Review: "Memory of a Shape"

Choreography: Regina van Berkel

Music: Theo Verbey, Fractal Symphony, Philharmonisch Staatsorchester Mainz o.l.v. Catherine Rüwardt

costumes: Regina van Berkel

stage-setting: Dietmar Janeck

costumes: Merlijn Koopman 

On 17th of february I went to see the premiere of "Introdans danst MONUMENTAAL" in the "stadstheater" of Arnhem. 

It was a full program with four different choreographys of which I choosed the last piece "Memory of a shape", choreographed by Regina van Berkel.

When I watched the piece I felt the strong expression of the dancers and their movement, wherefore I think it suited to put it as the last piece of the quadrology "MONUMENTAAL". 

Reflecting the piece I was thinking about the title "Memory of a Shape" and I realized that this piece offers a lot of how to interpret the word "shape". 

First of all I could see different shapes on the stage created by the stage props, which engaged because of their size quite a lot of the space. A lot of white squares put together to sort of towers, who appeared just natural and quite monumental because of their sizes or serving as background for beamed moving squares, who -quite the opposite- appeared lightfull and airy. This material contradiction produced a certian tension that supported al the coming exitement coming through the moving material. 

Besides that variety the colours and models of the costumes and lightening from a deep and icy blue over to a sunny and golden yellow ending in a flocked and extravagate costume showed a big range of the possibility og how material shape can transform.

But way more relevant and interesting seem to me, the shape shown with the body.

Observing the dancers I understood why "memory" of a Shape?? 

When the body moves it always transfers from one shape into another. The new won shape serves as memory of the earlier one, which has been necessary for the new shape. On shape cannot arise without the elder one. Amd these constant switches makes the performance essence out. 

But which concrete forms have been showed in which way? 

Well, an important role therefore plays also the music.

Because somehow the dancers body were the corporal mirror of what is going on in the music.

Arisement in the melody, high and deep sounds, breaks, accents - all this was transacted into high legs, spectaculare lifts, freezing postures and gestures etc. 

In addition it played a huge role if the dancers were movin as individuals, in a duo or doing an unisono movement as a whole group. One simple movement in a group makes the spectator more aware of the shape the choreographer wants to create and the feeling he wants to transmitt. Especially when the dancers additionally stamped the body shape per se won a new dimension and image was more strong. 

I have to admitt that I like in general the detail of a movement. Therefore I appreciated the scene I saw, when the whole group was standing in a throng and just moving one shoulder up. Immideatly one of the female dancers was lifted and stayed for a while in the air. So the small lifting shoulder became a memory, presented by the moving dancer in the air . 

All in all I have to admit that I have wished to see every movement with more time. There was most of the time going on a lot on stage and in short time... my eyes barely couldn´t decide where to look as the choreography offered so much. 

But still I was fascinated to see that kind of river of movements, one shape being transferred into the other and it cleared up for me: shape is not shape, and shape is way more than you think!

Dorothea Mende

HOME by Conny Janssen danst

HOME

by Conny Janssen

DANCERS

Adi Amit

Laura Belgrano

Tu Ngoc Hoang

Martijn Kappers

Nina Plantefeve-Castryck

Rob Polmann

Mariko Shimoda

Remy Tilburg

Mitchell-lee van Rooij

Intership

Ricardo Vera Afanador

Maud Huizing

Youp Scheffer

Liza Wallerbosch

COMPOSITION / 

SOUNDSCAPES / 

LIVE PERFORMANCE

Michel Banabila

COMPOSITION / 

CELLO &

ELECTRONICS / 

LIVE PERFORMANCE

Martin Fox

THEATRE PICTURE

Thomas Rupert

LIGHTING DESIGN

Remko van Wely

COSTUME

Babette van den Berg

DRAMATURGY

Judith Wendel

TUTOR

Erik Spruijt

With the coming of, more than ever, easy ways to travel great distances for everyone and, in the same time, with so many expats, immigrants and refuges travelling around the globe, the world is coming together. And as populations start to interfere and exchange information, habits, customs and even people, the answer to the question of what we consider “home” becomes less and less obvious. Together with the way of living we need to modernize our values too; we need to reconsider them. Do we associate home with the country, the borders or with the people; with the bricks and stone our buildings are made of or the personal connections we have and the emotions they create?

