Comments for Donald Byrd Blog

Comment on The Departure by Dorian

Dorian — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 16:13:21 +0000

Oh if only the beautiful moments would last forever… alas, they don’t. There are some who propose that we wouldn’t be able to fully appreciate the joy in our lives without the (seemingly inevitable) pain. I too empathize with you Donald, having experienced similar too many times (more than once!) in my life. I guess I would ask, what lesson can we take away from this, what can change so you don’t have to feel this again? There is such magic in the relationship between the Artistic Director and the Dancer, a very real kind of love. I agree with Dana, maybe it would be possible for The Company (the Dancers) and you to talk about this. I someone feels like their expectations haven’t been met, but never shared those expectations, they are fully to blame. At least if everyone shared, what is possible would be clearer and what won’t ever work won’t have to be painful?

Comment on What Do We Need To Know? by Aileen

Aileen — Mon, 02 May 2011 16:49:03 +0000

What a joy to find such clear tihnikng. Thanks for posting!

Comment on The Departure by Dana

Dana — Sun, 01 May 2011 14:17:47 +0000

thank you Donald for putting this on the table.
I completely empathize with you and recognize myself in your words. there is some comfort knowing that I am not the only one out there taking this stuff to heart (and I’m a woman, so you can imagine I’m being accused for being over sensitive).
I would totally love to hold a group discussion just about this topic. can you imagine?

Comment on Why I Do It by Taimi

Taimi — Sun, 01 May 2011 14:15:02 +0000

I’m not easily impressed. . . but that’s ipmerssing me!

Comment on What Do We Need To Know? by Tibbie

Tibbie — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 23:10:50 +0000

Great tihinkng! That really breaks the mold!

Comment on Authentic Structures by Byron

Byron — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 21:01:33 +0000

Does performance then become a mobius loop where poetic and honest become insensible and deceptive then back again?

Comment on Assessing Choreography by Byron

Byron — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 20:53:33 +0000

Fantastic Donald,

You should write a book. Speaking and writing about dance is filled with pitfalls. I struggle with my reactions to performances and agree that intent and structure are more intriguing entrypoints to thinking about work: intent because it is open-ended and structure because it can begin the process of analysis.

I also appreciate how you think about the difference between America and Europe as well as your personal reaction to Forsythe’s Quintett.

Comment on Authentic Structures by Christin Call

Christin Call — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 02:57:51 +0000

This is very much like the modernist painter’s problem that depicting three-dimensional representations on a two-dimensional surface is in a way ignoring or denying the flatness of the canvas. Painters felt they needed to address the flat surface, so you have the development of movements like Constuctivism in the 20′s (an amusing and passionate manifesto, I highly recommend taking a look) that refused to depict anything with the illusion of 3D modeling, continuing on with the development of artists like Pollock in which the paint itself started to protrude away from the canvas and began to document the actions of the painter himself. This Post-Structuralist kind of concern is still being explored today, as with the Drawing Restraint works of Matthew Barney, who creates restrictions or obstacles for his body in an attempt to make a mark, whether on a wall, ceiling, or other.

Calling out the 4th wall as an unnatural device by making the viewer or audience aware of it, perhaps even awkwardly so, is a worthy exploration that fits well within the realm of current artistic concerns. I would question though, whether it is the “most unnatural” thing about proscenium performances or even dance performance in general. Not to get too Finnegan’s Wake about vocabulary, but ballet-based movement is highly arbitrary (like all languages)–and with it’s blue-blooded pedigree, may be one of the most synthetic and artificial forms of dance.

In emphasizing awareness of the proscenium stage conventions I think you may come to a point where you must address that ballet is itself a convention based on very old rules–some which you’ve obviously been manipulating or breaking down throughout your career–but it’s still essentially an artificial activity for the human body to engage in. Maybe it’s a catch-22 (dance is defined by the human body, dance is a specialized skill/language, which Judson Church era attempted to address), but I do find it interesting that we are all innately wired to learn language. There are probably similar evolutionary arguments about our ability to move to a rhythm.

In the end, though, art is artifice. I think acknowledging that artifice is less about pointing it out and saying, “look at this false thing,” and more about finding ways in which the audience’s hyper-sensitivity to accustomed ways of viewing structure, form, and spacing can contribute to new ways of viewing, experiencing, and interpreting. I’ve no doubt you can do that with the 4th wall. Can it also be done with dance itself?

P.S. Seattle Opera sometimes uses a big gold frame around their sets, with no apparent irony intended.

Comment on Why I Do It by Madame B.

Madame B. — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 04:49:19 +0000

That was a Beautiful post. what is interesting is that for me coming to the world of performance later on and simply because i just loved to ‘get down’ and well people seem to enjoy it — i feel its a service to work in this capacity — inter-dependently it serves both the viewer and the doer. and yet, it is also filled with ego/vanity… which of course as “proper artists” we are told to banish. feeling guilted by the fear of “the other” we make our dreams smaller — and even, we extinguish them sometimes. yet, factually, all humans have vanity and we all have an ego — and it is sometimes a mute point to allot too much effort to their banishment — as if we do, we end up missing the point through our vanity — through our ego — mainly our souls. I always feel that while both the ego and soul are capable of big dreams — it is the soul’s job to carry the dream into the realm of service — and even healing,–it is the ego’s job to fuel the dream into existence at all.

We as dancers, directors, humans should try to be gentle with ourselves as we go through the wrenching process of creativity and progress. most of all, it is courageous to follow one’s heart down the rabbit hole — even if stubbornly so! this alone, give pause for applause.

Keep Trip’in!

Comment on The Dancical/Control/Twyla Tharp by Monica

Monica — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 19:42:10 +0000

Lost your email address;-( Now I no longer have ANY reason to visit my old haunt–The City! But I remembered your name and “white noise!” Wish I’d been in New Orleans.

Reminder: Breakfast at The Orlando, LA, last year–N Vancouver. Send me a note, if you have a moment.

Cheers.