Swing trend is all around

Surely not exhaustive, but it's already a good list of contemporary mainstream productions about swing music and swing dancing revisited.
The videos are from American, Canadian, French, Japanese and Swedish productions.
Some are less mainstream than others, I admit, but they still participate in the process of forming a mainstream representation of nowadays swing culture, which I'm interested in.

Missing :
apparently there is also some swing dancing/lindy hopping in a Simpson episode, in the movie "Au revoir Taipei" (2010), in the opening scene of "Mulholland Drive" (David Lynch, 2000), in the Cheerleaders movie "Bring it on"(2000)...

In Movies :

2011 - Swing of Change,

An ESMA (France) Graduation Short Film Directed by : Harmony Bouchard, Andy Le Cocq, Joakim Riedinger, Raphael Cenzi

Synopsis : New York 30's : Harry, a racist barber changes his mind at the arrival of a magical trumpet in his barber shop !

Montreal French Toast team at ULHS 2011

Here is the video of our last performance at Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown 10th Anniversary last week-end in New Orleans. As usual, the HOT HOT Jazz at the French Quarter was outstanding! I came back with LOADS of good memories shared with my friends. My birthday was amazing ! Ô, I got a damn happy birthday ! Got a dollar on my shirt like a real Nola birthday girl, and got tones of happy wishes from everybody in the street, restaurant, tourists, locals, friends, dancers, and a total of 21 green papers in my tiny safety pin to spend on booze (or else :-))
Enjoy !
Dancers are from left to right : Lunou Sansom Poirot, Alexandre Hétu Rivard, Geneviève Saint Laurent, Alain Wong, me, Aleix Prats Ferrer, Amanda Fong and Jonathan Caron, and special guest Steve Poirier.

Tango de los hombres

For my thesis research, I'm reading a book on tango, and another one on salsa. I'm discovering the complexity of partner dancing, and how the analysis and understanding of it, especially the power relations, are intricate and non obvious.

Yesterday, I sent my mother a video of these two men, two brothers : Enrique y Guillermo de Fazio dancing the tango (a milonga).

I thought her comments were very interesting. She said those two dancers are alike, they are the same. There is no distinction between the partners. One leads, the other follows, the other leads, the first follows. They are both very masculine and if one has to be more masculine than the other, then it's the shortest one, surprisingly.

I only discovered afterwards that the dancers were brothers.

So I looked for more videos of tango between men, and although there are many that clearly state homosexuality, the gendered gestures are not always the ones we expect.

Tango used to be danced among men. Dancing with a woman was too outrageous at the time. Now it seems that man/woman dancing in couple is too conservative. Time changes. But the revival and popularity of couple dance is growing around the globe. This is where my current research is looking at. Let's see where is takes me.

One last video before I go go :

TOP Notch TV clips with lindy hoppers !

Marie N'Diaye and Anders Sihlberg for Tiger of Sweden. Marie, you look amazing !!

Ryan François and Remy Kouakou Kouame for Slow Club, inspired by dancers Al Minns and Leon James. Beautiful.

The Careless Lovers' interpretation of the classic "Black Coffee". LOVE it ! Starring Joshua Welter and other Seattle cool dancers. This clip won the Seattle Vintage Jazz Dance's third annual Swing/Jazz Dance Music Video Contest.

Brief thoughts

I recently realized how relieving it is to consider everyone as a friend by default, and then see what happens.
I think, over time, childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, moving from a country to another, trying to fit, making new friends each time, live on my own, I've taken the habit to consider first that any one can dislike me and reject me. It's a sad, hard and lonely feeling.
I keep in mind what my mother told me once, about an experience and an epiphany her friend had, while taking care of deceased people in India, washing their naked bodies that suffered illness, hunger, or just age and time of life. He told her, this task was only bearable if he could consider every one of them as his own child.