With these topics as a port the new work of Conny Janssen departs on a journey that vaguely tries to give answers, but much more emphasizes on creating a space for thinking and exploring possibilities. Janssen is one of the major Dutch choreographers in the Netherlands, honored many times for her work. Her company is receiving funding from the government and is often staged, even beyond the national borders of her country.

This performance will leave you wondering. And by that I don’t mean “why did you paid money for this ticket” but the feeling of being between the awake and the dreaming state of mind, where all things are possible. From beginning to end you follow periods of people’s lives and choices, patterns, movements and stories. With a great diversity! From a black tall guy in office suit to a small girl on pajamas, from a couple of men in close relation in grey and brown to a redhead that keeps diary on the cement wall. Contrasts, disagreements, partnerings, reliefs, fears, necessities, they are all together and apart in the frame of the city.

To accompany this nonlinear tale Janssen has composed a strong background that puts the human in the center of attention. From the set, that doesn’t transform but highlights the human figure; from the costumes that are depicting various moments of our life; from the lights, that made their own journey of emotions though the colors while highlighting the important details and bringing to life other aspects of our lives, such as society, communication, multiculture; from the music, that, as if it had it’s own likings, underlined or contrasted the storytelling. Everything came together, no more or less than necessary, trying to make the human more… human.

This beautiful performance will tour until the end of April

throughout Holland.

You can check more information about the tour here

Take a glimce of it here:

Conducted and posted by Alkis Barbas

About Lucian by Jens van Daele

Friday, 6 March 2015

Stadstheater Arnhem

Choreography & scenography: Jens van Daele

Composition & live music: Richard van Kruysdijk & Raphael Vanoli
Lighting design: Tom Verheijen

Costume design: Mirthe Engelhard

Explosive, energetic, powerful, fast, raw and honest is how I would describe the piece‘About Lucian’ by choreographer Jens van Daele. Once again Jens van Daele uses live music. During the performance the five dancers (three women and two men) are accompanied by post- rock music that is performed by a percussionist and a guitar/keyboard player. The strong music intensifies the movements of the dancers and forms a rhythmical base throughout the whole piece. ‘About Lucian’ is an ode to British painter Lucian Freud and in the piece his oeuvre is brought to life. Most of his paintings belonged to the realism art movement. Characteristic of his works are that he created raw realistic and honest paintings and that he painted a lot of nudes. Different elements of the performance refer to the work of Lucian Freud and interesting is the way how Jens van Daele worked with them.

Nudity plays, just like in a lot of Freud’s paintings, a role in the piece. The piece starts with a naked dancer that dresses herself on stage and ends with a naked dancer as well. This last 
dancer is the dancer that represents gay performer, nightclub personality and important model of Lucian Freud's paintings Leigh Bowery. However, the dancers are not only exposing themselves literally, they are also exposing their feelings. They are not hiding their feelings, but are honest towards the audience. When the dancers get tired they cry out and with strong movements they sweep the sweat of their bodies. Likewise small elements, such as the fact that the dancers can drink water out of their bottles on stage, refer to the realism and honesty of Freud’s works.

That the dancers are getting tired is understandable, since the endurance of the dancers is, just like in a lot of other dance performances nowadays, put on the test during the performance. At some points dance is presented as a boot camp where the dancers are getting exhausted and push themselves to the limits. The movements the dancers make are very tough and there is a lot of repetition. There is one moment in the piece were the three female dancers (only wearing underwear) are running on the same spot for a very long time while screaming, pulling their hair and touching and scratching their bodies. This relates to the endurance Freud's models needed, as it is known that Lucian Freud insisted his models to pose for 100 up to 150 hours, Also, the endurance that Lucian Freud required himself and his observing role are expressed in the piece. Throughout the entire piece there is a dancer on the side of the stage that observes the others, makes small and controlled movements on a chair, but is mainly there to be quiet.

