Performing Maud, Performing the Spectator (Zoom Meeting)

We had a fun Zoom meeting where we did some very raw improvisations using the reviews of Maud Allan's performance, rotating the roles of dancer/reader/spectator.  After each improvisation, the spectator did a movement playback of the dancer's improvisation.

Password for all: Maud
Cyn improv

Shy playback

Shy improv

Babli playback
Babli improv
Cyn playback



We also did three improvisations to the same texts in which we performed as a spectator, rather than as Maud Allan herself.  For mine, I ended up switching between the spectator and Maud a bit.

Cyn as spectator
Babli as spectator
Shy as spectator

Pre-show score

Pre-show installation Score:

1) Letters to Maud

Version 1) "Text" station

1 performer (in costume) sitting. Audience member (up to 3 or  4 at a time need to sit down opposite her. Performer reads Verna's letter(s) to Maud Allan to the small group of audience members. One or two letters at a time. We could play with reading to a small group vs changing audience members we address: one letter to one audience member


Version 2)

Three of us mingle among audience in the intermission - we walk up to them, address them a Maud, lead them a letter

Letters from Verna to Maud

Here are some letters gleaned  from Verna Aldrich, Maud Allan's secretary and long-time lover, in case they might be useful for pulling out Allan's queer(ish) proclivities.  There's also a nugget about her relationship to India at the bottom. They are gleaned from Felix Cherniavsky's 1986 article.

REFERENCE:

Maud Allan, Part V: The Years of Decline, 1915-1956 
Author(s): Felix Cherniavsky
Source: Dance Chronicle, Vol. 9, No. 2 (1986), pp. 177-236

"Darling Maudie
Well, I have had an anxious few days trying to get news of you-and I feel quite exhausted. This evening I got the cable and it is some re-assurance-but I can't imagine you having gallstones-you never have had. I hope I got the truth of it all and that everyone is not lying, for I would much rather have the exact truth-I would worry less then. Anyway, dearest, I am so sorry you have been ill -- and I can tell you I felt far away when you were ill-even cables take an interminable time. Anyway, Maudie dear, I didn't know how much I love you until I heard you were critically ill. Now take of yourself and don't do anything startling, go easy.

...
Nella [an unidentified friend] was out here to supper last Sunday and we discussed you and she said to tell you that she says on no condition are you to leave Hollywood. You must stay there-conditions are more favorable to you there than here according to her stars, and then quite apart from that, remembering Marie Dressler's experience, you have only laid the pipe now or rather threaded the needle and if you come off now it will all go for nothing.  You can't expect the chance you want to be waiting for you when you arrived -but now people know you and think of you when the chance comes for you. If they have to send over to London that is a different matter-ten days' delay at least-and so your best bet is to stay put." (207-8)

"Darling [Verna wrote on March 29, 1937], I know how hard it all is but you must be brave and carry on like my little soldier-I have the same to do at this end but know you have all you can carry so do not burden all the little things to you because after all I am so we are just going over the top that they don't worry me as much as they did, and I know you are too unhappy to be burdened more. But I want you to unburden to me as much as you want. Darling you must grit your teeth and be happy even if it is only to take walk with the little wee doggie. I am so sure-I can't tell you how sure I am-that the end of next year will see our troubles far behind us. That does not mean I think we must wait another year-I think they are dawning now!
...
Really and truly darling, I will not have much patience if you don't make the effort-write your opinions about anything that occurs to you.

You have had a wonderful life-and more than all else you are a wonderful person yourself and you must not let a feeling of pity and lethargy overwhelm the real, fine brain that is down under all this trouble-I don't mean your fame and all that greatness-but through everything in your life, and every bit of you I have known has shown a great, marvellously lovely character-and I want that to come out in your life story, as it is just bound to, naturally. Darling, you don't think I would have loved you all these trying, worrying years if you had just been a vain shallow creature-there is something in you that is great and lovely-that overcomes! That is not mastered by circum- stances but masters circumstances. Now, my Maudie must overcome the circumstances of the day! The little girl in you must not be afraid to cry-she must be great! You have a definite work to do, now do it!