I've been thinking about that a lot lately, just to calm myself when I have a conflict with someone, for X reason. That thought relieved me immediately the other day. I surprised myself how light I felt, and almost happy. It made me smile when I only had dark clouds in my mind, just from the thought that if I can separate the feeling of anger from the person I was directing it to, there isn't any reason to feel angry anymore, just a problem to be solved.

It's a precious thought that I think my mother would have called a "mystical" experience. I will try to put it into practice whenever I can, when I'm angry, or when I'm afraid to be rejected.
The wide and wild social world can be very scary, and it feels sometimes that there isn't enough room for everyone, and we feel constantly put into jeopardy when we don't have a home to rely on. But if we could love everyone as if they were our own child, then space doesn't matter anymore. Everything becomes love. And love has no sense of quantity.
I'm Jewish, but I must say, Jesus had a good point !
When this thought becomes a slogan, then it's difficult to make sense of what it truly means. And I guess that an experience like my mother's friend's, or an experience of deep loneliness or anger, give more sense to the idea of love, than a general philosophy or moral codes that stay very abstract. 

Photo, Nourit Masson-Sékiné, nouritms.fr

Suite of the previous "comments"

I was not expecting to have such a publicity and being referenced by Jerry on his fb threads.
So I'll give you some examples of battles that I came to witness recently, and the different atmospheres and attitudes that we can get inspired from :

First, street dance :
The Bust A Move competition held in Montreal last May is described as the biggest urban dances competition in Canada. Dancers came from all over Canada, the US, Japan, France, etc. There was hip hop, house, waacking, locking, popping, bboying...

The hip hop finals :
Jr Boog VS Leah McFly : Check out their attitudes when one is dancing, how each of them provoke the other, what kind of movements they use to provoke, the mimicry, but also the way they congratulate each other after the final judgement



The Locking semi-finals (top 6) :
Salah VS Hurrikane (in a funky outfit). I'm posting this video because Salah (in black) was one of my favorite dancers. This video is also interesting to observe the interaction between them, and how being the first or the second to go can be decisive. The obvious reason being that Hurrikane can and will take each Salah's "flash" move to turn it against him and win after a first tie. And big hug happening at 5:24 and again at 5:29. 2 hugs are better than one, right  :-)
The mimicry :
Check Salah at 1:04
Check Hurrikane at 1:48
Check Salah at 3:47, ... just because ! :-)
Check Salah at 3:44
Check Hurrikane at 4:12-4:25



The Waacking !!!
Their attitudes !! OMG !! The battle is starting BEFORE the battle, like the Sumo, by the way they enter the stage, get prepared, introduce themselves, you already know who's gonna win (or almost ..:-))


And finally, the swing dance one-to-one battles. 
I think everybody will agree that the best battles happen at Showdown
Of course, first of all, ULHS, the Decavitas VS Villafane and Davis. There, you can feel the emulation !!



In 2009, the finals between DaxAnnie VS JoannaChance : the energy is what made this battle



In 2010, again, ULHS solo charleston finals. BBonsey clearly knows the battle culture. When Chance was taking the advantage at 1:10, Bobby exploded it at 1:29.



I don't feel that the "battle" really happens when the couples dance at the same time :
Savoy Swing Jam 2011



And at last, the object of disapproval : Camp Jitterbug Lindy Couples Finals
I repeat, I was also frustrated by the way it happened, BUT some were capable of winning anyway and catch the judges' attention.
This brings to another debate, that is what should or could be more valued in a strictly competition. Is it the flashy dance, the well executed choreographed sequences, or the spontaneity, the musicality, the unexpected ...



So, what's your opinion ?

I personally don't feel AT ALL comfortable with the battle format, it's difficult, I don't speak loud and don't dance loud. But I want to try. I want to challenge you and challenge my comfort zone. And I also want to get closer to my dance's original culture and tradition.

We are definitely not living in the same social context as the Savoy dancers. I have food on my table. I never had to fear for my life. There hasn't been any war in any of the countries I lived in my life for decades. Even though I feel that I am part of a minority, I am not a victim and have never been directly subjected to racism or antisemitism.

