueza Brut

Heiner Muller's "Hamletmachieche"

Ben Elton's "Popcorn"

 

Reading

In the reading for this week I found it so interesting that Levitin talks about the way singer's break up their words. He points out the close relationship between the lyrics and the beat. He also relates foot taps as a real idea. It's interesting that the way we feel the beat and the lyrics that are set to them have a real affect on the piece as a whole. Our foot tapping to the beat helps to determine how we feel towards the music without even noticing it. It also helps to distinguish the beat in our mind. I never thought the way I move to music or react to it can play a part in the actual beat. It relates a lot to dance as well. The way one moves can add to the feeling of the music and obviously to the beats. 

MUsical Event

This morning I went to a music event and competition. Some played accordions, some violins, some piano, it was really neat. I'm at a dance event in California and the night before there was a music competition and later and open session of playing. It was really interesting. It made me push myself to sit down and enjoy the music that I would normally never listen to. The room was large but the performers sat around in a small area while the audience either sat or stood around to see the musicians up close. It created a quite, almost family atmosphere, it was really sweet. It relates a little to dance in the way that people use their talents to express their emotions and to entertain people. It's a way for them to enjoy themselves while also bringing joy to others. I really do love music I think it can provoke so many different emotions.   

This week in class we talked about the performing arts, especially about dance. We focused on the fundamentals of ballet and its influence on modern dance and other art forms. I have done Irish step dancing since I was six and I know that ballet has had an influence on both the style and the techniques over time. The traditionally bent knees in leaps is now a straight leg which extends in one line, the higher the better. When my teacher was competing she cut her hard shoes so that she walk on her toes and was almost disqualified for her "ballet" movements. Now walking, and running on the toes is an essentials movement in steps. Many movements are also influenced and taken from ballet for example a version of the cabriole, called a cross over, and the entrechat which has many slightly different styles in Irish dance. 

we talked a lot about modern dance as well. I have a great appreciation for modern dance as an art. I feel that it is a different type of art than any other dance form in that it expresses an idea or statement. Dance is the expression of feeling and emotion, and in some cases of perfection and reform. It is used to tell stories. But modern dance, at least  originally, expressed something more. Some idea that made the audience think, that left the audience with room to analyze and dig into like a painting does. Even when we watched the clip in class there was so much to say about it, so many different ideas! I really think it is amazing!  

CLASS TIME

In class we talked a lot about the human body. I found it very interesting that during different time periods people viewed the body in completely different ways. During the Meidieval Period, or the Dark Ages, they thought of life as a negative thing. They believed that it was just a pasing period. I cannot imagine going through life like this, thinking that it was just a completely negative time of suffering that all ended eventually. The people of this time humbled themselves because of this belief and did not feel that the human body was of any importance. However, the periods surrounding it did. I guess that I really thought about why figures were nude, I just realized that they were. I now know that figures were nude because the attitude of the people of that specific time period admired and almost worshiped the human body, for example the statue David. They felt that it was the most perfect thing on earth, so they depicted it over and over. In the Medieval Period however, very rarely are figures nude because they did not celebrate the human body at all. It is so interesting to me the drastic changes fromone time to another and their enormouse affect on art. This is why we must look at art to know and better understand societies of the past as well as our own.

Drag Me to Hell

On Wednesday i went to see the movie Drag Me to Hell, the one we talked about in class. It was quite the movie. It's hard for me to explain how I feel about it. I was terrified in the begining, nauseous during some parts, and spent the rest of the time laughing! It was the most interesting movie I have ever seen. I will admit though that I am honestly really glad that I went. It was really entertaining! The movie was a good combination of humor because of the sarcasm and cheesy effects, and also scary. It had all the classic elements of a horror story, curse, creepy old lady, timid, torrmented girl, demons, graveyard during a thunderstorm, and posesed talking animlas. Quite the movie right? I thought the plot was really well written, the story line was odd yes, but intruiging. Thats where the affect of the "scary movie" sets in. Something about us, as humans, is so intrigued by whole horror film idea. We watch people be tortured by deamons, get thrown up on, be stalked by creepy ladies, and suffer from fear and paranoia and we laugh, or get frightened or feel suspense, whatever the case we don't stop watching, which is weird. For some reason we have got to watch! for that same reason I sat and watched this entire film!

This week in class I felt that I learned so much! Something that I honestly never realized that each time period had such a unique style of architecture. What amazed me, and what I kept thinking to myself during class, is the way that all these time period have come together into one. When we looked at the pictures from various cities around the world I noticed how all the styles blend and have been built side by side or even onto another style entirely. This is such a huge part of our history. All of the people blending together, Their work and creations adding to one another's. To me it seems like a timeline that continuously grows trough people of different beliefs and background. People who all want to accomplish a different goal through their architecture. Architecture can have such an overpowering affect. It can bring us up and lift our spirits like the gothic style or it bring us down and humble us like the many earlier styles. It can also make us feel small and almost overwhelmed like the baroque style.

It is so interesting the way that architects built worker housing when the workers wanted to live in homes in the suburbs while the apartment style housing slowly became trendy and a fad of the wealthy. Oh the irony! The difference between comfort/function and trendy is so great. Everyone wants what is new and up to date until they live amongst it. The gap is so great but the people most always come back to what is comfort, what is home. 

