Monday, January 17, 2011

street song

the creative use of body on the street is a
vital expression of the human condition at its most vulnerable.

for this alone
i love street energy
for its outward arrogance
and its inward reverence

the first expression
of this reverent arrogance
comes from korea
in the form of
prepix dance group

the energy between the dancers and the audience
is breathtaking!

this is such a stunning
and visually complex piece
that my strategy is to watch the clip four times -
once for each of the dancers.

you'll see.

headphones on ladies and gentlemen!!

body



the next clip has already made an appearance on my "cycles" blog.
danny mcaskill - does things on a bike, with his body that are simply beautiful
and hard to ignore.


body

16 comments:

Dan Gurney said...

Wow!!

I'd seen one of Danny Macaskill's earlier videos. This one's just as amazing. Well worth watching. Amazing he doesn't wear elbow pads. You'd think he'd need them. Thanks.

Ruth said...

My Internet is boggy, so I couldn't watch much of the clip, but what I saw is mesmerizing.

I'm celebrating 5 years blogging this week, which blows my mind, it seems so long in this medium. I keep reflecting on how ethereal the medium is, in a sense, but how each of us has a body, we touch things, we live in a material world. So this street energy feels like a timely reminder-echo, that the beauty we love is what we do. I also know that my real life has changed and been expanded -- energetically - by connections with blog friends.

steven said...

hello dan! i wonder at the choice not to wear protective gear but there's so much i don't know about how that affects what he does and then also how little help it might provide in some of his truly spectacular bails!!! steven

steven said...

ruth - five years!!! wow!! i was feeling the need to share something entirely human and with edge and vulnerable. thus the dance and the biking. my blog hovers for extended periods in otherness grounded in nature and i haven't quite figured out how to connect that otherness to the human condition just yet - visually that is! ongratulations ruth. i am in awe. steven

Reya Mellicker said...

Wow!! These are amazing. I'm reading a book about physiology in which they point out how the whole body flows diagonally, no matter what we're doing. Even walking is a diagonal movement, though we follow a forward line through time/space, we are first on one foot, then the other, arms swinging diagonally. Very cool to watch these and think about what's going onside these people.

Dan Gurney said...

Yes. Far be it from me to question the likes of Danny Macaskill.

I'm sure Danny has his very GOOD reasons for wearing what he does. His view of the bike-able world is completely different from (and much more imaginative and flexible) than mine. To him I tip my helmet. I'm going to show this video to my son. I should show it to my class, too. I teach lots of kids to ride bikes and some of them like to do tricks that raise eyebrows among my colleagues. (I allow the Dannys in my class more latitude to experiment than is common.)

all ways 11 o'clock said...

this post complete
reveals our brashness
and our side that we mostly keep to ourselves.

your thinking of this piece
combining your words and the two clips is brilliant.

i so enjoy coming here.

thank you very much for sharing.

~robert

Jo said...

Steven. How awesome is this?

I have a daughter who is a professional ballerina, and a son who is a CrossFit trainer despite having had his colon removed 2 years ago due to Crohn's disease.

I am well acquainted with that feeling of awe and admiration that accompanies the thought, "The human body should not be able to do that!"

It is powerful, indeed, this body our soul inhabits, capable of so much more than we know.

Bravo to those who test it and try it and explore their bodies' potential! Bravo!!

Pauline said...

in response to your comment to ruth (and so to your blog), I think you've found your segue...

steven said...

cool info reya!! i would love to know the whole process of the preparation to enter these spaces and then especially to know what it feels like to be inside these spaces. i've got the greatest admiration for their physicality but i know there's so much more to this than that alone! steven

steven said...

dan - my class will see this up on the smartboard later this week. i try and shopw them the parts of the world that ignore the "rules" in a positive way. steven

steven said...

robert thankyou. i am so grateful for your comments here. i love to push the limits of my ownj physicality but age and the self-imposed limits i've placed on myself for whatever reason through my life have held me to waht i have done. no shame. just wondering. but these guys - well they blow me away! steven

steven said...

jo i laqughed when i saw that - one of my favourite phrases to drop on a kid at school is "you're not supposed to be able to do that". it can be physical, cerebral or social i don't care. your children got gifts that have allowed them to share their gifts with others. that tells a story about you as much as it does about them!!! steven

Friko said...

Breathtaking displays, both of them.

I was fascinated and wouldn't be at all surprised to hear that I sat here, open-mouthed, staring at the computer screen.

May I also say how truly awesome (in the old sense of the word) i found your photographs in the previous post.

splendid said...

excitingly extraordinary!!!!!

Golden West said...

Remarkable bike riding!