But I think there is a sense of social catharsis that still bring us all together in this dance. Why are social dances so popular now ? Why people feel the need to get in physical contact with each other, why people need so much to feel a sense of belonging ? What is it that happen in Herräng every summer ? What is it that gives us the impression that we are going to church every time we enter the Preservation Jazz Hall and hear the bands play ? Is this all related ? I believe so.

This brings me back to my passion for LH and its roots. Battles are interesting because it's another way of challenging the dancers that does not (or less, or differently) depend on your reputation, or your social status in the scene. If Pontus and Frida didn't make it this time, it's because they didn't do as well as last year. The battles are defined by the Right here, Right now. If you don't bring it now, then, too bad. Maybe next time. I will have to think it through a little more, but it might be a more democratic way of judging one's dance, that leave also a chance to unknown dancers who can be brilliant if you just let them dance under the spotlight for a few seconds. 

At the street dance comp that I went to, all the prelims were held in a battle format. No all skate. We should think about it.

Comments on a current blog-o-sphere debate on Battles in jazz dances comps

Lindy Hop Battle at Ultimate LH Showdown 2010
Photo credits : Alexandre Hétu-Rivard 

This is a comment I wrote on a Jerry Almonte's blog, but for some reason, it is not appearing on it, so screw internet or/ timing or/ Jerry or/whatever reason, here is my comment on 2 blogs' posts I read lately, the first being Mary Freitag's article on Camp Jitterbug battle format for the couple competition, and the second being Jerry's article on the ways to interact with people during a jazz dance battle, the appropriate/smart ways, and the unappropriate/way to avoid an uncomfortable battle interaction.

- Jerry 07/08/2009 : http://jsalmonte.wordpress.com/2009/08/07/a-different-kind-of-lead-and-follow/

- Mary 01/06/2011 : http://artanddancing.wordpress.com/2011/06/01/competition-philosophy-and-camp-jitterbug/

My comment concerns a specific observation on the way those 2 articles refer to the B-Boys battle formats in contrast to the Swing dancers'.

***

...it’s the second time in 2 days that I see a comparison with the B-Boys, about the battle format in dance, the first time being Mary Freitag’s post on her blog. The comparison is legitimate. When we think of a dance battle, we usually picture the street dances. We can also think of other one-to-one formats, like in martial arts, capoeira, etc. So I understand the reference.

But, what is starting to making me feel uncomfortable with the comparison is the elements that are used to highlight the difference between US/THEM. In these 2 blogs, Mary and you talk about our scene, and our dance, the LH, and the B-Boys are used as the only external reference to make a distinction with what we don’t want in our scene. What is it that we don’t want ? “Negativity”, “aggressiveness”, that is “uber-something”, “problematic”, that “escalate into something that could get out of hand”. Meaning violence, irrationality, impulsivity, excessiveness….

Well, I understand we don’t want that, but do you really think this description, in return and in contrast, fairly defines the B-Boys scene ? I understand that was not your intention, but this is how your discourses mark the boundary between us and them. And this, I find, not legitimate.

Bust A Move

A few weeks ago, I went to a street dance national competition (popping, hip hop, locking, waacking, house, …). All the comps, prelims and finals, were hold in a battle format one-to-one or double-to-double, mixing male and female dancers. One battle, out of I can’t count how many, almost-but-not-likely got into a real fight. Only one ! In all the other battles, you could feel the tension in the air, but only to end with a big hug between the competitors at the end. It’s all an act. The tension is part of the show. And it takes some hell of guts to bring it out there !

I personally think there’s a lot we can get inspired from the street dances scenes. We have become, or have we always been since the revival, very clean and nice. Now, we even have to be pretty and wear high heels to go to a dance.

