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Weekend of Trigeminals And Festivals

Trigeminal sounds like a marathon, doesn’t it. Or a graduate school entrance exam. I wish. Instead it’s a stupid neurological condition I suffer from (whose full name is Trigeminal Autonomic Cephalgia, or TAC) which causes for no apparent reason hideous headaches that feel like someone is stabbing you in the temple repeatedly with a hot poker along with sinus congestion and swelling on that side of your face. (I’d link to a description of it if I could, but the condition is so rare, the only info available on the internet is for medical specialists).

Friday night I came home and was so tired from my work week, I’m embarrassed to say, I fell asleep on my futon while reading. It was only a twenty minute nap, but in that twenty minutes, a TAC headache began to come on (you almost always wake up with them; they happen during sleep, for whatever reason). It was just the beginnings, so the searing pain was not in full radiance, so I quickly downed a couple of Excedrin with a can of Coke. It went away. But then I was scared to go to sleep, knowing full well I’d likely wake up feeling like my head was on fire. So, I sat on my futon trying to force myself to read until 3:00 in the morning, when I no longer could stay awake. I bunched several pillows up against the headrest and tried to sleep sitting up. Something makes me feel like, in part, the problem comes about because of the recumbent position of your head during sleep. I despise sleeping upright but tried it anyway. I was wrong though; I was blasted awake two hours later by the ice pick / fever / mass sinus congestion on the right side of my head.

Since my last experience with one of these things, I’ve visited a headache specialist, who prescribed three different medications — I was to try one, if that didn’t work, another, then a third last resort if the first two didn’t work. The old meds, which were prescribed for migraine headache (since that’s what my old neurologist mis-diagnosed me with), either didn’t work at all, or in the case of one — Maxalt — after making me go completely numb from the waist up, took the most brutal edge off the stabs, but kept the underlying duller pain and sinus-like symptoms intact, and then the stabs would return every eight hours like clockwork. A box of four Maxalt pills costs me $25 after insurance copay, and I’d go through an average of eight pills for one headache episode. So, $50 headache. The expense combined with my neurologist’s shrieks when I told her how many of these blood vessel constrictors I’d taken — one to two are supposed to kill a migraine completely and the pills can be potentially dangerous since they work by constricting the flow of blood to your brain — and her inability to look beyond the possibility that my headaches may be something other than migraines, sent me scampering to another doctor, this time a headache specialist at Columbia University’s Headache Center.

So my new neurologist re-diagnosed me, with TAC, and gave me as I said three meds, since there are different forms of TAC and each responds to something different. The first is Indomethacin, and is basically a massive dose of Ibuprofin. I tried that one. Happily, after about an hour and a half it began to kick in. And, unbelievably, it worked completely! The pain and facial swelling and congestion were completely gone; no remnants like with the Maxalt! I was ecstatic. I thought one dose and it’s over! But that was yesterday.

Today I woke up with my head on fire again. According to the package insert, I’m allowed three doses per day, but I’m so not in love with the idea of taking Indo at all. It can cause stroke and heart attack and a whole host of stomach problems. The sword-fight in my skull necessitated another dose regardless. But this time it took two hours to work and then the pain didn’t completely go away. I was so upset. Not my miracle drug after all.

I thought of taking the second med — injectible Imitrex (another blood vessel constrictor, like Maxalt, but faster-working and supposedly more effective for TACs). Freaking out over being able to effectively stab myself in the thigh, I forced myself to assemble the little shot dispenser and study the instructions, only to realize the sample he gave me had long expired. (Since it’s a liquid, I guess it doesn’t last long). And of course he didn’t give me a prescription since he wanted to see first if the sample worked. These headache episodes always happen on long holiday weekend — always! I thought of calling his answering service and leaving a message for the doctor on call to phone in a prescription, but then I also didn’t want to mix medications and it hadn’t been long since I’d taken the Indo. Massive anti-inflammatory and blood vessel-constrictor don’t seem like a good match.

