MAE: NEW MOVING IMAGE VIDEO POEMS

NEW  Moving Image Video Poems from MAE:

WELCOME!!!

Within the alternate reality of MAE, The Movement Artists Ensemble, there have been HAPPENINGS!

 In February, after summoning our Terpsichorean guides, we went back into the studio for more movement/filming sessions. The resulting films, available to view below, mark the continuing path of MAE-- an ensemble of women who are moving into their mid-life years and beyond-- bold, creative women, fearless in their explorations of the body's ability to speak and create in its ancient language of movement. 

We describe our films as, "moving image video poems," and offer them for your amusement, amazement, confusion, curiosity... perhaps Truth & Wisdom, and, we hope, a soupcon of pleasure.

Please don't forget: Use the Comments section to leave us your response to our work. We want your likes, dislikes, or any other reactions or reflections-- we are needy in that way!

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Pianta, from Glimpse

The word "discover" goes back to the Latin dis- and cooperire, meaning to remove the covering-- one discovers (uncovers) something that was already there but previously unknown.

Glimpse is a non-narrative, moving image video poem which "uncovers" an ephemeral feminine energy, at once impressionistic, tranquil, self-possessed, curious and contained.

In non-narrative presentations the viewer can become an inner as well as an outer observer-- witnessing her own emotions, thoughts, memories, and images as she watches the images shown outside her in the film. In this way, the experience of non-narrative Art can become an uncovering of the inner self, as well as outer discoveries. If one does not view non-narrative art in this way, one does not "get it."

View...

Pianta, in Headed Home

     Headed Home began as an abstract improvisation-- no prompt, nothing in mind. But within moments, it became a task in building something that eventually led to a burden that we were dragging behind us. The theme of a journey often comes up for us, and so it was with this piece. There is purpose here, and direction, but there is also disorientation and drift, there is struggle-- all set within the sensual, breathy strains of Keiko Takeda and Paul Rosenburg's music, which itself is a recorded improvisation between the musical artists' saxaphone and piano.

 

  

View...

Lethe, as you may remember, is a Greek term for the River of Forgetfulness, as well as the name for the Spirit of Forgetfulness and Oblivion with whom the River was associated. The movers of MAE had no thoughts of this when we began to improvise this video poem. Wendy (pictured above) discovered a stray "oar" (some kind of pole whose original use we never discovered) in the studio and the improvisation unfolded without words or plans . There are truly times when we long for nothing more than to drift in the mythological river of forgetfulness... or Lethe.


  
     

 MAE ON MAE

Pianta, Yulia and Nancy

View VIDEO of Discussion
MAE ON MAE:
What's it Like? 

    MAE members, Yulia, Pianta, Nancy and Gwyn discuss their process and experiences of creating movement improvisations for the purpose of making experimental videos. 

                                        
                                      

 

I've come to a place where I feel
I am able to just forget the camera...

                    --Gwyn, MAE Facilitator

When the person is really involved in the movement and you can tell they're not thinking about anything other than just experiencing movement-- that's when I think it's really fascinating.     --Pianta                                                                                                                                                                

I like the intuitive nature of it, reading it energetically rather than  having to think about a dance move or a pose or an appearance...               --Nancy      

                                                      

   You can come with a horrible mood and then suddenly, it's like a birthplace of  Freedom!     --Yulia

 GLOW IN THE PARK--

AFTER TWO WEEKS OF STRESSING about my film installation for Glow in the Park, Escondido, the entire event sparkled with majick beneath a full moon the color of a peach!

Howie, my son, and Greg, my hubby, produced and built the final design of the screen, which turned out to resemble a sail caught in a spiderweb! How artistic is THAT (?!). Glowing mason jar lanterns framed the "sail" as our moving image video poems flitted across it!!!

The lanterns were painted w/glow paint,  & lit from the inside with tiny colored led lights and glow sticks. After sunset, they began to glow like jars of captured incandescence!


WITH THE UNIQUELY-RIGGED screen & jelly jar lanterns, mine was surely the lowest tech installation of the entire event. I had been worried about that beforehand, but after seeing the result,  decided that low tech was not a bad thing, nor was it even relevant to the purpose of the overall event.




 
AS PEOPLE BEGAN TO GATHER in front of the screen, their faces lifted to the play of light and shadow before them, they seemed transfixed. Pianta, Yulia & I (the progenitors of MAE) stood among them, watching ourselves move on the surface of the sail/spiderweb, remembering the road the 3 of us have traveled together for lo! these past years.  At the same time, the dark figures gathered in the silence seemed a Greek chorus, their regard ancient as when they observed and commented on the dramas of the ancient gods, goddesses and mortals thousands of years ago.


