Two Unreals dance in a canyon.
n.e.s. #166 of 480
Leave a comment
Tag Archives: dance
n.e.s. #150 of 480
A few balancing acts: Justice with Dance, Figure Drawing with Abstraction, the Serious with the Playful, and Freshness with Finish.
icad extra: chopped sonnets
It is 5:42 PM on Monday, July 22, 2019. I have finished the drawing above but I have not written the sonnet that goes with the image. I haven’t even conceived the sonnet, except for the acrostic and the vague notion that since the title is “Chopped Sonnets” there should be some disjointedness to it. So my challenge, and what I’ll devote the rest of the post to, is to write the sonnet in such a way that the image enhances it, while following the sonnet form of fourteen lines in iambic pentameter, Shakespearean rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg. (May have to settle for near-rhymes since there will be different end-letters.) But if I ever calligraph the sonnet it won’t be in the image. I may try to make the calligraphy work with the image as the second panel of a diptych.
chopped sonnets
consolidating dance and thought is chess
conquistadores shifting ebbs and flows
hop, skip, and capture, give the king distress–o
hung royalty thrills groundlings ever so
our couple wants to dance the checkered plain
own conquests of dexterity and sheen
push pawnlike through the midground yet unslain
promoted on the eighth rank to a queen
perhaps they’ll then diagonally bite
pawns of the enemy, then pirhouette
en pointe across and check and bait and sleight
entangling lesser talents in a net
disdain and competition mongst the pieces
define the omnivores with exegesis
It’s now 6:32 PM, Mountain Standard Time. Not sure I’m happy with the sonnet, but am 100% sure I’m happy it is done. 🙂
danseuse
This is an unconventional study of balance. The posed dancer, the closeup profile, and the date and signature provide one kind of balance. The sketchiness with some detail is a balance of spontaneity and nuance.
yes to dance
Long ago–more than FIFTY years ago, that’s how long–Bob Dylan wrote “Mr. Tambourine Man,” including these words: “Yes to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free/Silhouetted by the sea/Circled by the circus sands…”
The phrase “Yes to dance” is positive and powerful. Here in the Valley, there is an ageless, mischievous couple, the poets Neil Gearns and Heather Smith-Gearns, for whom Neil speaks every single Friday on Facebook with the delightful phrase “Its Friday and on Friday we dance.” They have been saying Yes to dance, and Yes to each other, for many years.
So it is my attempt to return to a state of positivity, in the wake of the perfect storm of negative things out in the world and in my recent life, with this page, and these acrostic lines:
you’re relishing, not suffering, your bouts of o.c.d
ephemeral impulsiveness is so your cup of tea
since this is so, your Ginger Rogers feet need no persuasion
so let them glide and smooth their soles with gentle dermabrasion
to live is complicated but to soar is a b c
one loving soul two nimble soles three partners come to be
CircumFlexer
You’ll find the circumflex right above the 6 on your keyboard. By itself, it’s called a caret. I mention that only because in posting, entertaining, or teaching, getting your point across is often due to a good mix of caret and schtick.
(Sorry…)
The circumflex is used in French for words that used to have an S. Thus forêt means Forest. The Latin words circum (around) and flectere (to bend) mashed up to make circumflexus. This made me think of Dance, which is a lot of bending around, and also the life-journey step of turning a corner. Thus my image is of an introspective dancer. The Jackson Browne song works with her well.
Here are the words:
Chuckleheads deride & scoff
In their forêt of felafel
Ridicule a Dance de Luxe
Cacophonic at its crux
Understatement will cohere
May observers stand & cheer
Gestural Overture
Here are the words to the double acrostic:
Glossolalic shade of mauve–O
Eucharistic Mazel Tov
Such are notions to ignore
They’re not what you’re yearning for
Unitard’s your passe-partout
Releve your deja vu
As you bow the hall will cheer
Levitation’s spoken here
The first two lines do not make a heck of a lot of sense, but then the third line implicitly tells you that doesn’t matter. There would not ever be any such thing as a “glossolalic shade of mauve” unless the hearer/viewer had synesthesia. Analogously, the Catholic Eucharist and the Jewish Mazel Tov might be joined in an odd hybrid.
I wanted to work in Labanotation, the recording of dance movements on paper, but the meter wouldn’t allow for it; Levitation fit nicely, though.
It’s all about the celebration of the human form in four dimensions, the flow of a body through space with lyricism. I am graceless and no dancer myself, despite at least half a dozen dance lessons and hours on dance floors. But I’ve had a studio art education with several life drawing classes, and I’ve owned the classic DYNAMIC FIGURE DRAWING by Tarzan strip artist Burne Hogarth, so I can vicariously enjoy what you luckier folks can do directly.
One with Clay, Image and Text 