Black Grace
Photo by the Black Grace crew from their Facebook page
Saturday I saw Black Grace perform in the Schouwburg. Black Grace is a New Zealand dance company led by Neil Ieremia. Ieremia choreographs dances inspired by and drawn upon both his Samoan heritage and the current world of New Zealand. They’re doing a tour of the Netherlands with a show called Verse 3: a collection of five short works and excerpts of various older works.
Pati Pati (2009) was the first. It’s a mix of fragments from four other works using Samoan seated dance (Sasa) and slap dancing (Fa’ataupati). It has pieces from Relentless (1998), Black Grace (1995), Fia Ola (1998) and Amata (2007). I really loved this because of the rhythm and repetition. It’s meditative.
The second was Human Language (2002), a work inspired by the body language of men and women when they start getting romantically interested in each other. It also mimics various forms of mating behaviour. It starts out, for example, by the men blowing up colourful balloons. As the girl parades in front of them they raise their heads so the balloons hang at throat level. Similar to how some birds inflate their necks to show of their vibrant neck and belly feathers. As the girl turns them down, they let go of the balloons in defeat, letting them shoot away as they deflate.
Gathering Clouds (2009) was made in answer to an article in a New Zealand newspaper. The article went on about how Pacific Island immigrants to New Zealand had the lowest education levels, were most represented in prison, most without jobs and so on, basically saying they were bad for New Zealand. This pissed Neil off so made this work to deal with his feelings and show that things aren’t perfect, they evolve and change and unrest comes from that, and helps with that. The dance starts with strong Samoan influences, traditional dancing and traditional music and halfway through morphs into more modern dancing on a number of Goldberg Variations by Bach to show that yes, we’re all different, but we’re all also the same.
Mother Mother (2013) was choreographed on request of New Zealand group Fat Freddy’s Drop. They wrote a song called Mother Mother and wanted Neil to make a dance for the videoclip. Ieremia refused a couple times but eventually agreed. The work starts out with a lot of physical manipulation of the body culminating in the literal raising up of women as a symbol for how Mothers help their kids up.
The final piece, Minoi (1999), is traditional. It is a Samoan song which literally means to wiggle. It starts with a woman singing the song and then blends with the dancers. They appear behind her and take over the singing. Mixing it with slap dancing and turning the song into a round it becomes a mantra.
Caligula is a play written by Albert Camus just before World War two. It tells the story of the cruel Roman Emperor Caligula. He loses his sister and lover Drusilla and cannot deal with this. After wandering in the fields for three days he returns with an absolutist world view. Unable to deal with the relativitiy of everything, and most notably, happiness, he enters a reign of terror.
I was pleasantly surprised by the movie, I’ve gotten used to trailers spoiling huge parts of movie plots, or even the entire plot, and here there was a whole extra dimension to the plot not shown in the trailer. I enjoyed the bit with Jarvis and Ultron, when he has just formed; and really enjoyed Vision. I hope he gets to stick around.
After the Avengers we went on to see Tomorrowland (or Project T, as my cinema seems to want to call it…). It’s a bit of an uneven movie. The visuals are stunning and I want so badly to walk around in that city and explore! The intro part takes too long (I even muttered out loud for them to “get on with it”), and then when we get the part where Casey is recruited and runs away, and finds Frank and has to convince Frank, and then they all together have to run away some more and find a way to get to Tomorrowland to fix whatever the fuck is wrong takes very long.
Last week I went to see La Famille Bélier with Gert. I’d seen the trailer among the previews before Wild a week earlier and I was fascinated.
Besides that, she works at the farm, and has school, which is rather far away. Suffice it to say, her days are full, and there’s always something she has to do.
I can imagine these situations can come across as insulting to Deaf people, but I feel they are justified here based on the point of view. It is Paula that we follow, and Paula who is often exasperated by her family’s antics, as teenagers generally are. She doesn’t always want to be the one that has to do this or do that, she wants to do her own things, grow up some. And her parents like to keep their little family as is, safe and home.
During choir practice, the teacher makes them sing songs by Michel Sardou, a French singer-songwriter who’s been singing for about 50 years. He’s not very popular with the younger generation, but a bit of a legend among older ones for his work in the 70s. Reading his Wikipedia page, I’m getting a bit of a Boudewijn de Groot vibe for that period.
The teacher also tells her about a singing competition in Paris. The winner gets to attend a school for talented singers, in Paris. He wants her to enter, and Paula wants to, as well. To get her ready, she practices at her teacher’s house every evening singing Je Vole, also by Michel Sardou. Je Vole is a song wherein a teenager tells his parents that he is about to leave. It’s not fleeing, it’s flying away, without substances, without other influences, the teenager chooses his own path and he begs his parents to accept this.
Her parents come to the recital at school and during the choir performance you can see they don’t really get it. Why would they, they’re all born deaf, they never heard music. They’ll be able to feel vibration, but they can’t feel that from a choir sitting in the audience.
It’s a chasm between them and it scares her mother more. Her father seems more understanding and later, when they’re back home, he asks her to sing for him as he places his hand on her throat. She sings for him, and he seems to see her passion, but ultimately can’t experience it in the same way.
There are some other story lines that are partly shown but get no neat endings, like her father’s mayoral candidature or her brother’s interest in Mathilde, just as life itself keeps going for others when you go a different direction.