Today I had the opportunity to walk through the Richard MacDonald sculpture gallery. One my school teachers from high school told me about his work and current exhibit of sculptures based on the cirque du solei performers and dancers in general. I'm so glad that i finally went to see the exhibit, my family even has a small dancer playing a long horn in the family room but I have never seen the gallery of life sized work. Upon walking in a bronze sculpted man stands looking down on you, giving the feeling that you are really being watched. The figure was so powerful dominating that it gave me the chills. The dancers however are my favorite. He does such a good job of capturing the motion along the emotion that both the performance and audience feels. that breathtaking energy that  extends through the the performers limbs and into the viewers soul. I thought to myself, trying to apply what we learned in class, why use bronze? To me bronze is very human. Not too strong like stone or marble, but not too weak of a material either. It seems to fit the strength of a determined and powerful human being. The subject of humans really hit me. I began thinking that these replicas of the human body were amazing and absolutely gorgeous. They are so strong and so real. And then it came to me that they are models of us, of people. The human body can do amazing things, things that can  one can only attempt to create with material. 

I always loved the way an artist can take a hard substance, like bronze, and make it look so real and so full of movement and passion. MacDonald has actual dancers pose for each of his pieces. I love this because I feel somehow connected to this person. I feel their energy through the artwork. It's as if their dancing or performing, or simply standing right in front of me! 

I'm so sorry for the late post but I just got home from the Lion King at Mandalay bay. It was BRILLIANT! I loved it so much! In class we discussed why artists choose certain materials and the impact they have. This production was a perfect example of that concept. The costumes and the set were half of the excitement and emotion felt. The costumes were authetic and simple but at the same time extremely elaborate and magnificent. The animals looked so real and were so lively. Even more important than the materials used was the movement of the costumes. Some of the lions' headpieces were attachted with a large wire that allowed the head to swoop up and down when needed making it look so real. The female lions were stunning. They had beautiful headpieces and wore long sheet like material that draped from their sholders to the floor. This created a feminine like quality that truly breathtaking. In the final scene the animals were marching all around the stage. I thought it was so clever to have some performers in full costume as if they were the animals while others were part animal part human and could walk upright.
The dance was my favorite part. It was a comination of modern, ballet and athentic African stomp. Dance is so amazing. It was used as entertainment sometimes and other times used to portray an animal's movement. It is wonderful the way dance can be used to simulate a fight between two lions or the grazeful movemenet of another. The dance is what made it real. The performers became their characters through the movement of their bodies.
I also loved the music, I even purchased the soundtrack on the way out! If I can figure out how I will try to put it on my page for everyone to hear! It was such an emotional experience for me, it sounds cheesy but some of the songs were very beautiful. I was surprised by how fabulous their voices were especially the two little kids, even while they were dancing! Another neat thing about the theatre was the side boxes where the drummers sat and played. They were so close that the audience could see their every movement. They used so many different instruments to make the various nature sounds. Seeing them play added to the overall experience of the music and feeling.
The set was exquisite. It could have been a performance in and of itself. I kept noticing the lighting. Everytime the backdrop was a lighter shade there was a shadow of the characters or the birds flying around on sticks or the grass along the stage. It made everything seem so real. I loved the way that dancers were used as part of the setting. Some were elaborate bushes and flowers, while others simply leaved across the stage with leaves or palms in hand. My favorite were dancers in nude outfits with grass wrapped around their bodies. They layed on the ground as grass and then moved in coordination with the other charcters on stage. At one pont animals were shown on the screen then litterally rolling over one level of stage, then another and another, and two rows of animals were actually on the stage. The whole while each row of animals bacame larger making it look like stampead down the mountain.Toward the end the stage went black and little stars shown everywhere. They slowly formed a lion's head and then the end some how materialized into this magnificent piece, that slowly swayed and spoke. In the final scene I fell in love with the bright orange sun given a yellow glow by the lighting as it slowly rose up and into the ceiling.
I couldnt have been more happy with the show, I loved it and would see it a millions times!

CLASS TIME

In class we began dicussing architecture. I really never thought that I would have to know all the parts of a column, or that it had any significance at all. But after we began discussing their origins I began to see that knowing each small part was essential to analyzing the column and architecture as a whole. Once I have learned all of these terms I will hopefully be able to see a structure and know more about it instantly just by looking at the types of columns. Now that I have been exposed to this idea I'm actually fascinated with it and can't wait to use what I will learn.
I loved learning about symbolism in paintings. I was so excited to learn about the different symbols and what they meant. I now feel like I can look at a painting with more confidence and understanding. I had no idea that so much Greek/Roman mythology was used, and I knew the obviously color meanings but had no idea there were so many meaning to each, and so specific too. This new knowledge makes me want to rewind and re examine every painting I have ever seen! Two summers ago I went to Europe and was exposed to so many amazing artworks, particularily paintings and sculptures. I loved them at the time and thought they were so stunning and amazing. However, I wish Icould go back now with more knowledge of how to look at them and see the symbols and colors. I would have had an even greater appreciaton for them and gained a lot more from seeing them in person.
This is why I am so excited to be in the class. I realize its importance to understanding the arts and being able to critic them. A few days ago we discussed beauty and established that the trained eye is much more capable of identifying true beauty and defining what is it. Someday I hope to have a trained eye so that I may be able to have an even greater experience when viewing art.

No performer of this generation has redefined pop art the way Michael Jackson has. R.I.P.  MJ