whereas "small elephant stories" was a collage, i am hoping that "when the elephant comes crashing through the roof" is a braid. i would like to be surprised to discover how Charmion can make a trajectory through several stories, and how the imagery, visuals, movement and music are woven together by her presence.
thinking about the word "crashing" - what has crashed through the roof of your life? what have you crashed through?
bulls crash through china shops, but this elephant comes through the roof.
a mistake, a sneeze and suddenly the world turns upside down.
Gaelyn wrote in his class assigned review of "small elephant stories":
"The literal narrative,
within which each smaller story stood poised, hit very close to home. In a less
than abstract sense, I have been Charmion and I have been one of her children.
I have been left suspenseful in the mystique of circus and dance, and have also
disappeared. The text laid bare personal histories which I avoid, not dissimilar
to the alchemy of butoh. The entire project was a milieu of heavily weighted
histories, ones which supplied a canvas on which I could reconstruct my
whims,
emotions, questions and desires—my elephants."
I, too feel like I have been Charmion and one of her children. I like the way of thinking of the piece as a canvas on which the audience can reconstruct their whims, emotions, questions and desires -
their elephants.
One of the elephants in my room, is that I have been focused on circus elephants. The most horrible existence for these magnificent creatures - and yet, I am drawn to a romanticization of it. I need to continue to unpack this.
Physically today I played some more with the gesture motif, Rosie's "sifting fingers, shoulder rise and drop"
I read Ralph Lemon's essay, "What was always there" in "Dance, Human Rights, and Social Justice: Dignity in Motion". I know Ralph but I hadn't known of this project of his. Read more in the "Reading Responses" pages. There is something about his awkward attempt to dance in the situation which he put himself, confronting the worlds of difference/distance. A crashing through the roof of sorts.
2 comments:
As to circus elephants: I think that the romanticization makes sense. It is what we are conditioned to doing/believing/etc. If we go back to the elephant as the idea of artistry, creativity, spirituality, that which creates our passion, it is not surprising to that the "taming of the beast" is something we are fascinated by. Artists choose not to agree to this social contract. We don't believe that harm comes from containing or taming our emotional selves. In fact, I believe that harm comes FROM this containment. Containing that which taps us into our emotional, passionate selves can only be temporary, and when the breach finally occurs that release of emotion and passion is often violent. Why then must we hide or compartmentalize that which most identifies who we are?
I just read a small section of David Byrne's BICYCLE DIARIES that talked about Sweetwater, Texas. It is about 4 pages of the book, but he comments upon a statement he saw a number of places, "Jesus Never Fails." What he was interested in was the implication that you could only blame yourself for failure. He also noticed spartan buildings, a curfew for youth, a dry county. . . The premise was the town tries to contain or prevent any fault or failure, and that everyone must come together through Jesus. Individuals, or individuality holds no place there. Again, taming the elephant.
That idea of containment is really useful. The south does it perhaps most blatantly, but it is everywhere in this glorious nation of ours....
And as we have discussed - the danger of "containing" one's artistic self.
It helps me understand why Charmion, as a character, has reached out to me. A woman in Victorian era who promotes herself as a "disrobing artist" and a "strong woman" - all sorts of refusals to be contained, while simultaneously she insists on describing herself as "wholesome". I think WHOLE is the operative word.
I want to get to the Des Moines Register archives- apparently she did an interview on December 9, 1908.
Post a Comment