Impossible to work

Wow, that was pretty.

Much gratitude to Sarah for giving me her extra ticket to the show.

I didn’t know if I was going to like Eiko and Koma’s new piece, but I did. The sort of movement that these Japanese-born New York artists use is slow”^a1a” and sometimes” ^a2a” uncomfortable. There were definitely times during the performance where I didn’t enjoy what was going on, where I would lose focus and miss a transition, but that was my own fault as a spectator. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, read up on Cambodian Stories here.

But when all was said and done, I really enjoyed the dancing and the painting. The students from Cambodia took to dancing in Eiko and Koma’s style like ducks to water. Their bodies molded themselves to the forms dictated by the choreography. Their paintings, which composed the majority of the set, were fascinating in that they were traditional and also modern in interesting ways. The paintings that the students make during the performance were less amazing than those hanging all over the MCA’s theater, but they do paint them in no time at all on stage (and it’s pretty cool to see 8 or so people make a single large painting over the course of just a few minutes). I don’t think the goal was to making awe-inspiring paintings (in fact, it appeared as though the second painting made each night is painted over for the next evening’s performance) but instead to help you understand what is going on with the movements on stage.

The movement, that’s what we were all there to see, and we were not let down. I was there because I had this dislike of butoh”^a3a” and I thought “check out someone who studied under one of the butoh originators before deciding you hate it.” I don’t think what I saw last night was butoh (and I’m pretty sure that Eiko and Koma wouldn’t want me to think of what they do as such), but the fact that Eiko and Koma studied under Kazuo Ohno means that there’s something butoh-like going on in their work, somewhere. So I still don’t know if I like butoh but I’m much less sure that I dislike work in the general aesethic vicinity of butoh than I previously believed. So if you thought you hated dance coming out of that post-WWII Japanese expressionistic style, you just might want to reconsider (I have).

When I try to put into words what I saw last night, I find it difficult to find the right ones. Eiko and Koma’s vocabulary of movements is highly developed and extremely effective. I think I saw two cultures and two generations meet on common ground (sand in this case). I know I saw a group of people living out at least one of their dreams. I think I saw a girl become a flower after dying. I think I saw a generation of young people attempting to rebuild after a mass slaughter that took place just a few years before they were born. I think I saw a man and woman who were also born a few years after a mass slaughter in their own country encouraging this generation to create. I saw so much more than that, but it is a disservice to the moving work(s) of art I experienced last night for me to attempt to put it in to words.

It was so beautiful, I almost cried.

1. Slow isn’t the best word to use here. Deliberate seems bad for other reasons. aaa
2. read: often aaa
3. I don’t know if that’s a good definition of butoh. Wikipedia also has something (that appears much less articulate) to say. aaa