bODY_rEMIX/gOLDBERG_vARIATIONS.

i put aside my little project for the evening to accept an unexpected invitation to bODY_rEMIX/gOLDBERG_vARIATIONS, the latest brainchild of Marie Chouinard. it BLEW MY MIND. it was Truly Beautiful and Astounding. the whole piece (like i could do it justice with my paltry descriptions) is a company of ten dancers mixing modern dance and ballet with implements from harnesses and crutches to protheses, ropes, and horizontal bars, creating this raw and beautiful Beautiful portrait of the difficulty of being trapped inside being human. dancers swung lightly through the air across the stage, touching foot down in their partners' upstretched hands and then up again. partners copulated in hanging harnesses while others pulled themselves around by their arms trapped in crutches. point shoes acted as restraints for both hands and feet, horizontal bars were brought out set up like a line from sheet music, through which one of the dancers negotiated herself, and the whole work ended with a series of cables holding all the crutches etc, while one in the middle slowly lifted a dancer up and away from it all, 'til the curtain dropped.
standing ovation, total AWE. it amazes me (when I see work like this) that dance is such a limited audience (well, the house was packed tonight, i'm speaking more generally). it seems like we all share our bodies in common, that should provide a feasible basis for understanding the work of dancers, much more so than alot of other contemporary art that gets out there,anyhow.
it's humbling, too. humbling to see what people can do with the machine they're given to get themselves around in...while some of us just slouch in our comfy chairs watching and marvelling.

thank you thank you THANK YOU for sharing your tickets, Mister Simon.