Enough edge was taken off by Indo that I decided to go out and get some fresh air for once this weekend. So, I went to this Brazilian festival in midtown. In celebration of Brazil’s upcoming independence day (the 7th), they had a big street fair replete with food, music, and of course dance.

 

A televised concert the huge crowd gathered to watch.

 

I wanted to try something Braziliany for lunch, but all those people eat is carne, carne, and more carne!

 

If I ever go for Carnival, would I survive?

I finally found these little cheese-filled fried doughy things.

Which I had with a can of this, which tasted like cherry-flavored gingerale. Pretty good!

What would a Brazilian festival be without sambistas! There was hardly any place to dance, though, the streets were so full. They should probably have some risers set up so onlookers bearing cameras could sit down and watch the commotion without standing right in the middle of the band, leaving no space for the dancers.

Another band, on a side street. I really liked this one, called “The Berkshires Samba Group” — very fun percussion. I bought their CD.

I didn’t join the samba mosh pit– my head was hurting too much, but was fun to watch!

Mmmm, dessert! I don’t know if these candy-covered fruits had anything to do with Brazil, but I justified a chocolate-covered banana kebob anyway…

Now I’m home and the dull pain is back and getting stronger. I took another dose of Indomethacin. Pain is abating, but I’m afraid to go to sleep…

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A Little Overwhelmed!

Each day yet more of the splendid Fall Season’s offerings flood my mailbox. So exciting! But a little nervewracking, given all the things I have to order tickets for! This is why I so love NY though — that unique combination of intoxicating stimulation and potentially migraine-inducing excess… (or in my case, TAC-headache-inducing excess … am trying to tell myself I do NOT feel one coming on, but am armed with meds just in case…)

Well, I guess this is what the holiday is for, to breathe deeply, lounge around, rest up for the happy hubbub to come 🙂 Happy Labor Day, everyone, have a long and relaxing weekend!

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Hahaha, Where’s the Dorky Waldo?!

ha, I can’t believe it but Barbara recognized me in this picture, in the Times today, accompanying Jennifer Dunning’s article on the “States & Resemblance” piece I blogged about earlier this week. How did you see me, Barbara; I almost didn’t see myself?!! Haha, how embarrassing 🙂 (I’m in back, holding the paper in front of my face, a shiny pink metallic purse at my side, and head cocked and looking all pensive — what a goof!) Thanks for pointing it out to me, Barbara! Okay, this is the second time I’ve been nameless in the NYTimes! 🙂

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Why No Contemporary Nureyevs?

So, I thought the documentary last night on PBS was rather so-so; it was okay I guess as far as PBS documentaries go 🙂 First 40 minutes dragged, but second half was far better, mainly because it was about his defection. I remember reading an interview with Baryshnikov years ago — I now have no idea where or when it was — but he was asked why he decided to defect and he basically said, “mmm, dunno, seemed like the thing to do?” I was so disappointed. I’m sure he just couldn’t talk about it, but how could you not have some kind of answer for something like that? Even if you just say, “I really don’t want to talk about it.” So I’m very happy that here they focused on Nureyev’s defection, even using his French friend who witnessed it to re-enact the whole thing.

I love how the filmmakers dwelt on the aftermath too — the KGB’s plan to try to break poor Rudik’s legs, their attempts to destroy his first performance in the West by screaming and shouting and throwing dangerous objects at him onstage. Wow. And how he had to go into hiding. And how the government wholly erased his presence in Russia, preventing information about him leaking into the country through the newspapers, destroying the careers of his friends and family. How some friends missed him dearly — one said he was “the bright spot” in her life, such a thing coming only once a lifetime, and even that if one is lucky. How others felt he was hugely dishonorable (for leaving the country that made him, as if it was the country and not he himself), an abandoner of his family and friends. The film doesn’t make it obvious, but he had to live with all of that. Some journalists have argued that the documentary only shows Nureyev in maturity, on his good days, neglecting to show the occasional nastier side of him. If you were constantly made to feel like a horrible person for turning your back on your country, your ill mother, wreaking destruction on your friends and family, all for wanting to live an honest life, you’d probably have some anger inside of you too.

