Theatre (22)

Thanks to Dancing Opportunities I'm happy we have been selected to FIDCDMX (Mexico City)

with my last work The Rebellious Body (Connecting Fingers Company)interpreted by Nicola Campanelli12249590665?profile=original.

You can read the entire article here:

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6th-7th Februry 2016 Ackerstadt Palast Berlin

Connecting Fingers (Theatre Dance Performance -45 Minutes- English):
An encounter with some refugees.
In attempting to connect with their stories, dancers will lead us on a second journey.

https://www.facebook.com/connectingfingers

The Birthday - Short Film (16 Minutes, Mandarin/English with german subtitles) Berlin Premiere

Two taiwanese girls, Ron and May, are living in Berlin. As Ron’s birthday approaches, the different love that they feel for each other places them in front of a meaningful change.

Nomination Best Cinematography ShanghaiPride 2015 -
14 Festivals Official Selection
More info: https://www.facebook.com/thebirthdayshortfilm

http://ackerstadtpalast.de/Events/The-Birthday-Connecting-Fingers-Kurzfilm-Tanztheater-Performance

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12249576452?profile=original

We will present a short version of The Wheel Connecting Fingers Company at the EnglishTheatre Berlin for the Festival Expat Expo-

2nd April 2017 from 2pm-


We will be thrilled to share with you this new project--

http://www.artconnect.com/projects/the-wheel
Here the link to the event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1101704719951797/

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WANTED: FEMALE ACTORS with movement skills or DANCERS with

acting skills, FOR ELENA BAJO'S PERFORMANCE With Entheogenic

Intent (Burn the Witch) AT 18TH STREET ARTS CENTER, LOS

ANGELES, CALIFORNIA-US- ON THE 1ST OF FEBRUARY, 2014 

DESCRIPTION

The piece is created by Elena Bajo, a visual artist who has exhibited

internationally and focuses on the social, political aspects of the site in the

city of Los Angeles. Bajo combines performance with large scale

installations to investigate the political and social conditions of change in

post-industrial structures, creating site specific work and a space of

collective action.

The performers will be required to perform in the space of 18th Street Arts

Center. They will be required to do both improvised and choreographed

script/movements determined before hand with the artist. The generator

of the piece is a political text/poem. This political text-manifesto will be

handed to the performers and it will be used to generate their individual

script/choreography. Total duration of the performance around 20 min.

REHEARSALS

3 days, total: 2 days (1h/day) one on one individual work with the

artist and 1 day (1h/day) run-through in the space with all performers

If you are interested in this project please send ASAP an email to

elenabajo@gmail.com including a web link to video file where your work

can be seen , one image and a brief bio/cv. Express very briefly why you

want to participate in the project. You will be contacted by email to

proceed forward. If you don't have a link to video online let me know and

Ithe artist would send you a text fragment to prepare something short 1-2

min that you could record in Skype or video camera or iphone.

For your participation you will receive a small fee, copy of video footage

and photos of the performance as well as credits in the program. This is

an event widely advertised and expected to be a good exposure. Please

only apply if you are interested in being part of an experimental piece,

outside of the comfort zone, that is the spirit of this project.

More information about Elena Bajo’s work:

http://18thstreet.org/events/elena-bajo-exhibition

www.elenabajo.com

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I-CARE-US

12249552883?profile=originalhttp://projectoicareus.wordpress.com/about/

Evoking an alternative version of the ancient Greek myth, I-CARE-US is a new interactive digital performance that anticipates a not-so-distant future, where Unmanned Aerial Vehicles will be part of our domestic air space.

Delivering medicine, pizzas or newspapers, as contemporary versions of the carrier pigeon or even as falconry of the digital age, flying robots are invading the skies questioning their applications and the way they may share space with us. The narrative development of this performance also guides a parallel research project in human robot interaction, searching to apply insights from theatre robotics to the field of social robotics. 

UAVs started recently to be part of artistic objects, as in the case of pieces like “Meet your creator” or “Spaxels”, where these flying robots are the sole performers in astonishing collective visual choreographies. In I-CARE-US they star along terrestrial and suspended human dancers, engaging in a mutual discovery, which evokes an interspecies dialogue exploring the limits of direct contact.

I-CARES-US has been developed along the last two years and will be premiered at the end of 2013.

To follow the project´s development visit:  http://projectoicareus.wordpress.com/

 

Fernando Nabais

Stephan Jürgens

 

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20th Workuba 2013, February, Havana, Cuba

20th Workuba 2013, Havana, Cuba (International Modern & Afro-Latin Dance Workshop)

February 9 – 17 / 2013

Workuba brings together the various dances of the Americas that have their roots in traditional African rhythms and dance, and blends these influences with Modern Dance, which the Program considers to be the key elements of the "complete dancer". Workuba makes the difference! We offer you a unique opportunity to experience modern dance with a latin flavor in a workshop that has as its historical setting Havana City.
Location: America Theatre, 253 Galiano Ave. Centro Habana, Havana, Cuba.

GENERAL DIRECTOR: Ms. Marta Bercy (Modern & Afro-Cuban dance Master)

Classes to be offered in the Workuba Latin Dance Workshop:

Afro-Cuban Folklore, Rueda & Cuban Salsa, Modern Dance, Ballet, Cuban Rumba, Tango and
Milonga, Hip-Hop, Salsa Los Angeles.
PERFORMING ARTS WORKSHOP: Theatre and Voice and Diction.
CLASSES SCHEDULES: (Every Day) 9:00am to 12m/ 1:30pm to 4:00pm.

FINAL PERFORMANCE: February Sunday 17 – 5:00pm, America Theatre.

 

FEES: 300. U$D. The participation fee includes Workshops, Performances and Certificate.
REGISTRATION: Saturday February 9 from 8:30a.m. to 10:00a.m - America Theatre.

E-mail: tedancari@gmail.com
Hotel Reservation: Ms: Estrella Medina – eventos5@paradis.artex.cu


Workuba Representative in Cuba: Ms. Maria Elena Monet - (+537) 832-8770

Marta Bercy
General Director
4534 Corrientes Ave. Buenos Aires City. Argentina.
Tel: (+ 54 911) 4504- 4115
E-mail: tedancari@gmail.com
Website: http://www.tedancari.com

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Dear Friends,

We would like to shortly inform you about the situation in Hungary. The independent theatre and dance companies and venues still didn't receive their yearly state support from the Cultural Ministry (for 2010). The reason is that the government ordered to lock a certain percentage of this support alluding to the general bad financial situation of the country. This means that the organizations working in the field will only receive 66% of the awarded amount. Many organizations have already debts and many are obliged to fire their workers and to give up their projects.

I enclosed a statement of support that we plan to forward to the cultural officials. If you feel like that please sign it and send it back. (You can send it back signed in e-mail or by fax: +3613581005).
Also please forward it to those organizations whom you know were working with Hungarian artists in the past.

As a member of L1 danceLab and L1 Associacion we are also in a difficult situation as our support for 2010 will be about half of the last year's one. However we do our best to survive and to continue our collaboration. There will be a change in the theatre law in this fall. We have to see how will that change the circumstances.

Waiting for your help and reply and wishing you a nice summer time!

Marta Ladjanszki

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Anatomía de un sueño nace de la necesidad de reflexionar sobre el hecho creativo.
Una directora de escena es atacada por un sueño. Cuando se recupera de las heridas se dedica a analizar la anatomía de los sueños con el objetivo secreto de que la próxima vez en que uno de ellos venga a atacarle ella sabrá defenderse y ponerlo contra las cuerdas.

Una pieza sobre dramaturgia y coreografía en la escritura escénica contemporánea.

La pieza parte de una investigación sobre dramaturgia y coreografía en la escritura escénica contemporánea. Sobre el proceso de creación y composición de un espectáculo en el que se funden la danza, el teatro, las imágenes, la música….Y busca respuesta a preguntas como
¿Es una pieza el fruto de un sueño?
¿Es posible diseccionar ese sueño?
¿Es posible ofrecer al público en un espectáculo el íntimo proceso de creación de ese espectáculo?

