The Map of Thoughts, a solo by Romanian choreographer Maria Baroncea, is like a brain scan from the inside. Maria draws a connection between movements within the brain and the live sounds these movements cause. The solo departs from everyday, sometimes subconscious, movements that are constantly repeated and that can exhaust you. After the performance, a debate was organised with Maria, Matthias Sperling and Henrietta Hale. Unfortunately, the interpersonal, journalistic, emphatic, academic, insightful, and humorous skills of the moderator/interviewer lacked so tremendously, that neither of the three choreographers had any freedom or space to actually say anything vaguely interesting about their creations. The ‘journalist’ appeared on stage with a lengthy set of cards with questions. Thus, predefined questions which she fired off systematically, regardless of which remarks and comments had been sneaked in by eiether three choreographers. I would especially have liked to hear Maria’s decisions and thoughts on her performance – some scenes seemed so cryptic, introvert, and multi-layered that I failed to understand what she was communicating. That is precisely the beauty of The Map of Thoughts: a search for Maria’s persona at that particular time and in that particular space.
Man or Fish – Henrietta Hale
Posted by bellanna on May 4, 2008
Man or Fish by British Henrietta Hale is a striking duet that places two men in a range of scientific experiments in order to discover the substance of their dancing. Their movements, physical interaction and reactions are researched / stripped down to their barest essentials. They create a strange kind of movement vocabulary in the process, full of absurdity, vulnerability, and humour. Henrietta’s work arises from a place of experimentation and risk–taking within her processes, embracing a cross-disciplinary approach. I was struck by the fact that so many members of the audience laughed out loud: repeatedly even. Their laughs were at time annoyingly present; especially the scenes which featured the dancers falling over each other and making ’strange’ sounds were popular. Furthermore, I was struck with the light-design of this particular performance: a simple, ‘Pong-like’ grid of florescent yellow lines defined the borders of the dancers’ movements, shifting to a different section of the stage after each ’scene’. Also the costumes are worth mentioning: Henrietta indulged in absurdity when clothing both fully grown and muscle-clad men in boyish nightwear. Man or Fish surprised, drew in, and entertained whilst evoking a strong sense of engagement and depth.
Posted in SpringDance 2008 | Tagged: cross-disciplinary, experiment, henrietta hale, man or fish, science | Leave a Comment »
Riff – Matthias Sperling
Posted by bellanna on May 3, 2008
Matthias Sperling’s solo Riff explores the sampling of choreographies, setting himself the task of molding an original work out of material by three other choreographers: William Forsythe, Shobana Jeyasingh and Laila Diallo. With an original soundscore by sampling artist Scanner, Riff is a physically articulate rendering of the question of what makes a choreographic work original. The result is a subtle dialogue between the choreographic voices of the samples and Matthias’ own individual signature. Matthias displayed a highly advanced ability to blend his movements and phrases with those of others at lightning speed. A bare stage featuring only a LCD-banner informed the audience of which choreographer’s work he drew upon in that moment. Soon, the individual names became jumbled and confused: William Forsythe became WiLliAM fORsytHE, which was soon to be amalgamated into a assemblage of others – jeSa shO diAL f o R je SA Sho. I was struck by Matthias’ costume: simple grey t-shirt with black jeans, bare feet. It seemed as though he had just rushed in from another location (bar, office, home), took off his shoes, and started to dance. A staggering feat of bodily control, advanced dance technique, and most of all a through knowledge of all three choreographers’ particular dance language makes Riff a pleasure and a delight.
Posted in SpringDance 2008 | Tagged: Laila Diallo, Matthias Sperling, Riff, sampling, scanner, Shobana Jeyasingh, solo, William Forsythe | Leave a Comment »
WORKSHOP: wireless
Posted by bellanna on May 2, 2008
Dancers Michael Schumacher (USA) and Liat Waysbort (Israel), together with film maker Roberta Marques (Brazil) (who highly unfortunately wasn’t present) and dramaturge/performer Robert Steijn (NL), gave a workshop during SPRINGDANCE 2008 about bringing together various different disciplines through intimate encounters and mutual confessions. The workshop took place April 24, 25, and 26 in Utrecht; I only participated on the 25th.
