i always leave museums wanting to make things, and now that i'm learning the basic grammars of ballet and modern, i watch dance performances and want to dance around during intermission. during the performance, it feels like my legs pay even closer attention than i do, tensing in sympathy with the people on stage. literally on the edge of my seat.
Axis Dance Company performed in Oakland this past weekend and celebrated their 20th anniversary. it was my introduction to physically integrated dance -- choreography intended for dancers with and without disabilities -- and Axis is the founding company in this field.
so i was really self-conscious about my visceral response this time: the usual identification with the dancers (could i do that?? how did she do that?! i want to try that!!!), but also an awareness of new limits and new parameters. it's hard not to watch dancer rodney bell (in the photo above, with Sonsherée Giles) -- super strong and gestural from the waist up, immobile from the waist down -- and not think about physical limitations.
but then, i guess, dance is all about physical capacities and limitations: making the most athletic gestures against gravity look effortless, ritualizing movement so we see bodies anew. so what i liked best was when bell danced without the aid of his wheelchair, along the stage floor, moving with immobile legs.
i've always said dance is great for seeing amazing bodies doing amazing things -- seeing Axis, i'm confronted with the narrowness of what i've considered beautiful, strong, amazing. i think about how dance endlessly multiplies the body's abilities, and forces you to turn your limits into your own language. i guess my language has something to do with trying to go en pointe at 32. o, gravity!
Sources
art: "The Art of Participation," SFMOMA
music: "Instrumentals Vol. 2, Reach One," Arthur Russell
film: Quantum of Solace, Jonathan Miller's Alice in Wonderland (1966)
food: Beard Papa green tea creampuff
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