In different ways Jens van Daele translated the world of artist Lucian Freud into an integral performance. There are many elements in the piece that (could) refer to Freud his work; obvious as well as more hidden ones and not only the ones above, but many more.The movements and the music collaborated well together and I enjoyed the rawness and the complete honesty of the piece. I liked that all five dancers have their own role that contributes to giving expression to Lucian Freud's ideas and thoughts. Therefore the dancers are fascinating to watch individually as well as collectively. Jens van Daele succeeded to bring Lucian Freud his world to life and visiting the intense dance concert 'About Lucian' is therefore worth the effort.

Trailer 'About Lucian'

Written by Rowy Tebeest 

Dance Review of Co(te)lette by Alexandra Verschuuren

On November 28 in the cultural center of CC Berchem in Belgium I saw a piece by Ann Van den Broeck, Co(te)lette. It was performed by three woman on stage and the piece was about different facets of women. The stage consisted out of blank white drapes without props which made me focus on the actions of the dancers. It resembled in my point of view a plain canvas creating the image that there were no limitations for the dancers. The music, an electronic mix, created a constant underlying tension for the performers as well as the audience. This tension that the music generated started slowly and silently, hardly noticeable and eventually it overpowered the dancers, giving me the feeling that they were being manipulated. Beauty standards, sexual desires, flesh and meat, tenderness, rawness, urges and desires that women have are the main aspects that come to mind when I think back to Co(te)lette and that were incorporated in the choreography.

The piece began with a long build up from the dancers who were moving their butt’s from side to side facing the audience. The first impression that I already started feeling five minutes into the piece was a desire that I couldn’t describe towards these women. Through out the entire piece the dancers stayed in connection with each other and I felt that there was a constant build up towards intense female emotions and physical states. Due to the intensity that kept rising I stayed interested and involved in the piece, the music and lighting also changed with the dancers enhancing the atmosphere. The movements felt confronting and controversial because they touched a different side of femininity that I wasn’t used to. A side that felt disturbing yet pleasing because it felt as if they were presenting themselves as raw meat or an object. One example that refers to the comment about 'meat' is that one of the dancers undressed and presented herself nude and was thrown across the stage, beaten and mistreated as if she meant nothing. This provocative moment in Co(te)lette seemed like an insinuation in relation to the meat industry.

I enjoy Ann Van den Broeck’s movement material because it is filled with honest and humane emotion’s and the power in the physicality that makes me want to jump out of my skin. She mainly works with strenuous physicality and conflicting emotional topics and I wonder how her choreographies would change if she approached physical and mental states in a completely different way. This was the first piece I saw by Ann Van den Broeck and it’s been one of the only piece’s that gave me goosebumps. I wouldn't recommend this piece to everyone because I know it's controversial and confronting but if you feel that your ready to see something surprising and untouched then it's worth the decision.

Choreography and concept  Ann van den Broeck

Music editing and mix  Arne Van Dongen and Yves De Mey

Light Design  Bernie Van Velzen

Dancers  Frauke Mariën, Cecilia Moos and Sura Dohnke

Production  WArd/waRD

Venn by Iris Bouche - Jarne Van Perck DM1

A collages of the movements of Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet

Every year the students of Artesis ( 1 of the 2 Batchelor educations of dance in Belgium) bring a wonderful show what brings all the years of the education together on stage. This year was no exception. Venn gives a closer look to the works off Sidi Larbi and Damien Jalet. It combines the pieces: Foi, In Memoriam, Myth, Babel(words) and Orbo Novo. Whit was broad together by Iris Bouche.

The piece looked like a collages of the works of S. Labri and  D. Jalet.  The 5 pieces where dissect and looked at for any connection that the works bring together: underneath themes, movement what go’s over to the other pieces, a musical connection, how space is divided and go so on. Whit these connections the dancer stared working what makes of a smooth line between the hole piece and dissent make it feel copy pasted. One of the main concept is languages and the struggles of conversation between different languages.

 If you don’t look at the theme the structure would be the main glue what beings the pieces together. Not only is it minimalist decor what flown over from Babel(Words) what are a few metallic cubes. But the movement screams lines and geometric figures. At one point in the performance the dancers moves from floor to jumps in a linear line across the stages, the movements and canon of the dancers give the illusion of a heavy storm on sea what comes to a end when the dancers getting tired by moving so intensely.