Una conferencia escenificada, en la que se analizan diversos aspectos de la creación "You Gonna Dance".

____________
Al informe 003 de Anatomía de un sueño le han dado el premio al espectáculo más original e innovador en el Festival Intenacional de Teatro TAC de Valladolid.
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This is the second part of the interview with choreographer and dancer Brice Leroux. Read the first part here: Interview with Brice Leroux, part 1, Dancing lumino kinetics

Electron-positron interaction from Continum by Brice Leroux


Could you describe a little bit the processes of your work from the beginning…

BL: I guess it depends on every process in particular. Of course, it’s always the first initial point, and it's about the movement and about the perception of this movement. So, I work on certain parameter of movement and then I’m trying to magnify the perception of this for the viewer.

Usually, it’s a physical process. First, it’s about what are your physical cababilities and how far can you go with it? The idea by itself is not important enough; it’s about how we are going with it? How far you’re going to bring it? And about the training with dancers

It’s a long process of building a technique, actually. Of course, it’s not only about us in the studio as performers, but also about the audience. I think that this experience of watching is important. Then, it’s a lot about the scenography, and the light and the costume. How it’s going to allow the audience to focus on the performance. This focusing is important. And I think that these experiments are a mayor issue, although they are not sensing physical experience, it’s about the perception.


Electron-positron interaction from Continum by Brice Leroux


I guess that’s how the process goes and I’m trying to take away everything that is not necessary for the experience, both for the ‘doer’ and for the viewer. On this way you can have full experience and really focus on what we are really doing.

What about these technical parameters? Because you’re using many elements that are based on science… in your work scenography takes an important place, it’s a huge element in your language… basically, the light is dancing, the sound is dancing…


BL: Right! Yeah, as a choreographer I feel as much as a visual artist then a choreographer. Because it’s about the perception of the movement. In this sense I feel like a visual artist and in a way, for me choreography should be a part of visual art. It’s working with the perception, what is specific here we have perception on human movement.

I’m focusing as much on the perception of the movement then on the movement. Of course, I’m also doing costumes, lights, scenography… for me all of these are part of my job, because it’s about the perception of the movement. I have never collaborated with a visual artist for instance, or with a scenographer, or costume designer…


LED cube, photo taken from Instructables


So, you are doing everything by yourself?

BL: Yes! But for me it's much more coherent this way, because I can't work on the movement and then let someone else to show it the way they want. I don’t want to work with visual artists who haven’t been through the whole process and decided randomly to pick up some element. This aspect is gonna magnify or hide somehow. I’m responsible for this, and on this way I’m the scenographer, and the costume designer, light designer, because it’s a part of the process.

It has to be me, who goes through all these processes, otherwise it can’t be coherent. It goes along the creation; all these aspects are going to be parallel works. For instance, I can’t work on the movement and then wander how I’m going to show this, it’s all the part of the same process.

I’m working on the light little by little as much as with the movement. It’s all part of the same process, it can’t be divided for me, and it would be totally incoherent to work on the movement and then let someone else decide how it’s gonna be shown.

Continum by Brice Leroux (c)


What are you seeking from your dancers?


BL: I want my dancers to go fully with the work. That they wanna go as far as they can building up a new technique every time with a new project, and not being afraid to spend hours and hours in the studio working on one simple thing, trying to bring it as far as they can.

You have rather good connections with Bulgaria? One of the company member is Bulgarian contemporary dancer Krassen Krastev...

BL: This just happened like this. Somehow I ended up in Bulgaria long time ago. I guess that was in 1992, if I’m correct, because I have won this Paris competition as a dancer. That was an arrangement with this competition, which is mostly ballet actually, I won it with contemporary dance, but it just happened that there was no first prize for ballet…

So, they have invited me in Varna to show my work. Of course, it was in the early nineties, still post communism situation, especially in Bulgaria; and there were mostly ballet happenings. I’ve felt a little bit like an alien in the middle of those things. I have showed them a quite contemporary solo in the middle of TuTu’s and point shoes, and Paquitas' and Copelias’… (laughs) which was really weird and I felt like most of the people were wondering what is this weird thing they were watching?


Continum by Brice Leroux (c)


But there were actually few people; somehow it seems that it opened a lot their view on what was possible. Although, maybe for three or four person in the audience. For me that was really a strong experience to see that I could touch few people, and that my work has changed their artistic lives.

That was quite intense experience. One of these few people was Krassen. When he saw my work, he founded contemporary dance company in Bulgaria, which was the first. So, it felt like there was some kind of connection. Few years later we met again and I proposed him to dance for me, and since then we have been collaborating and it’s been a great collaboration.

What artists did inspire you in your work?

BL: It’s hard to say. There are a lot of artists that I really like. But in my work, I tend to avoid influences because I’m trying to build what I think choreographic work should be. I don’t want to take it for granted that this is dance and I should go for this.

I’m trying to build my own ideas on what contemporary dance, choreographic composition should be for me. Yeah, I don’t feel any influences. I find the work I’m doing as I’m being completely within and that’s the way it should be.

Led Fiber Optics


What do you think about technology in dance?

BL: It’s just a tool. It’s not interesting by itself for me. I don’t need amazing technology. Actually for this solo, it’s the first time that I’m using some sort of new technology which is really simple. It was just this idea that the source light is lighting an object, but the object is being lit by itself, it’s the object itself that is giving light. And for this I had to investigate in new technology and I ended up working with this electronic luminescence which is kind of new.

Actually, it was really complicated to build this show because it was new, you don’t have a lot of information how this thing is going to work. That was the big part of the process to discover how this is working. There was not a lot of information on this. But it's just a tool, it could be something else. In other shows, I’m only using what’s already in the theatre. I’m not using a lot actually, just few lights most of people are using and I’m trying to get the most out of it.

Continum by Brice Leroux (c)


With this performance 'Solo#2-Fréquences' it was a little bit different. I wanted to use something we are bringing by ourselves. We have our lights; we have our curtains, the scenography that we are bringing with. In this situation when everybody is so close and all around you can not hide the source of light. So, then I needed to have light but not coming from outside. The source of light needed to be hidden, from every point of view. But it was just a tool to go where I wanted to go.

Do you work at the moment on some new piece?

BL: Yeah, I'm coming back to the trajectories in the space. Actually, I'm focusing more on bodies moving in the space and the interaction between the bodies. Rather then the movement of the body in one place, like in the 'Solo#2-Fréquences', where the body is not moving in the space. Then it's about the articulations of the body. I'm coming back more to trajectories and I would like to work now with more people. And again using the theatre context, front stage, big venues… we'll see how it goes…

Thank you, Brice!


Read the first part here: Interview with Brice Leroux, part 1, Dancing lumino kinetics


(Originally published on BodyPixel)

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Nits Salvatges (Wild Nights) is a research project that invites different artists to visit residual or tangential environments that open up new lines of investigation within their own personal evolution.

8 new performances by: Esther Ferrer, Oscar Abril Ascaso, Abraham Hurtado, Colectivo 96º, Elena Córdoba - Cristóbal Pera, Amalia Fernández, Gérald Kurdian and Davis Freeman.


Friday April 23th

- Esther Ferrer
- Colectivo 96º
- AmaliaFernández
- OscarAbril Ascaso


Saturday April 24th
- Abraham Hurtado
- Elena Córdoba - Cristóbal Pera
- GéraldKurdian
- DavisFreeman


Where: CCCB - C/ Montalegre, 5 - 08001 Barcelona
When: at 9pm
Price: 5 euros / Reduced: 3 euros - Friends of the CCCB, students, retired, unemployed persons, identification cards of professional associations of scenic arts, identification card libraries, Carnet Jove. Sale anticipated at the ticket offices of the CCCB from the 23/04. Sale of tickets with discounts at ATRAPALO

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French choreographer and dancer Brice Leroux presented in February his lumino kinetic dance piece 'Solo#2-Fréquences' at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Zagreb. The guest performance was organized by Eurokaz – The International Festival of New Theatre.