LH used to be a street dance too. And the rage you can feel in Hellzapoppin, you won’t find it by being nice and clean. I firmly don’t think so. And rage can be positive too. In LH, we transform it into JOY !

Well, I say, I’d rather have some battles in the LH comps’ to push our limits, bring it, and smell the bacon in HAMpton’s dance ! Give me some of that ! mmmmmh.

Dawn Hampton
Photo credits : Li-Hsien Lim

Anaïs

PS : I was in CJ and I understand Mary’s point and her frustration. I was also disappointed of seeing so little of Pontus and Frida and of Brittany and Dargoff etc.. But the battle format is, I believe, not in question, but more the length and the choice of song that was tooooo slow ! It didn’t give back enough to the audience.

The Northern Lights at the Jump Session Show 2011 in Seattle

Aren't we the most beautiful group of people ?? 

Yes Yes Yes

De gauche à droite :

En haut à la barre : Alain Fragman, Eric Bertrand,

Debouts derrière le canapé : Joshua Welter, Sylwia Bielec, Putra Manggala, Marc-André Vachon, Alain Wong,

Assises sur le canapé : Catherine Desjardins, Lunou Samson Poirot, Mélanie Huot-Lavoie, Caroline Rossi, Anaïs Sékiné

Cat's Corner Performance at the Rialto Theater

Here is a video of a performance by Cat's Corner dance school that took place on the 28th of April.
We managed to put together a sort of medley with
- the Swedish Savoy routine performed by Miss Meghan Gilmore and myself
- the "guys"(Angga, Jonathan & WAlain)
- The "W" project
- Big California routine finale with everybody

It's super dark and we can't see most of it, but here it is !

Workshop/Stage @ Strasbourg juillet 2011

Aleix and I have organized a swing dances workshop in my home town, Strasbourg, with the precious help of my mother. It will happen at the beginning of July in a well known and popular restaurant-bar called Au Camionneur. The bar often hosts concerts and dance classes like salsa, zouk, merengue, etc.
You can already check us out on our new web-blog : http://basin-street.blogspot.com
We are planning to organize a few more workshops, maybe in Paris and Barcelona, throughout the summer. Stay in touch :-)

Here are the infos :

Prochain stage de DANSES SWING en juillet à Strasbourg

Lieu

Au camionneur

14, rue Georges Wodli - 67000 Strasbourg, France

03 88 32 12 60

www.au-camionneur.fr

Dates

4-8 Juillet 2011 

(du lundi au vendredi)

Proposition

*** 2 cours de swing par jour pendant une semaine ***

Heures

de 19h a 20h15 cours de danse AUTHENTIC VINTAGE JAZZ (solo)

de 20h45 a 22h cours de DANSE EN COUPLE.

(lindy hop, charleston, shag, ...)

à partir de 22h Soirée DJ et DANSE SOCIALE

L'accent sera mis sur l'apprentissage des PAS, des RYHTMES et de la PANACHE unique des danses vernaculaires JAZZ !

Il n'est pas nécessaire de venir avec un partenaire. 

Nous ferons des rotations. 

Venez avec vos amis pour que nous puissions avoir un cours équilibré entre cavaliers/cavalières. 

Les femmes sont aussi invitées à apprendre à guider. 

Les hommes qui veulent apprendre à suivre sont également les bienvenus.

Notez qu'aucune acrobatie ne sera enseignée.

Le week-end qui suivra la semaine de cours pourra donner lieu à un stage intensif de deux jours pour les participants qui souhaitent continuer l'aventure.

Soyez nombreux à nous le faire savoir un peu à l'avance. 

Nous ferons de notre mieux pour vous servir.

ÉCRIVEZ-NOUS !

Les Professeurs

Anaïs (Strasbourg/Tokyo/Montréal) et Aleix (Barcelone/Montréal), deux sympathiques globe-trotteurs des temps modernes, vous feront découvrir les joies des danses Swing. Leurs cours, dynamiques et amusants, vous initieront au : Charleston, Lindy Hop, Balboa, Shag, Boogie Woogie (danses de couple des années 1920-50). 

