{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/273",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 273,
    "subject": "Tracking Dance",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "1997-11-29T13:35:55+00:00",
    "last": "1997-11-29T13:35:55+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0006-0411@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Alice Turner",
        "address": "al at interport.net"
      },
      "date": "1997-11-29T13:35:55+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Tracking Dance",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "This was a private message to mantis, but he's away for the holiday, and I\nthought it might be of some possible interest to one or two of you so I'm\nposting--just skip if not your cuppa.\n\nLast night I went to see an avant-garde music-dance company do a version of\nepisodes from what they call \"The Monkey King\"--it's best known as \"The\nJourney to the West,\" by Wu Cheng-en, and decades ago  Arthur Waley\ntranslated is as \"Monkey\" (when I came home I searched for the old Grove\nedition that I imagined I once had, but maybe I never did).\n\nAnyway, the story, as interpreted here, is about how the mild-mannered monk,\nTang Seng (playing the Dorothy role) is joined by a motley group of\ncompanions including the amoral Monkey, the lustful and greedy Pig and the\nangry and violent Ogre, who each, after much spectacularly choreographed\nmartial-arts battling, is subdued by the goddess Kuan Yin (played quite\nwonderfully as a triple goddess) and told to protect the monk on his journey\nto the West (India, Buddha's birthplace) to achieve enlightenment. The work\nis in progress, there is no ending yet, and a really lovely soprano sings\nsome of the interpretation (in Chinese) as we meet the sinuously sexy spider\nvampires (Pig falls madly in love, poor thing) and others.\n\nAnyway, as you can see, I liked this, and later in the evening it came to me\nthat our old pal \"Tracking Song\" would be a seriously good candidate for a\ndance interpretation. (I might be influenced, too, by the fact that the\nde-cutized \"The Lion King\" is a megahit here, with seats sold out till the\nturn of the millennium.) Think about it. There's no dialogue that couldn't\neasily be sung in Chinese (or explained in the theater program). It would be\nthrilling to see a vigorous modern  ensemble play the wolves, the wild\nboars, the vampire bats and the Min, with a lot of martial arts stuff built\nin. One of the oddities of the tale is that all these creatures look human\nto Cutthroat---the company should play them with no,or minimal, costumes or\nmasks, just with dance and acting. I don't think you'd need a set either\n(though the palace of trash would be fun), and just one prop, the Great\nSleigh itself, which could be done with a silhouette. I wouldn't bother with\nthe wind-sleighs etc.; walking would work better. The piece falls easily\ninto acts. There is a good female prima role, and both thrills and\npoignancy, which dance can be marvelous at. Don't think 19th century ballet\nhere, think tough stuff and inspired mime.\n\nSo whattya think? Fun to imagine, no?\n\n-a-"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}