{"id":651,"date":"2009-08-07T20:14:43","date_gmt":"2009-08-08T03:14:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp\/2009\/08\/jacobs_pillow-my_first_time\/"},"modified":"2009-08-07T20:14:43","modified_gmt":"2009-08-08T03:14:43","slug":"jacobs_pillow-my_first_time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/2009\/08\/jacobs_pillow-my_first_time.html","title":{"rendered":"Jacob’s Pillow–my first time up"},"content":{"rendered":"


<\/font><\/p>\n

The Financial Times wanted a piece that explained the Pillow as well as reviewing the week’s attractions for people not already in the know. A fun assignment, especially as it gave me an excuse (and the means) to go up there for the first time. I thought it was only California that you could drive in for miles and still be nowhere near the border.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

Here’s a few paragraphs, taken from the middle of the piece, about Rennie Harris PureMovement, which performs there through Sunday. (Isn’t “Adidas workout trousers<\/i>” the most adorable Britishism you ever have heard?):
<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\n

In spite of the range of offerings, a common thread does run through
\nthis year’s Festival: hip-hop. The form is so pervasive that it has
\ntranscended its original values and circumstances. The Canadian troupes
\nRubberbandance (August 9-12) and Kidd Pivot (August 19-23), for
\nexample, use the low-riding, sideways-loping legs, the jigsaw body and
\nthe pliant use of the floor to create delicate interior worlds.
<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

Rennie Harris, whose PureMovement troupe is this week’s main
\nattraction, has probably done more to make that expansion possible than
\nanyone. The one-time dancer for Run-DMC and Kurtis Blow has turned
\nhip-hop towards narrative, with a West Side Story<\/i> set in
\npresent-day North Philadelphia, where he grew up. He’s tackled big
\nsocial questions via dancing as silken as a cloudy midnight. And he’s
\nmasterminded a variety show that demonstrates how rapping, DJing,
\nbucket-drumming and so forth form a whole with b-boy tricks and hip-hop
\nsteps. But whatever he’s done, Harris has never forgotten the form’s
\nsocial origins.
<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

“Students of the Asphalt Jungle” (1995)– one of three early works on
\nthe programme– begins with eight buff men in Adidas work-out trousers
\ncrouched in a sprinter’s start. They blast off into b-boy manoeuvres,
\npresented in the usual fashion: one dancer at a time trying to outdo
\nthe rest, spinning like a disc, tumbling through enough flip-flops to
\nturn into a blur, tying himself into a tangled knot. The other men lie
\non their stomachs in push-up position with noses and eyes pressed to
\nthe floor. Harris doesn’t offer hip-hop exhibitionism and machismo
\nblindly. He’s wondering, What’s driving us– or who– and what are we
\ngetting for our effort? <\/i>The audience on Wednesday didn’t hear the
\ntroubling question. They cheered wildly at the spectacular moves.<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n


<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> for the whole piece. <\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"rennieharrissomethingtodowlove.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
Melanie Cotton, Crystal Frazier, Kyle Clark, and Dinita Askew of Rennie Harris
\nPuremovement in Something To Do With Love – Volume One,<\/i> choreography by Rennie
\nHarris. (Photo, Christopher Duggan<\/font><\/o:p><\/span><\/font>.)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Financial Times wanted a piece that explained the Pillow as well as reviewing the week’s attractions for people not already in the know. A fun assignment, especially as it gave me an excuse (and the means) to go up there for the first time. I thought it was only California that you could drive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-651","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}