St. Ives, Worker of Miracles

Great news for cinephiles:  now there's time to catch up on all those movies you've been missing!  From http://www.unrealitytv.co.uk/reality-tv/towie-lydia-bright-takes-part-in-the-st-ives-seven-day-challenge/"

"According to St.Ives, the average UK woman will spend 91 hours every year applying make-up, the equivalent of three and half days a year – enough time to enjoy over 60 films, back to back."

This is not a makeup bashing post.  I love makeup!  Primarily I think it's fun and artistic, but I'm also grateful to have the option to create a dewy, blushing, pimple-free face, and, in some situations, have more control over the way I'll be perceived.  Nor is this a "natural beauty" bashing post.  I also love not wearing makeup (and hearing media messages about not wearing makeup) because sometimes there are other things I want to spend my time and money on, and also because no one should have to feel compelled to alter their appearance for someone else's benefit.  What I do NOT love is foolish misrepresentations of "natural beauty" as a new unattainable beauty standard.   This is also not meant as a post bashing Lydia Bright (the TV personality pictured below, whom I know essentially nothing about but whom I am sure is under great pressure related to her appearance and how she expresses herself), but the premise of these photos is preposterous.  Supposedly we are seeing the results of Lydia's having undertaken the "St. Ives 7-day challenge," whereby seven days of using facial scrub allowed her "to achieve fresher, more radiant looking skin, giving her the confidence to go without makeup at a makeup free shoot."

Who knew seven days of scrubbing was all it takes?  I have a suggestion, though, about the true secret to natural beauty.  No, no, it's not those aphorisms wrongly attributed to Audrey Hepburn about being a kind person...  In addition to St. Ives facial scrub for seven days, I'd suggest following this authentic ancient ritual for petitioning St. Ives, patron of "natural" beauty.

Prayer to St. Ives

O St. Ives, obtain for me these beauty favors I implore.  Grant me perfect symmetry. Save me from the tweezer and eyebrow pencil, and let my eyebrows grow in tidy orderly arcs.  Normalize my pigmentation:  let my coloration be free of any variation.  Plump my lips; lift my cheekbones; whittle my jaw; shape my eyes, nose, and lips into idealized typical Caucasian shapes.  Intercede on my behalf against dark circles under my eyes, against hair on my upper lip, and against wrinkles and sags. Imbue me with a youthful rosy glow, make me fashionably slim but not too slim, and make me impossibly blonde (except in the hair of my eyebrows and eyelashes which should still be dark enough to accentuate the shape of my uncommonly light blue eyes.)  Above all, St. Ives, take away my pores.  Though I am an adult, make my pores like unto those of a newborn babe.  Make the texture of my skin like unto that of a billiard ball.

Well, maybe it won't totally work...  According to a tweet from Lydia Bright:

JPEG of tweet taken from the Daily Mail, who captioned it "Honest: Lydia opened up about her insecurities to her Twitter followers"

Also, below her chin and a little off to the side I think there's a little freckle or mole or something.  Tsk, tsk!  But I guess it's okay if St. Ives can't truly make us "perfect," since revealing our flaws will help us, like Lydia, grow the maturity and wisdom of self-acceptance.


More photos:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2174803/TOWIEs-Lydia-Bright-leads-way-shows-face-make-free-promote-natural-beauty.html

American Hero, Roy A. Cui

In the embedded video, career image retoucher Roy A. Cui explains the moral imperative behind his decision to endanger his livelihood, and no longer accept jobs digitally altering images of female bodies in advertising and entertainment. Roy is a softspoken guy, and this is a relatively long video: if your head is in quick-clicking instant-gratification web browsing mode right now, come back and watch the video later when you have 9 minutes to dedicate to listening to this courageous and inspiring story.


 

(Or, if you're REALLY impatient, here's a transcript you can read: http://royacui.com/2012/06/28/i-dont-know-what-happens-next/).

Commentary: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennifer-danielle-crumpton/authenticity_b_1641905.html

More info on the film that inspired this decision: http://www.missrepresentation.org/

Thank you Roy!

"Fusion" Costuming?

