I went to the Cedar Cultural Center Monday to shoot video of a rehearsal for Festival of Lies, from Congolese choreographer Faustin Linyekula and his ensemble, Les Studios Kabako. Instead of rehearsing, Linyekula talked to several local guest artists, performing in his work Saturday, about the history and process leading to this piece. Performances are November 1-3 at the Cedar.
And here’s a piece of video of the company in performance.
In December 2007 Congolese choreographer Faustin Linyekula will be presented with the 2007 Principal Prince Claus Award. The Prince Claus Fund has selected Culture and Conflict as an area of special interest and as the theme for their 2007 awards.
Culture, for the Prince Claus Fund, is a basic human need. Culture has the power either to provoke or diminish conflict. This year the Prince Claus Awards honour artists and organisations that have worked to counteract the destructive power of conflict by opposing beauty to devastation, opening spaces and forms of dialogue, restoring respect for others and enhancing dignity and self-esteem.
Faustin Linyekula and Studios Kabako / Photo by Joachim Montessuis
Faustin Linyekula (1974, Democratic Republic of Congo) Describing himself as a storyteller, Faustin Linyekula uses movements, text, sound and images to communicate the complex experience of living in the violent conflict that has gripped his country for decades, and to help people examine and reconstruct their lives. The Prince Claus Fund honours Faustin Linyekula for his outstanding choreography, his bold return to Congo, his innovative stimulation of culture despite instability and turbulence, and his commitment to the development of his country. Read more
Join celebrated Congo-based choreographer Faustin Linyekula as he turns the Cedar Cultural Center into a Kinshasa social club and combines a spirited soukous party with an intensive performance installation.
Date: November 1 - 2
Time: 8:00 pm
Place: Cedar Cultural Center
and
Date: Saturday, November 3
Time: 8:00 pm to 2:00 am
Place: Cedar Cultural Center
Click here for tickets and more show information
I have been an intern in the Performing Arts department at the Walker since the beginning of July this year. In this time I have had the chance to see some wonderful performances, meet artists, attend Walker parties, and learn more about where I belong in the arts and cultural world. But I think my favorite part of being here is where I get to sit. My desk (which I share with a fellow intern) is placed in a spot where you have to pass if you need to get to certain departments in a quick fashion. I say quick because I would say at least 75% of the people who pass my desk are cruising by at full speed darting around the corner off to who knows where. I, being the number one fan of people watching, love every minute of it.
I get to see interns running by with what I am sure are very important documents in hand (I am one of them), department heads flying by to their next presentation or meeting, colleagues doing the walk and talk very much like “The West Wing”, and at least twice a day people just barely crashing into one another as they pass like two ships in the night or in this case like two race cars. I have become used to this frantic movement and now find myself transfixed by my computer screen staring at Excel spreadsheets or shooting off an email not even noticing the passers by. Every once and a while some one will stop at my desk to chat (or perhaps take a breath) but for the most part it is go, go, go around this hip and fast paced office. Sitting in this spot one might only think folks around here have somewhere they need to be and they need to get there fast! I have come to realize that although I certainly do not know everyone around here I do know that these people are dedicated to and driven by their work and I feel like such a lucky duck that I get to see them in action every Thursday and Friday.
This Saturday October 27th at Walker Art Center’s McGuire Theater
An eccentric and an outsider, photographer Mike Disfarmer took portraits of the residents of Heber Springs, Arkansas, in the 1940s, chronicling heartland America’s working poor.
Inspired by these arresting portrayals of postwar rural life, guitar genius Bill Frisell created an evening of new compositions.
His atmospheric and innovative musical language offers a perfect complement to the photographer’s images dissolving across multiple screens framing onstage.
Click here for Performance Information
Disfarmer: A Biography
by Richard B. Woodward
It’s a puzzle that Mike Meyer, better known as Mike Disfarmer, fell into this gregarious profession and a miracle that he succeeded at it, for most reports indicate that he lacked even basic social skills. The people in the small town of Heber Springs, Arkansas, where he made photographic portraits for more than forty years, remember neither the places he worked nor the man himself as attractive. For a good part of his life (1884-1959) he seems to have been more feared than liked. Click here to read more
This text is excerpted from Richard B. Woodward’s essay "American Metamorphosis: Disfarmer and the Art of Studio Photography" in the book Disfarmer: The Vintage Prints.
I just went to Flickr.com and searched for Faustin Linyekula and some of the images that came up were pretty amazing. I think I got caught up in the excitement of the party / social aspect of this performance, and overlooked how aesthetically exciting this show will be.
Click here for a slideshow.
