Suspicion

I keep forgetting that this blog is about musings and art things, not just my work, so I decided that I would make a post that is not necessarily related with my work.

I stumbled into this video in my tumblr about three days ago and I've kept watching it since. I'm a pretty big fan of ballet, not an expert at all and I probably wouldn't go to a ballet, what I'm really a fan of is how powerful their bodies become and how they change, the control they have over their body. How their feet change, because although they dance with their entire body, their feet carry the weight the great majority of the time.

So, the dancing in this video, I think might be somewhere between ballet and contemporary dance. I don't know how old the girl might be, because I haven't cared enough to look, I think she might be somewhere in her teens, maybe getting close to twenty; I only think this because her body is so flat in every direction.
I wonder how many people questioned the performance and choreography, because she looks so young and the dancing is pretty sexy in some parts, I find the attitude of the choreography is kind of sexy. I have no doubt there is a freaking idiot out there that will comment that exact thing, but whatever, that is none of my concern.

The song is titled "Suspicion" and I agree that it's something that the music conveys, there's just barely a climax in the song, there are strings throughout that I think sound playful and mischievous.

Her dancing is quite flawless, I think, and I like her facial expressions. Sometimes she's doing regular dancing, but some other times she dances a long to the strings or the scarce drumbeat. The way the choreography starts and ends is the same: with her walking her hand back and forth, with her fingers, I think there is some playfulness and flirtatiousness in that.
To me, maybe because of her outfit, she's a Black Widow or a Femme Fatale or Catwoman. Perhaps, she'd be appropriate as Catwoman, maybe that's my favorite possibility, although I like the idea of her being a bit more evil than Catwoman, who's just an anti-hero. Maybe a mixture of Catwoman and the Black Widow, or one of those women who marry men and then kill them to keep their money, something along those lines.
The sinuosity of the dance and the waves she makes with her body remind me of a snake. Perhaps she's Klimt's Judith, but much more powerful.


Choreography by: Gina Starbuck Danced by: YAGP winner, Gisele Bethea Music: "Suspicion" by Drehz Filmed and Edited by: Naeem Munaf

Somebody that I used to know

I heard this song and saw the video for the first time two days ago and I was immediately reminded of an ex-lover. Specially, the part where he says that she now treats him like a stranger and how she's now somebody that he used to know.
Break ups are seldom easy, and a person that you were amazingly close to at some point, becomes precisely a stranger. I like to think that when there is a break up for genuine reasons, there is no right or wrong, either party has the right to feel however way they might feel. The song shows both perspectives of a breakup, neither one is right or wrong, they just are.
Now I'm going to try to talk/write about what I like in this video and song, which is difficult, because I absolutely fucking LOVE every single thing about the video and the song. The song in general is mellow, but it manages to be really intense.
I'm not one to claim that I *know* what art is, so this might be an iffy statement, but I love how ARTISTIC this video is. What with the body painting, the merging with the background wall, the painting of the background wall itself, the fact that I feel that both singers are doing a performance and an installation, rather than just performing the song. The colors, the stop motion of the painting, the presence of degradation of color.
I LOVE what a good job both singers do at conveying the emotions and feelings of the song. The guy, very genuinely hurt, serious, raising his eyebrows, staring sincerely into the camera, with crazy huge, beautiful eyes. When he raises his voice to sing, the frown in between the eyebrows, he opens his mouth wide, maybe in desperation, channeling the need to scream out the sadness. I love his teeth, I love his fucked up teeth and how they just take over his face, when he opens his mouth to sing, but only peek through shyly, when he doesn't open it much, how the huge canines push through to give his mouth that shape.
Kimbra does an amazing job, what I like the most of what she does is when she gets close to him and she's done singing and does the vocalizations with a frustrated face, she knows he doesn't understand and isn't willing to try. She opens her mouth wide, almost clenches her teeth afterwards with frustration, looks down. Also at the end of the video, when she's slowly unpainted, I guess, that's when she stops being somebody he knew, she's different now.
I like how truthful it is to the break up situation. The way they look at each other at the end of the video, with resignation.
I've done you and myself the favor of screencapping a couple of shots of this dude's crazy gorgeous face and a screencap of his awesome teeth.