#i love how lover boy is partly a love letter to the prose writers that inspire me atm | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

miss-m-calling · 3 years

Text

Black Box Exchange 2021 letter

Requests: Agon, Giselle (Akram Khan), Jewels - Diamonds, Obsidian Tear, The Seasons’ Canon, Woolf Works

Dear writer,

Thank you so, so much for writing something for one of my dance canons! I am so excited for this exchange, and while coming up with prompts for these works, most of which are abstract, was sometimes a bit of a struggle for me, I hope my ramblings will inspire you. In general, for all these works I would just love something that evokes the mood of the piece: the music, the costumes, the movement, sometimes that certain vague yet clearly present something that specific dancers brought to a role… So if you end up writing something that is more of a mood piece, something dreamy and prose-poem-y, a character study (or the study of a duet or group’s dynamic), something closer to meta about either the making of a piece (incl. “how the theatrical sausage gets made” stories) or its meaning (whatever that may be), than a story with a plot, that’s great! And if you come up with story with a plot, that’s great too!

While I only requested fic, I would be beyond delighted to receive either fic or art treats! :-)

Requests:

Agon – Balanchine/Stravinsky

Group: Female Soloist/Male Soloist (NYCB 1957 Agon)

I find everything about the background to the making of this ballet and its original cast so interesting. Arthur Mitchell talked in many later interviews about Balanchine deliberately making a point – even though the ballet is technically plotless – about both race and sex (and dance and music and visual style, too) in casting Mitchell and Diana Adams in the central pas de deux. Then there’s Mitchell’s position as a Black principal dancer in the 1950s; Adams being older than he as well as one of Balanchine’s favorite ballerinas but escaping, almost by accident, becoming embroiled with Balanchine to the point where he’d eventually lose interest, or alienating him the way a Farrell or a Kent or a Kirkland went on to do; Balanchine himself, with his manipulative ways and his desire to control his dancers even as he also adjusted his choreographic ideas to them…

I would love something that touches on those RL dynamics as well, or even in the place of, a fic specifically about the ballet, so if you feel like writing something that’s RPF, that’s great, and if it’s something that combines elements of RPF with on-stage happenings, that’s great too! There’s how the choreography combines competition with delicacy in partnering, how it’s both sexy and geometrical, both classy and nervy. The pas de deux was very daring for its time, again, due to both race and some of the choreography, and I’d love something about the two soloists’ big forbidden love playing out or being sublimated on the stage, or playing out also backstage (maybe without a HEA), or the world on the stage and the “real” world bleeding into each other. Maybe Balanchine manipulates them but then the dancers get away from his influence off the stage even if they obey him on it. (I don’t want Balanchine to be at the center of the story – but if you find bringing him in helps the story, that’s great, so long as the focus stays on the dancers.)

Feel free to blend the original cast/making-of story with the more athletic, even acrobatic way Agon is danced today, or focus on the slightly rawer, less hypextended dancing style of the 1950s. Whichever you prefer.

You can find a B&W recording of the pas de deux here, and the recording of the whole ballet is on one of the Balanchine: New York City Ballet in Montreal DVDs. Many other companies have danced Agon since then, there’s a variety of clips on youtube.

Giselle – Khan/Lamagna

Hilarion (Akram Khan Giselle)

I won’t lie: I prefer this version to any classic Giselle. I was blown away by it on DVD and even more so when I saw it live. I love how it manages to update the story to the modern world in a way which makes sense more than not; I love the rethinking of the characters (especially Giselle and Hilarion); I love the music and the set and especially the group dances; I love the really, genuinely scary wilis…

Hilarion isn’t my favorite in the classic Giselle, but he became my surprise fave in this version. Partly that’s because I love Jeffrey Cirio (whom I saw perform the role live, and he’s in the filmed version’s cast), but partly it’s for how the modern version makes Hilarion this real antihero who veers very close to villainy but then is maybe more pitiful than anything else. I’d love something that focuses on the first act – love those wilis so much, I just don’t want a story about Hilarion’s death or about his being saved/redeemed. Let him be the bastard he is in Act I). So: something that explores his position as this go-between for the “masters” and the migrant workers/refugees – how did he secure that position? What kind of quick thinking (and footwork) does he have to perform to maintain that position? The choreography, the mime, and the symbolism of the hat make clear that the masters find him useful, but they don’t really respect him, and he in turn uses that modicum of power to try to boss around the other migrants, including Giselle. Plus there’s his constant needling of Albrecht, whose secret Hilarion knows and whose girl Hilarion wants (not that this Giselle would likely want to be thought of any man’s girl).

