Spectators Watching "The Vision of Salome"

Today Shy and I developed some material consisting of different spectators watching an invisible Maud Allan dance The Vision of Salome.  Currently, we're imagining that there would be spotlights that fade in and out so that certain spectators are highlighted at different times, with some overlap between the characters.  Each of us would play two different characters: Verna, an aristocratic white guy, a desiring South Asian femme, and a disgusted South Asian femme.  We would probably extend the desiring South Asian femme section to make it overlap more with the disgusted femme at the end.

Password for all: "Maud"

Cyn as Tophat Guy

Shy as Verna
Cyn as Desiring Femme (inspired by Babli!)

Shy as Disgusted Femme
Here's the script for when each character appears in relation to the text:
[Tophat] To Maud Allan, swaying like a passion flower in the last steps of the Seven veils, a giant negro brought upon a great salver Jokanaan.  [Verna joins] Her eyes half closed, the dancer raised by its dank hair the ghastly prize of Herodias’ daughter.  She leaned towards its lips.  Gently the severed head touched her wrists, and there shot through her a terrible tremor, a shivering of the soul.  [Tophat fades] Upon her white flesh were the stains, dark crimson clots.  [Verna fades, Desiring Femme starts] It was blood.  Her body rigid as though carved in marble, the dancer slowly forced her eyes to the face she held aloft.  It was the face of a man not long since dead.  (Disgusted femme starts). As one from whom life passes very quickly, she crumpled to the floor. (Desiring femme fades) From her hands dropped the head.  It rolled upon her breast and fell beside her, leaving upon her white body a crimson trail.

What do I desire, adding audio and visuals

 I was inspired to make a sound recording for the "What do I desire" poem I wrote about Salome and Draupadi.  I could imagine this perhaps as a duet, two of us connected by a sheer sari that wraps and unwraps and intertwines us.  Note that I was fooling around with a shruti box generator and couldn't record it too well, it doesn't sound like it sounded coming directly from the generator, and the transitions are a bit rougher, but I like the idea of it!

password: desire



And here I've overlaid one of the video projection improvisations that I was playing with and find that it could be related to the poem, though for a group piece, I like the duet idea better.

password: wonderful


Questions:
1.  Are you more interested in the projection with live body here or in the reviews study "Maud and Me"?
2.  Other ideas for enhancing the audio of this poem?
3. Is this piece related to the Maud Allan work we've been doing or is it too much of a tangent?
4. Any other thoughts?

Sounding the Spectator

For my study, I did a sound recording of the text of one of the reviews of Maud Allan's performance of The Vision of Salome from The Labour Leader.   

Here is one take of just my voice:

Here is another take, where my voice is accompanied by the music from another Oriental dancer's work, Ruth St. Denis' "Delirium of Senses," the culmination of her choreography, Radha. 


It would have been interesting to use the actual music from A Vision of Salome, but I haven't been able to nail down what that was yet.  Some say that she danced to original music by Belgian composer Marcel Remy; others claim that it was an arrangement by Remy of Strauss' "Dance of the Seven Veils."   See, for instance, Clair Rowden's "Whose/Who's Salome?: Natalia Trouhanowa, A Dancing Diva" (Ashgate Publishing, 2013, 75).

Here are a couple links for prop/costume ideas:
pearls: https://www.amazon.com/Zivyes-Fashion-Pearls-Necklace-Accessories/dp/B06ZYZFXZS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1548740578&sr=8-2&keywords=pearls+costume+jewelry
severed head: https://www.amazon.com/Forum-Novelties-Severed-Halloween-Haunted/dp/B01LOUWV74/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1548740803&sr=8-8&keywords=severed+head

QUESTIONS:
(1) What is your emotional or visceral response to my reading?  Is it too over the top?  What kind of person do you imagine me to be (personality, gender, class, etc.)?
(2) How might you imagine this material staged / embodied / performed?  How would the audience be involved in that?
(3) Which version do you prefer, and why?
(4) Other thoughts?

