Portrait of Martha Graham and Eric Hawkins at Bennington College,

photo by Barbara Morgan, 1938

"They say that the two primary arts were dance and architecture.

The word 'theatre' was a verb before it was a noun - an act, then a place.
That means you must make the gesture, the effort, the real effort to communicate with another being. And you also must have a tree to shelter under in case of storm or sun.

There is always that tree, that creative force,
and there is always a house, a theatre."

Martha Graham
Blood Memory
1991

MAKING A BODY

I am currently making French 18th century stays, as an investigation into the history of clothing, materiality and the body.

The french expression for stays is 'corps baleiné' ['whaleboned body'].
Similarly, the name of a particular kind of stays worn at the king's court is 'grand corps de cour' ['tall body for court'].
The artisan specialized in making them in the 18th century was called the 'tailleur de corps' ['tailor of bodies'].

Isn't is striking that the word for this item of clothing, which molds and transforms the shape of the body, is the word CORPS ['BODY']? Not 'corsage' ['bodice', as is sometimes translated in english], but 'body'.

As if there was no difference between your natural body and this second one.

BARRE AS YOGA

Maurice Béjart and Rita Poelvoorde in the movie Je t'aime, tu danses (1977)

"I met the master:
- Why do you wish to do yoga?
(Naturally a young student interpreter allowed us to have this dialog).
- I think it can help me build my life and make me go forward in my work.
- What is your work?
- I am a dancer.
- Dance is a gift from the gods, Shiva Nataraja is the lord of dance, it is a difficult art. What is your dance?
 I mumbled a few obscure explanations. Actually I did not know what my dance was!
- I suppose, he said, that you have some type of daily practice, some exercises.
- Yes, of course.
 I did not know how to explain them. He said:
- Show me!
I noticed a wooden railing surrounding the covered terrace whose floor we were sitting on.
- You see, we do the barre every day.
- Well, go on!
 I took a deep breath, filled with more fright than for the premiere of a show, and placed myself in front of him, holding on to the railing. The floor was - a rare thing in India - made of natural wood, polished but not slippery, which allowed me to work simply and cleanly.
 After forty minutes, neither his body nor his gaze had changed. I finally said, covered in sweat:
- That's it, this is what we call THE BARRE.

A long silence followed. Then:

- So why do you want to do yoga? If your mind is free and your body upright but without tension, if you let the exercise guide you and not the opposite, if you wish for nothing more than the exercise for the beauty and the truth of the exercise, you have your yoga. Do not look any further! Do what you call "the barre" for the beauty of the barre without thinking about improving, for we improve only through abandonning the idea of improving.

From that day, the barre, for me, wasn't linked to a technique, to a style, to a particular form of dance. It is a yoga which builds my body and my mind and opens me to the possibility of trying to understand all other forms of dance, because dance is ONE."

Maurice Béjart
Lettres à un jeune danseur [Letters to a young dancer]
2001

note: the barre is the handrail which dancers use as a help during ballet warm-up exercises. By extension, the sequence of exercises itself is called "the barre".

THE WAISTCOAT THAT WAS NEVER WORN

 source: MET online collections

These are uncut pieces of French silk, which were embroidered in the 18th century, waiting to be cut and made into gentlemen's waistcoats. 

I love the poetry of this suspension in time. 

How the embroidery shows the shape and layout economy of the pattern (something that the chalk of the time couldn't have sustained long enough to reach us 300 years later). 

How we can read front, back, pockets, collars, and buttons from simple geometric cues.

How we can gauge the size of seam allowances in the in-between space.

The many scenarios we can imagine as to why these waistcoats were never cut and assembled into a piece of clothing; did the customer dislike them and change his mind? were they made without a customer in mind, like ready-to-wear, and never found someone who chose them? was there a sudden interruption in the tailor's business, which caused these pieces to never be finished?

GROWTH CURVES

Height curves modeled by J.P.P.S CS based on data from Dr M. Sempé
(sequential studies 1953-1975)

[Courbes staturales modélisés par J.P.P.S. CS d'après les données du Dr M. Sempé 
(études séquentielles 1953 -1975)]

Girls in pink, boys in blue.

These diagrams can be found in the Carnet de Santé ['Health Notebook'] which is given to every child in France at birth. One inputs the height of the child as she/he grows, and compares it to what I will call society averages.

No updated version past 1975 to the best of my knowledge.