So Much Nudity

Last weekend I had two days filled with dance watching. On Saturday, I went to the first few rounds of a dance competition called Danse Elargie that was held at the Hotel de Ville. It was...interesting. Between Saturday and Sunday (when I came back to watch the finalists) I saw about 30 people butt naked. I also saw several pieces that I would characterize as "performance" considering there was little-to-no dancing in them (e.g., a piece where a man played the drums with chalk drumsticks which exploded into many pieces each time he hit his drums and a piece where they forced a live sheep to watch a video of a sheep being skinned). I was disappointed when I saw who the judges (most of whom were not dancers) chose as finalists. It was clear that they went for concept over technique. A piece with untrained dancers painted in gold and wearing cow horns ("alligators" came in later in the piece) was chosen over a really beautiful piece about the goth movement. It seemed like contemporary dance in France is drawing much more from their theater traditions (i.e., absurd) than from their classical dance heritage.

I also saw another ballet at the Palais Garnier. La Petite Danseuse de Degas told the (fictionalized) story of Marie van Goethem, a student at the Opera's ballet school and the model for Degas's sculpture The Little Dancer aged 14. The costumes and lighting were absolutely beautiful! They really made it look like a Degas painting. The story, however, wasn't very interesting, and the choreography was lovely but not extraordinary.

On Sunday evening I went back to the Mission Bretonne to observe a Fest-Diez (day festival). Everyone was enjoying themselves very much either on the dance floor or at the bar. I began talking to one woman about the connection between dance and culture, and pretty soon there was a small crowd around me. Everyone there was so friendly and so excited to talk about these subjects! I can't wait to go to Bretagne and experience these festivals on an even bigger scale.

Dance Class!

The Dance Center of Le Marais offered a Baroque dance class (court dancing of the 17th century) and I wanted to check it out. I watched as they rehearsed for their show and decided which historically-accurate costumes they would be wearing. Baroque dance is the predecessor to ballet and, from what I've learned, is not widely practiced outside of France (though there is also an Italian version and a troupe in New York). Even though no one explicitly said this, I think that Baroque dance has stayed central to France because it is part of their dance heritage.


I took 3 dances at the Centre Momboye- Guinean dance, Congolese dance, and "Oriental" dance (belly-dancing). The Congolese was by far my favorite. The teacher, Wanuke, was young and exuberant with rainbow-colored braids. Her class was a mixture of Congolese dance, gumboots, salsa, and a few other styles thrown in there. Lamine's Guinean dance was also a lot of fun, though it felt much more like an aerobics class (the average age was probably 40). Amir's belly-dancing class was a little more difficult to follow (even though she was the only teacher who spoke English to me). I thought it was very interesting that in each class she had an "improvisation section"...in which she would improvise and we would all follow along. Over all, I had a great time trying new dance styles at the Centre Momboye!

A mural near the Centre Momboye:

I also observed an Indian dance class (held oddly enough in a Sunday school). I was very surprised when I showed up and the teacher wasn't Indian at all! She was a French woman who was teaching Bharata Natyam, a dance that was born in Hindu temples. The dancers will be performing on Thursday and I'm planning on going to their show. From all of the students I talked to, the students in this class seemed the most interested in the cultural aspects. They were using dance as a window into the culture, whereas most other students I've spoken to seem to be taking class so that they can learn only the dance.

Fete de la Musique

Last monday (yes I am aware I have fallen behind on my blogging) was the Fete de la Musique, a huge music festival in France! I started the day by meeting up with Carla and Annabel (the two grad students I'd met a few days earlier) and their friend Marie. We went to the Jardin Luxembourg and listened to some Columbian and Brazilian music. The stage was in the middle of a bunch of trees so, though hard to see, it was a very nice place to relax and enjoy the music.


After the South American music, I met up with Mopati (a friend from school) and his friend Thandi. We went to see what was going on over in the Hotel de Ville/Centre Pompidou area. Yummy crepes were going on. So were some amateur bands. So were free massages!!!!!


Next we headed on over to the Place des Vosges. There were many different groups playing "under the arches." We heard classical music, jazz, choral, etc. One of the groups we saw was protesting for animal rights by having people awkwardly sing karaoke with lyrics that informed people about the "Cow's Problem." Mopati was very excited to be at his first French "greve."