There’s also this Hilarion’s dynamic with this version’s Bathilde, who seems very clear-eyed about Albrecht and Giselle, and there’s that brief moment when Hilarion has the migrants dance for their overlords, when he bows to Bathilde and she acknowledges him. I doubt there’s real respect there – does he want her but also despise her for being so far above him socially? Is she amused and intrigued and maybe a little disgusted by him and her own response to him? Did they ever hook up and this is now a secret one of them can hold over the other, or they keep hooking up and struggling for emotional and social power in that dynamic, or it’s always been this extra snarky, somewhat dark version of, to quote another canon, “Farm boy, do X!” “As you wish.”

This ballet is an original creation for the English National Ballet and has been performed also by the Royal Ballet of Flanders. The DVD is the ENB dancing it, and the same recording should also be available to stream on Marquee TV.

Jewels – Balanchine/Fauré/Stravinsky/Tchaikovsky

Female Soloist (Diamonds Jewels), Group: Female Soloist/Male Soloist (Diamonds Jewels)

This is just the perfect ballet, one where I love every segment equally, but I always come back to the central pas de deux and especially the ballerina role. I would love a fic that explored some of the undercurrents in her choreography. Her independence and almost teasing of the male soloist, who keeps pursuing her but never quite catches her, even when she lets him support her. At the same time, her regalness (the costume, the Imperial Russia inspiration), aloofness, but again, with a bit of that teasing, playful edge, though she seems to amuse herself much more than she tries to entice the guy, like she won’t accept responsibility for his response to and interest in her. The lady and the unicorn theme present in both the inspiration and in some of her movements – or is the lady herself the unicorn? Is it an updated myth of the unicorn as a symbol of chastity? Finally, her delight in being able to “show off” and set the tone for her whole “court”/ensemble dancing in the finale.

Diamonds has been performed by many companies, both on its own and as part of a full Jewels program. I don’t have a strong preference to any specific cast or version. So far as I know, there’s no full-length recording of NYCB doing it. You can find the pas de deux, adapted for television, danced by Suzanne Farrell and Peter Martins, here, and there are DVDs of Jewels performed by the Mariinsky and the Paris Opera Ballet. (FWIW, of those two, I prefer the Mariinsky’s version.) There’s also a Bolshoi Jewels on youtube, but IMO it’s not that good. There are many short clips of different companies dancing it on youtube.

Canon-specific DNW: anything above T rating.

Obsidian Tear – McGregor/Salonen

Group: Ensemble (Obsidian Tear), Worldbuilding – Obsidian Tear

For this canon, which is technically plotless but also not really, I’m just really intrigued by the internal dynamics of this all-male group/society. The ballet has clear themes of group v. outsider/individual, as well as how desire can become a tool of power/oppression, violence, but also tenderness in unexpected places. Are these men some post-apocalyptic or fantasy tribe, like gender-flipped Amazons? Is the soloist distinguished by his red pants an actual outsider, in which case what is he doing on their territory and how does he first meet his star-crossed lover? Is his and the other guy’s meeting their first meeting, or are they reconnecting? Is he also a part of the community and has been separated from the others due to… what? Is he supposed to be a sacrifice in some established ritual, Rite of Spring-style, in which case the guy in red has at least an inkling of what’s coming, but then desire causes the preexisting script to play out differently this time? Or is his ultimate fate a result of the group leader’s jealousy? Also what’s the deal with the leader, the one guy who seems to be his BF, and then all the other guys including red-pants’ new lover? What if the leader came up with a different way to punish the wayward lovers than killing one of them? Feel free also to change the ending so the central duo don’t die. I’d also be down for a fic that riffs on the multiple meanings of the title.

