(no subject)
Just came back from the matinee show for A Dance Journey with Emanuel Gat and god, so fucking great.
Okay, so besides the bimbo reasons I was willing to watch a male-only modern dance (1. they all have really hot bodies and 2. these hot bodies usually go shirtless in at least one act), this was really extraodinarily beautiful. One thing I hate about ballet and some modern dance is that it seems so stilted, so mechanical. If dancing is an extension of one's soul then all the ballerinas I've seen are robots. There is no heart, so there's no true grace in the dance.
But oh, oh this was gorgeous. The performance was composed of three dances. The first one, Winter Voyage, had two dancers dressed in a cream blue variation on the traditional Vietnamese ao dai, which meant that the cloth tumbled and cascaded while they were dancing like another limb of their bodies.
I don't really watch modern dance alot, so I constructed this story of the dance in my head. The dance was set to Schubert and it was SO SAD. These two men kept on running away from each other. They just leapt and dashed across the edges of the stage away from one another and when they did meet up in the centre, they fell into perfect sync with their movements for only a few moments before one chose to break the rhythm and fall to the floor or run away again. There were all these tiny little brushes of hands against each other's backs and then they'd run away and I would be like OMG NO DON'T PLEASE and they would stare at each other for extended periods of time, just staring, their chests heaving up and down and you could hear the panting throughout the auditorium while they just kept on staring.
Then they'd run away from each other again and break my heart.
My favourite was the third one. It was called Ana wa Enta (Me & You) which was oh-so-sweet. The two dancers, Emanuel and a new one, Niv, were dressed in a black polo and white pants with Arabic music in the background. At first they danced with this unequal relationship going on - Emanuel was like the teacher, and he kept on putting his hands on Niv's face and controlling Niv by making him look in a certain direction, or wrapping an arm around Niv's waist to make him turn. So Niv kept on following Emanuel's movements until finally Niv was the only one dancing and Emanuel was in the background just watching him.
Then it evened out as Emanuel started literally falling into Niv's arms as Niv lifted him up (which was v. amazing as Niv was half a head shorter and really small to Emanuel in comparision). They exchanged roles as Emanuel started carrying Niv and then Niv would and they would flip flop between each other, sliding over each other's bodies. One thing that was really amazing was when Niv had his knees locked around Emanuel's shoulders and slid down the whole length of Emanuel's body like those Chinese acrobats down the poles in a Cirque du Soleil performance.
I found really sensual was how they kept on touching each other's heads. Does that make sense? Emanuel has a shaved head - completely shaved, monk-like - and Niv kept on smoothing his hands across Emanuel's skull like it was some sacred object and touching the space behind Emanuel's ears. And Niv kept on doing Turkish belly dance-type movements in front of Emanuel, which was very amusing. And staring at Emanuel, but you know, Emanuel had v. hot body so I did not blame him.
Then they put on these white tux jackets and the music became more upbeat and then it turned into a WEDDING! Actually, it didn't, I just got the impression.
Their movements sometimes fell naturally into the kind of shuffling dance that people do at weddings, with Niv's hand braced on the small of Emanuel's back, and they were bounding across the stage into each other's arms and pressing their foreheads against each other's and holding hands and I was like OMG WEDDING SO SWEET.
Okay the way I tell it, the performance seemed like slash heaven which it was. But it was also very beautiful and flowing and smooth. All the movements were so natural and so eloquent; it was like seeing this story composed of nothing but physical movement. *tears* This is why I really love watching dance. :D:D
Okay, so besides the bimbo reasons I was willing to watch a male-only modern dance (1. they all have really hot bodies and 2. these hot bodies usually go shirtless in at least one act), this was really extraodinarily beautiful. One thing I hate about ballet and some modern dance is that it seems so stilted, so mechanical. If dancing is an extension of one's soul then all the ballerinas I've seen are robots. There is no heart, so there's no true grace in the dance.
But oh, oh this was gorgeous. The performance was composed of three dances. The first one, Winter Voyage, had two dancers dressed in a cream blue variation on the traditional Vietnamese ao dai, which meant that the cloth tumbled and cascaded while they were dancing like another limb of their bodies.
I don't really watch modern dance alot, so I constructed this story of the dance in my head. The dance was set to Schubert and it was SO SAD. These two men kept on running away from each other. They just leapt and dashed across the edges of the stage away from one another and when they did meet up in the centre, they fell into perfect sync with their movements for only a few moments before one chose to break the rhythm and fall to the floor or run away again. There were all these tiny little brushes of hands against each other's backs and then they'd run away and I would be like OMG NO DON'T PLEASE and they would stare at each other for extended periods of time, just staring, their chests heaving up and down and you could hear the panting throughout the auditorium while they just kept on staring.
Then they'd run away from each other again and break my heart.
My favourite was the third one. It was called Ana wa Enta (Me & You) which was oh-so-sweet. The two dancers, Emanuel and a new one, Niv, were dressed in a black polo and white pants with Arabic music in the background. At first they danced with this unequal relationship going on - Emanuel was like the teacher, and he kept on putting his hands on Niv's face and controlling Niv by making him look in a certain direction, or wrapping an arm around Niv's waist to make him turn. So Niv kept on following Emanuel's movements until finally Niv was the only one dancing and Emanuel was in the background just watching him.
Then it evened out as Emanuel started literally falling into Niv's arms as Niv lifted him up (which was v. amazing as Niv was half a head shorter and really small to Emanuel in comparision). They exchanged roles as Emanuel started carrying Niv and then Niv would and they would flip flop between each other, sliding over each other's bodies. One thing that was really amazing was when Niv had his knees locked around Emanuel's shoulders and slid down the whole length of Emanuel's body like those Chinese acrobats down the poles in a Cirque du Soleil performance.
I found really sensual was how they kept on touching each other's heads. Does that make sense? Emanuel has a shaved head - completely shaved, monk-like - and Niv kept on smoothing his hands across Emanuel's skull like it was some sacred object and touching the space behind Emanuel's ears. And Niv kept on doing Turkish belly dance-type movements in front of Emanuel, which was very amusing. And staring at Emanuel, but you know, Emanuel had v. hot body so I did not blame him.
Then they put on these white tux jackets and the music became more upbeat and then it turned into a WEDDING! Actually, it didn't, I just got the impression.
Their movements sometimes fell naturally into the kind of shuffling dance that people do at weddings, with Niv's hand braced on the small of Emanuel's back, and they were bounding across the stage into each other's arms and pressing their foreheads against each other's and holding hands and I was like OMG WEDDING SO SWEET.
Okay the way I tell it, the performance seemed like slash heaven which it was. But it was also very beautiful and flowing and smooth. All the movements were so natural and so eloquent; it was like seeing this story composed of nothing but physical movement. *tears* This is why I really love watching dance. :D:D