WSS on 60 Minutes tonight 2/16 — Page 2

A Director said: "I don't have a problem with replacing the original choreography, but why replace it with modern dance?"

The revival is set in the current day. Did you want them doing the jitterbug?

Miles2Go2 said: "A Director said: "I don't have a problem with replacing the original choreography, but why replace it with modern dance?"

The revival is set in the current day. Did you want them doing the jitterbug?"

You have no idea what I'm talking about when I use the term modern dance. Do a Google and learn!

A Director said: "Miles2Go2 said: "A Director said: "I don't have a problem with replacing the original choreography, but why replace it with modern dance?"

The revival is set in the current day. Did you want them doing the jitterbug?"

You have no idea what I'm talking about when I use the term modern dance. Do a Google and learn!

"

A quick Google search of modern dance yields this:

”These dancers disregarded ballet's strict movement vocabulary, the particular, limited set of movements that were considered proper to ballet, and stopped wearing corsets and pointe shoes in the search for greater freedom of movement.”

At any rate, it’s contemporary dance, not modern, that they’re performing in this production. Contemporary movement incorporates elements of classical and modern technique, which very much informs the way dancers move today: a rigorous training in classical dance and a need to create your own movement vocabulary. That seems a pretty good reason, to me, to replace Robbins’s choreography with something more “today.”

A Director said: "You have no idea what I'm talking about when I use the term modern dance. Do a Google and learn!"

I’m not sure you know what you’re talking about when you use the term modern dance either. I did a Google and learned that this production utilized contemporary dance. You can read all about it here and learn.


http://www.playbill.com/article/what-does-west-side-story-look-like-with-new-choreography

I watched thus last night, but wish the piece with Sondheim was on TV. Thanks for posting the link. Sondheim makes good points about a show vs a movie, and how a show changes even when a new cast comes in.

I'm glad I saw this back in December, it was already thrilling at that point. I feel really badly for Ben Cook because he was just wonderful. I think another standout for me was Kevin Csolak. He caught my eye instantly when he was in Mean Girls in 2018, just in the background - I thought "this is a dancer to watch," and now he should start to get more recognition. Also, don't know his name, but the tall, lithe fella who seemed to dance with the Sharks, and maybe they had working in the dress shop with the girls - his movement really caught my attention as well.

I feel most sorry for the Tony award prospects for Caroline & Company. This & Moulin Rouge are the only shows I have been recommending to anyone at home who may be going to NY, since so few here out West pay attention to what is playing on Broadway.

E.g. Anais Mitchell's new band's record just came out, & at one of the better shops in the city yesterday when asking for help finding it (of course it was right on the wall in front of me), I explained to a clerk who she was, and no one had even heard of Hadestown.

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If you need video to bring intensity to WSS, you haven't your work as a director or choreographer to from the beginning.

SporkGoddess said: "I haven't seen the production, but some of this direction just seems way too on the nose for me. Showing police brutality during "Officer Krupke"? Storm footage during "America"? Having the gangs literally trying to pull Tony and Maria apart? I think i'd feel a bit intellectually insulted by this staging.

"
I honestly agree with this, but I’m trying very hard to not to judge this production until I see it.

A Director said: "If you need video to bring intensity to WSS, you haven't your work as a director or choreographer to from the beginning."

If I am correctly deciphering the mangled part of what you are saying, I think you are twisting yourself in knots trying to stay within some straitjacket. There is only one rule in directing or choreographing (or writing), and that is resonance. Anything else that seems like a rule is just poor training. Video is a form of communication, and in the context of this production, both internally and externally, it is the language of the play and its audience, in other words, what heightens resonance. The (il)logic of your "bring intensity" nonsense would argue against musicals altogether: if you need songs to bring about the story, blah blah blah.

I am not trying to dissuade you from your personal tastes, but please don't try wrapping that in some faux fortress about craft. This show is a masterpiece and van Hove is a master craftsman.

HogansHero said: "A Director said: "If you need video to bring intensity to WSS, you haven't your work as a director or choreographer to from the beginning."

If I am correctly deciphering the mangled part of what you are saying, I think you are twisting yourself in knots trying to stay within some straitjacket. There is only one rule in directing or choreographing (or writing), and that is resonance. Anything else that seems like a rule is just poor training. Video is a form of communication, and in the context of this production, both internally and externally, it is the language of the play and its audience, in other words, what heightens resonance. The (il)logic of your "bring intensity" nonsense would argue against musicals altogether: if you need songs to bring about the story, blah blah blah.

I am not trying to dissuade you from your personal tastes, but please don'ttry wrapping thatin somefaux fortress about craft. This show is a masterpiece and van Hove is a master craftsman."

Hogan - I see you are speaking ex cathedra!

after seeing ALL ABOUT EVE from this director, when the National Theatre London filmed it to show in movie theaters. i hated it and this director...but...after seeing his use of video in this new revival i am very impressed from what i saw on 60 MINUTE Sunday...in AAE the videos were boxed in and felt obtrusive to the actors on stage...it seems like van Hove has made great strides in the usage of the videos and i love that the screen is huge and not in some blocked backstage area like EVE...my tingly senses went sky high watching the dancers and the staging as shown in the clip for 60 MINUTES...this just might work!

or...maybe it was just all those hunky bare-chested male dancers, in the rain no less...woof!!

Updated On: 2/18/20 at 04:36 PM

I saw Van Hove's The Damned last summer in London. It made extensive use of live video and even pre-recorded video that was intended to seem live. It was an …. experience (It also was in French so on top of the videos, I was reading supertitles). For that show, the live videos enhanced the performances - made things extra creepy, frightening, disturbing and dramatic. I have not seen this WSS, but Van Hove has his bag of tricks, and like all such "tricks", sometimes they work and sometimes they don't.