Emanuel Gat: Brilliant Corners

A challenging, complex work that is only partially satisfying.  The dance confronts the disarray and disunity of modernity (urban life?) as the dancers break away from the group, cross each other, form a group that forms a whole but also pulls apart as each dancer completes individual movements punctuated by powerful movements when two dancers fall into sync.  Fluid movements and abrupt changes in flow occur are emphasized.    The piece is egalitarian: no one dancer is featured; each assumes prominence at moments. The ten dancers dance as a group, then three or four, then two, occasionally one.  Sometimes the dancers who are not active stand in the back on or off to the side visibly watching.  Other times some are off stage.  The company is decidedly international and multiethnic: this is a modern, interconnected world.  The score combines industrial sounds with some piano.  In the middle, a long section is danced in silence.

Alta traición

Alta traición
por José Emilio Pacheco
 

No amo mi patria

Su fulgor abstracto
     es inasible.
Pero (aunque suene mal)
     daría la vida
por diez lugares suyos,
     cierta gente,
puertos, bosques de pinos,
     fortalezas,
una ciudad deshecha,
     gris, monstruosa,
varias figuras de su historia,
     montañas
-y tres o cuatro ríos.

2011 Movie Ranking

2011 Movie Ranking of Films I Have Seen: Mid-Year List

1. Hanna
2. Midnight in Paris
3. Jane Eyre

(I've only been to the theater three times this year.  Things have been busy!)