The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Wednesday, February 21, 2007 - 5A
Let's try to talk
about dance
Dance is hard to talk about.
We don't often need to talk
about movement in the first
place, especially the movement of
bodies, because explaining what we
mean is usually as easy as doing it.
"I was like...."
usually suffices.
But when you
try to describe
or to discuss
dance, imitation
is sometimes
impossible and
so we need
some sort of ABIGAIL B.
specialized
vocabulary COLODNER
to describe it,
right?
One way to describe something
to someone who hasn't experienced
it directly is, of course, through
comparisons. Things sound or
look like other things. But this
only makes the job easier if you've
experienced the original reference
- and sometimes that's assuming
a lot.
Works of art can cut that dis-
tance using humor, which provokes
a visceral response that brings
with it a sense of understanding.
In a neat way, sometimes humor
gets to us so fast that we're in on
the joke without doing much work
at all. We take pleasure from both
the experience of watching and
the experience of understanding.
That sense of being included in the
action makes us more receptive to
whatever comes next.
Even orchestral music, a more
abstract art form than dance, can
engage audiences this way, as in a
performance by the Kirov Orches-
tra in Ann Arbor earlier this year.
In a piece that was steadily paced
for the most part and full of low
tones, a sudden higher, twittering
sound elicited actual laughter from
the audience. They laughed at the
first instance of the sound - and it
was people throughout the audito-
rium who chuckled, not an enlight-
ened few on the main floor. The
appearance of a spontaneous reac-
tion at all suggests they were in on
something composer Shostakovich
wanted them to be. And judging by
the immediacy and breadth of the
reaction, they were making sense
of it without first perusing the pro-
gram notes.
The Kirov Orchestra created
humor by juxtaposing types of
sound we recognize, a little twit-
ter in the midst of a dirge or a
march. (How a steady tempo and
low sounds indicate "somber" to us
so definitely is a related question).
Humor doesn't need to be built on
understanding if it can get by on
recognition.
If there's one thing we'll pay
attention to when it enters our
awareness, it's a human body. It's
a semi-guilty pleasure to have it
exposed to our eyes, and witnessing
the extremes of how it can bend or
hurtle or shiver fascinates us, easily.
But our fascination wearies if we
have nothingto relate it to other
than acrobatics. Modern dance
companies can often be character-
ized by how much they go beyond
pure movement and dip into
storytelling. One middle-ground
approach, used brilliantly bythe
companythat had their University
debut this weekend, is to temper
stretches of pure movement with
gestures. Gestures in dance are
versions of what we do every day
- movements that somehow carry
social meaning. In life the smallest
motion can be eloquent - touching
someone's wrist as they talk to you,
leaning in to speak.
Momentary gestures that have a
more explicit implication - either
because they're a familiar social
gesture or because they suggesta
narrative - reference the kind of
social cues audiences will be very
sensitive to, regardless of their
familiarity with performance.
We're familiar with people, so
drawing on our sensitivity to the
drama of human interaction engag-
What's
in a gesture?
Everything.
es all audience members at once.
It's a unifying moment.
The Stephen Petronio Company,
a modern dance company made
up of eight electrifying dancers,
was all movement all the time. The
only narrative came through in
gestures that instantly created a
social dynamic. The dance, at once
a stunning display of balletic disci-
pline and virtuosic abandon, barely
paused to give these moments
space. But they were so well-cho-
sen, so specific and so weighted
that their inclusion allowed the
company to hold tight our attention
while around them the company
flew to the extremes of speed and
sound. Justbefore throwing his
body dangerously around his part-
ner's form to be caught, a dancer
brushed his partner's hand with his
cheek, cat-like and adoring.
New Yorker dance critic Joan
Acocella once said of performances,
"If I don't get it, it isn't there."
Although it might sound like a
boast of her scrutinizing critic's
eye, Acocella meant it as an evalu-
ation of a performance's effective
success. A great concept on paper
or a succession of seven rather
than six difficult turns are of little
more than academic interest unless
they're woven with moments that
flash straight to our most reactive
selves.
- Colodner gets it. She
knows it's there. E-mail her
at abigabor@umich.edu.
The
'Moon' is
so bright
FOLK CHARMER DAISY
MAY GETS IT RIGHT
By ANNA ASH
Daily Arts Writer
Walk to School Kids Records, find Mother
Moon and consider yourself a better person.