The outline of the workshop included the following description: “Like in the post-modern dance of the sixties, they are looking for new connections on a human scale. As (improvising) working artists they wish to be confronted on the dance floor with a discipline in which they have had no training. Wireless is the first phase of a performance about the darker sides that come to light when we come into contact with people who do not share our ideas. These four artists want to take the first step with people from the dance sector who have an interest in interdisciplinary work.”
Admittedly, and understandably, my expectations of the workshop were quite high. I had also expected some technical equipment to be present, as the registration letter had promised. Nevertheless, only two cameras were present, no beamer, no PC, and no editing equipment. It turned out that the workshop was more like most (improvisational) workshops I have participated in, meaning that the focus was placed of several techniques to heighten bodily/sensory awareness. We were asked to focus on sensorial experiences other than mere visual ones. How does a mirror taste? Which smell would you connect to a mirror? What happens when several sensorial data are the simultaneous focal points?
Only during the opening remarks was the issue of filming, editing, and ‘the camera’ addressed. Some people did walk around with a camera whilst everyone was moving, and interestingly reflected on the use of such devices as ‘disturbing’, ‘annoying’, or ’strange’. They didn’t know how to ‘connect’ with the camera, as they perceived it as an objective recording device, an ‘all-seeing eye’. Well… I think quite some people have different views on this, and I am certainly one of them.
In sum, the Wireless workshop was an occasion to meet some new people (although quite some people I already know participated) and to move together, but that is all.
Posted in SpringDance 2008 | Tagged: Liat Waysbort, Michael Schumacher, Robert Steijn, Roberta Marques, springdance, wireless, workshop | Leave a Comment »
The Making of Doubt – Colette Sadler
Posted by bellanna on April 23, 2008
Colette Sadler’s piece The Making of Doubt is a highly visual performance dealing with the gap between fiction and non-fiction. In this performance, Colette maps the rules that govern the creation of representation and how movement vocabulary is made, as well as questioning the gap between the real and the fictional aspects of theatre.
Through the use of highly advanced movement techniques and intelligently constructed puppets, the audience is confronted with the question of what constitutes the distinction between a real body (read: of flesh and bone) and a Styrofoam body (read: puppet). The answer: very little.
Posted in SpringDance 2008 | Tagged: colette sadler, fiction, making of doubt, reality, representation | Leave a Comment »
one.one – Florin Flueraş
Posted by bellanna on April 22, 2008
As the description reads: “One.one is beautifully balanced between serenity, abstraction and excitement.”
For young Romanian choreographer, the body is a constant source for research, and in his solo One.One he plays with the dynamics of football and with the image and rules of perception. Florin juggles with the viewer’s concentration and manipulates expectations through his powerful bodily control. Comparing this performance to that of Hooman Sharifi, the importance of understanding movements becomes all the more apparent: Florin moves without moving, scores a goal whilst standing motionless, and shows the audience what he wants to show. Not at any point does he give away his next step before executing it.
Witty, painfully controlled, mathematically devised, and powerfully performed, Florin Flueraş’ One.One scores.
Posted in SpringDance 2008 | Tagged: Florin Flueraş, football, minimalism, one.one, springdance | Leave a Comment »
God exists, the Mother is present, but they no longer care – Hooman Sharifi
Posted by bellanna on April 22, 2008
As the description of God exists, the Mother is present, but they no longer care by Hooman Sharifi reads: “What are the relationships between love, violence, and language? Various texts from Friedrich Nietzsche, Hannah Arendt, Roland Barthes and Peter Handke feed into this distinctly physical performance. These texts have been absorbed into the movement, but are also projected so the audience can read them. They deal with love and violence, captured in a physical language.”
One of my first thoughts after seeing this performance is that it should have been an installation piece instead of choreography. Sharifi managed to create texts with powerful and sometimes confusing messages, focusing on the relationship between power and violence, group dynamics, individuality, and codes of conduct. These texts were simple prints, placed on the floor by a performer and subsequently projected on a screen at the back of the stage through the use of a static video camera positioned at the front of the stage. Multiple pauses in the performance allowed the texts, with various lengths, to be read and re-read; re-read as the pauses and stillness were sometimes too long and distracting. Through the use of poignant soundscapes the piece received an added layer of meaning. Moreover, the costumes were simply distracting, although not purposefully so. Sharifi chose black trousers and shirts – a seemingly safe choice – which neither showed nor hid the dancers’ bodies. Rather than supporting the overall frame of the performance, the costumes drew unnecessary attention by being out of tune.
