The Lean
I've been working on the creative writing anthology most of the day; sifting through emails and attachments and cutting and pasting all the shortlisted entries into a document ready for formatting with online (and print) press completelynovel.com - like lulu.com, this is a user-oriented publishing company, but far more than lulu, completelynovel have provided space for commenting and community-building around the literary endeavours. Much more to the tune of social media than simply putting texts into the public domain. Anyway it's promising to be a good project all round. Just taking up more time than anticipated, as usual. The severely hot weather is adding to a general sense of drag and fatigue despite one's best intentions.
In between bouts of this activity I was surfing the web looking for the science behind Michael Jackson's anti-gravity lean, the impossibly extended leaning dance move from the Smooth Criminal video and replicated on live stage shows. I was watching one of the numerous Jackson tribute/ discussion programs on TV over the weekend, and one choreographer commentator, when asked how on earth Jackson had managed to perform the move, just replied, 'an awful lot of practice'. I was intrigued by this. Can sufficient practice and an exceptional strength and physique permit the body to perform something which seems counter to Newton's Laws? Maybe so, I was thinking.
But I did a bit of research and found that while the video probably had hooks and suspension lines invisible in the finished project, the live dance moves made use of a specially designed shoe with space in the heel allowing a hook from the floor to lock in and support the dancer while he leaned over - ingenious stuff, and the design devised and patented by Jacko himself. You must still be pretty fit to do the move - and sharp eyed too.
Knowing how the act is done makes it similar to a magic trick. Like sawing the woman in half, or pulling a rabbit out of a hat. Perhaps especially the former - there's always more of a compulsion to watch when there's an apparently significant risk of human injury or death, something I remember unsettling magician/ performance artist David Blaine himself confirming. There is a method and a discipline to creating the illusion of the impossible. To some extent it's an optical illusion. But it still needs sleight of hand and immense practice and a deft performance skill that are pretty admirable.
Not many people could be a stage performer - dancer or magician. Although we all practice a little presentational illusion in order to promote a successful image in professional or social circles. Like a beautiful swan appearing to glide serenely down the river, frantically paddling underneath all the while. I find that quite comforting to remember: all those confident, successful people paddling and scrabbling away under the surface, every day, just like the rest of us.
Back to the lean though, there's also the metaphorical danger of leaning too far, of over-extending oneself. Go too far and eventually, even with all the discrete props at one's disposal, one will fall. Best to save extreme feats for an occasional maneuver then. They'll be remembered. Meanwhile there are all the regular steps to learn and relearn. Back to cutting and pasting.
In between bouts of this activity I was surfing the web looking for the science behind Michael Jackson's anti-gravity lean, the impossibly extended leaning dance move from the Smooth Criminal video and replicated on live stage shows. I was watching one of the numerous Jackson tribute/ discussion programs on TV over the weekend, and one choreographer commentator, when asked how on earth Jackson had managed to perform the move, just replied, 'an awful lot of practice'. I was intrigued by this. Can sufficient practice and an exceptional strength and physique permit the body to perform something which seems counter to Newton's Laws? Maybe so, I was thinking.
But I did a bit of research and found that while the video probably had hooks and suspension lines invisible in the finished project, the live dance moves made use of a specially designed shoe with space in the heel allowing a hook from the floor to lock in and support the dancer while he leaned over - ingenious stuff, and the design devised and patented by Jacko himself. You must still be pretty fit to do the move - and sharp eyed too.
Knowing how the act is done makes it similar to a magic trick. Like sawing the woman in half, or pulling a rabbit out of a hat. Perhaps especially the former - there's always more of a compulsion to watch when there's an apparently significant risk of human injury or death, something I remember unsettling magician/ performance artist David Blaine himself confirming. There is a method and a discipline to creating the illusion of the impossible. To some extent it's an optical illusion. But it still needs sleight of hand and immense practice and a deft performance skill that are pretty admirable.
Not many people could be a stage performer - dancer or magician. Although we all practice a little presentational illusion in order to promote a successful image in professional or social circles. Like a beautiful swan appearing to glide serenely down the river, frantically paddling underneath all the while. I find that quite comforting to remember: all those confident, successful people paddling and scrabbling away under the surface, every day, just like the rest of us.
Back to the lean though, there's also the metaphorical danger of leaning too far, of over-extending oneself. Go too far and eventually, even with all the discrete props at one's disposal, one will fall. Best to save extreme feats for an occasional maneuver then. They'll be remembered. Meanwhile there are all the regular steps to learn and relearn. Back to cutting and pasting.
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