June 13th, 2007: Maria-Kiran (Bharata natyam)
I like “classical” Indian dance, which is surprising since I got bored with european ballet years ago. I keep expecting to dislike it, but that has not happened yet, at least not tonight. Bharata natyam is not my favorite style — that would be Katthak — but I do like it a lot, at least the more abstract parts, which really means those I don’t understand.
I actually liked this performance even more than usual, and in an unexpected way. The varnam was quite long and not that fast, but very good. I’m usually bothered by the facial expressions, but not this time. The real shock was that I actually liked the first padam, though I usually start fidgeting during the narrative parts; but not this time. I drifted back closer to my usual self with the second padam, but not all the way, some parts were beautiful. Finally, the fireworks of the thillana won be back completely, as usual, with some moves I had never seen before; shows how little I know, but it’s nice to still be learning stuff at my ripe age.
Note: I really don’t know anything about this dancer except that she teaches at the Mandapa center in Paris. I’m linking to their site because I had many searches for her name ending up here, so I thought I should try to put in something useful.
June 12th, 2007: Elekore / Yehlin Lee / Goh Lee Kwang
@Instants Chavirés
Pretty diverse evening, the only common thread being asian origins. I showed up early to catch the screening of what was billed as a movie about independent music in Vietnam, but turned out to be basically a Pauvros performance. OK, it was in Vietnam, with local musicians, but that was still a letdown.
Goh Lee Kwang turned out quite interesting to me. He had a basic sound — I can’t describe it, felt related to a ripping sound but not quite that — but took it through a lot of variations. I felt the sameness all set long but never got bored, it was more of a continuous thread I could follow through turns and figures.
Yehlin Lee’s set was just excellent. He started with sounds of a crowd in Taipei, with a burst of fireworks, then went on to an amazingly rich set with great spatialization involved. I felt it was elemental, I had pictures of waves, lights, wind rushing through my mind as he played. It was pretty quiet, but engulfed me. I really loved this.
Then for something completely different, Elekore ended the evening. Harcore stuff, a computer and an energetic and pretty good singer who deserves praise for going through despite a sparse and unresponding audience. I must confess I didn’t like it. Some of it might be the contrast with the previous set, but I was turned off by the computer sounds, especially by guitar samples that drove me away for good.