Hopefully these videos work...they are some of the groups I saw performing. I hope they give you an idea of the variety of stuff we heard. As you walked down the street, one style would fade out and another fade in. It was really a fantastic experience!

Little Known and Horrible Facts about the French (ep. 1)

The French are so lazy that can't even take their clothes out of the washing machine to put them in the dryer. They just do it all in one machine. Lazy.


The French are pedophiles and proudly display this fact on public streets.


The French are single-handedly responsible for putting the nutella fish on the endangered species list. Though they most often eat the nutella fish with toast, they have also been known to eat it in sushi.

"You called me?"

So I didn't have very much planned for yesterday. I was just going to go grocery shopping, watch Friends in French, call one of my contacts for a phone interview, whine about how cold it is, try to figure out how I got all of these bug bites...well I ended up doing that and more.

When I called my first contact, a teacher of Mali-Guinean dance, it was really difficult for us to communicate, so he suggested we meet in person. When? Now. I hopped on the metro to meet Papson at the dance studio where he teaches. However, when I got off the metro and compared the map I had drawn myself to the map of the area...the street the studio was on didn't seem to exist (I found out later it just was off the map, but I didn't know that at the time). I called Papson and he kept telling me to go somewhere that sounded like Madonna's. I was really confused, so he told me to just wait at the metro stop and he'd come find me. I was waiting for about 10 minutes, freaking out that this wasn't going to work out since it was already shaping up to be such a disaster, when this man rides up to me on his motorcycle and says "Tu m'a appelle?" ("You called me?"). He then pointed to McDonald's (what I thought was "Madonna's") and asked me how I didn't know it. Wasn't I American?

We went into a coffee shop, where he got a phone call. He told me he had to go meet someone and asked if I would be able to ride on his motorcycle. I was about five steps away from doing so when he decided that he had time, and we could just do the interview there. I asked him my questions, and he had some very interesting things to say. Like Dragoss, he talked a lot about how dance has become monetized. He also agreed that, while African dance is known and liked around the world, it is not understood. He tries to work against this by telling anecdotes about Africa in his classes, and by taking his students to Mali for a month each year.

When I got back the apartment after the interview, there was a firetruck outside and it looked like they were trying to keep people from going inside. I explained to the firefighter that I was living there. He said to go ahead and enter and not to worry. Lea got back about 15 minutes after I did and said that the firefighters and police had come running through, knocking on doors, telling everyone to evacuate. Apparently someone in the building may have died and they weren't sure which room the tip had been about. Lea and I are still unclear on the details, but hopefully more to follow on this matter.

That night, I decided to go to a Breton Dance that Sylvie had told me about that morning. It took place in the Quais de Seine, a little park-ish area right on the edge of the river. When I arrived, there was a large group of people sitting together, picnic-ing, and playing music. I sat down to watch from a bench, and when the the dancing started, I creepily took this photo:


There was an old man sitting on the bench and we chatted a bit about the dance. He told me that there should also be tango lessons going on somewhere near by (I never saw them, but later on a man came up to me and asked me if I wanted to tango...sadly this man was not James Marsden so I declined.) I was soon joined on the bench by two graduate students, Carla from Mexico and Annabelle from Germany. I overheard them talking about dance and decided to talk with them. They told me that they had read about the Breton dance in a "cheap Paris" guide book. We ended up talking for 3 hours about politics, philosophy, art, and culture as the Bretons danced under the stars.

Sans Bordeaux; Orig. French; Meaning without boredom, without dough

Yesterday was my big Bordeaux adventure! I woke up at 4 am (grumble, grumble) to take the Noctillien bus to Gare Montparnasse(isn't Noctillien a great word? It means all the people who are on said bus look miserable and sleepy). Thankfully I got on the train with out a hitch and then slept hunched around my backpack, trying to get warm.

At Bordeaux St. Jean train station I was met by Dragoss Ouedraogo, a professor of visual anthropology. We went to the University of Bordeaux and I interviewed him for 2 hours! He is currently making a documentary about contemporary African dancers and was very knowledgeable. According to him, African dance has been changed due to economics. Almost all of the funding/residencies come from France, which he sees as a way for France to have a cultural influence on its former colonies. He also told me that, when he was in an African music group, theaters only wanted to present African shows performed by black Africans. If there were white members in the group, he said, they didn't think it was authentic enough. He attributes this to a type of exoticism that has continued around traditional African dance and music in France. (There is much more, and if you want to hear about it let me know!)