Not belly dance.  Not for ladies.  But definitely worth checking out for anyone who is interested in costume.  New menswear from designer Marcos Paulo Piccoli:

Article and many more pictures at:  http://www.thecreatorsproject.com/blog/marcos-paulo-piccoli-is-pushing-menswear-to-new-geometric-limits.

Body Type, in Gymnastics and in Belly Dance

Shawn Johnson, 2009.  Photo by Jason Christopher.

Retiring athlete Shawn Johnson talks about the ironic stigma of having an "athletic" body type in her sport of gymnastics:

At her heaviest, when she stopped full-time training and allowed herself to eat typical teenage fare like ice cream and pizza, she received brutal criticism from fans, especially on the sport's message boards, and from the tabloids. "That whole process kind of broke me down and taught me something," Johnson said. "People put too much emphasis on looks."

Most of the time, nowadays, that emphasis isn't so openly expressed. Instead, it's coded, by labeling certain gymnasts—the lithe ones, the ones who aren't built like Johnson—as artistic. In theory, artistry should describe a quality of movement, a connection between the performer's limbs, the music, and the audience. But somehow, the short, stocky gymnasts like Johnson rarely get credit for that je ne sais quoi.

"In America, we'll score the stocky, athletic builds normally," 1996 Olympic gold medalist Dominique Dawes said, in response to Johnson's comments. "Internationally, there still remains a stigma to that type of body type."

Go read the rest of this article:   http://deadspin.com/5915913/athletic-shawn-johnson-retires-how-gymnastics-talks-about-bodies-in-code, then come back. 

I have been told that “of course belly dance is easy for you, because you have the right body type,” the simplistic assumption that curvilinear body lines naturally create curvilinear movements. I usually try to explain that belly dance is (now) (sort of) “easy” for me not because I have the right body type but because I have the right body ability, created through years of training: drawing arcs has less to do with dumbly propelling one’s curves through space and more to do with fine-tuned articulation, made possible by building specialized strength, range of motion, control, and coordination.

But, I can’t entirely discount that body curves amplify curvilinear movements, just as the padding of body fat amplifies shimmies. Likewise, a lean frame and wide shoulders give a distinctive sinuosity to a lot of the currently popular tribal fusion vocabulary. (The weight distribution of this build also lends itself to unmodified yoga poses, a synergistic boon for those dancing tribal fusion). I don’t at all suggest that there’s an “incorrect” body type for any particular style of belly dance, but I do think it’s helpful for dancers to consider the way the way their shapes affect the way their dancing will be perceived. Knowing one’s “type” helps a dancer to take advantage of vocabulary and styling that is “easy” for him or her, and more clearly strategize to overcome the challenges of working against that type. Just as a melody has a distinctive sound when played on different musical instruments, choreography takes on a different cast on different bodies.

But, while the violin may the most straightforward instrument for plaintive melodies, I’d rather hear a plaintive melody played by a kazoo virtuoso than by a lousy violinist; likewise I’d rather see a highly skilled dancer dancing against type than see a novice fumbling through the vocabulary that is “easy” for her shape. In fact, I’d probably rather see a highly skilled dancer dancing against type rather than with it – the belly dance equivalent of JFK's “we go to the moon not because it is easy, but because it is hard.”  But that’s just me. If you’re NOT dancing for someone who has already seen a zillion belly dance performances, understanding and maximizing the conventional perception of your type may be a welcome shortcut to creating successful and likeable dance performances.

"Vagina (The Dance!)," posted in Honor of Lisa Brown

I'm more than a few news cycles behind on getting this posted here, but, as a result of reading about the controversy surrounding Michigan State Representative Lisa Brown's use of the word "vagina," I came across a lovely piece of dance from Boston's Snappy Dance Theater.  Delicate souls, rest easy: there is no nudity in the video.

Embedding is Disabled:  Click on this video still to open YouTube in a new window.

For those as behind on the news as I am, or who are reading this post in the future, read up on the backstory here:  www.cnn.com/2012/06/21/opinion/brown-kicked-out-for-saying-vagina/index.html.