La Danse Macabre - Camille Saint-Saëns composes on a late-medieval allegory

The orchestra members perform a danse macabre to Camille Saint-Saëns, not just with their instruments but also with their bodies.

Danse Macabre - Maybe Izabella Miko dances a dance of death

Izabella Miko

Danse Macabre - The intimate journey of a body after its death

The ballet begins only after death, and it defies logic, and it ends only with fire and ash.

The Cinnamon Peeler

If I were a cinnamon peeler
I would ride your bed
And leave the yellow bark dust
On your pillow.

Your breasts and shoulders would reek
You could never walk through markets
without the profession of my fingers
floating over you. The blind would
stumble certain of whom they approached
though you might bathe
under rain gutters, monsoon.

Here on the upper thigh
at this smooth pasture
neighbour to you hair
or the crease
that cuts your back. This ankle.
You will be known among strangers
as the cinnamon peeler's wife.

I could hardly glance at you
before marriage
never touch you
--your keen nosed mother, your rough brothers.
I buried my hands
in saffron, disguised them
over smoking tar,
helped the honey gatherers...

When we swam once
I touched you in the water
and our bodies remained free,
you could hold me and be blind of smell.
you climbed the bank and said

this is how you touch other women
the grass cutter's wife, the lime burner's daughter.
And you searched your arms
for the missing perfume

and knew

what good is it
to be the lime burner's daughter
left with no trace
as if not spoken to in the act of love
as if wounded without the pleasure of a scar.

You touched
your belly to my hands
in the dry air and said
I am the cinnamon
Peeler's wife. Smell me.

The Cinnamon Peeler, by Michael Ondaatje
 

Sigh

A physically comedic dance piece about falling in love at the supermarket.

Falling in love, yes.  But this lovely little piece is proof positive there is joie de vivre in life, even in the most ordinary of circumstances.
 

Thy Beauty's Doom

Based on Sonnets 14 and 66 by William Shakespeare, Thy Beauty’s Doom is inspired by the paintings and artwork of, and dedicated to, Maple Batalia, a 19-year-old Simon Fraser University student, model, actress and aspiring doctor who was gunned down in the campus parkade after a late night of studying.

Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck;
And yet methinks I have Astronomy,
But not to tell of good or evil luck,
Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons' quality;
Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell,
Pointing to each his thunder, rain and wind,
Or say with princes if it shall go well
By oft predict that I in heaven find:
But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive,
And, constant stars, in them I read such art
As truth and beauty shall together thrive,
If from thyself, to store thou wouldst convert;
   Or else of thee this I prognosticate:
   Thy end is truth's and beauty's doom and date.

Sonnet 14

Tired with all these, for restful death I cry,
As to behold desert a beggar born,
And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity,
And purest faith unhappily forsworn,
And gilded honour shamefully misplaced,
And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,
And right perfection wrongfully disgraced,
And strength by limping sway disabled
And art made tongue-tied by authority,
And folly, doctor-like, controlling skill,
And simple truth miscalled simplicity,
And captive good attending captain ill:
   Tired with all these, from these would I be gone,
   Save that, to die, I leave my love alone.

Sonnet LXVI
 

Lang - Fall 2012 (6) Score

It's a dance class.  Except that it's a live performance.  So, then, a dance improvisation.  Or is it?
 

Lang - Fall 2012 (5) e/m/d/r

I found myself wondering about a pattern, that is, in the first dancer's movement and then in relation to the second dancer.
 

Lang - Fall 2012 (4) Kinder

One time, as I mentioned, I envisioned choreographing a dance number that drew on drama, poetry, visual and musical arts. Perhaps like this one, too.
 

Lang - Fall 2012 (3) Long Ago in the Future

I appreciate the (apparent) fact that this dance program doesn't require a particular body type or size among students.
 

Lang - Fall 2012 (2) Jess Sic Jell

I am not sure, at the moment of this writing, that I like this piece.  But, as I wrote in the preceding article, I am intrigued.

I thought the tape, plus the seemingly dead bodies on the floor represented a crime scene.  Maybe, but then maybe not.

I am intrigued, because when I lived in Dubai, I had visions of programs that pulled dance, drama and poetry, which I would choreograph and in which I would perform.  It would be avant garde like this.
 

