MANILA, Philippines – Paul Morales, newly designated artistic director of Ballet Philippines, took the third prize in the international Clytemnestra Re-mash Challenge of the famed Ne York-based Martha Graham Dance Company.
The online competition involved downloading videos of Martha Graham’s iconic “Clytemnestra,” premiered in New York in 1958 and based on Sophocles’ trilogy “The Oresteia,” and using these in “any way imaginable to create a radically re-conceived remash – a short video (under four minutes) which relates the classic character to someone in the news today.”
Morales describes his piece: “Inspired by Martha Graham’s ‘Clytemnestra,’ this cinematic adaptation delves into the motives and premeditation of a woman on the verge of committing a heinous crime.”
Morales said that his remash used Graham’s original choreography and music, but he “re-did it with Myra (Beltran as dancer) to look like an old Filipino film, set in Manila in 1958 for a change in milieu.” Rather than a remash in the strict sense of the term – using the actual videos – this is a remash “in a conceptual sense,” Morales explains.
“Because of that I didn’t think I’d make it,” he admits. Morales is a respected dancer and choreographer, founder of AirDance, as well as a filmmaker.
Hundreds of entries were submitted from all over the world. John Blanchard and Sara Sarcuni took the first two prizes. The winning videos may be viewed on the Clytemnestra Remash Challenge website, clytemnestraproject.com.