Since the inception of the superhero genre in comics in the late 1930s, the powerful, crime-fighting protagonists have worn special costumes that distinguish them from other characters. Often the portrayal of the costume in these comics parallels other themes within their narratives: Superman bears an alien symbol on his chest that recalls his origins […]
In 1940s through the 1960s, superheroes are primarily fighting for justice against criminals and America’s military opponents. A sample of superhero comics from the early 1970s reveals that comic book creators began to widen the subject matter for their heroes to include the fight for social justice and equality among all Americans. Titles like Green […]
I have been looking at the work of William Forsythe, and identifying some of the threads in his body of work. Specifically, with the help of Norah Zuniga-Shaw, we have identified a few lenses through which to examine any piece, and I chose to look at Duo, a duet that premiered in 1996. Within this piece, […]
Last month at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Filmmaker Mitchell Rose curated an evening of dance film shorts entitled Dance@30FPS. Audiences were treated to an eclectic collection of eight films, representing a diverse range of approaches to the genre. Two films stood out for taking on nearly opposite approaches to dancing for […]
With Serenade (1934), George Balanchine presents a new vision of a romantic ballet—one that honors the influences of Marius Petipa yet strips away the representational elements of narrative and character, and brings dance and music to the forefront. Throughout the ballet, there is a tension between Petipa’s precedent and Balanchine’s new vision that is played […]
I started an study in intermedia performance that uses live-feed projection and dance. I wrote about the seeds of this idea in an earlier post. I decided to continue to work on the study as part of an interdisciplinary research studio class with Professor Norah Zuniga-Shaw, with the possible outcome of a piece, or some […]
An amazing Trannyshack moment! It was so great to collaborate with Carlos Venturo to make Lady Bear’s vision of fame via ‘sunset boulevard’. My favorite section is the partnering, mostly because Carlos really knows how to make that physicality show off the ideas, and because he has so much experience with social dances. He saw […]
Two movements from 11 different camera angles and then edited into a short film. I had a lot of fun, particularly working with Jessica Cavender as my ‘dancer.’ I had a pretty clear idea in my head from the start, and then reduced it to the two essential movements I would need to get it across. […]
This past semester, I took a great class on Intermedia Performance. The focus of the class was composition, and intermedia was defined as moving images with moving bodies. From the very beginning of this class I was interested in the problem of attention in intermedia works. I felt like I had seen a number of […]
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s Violin Phase from 1982 is an elegant dance that masterfully compliments the music of the same name composed by Steve Reich in 1967. Employing measured repetition and rigorous spatial design, De Keersmaeker offers her audience an exhilarating performance that matches and enhances the power of the music. Reich’s score and De […]
