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10/29/2008

"Einstein on the Beach"

Yesterday I went in the Chile and North-American Institute to watch a conference about the works of the illustrate choreographer Merce Cunningham. Janet Charleston was exposing videos and explaining his methods with much clarity. I waited eagerly in the class at the Dance Expectator School which I attend, for I knew it was written on the program (at The Dance Expectator School Site) that she would talk about the experience she had while dancing with Lucinda Childs the Philip Glass opera "Einstein on the Beach" and also that she would show a video about this montage. Then in the end I asked her, "Don't you have any material on that?" "Yes, I do have it," Janet answered, "But they are at home in New York." I wasn't satisfied. "I guess now I will have to go to new York to see that." I gasped. "But you can view that on youtube," interviened the host of the event. "Right!! yes, the youtube..." I was even more dissatisfied. For I checked youtube. It's not that the recording is bad, but would I have the chance to watch that with the presence of some performer who actually was there. A chance of a lifetime. Almost twenty years have passed since I first found out about Mr. Cunningham. it was all by chance that I took an workshop with his "Dance Company", as he accompanied one of his pupils, assisting us at the Dance Festival in Sao Paulo. It was my very first attempt of trying something different than my eight years of extremely exhausting Ballet training. And I was exhilarated that I then found out my body could work much better in another time and space. It was almost as if I had that eureka moment, I guess that is what Einstein felt when he found that E=mc².That experience had such a huge effect on me, and since then I pretty much try to go to the essence of everything. So how was my disappointment yesterday that a dancer/choreographer would rather talk much more about another person's works than her own. Not that I didn't enjoy the expose, I did take a lot from it. I learned how much Cunningham's method have evolved by the use of life forms and the help of technology. But I would rather have spent five hours listenning to a boring sound, but that it is original, from his own creator than a second-handed exhibition. Though I know dancers are interpreters of a movement, they usually take all that they can absorve and yet incorporate their own tone (and that's not big news). So I guess that I just wanted to experience the dancer's energy and experiment, hearing more about New York of Charleston and Einstein than Cunningham after all.


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And I am still watching “Einstein on the beach” while wondering, "if he took a bath after all that math, would that be considered a brain wash??"

A sonnet to Albert Einstein (I just wrote inspired by the note I did quote:)

Albert took a bath
Longing for his Math.
But isn't it a panache,
Experiencing a brain wash?
Relatively energetic enough
To bounce a theory on the rough.

Energy equals MC square...
In which terms, in which glare?
No matter the matter or how rare,
Simply energy it's in there.
Theories abound, views to be reckoned,
Eurekas in a fraction of a second.
In only one particle there's all
No matter how tall.... or small.

10/27/2008

International Animation Day



Ana was very animated when she went to Paris the same time the "Savage Garden" (the Australian Duo) filmed "Truly Madly Deeply" and oh so in sync was their clip and song as well as its lyrics with her own soul that little would she know then she was already making her own path from an old film to a soap opera, singing in her own rhythm, by the beat of her heart, looking up in the cosmical sky, reflecting her own shinning star. And how much it took for her to get there? Well, those are stories she tells from her memories to her memoirs, dancing on words, as she dances as one.

myspace layouts, myspace codes, glitter graphics

Some tids and bits of TODAY/TOMORROW/YESTERDAY:

On October 28th, 1892, a French inventor Emile Reynaud (1844-1918) made the first public performance of animation at the Grevin Museum in Paris, using his own invention "optical theater".

ASIFA (Association Internationale du Film d' Animation, registered in Annecy, France) decided to celebrate this historic day as "International Animation Day", aiming to promote and develop animation art all over the world.

10/18/2008

Favelados (People living in precarious conditions)

An 'Arts Institute at Bournemouth' Animation


"Favelados tells the story of two orphaned children living in the Favelas outside Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Emmanuel, the young shoe shine boy faces the burden of his unwell sister Ria. All that he prays for in his poverty stricken world is that his sister is happy once more."

A very realistic, sad and yet moving movie animation. It is like being there in full presence. A bitter sweet portrait of my country. Very touching! Hope this serves as a reminder, to openning the eyes of people to do something about the miseries in this world.

10/15/2008

Blog Action Day: Fighting Poverty in the World

To fight against poverty one should fight against the global warming or the world will colapse in catastrophic proportions with a terrible prospect: People could be displaced from their own land as the ocean will rise in an increasingly high level and lack of food and supply would be the topic of the day. If we don't take action now the whole world would have to face a much worst perspective about hunger and deficit in the economy. Talking with the governamental authorities is crucial. But we, as individuals, could make much more than that: Eco-T(R)ips

Take, for example, organizations such as "Hogar de Cristo" founded by the Saint Alberto Hurtado here in Chile and see for yourself that with little we can help a lot already: The Priest and now Saint Alberto Hurtado started to implement a project to eradicate poverty in his country. His success was due to the fact that he really cared about the disadvantaged people.He would always ask himself, "What would Christ do in my place?" It is not out of mimetizing His work but asking what would He do in our days.