...

The Ladies Committee of the Jewish Organization for Relief o Jewish Children from Germany are wanting the garden for a g party and have written to your secretary asking it from you- it is a very important list of people connected with it, I have in your name. It will be held the end of June-they are much pleased and will write to thank you. Lady Melchett and Lady Sassoon and goodness knows who else are on the working end -Mrs. Laski, a very rich woman whom you probably know was the other day-she is quite sweet .

...
You will be then and will have a new frock and will be the dear little hostess I love, with all the troubles behind. If we have enough money you shall have a gown from Molyneux. Don't laugh-things are going to come! 'Poor dear,' you are thinking, 'her troubles have gone to her head.' No, dearest, they haven't!" (209-10)

"Dearest Maudie, Well, I don't seem to get any letters from you, pretty soon, if you don't keep in close touch with me, you will fade away in my thoughts to just that of a distant friend-so it's up to you to keep the memory green." (210)

'"Really," she wrote from California on December 7, 1938, "I am beg to think that place hypnotizes us both-it is so lovely out here and life is so much less expensive.' (219)

"I told you a long time ago that you must never, under any circumstances, appeal to him for help" Verna wrote in a letter dated January 2, 1939), Maud had cabled one of Verna's wealthy relatives for help, referring in that cable to "Verna's personal overdraft." That debt, she reminded Maud, had incurred solely to meet "immediate property obligations to be met to save the place for you at all. I gave your interests many years of my life and I think it is a poor return that you do this"" (220-1)

"I've had a hard time this winter, much harder than anyone has realized" (221)

"I wish," she wrote on March 1, 1939, "should you leave West Wing, you would have someone level the little graves where the doggies are buried. If they are level no one will disturb them, but if they are plainly graves, they might dig them up."

"I don't want to sound cross with you, Maudie, when I know what a devilish time you are having-but you must not say that I used your Power of Attorney unwisely or unfairly- not right. I only used it for the telephone, the gas, the electronic contracts which were in your name.

...

It seems so good to be out of all the nightmare of worry-it seems so endless-I don't see why you ever went back to it. It hypnotized while I was there-I thought the house all important, but now that I am away from it I realize that if we had both washed our hands of it years ago, we would be much better off today. I can't understand how, when you were away from it for a few months, you ever wanted to go back to it. I do hope you can sell it for something this Spring-no matter for how little." (221)

"'I just can't do anything right now, ' she wrote on March 23, 'and it's useless to bombard me. I'm very sorry, but there it is. I can't do what I can't do, can I?'" (221)

" I remember now doing it when I thought I was packing up everything for good and that we were both returning to California. I packed your little brown leather trinket case in my trunk. I did not want to send it to storage but thought I would give it to you when I met you out here. I have sealed it with sealing wax and will deposit it with a bank or anyone you would like me to leave it with. It costs four dollars a year to leave it in the bank, but I would pre- fer to do that than keep it with me. I will send it if I get a good opportunity-but if I send it through the post you will probably have to pay duty so that's no good. They would probably charge you as much for the things as they are worth. I could have kicked myself when I found it. It was in my large trunk, not my small one with my immediate needs in it." (222)

Also, there's this nugget about Allan's relationship to India and Indian dance:
"Interviewed by the San Francisco Call and Post on March 3, 1915, Maud spoke of her plan to tour the United States "in new dances, gleaned from natives of India, and the native dances of the Orient.... I have gleaned something entirely new-steps which have never before been seen here and steps that will startle the dancing world .... The dances of India are the most expres- sive in the world-they reveal the height of expression; they reach the roots of emotion, and express this selfsame emotion in their movements-supple and divine. The native of India is the true exponent of free dancing. It is he or she who can, with the twitching of a muscle, express more than all the books of the land. Fear, love, rage, hate-everything they express in but one movement. The eyes widened, the limbs cowering, the body cringing-all in a flash they change to an expression of fear. They are marvelous. I have been able to gain a few steps from the natives, and I have improved on some of them. They will be worth seeing."(231)

