Chair Dance: Expressionism, Post Modernism, and Popular Culture

[Cyclopea]

Chair Dancing as a post modern art form has crossed the fine art/pop culture divide to become the most widespread intersection between high and low culture in the current dance landscape.

What specific qualities contained in the Chair Dancing genre contribute to its status as a treasured art as well as a popular amateur pastime?

Is prop-based or seated dance an inferior or lesser performance of free movement?

Can expressive and classical dance intersect in the choreography of the Chair Dance?

Can Chair Dancing include narrative structure, and if so, how?


These are just a few starter questions open for Chair Dancing discussion.
Whether you are a professional dancer, an aficionado, a movement theoretician, a chairmaker or an amateur Chair Dance practitioner this is the thread for all things Chair Dance. All thoughts, opinions, reflections and links are welcome here.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVWnTwnYVno"]YouTube- BEST CHAIR DANCE[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP-dMffPnts"]YouTube- chair dance[/ame]

[Cyclopea]

I like in the first Chair Dance video I posted how the artist sits in the chair, relates to the chair- the sheer physicality of the chair, ultimately relating to the space around the chair, even mimicking (becoming!) the chair, only to ultimately reject the chair entirely. Even whacks it about a bit. Powerful stuff.

[Cyclopea]

Although not purely a Chair Dance, this routine features a satisfying mix of synchronized Hair Dancing/Chair Dancing. An interesting Chair/Hair juxtaposition, all too rare in the world of dance today.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1KBRZX-D6Y"]YouTube- Janelle & Kelly at Hafla Santa Cruz '08![/ame]

[Passionaria]

Originally Posted by Cyclopea

Chair Dancing as a post modern art form has crossed the fine art/pop culture divide to become the most widespread intersection between high and low culture in the current dance landscape.

What specific qualities contained in the Chair Dancing genre contribute to its status as a treasured art as well as a popular amateur pastime?

Is prop-based or seated dance an inferior or lesser performance of free movement?

Can expressive and classical dance intersect in the choreography of the Chair Dance?

Can Chair Dancing include narrative structure, and if so, how?


These are just a few starter questions open for Chair Dancing discussion.
Whether you are a professional dancer, an aficionado, a movement theoretician, a chairmaker or an amateur Chair Dance practitioner this is the thread for all things Chair Dance. All thoughts, opinions, reflections and links are welcome here.

YouTube- BEST CHAIR DANCE

YouTube- chair dance

Cyclopea,
Interesting questions. This is the first chair dance I have watched outside of Demi Moore in Striptease(which was stunning), but I would be happy to share regarding this video.

From experiencing this piece I think the popularity may come from the dancer having an inanimate object to relate to, emotionally. In the first video rather than relating to open space he could play off the chair, which asks nothing in return, as another dancer would demand. So his emotions are amplified, yet it's all about what the dancer is feeling. Great tool if you ask me. It adds another layer of concrete space, to play with.This man is a classically trained dancer, and he used the chair to tell his story. His technique is beautiful, especially his fluidity, that is what made the dance. His ability to express what he was feeling juxtaposed against the audiences preconceived notions of the chair brought clarity in my opinion. As a phenomenon???? I don't get it, it's a prop.

When I watch a dancer, any dancer even in clubs, I want to see what they are feeling. To me dance is a language of non verbal communication. So can they communicate? Do they believe in what they are saying? I can overlook technique if these qualities are present. If there is music can they let it into their soul and use their body as an expression of what they feel? Or are they just moving their body in dictated choreography and style? I can watch a dancer that has impeccable technique, and feel nothing other than appreciation of their training. And another, that may have no training at all, and get very excited about their dance. A good example to me is the movie Dance with me (I think) with Cheyanne and Vanessa Williams. She has impeccable technique and feeling, yet Cheyanne is a much better dancer in my opinion, because she never let's go and gives herself completely, so I feel cheated by her performance. When all the elements come together with impeccable technique, that is magic, and it has nothing to do with props.

What specific qualities contained in the Chair Dancing genre contribute to its status as a treasured art as well as a popular amateur pastime?

I don''t mean to be offensive, but I can't see this form of dance as a "treasured art", any more than clip art can be compared to Raphael.They both are born of line and pen, but their place place in reality is worlds apart. Maybe that is your point?????

