There was a time when opera themes were well known by the general public. Wagner’s music was so well known that a Bugs Bunny parody was a big hit. Can you imagine pitching this idea today?
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Just a note about Pina Bausch’s “Ten Chi.” I attended the performance in Berkeley last night. Sitting in the second row I was drawn into the performance when the great Dominique Mercy asked me (and other audience members) if I knew how to snore. And then asked me to do so. The video above is of Dominique.
The audience was filled with Bay area choreographers coming to find inspiration, and the evening delivered. Bausch’s company is filled with every ethnic group, all ages, every body type and real individual dancers. The performance contains hundreds of small dances, poetry recitals, jokes, skits, visual puns. Often several going on at once, a lyrical dance upstaged by a comic turn or a sexually charged moment. The dancers don’t have that abstract blank stare you see so often in modern dance. These are real people filled with emotion and passion. The dancers talk, tell jokes and scream. It’s rare experience.
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Sometimes I dream of a digital Chautauqua that crosses over and travels in a tent show around the land. I think about Levon Helm’s Midnight Ramble, or the Willoz’s Chautauqua. I haven’t quite figured out how the Chautauqua on the network connects to the Chautauqua in the tent or the barn— but the two should be deeply intertwingled.
As I think about what the next big thing on the Web will be, I can’t help thinking about the next small thing. I imagine it will look like a digital Chautauqua, a unique performance that will exist for just a moment in time. It’s participants will be witnesses. Can I get a witness?
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I read about Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater Wuppertal for years before I had the opportunity to see “Palermo Palermo” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. There were moments, images, movements that stay with me to this day. She creates extraordinary stage pictures.
The key to great performance is risk. If you don’t risk failure, you will never achieve greatness. Pina Bausch is one of those artists that you must see at every opportunity. There’s always a chance of glimpsing greatness.
You might want to do a little background reading about Pina:
She’s bringing her group to Berkeley’s Cal Performances this week. I’ll be attending the Sunday performance of Ten Chi. It’s described as a choreographic travelogue exploring the sights, sounds, joys and paradoxes of modern Japanese culture.
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