http://www.artscatter.com/general/mary-oslund-the-wonder-of-the-dance/ a Portland-centric arts and culture blog Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:50:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 http://www.artscatter.com/general/mary-oslund-the-wonder-of-the-dance/#comment-7608 Art Scatter » The weekend: “We scattered til our head hurt” Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:57:16 +0000 http://www.artscatter.com/general/mary-oslund-the-wonder-of-the-dance/#comment-7608 [...] I posted on Bete Perdue before, so I’ll just add a few thoughts: 1) I thought Oslund had changed it some, eliminating some longer solos, replacing them with more group dancing. The eagle-eyed Martha Ullman West said it was longer by 10 minutes, but I didn’t clock it. 2) Friday night it might have been danced more crisply. My operant theory: Go the last night of a local dance performance, which will miss opening night jitters/mishaps and second night emotional troughs. 3) I noticed the Obo Addy-Katie Griesar music more than I had before, and I mean that in a good way. I understood it as an organizing principle of the dance, and enjoyed its subtlety and rhythms (Obo!). 4) Individual dancers didn’t respond directly to those rhythms, but the dance as a whole did. Oslund moved our eyes around the stage more or less quickly by the rhythm of her animation of groupings of dancers. A very sophisticated effect. 5) The two amuse-bouche that opened the program were captivating — funny, quick, then deeply felt. Made me want a meal of small plates. Here’s the Catherine Thomas review on OregonLive. Let us solace ourselves with loves: Quantum of Solace is James Bond, still in love, still suffering for the loss of his beloved Vesper in Casino Royale, and doesn’t that Daniel Craig make a good brooding and thus doubly dangerous Bond? Sure he does. But the movie is SO twitchy with action scenes, Craig’s face is so passive, that I yearned for just a touch of Roger Moore’s insouciance in the face of danger and attractive women. Please, sir, just one bad pun? For old times’ sake? By the way the Proverb from which the line at the top of the item was taken (Proverbs 7:18, Scatter is so biblical) is about a young foolish man taken in by a “strange woman” and it doesn’t end well for Bond, er, the young man: “For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her. /Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.” O, boy… [...] [...] I posted on Bete Perdue before, so I’ll just add a few thoughts: 1) I thought Oslund had changed it some, eliminating some longer solos, replacing them with more group dancing. The eagle-eyed Martha Ullman West said it was longer by 10 minutes, but I didn’t clock it. 2) Friday night it might have been danced more crisply. My operant theory: Go the last night of a local dance performance, which will miss opening night jitters/mishaps and second night emotional troughs. 3) I noticed the Obo Addy-Katie Griesar music more than I had before, and I mean that in a good way. I understood it as an organizing principle of the dance, and enjoyed its subtlety and rhythms (Obo!). 4) Individual dancers didn’t respond directly to those rhythms, but the dance as a whole did. Oslund moved our eyes around the stage more or less quickly by the rhythm of her animation of groupings of dancers. A very sophisticated effect. 5) The two amuse-bouche that opened the program were captivating — funny, quick, then deeply felt. Made me want a meal of small plates. Here’s the Catherine Thomas review on OregonLive. Let us solace ourselves with loves: Quantum of Solace is James Bond, still in love, still suffering for the loss of his beloved Vesper in Casino Royale, and doesn’t that Daniel Craig make a good brooding and thus doubly dangerous Bond? Sure he does. But the movie is SO twitchy with action scenes, Craig’s face is so passive, that I yearned for just a touch of Roger Moore’s insouciance in the face of danger and attractive women. Please, sir, just one bad pun? For old times’ sake? By the way the Proverb from which the line at the top of the item was taken (Proverbs 7:18, Scatter is so biblical) is about a young foolish man taken in by a “strange woman” and it doesn’t end well for Bond, er, the young man: “For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her. /Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.” O, boy… [...]

]]> http://www.artscatter.com/general/mary-oslund-the-wonder-of-the-dance/#comment-5503 Art Scatter » Kidd Pivot’s got the power at Kaul Fri, 14 Nov 2008 22:02:30 +0000 http://www.artscatter.com/general/mary-oslund-the-wonder-of-the-dance/#comment-5503 [...] comparison. Oslund+Co performs Bete Perdue again on Nov. 21-23 at Imago. My thoughts on the dance are available here. And then Skinner/Kirk + Bielemeier will perform Dec. 3-7 at the Portland Opera Studio Theater. [...] [...] comparison. Oslund+Co performs Bete Perdue again on Nov. 21-23 at Imago. My thoughts on the dance are available here. And then Skinner/Kirk + Bielemeier will perform Dec. 3-7 at the Portland Opera Studio Theater. [...]

]]> http://www.artscatter.com/general/mary-oslund-the-wonder-of-the-dance/#comment-536 Martha Ullman West Wed, 23 Apr 2008 21:37:51 +0000 http://www.artscatter.com/general/mary-oslund-the-wonder-of-the-dance/#comment-536 This is a gorgeous piece of dance writing Barry, but of course I think so because I saw the same things in this wonderful work that you did. There is nothing with which I disagree, but there is something I might like to add, namely every now and then I caught the very subtle isolation of a shoulder joint, or a hip, hinting at African tribal movement in the same way Addy's score hinted at traditional drumming. It also occurred to me that rather than dancers responding to musicians, having a conversation so to speak, we had the choreographer, through them, having that back and forth. Anyway, that's a hard piece to which to do justice and your writing does it, absolutely. thank you. This is a gorgeous piece of dance writing Barry, but of course I think so because I saw the same things in this wonderful work that you did. There is nothing with which I disagree, but there is something I might like to add, namely every now and then I caught the very subtle isolation of a shoulder joint, or a hip, hinting at African tribal movement in the same way Addy’s score hinted at traditional drumming. It also occurred to me that rather than dancers responding to musicians, having a conversation so to speak, we had the choreographer, through them, having that back and forth. Anyway, that’s a hard piece to which to do justice and your writing does it, absolutely. thank you.

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