A reunion with the Priest Alberto Hurtado and his colleagues at the Saint Ignatius College (A Family Collection)

Everytime I go to the supermarket the cashier asks me if I want to donate some. And I always say, "Yes!" How could I say no to this foundation who help poor people and is a visibly working process? Chile is one of the countries in Latin America with less poverty. So I was surprised when I saw a man so irritated with tha question saying, "Why you keep asking me that?" And he didn't want to donate. I should rather ask the same question adding, "Why ask? Please, of course I will donate." As much as I am sure it will have a good effect on people. If it helps, even if in small quantities, it is valid.


In England: " William John Williams, 67, was found with serious burns to his back after apparently having petrol poured on him in a lane of a busy Cardiff street on 17 January.
Two youths, aged 16, are accused of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and inflicting grievous bodily harm.

The victim had lived the lifestyle of a tramp and was to be seen about the streets and communities at all times of day, despite having an address at Gloucester Street in the Riverside area." (source:BBCNEWS)

Four men dressed in Scottish kilts are accused of pouring petrol over and setting light to a 41 year old Portuguese vagrant, sleeping on cardboard boxes in Valencia´s Plaza de la Reina during the early hours of Wednesday morning. (The victim) who has been living on the streets of Valencia for the last eleven years since all his grape picking wages were stolen from him and he could not face going back home to face his father´s angry disappointment.

"They kept me in for a few hours then let me go. I had to walk back to the Plaza de la Reina because nobody would give me any money for a taxi," added Albert, who explained that he was in a rush to get back to check on his three dogs, who were not injured in the attack. (...) says he will be hanging on to his walking stick to defend himself with should anything similar happen to him in the future. (source: ThinkSpain)


Qui, 09 Out, 02h41
Um morador de rua foi alvo de incendiários na noite de ontem, quando dormia em uma praça no bairro do Tatuapé, zona leste de São Paulo. A vítima, de aproximadamente 50 anos, sofreu queimaduras de primeiro grau em todo o corpo, exceto na face. Segundo paramédicos que o atenderam, uma mulher que passava pelo local testemunhou três pessoas jogando um líquido sobre o morador de rua e ateando fogo em seguida, fugindo a pé. Ela acionou uma ambulância ao ver a vítima em chamas.
(source:Agencia Estado)

Five days ago, a tramp was set on fire in the streets of Sao Paulo. At least there was a woman who saw the whole thing and called an ambulance. For God's sake, when we will give a hand to someone who needs it? They could have been your father, or your son. What if it was YOU??

People come together
Over one voice, one word,
Viewing the world as one.
Erase poverty forever
Realizing this absurd
That things are set undone.
Yell, "Poverty: None!"

"God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house… God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives… God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war… God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them."
- Bono (Lead Singer U2) from his speech at the 2006 National Prayer Breakfast, Washington DC.

"STAND UP, STAND UP, STAND UP!"

10/08/2008

It's a God's Life!


With the recession and the global financial turmoil, it's time to roll up our sleeves and help people get in touch with what truly matters in our world by spreading the words of equality and fairness, and putting our fingers in the economic problems to solve some issues that have been like a plague, and giving solutions to the mess we all are. People are so concerned about their loosing money that they got lost amidst the deepest despair when so many live in hunger and are getting hungrier by the minute. In our rushing times it's just so easy to disconnect from what is really important in our lives. The basic needs are indeed what truly matters in all languages, all nations and all colors: to have a home, food in our plate, a good health, piece of mind and someone to share all that. So in five days I will be joining the world with words at the blog action day to getting verbal about poverty around the world. Would you join me too?

10/01/2008

Changing the Guard at Palacio de la Moneda



"En Garde!" He shouts.
"What's this all about?"
could have sang the bards.
"Changing the Guards."

What were they doing
before they went renewing
the others marching in the yard
Changing the Guards?

Were they playing cards
or were all in disregard?
What if they miss their time
when nothing else should rhyme?

It would have made a mess
if they were playing chess,
instead of Changing the Guards.
It must be so very hard...

To stay up all day long
and doing nothing wrong.
How can they belong
and still stay so strong?

What if some of the guards
leave soon or are in retard?
What happens if they move
from their conventional groove?

"Changing the Guards" © 2008 Ana Claudia Antunes