Monday, February 25, 2013

The LXD: Christopher Scott and Harry Shum Jr.


by: Audrey K.
In a Hulu web series, Christopher Scott and Harry Shum Jr., choreographers of the Legion of Extraordinary Dancers, have helped producer Jon Chu create a world of dance that is able to fuse together dance genres making each style accessible, engaging, and visually stimulating to dancers and non-dancers alike.

 http://savethevillain.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Lxd.jpg

Christopher Scott is an Emmy Award nominated choreographer whose credits include the 82nd Academy Awards, and several routines on So You Think You Can Dance (seasons 7 and 8). Additionally, he has appeared as a dancer and actor in the Step Up series and The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers. Here is a link to his 2 Emmy nominated dances.

HarryShum Jr. most notably known for his role as Mike Chang in Fox series Glee, has also appeared as a dancer in films such as Stomp the Yard, You Got Served and the last 2 Step Up films.


A short piece created in part by the pair of them:



The LXD: the webseries

The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers is a “unique fusion of dance and transmedia” web series broadcast on Hulu about 2 rival dance groups, The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers (the heroes) and The Alliance of the Dark (the villains) and the Legion of Extraordinary Dancers who discover they have superpowers. The characters who discover their powers must choose which side to take in this battle. Having shot 3 seasons since inception (the first two airing in 2010, and the third airing in Nov 2011), the series incorporates a wide variety of styles including hip-hop, krumping, contemporary, tricking, popping, b-boying, jazz, tap and ballet. As stated in a Los Angeles Times review, the LXD has been able to take dance and “recontextualize [it] for a contemporary audience”. Some of the styles represented are often disjointed when performed separately but through the film-like action score and a fluidity of choreography, a cohesive dance piece is created for every scene and piece. Each episode focuses on a different dancer and in this way is able to incorporate so many varying styles of dance. Some of the characters are developed based on the dancer; this allows the LXD to find the dancers first and structure the story around their specific dance talent.

The truly amazing part of the LXD is that it is shot on location without special effects, green screen, or the use of wires which makes the group transferable live.They’ve performed on the Glee! Live tour, So You Think You Can Dance (season 6), 82nd Academy Awards. 

A piece that was performed on So You Think You Can Dance:




Additionally, Jon Chu spoke at TED 2010 where he described the LXD as a “living, breathing comic book”:



I think that the LXD could do live performances, however, I believe that they probably come across strongest and most effectively through the lens of a camera. Regardless, Jon Chu, Christopher Scott and Harry Shum Jr. have created a universe unlike any other and have pushed the boundaries in which dance has been consumed. Madd Chad, one of the dancers in the LXD stated in the TED talk, “When I dance, I want people to question the reality of what they’re seeing”. By watching just one episode of the LXD, this is goal is very clear.

The entire web series can be viewed on Hulu or on their website.

Awards:
-       November 2010 – Media Vanguard Award for “Best Original Web Series”
-       January 2011 – Digital Luminary Award in the “Original Web Content” category
-       February 2011 – (Jon Chu) Pioneer Award at the International Digital Emmy Awards


Bibliography:
Bloom, Julie. "It's a Bird! It's a Plane! No, It's a Superdancer!" The New York Times. The New York Times, 25 June 2010. Web. 23 Feb. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/25/arts/dance/25webdance.html?_r=0>.

"LXD." LXD. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2013. <http://thelxd.com/>.

Pincus-Roth, Zachary. "'The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers' Is Ready to Battle with Flips, Spins and Dance Steps." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 04 July 2010. Web. 23 Feb. 2013. <http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/04/entertainment/la-ca-extraordinarydancers-20100704/2>.

"The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legion_of_Extraordinary_Dancers>.

Marissa's Manifesto


When we think about experiencing the performing arts, we all, by and large, think of many of the same things: we buy tickets, we drive to the theater, and we sit in the audience with a lot of other people. We focus, for two hours or so, on the stage in front of us and what is happening on it. When something that we like happens, we applaud. When something touches us, emotionally, sometimes we cry. When something humors us, we laugh. And in the space of those two hours or so, we become a sort of community with the people sitting around us – linked by a shared experience, whether we loved or hated experiencing it.

But, all the while, we are having a personal dialogue inside of our own heads. We may be working to link this performance to our own lives. Or perhaps we’re trying to make sense of what is happening – interpreting the story for ourselves so that we can better understand it. It’s possible that we’re just noticing that the concertmaster’s bow tie is crooked!

