ouibellbells-blog
Bonjour Paris
May 15 - June 9
21 posts
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Dixième Jour
Peace, Hope, Acceptance
While visiting the Grande Mosquée de Paris these were three words that stood out to me. Recently the Islam religion has been misunderstood and therefore Muslim have been targeted. Our tour guide explained that the arch to enter the foyer before the prayer rooms represented peace. Given that we happened to be there on one of the busiest days Eid al-Fitr, which is the last day of Ramadan, I was shocked by how welcoming everyone was. Even though 10,000 people had already been there in the morning to pray, people still took the time out of this busy day to great us. I have never felt more welcomed in a religious environment. Overall I was impressed by how open the Imam was towards us even though we were tourists. He reminded us to be kind to others and love and accept one another aside our differences. While this is something I have always believed necessary, it was nice to hear a reminder.
Au revoir
xoxo
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Jour Neuf
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the contemporary art museum. While I usually do not gravitate to this style of art, I was able to find intriguing ideas within ordinary objects. The collection of Marcel Duchamp pieces surrounding the fountain were all related; they were normal commercially produced consumer items, that were placed and modified in a way that they could no longer serve their original purpose, in turn making them into art. The urinal was placed on the ground in a way that it could no longer function, the windows were blacked out so they could no longer be see through, the chair had a wheel on top of it so it could no longer be sat in, and the coat hanger was placed on the ground where it can’t be useful. Just these simple modification made ordinary objects into a means to test society. At the time these pieces were so controversial because many didn’t view them as art. However this is the exact breakthrough the art world needed. Instead of having art be completely separate and nonexistent in daily life, these pieces made it possible to incorporate normal daily processes into art. This gave artists the ability to portray real life instead of making art that had all human flaws removed from it.
Au revoir
xoxo
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Huitième Jour
Expanding space ~
During my free time, I went to the Musee de l’Orangerie to see the Claude Monet exhibit. I was blown away when I walked into the room where all the walls were covered with The Water Lilies series. Part of the impact was due to the sheer size and mass of color that surrounds the viewer in this particular room. From all angles fluffy brush strokes picture an enchanting scene of serenity and beauty. I enjoyed taking in the paintings from a far, and then doing the exact same at a close range. This would change the clarity of the image. However this same idea of focusing in on a small part of the canvas will distort any image, no matter the original clarity. By choosing a small portion of the painting to focus on, the key elements and colors are clearer, almost broken up into different colorful dots. While at this range the larger picture is no longer present, the same elements necessary to form it are still there. This inspired me to take a similar approach in my choreography. I want to break down the movements I create into just the necessary elements in order to create movement that is different than what I usually create.
Au revoir
xoxo
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Septième Jour
The Lourve ~
What an incredibly historic building. Not only is there Medieval remnants of a castle, but also the structure of the 17th century Royal Palais built on top of it. Walking through the enormous building there are so many different artistic styles present underneath the same roof. It is incredible to admire the greek mythology within many of the sculptures as well as the horrific tragedies France has experiences during wars. One of my favorite paintings was Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix. This painting depicts the July revolution of 1830, which overthrew King Charles X of France. I found the painting to be an intriguing mix of brutality and beauty. While Marianne, the goddess of liberty and reason, is triumphantly standing in the middle, she is given a platform of dead bodies. The hopeful and triumphant quality within the painting is overwhelming, leaving the viewer with conflicted feelings of heart break and perseverance.
Au revoir
xoxo
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Jour Quatre
Time to go to Chateau de Versailles...
Today we got started very early. While I was so excited to see the Palace where three royal couples lived during some of the most important parts of French History, it was hard to remember this so early in the morning. However after an espresso and croissant, I was excited to hop on the bus and go to Versailles. The first thing we saw on arrival, was the massive courtyard in front, with an enormous glittering golden gate. On closer look, evidence of Louis XIV’s (the sun king) presence is undeniable with his signature emblem of his radiant sun face on the entire gate. Even in the smallest details, Louis XIV guaranteed that everyone visiting the Palace, including all the servants, knew who was in control of practically everything. He even tried to control nature but shaping all of the trees into squares not only in the Palace gardens, but throughout all of Paris. This is why the people truly believed he was God because his mark was on everything. He was given the name Sun King after the role he played in the first ballet he premiered. He also popularized ballet, somewhat in an effort to keep everyone so busy that they wouldn't have time to think about overthrowing him. Thanks to him ballet has come a long way from then, but is still very prevalent. Part of the reason performing and practicing ballet today is still so expensive is because the values for this form were established during a time of unlimited funding. Being the King, Louis XIV could fund anything he wanted just by raising the taxes. This allowed him to develop decadent sets designs and costumes that became a key staple in ballet.
Au revoir
xoxo
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Jour Trois
In the morning I took a ballet class at Studio Harmonic, from Wayne Byars. The change of scenery was an interesting experience. While our studios at Kaufman are expansive, this studio was very small and intimate. It was necessary to work together with the dancers around you, to ensure that no one got injured. The pianist played beautiful music that had a jazzy quality which reminded me of New York. Not only were the studios and music different, but the French dancers had a clean, elegant, and conservative quality in their dancing that was very different from the way we dance at Kaufman. I found the simplicity and cleanliness in their movement quality intriguing and decided to emulate it for a class. I found a surprising connection between the aesthetic quality of this city and its dancers; not only is the city of Paris beautiful, clean, and elegant, but so are its dancers. In the evening we went to see a program at the Opera national de Paris to see Iolanta / The Nutcracker preformed by Paris Opera and Ballet. My favorite part of the program was actually the Opera because the lead did an incredible job with how she acted her part.
Au revoir
xoxo
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Jour Deux
Flaneur- A person who walks around observing society... Today we walked a lot. I realized that I have a habit of looking down when flaneuring, which I have been actively working to improve. Paris is such a beautiful city and I don’t want to miss out on the architecture by looking at the ground. We learned that Baron Haussmann was the person who transformed the right bank of Paris to look the way it does today. However during this process he destroyed the old medieval architecture and streets. While there are still remnants of those buildings on the left bank, it is rare. I started to consider at what cost does the good of modernizing a city outweigh the bad of losing historic architecture. We can all agree that Paris is a gorgeous city, but it is sad to think that this was at the cost of tearing down history.
Au revoir
xoxo
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