Notice Placido Domingo (Director & Conductor of LA Opera) smiling benevolently in the background
I finally went and saw Slow Dancing, David Michalek’s outdoor art piece featuring the greats of the dance world, stretching a 5 second dance piece into 10 minutes, slowing down the dancers’ movements to a beautiful abstract outdoor art piece. Currently at the Los Angeles Music Center for another week, I was so glad to have caught it here because it made quite a splash a month or so ago in its premiere in Lincoln Center in NYC. My favorites are the ballet dancers, of course, but there were over 40 performers in all, and it was fascinating to see such a variety of dancers featured in such a public piece, each obviously at the top of their dance genre.
Herman Cornejo, an ABT dancer, demonstrating how beautiful his technique is, even slowed down thousands of times from original speed. Here is a sample of his video here.
Janie Taylor, a principal ballet dancer with NYCB, does her controversial hair flip. I actually really liked her piece; it was very showy and dramatic, I sorta wished more dancers showed off a bit more. Dancers can do amazing things, and Janie definitely showed a great example of it.
The two NYCB principal ballerinas (Janie and Wendy Whelan) were performing at once. It was great to see the contrast, a young newly promoted principal dancer dancing next to a seasoned prima ballerina of NYCB. I was a bit disappointed by Wendy’s choreographed bit though; I wish she coulda done something classically ballet, such as fouettes or pirouettes (I would LOVE to see that in slow motion!) or something “showier” that may have been exciting to see slowed down.
Costumes were used to great effect in slow mo…Shasta Cola showed this to great effect, as well as the belly dancer Nejla Yatkin.
I really liked the way the screens were set up in Los Angeles; we got to see four screens simultaneously (instead of three in NYC), and if you sit in one corner, you can see all of them. I also liked how the screens were near ground level so we could see the action up very close. The different styles of dance were so interesting to see in slo mo; the Indian dancing, with all its delicate intricacies, were featured prominently in slow motion. Even the eyes were so controlled, as opposed to Herman Cornejo, whose eyes seemed to be the only muscles in his body that wasn’t trained to obey his every command. Krumping was also portrayed by “Lil C“, I sat fascinated by the odd muscle twitches and waves of muscle movements across his chest.
But…the question remains: What is art? When I was watching this piece, I didn’t think of it as an art piece, I thought of it as dance, slowed down. It’s not even technically a video since the artist Michalek used a high speed camera to capture images that look like they are moving when showed in succession. Art mentioned that there was some article asking why only dance critics reviewed “Slow Dancing”, and not art critics? Is it not considered “serious” art? I can see why the art critics did not review this piece, although I think it would be a great to hear another point of view. I think it’s a great way to show dance in a completely different format, a useful marketing tool you can say, to reach a new audience. Most of the people watching on Saturday evening were there because KCRW radio sent over a DJ or they were already at the Music Center for Avenue Q. And while it was fun for us dance fans to see our favorite dancers in slow motion, most of the people looking at the piece did not know what caliber these dancers are in their dance form. In slow motion, everything looks easy. How great would it have been to credit the dancer’s name, biography, and dance form in an easily accessible place (albeit posters and programs were passed out to the crowd, it was very dark and difficult to read). Does it take away from the piece without understanding the difficulties of dance technique and understanding what these dancers have accomplished in their art form? I don’t know…but I do know that with my understanding of ballet and some of the dancers, made me look at the piece in a different way. I mean, the classical ballerinas didn’t even wear ballet shoes, and most people probably didn’t know they were ballerinas as opposed to modern dancers. No tutus either, as Susan mentioned.
Who else should have been photographed and featured in this piece? Baryshnikov? Rasta Thomas? Twyla Tharp? Mark Morris? Many names come to mind….but what a fun piece and a fun way to spend a Saturday evening, with my fellow dance fan friends Art & Susan.
He does wonderfully as the droll, helpless aging man who tries to recapture his youth by marrying someone very young, although he realizes that you can’t rewind time.