The show Doesn’t only present dance. It also present theater. What lighten up the mood between big dance pieces and or more heavy subjects. For a example is there the text about  the human brains what combine whit sign language. What makes it bit softer is because the person who brings the text is a man on high heels and his example brain is a bunches of banana’s. What ties to a later theme in performance.

If you want to see a performance of Sidi Larbi whit his mindset on dance and choreography is this not a piece for you. But if you want a introduction in to the world that Larbi create in all of his pieces and don’t have the time to see every thing of him. Is this a great piece to see. Don’t be afraid because its a school performance because that’s almost not to see. The dancers give it there all and make Venn a show you have to see.


choreographer: Iris Bouche
after works of: Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet
music: Kobe Proesmans
Danced by:students of Artesis, Bachelor of dance.
where: Paleis, Theatherplein, Antwerp

date seen: sunday 17 of April 

Figure a sea, Cullbergbaletten, Deborah Hay- by Jesse Swarts DM1

Cullbergbaletten/ Deborah Hay and Laurie Anderson: FIGURE A SEA

Seen: 22 January 2017, Amsterdam

Think of the sea, what do you see? Multiple colors of blue spreading over the endless surface. Whales talking deep down there. Different forms of life, still related to the life above land, but still pure.

The stage as a sea of endless possibilities. The dancers as a sea of endless possibilities. Twenty dancers perform the challenges of figure a sea, challenges without limiting the dancers’ intelligence, speed and beauty. Providing the audience with a lot qualities, movements and stunning moments. Bringing the audience to think about what they are witnessing.

American dancer, author and choreographer Deborah Hay born in 1941, knows how not only to challenge her dancers. The audience of figure a sea  is up for a life changing experience. The mind has the opportunity to go wild, which creates a struggle of not going with your thoughts, and staying with the dancers. Getting your focus to the dancers leads you to see a certain curiosity and openness. Getting sucked in by one of the dancers is impossible, the use of the stage is renovating. The middle white, surrounded by a black floor, an open stage where the sea of dancers float, run, and jump. Interesting to see was the use of the sides, were the attention of the audience shifts towards as all of the sudden you see movement in the far right corner of your eye, and you will be surprised what this does to you.

There are moments with the music combined where it’s hard to keep your attention to the dancers, everything is combined so beautifully, the looseness and ease of the movements combined with the music which stays in the same energy, the head starts to take over and you start daydreaming. The freedom the dancers have in this pieces makes you want to run over the beach, with your feet in the soft sand, jumping over the breaking waves, and before you know you dive straight in to the sea, the cold water wakes you up and you realize you are watching a performance. There is no time to analyze what just happened to you because the open-improvisation feeling of the piece sucks your attention straight to the next scene.

A performance to talk about after you’ve seen it, a performance to talk about in summer, a performance that might open up endless space of thought. Where to brain will be active while watching, and where you are surprised by what it does to you as audience. For the movers under us, it’s a performance where you just want to join  the dancers by the feel of freedom, but before that happens the complicated structure will make you do just fine as audience and there won’t be a second you take your eyes of the dancers and just watch this beautiful and well constructed performance.

Last show: 23th of January 2017, Amsterdam

Performance: Cullbergbaletten

Choreography: Deborah Hay

Composition: Laurie Anderson

Howl 

Amos Ben-Tal, Spinvis | OFFprojects, Korzo producties

 This performance is a bit different than the 'normal' dance performances that I saw. It is performed in the form of a talk show. So a host, who also is a musician in the piece, asks questions to a couple of dancers about their career, how they started dancing, about their childhood or just about other things in their lives. Then they performe a short solo or duet. 

At a certain point the story makes the dancers and musicians all involved in what is happening in the interview and it evolves to a dance piece with live music. 

Howl is presented in a very casual atmosphere. Until the end of the piece everything is told as a very light story. With some songs in and dance in between. Also the movement itself isn't too heavy. Some of the dancers are ex-dancers of NDT and the other dancers bring the same kind of quality on stage in my opinion. The dance is mostly neoclassical with long lines and beautiful smoothness in movement. 

