"Butter Dance" aka "The Jezebel Shake": Interpretive Dance/Critical Theory gets worse
07-24-2013, 02:38 AM![[Image: Butterdancefall.jpg]](http://www.melatisuryodarmo.com/jpeg/Performances/Butterdancefall.jpg)
While I definitely enjoy all the arts, and the variety they bring to life, I'm also one of the first people to call out the ridiculousness behind the rationalizations for what is considered art, dance, etc. nowadays.
I would argue that a populace increasingly steeped in Critical Theory is one where objective truth becomes valued less and less, alongside the rise of Relativism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of...cal_theory
The work, skill, or content involved in a project is now often irrelevant in the face of the ability to incorporate prevailing PC trends, both for recognition and self-righteousness.
Critique becomes THE goal, rather than a tool of logic, and creates a constant drill down against common sense. So much academic nomenclature is used to say so little of substance, and careers are predicated on professional hair-splitting.
Measured, objective discussion is circumvented in place of elaborate, vague rationalizations for actions and ideas, which allow a great deal of post-hoc flexibility and require little intellectual accountability.
If rationalizations are challenged, debate is again overruled by concerns over victimization/harm and lack of understanding of "the deeper meaning/impact".
All of this results in a society where taxpayer money can be used in the form of performance grants, and people encouraged through "higher" education, to produce works like the below example.
For the RVF, I thought I'd coin a more suitable name for this: "The Jezebel Shake"
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Melati Suryodarmo
Exergie-butter dance
Performances focusing on identity and human relations and often referring to political issues and ecological questions are a central part of Melati Suryodarmo oeuvre. The artist says, “I intend to touch the fluid border between the body and its environment through my art works. I aim to create a concentrated level of intensity without the use of narrative structures. Talking about politics, society or psychology makes no sense to me if the nerves are not able to digest the information. I love it when a performance reaches a level of factual absurdity.” Suryodarmo was born in 1969 in Surakarta, Indonesia. She studied international relations and political science in Bandung, Indonesia, before transferring to the Braunschweig University of Art, where she studied butoh and choreography with Anzu Furukawa, time based media with Mara Mattuschka and performance and spatial concepts with Marina Abramović. She has been living in Braunschweig since 1994.
In her performance Exergie-butter Dance Melati Suryodarmo wears a black dress and red shoes while dancing on pieces of butter that keep making her slip and fall. Her repertoire of movements consists of slipping and sliding, crashing down and picking herself up again.
http://www.reactfeminism.org/entry.php?l=lb&id=155&e=t
And just in case you thought this was a one off:
![[Image: TBOT11.jpg]](http://www.melatisuryodarmo.com/jpeg/Performances/TBOT11.jpg)
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THE BALLAD OF TREASURES
Performance
2004
Melati is drag along by an old cart drawn by two horses. She soon lets go of the rope that ties her to the cart and gets up and sings. The performance is about obstacles the world imposes upon the individual depending on his or her nationality, race and historical and political baggage.
http://www.melatisuryodarmo.com/html/w-p/02a9.html
I'm sure you can find even sillier examples on her site, and she is just one among many dedicating their lives to these pursuits.
The question is, when irrelevance and absurdity are put on a pedestal, (skip to the end of the Shake to see the boys applauding and cheering) and society sees the above as worthy of respect and resources, what will it take to reclaim reason?