Big Range Dance; "Light Readings of Ebony" by David J. LeMaster
It's a little past midnight and I just got in from seeing an evening of dance. Most people who know me know I love modern dance and I can be a tough critic. Lately, with most of my finances going toward the publishing venture or the electric bill, I haven't been able to get out to see much, and I have to choose carefully.
But tonight I attended the final night of performances of Houston's Big Range Dance Festival. I didn't make it to any of the other events during the fest, and honestly, I went tonight just to see the work of people I know (who also used my voice in their soundtracks, which was a gas, but also another story).
I had a very good time.
Sara Draper and Elizabeth Gilbert are doing some interesting work in collaboration. Elizabeth was in an auto accident some time ago which has left her in a wheel chair with limited mobility. Between Sara's movement and Elizabeth's poetry, they're exploring the being/doing dichotomy, how doing affects our sense of identity---those sorts of things. They do the work without self-pity or easy sentiment; neither do they avoid the difficulties of becoming wheel chair bound. It's fairly direct and postitive at the same time. The line that sums up the work for me is when Elizabeth says in one of her poems, "difficult is merely different." I could stand to remember that sometimes, myself.
Sara also choreographed a new work called "Breasts X Censored," which was about our culture's simultaneous obsession and shame surrounding women's breasts. To be honest, I wasn't sure what Sara was doing with this, even though I recorded some text for the soundtrack. I don't want to say it's subtle, but it's more nuanced than I was expecting. And funny as hell. All the dancers are women and they're all topless, but they all have black pieces of foam-core board (?) taped to their breasts, like thos black bars you see across photos. That in itself was funnier (ridiculous, really) than I was expecting it to be. That the dancers pretty much just did their choreography without emphasizing the boards made it even funnier. It's hard to talk about the piece because it keeps looking cliched in cold type, but it was really much more clever than I'm making it sound.
Toni Valle Leago also premiered a piece tonight that was more serious in tone, but also addressed some body issues from a woman's point of view. Toni is a choreographer whose work I generally enjoy and this was no exception. Her sense of humor is strong and her more dramatic moments pack punch because of the humor. I don't know what to say about it tonight, except that I'm looking forward to the evening-length work she's creating.
Both Toni and Sara were recently awarded a DiverseWorks Houston Artist residency. You'll like see more about them here in the future.
Three other companies/artists danced tonight, and I enjoyed what I saw there, too, but it's coming on 1am and I need to head to bed, soon. Ask me to talk more about this night of dance if you're interested. I'm always ready to talk about dance.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In my ongoing discussion of the stories in the forthcoming Able to... I turn my attention to David J. LeMaster's "Light Readings of Ebony."
David has two stories in this collection and they are both the darkest of the book. This is the lighter of the two. Make of that what you will (or wait until I tell you about "The Mesmerizer" in a couple of weeks).
"Light Readings of Ebony" tells the story of a man, Joel, who goes to a bar for quick hook-up and find that and so much more. A fortune teller in the corner of the bar draws him in and soon he finds he's part of some grand design that only she, Ebony, can foresee. Ebony wears symbols of most of the world's religions. Joel is an avowed agnostic. At the core of this story---which is probably what appeals to me most---is that it's about belief. I don't really want to say faith, because there's a subtle difference between the two. But Ebony believes Joel is more important than he currently appears and is willing to act on that belief. Joel claims neither belief nor disbelief, but that in between stance keeps him a place of inaction.
As for the extraordinary ability of this story, it belongs to Ebony who, we learn, can resurrect dead creatures. This, of course, plays into both characters' belief and unbelief. Interesting questions are asked here, and David doesn't really answer them so much as shows us one possibility of what a certain sort of belief can lead to.
I know most people (myself included) don't read anthologies straight through, starting with page one and continuing through each story to the end. If you're like me, you'll go to the story that is the proper length to fill the time you have at a give time, or you look at the contents page and see what title strikes you or some other criteria dictates the order in which you read.
But I placed this story second because it is a good contrast to the first story, "Gates of Eden." "Gates of Eden," while not all sweetness and light, does have an airier feel to it. It is, after all, a story about a young woman who speaks flowers. I wanted to follow that story with something that let the rare, sequential reader know that this is a collection of stories with a range of stories, that there is a journey through the book of lightness and heaviness, of different textures, if you will.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That's all for this very early morning. More soon . . .