You needn’t focus on the entire ensemble, if you’d prefer to write just about two (or three or four) of the guys.

This is a Royal Ballet piece that’s also been performed by the Boston Ballet. There are some short clips as well as a filmed rehearsal floating around on youtube.

Exception to blanket DNW: dubcon is fine for this canon e.g., sex pollen, must have sex as part of a ritual, “made them do it but really gave them their one chance for the sex they couldn’t otherwise have,” someone has to fuck or get fucked by one or more others (maybe while people watch), just so long as no one hates it from start to finish and is totally unaroused.

The Seasons’ Canon – Pite/Richter

Group: Ensemble (The Seasons' Canon), Worldbuilding – The Seasons' Canon

If I had to pick just one live dance performance to take with me to a desert island, this would be a top contender. I just love everything about it: the styling of the dancers, the movement, the lighting design, the way Max Richter gave Vivaldi a spin… For this canon especially, I’d love something that invokes the whole piece’s mood and is maybe more of a riff/meditation/meta than a story with a clear beginning, plot, and end (though if you come up with a plot, awesome!) Who/what are the dancers? Some post-apocalyptic community? The result of a scientific experiment escaped into the wild? Are they birds? Lizards? Human-animal hybrids? How do the seasons of the title and the music, and suggested by the shifting light, affect their existence as a group? The piece also has a theme about the individual v. the group, in which standing out isn’t necessarily good or beneficial – something exploring that would be great too. Maybe the individual who stands out tries to make sense of their own and their group/community’s existence, and those efforts may or may not do them any favors.

So far as I know, this piece has only been performed by the Paris Opera Ballet. It streamed for a while on ARTE, and the whole recording occasionally pops up on youtube. There are also shorter clips online.

Canon-specific DNW: anything above M rating (I’m cool with sexual themes for this canon, I just don’t want nothing-but-porn for it).

Woolf Works – McGregor/Richter

Group: Ensemble (Becomings Woolf Works), Worldbuilding – Becomings Woolf Works

All three parts of Woolf Works are so lovely, each in its own way, and part of why I specifically want fic for the middle section is that it’s so abstract and just so darn fun to watch. Yes, it riffs on the one-sentence summary of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, and I find the gender-blurring costumes, the acrobatic choreography (vintage Wayne McGregor!), and the really inventive and very non-Elizabethan lighting design just so beautiful and so intriguing. Is it some weird version of the Elizabethan court? Is it the far future, are they partying in space? Is it a modern-day masked ball and the post-modernism is deliberate? Is it a weird fashion show (someone got high while preparing their final show at fashion school…), is that what the gender-play with the costumes is all about? Is it a competition for whose clothes and moves can be the most “out there” – who picks the winner, and what’s the prize? Is it all someone’s opium- or molly-induced dream? For this canon too, I’d love something that invokes the whole piece’s mood and is maybe more of a riff/meditation/meta than a story with a clear beginning, plot, and end (though if you come up with a plot, awesome!)

This is a Royal Ballet production and has been performed also at La Scala. The RB version is available on DVD and should be on Marquee TV, and there are clips online.

Canon-specific DNW: anything above M rating (I’m cool with sexual themes for this canon, I just don’t want nothing-but-porn for it).

General likes:

-pre-canon, canon, post-canon, canon-divergent, and missing-scene stories

-character-driven as well as plot-driven stories

-fics which mix humor and angst/serious business (when this fits the canon)

-characters at work and play

-group dynamics, family dynamics (including constructed families), professional partnerships, friendships, alliances, rivalries, intimate couples (new lovers/first times as well as long-term/established couples), UST-ridden couples who are not just UST-ridden but connected in other ways too

-irony, snark, humor, angst – all arising from the characters rather than the plot crowbaring it in

-linear, non-linear, and 5+1 stories

-hopeful endings, happy endings, bittersweet endings, “everything is awful but you’re here and maybe I don’t entirely hate that” endings

