Time Travel...

Down the subway station of Union Square was another city of its own, people running around trying to catch the next train, it felt like I would be attacked if I swiped my card incorrectly and stalled the line. The subway station was like a portal, stepping into the train and going into

nothing but darkness in sight picking up and letting people out along the way. Next thing you know as you step back out into the real world, you end up in Brooklyn, the more chilled out version of Manhattan.

We walked down another stairwell but this time it wasn't a subway station, it was a museum. A museum of subways, the MTA, it also seemed like a portal, but instead it was a time portal of trains. 

We walked down another flight of stairs and there on the tracks were trains all the  way back from the 19th century. Each of them had a story of their own, everything from the commercials displayed all around to the interior design of the trains. 

From the soft comfortable seats in the past to the more rigid chairs, it seemed that people began to care more about the economical value than the comfort of their passengers. From the ads that went from the more cartoon-like pictures of different products such as soap, chocolate...etc. to a train that was filled with commercials of the products associated only with subways, socks with the  subway map on them for example. This made me realize that subways became a transport system that cared less of the people's needs and more of the money coming out of it. Nonetheless it still remains a fascinating system.

Exposure through Dance

When the American renaissance began, the description of an ideal woman has changed, they had acquired more respect from the people and weren't afraid of judgments when they would wander in the streets after hours.  


In the book New York Modern, they mentioned the growth of the nude statues as a symbol of art, being mostly women and children, because they believed that a woman:
"Judged by its art, the ideal woman of the American renaissance was neither whore nor madonna. Virtuous and sexual, consort and helpmate, uplifting and irresistible, beneath her classical pose and garb stood a new, almost modern woman."


As I read more about how New York became what it is now, women were beginning to be recognized through their talent, in areas such as dance. Dance became a way of expressing what was hidden beneath them, Ruth St. Denis grew up learning ballet and performing in broadway shows and after exploring even more she realized she could express herself artistically even more in dances such as the Radha.

I believe dances can expose a person's desires and emotions, the ideal woman of the American renaissance for example can express what is beneath her "classical pose and garb" through her dance and movements turning it into a form of art. St. Denis was able to mesmerize her audience as she moved along side her emotions and desires creating a priceless work of art. It goes the same with Isadora Duncan who portrayed the "modern woman" and for men "the embodiment of their fantasies" through her symbolic and more realistic dances and appearance.


Even though art dance has died down from the New York stage, I think it has managed to come back up in this decade with an even larger variety. 

Before stepping into the Big Apple...

Receiving news that my first three weeks of 2011 will be in New York City, I pictured myself in a scene of many movies, a scene in the backseat of the yellow cab going through Times Square filled up with excitement, admiring the bright lights and the hundreds of people walking down the street. For some odd reason, every time I picture myself in New York the song Empire State of Mind seems to always play in the background. 

I thought to myself, I am going to be in a city where movies from the classic King Kong to The Devil Wears Prada to the hectic bankers of the recent movie Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps were filmed, now how exciting would that be? Broadways, films, fashion industries, economy, fast-paced people, hotdog stands, huge pretzels and the famous buildings such as the Empire State and the Statue of Liberty blanketed in wet cold white snow on the side streets is the picture of New York in my mind. Leaving Abu Dhabi it all seemed like the imaginary tales formed in my head, but now that I am here I am ready to see how real it gets...