-Neil
But tonight I attended the final night of performances of Houston's Big Range Dance Festival. I didn't make it to any of the other events during the fest, and honestly, I went tonight just to see the work of people I know (who also used my voice in their soundtracks, which was a gas, but also another story).
I had a very good time.
Sara Draper and Elizabeth Gilbert are doing some interesting work in collaboration. Elizabeth was in an auto accident some time ago which has left her in a wheel chair with limited mobility. Between Sara's movement and Elizabeth's poetry, they're exploring the being/doing dichotomy, how doing affects our sense of identity---those sorts of things. They do the work without self-pity or easy sentiment; neither do they avoid the difficulties of becoming wheel chair bound. It's fairly direct and postitive at the same time. The line that sums up the work for me is when Elizabeth says in one of her poems, "difficult is merely different." I could stand to remember that sometimes, myself.
Sara also choreographed a new work called "Breasts X Censored," which was about our culture's simultaneous obsession and shame surrounding women's breasts. To be honest, I wasn't sure what Sara was doing with this, even though I recorded some text for the soundtrack. I don't want to say it's subtle, but it's more nuanced than I was expecting. And funny as hell. All the dancers are women and they're all topless, but they all have black pieces of foam-core board (?) taped to their breasts, like thos black bars you see across photos. That in itself was funnier (ridiculous, really) than I was expecting it to be. That the dancers pretty much just did their choreography without emphasizing the boards made it even funnier. It's hard to talk about the piece because it keeps looking cliched in cold type, but it was really much more clever than I'm making it sound.
Toni Valle Leago also premiered a piece tonight that was more serious in tone, but also addressed some body issues from a woman's point of view. Toni is a choreographer whose work I generally enjoy and this was no exception. Her sense of humor is strong and her more dramatic moments pack punch because of the humor. I don't know what to say about it tonight, except that I'm looking forward to the evening-length work she's creating.
Both Toni and Sara were recently awarded a DiverseWorks Houston Artist residency. You'll like see more about them here in the future.
Three other companies/artists danced tonight, and I enjoyed what I saw there, too, but it's coming on 1am and I need to head to bed, soon. Ask me to talk more about this night of dance if you're interested. I'm always ready to talk about dance.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In my ongoing discussion of the stories in the forthcoming Able to... I turn my attention to David J. LeMaster's "Light Readings of Ebony."
David has two stories in this collection and they are both the darkest of the book. This is the lighter of the two. Make of that what you will (or wait until I tell you about "The Mesmerizer" in a couple of weeks).
"Light Readings of Ebony" tells the story of a man, Joel, who goes to a bar for quick hook-up and find that and so much more. A fortune teller in the corner of the bar draws him in and soon he finds he's part of some grand design that only she, Ebony, can foresee. Ebony wears symbols of most of the world's religions. Joel is an avowed agnostic. At the core of this story---which is probably what appeals to me most---is that it's about belief. I don't really want to say faith, because there's a subtle difference between the two. But Ebony believes Joel is more important than he currently appears and is willing to act on that belief. Joel claims neither belief nor disbelief, but that in between stance keeps him a place of inaction.
As for the extraordinary ability of this story, it belongs to Ebony who, we learn, can resurrect dead creatures. This, of course, plays into both characters' belief and unbelief. Interesting questions are asked here, and David doesn't really answer them so much as shows us one possibility of what a certain sort of belief can lead to.
I know most people (myself included) don't read anthologies straight through, starting with page one and continuing through each story to the end. If you're like me, you'll go to the story that is the proper length to fill the time you have at a give time, or you look at the contents page and see what title strikes you or some other criteria dictates the order in which you read.
But I placed this story second because it is a good contrast to the first story, "Gates of Eden." "Gates of Eden," while not all sweetness and light, does have an airier feel to it. It is, after all, a story about a young woman who speaks flowers. I wanted to follow that story with something that let the rare, sequential reader know that this is a collection of stories with a range of stories, that there is a journey through the book of lightness and heaviness, of different textures, if you will.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That's all for this very early morning. More soon . . .
-Neil
posted by Neil Ellis Orts at 10:15 PM
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