After the interview, we went to lunch where I essentially spent all of the rest of my cash! Horror! Next, we took a tram (Bordeaux's tram system is awesome!)to l'Alternative Ecole de Danse where I interviewed a contemporary African dancer named Awoulath. She was in Bordeaux working on a solo, had previously worked with Heddy Maalem, and been a member of the national ballet of Benin. In her opinion, there cannot be a lot of exchange between European and African dance because the base movements of each tradition are so different. However, she really loves being able to see traditional dance styles from other African countries and incorporate them into contemporary African dance.

At this point it was about 3 and Dragoss had to go to another meeting. Since I had a few (unexpected) hours to kill in Bordeaux, I decided to go sightseeing with no map and no money. I was going to go to the visitor's center, but then decided to follow the maps at each metro stop to find things I wanted to see.
This first thing I went to see was this awesome fountain in Place de Quinconces. It was one of the most interesting fountains I've seen and the rain made the spray even more effective. I loved it!!!!


An example of the maps that I followed around the city. (As I was walking by the Cathedrale St. Andre all I could think was that tomato soup sounded good. As I turned the corner, I saw a soup bar! The day's special? Tomato soup! And they took credit card! Yay!)

I kept seeing signs pointing to the "fat bell." My curiosity got the better of me, and I had to find it...

This old building said dance on it. So I took a picture.

I decided I had enough time left to find Notre Dame and that I had to do it. It was literally 2 minutes away...I didn't go inside, but from the outside this little, tucked-away church was quite pretty.


After this, I caught my train and arrived back at Lea's apartment at 12:30. Seriously, longest day ever, but well worth it!

And the People of Brittany Danced the Night Away...

Last night I went to Mission Bretonne, a cultural center for people from the Bretagne ("Brittany")region of France, to observe a dance class. From the outside, the center looked like a typical Parisian apartment, but once inside the Mission Bretonne was bright and cheery. There was a group of musicians practicing their accordions (one of the traditional instruments of Breton music), kids running around, and friends talking over glasses of Guinness at the bar.



I spoke briefly to the dance teacher, Sylvie Minard, before class. Because this was an intermediate class, and I had never even seen Breton dance before, she suggested that I watch and then join in later if I felt comfortable. After observing and taking notes for about an hour, I decided I had to try. For the most part, the dances were done in a circle with everyone connected either at the hands, elbows, or pinkies. As the circle moved around, the feet were never more than about 6 inches off the ground, and stomps were rare. Each dance had a different rhythm which was held for most of the set. This made it really easy for people to join in (which is good considering it's a type of social dance). There was also a couples dance and a quadrille (precursor to square dancing).

During the dance, I spoke to a woman who said she came every week, even though she was not at all Breton. She explained to me which dances came from the West and which came from the East of Bretagne.

I also spoke to a man who played the bag pipes for Sylvie's Breton dance group Danserien Pariz. He came to Breton dance through the music. He always loved Celtic music, he said, and since Bretagne is the closest Celtic region to him, he fell into that particular style. There was a map of Bretagne on the wall of the center, and he pointed out the places where each dance originated and showed me where all of the summer festivals are. He wasn't Breton either, but he said that, in the mostly Breton dance group, "people like him" were called "the friends of Bretagne."

My last interview of the night was with Sylvie. She was wonderfully passionate (which unfortunately made her speak complex French very quickly). She told me that, though she is a French citizen, her national identity is Breton. In the 1970's there was a renaissance of Breton culture (language, music, dance), which she attributes to the French government's attempts to homogenize the nation (e.g., children were not allowed to speak Breton in school). It was clear that, for her, dance was a way to celebrate and pass on her culture. Of course, she said, in Paris the context is not the same as in Bretagne, but there is still an effort by two Breton dance federations to keep the dance forms true to their heritage.

I am going back to the Mission Bretonne tonight to experience the beginners' lessons, but unfortunately I will have to leave early so I can get to bed. Tomorrow I am going to Bordeaux and my train leaves at 6 am! Oy!

