Dancing with Savages

Posted on February 13, 2013 by Experiment Station

In this series of guest posts, three choreographers from CityDance talk about the artwork that inspired their movement for this Thursday’s Angels, Demons, and Savages-inspired Valentine’s Day Dance Experience (UPDATE: this program is sold out). Read Lorraine Spiegler on Alfonso Ossorio’s The Helpful Angels here and Christopher K. Morgan on Jackson Pollock’s Untitled (1951) here. Today, Robert J. Priore discusses Jean Dubuffet’s Paysage Metapsychique (Metapsychical Landscape), 1952.

Jean Dubuffet, Paysage métapsychique (Metapsychical Landscape), 1952. Oil on canvas, 51 1/8 x 63 3/4 in. Des Moines Art Center. Gift of Melva Bucksbaum in honor of the Des Moines Art Center’s 50th anniversary © 2012 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

When I think of savages (the name of my piece), I think earthy. I think of movement that is very natural, the dancers are always making actual contact. It’s not contrived partnering; they are connecting with the earth, with themselves, and with each other in a real and raw way.

—Robert J. Priore, CityDance Conservatory choreographer-in-residence

Dancing with Demons

Posted on February 12, 2013 by Experiment Station

In this series of guest posts, three choreographers from CityDance talk about the artwork that inspired their movement for this Thursday’s Angels, Demons, and Savages-inspired Valentine’s Day Dance Experience(UPDATE: this program is sold out). Read Lorraine Spiegler on Alfonso Ossorio’s The Helpful Angels here. Below, Christopher K. Morgan discusses Jackson Pollock’s Untitled (1951).

Jackson Pollock, Untitled, 1951. Enamel, India ink, and graphite on paper, 29 x 22 in. Private Collection © 2012 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Researching l’art brut guided my direction for the piece. Given the title of the exhibition, I half expected the paintings to be connected to mythical and religious demons. But as I learned more about l’art brut, I began to interpret the paintings as exploring and coping with psychological demons. Many artists in this movement studied or worked with patients in insane asylums, building upon their own intimate knowledge of battling with stability. There’s a level of intensity and obsessiveness in the imagery which anyone with rigorous ballet training understands on some level. This concept resonated with our sophisticated conservatory dancers, and they ran with it. As we developed the choreography, we explored the idea of presenting beauty to the audience, then turning away to let an uglier, less glamorous side emerge. The movement also mimics thrown paint, the idea of expelling these torturous obsessions when they’ve reached their boiling point. Like the paintings in this exhibition, Demons is partly a reflection of how inner turmoil might present itself on the surface.

—Christopher K. Morgan, artistic director of CityDance’s resident company Christopher K. Morgan and Artists

Dancing with Angels

Posted on February 12, 2013 by Experiment Station

On February 14, the Phillips and CityDance present a Valentine’s Day Dance Experience (UPDATE: this program is sold out). Three choreographers–Lorraine Spiegler, artistic director of CityDance School and Conservatory, Christopher K. Morgan, artistic director of CityDance’s resident company Christopher K. Morgan and Artists, and Robert J. Priore, CityDance Conservatory choreographer-in-residence–will respond with short vignettes to the themes in Angels, Demons, and Savages: Pollock, Ossorio, Dubuffet on view at the Phillips through May 12.

In this series of guest posts, the three choreographers talk about the artwork that inspired their movement. Today, Lorraine Spiegler discusses Alfonso Ossorio’s The Helpful Angels (1950).

Alfonso Ossorio, The Helpful Angels, 1950. Watercolor, ink, wax, and graphite on torn paper, 22 1/2 x 30 1/2 in. Courtesy Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York

Angels aren’t this otherworldly ethereal thing to me; they are people that you meet. They come in and give you hope, inspiration, and sometimes lead you to a resolution. If you look at the painting closely, you might be able to make out a woman, you might even be able see wings. You can’t make out an angel, but like I said angels aren’t overt. I also responded to the bright white colors streaking across the warm colored canvas, representative–perhaps–of a powerful energy shooting towards us. There’s connectivity in this image, and there’s a connectivity that we all share. At some point, any one of us could be an angel to another. As a reflection of this possibility, Mariana (the dancer performing this piece) moves in graceful, gracious, and unexpected ways.

—Lorraine Spiegler, artistic director of CityDance School and Conservatory