Photo of Brice Leroux by Sandra Piretti (c)



Brice Leroux (b. 1974) graduated from the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Lyon in 1992. For his First Solo he received a prize for best contemporary dancer at the Paris International Dance Competition and the Gold Medal of the city of Paris. In 1992 he was awarded a scholarship by the American Dance Festival in North Carolina and completed his training in New York at the studios of Trisha Brown and Merce Cunningham.

In 1994 he moved to Brussels to dance with Rosas. Three years later Brice Leroux decided to give up this work and decided to the study of Musicology and Ethnomusicology at the University of Paris VIII. He worked with David Hernandez, George Alexander Van Dam (violinist in the Ictus Ensemble), Sarah Chase, Jean-Luc Ducourt and others.

In his work 'Solo#2-Fréquences' Leroux uses mathematical schemes applied on movements, LED art, and sound tempo. It's a poetic science on trajectories in space. Brice Leroux is a fascinating and uncompromising choreographer; and he doesn't care much about the establishment, but is fully committed to the processes of work.

Brice Leroux: Continum, photo by Wolfgang Kirchner (c)


Therefore, here is Brice Leroux to tell us more on his art_space_sound_body articulations...

Let's start with your education and interest in dance…


BL: First I've been trained as a ballet dancer. I guess like a lot of dancers, I was being educated like this till the age of sixteen and then I oriented myself to contemporary dance. I’ve studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Lyon. Afterwards, I left for the States to study a bit with the Cunningham Studio and with dancers of Trisha Brown Company. Voila! That’s about it, I’m mainly dance trained…

I’m very interested in your American experiences, because techniques by Merce Cunningham and Trisha Brown are slightly different… What was it like to work with them?

BL: Right! Well, it’s true, the movements are very different in these two techniques, kind of opposite. For instance, Merce Cunningham did everything as a sort of geometry, whilst in Trisha Brown’s technique everything is more free and more like fluid forms. Trisha’s movements were actually informal in a way.

But at the same time, what was interesting to me was the fact that these techniques are really working mostly on the movement. And there is nothing theatrical in it, a dancer is a dancer and dancers are really not pretending to do something, just letting their bodies to work.



Photo: Gravitations by Brice Leroux (c)


I guess, some people would call it abstraction, but I don’t think it’s really abstract, because it’s still a human person doing it. So, I think there is still a possibility for the empathy for the viewer.

It can’t be abstract and for me really is important to define the art of dancing in a way. Like really playing with your body which is totally something else then being an actor, like pretending to live something else. I don’t feel like I’m pretending anything, I’m just playing with my body and I’m living the sensations it gives me, hoping that this is also 'lived' by the viewer, I guess.

Seems that you are interested lately more in corporal work and kind of minimalism… Is there anything that has triggered this interest particularly? When did you decide to do this kind of aesthetics?

BL: Well, I was just trying to learn as a composer. I guess I needed to focus on one figure at the time. I didn’t study choreography for instance, compositions and these kinds of things. My way of working is actually studying every aspect of what composition is. For instance, if I would work on trajectories in space that’s enough for me to focus on, without a need to also work on arms movement for instance or something else.

For me, there is my own 'composition' I work on and then, I work for the viewer… because I’m also trying to create things to let the viewer see this work on trajectories.



Gravitations-quatuor


Therefore, everything out of that I'm moving away to show what I want to see. Hence, I’m working on what’s necessary and what’s enough.
I’m not interested in minimalism itself. I’m just interested to focus on one aspect of compositions, if it’s already a full work, that's enough and I don't have to mix everything.

As for the viewer, I wanna show the specific thing I’m working on. I’m dividing it into parameters, only working on certain parameters at time.

What is your relation as a choreographer to the space… to theatre space? More precisely, how do you treat space in your work?

BL: Um, that’s a large question. As for theatre space, I started experimenting with space more like Trisha (Brown), having more events in site specific spaces. Afterwards, I started to go to theatres and then working in some propositions this space gave me, for instance: What is a block box? What is a frontal perception of the audience?

Solo#2-Fréquences by Brice Leroux (c)


Well, in this performance 'Solo#2-Fréquences', the audience is all around and it's a little bit different. I’m trying to use what's in the theatre and what’s interesting in this situation, the audience is sitting in front of it, in the dark, there are no other stimuli and it’s a live show, it’s direct and you know that’s not an image. A human body in front of them, and that’s a specific situation that I want to work with.

In terms of space, what’s interesting for me is the space between bodies. If you are only working with trajectories, the distance between bodies and how they come close or get far from each other. In a way, what’s really visible for me is happening between space and that’s what I’m trying to work on.

OK, now we can switch to music and the importance of the sound in your work. You studied ethnomusicology and came into contact with other cultures through traditional dances ... Why did you decide to go in that direction?

BL: Traditional dances were interesting to me because you are entering the field that's not about the style, specific style that has been built by some choreographer, but was built over the years, decades, centuries.

Photo: Olivier Matterlart (c) from Quantum-Quintet by Brice Leroux


There are really coherent forms that somehow attracted me to study them and to see what style actually is? You can do the movement with it, like for instance, if you would ask a ballet dancer to do a movement or if you would ask an African dancer to do exactly the same, it’s not going to be the same thing at all. This is what interests me. What are these differences in the way of doing things? And for me, these differences are style, so researching on this was important. Body movements are not only shapes, it’s also a way of doing it.

For me that was a way to go toward the source of the pleasure of the movement. It wasn't being built by someone thinking about what movement should be, it’s just something that has been built up over the centuries, something that is very coherent within the society and just a basic pleasure of what dancing is.

Photo: Olivier Matterlart (c) from Quantum-Quintet by Brice Leroux


Yeah, I know... many people very often use these terms like, lets make now a Forsythe movement, or a Cunningham movement… what about non labeled body and movement?

BL: Yeah, I didn’t want to create my style based on taste. For me that was training, too. As a dancer, I wanted to have all these experiences. But, I don’t wanna be imprisoned with a certain style that I would have to study more then others. I wanted this range of obvious possibilities and from this point, my work is about not deciding on style.

I’ve never decided to use a movement because I think: oh this is nice, so I would do this. So, I’m building this compositional mathematics in order to avoid this. There is some sort of logic and coherence with the project rather then a decision of taste.

I guess, that’s what I’m trying to do, which is somehow opposite to traditional dances. But because it’s opposite, I was really interested in this. I needed to go through all these things to pull away from this, I guess.

Read the second part of the interview with Brice Leroux: Choreographing bodies and spaces

(Originally published on Body Pixel)

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Back in June, during Eurokaz – The International Festival of New Theatre, Arlene Hoornweg and Pauline Kalker from theatre company Hotel Modern gave me an interview about their work. We weaved our talk around two of their performances - Kamp and The Shrimp Tales.

Photo by Herman Helle from Kamp

Hotel Modern is not a typical theatre company. Because of their visual aesthetics and the multiple use of cameras, sculpture, puppetry and various sound devices, you can find them regularly in books that cover topics of expanded, live cinema and new media art in cinematic context.For those of you who admire the work by Slinkachu, Nathalie Djurberg, Marcel Dzama, Josef Nagj, Tadeusz Kantor, Walter Martin & Paloma Munoz etc, the relation with Hotel Modern is like a theatre extension of visual arts.

Let’s start with the concept of your company… the concept is wider, it involves theatre aspects, but you are also notable company in the field of expanded cinema… but there is a lot of applied arts present even on your web site… I would call it visual art…. When did you decide to choose such aesthetics?Arlene Hoornweg: We like that!Pauline Kalker: Yeah, we have the website with many rooms. I think, it’s because when we made our first performance somebody suggested us if we would like to do a music theatre. That person thought that this was maybe something for us, we were very young at that time. Then she got an idea…Arlene Hoornweg: Yeah, I was playin’ guitar. That was after theatre school, and Pauline and I were searching a bit. After theatre school I realized I want something else. I wanted to perform, but I also liked music. So, I started to play guitar and I really liked making songs and I really got into that. Then the theatre director said, you can make a music performance if you want. I said, OK! Let’s do that. Then we asked Arthur Sauer, the composer to work with us. He still works with us. And then the three of us made a music performance and it was fun.

