Starving Artist Refuses to Eat Her Words

No, non and nay, I will not follow any other career: I can't anyway, it's too ingrained, I have to give it a bloody shot. The splendid theater designer Anya Klepikov likes to greet me by exclaiming how crazy she is to be in this arts business, and how crazy I am to follow her - but I remind her that we haven't got a choice in the matter. Tasting this, we can do no other. (Adrenaline junkies!)

I should do a post on Anya. You should know more about her.

I find myself hungry for better art job resources. So many of the American searches require paid membership, passwords, payment for journals...and the omnipresent Craigslist only features links for Film and TV on the one hand, Writing on the other, and Visual Arts/Graphic design on the third hand.

On the forth hand, the New York Times does not even link to its own dance section on its front page. The performing arts continue to be the black sheep of the "real" world. On the fifth hand, it's such a lark to point out to the "real" world how theatrical and fabricated its very existence remains.

The fun of the performing arts job search lies in its scavenger-hunt, Sherlock-and-Watson, wandering-gypsy feel. The kick in the face comes when all of the aforementioned show no promise of turning up anything but more dead ends.

Even a Starving Artist has got to eat. But then again, that's what part time jobs tutoring or bartending are for.

Deadlines Can Be Good Food, Too

Wise words from Tom Y. Levin during his office hours today: Sometimes, having a tight deadline can be the best possible thing for a work of any kind. Professor Levin is a film, media, surveillance, art, German, radio, and communication luminary. He has the air of an espresso machine (not only running on but also churning out caffeine for others) and while Gore says he invented the internet, Levin probably did. So there. I'm inclined to listen to him.

I also had the experience over the past two weeks of working very hard to make and re-make a solo for my last dance production at University. Some critical feedback lead me to strip all the movements from the skeleton, re-arrange the skeleton to resemble a number of different animals, and then try tacking the movement-flesh back on. Not a pretty sight.

But as tech and then dress rehearsal came and went, I ended up simply taking what I had, solidifying it, committing to it, and performing it as hard as I possibly could. The results seem to have made a bunch of audience members happy, and that's more than enough for me: If they got something out of it, if I didn't bore them by rolling around on the stage from eight or so minutes with kneepads and bloody feet, then the whole thing was worth it.

The deadline was good. The deadline was the only thing that made me, figuratively, shut up and dance.



...us, dancing. My own image design for the show poster.



Hooray for Tom Levin, too.

Berghain Berlin sells you its Music

Some whim just lead me into the arms of record label Ostgut Ton, soundkeeper of the Berghain beat. The Berghain, my uninitiates, is like boiling the essence of Berlin nightlife down into a single techno track, storing it in a huge, bare ex-warehouse, mixing in a little leather, and turning the volume up very, very loud. I only enjoyed the nightlong party for one happy Friday last summer, but it fixed itself hard in my mind, and I'd give anything to go back for another round.

And now I've found its record label. Techno is mine for the taking. Come to think of it, the Berghain and its sister Panoramabar also have a myspace with free music downloads. It gets better and better. And just as I have started looking in earnest for music to play with for my dance show this spring.



Oh yes. And why can I supply you with no photographs of the club interior? Because cameras gets strictly confiscated by its bouncers, who look to exclude anyone less than amenable to its sexual landscape and alternative character. Any kind of reflective surface is likewise banned. No visual judgments. Just joys. A huge, cavernous first level fills with smoke and industrial pipes, while the second level's more intimate bar serves drinks and ice-cream as the beat goes on. And on. And on.

Dances of Anachronism

Give me the past elegance of satin boned corsets and fishnetted legs in long black boots...ah, wait. That's not accurate. That's just our weird, modern history fetish for bits and pieces of antiquated costumery, poverty fetishizing, and WWI eroticization, all pulled together with masking tape into some jumble of pure, inauthentic fantasia.
A stunning german woman just linked me to a NY-based group that organizes afterday parties of dance and entertainment, plucking the plumpest fruits from various eras of history and mélanging them together into something which, if inauthentic fantasia, I'm sure is divine. (Stunning german women will do that to you.)

Check out Dances of Vice: They bring the avant-guard and the rococo too, they list Art, Music, and Spectacle (with capital letters) on their C.V., and with all the Walter Benjamin I've been reading lately I do appreciate a good, commodified, fetishized Spectacle.

Next up is "Visions of Weimar" in Brooklyn tomorrow night: German cabaret songs, Anita Berber toying-withs, a fellow from The Dresden Dolls, and (inexplicably) burlesque dancers from San-Francisco. And shadow puppets! Charleston and swing dance lessons. A musical saw.

For $20? My devil (on the left shoulder) tells me I ought to go, but my angel (wearing a cardigan) reminds me that I have to write 25 pages in three days.

My devil also wants to point out that I recently completed a writing/directing project on the German Kabarett, authentic songs and all, which I fought tooth and nail to pull back from the brink of sexy modern anachronism. So take my good-natured mockery with a pinch of salt. I'm sure it will be excellent.

Go, little kiddies, go! And come back and tell Auntie Starving Artist all about it.

Ballet Class En Masse

It's my great, great fortune that the kind and clever Zvi Gotheiner happens to be teaching our University course this fall. Over break, I've finally ventured into his lauded, crowded midtown NYC ballet classes. I'd like to serve up a demi-tasse of a review, because over the past week I've found this quite a special experience.

FOOD FOR THE DANCER
He starts with a gentle plié and tendu combination that stays consistent every day, letting your brain warm into the class. His combinations always have something to challenge the brain: maybe an unusual port-des-bras, or a rhythm that counts two against three. My body best appreciates how Zvi has us repeat each combination twice. I find his floor tendu combination an enormous mental challenge. The adagio is three-dimensional, turning corners and using all facings of the room. Likewise with his long floor phrase. He makes you move; the steps connect with the fluidity of contemporary choreography and send you back and forth rapidly in the space. Turns come mixed throughout and lumped together at the end of this phrase. He does a very brief jump warmup, and then combines petite and grande allegro into one complex mid-length combination. Actually, there isn't any real grande allegro, which I do miss. Throughout Zvi never stops to correct, but he will sometimes adjust a dancer with his hands mid-combination.

FOOD FOR THE CURIOUS OBSERVER
This is a healthy, challenging, beautiful class. The atmosphere is relaxed: people laugh. It's been crowded with upwards of thirty dancers every day that I've been there, ranging from true ballerinas to ex-dancers just looking to feel the ritual of morning warmup. The barres get so crowded that people stand with one hand on the wall. It reminds me of the profi classes in Berlin more than anything else, and it gets my limbs flowing, to be surrounded by so many other moving bodies.

Downsides? The City Center studio has no windows, and with the masses of people, much of the second half of class is spent waiting for the rare chance to go across the floor. Other than that?...

The photos are of Zvi's company, performing his choreography. Enjoy some video clips and more information on his company, ZviDance...

City Center, back entrance. $15 a class, cash.
Monday - Friday, 10 AM - 12 PM, but it seems to start around 10:15 every day.
Saturday, 11 AM - 1 PM.