Anyway, the first part is too slow I think mainly because there are too many interviews. It’s confusing who all of the people are, and many are not that animated (unlike most of the funny characters in the very good documentary Les Ballets Russes). Perhaps they could have filmed in more meaningful places, like with the French guy in the airport? Just having them sit there yapping away was a bit boring. I found his school chum entertaining though — the white-haired guy who talked about all the times Rudik would make him practice, would make him do the parts of the ballerina so he could practice lifts 🙂 For those who somehow can’t tell from his dancing alone, such anecdotes reveal that this was someone who ate, breathed, and slept his art.

By far the best parts of the film are all the footage of the great one in action — both that amateurly taken in his youth by his German friend, the ever intriguing Teja Krempke (could we please hear how he died — I know it was “under mysterious circumstances,” but where was he found, etc.?), and formal footage taken of his later performances with his “soul mate” Margot Fonteyn. For people who missed the film (it’ll be shown again late Saturday night), it’s definitely worth getting through the boring interview segments to get to that footage.

But watching him dance, I can’t help but get upset that there’s no one even remotely like him today. He danced with such fierce, inflamed passion, with such glorious recklessness, with such hunger — forget those insanely fast chaine turns and crazy high barrel turns that don’t look humanly possible — just look at the intensity in his eyes that permeates his entire body, even in those small pieces from Pierrot Lunaire and Giselle. I feel that there’s no one today who comes even close, who has the courage to do something novel like dance on demi-pointe like he did (and now everyone does). I think you have to have starved to have that kind of hunger. And today’s young ballet dancers — I feel like many of them don’t know the meaning of those words. And, forget art, their greatest ambitions are to construct the perfect MySpace page so they can engage in childish chatter with each other.

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Dancing With Stars Season Five Contestants Announced

So, as everyone likely already knows, the next season of contestants on DWTS has been announced. They are:

Spice Girl Melanie Brown, paired with Max Chmerkovskiy;

Musical recording artist Sabrina Bryan, paired with newcomer Mark Ballas (hmmm, any relation to Belle of the Ballroom World, Dame Shirley???);

Indianapolis 500 champ Helio Castroneves, paired with young champ Juliana Hough, a favorite of mine from last season. Helio is from Brazil, fun fun 🙂 ;

Basketball team owner Mark Cuban, paired with Kym Johnson;

Actress Jennie Garth from 90210 (hmmm, don’t remember her?), paired with Derek Hough newcomer to the show and brother of the marvelous Juliana;

Model Josie Maran, paired with Alec Mazo (winner from season one);

Soap opera actor Cameron Mathison, paired with Edyta Sliwinska;

Boxing champ Floyd Mayweather, paired with my idol, Ms. goddess Karina Smirnoff 😀 ;

Vegas legend Wayne Newton, paired with the amazing and talented genius of a dance teacher, Cheryl Burke;

Marie Osmond (aww!), paired with cutie, Jonathan Roberts;

Model Albert Reed, paired with Jonathan’s lovely wife, Anna Trebunskaya, who has been doing quite well in pro Latin competition lately; and

longtime actress Jane Seymour, paired with former American Rhythm champion, Tony Dovolani.

Season premiere is scheduled for September 24th, and looks like it’s to last for three days. Will begin with a battle of the sexes group comp, with male contestants going at it en groupe against female.