Interesting subject Cyclopea, I appreciate the opportunity to have some intellectual repartee on line! Thanks.

Passionaria

[Passionaria]

I find Gothic Belly dance to be incredibly exciting. Of the emerging styles in dance that I have seen, this really moves me.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvcGKFiO-xs"]YouTube- The Gothic Bellydance DVD : WorldDanceNewYork.com : DVDs Shipped Worldwide![/ame]

Pashi

[Cyclopea]

Originally Posted by Passionaria

Cyclopea,
Interesting questions. This is the first chair dance I have watched outside of Demi Moore in Striptease(which was stunning), but I would be happy to share regarding this video.

From experiencing this piece I think the popularity may come from the dancer having an inanimate object to relate to, emotionally. In the first video rather than relating to open space he could play off the chair, which asks nothing in return, as another dancer would demand. So his emotions are amplified, yet it's all about what the dancer is feeling. Great tool if you ask me. It adds another layer of concrete space, to play with.This man is a classically trained dancer, and he used the chair to tell his story. His technique is beautiful, especially his fluidity, that is what made the dance. His ability to express what he was feeling juxtaposed against the audiences preconceived notions of the chair brought clarity in my opinion. As a phenomenon???? I don't get it, it's a prop.

I agree that the young man appears to have some classical training (as all trained dancers do). And I am glad that you enjoyed the Chair Dance, as did I. I highlighted a few of your statements above because they touch on the enormous implications of the presence of the chair in the Chair Dance. Or perhaps more properly the "seat": When one choreographs oneself while sitting in the confines of one's automobile for example, is that still a "Chair Dance"? I think the argument can be made.

The relationship between the dancer and the chair is not fixed. As you brought to light above, the audience's "notion" of the chair (as well as the dancer's) lends weight to the narrative of the dance. The impact of the audience's and the performer's projections on the chair's dramatic role and interaction should not be minimized.

Also, the possibility of the chair's notion of itself. I'm not anthropomorphizing here, merely speculating on the individuality of a particular chair. In other words, does a chair have a "soul"? Does a chair that comes brand new from the store have the same essence as a chair that someone's grandmother sat in every night for thirty years? I'm inclined to think such specific history in the life of the chair lends it a certain "selfness". (Or it could just be the antihistamine I am taking.)

Finally, the type of chair or "seat" has unquantifiable influence over not only the dramatic narrative and emotional tone of the performance but places an active role in the choreographical potentiality itself.
Anna Brady Nuse of "greatdance.com" states: "office chairs are too much fun not to think about. The wheels and levers give you so many more choreographic choices than just the standard issue wooden chair. Plus the choreography immediately becomes a statement about work and office culture (hip and unemotive) rather than the cliche topics of lost lovers, or fathers that abandoned us, which normal run-of-the-mill chair dances are about."

And what of the ottomans? The rockers? The Adirondacks, Beanbags and EZboys?

When I watch a dancer, any dancer even in clubs, I want to see what they are feeling. To me dance is a language of non verbal communication. So can they communicate? Do they believe in what they are saying? I can overlook technique if these qualities are present. If there is music can they let it into their soul and use their body as an expression of what they feel? Or are they just moving their body in dictated choreography and style? I can watch a dancer that has impeccable technique, and feel nothing other than appreciation of their training. And another, that may have no training at all, and get very excited about their dance. A good example to me is the movie Dance with me (I think) with Cheyanne and Vanessa Williams. She has impeccable technique and feeling, yet Cheyanne is a much better dancer in my opinion, because she never let's go and gives herself completely, so I feel cheated by her performance. When all the elements come together with impeccable technique, that is magic, and it has nothing to do with props.

I hear that you resonate more with free dancing and expressionism, and appreciate your personal preferences. But your repeated statements claiming Chair Dancing is just dance "with a prop" is belied by the Chair Dance's status as the most widespread and populous form of dancing worldwide. Why not mop dancing? Cane dancing? Hat dancing? And before you bring up the ubiquity of chairs as the reason: Hair dancing? What could be more ubiquitous than hair?