Photo by Leo van Velzen from The Shrimp Tales

Arlene Hoornweg, Herman Helle and Pauline Kalker

PK: Yeah, it was fun to go really into technique, because he had these little boxes which distorted our voices, like making high voices and pitched it. He had many different instruments, and Arlene gathered texts around the theme of life and death. She made a number from every text, like a song and Arthur had all these instruments and it was really like playing. It was fun to play with the technique of his music and sounds, to make a kind of landscape of sounds. I think we both like playing with it.AH: But we also found out what we can tell with text, what we can tell with music, for example. And that’s also what we do now, what we tell with images? What we can tell with text? We can tell a lot with images, and you can tell a lot with music; and you can tell something with text…

Photo by Leo van Velzen from The Shrimp Tales

PK: They all have their own possibilities. We both like the fact that the level of imagination in our performances is very high. I think we like to be in another world, to create the whole world, not only text. We want to create a really new universe. You need different senses for this. Because it’s not only one dimension, it’s not only people and text.For instance, like our latest performance we did with shrimps. It’s called The Shrimp Tales, actors are real shrimps. If you have a world that is populated by shrimps, which perform human activities that’s even more imaginative. Especially with cameras and small models Herman (Helle) is using in ‘Kamp’, you have literally a whole world build.

Photo by Herman Helle from Kamp

You have small models and you can be in that world, then you can make them talk with one another. You need sound to make an atmosphere. I think, if you have different media like music or visual art with sound and little bit of text sometimes, the imagination becomes even more intense, more then having only a painting. Well, it’s not better then another, it’s just what we like.You have many layers; that’s natural…AH: Yes, that’s the way we look at life. That you have so many layers, that there is not only one. There are lots of artists who want to have the essence, or a focus they are trying to pick up. That’s also very nice, but we want to pick everything out of the world to show the richness, and the layers. We also want to show the enormous cosmos.

Photo by Hans Werlemann from Rococo

Your performative technique is very specific… where would you place yourself as performers?PK: That’s different from each performance. For instance, in The Shrimp Tales we are using these little microphones and we are dressed up like we are a kind of glamorous or punk band with light on our faces. We are moving the shrimps and we do a lot of voices, we really have to make shrimps performing. At the same time we also have screenings and projections on the wall.So, the audience can see huge shrimps in a shrimp world and can be focused on it. They can also look at us; we are also performing as actors, playing the scenes and animating the shrimps, doing the voices of shrimps. The audience can watch us, too. We are really performing as actresses, we are really there. We are showing emotions on the face, and we are aware that the audience is sometimes looking at our faces to see our emotions, and then they look at the shrimps again.

Photo by Herman Helle from Rococo

With ‘Kamp’ is more sober. We are part of a machine. We are there, but we are like in a machine. In that way our bodies are telling the kind of objectivity that in ‘Kamp’ is kind of objective, in factual way. Our performing is anonymous and factual, we have really choreography. We sit down or get up in the same time, the rhythms of our bodies and the moves in that way are related to dance. We are really aware of how we stand or how we look. We choose a neutral way of being there. In ‘The Great War’ we have the text, and the text is a bit like songs, but for acting… it’s very very short. We do it like text but more in a song way. We are aware of our voice.When we are a part of the machinery we are also partly technicians at the stage, like cameraman. We have to run around getting the machinery going. At the other hand we also make sounds on the stage.

This multi-functionality is pretty logical these dayz… Besides, it’s the way you express yourself within many different techniques… you function like a post rock band…PK: Because we are a group, it’s more like a band. Herman brings his models, I bring the story line, Arlene her performing skills, you know. So, when thinking about the content, we did all things together. Composers are bringing sounds, and we all bring stuff together into the whole artwork. So, the artwork has a special energy.Yeah, it’s a mash up of your ideas and thoughts…. Could you describe me the processes of your work?AH&PK: First, we never now! (laughter)PK: After every show we have to start all over again. It’s like a cliché, but it’s true. You think you know nothing.AH: Yeah, nothing. What we are going to do?! Sometimes you get nervous, but sometimes you don’t. Then we start to write down our ideas and thoughts. But it also depends of the project. For ‘Kamp’ it was a very specific idea that came up. For ‘The Shrimp Tales’ the ideas came from many different ways and we had gathered them and developed it from ideas we had last few years.

Photo by Joost van den Broek from The Great War

PK: There is always a starting point. There is always this one person who has the beginning idea, because only one head pumps up. So, for ‘The Shrimp Tales’ it was my idea to get shrimps out. Actually it was a comedy idea; basically I wanted shrimps performing people. Then we had some ideas and we decided to do it on the stage. So, that’s much opened and very specific. We had an idea from before, the idea of showing the city. So, that’s how we connected it. What’s in the city?! What happens in the library, or in the museum, or hospital?AH: Then we decide either we want them on the ground or on the tables.

Photo by Joost van den Broek from The Great War

PK: Going from these ideas there are many moments to turn on your fantasy. We really have to make it work. We collect many ideas and then we choose the one we like the most. After that, Herman makes the model of that and we collect our stories and connections in the plot. We want to get the atmosphere of these places.Herman first makes very simple model which we use for improvising things. Then we start to talk and write a little bit to work it out. We combine many ideas, and then we choose the one we like most. We pick them together and make a good scene of it. In the process we also make a lot of crap, so we choose really good ones. That’s basically like shooting with a lot of bullets.

Photo by Joost van den Broek from The Great War

You are cleaning the mess of ideas…PK: Yeah! First, we create a mess of ideas, because we have to create a lot of ideas in order to play with them.AH: And, of course, we discuss a lot about it. What the performance is about, and what structure does it have? Why we want to use some things, why not other, and so. In ‘Shrimps’ we ended with fifteen scenes in thirty minutes, and that’s a lot.PK: In ‘Kamp’ it was different, because the story was already there. We just had to decide what part of the story we want to show. At the end we finally chose the basic things, maybe like a cliché – gazing, crimes. For us, we don’t want to be original in what we tell. We want to tell the basic things and the most shocking, the basic things in a way.

Photo by Joost van den Broek from The Great War

For instance, there were also medical experiments in Auschwitz and we wanted to have a scene also showing that. Because, we didn’t want to use texts, the image of medical experiments that we made didn’t communicate at all. Then we decided not to put it in. Not everything has to be in and dedicated. Instead of that, we thing that it has to be consistent and in a way balanced. We also have execution in performance, but we didn’t show every way of execution, but only one. It was quite difficult to choose which element we want to show. So, that was another path.AH: Some things are the same, and some not because the material is different.

Photo by Herman Helle from Kamp

Seems like covering the topic of Auschwitz in ‘Kamp’ had stronger effect with puppets and big screens, instead of acting… People find hard to comprehend the fact of evilness… Atrocities and killings are happening now in this very moment in Africa, Asia… but we are never enough prepared for those facts…PK: I think it’s good to have different ways of telling. As preparations for Kamp we were watching documentaries with interviews of the survivors. I think that’s the best way of telling… just listen to the stories by people who were there. That’s really authentic, but it’s good to have other ways to complete the whole image. There is not one way, the best way of showing that.I think, with the testimony you can get the story from really the first source. It’s very very good to try to show it with images, documentaries or, like us, with puppets. It’s good to have these different ways of going around the theme.There is not one good way. It should be from different art forms to different media. Monuments, radio and so, actually everything that contributes the commemoration, reflection and realization of what happened.

