Ever since I stumbled across Derek Bailey's CD Music and Dance at a music store in New York City, I've wanted to play live music for dancers. I finally have that opportunity with the Pink Flamingo Burlesque, and I love it. But of course that's a very different style of dance from Min Tanaka's naked dancing.
It's a very unique album. The recording was made in an old unused forge in Paris in 1980. It's a performance of two artists: Derek Bailey on guitar, and Min Tanaka's dance--and yes it's audio only. We don't get to see Tanaka dance, but we hear his footfalls. And La Forge has a glass roof so when it began to rain we hear the rain patter against the glass, adding to the sound of the performance.
If you're not a fan of avant garde music or experimental music, you're better off staying away from this album. Derek Bailey plays the guitar in ways that the guitar was not originally intended. But if you're open minded about such things, this album is one of my favourite bought-it-because-of-the-cover finds and I've been listening to it for years.
The local bluesman Huggy Bear Leonard recently drew my attention to contact dancing. From what I've learned in my limited Internet research, it's a largely improvised form of dance, often with two people who maintain contact with one another, often supporting the other, sometimes falling on one another... It's too hard to explain really. You have to see it to get it.
Here's a good video I found on Youtube. I like this video in particular because it features live music along with the performance, although the videography isn't the best.
Ever since I stumbled across Derek Bailey's CD 
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