Lang - Fall 2012 (1) Welcome

The Arts program at Eugene Lang College is proud to present the Fall 2012 Dance Production. This performance features premieres of original dance works created by choreographers Beth Gill and Yvonne Meier, as well as student choreography.

Welcome by Danielle Goldman and Neil Greenberg.

So I am intrigued by The Arts programs at Eugene Lang College, The New School, especially around the key words I italicized:

The Arts offers a serious creative experience in a liberal arts context. Students choose from five tracks: Dance, Theater, Music, Visual Arts, and Arts in Context. In every track, the curriculum combines historical and critical approaches to the arts with practice-based courses.

Dance at Lang

The dance track fuses contemporary dance study with innovative courses in dance history, movement theory, and the collaborative arts. This integrated approach enables students to develop artistically and academically.

I am intrigued because this charter resonates with the essence of Dr. Ron Art, which is cross arts, multimedia, and more broadly with Theory of Algorithms and The Core Algorithm.
 

Hans & Edith et al., still loving and dancing

Three couples – Hans (79) & Edith (76) | Ellen (84) & Horst (77) | Ralf & Kristin (both 73) – have two things in common: After being together for 3, 16, and 51 years they are all still heavily in love.  And every Monday, they attend DJ Michael Borge's senior's disco in Berlin Steglitz to get down on the dance floor and prove that love, passion, and a lust for life never get old.

Elon & Emmanuelle, dancing and loving

A playful, moving street art piece told through dance, based on the premise that our environment is communicating with us at all times. Inspired by the work of street artist Banksy.

Director: Natalie Galazka
Composer/Musician: Garth Stevenson
Choreographers/Dancers: Elon Höglund, Emmanuelle Lê Phan

Sometimes dancers must be athletic and acrobatic, along with artistic.  So do couples.
 

Ballerina Olga Kuraeva in the Studio

Russian ballerina Olga Kuraeva preparing, pensive, sensuous.
 

Ballerian Olga Kuraeva Out of Control

Out of control, her cutoff, midriff T-shirt says.  Her sweatpants is backwards, perhaps on purpose or perhaps not.  We may never know whether this piece from Russian ballerina Olga Kuraeva is truly improvised, but I love the casual, unpretentious look and feel of her dance.  That's the purview of art, isn't it:  seem out of control, while in control.

Scott Winn (3) 80s Aerobic Dance Battle

Well it's sleek Mustang versus sleek Mustang, in another fun effort from filmmaker Scott Winn.  As I embark on weightier filmmaking projects myself, that is, down the road, I know I will need to secure a sponsor to make it happen.  Here Winn brings back the 1980s in fine parody fashion:  spandex pants and cutoff shirts for the men, and hip rising leotards and short shorts for the women.  In the end, of course, the battle devolves into a joint, cross-gender synchrony of sexy thrusts and effeminate gestures.
 

Scott Winn (2) Stormtrooper Secrets

Your twerking caused a great disturbance in the Force!

I absolutely love this dance takeoff on the Imperial Stormtroopers from Star Wars.  These wayward, alleyway twerks get the business from their commander Darth Vader, which is a great touch at the end by filmmaker Scott Winn.

So

Return of the Twerk
The Empire Twerks Back
Phantom Twerker

Here's the Behind the Scenes.
 

Scott Winn (1) High School Dance Battle

So this is just a super awesome dance off.  Oh, if only all tiffs and run-ins in high school could be fought out like this.  The principal actors-dancers in this short film made the final cuts of a massive audition, and pull off a kickass performance that is energetic, athletic and sexy. From the Behind the Scenes, it was quite a production for filmmaker Scott Winn and sponsor HTC made it all possible.
 

Shia LaBeouf (3) Fjögur píanó, by Sigur Rós

Sarah Blackwell commented:

Tbh, I am not a huge fan of the melody...but the video is beyond stunning. Shia is a seriously underrated performer and to be honest, he should be a lead in more dramatic movies, I'm telling ya...get him in the right drama and he could easily be a Oscar contender. There is some very real, heartbreakingly raw emotion he exudes that I don't see from other actors...I can't explain it but you can see what I am talking about in key points of this video.

I agree, Sarah. Shia LaBeouf must be one of the most underrated performers, not just actors, in the business.