Creative Exploration: Reviewing and Costuming Wonderful Flesh

Please share your creative exploration below by Feb 11:

Part 1: Create something out of the reviews/reactions of Maud Allan at the link below

Reviews: http://postnatyam.blogspot.com/2018/09/reviews-of-maud-allans-performances.html

    Examples: Editing them into a new poem

    Put self in the position of the objectifier and read them in the most lascivious way possible

Video hands writing the reviews over a photo of Maud Allan in Salome costume, crossing out and editing

Part 2: Post in the comments below a link of something we can buy for costumes or props:  for example, John the Baptists' Head,  Maud Allan, Salome inspired costumes, pearls, etc.

Note: The idea for this exploration was created collectively in our group meeting.

What do I desire? A little free write

you call me the pious one, 
you see me as the temptress

you are entranced my beauty, 
you applaud my agile limbs

you gamble with my life, 
you offer me your kingdom

you snatch my endless sari, 
you lust for flesh beneath my veils

you strip me of my dignity, 
you blame me for your trespasses

I am Draupadi, 
I am Salome

What do I desire?

I became curious about the intersections of these two figures, Draupadi and Salome.  They seem parallel and opposites.  This is a beginning exploration, keeping in mind my interest in who has agency, who is the subject and who is the object etc.

Real Life or Fake News? Glimpses into Maud Allan's Tabloid-like Life

For this round, I decided to do some research on Maud Allan’s life.  I was most interested in learning more about the queer aspects of her life, both personally and in the context of the infamous “Cult of the Clitoris” case.  My partial trip down this research rabbit hole was, well, pretty trippy.

Reading about Maud Allan’s life was like reading the tabloids, but from the early 1900s.  Super sensationalistic.  Most of what I’m going to summarize below is based on Philip Hoare’s book, Oscar Wilde's Last Stand: Decadence, Conspiracy, and the Most Outrageous Trial of the Century, as well as Lucy Bland’s book chapter, “Trial by Sexology: Maud Allan, Salome and the ‘Cult of the Clitoris’” case in the book, Sexology in Culture.  I apologize that I’m not as thorough with citations as I’d like to be – please don’t quote anything in this blog post.

Maud Allan was born Beulah Maude Durrant.  Many folks believe that part of the reason that she changed her last name was because her brother Theo was involved in a high profile murder case.  He was convicted of killing two white women, Minnie Williams (23 yrs) and Blanche Lamont (21 yrs) who were discovered naked in the Baptist church that the Durrant family attended on April 13, 1895.  One was hacked to death, and the other was laid out as if for a medical exam (Theo had attended medical school, but later had an illness that the press termed “brain fever”  (Hoare 66).  Theo was sentenced to death by hanging, and according to the press, his mother, Isabella, kissed her son’s lips in public right after his death (Hoare 69).  There were rumors of mother-son incest that circulated.

A common interpretation is that this traumatic event served as an inspiration for Allan’s later work, The Vision of Salome, whereby Salome kisses the lips of John the Baptist after he has been beheaded – this aligns with Oscar Wilde’s interpretation of Salome as in love with John the Baptist in his play, Salome, based on the biblical story.  According to Hoare, Isabella, wrote her daughter Maud: “You have an opportunity that you must not overlook, for in it lies your whole future success.  Your sorrow with your personality ought to give your playing a charm that cannot be taught.  Now doen’t lose the opportunity to allow the public to judge what you can do” (69).  Hoare interprets these words as Isabella advising her daughter to take advantage of family trauma in order to inspire her performance career (69).

Both the changing of Maud Durrant’s last name to Allan and her moving to Europe to establish her career seem related to an attempt to escape the sensational nature of her brother’s murder.  My impression is that Allan was quite conscious of shaping her own public image and willing to reshape the truth (i.e., lie) to suit her needs.  For example, in her autobiography, My Life and Dancing, she says that her parents were educated doctors, which was not the case.