FROM THIS NIGHT'S EXPERIENCE I HAVE LEARNED to be more open to success. To have more faith in my Muse. I have learned that my process is to forget much until the last minute & then remember it all-- and in this regard, not to be persuaded by those who say, "Forget it, c'mon, we have to go!"  Next time I WILL take the time to get my camera, my lawn chairs, my water-- preferably before time to go, but even if I only remember at the last minute!!

The support from my family was also amazing... from Greg, to my son & daughter in law, Howie & Emily; daughter Shanna; grandkids Maelee & Maxx; and my daughter, Jessie, added a huge specialness to the occasion.

A special thanks to Jessie and her friend, Jasmine, who went the distance until 11:00 pm closing and helped tear down and "strike the set." They have that special stamina of youth. Hugs to them both!

ADDITIONAL GRATITUDE to all those who saw the films that night and spoke such kind words about them; to Yulia and Pianta for sharing the adventure; and to all those who have ever moved WITH MAE, as well as those who have ever BEEN moved BY MAE.

Much love to ALL!!
                                                    --Gwyn

A Dancer's Tale

by Gwyn Henry

She continued to dance 
past the prime 
the world had appointed 
 

& as her life ran out 
she pointed her toes 
while what was in her heart

grew larger

her 
feet articulate as hands
hands fluent as poems 
 

& she did not cling 
as it all left her 
(arms & legs

as always 
clad in black)

but entered the floor

which was made of trees

she

careful as music 
thoughtful as wood

stood before the mirror 
& lifted her arms

as she grew old

THE MYLAR EPISODES...

Mylar is... 

an extraordinarily strong polyester film-like substance developed in the early 1950s. In the 1960s cellophane gave way to Mylar with its superior strength, heat resistance, and excellent insulating properties... Mylar created new markets in magnetic audio and video tape, capacitor dielectrics, packaging and batteries. By the 1970s, Mylar had become the industry's best-selling film. 

 

Sun warping time/space

SO MAE USED MYLAR to make our own "films": Below are links to view the four mylar films (moving image video poems) produced within our two days of experimentation with this substance. There seemed something magical about this shimmering surface, drifting the air currents like cloth, now solid, now diaphanous--and sometimes recalling textbook illustrations of how matter warps the fabric of time and space.

THE MYLAR EPISODES: 4 FILMS

Pianta, in Fabric of the Universe

MYLAR I: Fabric of the Universe

click to view:

http://youtu.be/1qd9H9zeYtk 

It is the silent, smiling faces that speak first, as they drift through the fluttering, crackling tunnel-- as though it whispers, as though it has breath-- the faces evoking the luminosity of children's faces as they make first contact with something magical. Fabric of the Universe can be viewed as an inquiring study of the qualities of light and texture evoked by the mylar, as well as those of movement, form, emotion, mind and spirit.

Yulia White, in Opening the Mylar...

MYLAR II: Opening the Mylar: A Meditation on Reflected Light

click here to view 

This film chronicles opening the mylar, unrolling it from its 10' tall roll. Again, the camera observes, the mover artists move, the editor experiments with criss crossing and stacking images, and the light shimmers on.

Unknown Alien Entity, from COVER

MYLAR III: COVER

 Click here to view

Featuring a music track from the Dutch group, "Audiotransparent," COVER brings forward the alien-entity possibilities of the mylar. The camera's eye contemplates the movements of a metallic creature, graceful and glittering, creating its own haunting dance. Meanwhile, quantum-size glimpses of another reality  flicker through, like the last traces of a dimension poignantly similar to our own.

                                      

Pianta, left & Yulia White, right in Butoh Fall

MYLAR IV: Butoh Fall  
 Click to view

Butoh  is an avant garde   improvisation dance /  performance art that had its origins in Japan in the 1960's. It strives to allow the body to "speak" for itself, through            unconscious movement. Originally, it sought to reveal beauty in the dark, the misshapen, the primitive, and the unknown or subconscious realms of the human psyche. Butoh Fall pays homage to this unconventional form through the intensity of the two movers, their anesthetized tempos, frozen faces, the downward pull of body shapes and gestures, the threatening sound track. Toward its end, the film offers a last interaction between the detached couple, one of them striking the floor loudly with her legs again and again, as if to awaken the other, or to shake her out of her trance. Is there light at the end of this  tunnel?                                   

                       

COASTING

Nothing serious,

just a little fun

goofing off while coasting

up the California coast--

in Studio IV

DREAMING IN THE FLOW

                             Enter the dream world as a contemplative tourist...

A Dream Documentary in Movment & Music:

http://youtu.be/w9-0EbHE_dU