Maria at A Time to Dance has a rather funny little list of why she so strongly prefers SYTYCD to DWTS. I don’t think the two shows are comparable though. I think the latter is about turning normal people (well, not normal or they’d be complete nobodies like me — they have to be celebrities on some level to draw an audience — but people who are not natural-born dancers) into the best ballroom dancers they can be. The former is about people who already have talent in a certain dance form honing that ability and learning to be versatile and to work well with partners and choreographers. Okay, at least theoretically, and IMO anyway. I like the former show because the dancers are often so amazing (especially this last season :D); I like the latter because I can often relate to the challenges faced by the amateurs. Learning to dance as an adult is damn hard!

My biggest problem with DWTS is that it seems that the pro dancers aren’t given enough due for their very difficult work, a thought shared by at least one professional dance critic as well. After Pasha was booted from SYTYCD, one of his fans on his Television Without Pity thread, suggested maybe he could be on DWTS so that his fans wouldn’t miss him too much. I think it’s actually a sweet idea. Pasha’s a great teacher, and, if an already famous dancer is on the show, perhaps it’ll create more appreciation for the pros.

Anyway, hopefully it’ll be a decent season. We’ll see…
P.S.: don’t forget to watch Nureyev tonight 🙂

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Remember Remember Remember!!!!

to watch tonight, Wenesday, PBS at 9 pm. DO NOT MISS IT! Under any circumstances! This is the greatest dancer EVER. Plain and simply. Unarguably. In the world. EVER.

If you wish to do some advance reading, everyone but everyone on the web is talking:

Apollinaire in Newsday

Apollinaire’s blog

James Wolcott from Vanity Fair (scroll down to last couple paragraphs; he also quotes extensively New York Sun’s Joel Lobenthal on some important things the production left out)

journalist and author Tobi Tobias

New York Times

the inscrutably angry LA Times’s Lewis Segal (what in the ballet world has made that man so mad? By the way, are people just ignorning him these days? Am I the only idiot letting him get to me?)

New Yorker’s Joan Acocella

My fellow blogger Art (through whom I found the blasted Segal article that nearly made me cry — thanks a lot, Art 😉 )

Ballet Talk talkers (focusing mostly on Nureyev’s gorgeous, cat-like demi-pointe that Segal has such issues with)

and I’m sure many many others who escaped my limited web-surfing attention span :S

Please please watch the program. No matter how deficient the documentary may be, this man’s life was so uber fascinating and his dancing so sublime you’re bound to be completely enthralled, there’s simply no way around it! This film covers his early years before he became hugely famous in the West — so, while he was in the Kirov Ballet up through his decision to defect. So basically, lots of footage of Russia 😀

C’mon, he was the original Pasha 🙂 I know, I know, I’ve offended everyone and their dog with that … I simply mean of course that for people who have fallen in love with dance through SYTYCD, there’s a whole lot more where that came from 🙂

Okay?! Wednesday night 9 p.m. PBS. Discussion to follow!

 

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Postmodern Dance Can Be Fun!: "States and Resemblance" Near the East River Piers

Last night I went to see the second in the three-work series “Sitelines” — site-specific dance performances organized by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, taking place at various downtown locales. This one, entitled “States & Resemblance,” was choreographed by Dean Moss and Japanese video artist Ryutaro Mishima, and took place on a nice little elevated park overlooking the East River that I hadn’t even known existed.

Above is a picture of the scene. Painted on the ground was an ambiguous grey splotch dotted with several large black spots that spilled out of the grey and all around the park’s winding paths. One such path led to a larger grassy lawn, where they are apparently showing a series of several old films shot in NY as part of the River to River festival (all these fun outdoor festivals in NYC during the summer!)

Well, I’m not entirely sure what to make of the piece, so I’ll describe it. The performance began in the lawn area, with Moss and Mishima running and jumping around playfully. I’d seen an earlier draft of this at the Nothing Festival at Dance Theater Workshop a few months ago, and there the men were naked. Here, they were nearly so, wearing only resplendent white dance belts, which, because of their sheen, were actually rather beautiful.

