Sayat Nova or Synesthetic Cinematography

Sofiko Chiaureli in Sayat Nova - The Colour of the Pomegranates (1968)

Almost impossible to describe is the nostalgic and aethereal feeling of the works of the Soviet Armenian cinematographer Sergei Parajanov (1924-1990). Archetypes of the collective memory of the Caucasus between Byzantine Icons, Persian poetry and early 20th century décadence, put together in dream-like sequences of exceptional beauty. The extremely slow movements of the characters are meticulously choregraphed into a almost mute dance, imbued in the deep sorrow of purple drops of pomegranate juice on ancient cloth. 

Watch the entire movie in its full beauty here.
With these magic pictures in mind I am working when I prepare some Georgian dishes...
Eggplants in Nut Sauce
Cut 1 kg of eggplants into slices, leave them with some salt on the surface for 40 min in order to let them loose some water, fry in vegetable oil, put aside.
Cut in a mixer 1/2 onion, 3 garlic cloves, 200g of walnuts, 1 cup of fresh coriander leaves, 1/2 cup of flat-leaved parsley, 2 tablespoons of fresh dill, 2 tablespoons of white vinegar, salt, pepper and turmeric powder, eventually adding some water.
Coat the eggplant slices from both sides, fold in half, decortate with pomegranate seeds, serve with white bread.
Enjoy.

Algerian Urban Costume Step 1: Research

It is one of the worst of my habits not to finish one project before starting the next one... so here I am again.

My fingers have been itching a long time for this and since the other dancing ladies have expressed their interest to work on Algerian Andalusian Dance I am heading to this adventure right now.

The costume-to-be should represent the festive attire of a high-class lady from Algier roughly in the middle of the 19th century in order to create a choreography on classical Algerian Andaloussi Music (explanation will follow...)

The fabulous book of Leyla Belkaid: Costumes d'Algerie, Edtions du Layeur, Paris 2003 offers deep historical explanations and many historical photographs related to this issue.

Below are a couple of variations of a late 19th- early 20th century style of indoor clothing.

 

The first part to explore were the trousers. This particular style is called "serouel m'douar" and is used also nowadays with a slightly different silhouette; as modern ladies want to look more slim they use less and more delicate fabric.

For the historical garments thick and heavy jaquard textiles have been used for the trousers, most probably silk. Nowadays you can use upholstery fabric which has similar characteristics and is relatively cheap.
And here you can see a modern serouel m'douar:

(picture credit: here.)

In the next post I will show you how to sew such a serouel.

Joy of Dancing: Bihu from Assam

picture credits: here.

The Rongali Bihu is the festival of the Assamese New Year which falls in mid-April. It also marks the arrival of Assamese New Year(around April 15). Through this festival, which stretches for several days, the Assamese people welcome the season of seed sowing and pray for a great harvest. During the festival Bihu dance is performed by both young men and young women. The dance is performed accompanied by Bihu folk music based on love theme which are generally dominated by men, though there are songs that are sung by women as well, Bihu dance is characterized by quick dance movements, swift hand steps and rhythmic swaying of the hips.The dance is performed on folk songs known as Bihu Songs. Pepa a flute made of buffalo horns), dhol (a drum), tala (a cymbal), gogona (a bamboo instrument) and toka (a bamboo clapper) are the instruments used in these songs. Different tribes have made slight variation in the dance and have named it after their tribe like Garo Bihu Dance, and Khasi Bihu Dance.
The movements of the Bihu dance draw from many traditions - Indo-Aryan, Austro-Asiatic and Sino-Burmese.

 picture credit: here.

In the picture above girls are dancing with colourful straw hats called jaapi. Jaapi (Assamese: জাপি) is a traditional Assamese headgear or hat of Assam, India. Jaapi is made of tightly woven bamboo and/or cane and tokou paat (Trachycarpus martianus) a large palm leaf. Simpler hats are worn by the farmers for protection from the sun.



 Gaamkharu is a traditional Assamese ornament used by female bihu dancers made of Silver.

The costume of the male dancers is called dhoti and gamocha. Women wear Chadar Mekhale, two pieces of fabric draped around the body. Usually it is made of one of the very appreciated Assamese silks or of cotton with woven geometrical patterns. Read an amazing article on the silk production in Sualkuchi here.


picture credit: here.


sources: here, here and here.

Pictures by Edgar Nolte.
I have tried to learn this dance, above you can se some snaps from a performance.

View some beautiful bihu songs and dance videos:

 

Joy of Dancing: Two Performances in One Weekend

This weekend I was really lucky. I performed Saturday at the opening vernissage for the exhibition of the lovely paintings of Djamilia Hergenreder at the Frauenzentrum Weimar.

 

Djamilia is a wonderful painter and such a sweet person. On the pics you see me performing classical Persian dance from the Qajjar period. The little plates on the second picture are "played" with thimbles. Unfortunately my little daughter lost one of them somewhere playing, so I had to fabricate something with a ring and a rubber band to make a sound also with my right middle finger ;-) But it worked out well.

 

The second performance was with the "faires Frühstück", a breakfast with biological and fair traded goods to rise awareness for the circumstances of the production and trade of our daily food.

We were welcomed with fair traded roses, had a yummy biological buffet and a lot of other treats!

The main theme was "India" So I performed folklore dances from Gujarat, Rajasthan and Assam.

The whole morning we broadcasted live from the terrace - with lots of Indian music!!

The Radio Team on the terrace.

Bihu dance from Assam.

But performing on the flint (!!) was terrible... my feet still itch when I look at the pics!

 

But everything was so nice, we had such a supportive audience and this made me forget everything :-)

Hidden Beauty: Fashion from Kabul

We had much of Afghanistan in the news lately - a lot of violence, war and poverty. But there is so much more to discover from a country where art, philosophy, mathematics, music and poetry have been blossoming for hundreds of years!

(Handloomed fabric for a long jacket)

(Long Chapan with antique emboidery)

Nowadays beauty is a hidden flower in Afghanistan, but it's still growing. For example in the workshops of Zarif Design, a fashion label created by Zolaykha Sherzad. Architect and founder of an Kabul-based NGO, "School of Hope", Zolaykha began to work in 2004 with traditional artisans and crafters aiming at preserving and reviving the Afghan Artistic Culture.

She draws inspiration from old weaving techniques and needlework of the different populations of Afghanistan, as well as from contemporary Dari (persian dialect of Afghanistan) poetry (see calligraphy below).

(Ikat chapan with antique embroidery)

Every piece of her collections is absolutely stunning combinations of traditional artisanate and timeless elgance.

(Chapan from handwoven textile and Zarif embroidery)

(Raw silk with embroidered calligraphy)

Find more information here and here. Buy here.

Found! Asian Inspired Cotton Fabrics

In an earlier post I hoped to find printed cotton fabric with Japanese /Asian inspired motives ... and indeed the big fabric shop Hart's Fabric in California has a large section of such, and at very reasonable prices!

The designs range from very colourful to more classical ones that could derive from historical Kimonos:

For different purposes; the following one in gold on black could look good also for home decor or gift wrapping ... let your creativity flow!

Found via Lotushaus.