And don't even worry, because
when you start to wonder how
you were able to survive with- ****C
out Daisy May's music in your
life, you'll still have plenty Daisy May
of time to buy tickets for her
April 6 show at The Ark. Mother Moon
What's happened inthe four
years between May's debut Earthworks
album Sleepless and her fourth
album Mother Moon isn't real-
ly a transformation, but a growth of sorts. Her
music is still rooted in the simplicities of folk
and country traditions, but it has moved away
from unembellished, acoustic guitar accompa-
niment and toward full-bodied instrumentation
that complements her soul-baring voice and
breathes a new sound into an old style.
In addition to Seth Bernard on lead guitar
and Drew Howard on pedal steel guitar, May
is joined by Breathe Owl Breathe's Andrea
Moreno-Beals on cello, Steppin' In It's Domi-
nic Suchyta on bass, Millish's Mike Shimmin on
x7
With that smile (and her music), Daisy May is going to conquer the world.
drums and a host of other musicians. Although
her earlier, unadorned tunes held a certain
charm in their uncomplicated sparseness, the
collaboration with other musicians is a refresh-
ing change for this songwriter.
The strongest example of both the lyrical and
instrumental developments in May's music is
"Rise Up Singing." Not only is May accompa-
nied by five other musicians, she's also backed
by a choir, and it's nearly impossible not to clap
your hands and sing along.
The result is stunning - the type of song that
reminds you just how poignant folk music can
be.
But it's on the fourth track, the unabashedly
sentimental "Carefully," that May firmly estab-
lishes her preeminence as a songwriter. With
Rachael Davis's harmonies, Howard's pedal-
steel skills and Bernard's delicate acoustic work,
the tune is so damnbeautiful even the most cyn-
ical listener will forget he once claimed to dis-
like country music.
While the word courageous seems somewhat
inappropriate, it's accurate in regard to tunes
like these - songs shamelessly about hope and
love without hiding beneath obscurity. Yes,
your mother would probably love this woman,
but Daisy May's wholesomeness isn't something
to be tossed off as truistic and banal. For May,
a little can say an awful lot, her vocal qualities
enhanced by her lyrical brevity. What she, and
many of the other Earthworks musicians are
doing with their "simple folk music," is preserv-
ing as well as developing the folk tradition. So
maybe there aren't any obscenities, and maybe
there aren't any synths, but there are a few
waltzes and there are a few glimpses of dobro
and banjo.
What sets this woman apart from her con-
temporaries is her voice. Comparisons to Loret-
ta Lynn, Patsy Cline or Allison Krauss would be
erroneous. Daisy May sings like no one else. Her
voice is her own, unmistakable on every track
(except for the instrumental "The Barn Swal-
low").
From the endearingly sanguine "We Are"
to the humorous, gospel-blues of "Big Mama
Brown," May's pristine voice speaks from a
place all her own. And this alone puts her and
her music far beyond the ordinary.
A difficult'Tale'told with Roman ease
By CATHERINE SMYKA
DailyArts Writer
If someone told you to check out
a play about an
ancient Roman Tales
myth using 16 from
actors and pieces Ovid
of colored cloth as
the only props and Last Friday
scenery,you might and Saturday
hesitate. But the At the Walg
Department of DtamCereen
Musical Theatre rama er
had no apparent
trouble holding its audience's atten-
tion with such a pared-down prem-
ise. Last weekend, the department
performed Ted Hughes's "Tales
from Ovid," a collection of Roman
myths by the poet Ovid, in its first
studio performance at the Walgreen
Drama Center's Towsley Studio.
Students incorporated lyrical
monologues, a cappella chanting
and interpretive movement to act
out such familiar childhood tales
as King Midas and his golden touch
and Narcissus's self-infatuation.
Despite a notably bare set, the
stage never looked empty. Tree
nymphs and clusters of observers
constantly occupied the stage, even
if merely sitting. Flowing, shapeless
pieces of colored cloth made up the
bulk of the set, playing more roles
than the performers themselves -
as infants, trees, water and flowers.
The actors took care to use the
cloth to its fullest potential: a moth-
er holding a baby in her arms might
transform into a nearby tree. In one
scene, Minerva the weaver explains
the stories illustrated on her tap-
estry. Four actors stretched out a
sheer golden cloth to the size of a
classroom wall, and actors gathered
in clusters behind it. A young man
doubled over in sadness from the
loss of a loved one while two stu-
dents crouched before him, each at
a different level. The man flung out
a thin blue cloth to drape over the
bodies before him and the mate-
rial up to his face so the audience
saw the "tears" cascading in front
of him.