A Photo Diary of my Trip to Normandie and the Loire Vally

(Just click on the photos to enlarge them.) Last week, my mom and I went on a two day excursion outside of Paris. We rented a car and drove first to Normandie to see the D-Day beaches. We went to the D-Day museum in Bayeux, then on to Omaha Beach and the American Military Cemetery. I was very moved by it all.



We got to Mont-Saint-Michel around 6 pm. It's an abbey built on an island, and before the bridge was put in, pilgrims would often get caught when the tide rose. Although it was interesting to walk around the island, it was much more beautiful from afar. After Mont-Saint Michel, we spent the night in what could best be described as the Bates hostel in Tours. Seriously, I think the bathroom was haunted.



The next morning, we began our tour of the Loire Valley chateaux. The first on our list was Usse. It wasn't open yet, but we had so much to see that we decided to move on. The outside was beautiful, though. It was actually the inspiration for the story of Sleeping Beauty!


Our next stop was the fortress of Chinon. This was a true medieval castle (as our tour guide insisted again and again) where the Plantagenet lived and where Joan of Arc first came to King Charles. The views of the Loire Valley and the Indres River were stunning, and the Joan of Arc museum was an interesting addendum to the art history winter study course I took on her.



Azay-le-Rideau was the first Chateau we went into and it was really beautiful. Interestingly, the staircase (one of the first non-spiral one in France) was not completely inside the chateau, but instead open to the courtyard. I really enjoyed the English garden on the other side of the "fairy-tale" moat.


Next up was Chenonceau which is built onto the River Cher. The chateau housed many queens (and a surprising number of royal mistresses) and served as a hospital for the French Resistance.



The last chateau of the trip, Chambord, was my favorite. I only had 45 minutes to see it, so I literally jogged from room to room and took the double-helix staircase two steps at a time. Even if it was rushed, it was well worth it. Being up on the roof with the towers was absolutely exhilarating.





I picked up a French lover along the way.

And by the end of the trip, I had found myself.

Stop Being so Good

As I sit in Lea's apartment, watching the last of the sun's rays die, hearing soccer fans yelling from the bar down the street, I can't help but think, "Um, that was freaking awesome." What's so awesome? Take your pick:

Savion Glover's "Bare Soundz"- I saw his performance last night at the Theatre de la Ville. The show was staged very simply, just Savion Glover and two other (equally talented if not equally charismatic) tap dancers standing on top of wooden platforms. Their energy and rhythms were absolutely fantastic, especially when they did a rapid improv sequence, and the audience was blown away. The best way I can describe Savion Glover's dancing is to compare the precision of his feet to a seismograph and the movement of his arms to a drunk dinosaur. He also sang a little, and had really warm, nice voice. All in all...awesome.

"Kaguyahime"- This ballet was performed by the Ballet company of the Opera National de Paris at the Opera Bastille. The lighting and stage effects were unlike anything I had ever seen (at one point the marly on the floor was lifted and dragged to make walls on the sides of the stage). The ballet is based on a Japanese folk tale about a moon goddess who comes to earth. She wants to bring peace, but unfortunately she is so beautiful that people go to war in order to possess her. The dancers were split into two opposing groups, one wearing black and the other white. The musicians were also divided (Japanese musicians playing traditional drums in white and French musicians playing Western instruments in black). The solos, duets, and group dances were intricately choreographed and involved a lot complicated lifts and partner work. The movement style was very slippery/fluid, yet deliberate and strong. It was definitely one of the most beautiful and unique (and awesome)dance pieces I've ever seen.

In terms of audiences...
The audience at Bare Soundz was very similar to that of the Ballet de l'Opera National de Paris. The closest seats were primarily older/middle-aged men and women, and as you went back the average age decreased from about 55 to 25. And although there was some racial diversity (notably, more people of African descent at Bare Soundz and more people of Asian descent at Kaguhahime), both audiences were still overwhelmingly Caucasian. I was also surprised to see so many English and American tourists at both performances.

To sum up: Dance is awesome. Possibly more awesome (though certainly less accessable) than the World Cup.

Entrez dans la Danse

Today I attended a dance festival (Entrez de la Danse! It was taking place in several locations in Paris (for free!), but I went to the Centre d'Animation-Les Halles to participate.
The afternoon began with a Capoeira roda outside of the cental, inside of the Forum des Halles which is kind of like a mall. It was awesome not only to see the capoeiristas being all dance-fighty, but also to see people walking through stop and really get into it. One little boy next to me even started dancing along!

