Claire Danes
- Thread starter OlgaKorbut
- Start date
DosViolines
far from home...
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2005
- Messages
- 3,212
- Reaction score
- 12
source: nymetro.com
Claire Danes Steps Out of the Shadows
And into a Wyeth painting.
By Alicia Zuckerman
(Photo credit: Harvey Wang)
[size=+1]I[/size]n the first episode of the glorious (and prematurely canceled) 1994 TV teen drama My So-Called Life, Angela Chase (Claire Danes) fantasizes about the perfect compliment from the perfect boyfriend: “You’re so beautiful, it hurts to look at you.” That’s also the way viewers saw Danes herself, when the series turned the actress into her generation’s Molly Ringwald—the spunky, orange-haired oddball who was also a tremulous beauty. When the show was axed after one season, her career didn’t so much tank (she had a nice turn in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet) as slowly fade. A modest role in Terminator 3 was her last highly visible gig.
Until last year, when Danes reemerged in a most uncomfortable way. The New York tabloids went berserk when news broke that actor Billy Crudup had left his seven-months-pregnant girlfriend, Mary-Louise Parker, for Danes, his co-star in the movie Stage Beauty. Danes didn’t say a word on the subject, and she won’t now. “I resolved all that a long time ago, so it’s everybody else’s business to catch up,” she says calmly. “I don’t have to help them. It just doesn’t relate to what I’m wrestling with right now.”
What she’s wrestling with is the prospect of a major breakthrough. In October, she appears in Steve Martin’s bittersweet romantic comedy Shopgirl—a lead role with buzz. And for the past year, Danes has been collaborating with choreographer Tamar Rogoff on a more unusual project, a full-length solo dance piece, Christina Olson: American Model, inspired by Andrew Wyeth’s iconic painting Christina’s World. The project is not as peculiar as it might seem: Before Danes took off for Hollywood, she was a serious dancer, taking classes once a week with Ellen Robbins at Dance Theater Workshop.
“When Claire was little there was no doubt in my mind that she was going to be a magnificent performer,” says Rogoff, who has known Danes since she was 9 (her daughter, Ariel, and Danes were best friends). “She just had the kind of face you can’t stop looking at.” Today, at Rogoff’s breakfast table before hitting the gym, in a tank top and sweats, her hair pulled back into a casual ponytail, Danes does, it is true, have an ethereal glow. (She is also fiercely serious at work. About twenty minutes into a rehearsal the day before, a cell phone rang, whereupon Danes huffed, “Can you turn your phone off?” followed by a quick, semi-sweet “please, please?” It’s the tone of someone used to calling the shots—and one that made me very glad it wasn’t my phone.)
Skeptical sorts may view this as a bit of a vanity project—her fame, after all, can support a twelve-show run at P.S. 122 that many more-experienced dancers would kill for. Onstage, though, her face is beside the point, for once, and as a dancer she’s no amateur. “You know, Tamar has had to tell me throughout this process to keep all the activity in the body and have my face remain as neutral as possible,” explains Danes. “It distracts from the movement, which is where we want the audience’s attention to remain.”
Danes dances a role inspired by Christina Olson, the young woman crawling across the grass in Wyeth’s painting. Paralyzed from the waist down and refusing to use a wheelchair, Olson still managed to cook, clean, garden, and even regularly drag herself across a gravel road to visit a friend. As she dances, Danes mimics Olson’s pose in front of an image of the painting and a rather alarming video in which Danes heaves her body, barefoot and bare-legged, across 10th Street, crawls into a building (which turns out to be P.S. 122), and slowly, painstakingly, ascends the stairs. (Danes says making the film was “surprisingly enjoyable in a very perverse way,” adding that she got quite scraped up.)
Is there anything in her future that will draw on her dance background? “If a dance movie presented itself,” she says, “I’d have a hard time turning it down.” Then her face brightens with a big smile. “I wish Fosse were still around. That would be ideal.”
Thank you so much! If I don't get to see that performance (which I hope to do), I hope that video is made available. It sounsd like such an interesting project, and so different from what most celebs spend their time on.