These personal thoughts and opinions provide us with a lens, through which we view the artwork that is being presented to us. It is possible, I suppose, that the larger audience reaction could color this lens to some degree, but even in a sea of one million people, the reaction that matters most and the reaction that is most pure and true is the one that each of us develops alone.

I emphasize this because, as nearly every other entertainment medium has done already, the performing arts are entering a sea change. The advent of internet streaming technology has brought on a variety of challenges and changes to our industry, and many within it would have us believe that the sky is about to fall.

People simply don’t have to go out to the theater anymore - and they don’t have the money to go out to the theater every time they want to have an arts experience! Instead, they can stream a Netflix performance of a musical or play to their personal computers, or they can sign into Spotify and listen orchestral to recordings on their newly-affordable high quality home sound systems. Or they can go to the movie theater and watch a live-streamed performance of a world-class opera company for a fraction of what a ticket to the opera house would cost them.

And these new and different experiences – they’re all okay. They’re all real arts experiences. Yes, they’re watching them on screens, and no, it is decidedly NOT the same as going to a theater and seeing a live performance. How could it be? But do the performing arts need to be experienced ONLY in live settings? Will you ONLY be able to understand the theater or the symphony or the ballet if you’ve got your butt in that velvet seat and there is a woman unwrapping a butterscotch candy behind you? I say not.

And the reason why is because of the personal effect that a performing arts experience should have on you internally. Whether you’re in a box at the theater or sitting with your cat on a secondhand couch, that effect remains constant. And if you’re able to experience that feeling, that good, satisfied, moved feeling while wearing your sweatpants and slippers on a Sunday afternoon, imagine how great that feeling will be when you do get out to the theater. Because if you are able to access the performing arts easily and cost effectively and you discover that you love something about them, then you will put your pants on and begin to seek out opportunities to experience them in real life. 

When you love something, good enough is never actually enough. 

Manifesto - Audrey


Music over the centuries has always been described as a combination of melody, harmony, and rhythm. In the Western repertoire, they are the 3 components to music going all the way back to Gregorian chant, which was entirely monophonic (a singular melodic line without harmony). In the Baroque era, we saw an exploration of polyphony and rules that prescribed and set the boundaries for what music was and wasnt. This continued to develop and grow though the Classical era and in the Romantic era, a further expansion of the symphony orchestra as a means of stretching the boundaries of harmony. Continuing this trend, the last century has been all about the exploration of the ratios between melody, harmony and rhythm. From impressionism, using harmony and rhythm to create the same kind of ambiguous fluidity that is represented in an impressionistic painting, to minimalism utilizing rhythm and harmony to display new techniques such as gating into the vocabulary of orchestration, to everything between and beyond. Regardless where music will go from here, it will always possess some combination of melody, harmony, and rhythm.

Taking it a step further, Jerrold Levinson in On the Concept of Music defined music as, sounds temporarily organized by a person for the purpose of enriching or intensifying experience through active engagement (e.g., listening, dancing, performing) with the sounds regarded primarily, or in significant measure as sounds. The distinction he makes for music having the purpose of an enriching experience is the defining factor the argument against the belief that classical music is dead. There are many reasons why a person would attend a concert or listen to classical music, but what is unique about music is the ability to transform the context of a piece of music that was written for a specific time and place to fit the themes of current events without the use of words or movement. The transformative experience one has listening to a piece may be entirely different from how another experiences and interprets it.

Levinson also refers to this in his definition as an experience through active engagement. This particular component of his definition of music is what will be most important to the artistic vitality of music in the next century. Musicians, music directors, artistic administrators, and management alike need to find a way to make the music of our past relevant. In a recent seminar session by Ara Guzeliman, Dean of the Julliard School, Ara stated as one of his Ten Golden Rules on Artistic Planning, It is critical that programming promote active engaged listening, which specifies Levinsons definition to programming. Successful programming is an art in and of itself and requires input from many moving parts. Starting with the music director and artistic administrators vision trickling through operations, and development and marketing. One major flaw in this model is an insistence on engagement being a major player in creating successful programming. Im not saying that a programs ability to be marketed or funded should trump the artistic vision of an organization, but a programs ability to engage in the community is essential. By doing so, a program makes itself relevant among the community and can as a result aid in the marketing and development of the program. Additionally, this kind of programming helps with promoting the branding of the organization as an essential part of the community. Meanwhile, while history has always decided what stands the test of time, composers can contribute to this movement towards community relevant programming by insisting on a larger stake in embracing a curatorial role when premiering a work or having their work performed. By helping to provide context for their pieces, composers can ensure that their pieces are relevant within a program on a symphonys season.