 

Wonderful flesh zoom ideas for 3/11/19

Adaptation of reader, performer, viewer score:
take turns
1 person being reader with different music choices
1 person being abhinaya performer/viewer specifically to the viewer
1 person viewer/Maud

After go, viewer/Maud do a playback of sound and movement and riff on all?

Sound score movement development: 
play each of the reviews sound scores and two people dance to it ( interpret it, undermine it or take it over the top...)
one watches and scribes and/or replays.

Projection Development:
Cyn and Babli direct Shy to try different things with projection of Maud and cloth

Sounding the Spectator, Part II

For my study, I recorded more reviews of Maud Allan's "Vision of Salome" to different Orientalist music.  I put out a call on social media for music suggestions (with so many responses!) -- some of these are drawn from people's recommendations.

Richard Strauss' "Dance of the Seven Veils" (possibly the original music that Maud Allan danced to):

"Miserlou" (suggested by Meiver De La Cruz)

Duke Ellington's "Caravan" (suggested by Beto Gonzalez)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QnmwcVxsIBNjTUgc85cFFCd0AE5PExK7/view?usp=sharing

One quick sound note -- I'd like to re-record the Strauss recording at a different level this so my voice doesn't clip, but I didn't have time. 

I'm pretty open to any kind of feedback, but here are some questions in case you find that useful.
Questions:
(1) How do the text and music relate in each example? 
(2) Any feedback on how I read the reviews? 
(3) What do you make of the range of music?  What kind of sequence would you put these in (including the recording with Lakme I did last time)?
(4) What possible staging/performance/embodied possibilities do you see for this audio?  How would you connect the recordings to the other material we've developed thus far?

Here are all the music suggestions people gave.  Since I was recording text over the music, I generally found that songs with lyrics were hard to work with -- this eliminated most of the pop songs and musicals.

Music Suggestions:
Meiver De La Cruz: "The most re-recorded and abused oritalist piece is “Miserlou” (of Pulp Fiction fame). I have used it in performance and it’s very recognizable and effective.
It’s originally a Greek song about an Egyptian girl whom is “sweet.”"
Yiman Wang: music from Anna May Wong's films
Rebeca Hernandez: Shakira, "Ojos Así"
Joan Titus: Verdi's Aida, Borodin’s In The Steppes of Central Asia, Debussy’s Estampes, “Pagodes” (first mvt), Puccini's Madama Butterfly and Turandot, Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, Rodgers and Hammerstein's “Bali Hai” from South Pacific
Beto González: Duke Ellington's "Caravan"  
Ozgur Basak Alkan: Istanbul Constantinople
Sabrina Hamilton: SAIGON (old radio drama)
Heather Rastovac: "I Wanna See You Bellydance" 
Sarah Orem: Selena Gomez, "Come and Get It"
Arushi Singh: Iggy Azalea, "Bounce"
Amy Smith: Jaya Lakshmi and Ananda Yogiji
Gunter Acer: Vico Torriani - Cafe Oriental 1961
Sander Roscoe Wolff: Talking Heads, "Listening Wind"; The Mikado
Loren Nerell: The Vapors, "Turning Japanese"
Ilaan Mazzini: "Little Brown Gal"
Olivia Samad: Madonna, "Shanti Ashtangi"
Alyssa Stover: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The King and I”
Claire Pamment: Char-Lee Chann, "CHU CHIN CHOW"

 

Maud Stamp

Folks were interested in part of a previous exploration, where I had Maud on my legs and my torso was cut off in the image.  So here's two super quick improvisations with Maud on my legs but showing my whole body.  Just to see if it also works with a larger frame (and thus live).