But I don't think Claire's sucess "faded" over time like the writer says. I think she used it to become the performer she wanted to be. She did a few mainsteam roles, but for the mostpart she's attracted to smaller, quircky, artsy films. Those don't always show up on the mainstream radar ("Stage Beauty" wouldn't have gotten ANY mainstream press if not for her relationship with Billy Crudup- but it was a great movie). But I think it Claire wanted to have a lot of mainstream hits, and if her concern was huge stardom and a huge paycheck, she would make different choices (lots of romantic comedies, more action-adventure, stuff with big budgets, huge special effects, etc.). Reese Witherspoon is a good example of someone who wanted to be a "power actress" and made choices that allowed that to happen. Claire made education a priority, and when she got out of college she did films like "Igby Goes Down", "It's All About Love", and "Stage Beauty"- films that were different from the usual stuff, and appealed to a more art-house, intellectual audience. She continues to choose quirkier roles that occasionally border on mainsteam, an once in a while a mainsteam film like "T3".
So I don't think it's a "comeback" with "Shopgirl" as much as a more high-prfile project than ususal. But everytime she does a high profile film, it's called a comeback. "T3" was also called a "comeback" when in reality it's another mainstream film. What I find interesting is that in November, Claire has another film "The Family Stone" coming out that isn't as high profile as "Shopgirl" and it wasn't even mentioned in the article
But I don't think Claire's sucess "faded" over time like the writer says. I think she used it to become the performer she wanted to be. She did a few mainsteam roles, but for the mostpart she's attracted to smaller, quircky, artsy films. Those don't always show up on the mainstream radar ("Stage Beauty" wouldn't have gotten ANY mainstream press if not for her relationship with Billy Crudup- but it was a great movie). But I think it Claire wanted to have a lot of mainstream hits, and if her concern was huge stardom and a huge paycheck, she would make different choices (lots of romantic comedies, more action-adventure, stuff with big budgets, huge special effects, etc.). Reese Witherspoon is a good example of someone who wanted to be a "power actress" and made choices that allowed that to happen. Claire made education a priority, and when she got out of college she did films like "Igby Goes Down", "It's All About Love", and "Stage Beauty"- films that were different from the usual stuff, and appealed to a more art-house, intellectual audience. She continues to choose quirkier roles that occasionally border on mainsteam, an once in a while a mainsteam film like "T3".
So I don't think it's a "comeback" with "Shopgirl" as much as a more high-prfile project than ususal. But everytime she does a high profile film, it's called a comeback. "T3" was also called a "comeback" when in reality it's another mainstream film. What I find interesting is that in November, Claire has another film "The Family Stone" coming out that isn't as high profile as "Shopgirl" and it wasn't even mentioned in the article
Article in the NY Times about Claires new dance performance:
Claire's World: The Actress, the Painting and the Dance
Claire Danes stands in the middle of an empty studio, reading her lines. Her thin torso undulates. Wisps of blond hair stick to her cheeks. She radiates a fragile but fierce intensity.
This isn't a film audition, but a rehearsal for an hourlong dance solo, "Christina Olson: American Model," choreographed by Tamar Rogoff and based on Andrew Wyeth's well-known painting "Christina's World." The work will have its premiere at Performance Space 122 on Tuesday. It has caused speculation in the dance world during the fallow weeks of late summer, viewed in turn as courageous adventure, puzzling stunt or cause for gleeful knife sharpening.
Ms. Rogoff, 59, has a long history with P.S. 122. In a way, Ms. Danes, 26, does too: she took classes with Ellen Robbins at Dance Theater Workshop for 10 years, beginning at the age of 4, and performed at P.S. 122 as a child. Then, "My So-Called Life" took the 14-year-old actress to Los Angeles, and fame.
She hadn't danced again until 14 months ago, when Ariel Rogoff Heitler, Ms. Rogoff's daughter and a friend since childhood, told her mother that Ms. Danes missed dancing. She began taking Ms. Rogoff's class at P.S. 122, and the two started experimenting with various techniques.
"About nine months ago, maybe a year, vocabulary just started to pour out," Ms. Rogoff said in a recent joint interview with Ms. Danes. "A lot of times I work with performers who are not willing to come to my laboratory classes. This was a luxurious way of turning my own explorations over the years into something that would be more choreographic."