Ce couple de danseurs a acquis une expérience solide d’enseignement des danses de Swing à Barcelone, Strasbourg, Paris et Montréal depuis plus de 5 ans. Trés actifs dans le domaine de la danse sociale, ils participent régulièrement à des événements et des compétitions en Amérique du Nord et en Europe. 

Ils font tous les deux également partie de la troupe des "NORTHERN LIGHTS" qui se produit chaque année dans plusieurs événements et compétitions: Jump Session Show à Seattle, International Lindy Hop Championships à Washington DC, Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown à la Nouvelle Orléans, et régulièrement à Montréal.

Visitez la page "Media" pour voir photos et vidéos.

Laissez-nous vous émerveiller par cette famille de danses pleine de joie et d'énergie.

Soyez prêt à faire entrer le JAZZ en vous !

Prix :
10€ par cours
15€ les deux cours
Prix spécial pour toute la semaine (soit 10 cours): 60€

Contacts
Site Web :
http://basin-street.blogspot.com
Courriel :
Anaïs : sekineanais@gmail.com
Aleix : chinohep@gmail.com

Crédits photo :

Eric Bertrand

Aleix Prats Ferrer

Al and Leon's shim sham

Today, I learned a solo routine I've been craving to learn for a while. Ok, craving might be a little strong. But I've had this with the Trunky Doo routine too, watching it and watching it again so many times that I knew it before dancing it. Those are fascinating routines. And this one, especially, and mostly, when you watch it danced by Frida and Sakarias. I've watched this video over, and over yet again.



Meghan recently moved to Montreal from Calgary. She adopted Cat's Corner as her dance home.
I love listening to her stories about Herräng (the Mecca of swing dancing happening every July in Herräng, a little town in the North of Sweden) and all her insights about lindy hopping and swing culture and people, and we finally took the time to get together and practice our solo dance. I'm already looking forward to our next practice. As you understood, we're working on this Al and Leon's shim sham revisited by our Swedish heroes. And she sent me this link earlier today of two other Swedish dancers, Daniel and Asa, doing it. And I've had again a WOW moment with this routine. Just watch and see by yourself. This is why I'm so passionate about this dance.



The routine is not difficult in itself. We got through the routine in an hour. But the fun, tricky and most essential part is in the interpretations of each jazz steps. This is how it gets wild ! Just look at Daniel ! Isn't he cool ? like the definition of cool. Look at Asa at 1:15. Oh yes, shake it mama ! And Daniel at 1:06. When it hits the music this way, the cells in my skin start hopping.
Oh I'm having fun. Loads of fun !!!

Prochain colloque CEETUM

This will be my first talk on my thesis subject. I'm excited and a little anxious about it. 

The subject has been decided not long ago, around mid november, after a kind of "illumination" on what would be my field of research. I've been working on the concepts of "Conscience minoritaire" and "Politique du minoritaire". But I've been feeling a lack of empirical groundness for a while, and couldn't find a satisfying "subject" to apply my conceptual intuition.

I found my inspiration in Max Weber's sociology of music and decided to finally do what I've been thinking about for a couple of years : a sociology of lindy hop, the most popular African-American dance of the 30's in North America that has become my passion for the last 5 years. More than alive, as you can see if you take a look at my blog and do a quick research on youtube. It's a worldwide phenomena.

So here it is, the abstract of my talk. It's going to happen at le Centre des Études Ethniques des Universités Montréalaises. The program is accessible through this link. It will happen on the 23-24-25th of this month, February, so next week. My talk will be on Friday between 3:15pm and 5:15pm. The session should be interesting. There will be also a talk on female rap singers, female Muslim Quebecers, immigration and race. 

The following English text is not the exact translation of the French one. It's the abstract I submitted for the International Conference on Body Image and Contemporary Society held at the City University of New York in April.