She originally moved to Berlin to train as a concert pianist (some reviewers compared her to Isadora Duncan, but with greater musicality) and eventually ended up in England.  Her early prolific performances of The Vision of Salome later led to being invited to perform the title role of Wilde’s play, Salome, in 1918.  This would lead to the controversial “Cult of the Clitoris” trial that contributed to the downfall of her career.

To back up for a moment and provide some context, England was in the depths of WWI at the time, and as a result, there was strong anti-German sentiment in the air.  Politicians suspected of being pro-German, such as Allan’s friends and patrons, the Asquiths (the former prime minister and his wife), were vilified by other politicians.  Moreover, foreignness – and specifically Germanness – were associated with homosexuality and elite decadence, in part due to the early work of German sexologists as well as the cabaret scene.  Allan’s sensual Orientalist performances, with her almost nude body covered in little more than pearl beads, fit into this world.  She was also suspected of being a lover of Margot Asquith, who funded her palatial living quarters for twenty years.  It seems well documented that Allan had romantic and sexual relationships with people of varied genders, including her assistant and secretary, Verna Aldrich.

To return to the “Cult of the Clitoris” trial, an MP named Noel Pemberton Billing (a former actor who invented “flying boats” and who ran on a platform of airpower for England, so that its air-force would be as strong as its navy had been historically) published an article, “The 47,000” that was essentially a conspiracy theory in his newspaper, The Imperialist (formerly The Vigilante).  Based on information given by Capt. Harold Spencer, an American who had been discharged from the military due to mental illness, this article claimed that there was a black book with 47,000 names of powerful highly connected British subjects, ranging from politicians to other kinds of elite, who were vulnerable to blackmail by the Germans because they were homosexual.  (It was suggested at the trial that Margot Asquith was in this book.)  A good dose of anti-Semitism infects the anti-German, homophobic stew, since evidently a powerful Jewish cabal working behind the scenes is responsible for much of this.  I haven’t been able to locate the full original article, but here’s a taste: "There exists in the cabinet noire of a certain German prince a book compiled by the Secret Service from the reports of German agents who have infested this country for the past 20 years, agents so vile and spreading debauchery of such a lasciviousness as only German minds could conceive and German bodies execute."  Shortly thereafter, Billing published a short enigmatic paragraph related to the performance of Wilde’s Salome (which was to be performed privately, in part because biblical stories couldn’t be performed publicly): 

"The Cult of the Clitoris

To be a member of Maud Allan's private performances in Oscar Wilde's Salome one has to apply to a Miss Valetta, of 9 Duke Street, Adelphi, W.C. If Scotland Yard were to seize the list of those members I have no doubt they would secure the names of several of the first 47,000."

In response, Maud Allan sued Billing for libel – basically, because his article accused her of being a lesbian, since only lesbians or medical doctors would know what a clitoris was.  The trial was something of a circus, highly attended and covered in the press.  Similarly to Wilde’s libel trial a couple decades earlier, Allan ended up being trial for her queerness, even though she was the one who brought the suit.  Billing basically argued that his article wasn’t libel because it was true.  The earlier trial of her brother was brought as “evidence” that sexual perversion ran in the family.  A key witness, Eileen Villiers-Stuart, who was also Billing’s mistress, perjured herself by claiming to have seen the Black Book firsthand when she had not (there was never any evidence that the Black Book was real); she went on to claim that the names of both Margot Asquith and the judge presiding over the case were in the book.  Billing was found not guilty, and Allan’s career never fully recovered from the negative press.

There’s more interesting stuff to excavate from Allan’s life – notably that she toured India and more on her own same-sex relationships – but that’s what I’ve got to share for now.  One major takeaway I had was the importance of press and publicity: both the rampant fake news of the era and the importance of shaping one's self image in a way that feels resonant with today's social media saturated world.  It strikes me that the way we use the camera and media could be informed by this.