Photo by Leo van Velzen from Kamp

AH: There are so many artists using different ways to talk about this theme for very different audience. There are different ways to get in touch with it. Some people came to our performance and they said: it’s so distant to me, you know. It doesn’t click. It’s good to have all these books and art forms to trigger them. That’s the way people can connect with the image and to get to emotions. Some people can easier connect with books, some through image…PK: People have different portrayals. It’s also different if you want to commemorate or if you want to grab information. These are different things. Those are different purposes actually. There are different things you can do towards the theme: memorizing, contemplating…

Photo by Herman Helle from Kamp

Connecting these things with what happened in Bosnia, or in Rwanda. That’s also a relation, to make connection with the world today. I’m happy to see that many artists within different media are relating with the theme, making different relations and actions towards it.Arlene & Pauline, Thanks a lot!Hotel Modern is at the moment at world tour. Check here dates; maybe they will stop by near your neighbourhood soon…(This interview was originally published on Personal Cyber Botanica: www.lomodeedee.com)
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Over the past 10 months we have been creating a dance theatre work which strives to take the bboying dance form into new territory. "White Caps", a live and film performance for the Bristol Old Vic in England, aims to explore the full expressive depth that the bboying technique holds, following the journey of two young men as they embark on an epic adventure in a compassionate, exhilarating search for completeness.We documented the process we went though to create this work, which i would like to share with you. Here are links to an episode of our production podcast and the latest teaser trail we have for the work.Hope this is of interest to you.Podcast Episode 3:http://www.vimeo.com/7805344Trail:http://www.vimeo.com/8910088Thank youWilkie Branson
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During this year's edition of Eurokaz - The International Festival of New Theatre I had an opportunity to interview artistic director of CIE 111 Company, Aurelien Bory...

Aurélien Bory in Zagreb, photo taken from SEEbiz (c)

CIE 111 performed the 'Seven Boards of Skill' which was really great chance to talk with Bory on his aesthetics, directing methods, usage of new technologies in art and the trilogy itself...Aurélien Bory studied film, then acoustic architecture before turning to theatre. He has been heavily inspired by circus and juggling since he was a teenager.The Company says about the trilogy: 'Since its creation, CIE 111 has been aiming to the development of a poetic writing, using juggling, acrobatics and music and exploring scenic language as a whole.

With this point of view, the matter of space appeared obvious, on one hand because juggling and acrobatics are tightly linked to it and obey perfectly to its regulating laws and on the other hand because theatre is considered here like the art of space as defined by Oskar Schlemmer himself.Therefore, the concept of a trilogy about space is imagined declining its dimensions. Three-dimensional space (the volume), two-dimension space (the plane), one-dimension space (the line) become the themes of the three respective episodes IJK, Plan B and More or less infinity.That way, the fact is to question the relationship between man and space, from its more daily form until its conquest. Imagined as a poem in which the addition of simple forms produces, by layers, a complex structure, the trilogy suggests to the spectator’s imagination to proceed with ideas associations, recognition or projections of their own references and experience of today’s world. This flow of sensations becomes movement of thought. The elsewhere is in the core of our relation to space whose quest is endless, in loop, vain. Trilogy seems to be this: three dimensions, three elsewhere and three impossibilities.’

Photo by Mihail Novakov taken from flickr (c)

Your stage work is always designed as a sort of puzzle, there is always some kind of construction we have to build in our imagination… you’ve studied cinema and physics and there are so many elements included in your performances… we have to solve something at the end of the performance…AB: Yeah, you’re right (laughs). I like very much this idea. I didn’t put it that way before, but I like it now, doing this puzzle. Like in this show. It’s right what you just said. I’ve always done puzzles (laughs).You were also inspired by Bauhaus, Oscar Schlemmer and all these geometrical constructions. … but it’s not only about the geometry…AB: Yeah. You know, I wanted to make theatre with everything. I think everything could be theatre. Everything that fits on the stage could be theatre. In the past, I worked a lot with different elements: slides to scenery, new technologies like video for example, which is not really NEW, but for theatre it’s new, you know (laughs). For example, I have done more then four performances with video. And for the show ‘Seven Boards of Skill’ I wanted to do a show without video, because it’s not a necessary tool. I wanted to come back to something more basic as blocs or architecture. Not to go in all directions, but to focus on one direction. But, it’s still, of course, a mix of things.I’m trying to find for each projects specificity. Not to be very specific, not to be too general or to do as I already did. I’m trying to do something new. As for my last performance, I’ve tried to do something with the architecture and the geometry. I wanted the show to be dead and it’s a change, because people on the stage are only doing architecture. They are trying to explore where could be their body in that architecture. So, the performance is questioning the place that we can build for ourselves in the world.

But in my last two performances, which are part of the trilogy inspired by Oskar Schlemmer, it’s difficult after that to say what is it exactly. If it is dance or circus… even in this show you can say that it is circus. There are very scary balances with architecture, it’s like these blocs are doing acrobatics by themselves, you know.So, it’s mixed and people usually ask, what is this? I answer them: It’s theatre! Of course, we can do theatre with dance. For example, the biggest choreographers like Pina Bausch, before everything she was an excellent director. For me, being a theatre director stands before being a choreographer. They are doing their work for stage. First of all, they are excellent stage directors. I follow these ideas – the idea of theatre, the idea that we can do everything with theatre, circus, architecture, music, images, shadows… like shadow puppetry, you know. When you really want it, you can do theatre with these things and the only important thing is to respect the rules of the stage. They are complex and each performance is an opportunity for me to get something new about those rules.It’s interesting that you have found inspiration in street art… basically, circus and jugglery are ancient forms of street art…AB: I wouldn’t say street art. Because I’m not very connected with street art, but I’m very interested in acrobatics, juggling and these kind of things. They interest me because they’re very connected with physical rules and gravity. Falling ball, the body… to do acrobatics is to define the gravity, to dance also means to define gravity. And at the same time to listen the gravity, to let it be in our body or in the object.So, because of all these I’m interested to be connected with the physical world. Theatre is the only place where gravity is for real. You know, it’s the only art, not the place, but the only art where gravity is the part of the game. If you write a book, or make a movie there isn’t gravity. You can lie with gravity… Gravity is a part of the space, part of what you are doing. That’s why all things that I have chosen are connected with this direction – the art of the space.This trilogy is about the space and this piece is simply an extension of it. In this performance I’ve applied all what I did in trilogy to make something different. It is a little bit more philosophical then the whole trilogy. There was also philosophy in the trilogy, but in a very specific way: form, subjects, volume, playing, laying. In the Chinese show there is more about the WORLD. I’m talking about the world in a sense of humanity.

Seven Boards of Skills, Cie 111 (c)

It’s very obvious that you tend to create a small microcosm, this time you have picked up a huge civilization. Chinese philosophy, art, theatre are massive and complex systems…AB: Yeah, I found very interesting the fact that China is the world itself. Basically, they had put the whole during years and years, being separated from the rest of the world. So, I didn’t want to say that in my performance, but I used this fact that it’s a world by itself. I wanted to put this on the stage: A WORLD. And the place of human beings in that world. Of course, I was very inspired by Chinese philosophy because it was very important to make some connection with that. It’s very important to respect the context of the performance. Chinese audience makes its connections, while Western audience makes other connections. It is not about China, I think it’s universal. It’s not about THE World, but A World. A construction of that, with some absurdity, with serious things, with humour, with poetry. Of course, poetry is something what I’m doing.It’s a stage poetry…AB: Yes, it’s stage poetry. As for poetry and myself, you know, I don’t have a message. Let the audience enters into this poetry and make its own message.Your are relaying on the audience… it’s a very opened structure… it’s about that what they see and how they perceive shapes and spaces…AB: Yeah, it’s an opened structure and if it works, the imagination is very active. If it works! If it doesn’t work, well, then you can get bored (laughs). In this kind of connection, I call it art. Art is not the object itself; art is relationship between you and whatever you are watching. That’s art. If it’s working that’s something incredible. You think that this painting, or film or performance have been made for you only. If it’s working really… It’s for me, it’s talking to me! (laughs). If it doesn’t work you don’t feel connection with that what you’re watching and it’s just boring.Can we go back to the human body, and the thing you’ve said previously that you are interested in these balances on the stage… Do you allow the actors to reveal themselves within your guidelines or you are directing them in which was they should be going? I don’t think in a sense of choreographing…AB: I’m trying to find all strategies to discover something that will surprise me. All strategies are good. Sometimes you don’t know what the exact strategy to find something is. I’m very interested to discover what I didn’t know before and it’s very difficult, because you don’t know how to get that. For example, I wanted to experiment with some kind of movement on these blocks. What I’m doing is that I’m trying all combinations. I’m interested to explore everything of this triangle, everything. OK, could you walk on it?! Could you climb on it?! Could you slide, jump or run?! What could you do?! What is the connection between you and this object? What is the connection between the bodies? What can you do with your body?It’s always a dialogue between the body and the space. This dialogue is infinite. I’m always trying to find little discoveries, you know. For this performance I needed that. Not discoveries that I already made in my paper book, while I was working prior going to rehearsals. I’m not looking for discoveries in that moment. I just make repetitions with the actors on the stage, then I’m searching to discover some new things. Something that I haven’t had thought about before. Sometimes nothing happen… Some days can happen something incredible by chance or something else…