Next, the festival moved inside of the Centre d'Animation and there were both professional and amateur performances of many different styles of dance. Some particularly interesting performances were:
-an African dance where the teacher (a black man) danced with his students (all white young/middle-aged women)
-an Argentine Tango performance/work shop (I participated! Apparently I bounce too much and don't turn my feet in enough...)
-a battle between beginning hip hop classes
-a Rio Carnival style of Samba

Here are some highlights from the day's interviews:

The first people I interviewed were the Tango-ers. I found it interesting that they all began tango lessons for different reasons. One because his mother was a dancer, another because she had a dream about doing the tango, and a third because her boyfriend did it.

My dance partner for the tango was an Indian woman who practiced both Bollywood and Classical Indian dance. She and her friend told me that, in their opinion, people in France who dance will know their own culture's dance, but are also very eager to experiment with new styles. Their Bollywood classes, for example, are very diverse.

A hip-hop teacher told me that, in his experience, there are three reasons why people in France take hip-hop courses: because they love to dance, because they look at it as exercise, because they want to become professional dancers so they could "ride by" (his words, not mine). He attributes hip hop's popularity to a television show that began in 1983 called Hip Hop. After the show went off the air, he said, many people had thought that the hip hop scene in Paris had died out. However, in the 90s there was a revival and it has been a very popular style since.

After the fetival, I met with one of the festival's coordinators, the coordinator at the Centre d'Animation, and the technical manager. They were all incredibly informative and interesting (too much so to tell all here). The gist of our conversation was that, as in the United States, dance is very much a luxury. There are Centres d'Animation all through Paris to offer art classes and performances to children and adults at affordable rates (your fee correlates to your income). They felt that the festival was so important because it reaches a demographic that cannot afford tickets to dance shows. The festival also strives to bring many different types of dance to the public for they believe that this exchange has the power to bring people from different cultures closer together. They also said that many people like to try dances from outside of their ethnic heritage. The technical director, however, said he believes that people living in Paris are more likely to learn their culture's dance than that of another. The group also hypothesized that French people are more prone to take dance classes because they are already used to dancing at parties (which, according to them, is made easier because the French are more comfortable with being physically close to one another. From what I've experienced with personal space, I don't doubt it).

Yesterday's Adventures

After nearly 2 straight days of sitting in Lea's apartment, emailing contacts and trying to figure out which eurail pass will give me the most bang for my buck, I was told that I needed to leave the apartment and enjoy Paris. My mom and I therefore decided to go on a petit Parisian adventure. First stop: Musee de Cluny, Paris's official museum of the Middle Ages.



The museum was great! It is in an old house that was was built on top of the ancient Roman baths and there are many statues, reliquaries, stained glass windows,furniture, armor, manuscripts, and tapestries (e.g., the stunning "The Lady and the Unicorn" tapestries). Many of objects were saved from other places, such as the heads of the kings which were torn down from the entrance to Notre Dame during the French Revolution. I highly recommend the museum (although the audio tour took a little too long for comfort).



After the museum, we went to a cafe overlooking Notre Dame for a quick crepe, then moved on to Shakespeare and Company. The bookshop was just as wonderful as I remembered it: too many books in too little space. This time around, I saw that there was a second floor.



The second floor had many books that were not for sale (as in Hemingway's time, when the store used to also be a library of sorts). There was also a little typewriter set in a nook. I tried to write a note on it, but sadly there was no ink.



Despite the tragedy of the ink, Shakespeare and Co. remains my favorite book store (sorry The Strand. Get some better nooks and a view of a famous cathedral and we'll talk). What better location than Paris's Quartier Latin? It's a great historical neighborhood with a lot of life still in it (and delicious smelling Greek restaurants).

In front of the metro stop, there was a large crowd watching a man do some time of mime/dance performance (portmanteau it and it was a dime performance). Perhaps, if I run out of monies I will do my own dime performance. Perhaps even a quarter performance if people are feeling generous.

Episode 2- I am kind of a papillon de societe?

On Thursday night, Lea and I went again to her friend Roxanne's apartment. We had dinner on the roof, overlooking Paris (and the Eiffel Tour) as the sun went down. It was probably the most romantic moment of my young life.