Who was Salomé? – A Dialogue with Varsha Dewan (Part 1)

Maud Allan became famous with her Visions of Salomé. But who was Salomé? Because of the amount of material encountered, the research into Salomé is split into 2 parts:

1)    Salomé, theological and historical perspectives

2)    Salomé as a European artistic inspiration: Oscar Wilde’s Salomé and interpretations

This blogpost will focus on Salomé in theological and historical perspective. Attached to the Blogpost you will find an audio clip by Varsha giving more details of the theological and historical perspective.

But first here the Bible section with the story. Please note, Salome is not named here (see explanation below) - the Bible only refers to a girl, daughter of Herodias and stepdaughter of Herod), who dances at Herod’s birthday feast: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+6%3A14-29&version=NIV

Theological and historical perspectives:

1)    Varsha says, that in order to understand Salomé (and John the Baptist) one has to look at her from a theological and historical perspective.

Theology: In the Bible there is a reference to Herod (stepfather/uncle) and Herodias (mother), and an unnamed girl who dances. In that story, Herod is seen as a reluctant participant in the murder of John the Baptist, because he fears retribution from God (God of John the Baptist, who was Jewish, not Roman God – Herod and Herodias are Jewish; John the Baptist tells people to live by Jewish law – also Herod and Herodias – who were breaking Jewish Law according to John the Baptist, since Herodias married her husband’s brother)

Herod and Herodias are ruling over the Jordanian region of the Roman Empire (-> west of River Jordan all the way to Egypt;all the biblical stories are happening here) under the Roman Empire. Actually, the Roman Republic is transitioning from Republic to Empire. (Note: The Egyptian region of the Roman Empire was ruled by someone else).

The first parts of the Bible were written down about 20 or 30 AD. Up until then it was oral stories. Salomé is not mentioned by name (Varsha thinks, either she was not significant enough to remember or, her name was maybe forgotten, see questions below)

a)    History: Book: The Antiquities of the Jews (first historical document of the Jewish people) written by Josephus around 97 AD. Here John the Baptist and Salomé are mentioned – in fact this is the book where the dancing girl from the story that lead to John the Baptist’s murder is named as Salomé.

Here Josephus is putting a story from 3 BC into written form- into history. He is writing about his own history – the history of the Jews, but he is writing it for the Romans. Josephus was Jewish and a slave in the Flavian dynasty.  He had pledged his allegiance to the Flavian Kings of the Roman Empire. He takes on the Roman name Flavius Josephus and gets a lot of benefits from the Flavian King (who believes in the Jewish stories). Josephus is writing this document for the 2^nd generation King of the Flavian dynasty (Rome is now no longer a Republic, but an Empire). He refers to Jesus only in passing. He mentions a man named Jesus also known as Christ. Therefore he refers to Jesus not as a Jew but founder of Christianity- biggest threat to Roman Empire (Note: politics: message- Jews are not the threat, Christians are).

More references and longer chapters on John the Baptizer, who he identifies as Jewish (he died before Jesus therefore cant be a Christian. He is seen as a Jewish hero from 100 years earlier.) John the Baptist was killed around 3 or4 BC, because in the Bible Jesus’ ministry or work is only for 3 years- between  age 30 and 33. Jesus starts his work around the time when John the Baptist is imprisoned (John the Baptist’s voice is crushed- Jesus raises his voice at that time).

Josephus, as mentioned above, brought an app. 100 year old oral story (theology) into historical text, in which Jewish (nomadic) history is interweaving with Egyptian history (Cleopatra) and Roman history (Marc Anthony).

In this text by Josephus, Salomé is mentioned by name as being the daughter of Herodias and Herod.

Varsha’s questions about Salomé are: if Josephus’ reference to this incidence of  app. 100 years prior is based on the written Bible, which does not have Salome’s name, how come he suddenly remembers her name? Where is that information/name coming from?

