Thoughts around an uplifting point

Y's by Yohji Yamamoto

Oversized short-sleeved button up shirt in white cotton. High-low hemline. Oxford collar. 
Single box pleat at back yoke.

photo from TotoKaelo

"I think clothes should be made from the back, and not the front.
The back supports the clothes,
and so if it is not properly made,
the front cannot exist."

Yohji Yamamoto
Yohji Yamamoto: Talking to Myself
2002

Ballet professor Wayne Byars, when talking to dancers about how to hold one's body, describes two imaginary lines:
- a horizontal line going from shoulder to shoulder
- a vertical line going from head to lower back, following the spine
The intersection of these 2 lines is an imaginary point.
Wayne directs students towards the mental representation and lifting of this point upward, to carry the body in the best manner - freeing it for dance, and by extension, for life.

Photo from a Philippe Genty puppeteering workshop

cropped from an original by Elena Mesa Alonso of the company Micro-Troupe

Puppeteer Philippe Genty and his company use, for teaching the basics of puppetry, a half-scale puppet which is held with two hands:
- one handle located in the higher back, roughly at the intersection of shoulder line and spine
- the other handle located at the back of the head, at mid-height.
The resulting movement of these puppets is extremely realistic and graceful, mimicking humans in a disturbingly accurate way.

 

Stay pattern, full, back view

based on an engraving from The Art of the Tailor

by François-Alexandre-Pierre de Garsault, Paris, 1769

 

Stay-makers of 18th century France did not measure the human body the way we do now. Instead of taking into account basic orthogonal lines such as bust-waist-hips-torso & back length, they used a set of diagonal dimensions, obtained by wrapping strips of paper around the upper body. A striking feature of this technique is the resulting pattern on the back, showing a clear intersection of several lines roughly in the same imaginary spot mentionned above.

"It should not bend,
but accomodate the body it holds within,
without altering its shape,
while at the same time supporting it
and preventing it from acquiring bad postures"

François-Alexandre-Pierre de Garsault
Art du Tailleur
1769

LIFE CHOICES

Jo Ann Endicott in Walzer by Pina Bausch, 1982

"Almost every dancer from the Tanztheater of Pina Bausch lives alone.
It takes you, it sucks all your time, it demands everything from you.
"It" is your life.
You give your life to "it".
And this "it" is everything.

Working with Pina has always been something very particular for me.
Meanwhile she has become one of the most important artists in the world.
I know how much she appreciates that I am here.
(...)
Does Pina even asks herself how I manage to do it all?
Jo arrives, Jo leaves.
Nobody asks themselves any questions.
My husband sees it.
The children feel it.
But in the end, only I know exactly how demanding it is, how hard it is."

Jo Ann Endicott
Ich bin eine anständige Frau [I am a Decent Woman]
1999

RUNWAY

 photo credits: Viktor & Rolf

A clean, unapologetic read of the floating imagery of ballet. Clean concept, clean execution. Not easy, well done.

Designers: VIKTOR & ROLF
Collection: haute couture
Season: spring summer 2014
Models: dancers from the Het Nationale Ballet ['Dutch National Ballet']
Hair: Luigi Murenu
Music: Nils Frahm
Material: latex

 photo credits: Viktor & Rolf

 photo credits: Viktor & Rolf

  photo credits: Viktor & Rolf

  photo credits: Viktor & Rolf

See the show in motion here:

Viktor & Rolf Haute Couture SS14 H264 from Tilt Factory on Vimeo

NO COSTUMES

On November 19th, 2007, the Paris Opera Ballet (Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris) gave a performance of The Nutcracker with no costumes and no sets, due to a labor strike.
Dancers apparently resorted to wearing personal work clothes, and danced in front of a single backdrop that was already down.

What a treat it must have been, to be in the audience that night.

Note: this event is briefly described in the wikipedia biography of dancer Dorothée Gilbert, who was named étoile ['star'] that night.
Curtain call can be seen here.

BUILDING BY DANCING

 Diébédo Francis Kéré during his Ted Talk : How to Build with Clay...and Community

Burkinabe architect Diébédo Francis Kéré tells about how he went back to his native Burkina-Faso after studying architecture in Germany, to build the first school building there with the help of his village.

He described the rhythmic movements of the builders, men and women, who make the clay floors:

"The young men come, and stand like that [tap], beating; [tap], [tap].
Hours for hours.

And then their mothers came, and they beat in this position [tap], [tap], [tap].
For hours.

Giving water. Giving water, and beating.
And then the polishers came.
They start polishing it. With a stone.
For hours.
And then, you have this result.
Very fine, like a baby bottom.
It's no Photoshop.
This is the school built by the community."

Diébédo Francis Kéré
Ted Talk
2013

DANCE & ARCHITECTURE

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