Seven Boards of Skills, Cie 111 (c)

Let’s switch now a little bit to this element of sound, and the perception of sound in your work… after all these elements we had mentioned before, sound could be the last layer in your work…AB: Yeah, yeah… you know, light and sound… I’m trying to make them acting to provoke things. So, the sound goes parallel in real time with actions. I’ve asked a friend of mine who lives in Paris to make some sound with Chinese elements like gongs. I said to him: I need the sound of the Earth and the sound of the Sky! GO! (laughs). After that, I’m cutting it with the sound engineer and technicians in order to make it adaptable for the stage. Exactly the same is with the light… I really want the light to follow the action and to be part of the action. So, at the beginning I only thing about the action, what’s the action and what is part of the action? Is light a part of the action?! Yes / No?! Do we need sound?! Yes / No?! I like silence, too.Silence is also a sound…AB: Yeah, exactly. I don’t like when music is an obligation. I don’t like when people are using music in theatre to be decorative or to make it beautiful. I like the action on the stage, so if the music could be also a part of this dialogue on the stage, that’s good. We don’t need necessarily music. Sometimes silence is more powerful. When I’m saying that everything could be theatre that means action. Everything could be part of the action, not decorative. Not to make it beautiful. I’m not interesting in making things beautiful. What is action and what could be part of the action?Could you describe me a bit your working processes…AB: I’m trying to make the concept of the product. It takes about one year of work. During this year I’m trying to answer questions: What is it about and what for? On first question you have to answer very clearly, if you can’t that means that you don’t know. If you don’t know, it means that there is no project. What for means why? What’s interesting in that you want to do? Why do you want to do it now? Why do you want to try that now? You have to answer to these two questions. So, my concept is to have an idea, to have those two answers. For example, I decided to make a trilogy about the space, because theatre is space. Theatre is the art of space. You have three, two and one dimension in theatre. Zero dimension is not a space, not space that we now in our physical world.So, I wanted to work with the space because theatre is space and what is space actually? It is volume – plain, line. You know, theatre is not only about space, but also about life. Space is maybe the most important thing is our life. We follow space, we live in space. We are very sensitive to space. If we feel good in the room or not we know that immediately. Human beings are very space animal. And we are always looking for new spaces. Now, we have to go to the moon. So, this was very interesting subject and I wanted to make three performances about that. So, then when I realized and had answers to my questions, I decided to put space, plain and line on the stage.

From Erection, photo by Pierre Grosbois (c)

Taken from Sofia Dance Week

Then I’m trying to find the good scenery. I always work with the moving scenery. Now, it’s a part of my aesthetic. Scenery that you can move, not fixed scenery. Scenery that could be transformed. For example, if you remember Plab B performance, there were scenery and worlds designed completely vertical, not horizontal. But, it’s the same object. I work with object. Scenery is not a scenery that you are looking at, because scenery is part of the action and object. At the same time, the scenery itself is an object of the show. If it is a plain, I’m putting there a plain. Basically, if it is an tangram, I’m putting at the stage an tangram. It means, my work is very very basic. You know, the word tangram has been given to the game by Westerners, but the original translation from Chinese qi qiao ban would be the ‘Seven Boards of Skill’. I like working with that, which means that I believe in simplicity. But, I hope that after the whole process I would find not expected things. I want to create real surprises.Have there been other contemporary artists in particular that have had a strong influence on you, or whose work you admire?AB: I really believe in contemporary art today. Some artists are very inspiring. Of course, you have mentioned constructivism and Bauhaus… but I also like Op Art from the sixties, cinematic arts, then minimalism… But now, I’m also very interesting what is going on with photography, artists that cross the barriers of art. For example, I’m interested in contemporary artists which are doing now street art. I like artists which are combining architecture, street art and old monuments, statues, churches. Objects that have now different functions and meanings, and you feel like watching with new eyes. My question is: what is it about the art? Well, I think you have to give the eyes to the audience. For instance, there are a lots of photographers now, which are interested in bodies and dance…

Seven Boards of Skills, Cie 111 (c)

Oh, sure… you mean Denis Darzaq…AB: Yeah! Darzaq is doing something I would like to do. This is definitely my style. (laughter) Darzaq and other photographers are now crossing the fields of dance, acrobatics and photography. It’s now a mix. Today, you can see a kind of mix of things. The artists of today are like that, mixing different things. I think I belong to them, too. I want to try new things that provoke something and refreshing a little bit. But, at the other hand, it’s not necessarily inspiring, because I don’t want to make all these arts. I want to enjoy in it as being a part of the audience. In cinematography my favourite film maker is James Gray. It has nothing in common with my work. For me, James Gray is like Dostoevsky, you know. He is an incredible film maker.There are lots of ideas in the moment that I really like in contemporary art. Very good ideas…What do you thing about technology usage in theatre? Affordable technology is developing faster and faster… lots of people are trying to play with it, some good… some less good…AB: You know, I think technology is not a subject, it’s a tool. If you get to make technology as art, that’s OK. But, if you make only technology that’s bullshit. There are also many rubbish things by many people who are ‘amazed by technology’. There are also people who are doing real art with technology. I like the work by Daito Manabe. He is making the sound with impulses from his face. I saw his work at Youtube.He does a kind of dance of the faces. He is using four different faces, and the result is the same dance because he uses electronic impulse. So, this is a little piece of art for me and it’s interesting because you see very passive dance. No will, just moving about our body. It’s talking about the fact that we are passive in a way. We just let technology enter our body. This is very interesting to me. But there are also many artists that are doing interactive arts with very sophisticated technology. When somebody is amazed because he moved his arm and made some sound from a machine I don’t find it an art.Do you think that this could be described as tech mannerism or baroque?AB: Yes. It’s only technological. Yeah, you moved your arm, and there is a sound behind. So, it’s a technological curiosity. It is only a gadget. It could be the first step, but of course it is not enough at all. For me, interactivity need this answers: what is it about and what for?

Photo: Compaignie 111 – Sans Objet

Taken from Contemporary Performance Blog (c)

Do you desire to do something more with technology in theatre?AB: I’m in repetition now. I will have a new performance in October… It’s soon, yeah. It will be something with robots, old industrial robots. You know, robots that we use in car industry. I will stage this robot who has nothing to do and actors with their bodies. So, it’s a dialogue between them. It’s also based on sculptures. The subject is what is alive and what not? These barriers between alive and not alive. The relation between technology and body became so blur.Before, we knew robots were not alive, now it’s becoming a little bit blur. I’m talking about that. Also, it’s very inspired by Kleist’s philosophy. It’s inspired by Kleist’s thought’s on theatre and puppetry. So, it’s a kind of Kleist’s theatre of forms, because the robot is capable to take big objects, so I want him to take floor and build monoliths. This is a poem about inutility and useless activity, which is art and also a lot of things in human beings experience. Why do we need useless activities? And at the same time old robots are now useless. He built cars before, but now he’s is unusable. So, being useless is a little bit closer to human beings (laughs). So, I’m going to do that!Aurelien, Thank you very much!(This interview was originally published on Personal Cyber Botanica)
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Dear EveryoneWe would like to invite you all to a performance of No Living Room on 29th July at 8.30pm, at the Arcola Theatre in the festival Adventures in Movement for Create 09.

watch showreel

No Living Room is the culmination of years of work combining our projected environments with dance. although some of the material has been shown before this narrative reworking creates a piece much closer to our vision of what we call Virtual Reality Theatre.