As before, Lea's friends were very warm and welcoming, and I really loved meeting them. One of the other girls there used to dance, so I asked her some of the questions that I am working on in my research. Alix told me that she began dancing at the age of 5 and that national pride or identity was never emphasized in her ballet instruction. However, she did say that, when she learned jazz dance, she was very aware that it came from another country because the movement style was different from what she was used to and some of the names of steps were in English. I found two things very interesting: one was that she had an American ballet teacher for several years, and the other was that she referred to ballet as "classical dance." This term (which I have seen used by many French dance studios) seems to show how central ballet is to their conception of dance history.

French Babies are My Crack

The village of Neuilly-sur-Seine (where Lea's apartment is) seems to be comprised mostly of children under the age of 5...or maybe that's my baby goggles talking. Those children who are over 5 seem to be able to go no where with out a scooter.

Neuilly-sur-Seine is really a nice neighborhood full of interesting little places including chapels, small public gardens, and delicious boulangeries (there is a picture below of the one outside of Lea's apartment. I love them). I've enjoyed doing even mundane things like going to the post office because the people here are so friendly and patiently speak French with me. Below are a few pictures from the neighborhood:

Francing-The episode in which I try to be a papillon de societe

I went to my first French party! It is true. I did it.
Lea's friend was having a small dinner party to which I was invited and at which I practiced my French (I pause in my typing to give myself a pat on the back).
I learned that the French kiss each other (and you) on the cheek when they first arrive at a party. If you haven't met before, they say their name while they do it and, if you aren't too surprised, you say your name back. This kissing also occurs when you leave the party, even with the people who you didn't speak to at all. I am attending a larger party tomorrow night, and am interested to see if this pattern still prevails.

In other news, the French have a lot of dogs. They also have little containers on the streets of Paris where you can put your dog poop when you are walking your dog.

In yet other news, next to Lea's apartment is the Jardin d'Acclimation, which reminds me a bit of the nature center in Long Beach (it even has a little train driven by a man who reads his text messages and couldn't seem to care less). It was beautiful out today so I went for a walk in the park and had to make my way through a bustling street market! There was seafood, fruit, crafts, all sorts of things! I want to explore that more later. I would also like to use the bike share program (there are several bikes right next to the apartment) to explore Neuilly-sur-Seine some more. Maybe I will take a picnic from the Boulangerie du Parc which is right across the street...what's French for "nom nom nom"?

Dancing-Le Palais Garnier

Two days ago, I went to the Palais Garnier to try to buy tickets for La Bayadare...they were sold out. Instead I bought a ticket for La Petite Danseuse de Degas (a ballet about the model who posed for Degas's famous sculpture)! I also went on a tour of the building, which was magnificent!



The Palais Garnier had a small exhibit about Pina Bausch (goddess of dance theater. I prayed to her image, "Pina, let my project go well. Let me be like you.")




Tonight, my mom and I went to see if we could get tickets last minute for La Bayadare. We got two tickets for 6 euros a piece...but they were seats where you could not see the stage at all! At first I just tried to pretend I was a French aristocrat and watch the people in the box across from mine, but then I chose to undergo the French revolution, become a member of the bourgeoisie, and actually watch the performance. I had to crouch on my knees/stand barefoot on a chair to get a view. (I felt like a street urchin who had snuck in!)
What I did see of the ballet was lovely. The costumes were gorgeous and the dancers were as close to perfect as they could be. During the intermission, I spoke to a lady who was sitting in my box. I wasn't very prepared, so all I could ask (in broken French) was...

Me: Why do you come to the ballet?
Lady: Because it is so beautiful! I must do it. It is necessary for me.
Me: Do you like other styles of dance? Do you go to other dance shows?
Lady: Yes, I like other styles, but I mostly come here to the Opera's Ballet.
Me: And, do you know what kind of people come here to the ballet? Is it old people, young people, people of the middle ages?
Lady: (Lots of words I didn't understand, the gist of which was that the older/wealthier people had the more expensive seats in the orchestra, and the younger/poorer people sat in the very cheap seats on the top.)

And thus went my first interview! Research is well underway! I am also thinking about interviewing the hip hop dancers outside of the Palais Garnier. One possible question: If you are trying to raise money, why are you doing such a half-you know job of dancing? While am at it, I would like to ask America: why don't you have cheap tickets for world class ballet in gorgeous theaters?