Varsha feels that maybe he (Josephus) chose the name of Salome, because there are already many shades of Mary in the Bible

1)    Mary the Virgin, Mother of God

2)    Mary the Harlot, who Jesus saved from getting stoned

3)    Mary Magdalene, the woman who found that Jesus had risen (today, Mary Magdalene is the woman who had sex with Jesus and children – famous Dan Brown stories and conspiracy theorists’ favorite topic)

In the Jewish and Catholic faith, women are seen as temptresses, the reason for Man’s plight, because it was Eve who bit the apple.

Eve is the creator of Man and the destructor of Man by biting the apple.

Mary is the Mother of God and the Harlot.

Varsha feels maybe Josephus called the girl Salomé, because the Bible has a Salomé who is the mother of 2 disciplines of Jesus - James and John (John wrestled with the Devil and wrote the Book of Revelations). James and John were also the nephews of Jesus, because Salomé was the daughter of Joseph from his first marriage , i.e. Jesus’ stepsister. So like the positive and negative characters of Eve/Mary in the Bible he might have called that girl Salome so that there is then a positive and negative character of Salomé.

Salomé is a Saint of the Greek Orthodox Church.

So now there is the same dichotomy of saint/slut in Salomé as well.

Also, there were some coins of Salomé found but they is no way to prove that she was the girl who danced for Herod (coin of Herodian queen Salome)

Herodian coin was minted in 56-57 AD.

Soundfile from Varsha
https://soundcloud.com/babli/who-was-salome-part-1/s-HkHXz

Sources: 
Varsha's own memory of history . Theological and Church history because of my own interest in ancient civilizations of the world especially Egyptian and Mesopotamian Civilization (Ottoman Empire) since age 12 and her  dad's talks and such. 

As well as Online sources:
Salome coin https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herodian_coinage
Herod:  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herod_the_Great
Flavius Josephus: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Flavius-Josephus (note: Varsha Dewan: Why I feel Josephus wrote the history for the Roman Empire Glory and not the history of the Jewish people. I feel many Jewish elders don't trust n respect him and see him as a traitor to the Jewish cause)

PS: Here is a 1953 film with Rita Hayworth as Salome. The storyline is slightly different:

 

Reviews of Maud Allan's performances

Here is some primary source material, gathered from Philip Hoare's book, Oscar Wilde's Last Stand: Decadence, Conspiracy, and the Most Outrageous Trial of the Century, which is about Maud Allan's unsuccessful libel suit against MP Noel Pemberton Billing.  His citations are not always complete, so I am not always clear as to a specific newspaper, writer, or date.  If I'm able to track them down, I'll add them in.

Reviews of The Vision of Salome and Oscar Wilde’s Salome

On The Vision of Salome:

“It is as if a wildly jerking sensuality were driving into the slender body, as if it began to blossom and swell forth and glow through her skin…In naked sensuality, her body calculating, she meets the eyes of Herod; the rhythm of her motion accelerates; she knows what she wants, and suddenly in its grisly horror the head of the prophet is handed her from the cistern.  With the natural motions of the wild ash she dances Salome, the demivierge of the perverse instincts, gaze now focused on the pale head in heated ecstasy.  Wildly she revolves her head in jerking madness; her eyes and fingers groping in the cramps of love, they fastasise about unheard-of desires; shame seems to have vanished from her perspiring body; one draws back from the flame of this passion.  Finally abrupt shock overcomes her, freezes her motion, forces her to lay aside the dead head and to be paralysed in the numb pose of nameless self-disgust” (a review of a performance in Prague, cited by Hoare, 74)