I know ugly. It’s something that I've lived, worn, adored, tasted, smelled and danced. I’ve tried to make it Gorgeous and trendy even. In my 20’s I intentionally chose not to bathe for as long as possible to embody a form of greasy smelly junky ugly. It’s something that I love to talk about especially in live performance. So naturally, I’m excited about M. J.’s Ugly at the Walker Art Center this weekend. But… as I bump into my colleagues that have already seen Ugly this week, no one will talk about it. I’m persistent for a remark, I push, and still, they avert their eyes, raise their hand, or shake their head and say “no, not until you’ve seen it and then we’ll talk." This kind of silence from nearly ten people is unprecedented in a community that fearlessly trades critical and complimentary remarks like baseball cards. (I love this about this community, by the way.) So, I'm off to the Walker tonight, to have a hand in Ugly, as a perplexed yet intrigued audience member.
Be warned, I will not shower.
-Morgan
Here is the first in a new Walker video series — the working title is “Process This” — dropping into the creative process of artists working with the Walker. This installment focuses on ARENA Dances, captured in rehearsal for Ugly, a Walker dance commission premiering Oct. 18-20 in the McGuire Theater.
The video runs a little under 7 minutes, so give it a little time to load before playing:
First, I want to explain that I am not writing formal reviews for Re:View. I still do that for mnartists.org and the Mpls-St Paul blogs, which is where you can find my formal review of this performance (look for it later today).
Instead, I’m going to use this space for more informal, glancing thoughts, and for questions.
“Wild Cursive”: I perceived each movement phrase as a sustained encounter between the brush and page. I clearly saw when the brush was lifted from the page–the pauses, the full stops. For me, this performance lives in the drama of the sustained phrase. How will the artist continue what he or she has begun? How will one movement evolve mindfully into the next? How will the artist continue to move forward in time without letting any of the myriad distractions time brings disrupt the impulse of the movement?
And, over time, I noticed the aggression here–not only the martial arts moves, the loud breath, the shouts from one performer–but the feeling of suspense, of each phrase as a battle with an unseen antagonist. I was reminded of the tightrope act of a line of poetry or a sentence in prose. Also, I noticed the isolation of the performers. Even when gathered in large groups, they all seemed to go on fighting their individual battles. Unison was no comfort. This sense of an ongoing struggle left me wondering–what, then, are the stops? Little deaths or little kills?
I’ve described them already as the moments when the calligrapher lifts the brush from the page, but this simply transposes the question to another artistic medium. Earlier yesterday I was with a group of poets, discussing the question “what is a line break?”–which is yet another way of posing the same question. So, let me ask you: what are the stops?
I’ll be back to discuss this further–or whatever else you’d like to discuss.
Alicia Anstead(for Inside Arts magazine): Let’s say you can’t use the word dance, how would you describe what you do for a living?
Bill T. Jones: I am a scientist in the area of that place where feeling, thought and action meet. My primary computer, my primary instrument is the body, mine and other people’s.
(in interview after accepting a Tony award for his choreography in Spring Awakening)
There has been so much activity in the local dance community lately so here are some quick highlights and upcoming events:
- Congratulations to Bessie Award Recipients: On September 17, Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project, and The Joyce Theater with the 2007 Bessies Committee, presented the Twenty-Third Annual New York Dance and Performance Awards (a.k.a. THE BESSIES) for exceptional achievements of the 2006-2007 season. Award were given to two Walker-commissioned and premiered productions for:
- Minneapolis dancer, Karen Sherman, for her performance in Morgan Thorson’s Faker at P.S. 122
- Designers, Jim Findlay and Jeff Sugg, for Cynthia Hopkins’ Must Don’t Whip ‘Um at St. Ann’s Warehouse
Awards were also given to artists previously commissioned by the Walker such as Bill T. Jones and Sarah Michelson for their latest works.
- Most Ambitious Work to Date: Two years ago local choreographer, Mathew Janczewski embarked on a great and ambitious project commissioned by the Walker Art Center. An amazing round-table of artists came together to help him conceive and develop his new work, UGLY. As a dancer, Mathew has long been obsessed with the notion of body image and as a choreographer he has looked at society and the various façades we put on. You are invited to come and peek behind-the-scenes at how he breaks down those façades, strips down the ego and gets to the essence of who we are as individuals and who we are as a people.
- Choreographers’ Evening All Lined Up: This year’s CE showcase curated by Emily Johnson, runs November 24 at 7 and 9:30 pm and features short works by Olive Bieringa, Jaime Carrera, Joanna Furnans, Cara Krippner, Mad King Thomas, Kaleena Miller and Ricci Milan, Pam Plagge, Sally Rousse, Kenna Sarge, Susan Scalf and Dylan Skybrook, Chris Schlichting, Anna Marie Shogren, Terri Yellowhammer, and The Greater Twin Cities Tableau Society.
- Momentum 08: New Dance Works: Just announced!
Four new commissions, by local promising artists Eddie Oroyan, Chris Schlichting, Maia Maiden with Ellena Schoop, and Anna Marie Shogren, are germinating and will be co-presented by the Walker Art Center and the Southern Theater, with generous support from the Jerome Foundation, July 17-19 & 24-26, 2008. Save the dates!
click to see the slideshow! Excellent photos by Daniel Corrigan.
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