The Blue Man Show

Yesterday I went to see the Blue Man Group.
I never really seen them performing before so I didn’t know what to expect, except that it was supposed to be very, very good. I have to admit I had a bit higher expectations for this widely acclaimed show but it was good and worth seeing.

I was stunned how simple (but clever) tricks made people laugh… The audience was going crazy seeing actors’ simple moves and gestures. I realized that you don’t need to do much to make people laugh. Simplicity is the key. The only think the actors had to do was to move funny, not to talk and not to smile… Actually not smiling and keeping their face straight made blue men look exotic and like aliens and maybe that’s why people loved it so much.?

However, I was impressed with the great actors-audience interaction. Without spoken words the blue men were able to communicate and capture the audience. They knew how to work and they made audience be part of the whole show.

For me, Blue Men were also good in creating and building anticipation. Many times during  the show I was thinking: “what are they going to do now…, are they really going to do it”…?”

While watching the show I was thinking about Charlie Chaplin and how he too was able to communicate, entertain and tell stories using only movement, gesture and sound.  I realized  that you don’t need many “ingredients” to create a powerful and thrilling show. You just need the right combination…..
It also reminded me that I often forget how important is sound to the whole experience….

Another important element of the show was getting audience to move and awakening their “touch” senses. I don’t want to give away too much and not to ruin it for people who haven’t seen it before, but I have to say that was the high point of the show… (Although it make me think about waste…. I hope they do recycle…)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RamNJn9jXk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QM-mfEMssy8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqinuidaj-E

JUMPOLOGY by Philippe Halsman

After thinking forward with the Masssagin Media Conference2 lets move back in time…

Dali Atomicus,1948, photo by Halsman

My friend told me about the famous photographer Philippe Halsman who is famous for photographing people jumping. Halsman he’d asked many famous people who posed for him for portraits to jump in front of the camera. He wanted to capture a unique portrait of a person in which one looked more “natural”, more “real” without the typical face/mask people put on in front of the camera….

Philippe Halsman also coined the term “jumpology” according to which, when people jump there is a lot to learned about their character and personality. I’m going to dig deeper into his philosophy and I’m trying to get his book “the Jump Book”, which I anticipate will be more revealing than internet.

It’s worth mentioning that Halsman had inspired many people for ever.He created a genre. I looked on flickr and other sites and I found thousands of images of people jumping just for the sake of jumping… Some pictures are realy funy.

You can find more on Halsman:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Halsman
“Halsman commented, “When you ask a person to jump, his attention is mostly directed toward the act of jumping and the mask falls so that the real person appears.”

I knew the photograph of Albert Einstein but I didn’t know it was Philippe Halsman who took it. I liked it very much, as I saw it many times on a small post stamp but I’ve always thought it was kind of a “mug shot”. Once you look at the enlarged photograph you can see the real quality of it even though he was not jumping at that moment.

More info on jumpstyle…

It’s very funy, that in order for me to find some info on “jumping” I have to rely on blogs and other personal sites….

Here is some info on jumping from this blog:
http://www.cloggie.org/proggold/2007/07/11/screw-politics-lets-dance/

and from Wikipedia:

Originally, the gabber dance style called “hakken” was used to dance to jumpstyle music, although it is slower than hardcore; but later a new dance evolved called “Skiën” (to ski). Skiën means kicking one’s feet forward and backward on the bass line, while the torso goes the opposite way (right foot forward, torso back), once in a while lifting one foot significantly higher than usual to indicate a break in the beat. This dance, usually called “jumpen” nowadays (derived from English, to jump), originated in Belgium in 1997 but has seen a real popularity boost in recent years, gaining widespread fame in Belgium and Northern France around 2002 and more recently in the Netherlands. In other countries such as Germany and Austria it has also garnered some interest, albeit among a limited public. The Belgian DJs Da Boy Tommy and Da Rick are often credited with its invention.
It is also called skank but is different from the skank associated with ska and reggae music.
Often another variation of this dance called “Duo-Jump” is performed by two people who choreograph their movements and perform them in unison along side one another. This variation of the jumpstyle dance also originated in Belgium. Some see similarities in the dance style with inline dancing
Jumpers can go to special jump discotheques, often called “Jumpotheques”; for example “The Oh!” in Gavere. Also special events, like the yearly Bassleader-event in Flanders Expo Ghent, are mostly kept in Belgium, but also events like ReverZe and Explosive Car Tuning or Jumping Is Not A Crime(JINAC) do their part in spreading this music style….”

And if you want to learn the steps here is a link to a tutorial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0P3uQRXzlM

Jump style

I did some research abut jumping boys and their style in my favorite video:) I have to do more but at least I know what it is:

(from wikipedia)

….The term Jumpstyle is used both for a musical genre (a subgenre of Techno, recognized by its hard beat and playful melodies) and for a type of dance usually performed to this style of music. In the early days of Jumpstyle, many categorized it as a slower variant of Hardcore Techno, but it has since solidified its position as a genre of its own.

Jumpstyle traces its roots to Belgium in the late 90’s. While the trend has caught on in other parts of the world, such as the Middle East, it remains largely unpopular in America despite the embrace of American bands such as Captain Ahab and prominent exposure on shows such as So You Think You Can Dance.

Jump also comes with a certain way of dancing, and there are certain ’styles’ in this dance.

• Oldskool jump: Was based on the first move that was used in the dance called ’skieën’, later a certain standard routine came that was a combination of kicking forwards and backwards both legs on the basslines, even later certain moves came such as a spin.

• tekstyle/starstyle: The jumper dances it to french tek or Hardstyle. The jump is more sidewise than the others.

• Hardjump: This is the hardest variant of Jumpstyle. The basic step is different from the others and the jumper has to pitch hard on the ground.

• Freestyle: With this style, the ‘jumper’ does whatever he/she feels like, there are no certain restrictions of jumping and it usually involves a mix of Oldskool Jump & Hardjump & tekstyle.

• Duojump: Is jumping with two (or more) people at the same time, usually the people performing the Duojump have practiced it before performing it, since they both do exactly the same routine and try to synchronize it as much as possible.

Jumpmeeting

I just found this funny video of boys jumping in Den Bosch (Netherlands). (I used to live in that town). I was actually looking for a video of something else and found this. I like parts when many kids jump in the middle of the town and on the check board. I think I might use this idea for one of my projects. It’s energetic and fun! Check it out.