From: owner-trajectory-digest@smoe.org (trajectory-digest) To: trajectory-digest@smoe.org Subject: trajectory-digest V2 #120 Reply-To: trajectory@smoe.org Sender: owner-trajectory-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-trajectory-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk trajectory-digest Friday, December 4 1998 Volume 02 : Number 120 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Belated report on _Brutal Telling_ (Veda + dance) [Neile Graham Subject: Belated report on _Brutal Telling_ (Veda + dance) Hey all-- This is rather late, but last Friday night Jim and I drove up to Vancouver, and with ectophile Art Liestman and his wife Jan, went to see _Brutal Telling_, which is the dance performance of the piece Veda was commissioned to write about Emily Carr which became the _Here is a picture_ album. I enjoyed it but have to say that I'm not hugely educated in contemporary dance and have only been to a few shows, and thus have little to compare this with. I do, however, know quite a bit about Emily Carr--having grown up in the city she grew up and lived in I can't remember not knowing who she was. I've seen her paintings, read her books and journals, read books about her including a collection of poems written by one of my closest friends, and even have two Emilycones (pinecones) that Jim and I picked up off her grave when we visited it some years back with our friend. Listening to Veda's album is a close fit with the image I have in my head of Emily, and best of all it gives me the sense of a life lived, from beginning to end. While I have grown to love all the sections of _Here is a picture_, it is an album where the whole is truly greater than the sum of its parts--the power of it is in the flow of the songs around Emily Carr's life. Attending the disc launch concert was one of the most affecting musical events I've attended, possibly only overshadowed by attending the launch of _Spine_. One of the first things the dance did was shatter the movement of Veda's piece by dwelling far longer on her youth and seemingly glossing over her maturity. They broke up the flow of music, and while Veda and her band were there to provide the music live, they used taped bits, interspersed bits and bent the timing of Veda's piece. The dancing itself was far more agonized than my tastes go, though I found some moments absolutely wonderful. Emily Carr portrays herself as an awkward person, and in particular felt that she was without the social graces women of her era were expected to have, and I understand the difficulties in translating that to dance--but Veda managed to translate it into music, so why was so much of the choreography agonized gesturing? The only place where it seemed 100% appropriate was in the "15 years" section, where it really did work for me. I think the weakest part was the opening, with the dancers draped on a cart and slowly pushing it across the stage to the accompaniment of a story Emily told about a native woman and her husband and her cart. I wasn't drawn in either by the following dance to "Small" and then with the members of her family--this at the beginning of the show distanced me from what was going on onstage, except I did like the pictures of Emily they projected on a screen at the back. The first moment where I was captivated by the dancing was quite a ways in, in "pause" where one of the dancers moved in a cage (within a rather inventive prop that was used in several clever ways as well as this one, which was difficult watching for the claustrophobics amongst us). I also liked a dance with a suitcase with feet in it, a dance about inspiration where one of the dancers (there were 2 dancers total for the whole piece) moved toward a light held in a suitcase by the other, and the meeting the Group of Seven section was delightful with small figurines. One of the dancers was also good at characterizing Woo, Emily Carr's monkey, but I'm not so sure I'd call that fine dancing. I also loved it that when they were showing Emily's paintings on the screen on the back they didn't show the whole paintings but instead showed extreme close up details, which demonstrated the movement in her technique--that showed me something of Emily's work that I hadn't focused on in that way. Overall, though, I'd have to say I found the choreography disappointing and kept speculating on what Emily would have thought of it while I have always felt that Emily would have enjoyed Veda's music (well, except for knowing that "rock" music wouldn't be what she was used to at all). The focus was not on Veda and her band, but they wonderful, as usual. Veda was in fine voice and I was, as always, impressed with Peggy Lee's cello live, and the compositions of _Here is a picture_. Delightful/thoughtful music; dancing rather more up and down as far as delighting/provoking _me_ at least. Word is that a further tour of the piece is quite likely, so more of you (the Canadians amongst us at least) may get a chance to see it and form your own opinions. - --Neile P.S. Meredith, I saved a copy of the program for you. - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Neile Graham ..... http://www.sff.net/people/neile ..... neile@sff.net The Ectophiles' Guide to Good Music .... http://www.smoe.org/ectoguide - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ End of trajectory-digest V2 #120 ********************************