klcat

A Blossom Fell...

2007-06-12T06:24:00.000-07:00

A blossom fell from off a tree
It settled softly on the lips you turn to me
The gypsies say and I know why
A falling blossom only touches lips that lie.

A blossom fell and very soon
I saw you kissing someone new
Beneath the moon
I thought you'd love me
You said you love me
We planned together
To dream forever
The dream has ended
For true love died
The day a blossom fell
And touched two lips that lied.

Stretch 2007...

2007-06-11T04:19:00.001-07:00

Camp logo...
DHTS @ Yuan Ching Secondary School...
Spiderman will get you...

We did not win anything but we are still winners!

Happy Vesak Day...

2007-06-03T06:28:00.000-07:00

Guan Zhi Zai...

Fly with me...

2007-05-07T04:50:00.000-07:00

Well you could call this a life changing performance... Most impressively, I was not performing...

So why? You ask? Because with the help of this concert, I have reached the decision that I can and will give up full time dance training under brainwashing heads who only allow anorexic dancers and do not really care about ability. I renounce my place in LaSalle-SIA Dance faculty and will forthwith apply for the Technical Theatre Arts department. If talent is not appreciated and only size counts, this is not the department for me.

I might be giving up professional dance training but I will never give up dance... You might be able to deny me a degree, but talent is never denied so all i have to say is... watch out...

Quindance... Beyond Horizon...

2007-04-15T07:50:00.000-07:00

Don't like taking photos!!!
50 years from now?

Well the few photos i had taken...

The effects of male chauvinism on ballet

2006-11-03T00:03:00.000-08:00

Dancing has been around for a long time and the origins of dance are hard to trace. However, ballet as we recognize it today can be traced to the early 15th Century during the Renaissance period. Then it was the ballet du cour (court ballet). Over the years, from spectacles much akin to pagan rituals, ballet has evolved into an elegant, perfection-driven art form. As Mersenne, a French polymath, wrote in his L’Harmonie Universelle (1636), “By using music that imitated exactly the proportions of the harmony of the spheres, sixteenth century man believed he could attract planetary influences. Dance in itself was an imitation of the movement of the heavens. To combine both would produce an art form of extraordinary power,” As ballet evolved, the dancers have also evolved.

The rise of ballet can be laid at Catherine de Medici’s door. The Queen of France, of Italian heritage, was a great patron of the arts and created the first ballet company—Le Ballet Comique de la Reine (The Queen's Ballet Comedy) “The first ballet for which a complete score survived, was performed in Paris in 1581. It was staged by Balthazar de Beaujoyeux, a violinist and dancing master at the court of Queen Catherine de Medici. It was danced by aristocratic amateurs in a hall with the royal family on a dais at one end and spectators in galleries on three sides.”[1] However the participants in this first ballet were courtiers and the steps were from court dances.

In 1661, Louis XIV established the Academie Royale de Danse, a professional organization for dancing masters. By then the court ballet was already giving way to professional dancing. At first all the dancers were men, and men in masks danced women's roles. From these, we first see how the idealistic males stereotyped females, feeling that a woman’s place was in the house and not on the stage. As observed by Carol Brown on the histories of ballet of that period, “As elaborate ceremonial occasions, they [ballet performances] functioned as affirmations of the monarch’s power and the male status quo. Formalised through a succession of royal benefactors, the surviving treatises and notation scores were authorized by men, who also occupied the role of dance master and choreographer within the court.” All this shows how the female was excluded and marginalized in dance from the beginning.

It was during the 18th Century that society started to focus on the individual rather than the whole and, as a result, it was during this time that the male and female dancers came to represent the "ideal" man and woman, as they do today. Technical advancement in ballet reached a peak in France. “During the second half of the 18th Century, the Paris Opera was dominated by male dancers such as the Italian-French virtuoso Gaetan Vestris and his son Auguste Vestris, famed for his jumps and leaps. But women such as the German-born Anne Heinel, the first female dancer to do double pirouettes, also were gaining in technical proficiency.”[2] To showcase their increased technique, female dancers began wearing shorter skirts and leaving off their corsets. This might have contributed to the rise in demand for women dancers as these fashions titillated male fantasies. Although some countries were tolerant of female ballet dancers, many people of the period considered women who danced beneath contempt.

With the coming of the 19th Century, a shift in the male predominance was more obvious in ballet. During this pre-Romantic period, ballerinas first started dancing on the very tips of their toes, or en pointe. The lady who is traditionally credited with being the first dancer to perform en pointe is the Italian Marie Taglioni (1804–1884), and it is recorded that she was en pointe when she was eighteen years old and danced in La Sylphide, choreographed by her father, Filippo Taglioni, to emphasise her otherworldly lightness and insubstantiality. The invention of the pointe shoe moved women to center stage and relegated the male to little more than a moving statue, present only in order to lift the ballerina. In most parts of Europe, male ballet dancers were no longer regarded as important, which led to less emphasis on technique. Thankfully in Russia and Denmark, men advanced alongside women, as ballet in those countries was still supported by the royal court, so not all technique for male dancers was lost. Russia also started importing French talent and thereby preserved much of the technical brilliance achieved by male dancers in the previous century.