“To Maud Allan, swaying like a passion flower in the last steps of the Seven veils, a giant negro brought upon a great salver Jokanaan.  Her eyes half closed, the dancer raised by its dank hair the ghastly prize of Herodias’ daughter.  She leaned towards its lips.  Gently the severed head touched her wrists, and there shot through her a terrible tremor, a shivering of the soul.  Upon her white flesh were the stains, dark crimson clots.  It was blood.  Her body rigid as though carved in marble, the dancer slowly forced her eyes to the face she held aloft.  It was the face of a man not long since dead.  As one from whom life passes very quickly, she crumpled to the floor.  From her hands dropped the head.  It rolled upon her breast and fell beside her, leaving upon her white body a crimson trail.  So was the dancer Maud Allan taught that it is not well to jest with a Noble of Hungary.” (an American paper, cited by Hoare, 74)

“…Miss Allan is such a delicious embodiment of lust that she might win forgiveness with the sins of her wonderful flesh.  With her hot mouth parched for kisses the impeccable saint had refused to give her, she lures an invisible Herod to grant her fiendish prayer.  In the very height of her furious exaltation at winning her request, the change comes.  Before her rises the head she has danced for, and the lips that would not touch her in life she kisses again and again.”  (Alfred Butt, publicity for The Vision of Salome, all copies later destroyed, cited by Hoare 76)

“a reincarnation of the most graceful and rhythmic forms of classic Greece…in The Vision of Salome her writhing body enacts the whole voluptuousness of Eastern femininity” (The Observer, cited by Hoare 77)

“One moment she is the vampire…next she is the lynx.  Always the fascination is animal-like and carnal…Her slender and lissome body writhes in an ecstasy of fear, quivers at the exquisite touch of pain, laughs and sighs, shrinks and vaults, as swayed by passion…She kisses the head and frenzy comes upon her.  She is no longer human.  She is a Maenad sister.  Her hair should be disheveled, her eyes bloodshot.  The amazing crescendo ceases, she falls to the ground a huddles yet wondrously beautiful mass…London has never seen such a graceful and artistic dancing.  It is of a magical beauty.  But the beauty is magic; and the magic is black and insidious.”  (The Labour Leader, cited by Hoare 77)

“She dances like a revivalist preacher and makes as many converts…It would be stupid not to admire the character which has brought about so great a success.  But it would be just as stupid to mistake this American ‘grit’ and ‘bluff’ for beautiful art.”  (Christina Marshall in The Academy, cited by Hoare 78.  The Academy was a magazine of Lord Alfred Douglas, former lover of Oscar Wilde, who later converted to Catholicism, repudiated Wilde and testified against Maud Allan at the libel trial.)

On Oscar Wilde's Salome:

“…a bizarre melodrama of disease…One may admit its atmosphere though it is an atmosphere people who are healthy and desire to remain so would do well to keep out of…One is reminded of some richly jeweled watch that does not go…At the same time, high praise is due…to Miss Maud Allan for her excellent reproduction of the symptoms of Salome” (G.E. Morrison, Morning Post, review of Wilde’s Salome.  The Post supported Billing’s campaign.  Cited by Hoare 97)

“We cannot in the least share in the view that Salome is ‘not an impure work.’  This view was very emphatically expressed by Mr. J.T. Grein in his brief speech at the close of the Independent Theatre private performance on Friday afternoon.  We think that, on the contrary, Salome is a very impure work.  It is impure in its theme – the explicity carnal desire of the daughter of Herodias for Jokanaan the Prophet, otherwise John the Baptist.  It is even more impure in its atmosphere, which is charged with a sickly voluptuousness.  A decadent literary art would scarcely go farther than the gaudy harlotry of words in which Salome is set out.  If there were anything of the tragic spirit behind it, if there were any psychology of character, the manner, while it could not be overlooked, might perhaps be borne with.  But the late Oscar Wilde, though an adroit writer of showy, insincere comedies of modern society, had no perception of tragedy….Salome is little more than a mass of luscious verbiage, with the adjective doing most of the work…rouged and painted like a courtesan’s face…very repellant to a healthy taste…This kind of stuff has no relation to art.  It is animalism, or worse; for animals have their decencies.  As a study in decadent expression, and also from the personal point of view as a human document, Salome is interesting in the library, but it is not fitted for stage representation.” (Bernard Weller, The Stage, review of Wilde’s Salome, cited by Hoare 97-8)

