google-What the hell?!

I cannot believe I was not able to access my blog!! the email adress that had functioned perfectly well for the past couple of years all the sudden denied my access. why??? It was perfectly fine!!! despite me not actually using that email account, it functioned perfectly well for blogging. and now im stuck with one of these stupid google accounts which interconnecs everything, doesnt leave you any privacy and traces all your internet activities- to backstab you ruthlessly with a shitload of spam and whatever else they want to sell you or make your life more transparent than youd ever want it to be- bad enough im on current cctv registration, no now all my online activities are probably recorded on my google account.
great... thanks blogger, and thanks google.

tanzt tanzt... sonst sind wir verloren

dance, dance, otherwise we are lost.

The first thing that shot through my mind upon receiving the text inviting me was "arte" followed by "3sat", the two german tv channels which show opera, dance and other cultural and intellectual highlights. Half excited, half apprehensive and half ready to be increadibly bored I texted my ok. A week later I found myself post-exam wallowing in the theatre near notting hill gate. watching the beginning scenes with my 3D specs on. My first thought was: "the next two hours will be long and painful".

Modern dance, especially on screen is often viewed with an abstraction. It is something which catches your attention between brainless tv channels, but something you think is too weird and too intellectual to actually consider entertainment or consider worthwile watching. My idea of any broadcast theatre production-be it ballet, opera, theatre or modern dance is labeled and set aside in the "boring box". Hence my feeling of "oh shit" at the beginning of the movie.

Pina makes you reconsider this. The film shows you that modern dance is more than just excentric- having lost the ballet aesthetic, daring uncomfortable situations, and expressing and adressing feelings of loss, despair, and things so uncomfortable you dont even know how to name them, except "not good". The classical standardised aestetic movement, as found in ballet is replaced by the strong feeling of joy, of love, trust, friendship and freedom the dancing excites in you. It is beautiful, not because it is so highly technical, but because it shows people how they are-inside. Pina's choreographys are expressive forces that invade you. At first slowly and infiltrive until you have understood how to read the language, but then powerful and overpowering without seeming blatantly obvious.

Pina takes dance outside- into nature, weird architecture, the road crossing, the public transport. The setting is familiar and recognisable or abstract and as out of a fashion fotoshoot-but you also have the simple stage. Scenes from performances, a dark box alightened by few, simple but still complicated props. effective and well chosen music to highlight the movements and mood, or movements to highlight the music. Sometimes traditional, german, french, modern, but always adding the next level to what you see.


Im not sure whether I like the 3D effect. It is good in 3D, even though some of the finer movements are lost in the blur. perhaps the 3D adds to the excitement and intimacy of the film. I wouldnt have chosen to produce it in 2D if I were the director and had the choice. You might as well...

I was touched, amazed and very positively surprized. Pina's choreographies connect to life, issues of every day and in the broad scope of things. This is an aspect lacking in most styles of dance, which make much of it only a leasure pleasure: monotonous and closed up in a world of its own. But this is art. Pinas choreographies express human nature, just as good litterature or paintings do. Now it has been two days and the film is still whirling around in my head. I think this is a good sign. Next time in germany I definately will try for Wuppertal to see Pina's company preform live. It must be wonderful.