"Christina Olson" uses text and video - including film of Ms. Danes dragging herself across East 10th Street and up the stairs of P.S. 122, surrounded by uninterested passers-by - but full-bodied movement drives the work.
"With acting there are a lot more choices," Ms. Danes said. "With this, I either stick it or I don't. There's something really unforgiving about that."
Ms. Rogoff, who has worked with prison inmates and psychiatric patients, is more generous: "The only way that I'm not going to forgive her is if she doesn't keep to the idea of being in the moment and investigating. There's nothing precious about any one piece of this."
The two women share an easy intimacy. In rehearsals, Ms. Rogoff offers warm support, Ms. Danes cracks silly jokes.Vallejo Gantner, P.S. 122's artistic director, agreed to the show because of his respect for Ms. Rogoff and her relationship with the theater, and then because the piece excited him. But he worried about perceptions.
"Claire is an extraordinary dancer, so it's a happy coincidence," he said. "But something we're not doing here is turning into celebrity land."
Does he see Ms. Danes's presence as a way to expand audiences?
Mr. Gantner laughed. "If Claire Danes's fans want to come to P.S. 122 to see the show, great," he said. "The show is not chosen because Claire Danes is in it. If Claire had come to us and said, 'Hey, I've decided to become a contemporary dancer and I'm going to choreograph a solo show for myself,' we would have sent her to Tamar's class."
Claire's World: The Actress, the Painting and the Dance
Claire Danes stands in the middle of an empty studio, reading her lines. Her thin torso undulates. Wisps of blond hair stick to her cheeks. She radiates a fragile but fierce intensity.
This isn't a film audition, but a rehearsal for an hourlong dance solo, "Christina Olson: American Model," choreographed by Tamar Rogoff and based on Andrew Wyeth's well-known painting "Christina's World." The work will have its premiere at Performance Space 122 on Tuesday. It has caused speculation in the dance world during the fallow weeks of late summer, viewed in turn as courageous adventure, puzzling stunt or cause for gleeful knife sharpening.
Ms. Rogoff, 59, has a long history with P.S. 122. In a way, Ms. Danes, 26, does too: she took classes with Ellen Robbins at Dance Theater Workshop for 10 years, beginning at the age of 4, and performed at P.S. 122 as a child. Then, "My So-Called Life" took the 14-year-old actress to Los Angeles, and fame.
She hadn't danced again until 14 months ago, when Ariel Rogoff Heitler, Ms. Rogoff's daughter and a friend since childhood, told her mother that Ms. Danes missed dancing. She began taking Ms. Rogoff's class at P.S. 122, and the two started experimenting with various techniques.
"About nine months ago, maybe a year, vocabulary just started to pour out," Ms. Rogoff said in a recent joint interview with Ms. Danes. "A lot of times I work with performers who are not willing to come to my laboratory classes. This was a luxurious way of turning my own explorations over the years into something that would be more choreographic."
"Christina Olson" uses text and video - including film of Ms. Danes dragging herself across East 10th Street and up the stairs of P.S. 122, surrounded by uninterested passers-by - but full-bodied movement drives the work.
"With acting there are a lot more choices," Ms. Danes said. "With this, I either stick it or I don't. There's something really unforgiving about that."
Ms. Rogoff, who has worked with prison inmates and psychiatric patients, is more generous: "The only way that I'm not going to forgive her is if she doesn't keep to the idea of being in the moment and investigating. There's nothing precious about any one piece of this."
The two women share an easy intimacy. In rehearsals, Ms. Rogoff offers warm support, Ms. Danes cracks silly jokes.Vallejo Gantner, P.S. 122's artistic director, agreed to the show because of his respect for Ms. Rogoff and her relationship with the theater, and then because the piece excited him. But he worried about perceptions.
"Claire is an extraordinary dancer, so it's a happy coincidence," he said. "But something we're not doing here is turning into celebrity land."
Does he see Ms. Danes's presence as a way to expand audiences?
Mr. Gantner laughed. "If Claire Danes's fans want to come to P.S. 122 to see the show, great," he said. "The show is not chosen because Claire Danes is in it. If Claire had come to us and said, 'Hey, I've decided to become a contemporary dancer and I'm going to choreograph a solo show for myself,' we would have sent her to Tamar's class."
