January 10, 1927: From the annals of unconventional hats, dancer Miriam Marmein posed in a nautical costume for a sketch. Drawings, according to The Times, “are for the most part definitely related to her dance,” and were on display at recitals. Photo: The New York Times
The connection between writing and dancing has been much on my mind recently: it’s a channel I want to keep open. It feels a little neglected – compared to, say, the relationship between music and prose – maybe because there is something counter-intuitive about it. But for me the two forms are close to each other: I feel dance has something to tell me about what I do.
One of the most solid pieces of writing advice I know is in fact intended for dancers – you can find it in the choreographer Martha Graham’s biography. But it relaxes me in front of my laptop the same way I imagine it might induce a young dancer to breathe deeply and wiggle their fingers and toes. Graham writes: “There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.”
What can an art of words take from the art that needs none? Yet I often think I’ve learned as much from watching dancers as I have from reading. Dance lessons for writers: lessons of position, attitude, rhythm and style, some of them obvious, some indirect. What follows are a few notes towards that idea.
i just.. wanted… to post this… because…the science dance is great.
“I was hatin it. Until we got to the finale.”
Patty oh my god
this is how all exposition scenes should be written from now on.
“Oiseaux de feu” centerpiece in homage to Igor Stravinsky’s Ballet
René Lalique
1922
[Source: Musée Lalique Facebook]
LALIQUE WHAT THE HECK MAN
(this is like an egregious nexus of personal mythology things right here)
Pablo Picasso Exhibition at Millbank: This photograph shows a scenary panel which was made by Picasso for the Ballet “Parade” in 1917. This was with music by Erik Satie and a one act scenario by Jean Cocteau The ballet was premierd in Paris on May 18th 1917 at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris and danced by the troup of Sergei Diaghelev - the Ballet Russes. Picasso was commisioned to design the costumes and scenary for this famous work and, in many ways, it could be said, he became very famous for it. The relationship between Picasso, Cocteau and the Ballet Russe was pivotal in the Spanish artists career and this major show in London, some 50 years later, is a fitting memorial to it.