However, the performance just did not work for me. The dancers’ movements were based on literal interpretations of the terms ‘violence’, ‘despair’, ‘anger’, in the sense that a virtually mimic quality was displayed. Had this been done with a healthy dose of wit or self-reflexivity, the predictability of the movements in general and the performance as a whole could have been broken. The crucial moment of my disappointment was Sharaifi’s complete denial of multiple interpretations by spelling out the meaning of the title of the performance. Not just once, but at least twelve times. In a back-tracking manner, the performance as a whole became a site of univocal meaning.
More crucially, I failed to notice and feel where the dancers’ movements originated from. They moved instead of dancing by executing the movements without expressing them in any way other than through the bare necessary muscle flows. Please note that I am in no way intending to suggest the dancers’ were incapable of executing more intention-based or ‘flow-based’ movements: they had simply not been directed to do so. This further strengthens my idea that God exists, the Mother is present, but they no longer care would work powerfully as an installation piece, combining word-projections, soundscapes, and occasional performances by a maximum of two dancers. In this way, I feel that Hooman Sharifi could blend his knack for creating intelligent theoretical and philosophical reflections on power and violence with vivid sensory input to create a coherent whole.
Posted in SpringDance 2008 | Tagged: Arendt, Barthes, God exists the Mother is present but they no longer car, Handke, Hooman Sharifi, Nietzsche, springdance | Leave a Comment »
Laughing Hole – La Ribot
Posted by bellanna on April 20, 2008
“I am interested in speaking about presentation, more than representation”. These words of La Ribot (Maria Ribot) summarise her own way of understanding the cutting edge which modern dance has come to be. La Ribot mixes performance, dance and theatre; as a result, she can be said to “think with her body”. As Castro Flórez wrote: “all her choreographic pieces have a mixture of presence and, at the same time, an expression of a process that undermines them”.
Set in the chapel of the Central Museum of Utrecht, the Netherlands, Laughing Hole is an overwhelming experience. I was immediately drawn into the performance by the cacophony of laughter swirling from the three performers’ bodies, through microphones, fed into a computer, and expelled in a loop through three amplifiers. The floor of the space (approximately 60 m2) was strewn with cardboard signs, all face down, hiding their message temporarily. The performers moved through the space, bodies twisting and gliding with continuous laughter. It’s difficult to say how long I stayed sitting on the floor with my back against the wall. I thought I could have stayed their for hours and hours on end, watching more and more words and phrases being stuck on the wall with broad bands of brown tape.
A woman with a baby on her lap was noting the performance intently; the child was oblivious to the shouts and shrieks of laughter, and was more interested in the floor. Some visitors were smiling, laughing out loud even; some remained motionless, whereas others moved around in the space, following the tracks of the performers. The phrases on the cardboard signs already attached to the wall of the chapel read “over 40s mum”, “Guantanamo beach”, “death in detention”, “die laughing”, “impotent words”. The statements, personal and political, grotesque and abstract, lost their meaning through the cloud of other letters and laughter that surrounded them. Or rather, they achieved a new meaning through the other, multiple inputs that framed them. The laughter sometimes transformed into crying, at least that is what my auditory system made of it, after having been exposed to similar sounds for many minutes on end. Only when the cacophony of laughter was doubly looped did I stand up and walk away. Suddenly, it was too much to handle. Outside the museum the bells of the church rang, though sounded like laughter.