Even Neitzche, the godfather of postmodernism stated: "And we should consider every day lost on which we have not (chair)danced at least once."

What specific qualities contained in the Chair Dancing genre contribute to its status as a treasured art as well as a popular amateur pastime?

I don''t mean to be offensive, but I can't see this form of dance as a "treasured art", any more than clip art can be compared to Raphael.They both are born of line and pen, but their place place in reality is worlds apart. Maybe that is your point?????

Interesting subject Cyclopea, I appreciate the opportunity to have some intellectual repartee on line! Thanks.

Passionaria

Thank you for your thoughts Passionaria.
You made me smile!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmfC5gpKYNI"]YouTube- The Swivel Chair - Dance @ Work[/ame]

[Cyclopea]

Originally Posted by Passionaria

I find Gothic Belly dance to be incredibly exciting. Of the emerging styles in dance that I have seen, this really moves me.

YouTube- The Gothic Bellydance DVD : WorldDanceNewYork.com : DVDs Shipped Worldwide!

Pashi

That moved me too. Very much so.
Even if it had no chairs...

[Passionaria]

Originally Posted by Cyclopea

Thank you for your thoughts Passionaria.
You made me smile!

YouTube- The Swivel Chair - Dance @ Work

I love it! I am so happy you have a sense of humor. I actually thought of you several times today hoping I wasn't too brutal. Dance is a passion of mine.The first time I saw the Gothic belly dance I was floored. It has been presented so Traditionally for so long, then to see it break out like this, from sensual Male entertainment, to Powerful, as in women taking theirs, well, le sigh. Hope you have a wonderful Holiday

Passionaria

[Cyclopea]

I DO have a sense of humor!
A bit of a dry one perhaps...and believe me when I say that no comment on Chair Dancing could possibly offend me.

On another note, yes I love the bellydance/burlesque/goth video you posted.

This is where I was going to post about the travails of completing my phd thesis on the Chair Dance, but perhaps instead I should fess up and tell that I know nothing about dance per se, and have no education and just find Chair Dancing very amusing. (I was just bullshitting about all that highfalutin stuff!)

I am a very silly person.

Thank you for playing, and I hope you have a wonderful holiday as well.


[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDiSaoO1ZYY"]YouTube- IIE Holiday Party (2) Chair Dance[/ame]

[Passionaria]

Originally Posted by Cyclopea

I DO have a sense of humor!
A bit of a dry one perhaps...and believe me when I say that no comment on Chair Dancing could possibly offend me.

On another note, yes I love the bellydance/burlesque/goth video you posted.

This is where I was going to post about the travails of completing my phd thesis on the Chair Dance, but perhaps instead I should fess up and tell that I know nothing about dance per se, and have no education and just find Chair Dancing very amusing. (I was just bullshitting about all that highfalutin stuff!)

I am a very silly person.

Thank you for playing, and I hope you have a wonderful holiday as well.


YouTube- IIE Holiday Party (2) Chair Dance

{{{Cyclopea}}}
I enjoy the intellectual repartee. I've read some of your comments and I know you are intelligent, perceptive and educated. You actually look things up, and apply the definitions, and your screen name has multiple implications depending on intent. Interest in Cultic Psychology and the social implications? Giggling, I had to look that one up.

I only know a few people who use the word juxtaposed, and they are all Artists. Chair Dance could be a PhD topic, and if it were, the questions presented would be appropriate. LOL my Mother wrote her dissertation on the Power of the Drum in healing, for her PhD in Transpersonal Psychology. Deep breath, gathering information and reading between the lines is a great deal of my profession. It's how my brain works. So, there we go.

I was a classically trained dancer before the age of 21, now I just dance socially, but my heart and soul remain entranced in the art of movement, and it's social as well as interpersonal implications. Which at times have involved chair dancing, of sorts. So, playing, what do I do for a living???? If you like...

Warmly,
Passionaria

[Cyclopea]

Originally Posted by Passionaria

{{{Cyclopea}}}
I enjoy the intellectual repartee. I've read some of your comments and I know you are intelligent, perceptive and educated. You actually look things up, and apply the definitions, and your screen name has multiple implications depending on intent. Interest in Cultic Psychology and the social implications? Giggling, I had to look that one up.

