The Four Elements

EARTH

Trey McIntyre's Limerance

 

This movement/dance video by the Trey McIntyre Project reminds me of the Butoh style movement of Eiko and Koma and the cinematography of  surface studies by Rauschenberg and other Black Mountain College artists.  The first part of the video creates strong imagery of  the body's connection with the sculpted landscape, continuing to the two dancers together on the shore performing movement that makes me think of tectonic plates slowly shifting, or the water eroding the sand of the beach.

AIR

Paul Taylor's Airs

 

This is possibly my favorite of Taylor's ballets.  The choreography is stunning and the dancers perform the incredibly difficult variations with such ease and grace that they perfectly embody the wind, the breeze, a gail, with amazing musicality.  It's hard to believe that there are only 7 dancers in this ballet as it moves with the constant speed that only baroque music provides.  In general I'm not a fan of baroque music, but the music of that era is responsible for accompanying some of the best dances ever created.

FIRE

Maurice Bejart's Firebird

This version of Bejart's Firebird is danced by the Wuyan Ballet.  Bejart was one of the most avant-garde ballet choreographers of the 20th century (if you want to see one of the trippiest Nutcrackers, watch his).   His choreography combined with the Stravinsky suite makes me feel like I'm watching a crackling fire breathe and grow.  The floor patterns reinforce the urgency and wildness of an uncontained fire, and the simple costuming works to create the image of a flame rising out of and fighting the ashes.

WATER

Doris Humphrey's Water Study

It is hard to believe that this study was originally choreographed in 1928 as it still holds up remarkably in the modern dance canon.  The beginning of the study looks like an optical illusion; it takes time to believe that those are simply people moving on a floor.  This study makes me think of looking at an abstract expressionist painting, like one of Rothko's color fields.  The movement is relatively simple and repetitive and the majority of the study the dancers are moving in varied unison, but it is so evocative of water that it is difficult to look away.