As orchestras find ways to combat the economic downfall of the last decade, community relevance is going to become increasingly essential in the artistic planning of a symphony orchestra. The economy will never be what it was so it will be the ways that an orchestra proves itself to be relevant and essential to its community that will determine survival.

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Mirenka Cechova


"I believe that the obligation of the artist is to answer the burning questions of something here and now.  I always want to create an answer but  in work that does not go far away from myself. It is very important to me to explore a new physical language of theatre and to bring an experience of authenticity to a given subject."
-Mirenka Cechova

Biography
Mirenka Cechova is a 30-year old native of the Czech Republic. From the ages of 10 through 20, she studied ballet, acting, and mime at The Conservatory in Prague. Her work focuses on integrating these three elements. She has two MA degrees, one in Nonverbal Theater and one in Alternative Theater, both from the Academy of the Performing Arts in Prague. She recently completed a PhD, and is now a Fulbright Scholar. She began a teaching and residence position at American University in September of 2012. She is a founding member of Festival International Zero Point, and is a leading personality of The Spitfire Company and Tantehorse Physical Mime Theater in The Czech Republic. She has worked with Synetic Theater in the United States. 

On her work, Cechova believes that using many different types of movement in order to effectively interpret her story for the audience is of the utmost importance. She does not hold herself to any single medium, and is more focused on movement: "I am indeed interested in many theatre movement forms and dance, anything that can serve as a means of expression. I am interested in serving as a channel between the actor and the audience and to find the right physical language to communicate what is at the heart of a work."

The resulting work is visceral and affecting - Cechova has a masterful control of her body, and is able to seamlessly integrate many different elements to create one beautiful, unique whole. Often political, and always groundbreaking, Cechova's work is just now being presented to audiences in the United States. I believe that she will have a dramatic effect on the landscape of modern dance and movement. 

Work

The Voice of Anne Frank (2007) - In this work, self-described as a piece of "multi-expressional theatre" Cechova plays Anne Frank, interpreting her experience through dance movement, and recitation of passages from her famous diary.

Trials 10/48/7830 (2010) - This work, performed with Spitfire Theater company, is about the murder of the female political prisoner Milada Horakova by the communist government. It earned the group an award at BAM's 2010 Next Wave Festival.


King Lear (2011) - Cechova was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress for her role as The Fool in this Synetic Theater Company. The entire cast won the award for Outstanding Ensemble.

S/He is NancyJoe (2012) - In this, her most recent work with The Tantehorse Theater Company, Cechova tells the story of her trans-gender brother. This work had only one performance in the United States, and has served as a sort of critical debut for her choreography in the United States. The Washington Post called this work "The Best of Modern Dance" for 2012, and critic Sarah Kaufman writes, "But most impressive of all is simply Čechová's body, which she turns into a battleground of self-identity and societal censure.  Amid all the imaginatively used technology of this show, that body is an element of surpassing wonder."



Sources:

"About Us : Tantehorse." About Us : Tantehorse. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2013. <http://www.tantehorse.cz/en/about.html?language=en>.
Galbraith, Susan. "Acclaimed Czech Performer Opens New Piece on Gender Identity Nov 8." DC Theatre Scene RSS. N.p., 18 Oct. 2012. Web. 15 Feb. 2013. <http://dctheatrescene.com/2012/10/18/acclaimed-czech-performer-opens-new-piece-on-gender-identity-nov-8/>.
Kaufman, Sarah. "Dancer Mirenka Cechova Explores Transgender Life in ‘S/He Is Nancy Joe’." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 10 Nov. 2012. Web. 15 Feb. 2013. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/dancer-mirenka-cechova-explores-transgender-life-in-she-is-nancy-joe/2012/11/09/dbbee006-2ab6-11e2-96b6-8e6a7524553f_story.html>.
"Mirenka Cechova ABOUT." Mirenka Cechova. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www.mirenkacechova.com/#!about/c161y>.
"Mission & History | Synetic TheaterSynetic Theater." Synetic Theater. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2013. <http://www.synetictheater.org/history-mission/>.