Derivations

Food for thought: Ethan Cowan directed me to this NY Times article about Claude Levi-Strauss, who coined the phrase "the raw and the cooked." For the full article, click here.
-Tatyana

Claude Lévi-Strauss’s Two-Part Harmonies
By LARRY ROHTER
Published: November 7, 2009

THE RAW AND THE COOKED “Raw” and “cooked” are shorthand terms meant to differentiate what is found in nature from what is a product of human culture. That dichotomy, Mr. Lévi-Strauss believed, exists in all human societies. Part of what makes us human, however, is our need to reconcile those opposites, to find a balance between raw and cooked. But where is the dividing line between nature, which is emotional and instinctive, and culture, which is based on rules and conventions? In a metaphoric sense, a cook is a kind of mediator between those realms, transforming an object originally from the natural world into an item fit for human consumption. So by “cooked,” Mr. Lévi-Strauss means anything that is socialized from its natural state. Yes, the definition of what is considered edible varies from one society or religious group to another. But all have binary structures that separate the raw and the cooked, the fresh and the rotten, the moist and the dry or burned.

Scores and other images

Photos by Jake Wise. Videos to come...

The Raw and the Cooked Show's Last Run!

"Everyone-I-ever-wanted-to-see-improvise"
or "Rock and Roll Miniatures"



Wednesday, December 9th at 9:30pm, $5
@ The Tank 354 West 45th Street

Dance and performance by
Ava Heller & Matthew Ferry
Bradley Teal Ellis
Chisa Hidaka & Margaret Paek
Hannah Carpenter with Cassie Roberts and Tatyana Tenenbaum
Jeremy Finch
Jo Morris & Tatyana Tenenbaum
Kayoko Nakajima
Kevin Ho & Rebecca Bliss
Lucinda Segar
Michele Torino Hower and Ava Heller
Stochastic Ensemble (Charlie Mosey, Elise, Knudson, Fabrice Covelli, Kayoko Nakajima, Margaret Paek & Melissa Guerrero)
Teresa Smith & Dancers

Music and performance by
Ezra Tenenbaum
Jake Wise
Kyle Jacques
Loop 243
Matthew Ferry
Michael Beharie
Sam Haar

Upcoming Raw and the Cooked Shows!

New Schedule
The Raw and the Cooked will now be on Wednesday nights bi-monthly, alternating months with another offbeat performance series at The Tank called p.art.ies. For other these and other dance events check out www.thetanknyc.org/dance.

Upcoming r&c shows:

• Wednesday, August 26th
• Wednesday, October 21th
• Wednesday, December 9th

All shows are 9:30pm, $5. Cheap beer. Come support improvised, experimental performance!

If you are interested in performing at The Raw and the Cooked, you can email tatyana@thetanknyc.org

Dancing with Feedback

A colleague of mine from Oberlin, electronic composer and multimedia artist Thomas Arsenault, recently shot some videos my way of a collaborative project we did in 2006. I thought the footage could be relevant to this blog, seeing as it deals with interdisciplinary collaboration and improvisation. At the end of the 30 minute performance, in which I play Arsenault's alter-ego, a little bear named "Marble Fresno" (check me out in those pajamas), Marble is raised to ascension by a strange creature and his brown fur is turned white. In the final scene shown below, Marble's ascension is depicted through video feedback designed by Matthew Lippincott.


Not the greatest document, but you can get an idea of how I improvised and worked with the video. Often, these sorts of elements are added at the last minute and this can be a real challenge for performers. All the conceptualizing and talking about the technology won't necessarily prepare you to work effectively with it. The rest of Arsenault's show featured a painstakingly crafted animation (where I also appear, green screened below) accompanied by a live ensemble. Check out the beautiful animation below:

Videos from April 15th Show

The following piece, scored and directed by Jake Wise, was featured as the "cooked" portion of April's show. The performers (Jake Wise, Alejandro Acierto, Tanya Kalmanovich, Emily Bielagus, and Maitreya Levanchild) ran through the piece shortly before the entire group met to discuss the evening's scores. Upon seeing it, I was moved and inspired by structure Jake had created. The piece was at once intricate and specific, and highly candid and improvisational. I asked them to perform the piece twice: Once at the beginning of the show, and once at the end. I had seen this trick used at a Philip Glass concert that my dad took me to when I was 12. The experience as an audience member was highly rewarding. Here is the first performance of Jake's piece:

Cooked/April 15th - 2009 from Tatyana Tenenbaum on Vimeo.



April 15th Raw: Lucy, Ethan, Chris, and Odeya from Tatyana Tenenbaum on Vimeo.
This improvisation, performed by Lucinda Segar, Ethan Cowan, Chris Kuklis, and Odeya Nini, was an experiment in pairing two sets of familiar artists with one another. Kuklis and Nini regularly improvise together in their band, Sing We Owls. Segar and Cowan were in the midst of making a dance, and brought some of their conceptual material to The Raw and the Cooked. The experiment shown here resulted in a collaboration that will be workshoped at Movement Research's Open Performance at Dance Theater Workshop on Wednesday, April 29 at 8pm.

Symmetry and Contrast

The April 15th edition of The Raw and the Cooked was co-curated by Jake Wise, longtime collaborating improviser (see Johnny Butler/Ensemble 46 days, two posts down). For this show, Jake created an improvisational work with two dancers, two clarinetists, and a violinist. All of the instrumentalists also contributed movement...

During the run-through before the show, I found myself deeply moved by the piece. Jake had created a tape piece to accompany the improvisation, which outlined a gradual shape. This shape was augmented by live music performed by several musicians whose movements were also choreographed. The composition of the space had a strong symmetrical layout. I was stunned by the strength of this choice, a choice I myself would never make. The entire piece had an innocence and a clarity that came from that innocence. Jake's movers were both pedestrian and traditional dancers whose various movements were often muddled or unclear. However, he choreographed them in space so clearly that this didn't detract from the cohesion of the piece. Conversely, it added to it.

My dad took me to a Philip Glass concert when I was about 14. It was a duet concert with an African instrumentalist (forgive me for not remembering the country or instrument and for lumping an entire continent together). I remember very little content of this concert, but what I do remember is that Glass opened and closed with the exact same composition. The experience of hearing something both at the beginning and end of a concert was very powerful. As a spur-of-the-moment curatorial decision, I decided to try this with Jake's piece and put it first and last on the program.