The blurb is:
alKamie presents
(No) Living Room
Cutting-edge virtual-reality meets physical theatre to playfully challenge economic mantra.…
Arcola Theatre, 8.30 pm
27 Arcola St., London E8 2D
020 7503 1646

With the icecaps and economies alike in meltdown `No Living Room' playfully empties the complexities of consumerism and economic growth into dream-like cinematic theatre. Through live virtual reality and quirky physicality we tumble into a woman's fears and fantasies, to surface from calamity, in the midst of alternative possibilities. read more
how to get there

more about alKamie:

Sincerely yours
Brian Curson & Robyn Stuart
al'Ka-mysts
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Raimund Hoghe is certainly one of the most intriguing dancer and choreographer in contemporary dance these days. I had an opportunity to interview him in May, during Queer Zagreb Festival, where his company performed ‘Boléro Variations’.Raimund Hoghe always pushes the boundaries of dance perception through profound and minimalist way of analyzing thingz. The public and dance experts from Ballettanz Magazine obviously recognized this by giving him The Dancer of the Year Award in male competition for the season 2008.

Raimund Hoghe, photos by Rosa Frank (c)

I really have to mark here that in female competition the same award was given to ex-ballerina Sylvie Guillem. They are both completely different in bodily physics and kinetics, but the result is actually the same. The result is strong and authentic.I already blogged about ‘Boléro Variations’ I saw back at Queer Festival, so I’m letting you to Mr. Raimund Hoghe and his ways of seeing thingz on the stage and in life…

Raimund Hoghe, photo by Rosa Frank (c)

While I was watching your performance ‘Bolero Variations’, I constantly thought about the line: tinny little thingz… You like to ‘dig’ through those hidden moments in our lives… exploring society and its reflection on your own inner landscape… What was the initial trigger that has brought you to this?RH: It’s different from each piece, but I don’t make pieces with big effects, for example. I’m not interested in virtuosity or how people can jump or do incredible things. I’m interested in simplicity, so very simple and the personality of dance. To share with audience the quality of dancers, and there are these very little things; and sometimes maybe you are wondering why it’s interesting?For some people, of course, it’s not interesting, but for many it’s interesting. Like for me, last time when I was here in Zagreb, three years ago in 2006 with ‘Swan Lake, 4 Acts ‘, there was a 3-year old child in the performance. And this child didn’t want to leave the performance in the break, because it was so interested. The child wanted to see the whole story. The mother wrote to me a letter and this child had very interesting comments. It was also a long piece. So, for some adults it’s very boring, for a 3-year child is different. It’s different for each person.

Lorenzo De Brabandere and Raimund Hoghe

Photo from Tanzgeschichten by Rosa Frank (c)

You have spent many years working with Pina Bausch … her pieces have a specific dramaturgy… and the set of dancers in your piece reminded me on some performances you did with Pina… having a strong female character on the stage… Ornella Balestra’s character reminded me on Mechtild Grossman…RH: Yeah, but it’s very different from Pina’s work now, because it’s much more entertain and light, not too long; all dancers are more or less young. So, I’m interested just in strong personality. And now, my works could be compared with early works by Pina, not with her works from today. Because she is working a lot with video now, and older pieces were used in films, too. I don’t use this kind of technology.And, the roads are different, like in Pina’s dance pieces women are women, and man are man. So, women have long hairs, very beautiful colourful dresses moving like women. Man wear white shirts with trousers, like this classical image of man and woman. I’m not really interested in this.

Ornella Balestra, photo by Rosa Frank (c)

People tend to stuck when they try to use canons of classical dramaturgy in contemporary dance… As dramaturge how do you make this distinction, because your field is dance dramaturgy? You are directly connected with the scene that coined the term Tanz theater…RH: For me, in dramaturgy you have to come from one point to the other and you have to know why. That’s something everybody has to find out. There is no recipe or so. For me it has to be clear how you come from one point to the other, and that you can repeat it easily… this outthinking. The dramaturgy has to be so clear, that you can just jump into the piece.We don’t have long rehearsals before performances. It’s just one day, but people do different things… Maybe one piece is for one night play and then you have one rehearsal. And it is possible, because for me, and also for dancers, the dramaturgy is very clear. You don’t have to think about it. In many dance pieces you see today, they have to sing or think a lot what is coming next. In my work you have to know why you are here.

Photo by Patrick Mounoud (c) taken from fipa

How would you describe your work with Pina Baush?RH: It was very interesting to work with her. People talk about her and her work in terms of personality and strong person. This is very personal related, but it could be said also for her art form. It was not that sort of work where you present only the feelings.Could you be so kind to describe a little bit your working process… from the beginning till the end…RH: I’m very inspired by music. So, this is the point, when I’m listening the music! I made a piece on Maria Callas, and she sang about all that: If you really listen to the music, the music tells you how to move. And this is what I’m also trying. Then this dramaturgy is coming together, I feel it. I just have to do ‘this next – this next – this next’…In this piece about Callas ‘36, Avenue Georges Mandel’, she wasn’t visible in the first performance. But I had a feeling I missed something and had to think why is this happening and then I put this motif in it as a scene or an aria or something.

Emmanuel Eggermont and Raimund Hoghe, photo by R. Frank (c)

How do your dancers react to these processes because they are all very physical, but seems like there is always a layer of trust?RH: Yeah, the trust. So, that everyone can be exactly what they are. For me, it’s also important that there is no competition between dancers. Everyone is so different, you can’t compare them, each has its own quality. For example Lorenzo (De Brabandere), who was also in ‘Swan Lake, 4 Acts’; and Emmanuel (Eggermont) have really big part in this piece. They cannot be compared. They have very different backgrounds, from education and so. This is important, that there is no competition.It’s interesting how they are bringing different experiences…RH: Yeah, different experiences … like Lorenzo, who wanted to become a football player, and he was underway to football player; and Emmanuel not at all. And Yutaka (Takei), the Japanese dancer – he did also martial arts and he have this background. Nabil (Yahia-Aissa) is a medical doctor and dancer. They all have this different backgrounds.

Charlotte Engelkes and Raimund Hoghe, photo by R. Frank (c)

Yeah, they enriched the performance…RH: Yeah! This is something you might feel when you’re in the audience – different personalities. And it’s important that they respect one another. This is also not so often on the stage.I got the impression that their bodies are not talking differently, not in a sense of different languages, but it’s something in their way of presentation, some thin line that makes them different…RH: Yes. I’m interested in which way they are different, and also to keep this diversity. This is one main point, you have this diversity – not one body, the ideal body.

Raimund Hoghe, photo by Rosa Frank (c)

One of your main drive is music, too. When did you discover this, or was it the sound itself that attracted you, or rhythm, or classic music…RH: …also popular music. It’s very simple. I grew up surrounded mostly by popular music.Which artists inspired you?RH: Oh, there are so many of them. So many movies… For example, Maria Callas inspires me, because she was so aware of the movement. She talked a lot about it. And also Japanese dance, Butoh dancers like Kazuo Ohno, Sankai Juku… I know them well, and this is something I’m very interesting in… I was also very interested in this concept of Bauhaus. This combination of fine arts, dance, theatre…

Raimund Hoghe, photo by Luca Giacomo Schulte (c)

I can relate your work with Butoh, because seems like you have similar aesthetic ground and this ‘less is more’ approach….RH: Yeah, less is more. I’m really into this, thinking about this very often. I’m into artists like Joseph Beuys, Christian Boltanski, Wolfgang Laib and his installations…I know you like Pasolini…RH: …and Pasolini, of course. So, there are many, many artists… from music and literature… I like German and Russian authors. I like a lot Anton Chekhov. But there are also some pieces by Maxim Gorki. In German literature I like Johann Gottfried von Herder, Heinrich von Kleist… Many, many artists…Mr. Hoghe, Thank You Very Much!(Originally published on blog Personal Cyber Botanica: www.lomodeedee.com)
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Hiroaki Umeda is a multitasking artist… he enjoys dancing, choreographing, making videos, messin’ up with light & stage design, mixin’ soundz, writing a blog, working on site specific projectz, enjoying the nature… and he is definitely not a ghost in the shell but a real man!