-worldbuilding

-spiky characters who keep their jagged edges and spikiness in adversity as well as when their lives are going well, square-peg-in-round-hole characters, tough characters with (maybe not so well) hidden vulnerabilities, characters who are their own worst enemies, characters who manage to get over themselves when the occasion calls for it, characters with conflicting values which may or may not be reconciled/resolved, characters who treat each other with respect and as equals even if they hate/annoy/can’t stand/love to dislike each other, characters who may not be exactly friends and may well irritate one another but manage to rub along to get the job done and maybe even grow to care about one another (much to their surprise/reluctance/discomfort), characters who just cannot get along with each other or find common ground

-workplace stories (this can mean anything from an actual workplace/casefic/procedural setting to anything that revolves around the canon world in which the characters live) in which the characters get to be competent

Shippy and smutty likes:

-(where it fits the characters) banter

-competitiveness or antagonism shading into attraction (this tension need not be resolved)

-”oh god why did it have to be you what did I do to deserve this“

-”come here and say it to my face/do that again/kiss me, you motherfucker”

-bickering yet loving couples

-characters who are serious about their romantic interests

-characters who think they are much better at flirtation than they actually are

-characters forced to work together only to prove much more compatible than they initially assumed

-fics which mix an exploration of characters’ professional and everyday lives with shipping

-characters who are incompatible in some important way (they are ideological enemies, cop and criminal, spies from opposite sides, or there has been betrayal!!!), and while they love and/or want each other, they’re not willing to change sides or abandon/compromise their identity/beliefs for the other’s benefit

-I don’t know how better to phrase this than: smut which fits the characters; how does their canon dynamics spill over into hubba hubba stuff?

-sexual scenarios that subvert expectations a little and surprise the characters themselves

-sexual scenarios that contain an element of competition or antagonism

-“this is a bad idea but we’re going for it hammer and tongs”

-not wanting to admit feelings or show vulnerability except oops it happens anyway, whether the characters acknowledge it or not

-characters getting way more into the sex or being more affected by it than they thought they would

-quick and intense sex, slow and intense sex, rough yet willing sex (when it fits the characters), unexpectedly emotional and/or tender sex

-masturbation while thinking of the other half of the ship (or not wanting to think about them only oops there they are in the fantasy!)

-first time sex

-established relationship, we-know-each-other-so-well sex

-”we’ve both wanted this and now we both know it so here we go diving in headfirst” sex

-for het and/or slash, oral, vaginal, anal incl. pegging, manual (ifyouknowwhatImean) – all is good. You can go as veiled or as explicit as you like, but please avoid excessive medical jargon – I don’t find a lot of mention of “penis” or “clit” sexy.

Ship/smut DNWs:

MPREG, A/B/O, knotting D/s, formalized BDSM, painful sex, hard kinks (holding someone down playfully, hair pulling and such like, the odd spank are a-OK) scat, watersports knife/gun/blood play incest deaging/infantilization, mommy/daddy kink under-16yos in sexual situations humiliation body distortion/horror (feeding/weight kink, come inflation, vore, etc.) unrequested ships/pairings soulmates and soul marks pregnancy and children (can be mentioned if canon, just don’t make the whole fic about them) wedding setting/theme secondary characters shipping the main pair like it’s their job xeno, tentacles, bestiality noncon/dubcon

Other DNWs:

torture and abuse (this and noncon/dubcon can be mentioned, but please don’t dwell on it in loving detail or subject any of my requested characters to it) descriptions of vomit, shit, and piss (”He pissed up against a tree” and the like is fine), toilet humor lots of gore/blood (mention it, yes; lovingly describe it, no), cannibalism, serious illness or injury character bashing genderswap/genderbent characters, characters as kids/young teens issuefic, gender/sexuality/race/ethnicity/religion/ability/identity headcanons death of requested characters hopeless, unrelenting gloom/angst/horror RL holiday setting/theme, RL religions as a major theme (invented fictional holidays and rituals are fine) reference to RL current events 1st and 2nd person POV unrequested crossovers or fusions AUs which have nothing to do with canon fic written in lapslock

#dear author letter #black box exchange 2021

0 notes