Les corps de la transculturalité du lindy hop : Rencontre éthique dans la danse sociale 

Cette communication entend mettre en relation les rapports de genre et l’histoire raciale d’une danse de couple et sera axée sur une problématisation intersectionnelle des rapports sociaux des danseurs contemporains de lindy hop. Cette recherche mobilise à la fois une méthodologie classique et expérimentale et une perspective théorique critique vis-à-vis des frontières disciplinaires.

Le lindy hop est une danse sociale africaine-américaine apparue dans les années 1920 à Harlem, dont la culture, « swing », est devenue une des plus grandes cultures populaires de l’Amérique blanche des années 1940 et 1950. Depuis les années 1990 en Amérique du Nord, le lindy hop refait émergence dans un contexte social radicalement différent. Les motivations et les représentations des danseurs mobilisent des concepts d’« authenticité » culturelle du lindy hop et de « progrès » social qui mettent explicitement en jeu des questionnements sociétaux fondamentaux comme les relations hommes/femmes, Noirs/Blancs, gai/hétérosexuel, etc.

Cette recherche est en continuité avec une réflexion développée antérieurement sur le concept de « conscience minoritaire ». Elle s’appuie sur une observation participante dans la « scène swing » montréalaise, sur une analyse du discours de danseurs-blogueurs et sur des séquences visuelles de danse. Elle s’intéresse à plusieurs dimensions de la danse que sont : l’héritage socioculturel et racial ; la forme genrée de la danse-à-deux ; ses techniques corporelles ; sa pratique sociale.

De là, nous montrerons comment cette rencontre pluridimensionnelle de la danse avec l’Autre traduit, dans un langage verbal et non verbal, une rencontre résolument éthique.

« T’ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it »: Body representations and transculturality in Lindy hop dance

This paper analyzes the relation between identity and difference in the lindy hop couple dance by studying a contemporary community of lindy hop dancers and their world of representations.

Swing dancing, including lindy hop, started to appear in ballrooms, clubs and other social scenes of Harlem in the late 20s, with racial segregation as backdrop and at the same time the birth of a new African-American identity and pride. In North America, since the 1990s, the dancers take their inspiration from emblematic figures of the swing era, playing with gender relations and esthetic conventions, using offset movements and discordant voices.

This work is based on several dimensions of social couple dancing that are: 

• The socio-cultural heritage of an African-American dance
• The specific and gendered form of the couple dance
• Its body techniques and social practices. 

From this social activity and its discursive universe emerge a certain "conception of the world” within a culture claimed today by White people and totally unrelated to the social conditions of its predecessors.

This multidimensionality of the dance translates, in a non-verbal language, into an emphatically ethical encounter.

The W Project at Followlogie 2011

Last week-end, my all girls team participated in a competition at Followlogie, a swing event entirely focused on the girls and followers role and dancing.

We won FIRST place ! Yes. FIRST place among four other teams from Montreal and Ottawa, with unanimity of all the judges (Jo Hoffberg, Evita Arce, Nina Gilkenson, Mickael Jagger, Mickey Pedroza).

We, the W Project, are composed of 5 friends, Sylwia Bielec, Christina Rooney, Mélanie Leblanc, Amanda Fong, and myself.

If you're wondering what "W project" means, well, just continue asking yourself.
The project, started in the office of Cat's Corner, one night at the Friday Downtown Stomp, a weekly swing dance night in Montreal.

Inspired by Rosie the Riveter

The idea, I think, came from a common desire of doing something between girls, and between friends with whom we thought would be easy to work with. But mostly, and it was very important for me, we wanted to do something that was different from what is usually expected from an "all-girls team". We banned the idea of having sexy costumes, shiny stockings, or anything that would emphasize the so-called "woman body". We also tried to have dance movements that were feminin, but not too sensual, strong, musical and jazzy. We also worked on keeping each other's individuality and self-expression while building a team cohesion. I think you can really tell from the costumes we chose, expressing distinctive characters among women of the swing era, but the most important of all, from our choreography and our 5 personal presences and ways of interpreting a jazz step. To do this we all did our share of the choreography. Some of it we did all together during a practice, some of it was partly done by one of us (the saxophone was Chris and Mel's part, the trumpet was Sylwia's, the piano was mine).

