In the Picture
Derek and his partner Bethany in the Semi-finals of
Dancing With the Stars
The talented and artistic Derek Hough created a gem of a piece last night at the semi-finals of Dancing With The Stars.
The dance had a frame as a central point. The two dancers (Hough and his "celebrity" partner Bethany Mota) danced with this frame, but the main story was how they moved within the limitations of this frame, with the girl at times trying to get out of the "frame" and the boy pulling her back in.
Derek Hough and Bethany Mota dancing with (and within) a frame
Video of the full dance
It was a piece about art, about painting, about human desires, about love and, of course, about (and of) dance.
Hough must have studied art in some capacity. Perhaps he knows the composition Pictures at an Exhibition by the Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky.
Perhaps he knows the endless (and often futile) debate by modern artists about "The Frame" and how it confines art (although I think it is a false premise, but that is for another discussion).
But, Derek didn't scorn this frame, or try to do away with it. Instead, he used its limitations, as great artists have done, to create a whole world within those four pieces of wood.
Of course, Derek's frame is also the dance floor, so even if his partner left that picture frame, she would still be confined to the dance floor's "frame." Unless she lept off the stage. And that would have been another dance.
But were that moment to arrive, I think Derek (or this character that Derek created) would try to keep her there on the dancer's stage, where art, and dance are, and not into the dark and mundane audience hall.
The piece was picture perfect.
(Don't pay much attention to the whiny music, which is supposed to be an acoustic version of the Jackson 5's "I want you back." It looks like contemporary dance is ahead of contemporary music - or "contemporized" music - although there are some really good singer/songwriters that are hidden from the pop public that coming out these days. Listen and decide, the whiny version, that is.)
Modest Mussorgsky, Russian (1839-1881)
Pictures at an Exhibition: Tuileries (1864)
Allegretto non troppo troppo,capriccioso
Pianist: Byron Janis
Although Mussorgsky's piece is titled Tuileries (after the Tuileries Gardens), he had never been to Paris. Instead, he based his piece on a painting of the Tuileries (now lost) by Russian architect and painter Viktor Hartmann.
Maurice Prendergast, American (1858-1924)
In Luxembourg Gardens (1907)
Oil on Panel
Height: 10.75 in x 14 in
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Posted By: Kidist P. Asrat
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