If I didn't already give it away in the title, I bet you may not have guessed that this picture was taken in the women's restroom. (Except for Boroka and Colleen who were there with me.) For future reference this is at the Ace Hotel theater in Los Angeles. Ladies, check it out.
This picture immediately has character to me. There are many small details with which to work. I love the two columns of lights lining the sides of the mirror on the wall. All of the lights in this theater were stunning, from the colors to the textures they created. (That is more than I can say about the dance performance that we saw there, but I digress.) This picture stood out to me the most because I can see a dance work created around a multi-dimensional character that can progress throughout the piece based on these lights. I also think lighting ideas can originate from this picture as well, such as the use of the lights behind a cyc that are visible with the cyc flown out. Let's say the work is starring...
Boroka!
There are many different directions I could take a piece, and many different directions the lighting can go. Maybe the beautiful and seemingly put together character you see in the mirror illuminated by the lights is a facade for someone that has a dark quality starting to surface that will become more pronounced by the movement and lighting. I think that because this is in an old theater building, it automatically has a duality--such as beautiful and haunted--to it that can parallel a character.
Disclaimer: The character described above is not based on Boroka.
Cara, I think you picked a great main character/dancer for this theoretical piece. Your description seems accurate of the lighting and the theater, and the character descriptions seems to be drawn from real life ;) muahaha.
ReplyDeleteBUT ACTUALLY, I do agree with your duality description of the theater and lights. I LOVED that theater, and was also inspired by the way they used lights to illuminate its beauty and leave its showing age in the shadows. (kind of like Christians chandelier, bringing our attention to the good stuff with light!)
Im honored to appear in your post this week! :)
This picture makes me think of vintage glamour; a black and white film starring a gorgeous young movie star! But there is also something haunting about it, lending itself to the duality you are talking about.
ReplyDeleteVery nice post - it is so great how light is factoring so much into your creation of dance - architectural lighting can evoke so many emotions, but generally we just pass it by
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