After cavorting around the lawn with each other for a few minutes, an Asian woman (whom the program notes is Indonesian mask artist Restu Imansari Kusumaningrum) dressed in shiny skirt and top, emerged from the park and walked to the edge of the lawn ringing a bell. That signaled for the men to walk into the park, where, in the center atop the dots, they slowly and soberly put on pants and button-down shirts — casual work clothes. The woman wandered around the park for a while, ringing the bell every so often while the men, after dressing, stood on the main grey area, first doing a series of poses during which their hands then arms would slowly begin to quiver, then a series of balances on one foot.

Suddenly, Mishima turned on Moss, attacking him. The men fought, jumping at and bouncing off each other, struggling with each other, with Moss trying to make peace with Mishima but Mishima resisting. While this happened, Kusumaningrum found a place in the grass to sit peacefully, where she donned a face mask.

Mishima eventually broke free from Moss and walked to the outer edges of the sidewalk, to where the crowd was sitting, and began laughing and singing at us aggressively and haughtily, momentarily a bit frightening. Kusumaningrum, disrupting the crowd by moving to various areas of the park, tried on a series of masks. Moss, now walking very slowly and hunched over like an old man, approached Mishima, who picked up a television set whose screen bore a close-up of an elderly person grinning widely, many teeth missing, and confrontationally thrust the screen out at the crowd.

Eventually, the two men went into a back area of the park and sat down in the high grass, hiding themselves from the audience. Kusumaningrum walked out to the center area, lay down and thrashed about on the ground, donning another mask. Eventually she stopped and pointed to the area where Moss and Mishima were sitting. The men slowly rose. Over each of their faces was taped a large black dot, the same as were spotting the ground.

So what does all this mean? Well, the little blurb on the Sitelines flier tells us that it is intended to be “a meditation on the pain, beauty, and inevitability of how things, people, and experience pass away … reflect(ing) on the process of aging as one of the most binding aspects of our existence.”

I could definitely see the aging in the way the men acted boyishly, playfully on the lawn, near naked, in an innocent beatific state, then as if called by their mother, or by time, to grow up and don career clothes. I could see Mishima’s attempt to defy the passage of time by lashing out against Moss, who nevertheless eventually grew into an old man, taking Mishima with him. At the end, the large black dots covering their faces suggests ashes to ashes, dust to dust, our bodies do eventually become part of the earth, part of the environment, and thus timeless. I didn’t completely get the significance of the masks, unless they were meant to convey in another way how we try to evade and hide, pretend, develop facades?

I’m sure there are plenty of other interpretations as well. In general, I find this kind of postmodern / experimental dance intriguing and fun so long as there’s enough there for you really to cull something from it all and come up with various analyses. I definitely felt like there was enough here to do that. Here’s a write-up on the piece by Gia Kourlas in TONY. It’s showing a few more times this week and next; go here for the schedule.

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Brief Snapshots From Downtown Dance Festival

I’m exhausted from spending the weekend down at the lower tip of the island watching other people dance (how does that happen?), so this is going to be short (word-wise at least). The Downtown Dance Festival took place during lunch hour each day last week at Chase Manhattan Plaza in the Financial District, then moved for the weekend to a nice little outdoor amphitheater in Battery Park. I wasn’t able to see all of the dance companies (nearly 20 in all), but here are some highlights from what I did see.

First, sorry, but I simply must bombard people with just a couple more photos of Quorum Ballet, who performed again Saturday in Battery Park. They were really so lovely… so, just, HOT for lack of a better word 🙂

 

I wrote in my last post on them that their lifts looked a bit “trick-happy” and on watching again I think that might be in part because the lead female dancer, Theresa da Silva, would often look out into the audience and choose someone to flirt with, which seemed to happen most often while she was airborne. Very interesting, and something I haven’t really seen in concert dance before, only in ballroom comps and some club acts. Anyway, their next performance in NY will be February 13th at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center. I urge everyone in the city to check them out!