I only know a few people who use the word juxtaposed, and they are all Artists. Chair Dance could be a PhD topic, and if it were, the questions presented would be appropriate. LOL my Mother wrote her dissertation on the Power of the Drum in healing, for her PhD in Transpersonal Psychology. Deep breath, gathering information and reading between the lines is a great deal of my profession. It's how my brain works. So, there we go.

I was a classically trained dancer before the age of 21, now I just dance socially, but my heart and soul remain entranced in the art of movement, and it's social as well as interpersonal implications. Which at times have involved chair dancing, of sorts. So, playing, what do I do for a living???? If you like...

Warmly,
Passionaria

Thank You Passionaria,

I'm glad you have kept Chair Dancing alive in your life...
I have no idea what you do for a living, I'm guessing not a sociologist or anthropologist or related profession. Your mom has a Phd so I'm guessing you are also well educated. You deeply love dance and movement so clearly an interest in creativity and the arts, You write well so probably a career that uses that skill, You ask me to guess your profession, so you likely place a very high premium on your career, and the answer is probably notably fascinating.
OK I'm gonna guess either a bounty hunter or a professional wrestler.
Or a teacher.
But not a teacher of the Chair Dance.

[Passionaria]

Originally Posted by Cyclopea

Thank You Passionaria,

I'm glad you have kept Chair Dancing alive in your life...
I have no idea what you do for a living, I'm guessing not a sociologist or anthropologist or related profession. Your mom has a Phd so I'm guessing you are also well educated. You deeply love dance and movement so clearly an interest in creativity and the arts, You write well so probably a career that uses that skill, You ask me to guess your profession, so you likely place a very high premium on your career, and the answer is probably notably fascinating.
OK I'm gonna guess either a bounty hunter or a professional wrestler.
Or a teacher.
But not a teacher of the Chair Dance.

Cyclopea,
Oh lord it was late what can I say??? Bounty Hunter is correct!!!!! Hows that for a profile addition. And I wonder why I'm single, LOL

On a less thread derailing note this chair dance phenomenon has been playing through my mind. Especially since I watched the last video where the young man is doing a sexy dance with the chair and this is what has percolated up to the surface of my mind> no animals were hurt in the making of this......

On a sociological and psychological level:

1. Is it easier for this young man to relate sensually to an inanimate object than to a real woman?
2. Would he be able to dance for a real woman at all?
3.Does an inanimate object such as a chair free a persons emotional expression, and allow them to express feelings more honestly than with another person?
4. If so what is the reason for this?

In a society that functions with a minimal amount of honest emotional interactions, where emotional repression is rampant as well as encouraged,is it easier to trust an inanimate object than it is another human being? Even if you lack the skills to express emotion and feelings eloquently, the chair will not judge you, laugh at you or reject you. It is a safe space to unlock your true feelings, and express them openly. On that level the chair becomes a tool for therapy and personal exploration.A "safe place" for creative expression.

Hope you are enjoying your weekend,
Passionaria

[Cyclopea]

Very interesting questions!

Originally Posted by Passionaria

On a sociological and psychological level:

1. Is it easier for this young man to relate sensually to an inanimate object than to a real woman?
Not knowing the young man personally makes a definitive answer impossible, but clearly relating to an inanimate object allows the young man to purely express his internal sensuality sans human reciprocity.
Therefore his performance is a display of himself, as opposed to a display of his relationship with another dancer. Which begs the question: would he relate the same way to the chair in the absence of the voyeuristic gaze of the audience/camera? I think not. Chair Dance performed in public is always informed by a relationship between the dancer and the viewer.

2. Would he be able to dance for a real woman at all?
Again, he IS dancing for a real woman- for every man and woman in the audience. He is merely using the chair as a subject. As to the question “Would he be able to dance with a real woman as subject?” he presumably could, but her role as both subject and audience and co-performer (both for him and the audience) would change his choreographical options and choices.