Shakespeare’s King Lear is an elderly king who decides to divide his kingdom between his three daughters. He asks them to declare their love for him, the best declaration gets the biggest iece. The elder two children do so, but the youngest refuses to play this game. Angrily, King Lear gives her share to her sisters and she leaves for France with her new husband. The remaining sisters immediately show their true natures and treat their father like an old man, and even planning to murder him. During this, Lear flees the house in a great storm and loses his mind.
Elizabeth Lear is the CEO of Lear Inc. A world-spanning business at the top of its power, started by her father and further built up by her husband until his death. She rules with an iron hand but she is getting older, and as such has decided to split the business in threes, one part for each of her sons. At the board meeting she interrupts Kent (played by Gijs Scholten van Aschat), who wishes to celebrate recent acquisitions, and declares her intentions. She asks her eldest son Gregory (played by Roeland Fernhout) to declare his love for her. He is unprepared, and initially unwilling, but manages to spin a tale and gets his portfolio.
As the business is going under, Queen Lear is forced to cull the number of servants. She protests heavily but both brothers will not budge. Oleg calls his mother to tell her that he will not be able to send more money as the business is not doing well. We can’t understand this, as the conversation is in Bosnian, but Rukavina lifted the veil on that for those who were at the introduction 🙂
After another argument with her sons and their wives, Queen Lear runs out of the building, into a terrible storm. She wanders around, lost, desolate and in the grip of her disease. She throws a monologue into the storm before she is found by Oleg who tries to take her home. They meet a homeless junk who she, in her delirium, mistakes for her youngest son Cornald (not quite coincidentally played by the same actor :D).
I really liked Dev Patel as Deon Wilson. In his free time he’s working on developing the first ever true AI. When he succeeds but is not allowed to use a destroyed chassis to test it, he steals it and is on his way home to insert the AI when he is cornered and stopped by the gang. They take him and the van with materials to their hide out and force him to insert the AI. He reluctantly does so and Chappie comes alive.
Chappie also becomes fully sentient as he realises he has a battery that is running out. When told that the battery can’t be changed and that he will die when it runs out, he becomes sad. He does not want to die. Deon tries to help him deal (picture), but Ninja uses it as a tactic to get him to agree to the heist telling Chappie they can use the money to buy a new body. They practice by stealing cars and Chappie, having seen the neural interface earlier, works on isolating consciousness so it can be transferred.
Chappie makes his way home to the gang, with some stops along the way (picture), and Deon fits him with a new spare arm. Chappie then goes with Ninja and the others to do the heist. A news helicopter catches him while they rob the money truck and the broadcast of a “Scout gone bad” brings even more panic. Both in the public, as well as in Tetravaal, the company Deon works for. The president of Tetravaal authorizes Vincent to use his robot to destroy Chappie. Which is exactly what he wants.
After Chappie, we took a quick detour to the supermarket, and then came back in for The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Another movie featuring Dev Patel as main character. I really liked this movie. It’s an unpretentious feel good movie, and follow-up to 2012’s The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. In the first movie, Sonny is trying to build up his hotel in India where most guests are elderly and have basically moved in to spend their last years. Now, the hotel is doing really well, so well in fact, that Sonny and one of the residents, co-manager Muriel (a fantastic Maggie Smith), go to the US to ask for financial support from a franchise to open a second hotel. The franchise is interested but not willing to commit just yet so they agree to send out a mystery guest observer to see if it’s worth it.
Once back, Sonny is stressed out and dealing with way too many things on his own. Not only is he waiting for the observer, he also has his own upcoming wedding to worry about. And with how Indian weddings go, this means three parties. Shortly later, two new guests arrive, Mrs Lavinia Beech, who gets the last free room in the hotel, and Mr. Guy Chambers.
Meanwhile, the guests each have their own problems. Douglas (Bill Nighy) and Evelyn (Judi Dench) are very fond of each other but afraid to say it so they keep going in circles and missing each other. Madge is dating two wealthy Indian men and having trouble choosing between them. Norman accidentally takes out a hit on his girlfriend, and is jealous of her other relationships (as they never said they were exclusive) but afraid to say so. And Guy Chambers is interested in Sonny’s mother, who is reluctant to think of a new relationship.
Wednesday, Mom and I went to the Schouwburg to see Sara Kroos play her latest show “Van Jewelste”. Sara Kroos is someone I’ve seen on TV and always liked, she’s spontaneous but does always seem to make a point. So when Mom suggested we go see her back when I was deciding which shows to go to, I happily agreed,
In between stories she sits down at the piano and sings a song. And the songs are the counterweights to all the laughter of the stories. They are calmer, and more serious and light the other side of parents and different generations and time, which are the main themes of the show. And by combining these elements, she really drives the point that time goes ever on.
They are led by “Arthur”, their tech genius is “Merlin” and every member has a codename of one of the knights of the round table. This means there’s a set number of agents, and when one dies, the others all put forth a candidate. After an intense testing, process the one remaining candidate gets the job.
Then yesterday, Kim and I went to see Insurgent. It picks up almost immediately after Divergent, only a few days have passed. We meet up with Tris, Four, Caleb and Peter in Amity where they have taken shelter. At first, they seem mostly settled in as they wait for things to happen and make plans. But things are not quite what they seem and before you know it, they’re back on the run, heading into the city with the end goal of killing Jeanine.