During the Romantic era, female ballet dancers ruled the stage and many of the most renowned ballets were created, such as La Sylphide (1832), Giselle (1841), The Sleeping Beauty (1890) and Swan Lake (1875), with the female as the lead character. An exception to this was Coppelia (1870), choreographed by Saint Leon, but here the principal role was danced by a woman. During this period, the female character in ballet had become less inhibited in their dressing style and hence appealed a lot to male fantasy dressed skimpily portraying characters such as faeries, sprites, nymphs and other otherworldly creatures. This appeal to the male sex is in part a reason for the rise in popularity of ballet. Since then, ballet has become synonyms with willowy women dressed in tutus skimming the stage en pointe. Little or in fact no thought is given to their partners in classical pas de deux. Women had gained control of the stage in ballet and this control has yet to be relinquished.

From studying the history of ballet, we observe that the first feminist revolution actually occurred in dance, even before women got to vote or were free to burn their bras. As we saw, women gained dominance in the ballet world from as far back as the 1840s. While they did leave an impression on stage, it was probably because the female ballet dancer was cast as an object of desire that allowed the male ego to accept a female on stage. For that reason, many families were reluctant and discouraged their daughters from taking up this profession. Women who performed on stage were despised and regarded as little more than prostitutes. So, women still had to fight a battle to prove and be recognised as artistes in their own right. However, because ballet had become dominated by females, male chauvinism started to work in reverse; because men were not able to gain the success of women in ballet, they began to feel that ballet was meant for women and that it is degrading for a guy to do it. This highly questionable view almost caused men to be obliterated from ballet. Thankfully, in places like Denmark and Russia, ballet was supported by royalty and men dancers advanced alongside their female companions.

While women tried to establish themselves, new Russian ballets were bringing hope to both reviving the male dancer and the liberalising the female from classical ballet. The Ballet Russes which presented new and avant-garde one-act ballets, such as The Firebird (1910), Sheherazade (1910) and Petrushka (1911) was very different from those of the Romantic era in theme, staging and, most importantly, performer. In these ballets, the weight of the male role was equivalent to that of the female. The female characters in these dances are given less sexual discriminating roles even taking part in ensemble parts where the female and male dancers do the same things. This reopened the eyes to the value of male dancers. First making his debut in the 1909 season of the Ballet Russes programme was Nijinsky (Les Sylphide). He caused a storm in the ballet world with his astounding elevation and brilliant technique. From then, Nijinsky danced in many ballets and even choreographed some specially to showcase the technique of male dancers.

Since then, women and men have progressed rapidly in ballet which had spread to most corners of the Earth with pioneers such as Ninette de Valois, who established ballet in Britain, and George Balanchine, who brought ballet to America, to name a few. However, the female ballet dancer did not really gain full respect till the female revolution of the 1930s and was not established as an artiste in her own right until the rise of modern dance.
Although men have proved themselves valuable to ballet, now, very few men actually wish to do ballet. Because of the number of years ballet had been dominated by women, men feel that to do ballet is to be effeminate. A good example of this prejudice is seen in the movie Billy Elliot where a coal miner stops his son from attending ballet classes proclaiming,” No son of mine dances!” There is this perception that men who do ballet are gay. This speculation is further supported by facts such as Nijinsky being gay alongside several other prominent names in ballet. This aversion in males to dance might have an unhealthy impact on ballet and steps should be taken to either obliterate or at least reduce the effects of stereotypes.

It appears that the chauvinistic attitude of men no longer affect ballet. However, I still feel that the dominance is still present as although there are a few women who choreograph ballet, much of the choreography of ballet is done by males. Instead of dictating whether women should be allowed to dance or not, now the male dictates what the women does. So the influence though more subtle is still present. In addition to this point, the effects of male chauvinism are quite clearly shown by the attitude towards men who dance. This has a very negative impact on ballet as a whole. If ballet is to escape the strangulation of male dominance, it needs to undergo a revolution akin to that of modern dance.

What is Art?

2006-08-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

Through the years, many people have tried to define art. However, until this day, none have been successful as the definition differs from person to person. The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English defines art as “the making or expression of what is beautiful in music, literature or painting”. This definition is incomplete as it does not incorporate all aspects of art especially the performing arts. To me, art is usually visual, with the exception of music, and it has the ability to affect its audience emotionally or spiritually.

Sight, being our most utilised sense, is one reason why most art is visual. Besides music, which works on our hearing, art affects us firstly at a visual level, then intellectually and emotionally with the help of our other sensory organs and processing by the brain. Art in the form of paintings, sculpture or writing such as poetry relies on sight to convey its message. Performing arts, dance and theatre, rely on a combination of visual effects and blending with music or sound to affect its audience. However what defines each of these various visual spectacles as art is still subjective.

