NWNW One

I can hear the (happy?) screams of little kids through my window...it's after 11:30, think there was a "princess" party up the street earlier, maybe it's still going on.  It's a nice night out, too warm to be inside, really.  (Seriously, there's a pub across the street and I can't hear them at all.)

So, went to the other half of NWNW Festival, weekend one, tonight.  LED, Travis Clark & Benjamin Kamino, Members of the Seattle Irish Dance Company, and Jessica Jobaris & General Magic.  Impressions: my favorite was LED's Barbarian Princess, based on the life and art of Zelda Fitzgerald.  There were six dancers, and one (multi-instrument-and-singing musican), plus writing and pictures projected on a screen in the back.  While I didn't necessarily follow the story (if there was on), and so also didn't get the wardrobe change, I loved the choreography, the way the bodies moved, the way they occupied the space, how they transported themselves and each other through it.  At one point, I was watching only the musician (Andrew Stensaas), because I realized he was the one singing, that it wasn't a recording.  The whole thing made me think that maybe actors sometimes get lost in the words, there are too many words, the words become too important, and the message gets lost.  I don't know what the remedy is, or if one is even needed...this from an actor/writer who is using a lot of words.

How does one choose to occupy space?

Travis Clarke & Benjamin Kamino The Journey It Takes.  (More words.)  Morse code.  Emily Dickinson.  Isolation.  Separation.  Wanting to connect.  Not knowing how.  Nothing works.  Nothing gets through.  One-sided.  Oblivious.  So what I saw was one person staying on course and oblivious to the other person who wants to connect and keeps reaching out in various attempts but getting no response.  And finally (rather than giving up, so good for him) he physically throws himself in the path of the other to get his attention, there was some connection, meeting at that point, and it ended shortly after.  I kinda' wanted it to go a bit longer in order to see if the first one would just crawl over and continue on his way or if the second one succeeded in capturing his attention for real, not just becoming a nuisance or an obstacle that one has to overcome.  I hope so (but we don't always.)  That said, probably not about that at all.  (And this was the one coming into it that I was most interested in seeing, there's nothing in the program though, to explain anything.  I'd seen a write-up of a previous performance art piece by Travis Clarke, and I like his work.)

Seattle Irish Dance Company.  Two talented dancers and a fiddle player.  They were good, don't think there was a story in there.

Jessica Jobaris & General Magic A Great Hunger.  From the description in the program, it had to do with a friend's suicide fifteen years ago.  Maybe it was stages of processing that.  Or perhaps elements of that relationship.  Not sure what the nudity or simulated sex acts had to do with that, though some of the other visual elements (especially the opening sequences) might have.  That was the crowd favorite of the night.  It was interesting to watch, and I enjoyed the dancing, I just couldn't follow it.

So last night.  Faith Helma I HATE POSTIVE THINKING.  I guess I'd categorize it as a solo performance.  She was talking about the difference between manifesting something due to positive thinking vs. putting an idea in your head and then being more attuned to opportunity around you and so spotting it and acting on it when you notice it.  What struck me most of her performance was her discussion of how when we are learning things as a baby or a little kid, our failures are something to be celebrated because we are trying and we will get there, but then somehow when we get older failure becomes something to be ashamed about...why is that?  When does this happen?  (I was reading something about that earlier in the day.)  I think she told us to go out and fail at something tomorrow.  (Don't know if I did.)  And then she danced like a fool for 30 seconds to fail at something for us.

Markeith Wiley 31 and Counting.  I think it was supposed to be a conversation about race (he's black.)  He had a shadow follow him and copy his movements (and who could dance really well.  The shadow was a white woman, dressed in black, her head and face covered in black.)  He puts on "approachable" clothing and starts talking about being the exception (my words), but his words are drowned out by the music the DJ is playing.  Part of me wanted to be in front of him to hear what he was saying (I was on the opposite side of the theatre), but part of me believed that the point was that his words are getting drowned out in the conversation.  I was getting that the point was that he wasn't being heard, and yet I actually wanted to hear what he had to say.

The other two, Violets on Smoke and Nancy Ellis...I don't know how to talk about either one.  I liked them, but yeah, I don't know how to talk about them.  Maybe it will come to me later.  I have used many words, so I will stop.