Hiroaki Umeda was a photography student at the Nihon University in Tokyo, then suddenly at the age of 20 he realized that he’s more into moveable thingz… he took ballet and hip hop classes… and begun to work on his own solo pieces… in year 2000 he founded a company entitled S20 with whom he has produced till now 5 dance pieces: Ni (2001), while going to a condition (2002), Looming (2003) and Finore (2003), Accumulated Layout (2007), Duo - new version (2008).

He’s been known as a performer using heavily technology in his artworkz, therefore Hiroaki Umeda was a guest at many cutting-edge festivals related either with dance or contemporary art such as: Japan Dance Festival (Korea), KunstenFESTIVALdesArts (Belgium), Yokohama Dance Collection (Japan), Uovo e Contemporanea (Italy), FIND Festival (Canada) etc.Last year he was an artist-in-residence at the Chaufferie which is Philippe Decouflé’s rehearsal space, and the result was his newest performance ‘Accumulated Layout’.

Hiroaki Umeda attacks all your physical and mental senses with light and soundz. He uses subtle electronica and ambient sound (some soundz are even at the edges of music concrete) simply to pull you into his world… but he never let you go…The stage design is totally zen: pure minimalism… with dancer in the middle, but it’s not set up as a ‘saint’ persona in the middle of a stage altar… he is your guide… but not a dictator…

Having such a clear vision of space means that he has to be completely self-confident in order to maintain body&mind related focus…His movements and choreography are based on strong, fast, energetic, snatched movements which you can label as ‘hiroaki umeda language’, influenced by street art performative forms and highly tensive stillness he borrowed from butoh and ballet… and he is sooo good in it… a perfect mix… he is like a DJ asking himself ‘where is the pain?’, the answer is: everywhere!… but Umeda finds his way to challenge it…It’s interesting how he is managing and combining those different forms of expressiveness…Read the rest of the post on Personal Cyber Botanica: www.lomodeedee.com
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…and what brought my curiosity to this young and ‘multi-tasking’ dancer?! It was the sound thing, see. This is how I first spotted Matija Ferlin. More precisely, his subtle taste for electronica, then the Montreal’s post-rock gang around Constellation Records and Public Recordings… and I was totally convinced that something pretty cool and creative lies in his mind…Matija Ferlin is an interdisciplinary artist from Pula (Croatia), finding his way at the intersections of dance, theatre, photography and video art… he is a graduate of The School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam… as a relatively young dancer he was accepted at the Sasha Waltz & Guest Company in 2005…

Photo: Paola Winkler (c)That fact gave him an extraordinary possibility to be a part of Waltz’s creative space in which the process of making and creating stands for totally mutual interactions between Creator 1 (choreographer) and Creator 2 (dancer / performer)…One may even ask himself, after working with a choreographer of such a calibre, what should I do now, after landing on the Moon?!Matija obviously doesn’t have such dilemmas because he is switching very often from choreography to photography (he was working with fashion photographer Heinz Peter Knes on the series ‘Lucky is the lion that the human will eat’)… from dancing to attentively listening the urban asphalt purr weaved by the beauty of post-rock (Ame Henderson’s /Dance/Songs/ with Public Recordings)… deconstructing the audience and himself (solo performance art piece SaD SaM)… exploring his obsessions with words and inner paths of every human being (video performance ‘Minor2 : Salut’ by writer, photographer and incredible illustrator Christophe Chemin)… showing us the importance of family roots within projects with his brother Maurizio ‘Unija’… or his own video art the very very Mediterranean stylish ‘Vuk-Vorbild Und Kampf’ (Part 1 and 2)

Video still from the performance SAD SAM, M. Ferlin (c)So, I’ve invited Matija Ferlin at my blog for a small chat about his art… influences… obsessions…Hello Matija, what’s up?! What are you doing at the moment?! Projectz… solo workz…M: Hey Deborah, I am in a hotel room #515 in a hotel Citadel in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The laundry mat is kind of not so close to the hotel and the drop in laundry is rather expensive here (at the hotel ) so I am washing some undies and shirts to have for my trip back to Europe tomorrow. (I think this is the longest sentence I wrote in a while)Public Recordings/Ame Henderson’s work brought me here. We have our little east coast tour. We had shows in St. John’s last week, this week Halifax. Actually tonight is the last show of Dance/Songs at the Bus Stop Theatre in Halifax and tomorrow I will be spending some hours in the air having the ocean under. (Halifax-Toronto-Frankfurt-Ljubljana). In Ljubljana I will be the latecomer to Maja’s Delak new creation process. Serata Artistica Giovanile. We open the show on the 7th of May in Cankarjev Dom, so if you happen to be around – come! At the same time I am busy with opening a concept store “ARTIKL” in my hometown together with my brother Mauricio and in the free time I try to do some writing/research for my new solo work. I believe I like to keep myself busy.(I answered that a month ago. I admit my laziness. I therefore apologize. Now I will keep on answering the rest. I am on my way to Sarajevo with my show, I am fighting a flu. I am dealing with heat in the capital - ZG)

Video still from the performance SAD SAM, M. Ferlin (c)Recently you’ve visited New York, as a part of residential programme, to work at Chez Buswick. How would you describe that experience… 2 videos you posted on MySpace are pretty much intriguing and conceptual…M: I have been invited through Jonah Boaker and John Jaspersee to perform on the opening of Centre for Performance Research in Brooklyn and together with that they offered me a residency at Chez Bushwick. They are incredible hosts, indeed they are. Brooklyn was an inspiring place to be for the first phase of my process. I started to work on my new performance some weeks before that so let’s say that the videos on Youtube are the result of the first phase of work. I am continuing the line of Sad Sam, and a concept of trilogy starts to appear the more I work on it. So the new solo work that I will continue to work on in Vienna during September; October will hopefully come out in January. Still negotiating the producers.

Photo: YouTube still by Matija Ferlin (c)What is the meaning of music and soundz in your art work?! Cause, seems like your essential / personal impulse comes not so from the basic rhythm but from a soundscape structure or the meaning of lyrics which are transformed into images in your mind… Classic or contemporary… Which are closer to your artistic habitué? … Or do you even find it important?!M:I don’t strictly have a need name things. (To declare the taste.) I treat music as space. I have a tendency to change the space. But since I am not a musician myself (yet) I invite other great music artists to help me. I have an emotional relationship to music. Reduced from any concept, therefore you will find lots of urban and classical music references in my work. Music is defiantly a very present body in my work. It’s a collaborator and a performer. I have been testing its role in my last work ‘Drugo za Jedno’. I found new results that triggered me to keep on testing it even more. Music its an amazing force and a good friend.

Photo: Liam Malooney, Dance/songs, Public recordings (c)How did you ‘stuck’ with post-rock in the first place? I mean, this is a perfect music for theatre>> enough abstract and enough narrative…M: To be honest, I do not know. I think these things come with growing up. I guess I grew up. My brother’s music taste was a big influence to me. As a youngest one I liked to copy them. Today I am glad I did. I believe I had a good music education. I was home thought.Post-rock (again whatever fits inside those two words) it’s a great channel to communicate. People threat or have already a relationship to that kind of music in their daily life. Bringing that to theatre, giving that another context only enriches the existing. Both in audience and myself.You do dance classes internationally… Do you find it challenging as a pedagogic experience only, or also as an art inspiration?M: Ame said once about my class “Joyfully exploring the relationship between core strength and a released body, Matija’s approach to dance pedagogy renews participant’s sense that dance training is also about performance, presence and self expression.” It is indeed a pedagogic experience, especially the last one. I have been teaching at the University in Pula, I had 128 students in two groups giving them an introduction to contemporary dance. They study to be teachers and it was great to see how they break up their prejudices about dance and what dance is. Especially today, when Luka Nizetic (Croatian pop star) is a symbol for dance in youth culture. I hedonistically enjoy to see them dropping Luka out of their heads and inhibiting something more complex, more honest and more instinctive for them.You probably know that I’m going to ask you about Sasha Waltz. Tell us… tell us… some little story that says almost everything… about the working process…M: It was a great experience. I met some extraordinary people. The reasons why I wanted to join Sasha Waltz Company had changed while I was there. Read the rest of the interview at Personal Cyber Botanica: www.lomodeedee.com
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