Password:  Maud

Footwork exploration 1 from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.


Password: Maud

Footwork exploration 2 from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.



Questions: 
1.  Is seeing my face distracting?  (I didn't have a strong/clear sense of emotion)

2.  Does this hold any interesting moments or ideas to develop for you?

3.  Any other thoughts?

Triple Projection explorations

So this set up of the cloth in two layered panels is actually part of the set for a section of my new show for youth "The Summ of All Things."  I just couldn't resist trying out the projections on it.  I like the feeling of setting up an environment like the salon feel, and also thought of the possibility of having each of us moving in a different area:  in front, between, or behind.  Or of us manually creating the shape of it, or moving the shape of it, so two people are holding it while one is interacting with the projection and it can shift. 

If you are at all interested in this, I can set it up for our zoom call and you all can maybe suggest things for me to try out.  If we want to use some variation of this set up, we can decide if we want to use this cloth or invest in a new color, or perhaps two different colors to make the layers stand out more.  If we want a new one, I can try to get one before our residency.

Below are three explorations with the cloth:  1. just projection, 2. improvising behind the back most panel,  and 3. improvising in the middle between the front and back panels.  I thought I had some exploration in front of the first panel but I can't find it.  Probably they would look more interesting if I wear a lighter color. 


1.  Triple projection
password: Maud

Sins of such wonderful flesh triple projection from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.

2. Improvising in back
password: Maud

Triple projection improvisation, back layer from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.

3.  Improvising in middle 
password: Maud


Triple projection, middle layer from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.


Questions:
1.  Any interest in this kind of set up?
2.  Any thoughts on what to do with it? 

Ghostly Desires

I spent some time fleshing out some of the parts from the last improvisation where I was dancing with Maud's projection.  I incorporated some vocabulary from Babli's original abhinya to the Maud text. And I became interested to see the study that Babli, Cyn and Meena created inter-spliced with this improvisation.  I also incorporated Cynthia's last audio recording exploration in part of this too.  I did this improvisation in silence so to be able to take time with the movement this time, so if the sounds don't work for you, you could try muting them.  Also, even though her image is still here, I would like to have it VERY slowly morph from one image to another. 

password: Maud

Ghostly Desires from Shyamala Moorty on Vimeo.

Questions:
1.  What meaning/s do you get from this?
2.  Are the recalling of the text and sounds in different ways working for you?
3.  What are the most compelling moments for you?
4.  How can you imagine all three of our live bodies being incorporated into this and where in the space might we each be?  I wrote a scenario below that I brainstormed in relation to this.
5.  I didn't use the footwork in this version, do you imagine it could still be incorporated here somehow?
6.  Any other thoughts?

Shy's brainstorm to question #4: 
Section 1:  Babli is sitting in the audience doing Abhinaya toward the stage
Cyn is filming live feed which is projected somewhere on the stage
text is spoken by Cyn or by Shy offstage?
Section 2:  Maud Allan's image comes up, taking over the live feed or possibly on another area of the stage.  Shy enters and approaches Maud Allan to the Ruth St. Denis music.  Babli and Cyn both do abhinaya toward Maud Allan and/or Shy.
Section 3:  Shy is caressing Maud Allan's image, Cyn and Babli do abhinaya toward Maud Allan/Shy while speaking the text in canon.  
Section 4: Shy becomes Maud Allan, Cynthia becomes parody of exotifying announcer and narrates while Shy moves with Maud Allan on body.  Babli does abhinaya toward Shy or Cyn.
Section  5:  Babli catches Maud Allan on her hand, Shy says text and Cyn does abhinaya toward Maud and/or Babli.
Section 6: Babli is on the stage doing abhinaya toward the audience.
Shy is filming live feed which is projected somewhere on the stage.
text is spoken by Cyn.

This idea starts to incorporate the idea of us switching roles like I wrote in one score idea from a while back and could be pushed even more in that direction if that is interesting.