We were also concerned about giving each of us an equal share of the "spotlight", and not have a lead character, or on the contrary, a complete uniformity.

In the end, all of this took quite a long time to shape itself, but we succeeded to achieve everything we worked for as all of those qualities have been mentioned by the judges and the public when they came to congratulate us after our performance.

So thank you girls, from the bottom of my heart. I loved spending this time with you, creating, thinking, working, laughing, joking, training, talking ... I'm amazed how easy it's been to do this with you, and to see we could share such a common idea of the dance. I'm so glad we did this and that I got to know you better. You are awesome !!!!

I want to thank also my love and partner, Aleix, for supporting, helping, loving, caring and sharing so many things with me and training us in the last few practices.

Thank you Adrian whom I believe helped also Sylwia in the choreographing process,

Thank you Alain Wong for encouraging and pushing us,

Thank you Alain Fragman for your advise and critics

Thank you all of you who's had anything to do with this, by your kind words, your encouragements and, ... anything, really !

And last, but not the least, FATS WALLER the most joyful jazz pianist of all time, who makes everyone smile with his voice and smart fingers. I love you !!!!

We can do it ! And indeed, we did !

... Yes, Yes, Yes

:-)

Shoes.... Ô shoes

These are Remix Vintage Shoes. I love them, love love love them. But so expensive.

I own one pair. Red oxford shoes with fake "croco" texture. Very very stylish, special, great cut.

The remix have become very very popular among swing dancers. Pros often own several of them. I think I first saw them on a picture from an italian swing event (Swing Crash Festival) on facebook or something, and then on Sharon Davis (the first girl from the left)'s fashion blog.

Dream a little dream of me...

Art de vêtir

Ça fait longtemps que je ne regarde plus les runways des hautes coutures. Depuis Christian Dior, prêt-à-porter automne 2002 (par John Galliano) inspiré par les costumes traditionnelles d'extrême orient (Chine, Mongolie, Japon, Tibet...) pour lesquels j'ai un goût certain, je n'avais plus eu de réactions sensorielles aussi enthousiastes que depuis la découverte de la nouvelle collection prêt-à-porter printemps 2011 pour Alexander McQueen par Sarah Burton. Je vais certainement garder son nom en mémoire. Ses créations sont des trésors !
Du miel pour les yeux, une véritable merveille de tissus, de coupes, de texture, de couleurs, de richesse des matériaux, une collection somptueuse par ses détails et par sa finesse. La robe en plumes, ou celle en papillons, sont incroyables.  Le vêtement semble vivant et la femme pourrait bientôt se retrouver nue derrière un nuage de papillons qui s'envolent. Et les chaussures en plume me rappellent la dernière scène de Black Swan où Nathalie Portman se transforme en cygne noire, ... j'entends encore le lourd mouvement de ses ailes qui se déploient.

La collection précédente automne 2010 est royale. Elle inspire une rencontre de l'ancien et du nouveau, par des lignes qui rappellent la guerre des étoiles pour la robe à droite, traits géométriques, linéaires, "coupé", des couleurs de cristaux, de roches, de minéraux, ou au contraire très classique, épurée, par des matériaux souples et soyeux, et à la fois sculpturale comme la dernière robe, brodée de fils d'or.

Mambo Retro 19/12/2010

Les photos de notre gig pour un spectacle de fin d'année d'une école de salsa. Ça s'est passé à la belle salle de l'Astral, à la maison du festival de jazz de Montréal.
On a eu la chance d'être photographiés durant notre performance par Marie José Hains :