Distance: 5 miles
One of those greatest of days when you and your 'place' are in perfect sync. Cinema Club with its excellent selection of indies and even more excellent audience and moderator comments after has deepened (and broadened) my understanding of cinema. I'm much more tuned in to things - like camera work, plot elements that did and didn't work, scripts, etc - than I was two years (and 4 seasons) ago. Perhaps as much as anything, I continually learn about other sensibilities - those of the (often international) filmmakers and equally of the Individuals in the audience. Capital I because audience comments stretch me to see/accept aspects of movies I did not notice or noticed and totally wrote off. That's always difficult - realizing someone has an utterly different - and equally valid - take.
But, as far as I could tell, there were no differences at all with the final selection of the San Francisco Ballet program this afternoon: Glass Pieces. Music: Philip Glass; Choreography: Jerome Robbins. Talk about nailing the intense poignancy, unrelenting exuberance and energy as well as random, momentary deep and precious moments of (American) urban life. When the curtain came down nearly everyone was in or on the verge of tears.
Can't really explain exactly why. Neither can the author of the Program Notes: Attempts to categorize this ballet fail. “It changes,” says Jean-Pierre Frohlich, a member of the advisory committee for the Robbins Rights Trust who has staged the work for San Francisco Ballet several times. (The Company last performed it in 2012.) “It’s like three different pieces—I think the second one [a pas de deux backed by a never-ending assembly line of women] is timeless.” A mix of ballet, modern, and jazz dance, Glass Pieces mesmerizes with its frenetic ensemble work, folk dance influences, contagious exuberance, and a heck of a lot of fast walking.
(Note the shadow of humanity ceaselessly, rhythmically moving across stage rear here. Really got to you...)
No comments:
Post a Comment