Posted in SpringDance 2008 | Tagged: absence, la Ribot, Laughing Hole, presence, representation | Leave a Comment »
SpringDance 2008: Symposium
Posted by bellanna on April 19, 2008
The first experience of Springdance 2008 was the symposium Questions of Meaning and Movement on Friday the 18th of April. As its main focal point was the interactive installation Double Skin/Double Mind, said to offer the opportunity to experience the dancer’s experience. Taking this installation as the starting point, the symposium asked how to hold on to dance, as its ephemeral nature slips through our fingers as we watch it: “Words, images, drawings, film material and digital technology can help capture its outward form. But can we also capture the intentions of dance? How can we catch the intangible creative process?” These are questions that the creators of the Interactive Installation Double Skin/Double Mind asked as part of their wider Notation Research Project. The installation allows the visitor, as a “sole participant in a virtual workshop” to follow the example of a digital dancer in the shape of Emio Greco within the installation. Adding to this virtual image on screen were music and sound, supposedly added to allow the participant to get “closer and closer to the intended movement until feel[ing] the inner sensation of the dance. This installation offers the opportunity to experience the dancer’s experience from within.”
The symposium held a total of three paper presentations. Some directly addressed the ins- and outs of the installation, whereas other presentations took the implications of the installation as a starting point. Combining insights from cognitive behavioural science, notation research, theatre and film studies, and media design, the symposium aimed at tackling issues of representation and intention from a diverse range of views.
Nevertheless, the question of what was meant by “intention” still escapes me. More crucially, I wonder what this installation aims to be. If it is positioned as a therapeutic device to allow patients with anorexia nervosa to reflect on their own embodiment and movements by seeing themselves pictured as rectangular shaped blobs, I imagine its strength: rather than being confronted with their weight and shape, patients can view their body in a less implicational and judgemental manner. However, as I am far from being a cognitive behavioural therapist, I cannot say this with certainty. If, on the other hand, this work is placed within a context of art, I feel that its execution could have been more advanced. Namely, had the definition of the images on screen been more high, it would have allowed for a more interactive experience of the work. If the position of the installation is within a dance training setting, I similarly have my questions as to how beneficial this may be. Seeing one’s moving image as a almost random collection of rectangular shapes does not benefit the comparison with the instructor’s movements. Importantly, the absence of any kind of correction undermines it possible status as a training device. One of the core components of any class is the comparison with the intentions (ah, so here it is!) of the author / choreographer / teacher. If, again, the technicality of the work had been more advanced as to include a sensitive tracking device and comparative programming, the participant could track her/his progress. Even so, I could imagine a videotaped or audio taped workshop combined with a mirror to have a similar effect.
It should be noted, however, that the DVD included in the publication Capturing Intention is notably more interactive and compelling. It features close-ups of parts of the body (feet and torso) that are of key importance to the correct execution of the movements, sounds which promote the kind of mental state necessary to ‘enter’ the intended movements, and detailed descriptions of several forms of dance notation, past and present.
Even though I failed to understand the way in which the installation captures intention, the symposium certainly made me reflect on how I position my own research on dance performances. Certainly, I will not venture into the direction of cognitive brain science or notation studies, but stick to positioning dance performance in a wider, cultural studies context.
Posted in SpringDance 2008 | Tagged: EG|PC, installation, notation, springdance, symposium | 1 Comment »
What it means to do PhD research in 2008
Posted by bellanna on April 19, 2008
Or, more precisely: how it differs from PhD research undertaken in, for instance, the 1990s.
One of the key differences, in my view, is the current abundance of materials, conferences, symposia, blogs, groups, e-journals, mailing lists, and so many other spaces in which critical (and less critical) debates are formed, aired, revisited and critiqued. What should my relation to these materials be? To what extent am I supposed to be aware of the trillions of bites of information flickering past nodes on a daily basis? Does the PhD research contract have a (hidden) section on the time allotted to these quests?
I am not only concerned about the time investment of making sense of this information, of categorising this input into workable chunks with a hierarchical structure. Rather, I am more pensive about being reassured. Assured that I am aware of the key concepts, debates, problems, arguments, and developments in my field of research. That if I fail to include any of these pivotal discussions, I do so out of choice, not out of ignorance.
Rest assured this is only a thought-in-passing; in no way do I suffer from feelings of incapability or self-doubt. At least not to any inhibiting degree. Moreover, I have not even officially started my research. Thus, these thoughts may be swiftly undermined, surpassed and dissolved within a very short time-span. If not, I’ll be sure to address them.
Posted in Notes | Tagged: abundance, materials, PhD | Leave a Comment »