3.Does an inanimate object such as a chair free a persons emotional expression, and allow them to express feelings more honestly than with another person?
I see two questions here. First, does dancing with an inanimate object rather than another dancer increase the honesty or purity of the artists expression. I believe I speculated on this in my answer above.
The second question I see raised here is the specificity of the object being danced with, that being a chair. As mentioned in a previous post, a chair is not interchangeable with other inanimate objects. The role of the chair is profoundly steeped in cultural memes, and has a relationship to the artist not duplicated by any other object. Therefore the second question is: ”Does dancing with a Chair, rather than another dancer increase the honesty or purity of the artists expression?” To that question I would say the presence of the chair immeasurably increases the honesty and purity of the artists expression as relates to those themes contained in the chair itself, as well as obviously the choreographic choices based on the physical structure of the chair in question.

4. If so what is the reason for this?

In a society that functions with a minimal amount of honest emotional interactions, where emotional repression is rampant as well as encouraged,is it easier to trust an inanimate object than it is another human being? Even if you lack the skills to express emotion and feelings eloquently, the chair will not judge you, laugh at you or reject you. It is a safe space to unlock your true feelings, and express them openly. On that level the chair becomes a tool for therapy and personal exploration.A "safe place" for creative expression.

Hope you are enjoying your weekend,
Passionaria

Again, I cannot conflate “Chair” with “generic inanimate object.” I do find it interesting that the young man at the office holiday party never once “occupied” the chair (unless one could hypothesize that a chair under weighted gaze actually becomes “occupied”).

Volumes have been philosophized about chairs, both occupied and not. It’s interesting that you bring up the unoccupied chair as a tool of therapeutic value and “safety” since whole fields of psychology have been devoted to the unoccupied chair, specifically or largely in cognitive and gestalt therapies in which the “empty chair” assumes an active role in the therapy itself, and a tool for the clients projection towards conceptualized others, parts of himself, and even towards abstractions.
Much of the study of ergonomics and industrial design is rooted in psychology as well, sometimes formally so.

The unoccupied chair represents profound psychological implications in all human cultures. The League of The Empty Chair defines these qualities as such: “emptiness/ unhomeliness/ unheimlichkeit/ lack of belonging/ uncanniness”.
It is these qualities that animate “Chair”, whether it is the unoccupied chair customarily present at all American Legion meetings, the unoccupied chair left for Elijah the Prophet at the Seder table, or the field of empty chairs that comprises the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial, where not only the presence of, but the size, shape, and positioning of each chair informs the viewer/audience/witness.
The occupied chair represents opposing qualities (homeliness, belonging, comfort).
At no time is “Chair” simply interchangeable with a generic inanimate object in human culture. And it is this specificity which informs the art of the Chair Dance.

Thank You for sharing your interesting thoughts on the Chair Dance.
And be careful out there apprehending perps!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtrIc8vq7wU"]YouTube- Don Mclean - empty chairs[/ame]

[Passionaria]

Thank you for this. You really made me think, and I appreciate that.I learned something from this, how refreshing. I will be back after I apprehend a few criminals.
Pashi

[Cyclopea]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNAssOFhH20"]YouTube- Chair Dancing Gone Wrong.[/ame]

[Medusa]

Is our valuation and digestion of the chair in question heavily determined by the gender presentation of the dancer themselves?

Does that make sense?

[Cyclopea]

Originally Posted by Medusa

Is our valuation and digestion of the chair in question heavily determined by the gender presentation of the dancer themselves?

Does that make sense?

Define gender.

[apretty]

in no uncertain pre-post modern terms, i'm certain this thread is silencing me.

Originally Posted by Medusa

Does that make sense?

you didn't. i'm dead.

[Bob]

Originally Posted by Medusa

Is our valuation and digestion of the chair in question heavily determined by the gender presentation of the dancer themselves?

Originally Posted by apretty

in no uncertain pre-post modern terms, i'm certain this thread is silencing me.

Because the chair's gender presentation is consistently being downplayed, overlooked, and generally ignored in this thread, I'm pretty sure it's the chair being silenced. Don't even get me started on the overweening and overbearing amounts of human privilege here.

[Medusa]

Originally Posted by apretty

in no uncertain pre-post modern terms, i'm certain this thread is silencing me.

you didn't. i'm dead.

Dress, you are stalking me all over the internet and are a mean girl. I insist that you stop derailing this conversation and allow us to continue in peace.

Does that make sense?