Aviles
Art Found in his Body
To
the Editors:
Arthur
Aviles is a remarkable dancer who seems capable of making the human
body move like hot fudge syrup. Bones, muscle, flesh could hardly
account for this facility. His ability to sweep through the space,
gather its energies into himself, and release it in infinitely varied
manners transcends physicality and its compliment, sexuality. Indeed,
this transformation of the body provides the narrative and thematic
components of Aviless choreography.
Aviles loves his body despite the fact that being short and squat
and compact it hardly approaches Eddie Bauer perfection. He loves
it because it is a finely crafted instrument. He loves it because
it is emits vitality. He loves it because it is capable of creating
shapes of exquisite beauty. When he shares his body with his audience,
he presents corporeal delights that are typically neglected by the
popular media, family values and religious teachings. Aviles demonstrates
that the body is not merely a sexual object.
Several of the artistic strategies Aviles utilizes to convey this
theme were in evidence during his performance at Oberlin. First,
Aviles remained naked long enough for the initial shock to dissipate
and more thoughtful considerations to become activated. Second,
during the performance Aviles continually urged the audience to
perceive his bodily movements as abstract. Third, he defused any
audience tension by verbalizing their unspoken accusations and concerns.
None
of these observations, however, account for Aviless invitation
to participate in the Emerging Arts Program. Aviles was invited
to teach the Emerging Arts students his unique method of creative
construction. In the workshop, choreographic movement was derived
not from the body, nor from an emotion, nor from a musical score,
nor from a story. Instead, the movement structure was provided by
the movie Star Wars. Students analyzed all the movement components
of the film. These included moving actors and robots as well as
moving camera shots. The students then returned these two-dimensional
impressions to the third
dimension by enacting the moving elements in each scene. Thus one
student would perform the eye-balls that moved at a different pace
from the movement of the head to which the eyes were attached. Other
students became a window that moved across the screen from left
to right as the camera panned right to left. Despite this formal
structure, the students delighted in the opportunities that Aviless
technique provided for collaboration and interpretation. The workshop
demonstrated that formal
structures are capable of liberating the imagination.
Linda Weintraub
Henry Luce Professor of Emerging Arts
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