As Arthur Danto, professor of philosophy at Columbia University, said, “You can't say something's art or not art anymore. That's all finished." With the rise of pop art, it can now be argued that anything even a simple line on a paper can be called art. In support of this point, Richard Wollheim feels: “The act of painting has to be an intentional one, i.e., the painter has to have the intention of making art. The act of painting has to be undertaken in a special way in order to be art.” So as long as the person states that he intends to create a work of art, anything he paints will qualify.

In opposition to this view, the Institutional Theory of Art states, "Painters make paintings, but it takes a representative of the art-world to make a work of art." So the task of defining art is left to people who claim to have knowledge about art. Yet, even these experts upon occasion cannot agree among themselves. If experts are unable to define art, what chance do we normal people have of defining art?

As Leo Tolstoy puts it “Every work of art causes the receiver to enter into a certain kind of relationship both with him who produced, or is producing, the art, and with all those who, simultaneously, previously, or subsequently, receive the same artistic impression.” These artistic impressions need not be experienced by experts in the field only even normal people can connect and respond to the piece of art. However, just because they share the same view as the expert, it does not qualify them as an expert and vice versa.

I feel that art or the defining of it is still highly personal or subjective as Leo Tolstoy quotes “To evoke in oneself a feeling one has once experienced, and having evoked it in oneself, then, by means of movements, lines, colors, sounds, or forms expressed in words, so to transmit that feeling that others may experience the same feeling - this is the activity of art.” As this quote shows, art starts out personal with a person trying to express his emotion, and again people respond differently so it is highly unlikely that many will feel or experience that same sensation.

Perhaps what art really is is simply whatever the interpreter chooses it to be. As Keats writes in his poem Ode on a Grecian Urn “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,” ---that is all/ Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.” Like beauty, perhaps art cannot be defined and hence every compliment or criticism is truth. Who are we to argue with others views?

Pretty Poetry...

2005-10-02T20:08:00.000-07:00

(i ) Pushing my trolly about in the supermarket,
I am the centre of the universe;
Up and down the aisles of beans and juices,
I am the centre of the universe;
It does not matter that I live alone;
It does not matter that I am a jilted lover;
It does not matter that I am a misfit in my job;
I am the centre of the universe.

But I'm always here, if you want me -
For I am the centre of the universe.

(ii) I enjoy being the centreof the universe.
It is not easy being the centre of the universe.
But I enjoy it.
I take pleasure in,
I delight in,
Being the centre of the universe.
At sixo'clock a.m. this morning I had a phone call;
It was from a friend, a man in Los Angeles:
' Paul, I don't know what time it is in Dublin
But I simply had to call you:
I cannot stand LA so I thought I'd call you.'
I calmed him down as best I could.

I'm always here if you want me -
For I am the centre of the universe.

(iii) I had barely put the phone down whenit rang again,
This time from a friend in São Paulo in Brazil:
' Paul, do you know what is the the population of São Paulo?
I will tell you; it is twelve million skulls.
Twelve million feet in the one foot bath.
Twelve million eyes in the one fishbowl.
It is unspeakable, I tell you, unspeakable.'
I calmed him down.

I'm always here, if you want me -
For I am the centre if the universe.

(iv) But then when the phone rang a third time and it was not yet 6.30 a.m.,
The petals of my own hysteria began to wake up and unfurl.
This time it was a woman I know in New York City:
'Paul - Ney York City is a Cage',
And she began to cry alittle over the phone,
To sob over the phone,
And from five thousand miles away I mopped up her tears.
I dabbed each tear from her cheek
With just a word or two or three from my calm voice.

I'm always here, if you want me -
For I am the centre of the universe.

(v) But now tonight it is myself;
Sitting at my aluminium double-glazed window in Dublin city;
Crying just a little bit into my black tee shirt.
If only there was just one human being out there
With whom I could make a home? Share a home?
Just one creature out there in the night-
Is there not just one creature out there in the night?
In Helsinki, perhaps? Or in Reykjavik?
Or in Chapelizod? or in Malahide?
So you see, I have to calm myself down also
If I am to remain the centre of the universe;
It's by no means an exclusively self-centred automatic thing
Being the centre of the universe.

I'm always here, if you want me -
For I am the centre of the universe.

-Paul Durcan-

Balletic rights...

2005-09-27T02:41:00.000-07:00

"Perfection is the hidden, lurking word that permeates throughout every aspect of ballet -- perfect body, perfect line, perfect timing, perfect performance. But dancers are not just athletes; they are artists and interpreters who must bring to a performance genuine emotion -- emotion that is possible only through a life fully lived, pain and emotion truly felt."

From: Footnotes
By: Frank Augustyn and Shelley Tanaka

This is why I shall be watching "Romeo & Juliet" on 8th November the night before my english O'Level examination.

2005-09-20T00:42:00.000-07:00

ASHA 2005 rox!! Carrots rox too!!

2005-08-05T16:00:00.000-07:00

They say a picture's worth a thousand words so here we are. Serenity