"Within the usual rehearsal
schedule, our approach has been to
explore and create right up to the
last minute," said Malcolm Tulip,
Music School prof. and director
said. "The design emerged from the
work in rehearsal with the major-
ity of the creation coming from the
students."
With such a stellar group of stu-
dents showing off their theatrical
range,x
stage, n
steal th,
Each
Ac
first
in
tragic M
uated w
sun go.
equal fo
The
tations
mythst
a group
the gro
no one tale dominated the direction, imitating the river carry-
sor did a single individual ing King Midas's body.
e show. "We had to find away of not dou-
character's story, from the bling images with narration," Tulip
said. "As the story was told with
dialogue, what happened onstage
had to give the audience an experi-
department's ence beyond a simple recreation of
the action."
t performance The majority of the stories kept
those in the audience speechless,
a new studio. like the tragic story of Arachne,
while characters like the god Bac-
chus, with his sweet childish inno-
cence, had the audience smiling.
dirah (a young woman infat- With the occasional line provoking
vith her father) to Apollo the a burst of laughter from the audi-
d, held the audience with ence, the cast performed piece after
rce. piece, switching roles and relation-
students' physical interpre- ships - without for the most part
complemented the ancient changing costumes or sets.
they narrated. For example, "I hope (the show) has exposed
of actors stretched out on the students to a different way of
und and rolled in the same tellingstories on stage," Tulip said.
r 1
S
e e k i n g
cFeG*%.Ve
ChCRY
In the limelight, a girl and her artist
By JENNA PARKS as the blonde superstar.
Daily Arts Writer Sienna Miller ("Casanova") as
Sedgewick captures the vitality
A film about a woman who and carefree demeanor of the 1960s
inspired artcannothelpbutexpress socialite. With dead-on looks and
a sense of artistry itself. Full of childlike excitement, Miller and the
Andy Warhol- real Sedgewick are nearly indistin-
esque visuals, guishable to the untrained eye.
"Factory Girl" is Guy Pearce ("Memento") is also
saturated with . a step above impersonation with
colorful images Factory Gi his portrayal of Andy Warhol.
and even more Atthe The mannerisms and speech pat-
colorful people. . terns are classic Warhol, while his
Covering Edie Michigan behind-the-scenes candor is a skill
Sedgewick's life Theater surely adapted for the sake of the
from art school to MGM film. Warhol's infamous two-word
her 1970 exit from responses to any interview ques-
a California rehab tion would not have made for very
center, the film paints a picture of good entertainment.
an innocent girl who led an any- The film follows the chemistry
thing-but-innocent life. between Sedgewick and Warhol
In a film soaked with '60s glam- from their meeting in the early
our, sex, drug abuse, rock'n'roll and 1960s to her death in 1971. Warhol
betrayal, Sedgewick's life has final- is the crazed artist, and Sedgewick
ly been given a voice. There were a just wants to be loved - and to be
handful of failed movie attempts in famous. After leaving art school,
the'80s, including Warren Beatty's, Sedgewick moves to New York
which tried to cast Molly Ringwald under the steam of her wealthy
family. S
and beg
leaves h
her abus
the frier
Factory,
in the pu
Beh
gre(
some
After
and han
Warhol I
the youn
depende
The u
Girl" in'
thing-bu
adds an,
sympath
tions to
;he meets up with Warhol eight brothers and sisters and now
ins a spending spree that only has six; the deaths of two sib-
er bankrupt and without lings caused a wound for Sedge-
ive father's help. She learns wick that never really healed.
nds she made at Warhol's The film has stirred quite a bit of
are as fleeting as her place controversy from those who were a
blic eye. partof Sedgewick's life. Abrief rela-
tionship with Bob Dylan translates
into the Sedgewick character's fling
L d great art is with Billy Quinn (Hayden Chris-
tensen, ("Star Wars Episode III"),
at romance. Or a fictional hybrid of rocker Dylan
and other influences in the young
ything like that. starlet's life. Dylan's lawyers have
threatened to sue, claiming the film
depicts the folk singer as instigat-
ing the downward spiral that lead
Sedgewick meets a dark to Sedgewick's death.
dsome folk singer, she and Filmgoers should stay for the
have a falling out that leads credits, where the director throws
ng blonde deeper into drug in some interviews and archival
ncy. photographs and comments on the
nderlying plot in "Factory real Sedgewick. Although details
volving Sedgewick's any- of the film may have been altered,
it-ideal American family the prevailing sentiment of her life
element of discomfort and remains intact. She was simply a
y to the story. She men- girl who met the cruel truth of the
a friend that she once had fickleness of fame.
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