“Caught” in mid-air
David Parsons is not a well-known dancer/choreographer, except among dance aficionados. But his company, which I’ve followed for decades, is most definitely worth watching.
In 1982 Parsons choreographed a solo with strobe lights known as “Caught.” I’ve seen it about four times and it never fails to astound, nor does it pall. One of the reasons I attend performances of his dance company so often is in hopes that this piece will be danced that particular night.
And so I thought to check out You Tube to see whether there’s a video that “catches” the dance’s essence. The following is the best I can do. It’s only a minute long, and the fun (and the strobe) doesn’t really start until halfway into it, at around 36 seconds. What’s more, the illusion on a small two-dimensional computer screen has nothing like the impact of the three-dimensional kinetics on stage.
But it’s still pretty amazing:
Hey, thanks neo! That was superb. What a creative vision, and the impact is astounding. I will now look up David Parsons in hopes of finding a performance scheduled in NYC sometime in near future.
So nice to be enlightened by the new: from jello to bacteria to dance, etc. Learning all sorts of new things here!
(Note: That’s over & above the many new dimensions and characteristics — correction: character flaws — of Barack Obama, whose goal seems to be to enlighten us of his shallowness and transparency all on his own!)
Two of my favorites in this blog are the ruminations on fun words/grammar posts, and the dance posts.
I can’t recall ever attending a dance performance of any kind. I don’t know that I know what I would be looking for. I assume I would be looking to be moved by the beauty of the movement and the grace and the athleticism. I’ve always intended to learn what I am looking for, and to go, at some future unspecified time which has never come. So, for me, the dance posts are informative and educational.
Very different and imaginative. I liked it, and agree that it’s a unique creative work on the part of the choreographer. I wonder, though, what kind of “touch” the dancer has to have to keep from blowing out a knee or an ankle in the dark. I’m not a dancer, but I’ve played a lot of sports, to include several styles of martial arts, and I know it can be pretty disconcerting for the lights to suddenly go out in mid-jump, even if you know it’s coming.
I’ve never been much on performance art styles, but that’s more from lack of exposure than lack of appreciation. I think it can be rather self-indulgent as an art form, but what I’ve seen (obviously cherry-picked by the recommenders) has often been interesting.
I recall being fairly impressed by the performance piece in Legal Eagles (an otherwise unimpressive movie, mind you).