“In her acting as Salome she seemed to feel more than she could express, and her elocution was very faulty.  To the suggestion that Salome is only a child influenced by the first stirrings of puberty, Miss Allan did not lend any support.  Her Salome, on the contrary, suggested a passionate woman, and this reading is of course the only one consistent with the text.” (Bernard Weller, The Stage, review of Wilde’s Salome, cited by Hoare 98)

Reference: Hoare, Philip.  1997.  Oscar Wilde's Last Stand: Decadence, Conspiracy, and the Most Outrageous Trial of the Century.  New York: Arcade Publishing.

subjectobject scores

Inspired by the following questions, here are a couple of scores I imagined. The first is for the audience and the second is for 3 performers.

Questions: 

-how are we asking the audience to participate in desire? -can we ask the audience to participate in desire?

-who is the subject and who is the object?

-does the audience have a voice?

-what can the audience take home? (pearls?)

-do the participants ever change roles? Does dancer become camera person etc.?

Score for audience

Preparation:

Tape off 3-4 play areas of different shapes and sizes, inside the taped area invitingly arrange cushions, 7 silky scarves (aka dance of the 7 veils that Salome was said to have done), and bowls of pearls (some strung and some loose).   For each play area place a video camera on a tripod at varying distances from it.  

Installation:

During 20-ish min time,  while audience is roaming freely, play music that has bits of the publicity about Maud Allan in it.  

Prompt for entering the play area:  

        An invitation to play!

Play!

Decorate!

Feel the textures!

Take Selfies!

Enjoy!  

Upon entering you are giving your permission to be video-taped.

Feel free to interact with the camera, or not, in any way you wish including blocking or revealing what you want to be seen. 

At any time you wish, you may step out of the area or take a turn at the camera or just watch from the inside or outside.

Prompt for viewing through the camera:  

An invitation for mindful viewing

As you look through the camera, notice the frame around the edges

Compare what you see through the camera and what you can see beyond

Be aware of how you position your own body to look through the camera.

Imagine being an outside viewer and notice how you are adding to the picture.

Be mindful if others are waiting a turn and you may choose to take a turn in the dance and play area or move to the outside to watch.  

Score for 3 performers

Set a circle performance area with cushions, 7 scarves, bowls of pearls

Set a dancer/viewer area outside the performance area looking in

Set a camera inside the performance area looking out and live feed projected on scarves 

Set a text reading area outside the perimeter of the performance area looking in

Round 1: Original

Perform text, movement and video as originally created in the 2014  group study

Round 2:  Text remix

Camera person chooses one item to decorate another performer.  That performer moves to the camera position and the camera person takes the other performers’ place.

reader can read part or all of the text and dancer improvises in response, using 90percent of the original movement vocabulary.  The camera person follows the dancer.  

Round 3:  Movement remix

Camera person chooses one item to decorate another performer.  That performer moves to the camera position and the camera person takes the other performers’ place.

Dancer improvises using 90percent of the original movement vocabulary, the reader follows repeating all or parts of the text, fragmenting and repeating, the camera person responds to the dancer, and occasionally moves over to the text reader.  

Round 4: Camera remix

Camera can choose who or what to film, the dancer responds to the camera using 90 percent of the original movement vocabulary but is also able to use the scarves or other means to block or modify the viewing experience.  The text is read in fragments and even the syllables are fragmented and extended.  

Multiplying Score for 3 performers and 3 audience members

This is the score I created for our last assignment- addressing 2 guiding questions, and inspired by Cynthia's score.

1. how are we asking the audience to participate in desire? 
 -can we ask the audience to participate in desire?

2. what can we do with pearls?