 

I also liked the Ashley Browne / Kinetic Project. Some very sweet duets with fun, pop music from Jill Scott, Mos Def, and Fiona Apple.

 

Ms. Bne is a choreographer I could really see working on SYTYCD. I really wish they would open the show up to other choreographers besides the same ole Mia Michaels and Wade Robeson. I mean, keep them, but instead of having them choreograph something practically every week, let the country see some of this other awesome talent!

 

Another favorite, Vissi Dance Theater. I loved them! Their mission statement reads, “Vissi is committed to art that explores moral and social issues… Vissi seeks to speak to the human condition, lift the spirit, ask questions, celebrate the joy of life and reflect the truths of human nature.” I felt they did that splendidly. This piece above, danced by four women, reminded me a bit of Alvin Ailey’s Cry with its upbeat celebration of womanhood, and was kind of a combo of modern dance with disco / hustle, to music by Macy Gray and Jocelyn Brown.

 

 

Their second piece, named “Melbabcd,” was a combo of all kinds of stuff — modern, hustle, hip hop, Latin, African, you name it. Great fun, as dance that makes you think and has social relevance can often be 🙂 This one kind of reminded me of Bill T. Jones with its very colorful cast of characters. I’d love to see more full-length work by this company.

The choreographer, Courtney Ffrench, by the way, is another whom I can really see peppering up SYTYCD with some romping group numbers. C’mon Nigel, expand those horizons!

Another highlight:

 

Gallim Dance Group. This piece is from “Snow” based on the novel by Orhan Pamuk and choreographed by Andrea Miller (yet another who could inject that aforesaid pop-fest with a blast of brain power). This was a haunting piece, like I imagine the book to be (okay, admitting I haven’t read it here!). The women bent their bodies every which way, inched forward, ran backward — the movement was beautiful but juxtaposed with musical lyrics like “question democracy…” became chilling. A Juilliard grad formerly with Ohad Naharin’s Batseva, which I’ve enthusiastically blogged about before, Miller’s mission is to “explore issues such as feminity, power, community and solitude.” Gallim will be performing at Dance Theater Workshop in Chelsea in September. See them there if you can.

On Sunday, we were treated to Darshana Jhaveri Manipuri Dance who came all the way from India, and who specialize in bringing the classical Indian dance, Manipuri, to contemporary audiences. So sweet, so lovely, and so educational.

This guy BLEW ME AWAY. He had this amazingly intense look of concentration the whole time. Sometimes when a performer has that look in his or her eyes, you’re almost mesmerized just by the face. He beat the hell out of this double sided drum, as well as another that required a stick, later on. Not only did he play those drums, he danced while playing. And not only did he dance, he did these continuous barrel turns at whiplash speed. The entire audience sat there open-mouthed.

 

And here he is barrelling all over stage with the other, larger drum. Between turns, he made beautifully intricate gestures with that drumstick. At one point, he put the drum down on the center of the stage and did repeated turns around it, beating it with the stick after each rotation, and managing somehow to hit the stick on the drum right in time with the lightening-fast music. Talk about the necessity of great speed and precision on those turns — if a turn was off, you wouldn’t just see it, you’d hear it. It was breathtaking, and I can’t tell you how much respect I now have for this classical Indian dance form.

Okay, I can’t write anymore. I do have a few more pictures of the whole festival, along with the Sitelines performance series, in my photoalbum, here.

Speaking of Sitelines, Apollinaire and Eva Yaa Asantewaa are having a very interesting discussion of the Macaulay NYTimes review of the Reggie Wilson / Andreya Ouamba work I wrote of earlier. Eva’s review of the piece puts me to shame — she saw all kinds of things I hadn’t thought of — do read it! I do have thoughts on the subject of socio-cultural meaning in dance and whether the choreographic duo’s mission statement should have been confined to grant application writing, as Macaulay argues, but am far too exhausted to formulate them now…