Score

• 3 performers with trays with pearls, maybe refreshing spray with cold mist (or ice cubes) and essential oil, and cards with text
• texts : homophobic targeting or super exotifying promotion language, or (current?) critiques of exoticism/orientalism)
• -> go interact with and “decorate” one audience member each; interaction can include the pearls, cold scented mist, ice cubes,  essential oils
• Ask the “decorated” audience member to take one card and read the text on the chosen card
• Take Selfie with decorated audience member if they want?

• Give audience member the tray and ask them to repeat the score with another audience member
• Repeat with new tray (depending on how big the audience maybe up to 12 trays?)

This is the feedback from the Skype meeting on August 13, 2018.

I appreciate:

MM: that the audience member repeats the score with another audience member

CL:  I like the inclusion of the critical text

SM: I love the selfies. It makes it very contemporary. Makes it very past present. Old text with this contemporary thing that we all do.

I wonder:

I wonder what they do with ice cubes?

CL: I’m curious why the cold?

SM: I’m curious how the audience member will feel with the decorations and the different texts?

CL: how we want the audience members to feel?

CL:  if the audience member has the freedom to change the score in a way they might feel more comfortable with?

SM: I wonder what it will feel like done to me, I want to try it.

CL:  I wonder how it will it feel to be decorated in this way if they don’t identify as femme?

SM: I wonder how the permissiveness of performance and play allows people to play with how they normally present themselves in a safe way?

SM: I wonder what it would be like if the score was adjusted so that the audience member can decorate themselves?

CL:  how much does the audience member get to choose?

Salomé: a score for one performer and one audience member

Here is a score I came up with in response to the question: "How are we asking the audience to participate in desire?" I decided to compose an interactive audience-performer score that was based on the five senses.

Salomé: a score of sensuality for one performer and one audience member
Ask the audience member, preferably a femme, to close their eyes.
Explore how the audience member smells.
Pass a flower or small container of essential oil under their nose (preferably whichever flowers the honey-bees feed on). If using a flower, tuck it behind their ear.
Ask them to open their mouth. Feed them a spoonful of honey, or if you’re feeling up for it, dip your finger in honey and have them suck on it.
Whisper the first line of the Salome publicity to the audience member, starting with one ear and finishing with the other: “The pink pearls slip amorously about her bosom and throat as she moves, while the long strand of pearls that floats from the belt about her waist floats languorously apart from her smooth hips.”
Ask the audience member to open their hand, palm up. Place a strand of pearls in their hand, holding the end. Then slowly drag it up their arm, throat, and place it around their neck.
Ask the audience member to open their eyes. Perform Sandra’s abhinaya study, addressing the audience member as if they are Maud Allan.

Here is the feedback that I received about the score during our Post Natyam meeting (MM = Meena, SC = Sandra, SM = Shyamala, CL = me):

I appreciate:
MM: Full sensory experience: taste, eyes, nose, touch.
Shy: I love the way the whispering moves from one ear to the other ear. And I also was appreciating that it first grounds the performer to appreciate how the audience member smells. Makes it more mutual.
MM: whispering like an old school panning of sound from one ear to the ear.
SM: The whispering could mimic the movement of a string of pearls around a neck

I wonder:
MM: I wonder where this can happen?
CL: I wonder how I choose the audience member
MM: I wonder about gender pronouns?
SC: I wonder where other audience members are at the same time
MM: I wonder about intimacy and where the boundaries are
CL: I wonder about consent
SM: I wonder about privacy and viewing. I was curious if the other audience members are privy to this experience or if it is totally private? (is it seen from outside, or on projection, or totally private?)
SM: I wonder how many people get to experience the one on one experience?
CL: I wonder how much discomfort vs comfort is desired? Is the goal to keep it a comfortable, consensual interaction of queer intimacy, or is it to make them feel objectified and uncomfortable, or something in between?
MM: I wonder about the racial dynamics
SC: There’s something racialized about eliciting a sensual experience that I’m wondering about (Asian woman as seductress, or as a helper/liberator who helps someone else discover their own sensuality/sexuality)
CL: I wonder if all of us do the score at the same time to different audience members?