The concept of the piece I really liked. It had something very different from everything else that I've seen before, and the fact that there was live music and a talkshow form in it really gave it an extra dimension. As an audience you felt more involved to the people in the piece, because they told such personal things about themselves. However the dance itself didn't really get to me like, I guess, it was supposed to be. The dancers were absolutely beautiful in how they moved and performed, but for me beautiful was just the right word. It didn't have this extra for me on top of the beauty, that made it really impressive or inspiring. 

I realise that this is a matter of taste. Although I didn't feel really touched by the dance, someone else could well be. I think that if you enjoy watching technical dance, this is a performance you should see. Because it has this little extra that makes it more personal and for me also more enjoyable than just the dance would be on it's own.

Date: 27-01-2017 at the opening of Cadance festival in The Hague

Choreography: Amos Ben-Tal 

Live music: Spinvis with Saartje van Camp

Dance: Aurélie Cayla, Milena Twiehaus, Yvan Dubreuil, Genevieve Osborne, Amos Ben-Tal

Artistic advice: Yvan Dubreuil 

Technique: Xavier van Wersch

Photo's: Jochen Jürgens

Golden Hours - As you like it

Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker

On the fourth of june 2015, I went to the Concerthall of Brugge. There i saw the two and a half hour during performance ‘Golden Hours (As you like it)’, from Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker.  

In ‘Golden Hours (As you like it)’, dance and theatre meet each other in a choreography. On the beats of ‘Golden hours’ of Brian Eno’s last rock album ‘Another Green world’ the dancers interpret Shakespeare's ‘As you like it’. What will happen when Shakespeare’s rhythm and poetical imagery become dance? When the lyrics the movements and concentration feeds the thinking body. How does listening to a partner become 

De Keersmaeker based the piece on the two aspects, however, it’s hard to see both of them equally, the music aspect is more present. Some loose, short pieces of ‘As you like it’ were projected in the back. Sometimes you could see the reference between the lyrics and the dance, dancers were playing a part from the script. When you read the synopsis in advance, you can see the characters, but it would be really hard to see those references if you didn’t read the script. 

After two times playing the song ‘Golden Hours’, eleven dancers run in, in an empty stage, and stand still. In a slow slow motion, the well-trained dancers start walking downstage.  

After some twiddling and noises, you also got a hypnotically feeling. The audience was drawn into the performance and the story. But after the long and slow introduction, its hard to focus and get the story. 

The dancers seem to have their own moment-qualities and very different, but sadly you don’t really see those own characteristics. You get the feeling that they all had to move in the same quality, nevertheless they had to play different roles. 

The tedious silent moments were interrupted by dancers that started singing or playing the accordeon or the guitar. And at the moments when the song ‘Golden Hours’ comes up, there is a relieving feeling where the pieces can fall together. 

Next performances of Rosas in Belgium: 

• 22-23.02.2017 RAIN CC de Belém - Lisbon, Portugal
• 23.02-04.03.2017 A LOVE SUPREME.                                                                                                     Kaaitheater, De Munt / La Monnaie & Kaaitheater - Brussels, Belgium
• 08-10.03.2017 RAIN 30CC/Schouwburg, STUK & 30CC (Dubbeldans) - Leuven, Belgium
• 09.03.2017 VERKLÄRTE NACHT CC Maasmechelen - Maasmechelen, Belgium
• 14.03.2017 RAIN PBA, Charleroi Danses & PBA - Charleroi, Belgium
• 17.03.2017 PARTITA 2 CC Strombeek - Strombeek-Bever, Belgium
• 19-22.04.2017 A LOVE SUPREME Minnemeers, NTGent - Ghent, Belgium
• 23.11.2017 A LOVE SUPREME CC Maasmechelen - Maasmechelen, Belgium
• 07.12.2017 A LOVE SUPREME CC De Spil - Roeselare, Belgium

Choreography :  Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker

Company:          Rosas

Dancers:            Aron Blom, Linda Blomqvist, Tale Dolven, Carlos Garbin, 

                         Tarek Halaby, Mikko Hyvönen, Veli Lehtovaara, Sandra Ortega Bejaro,  

                         Elizaveta Penkova, Georgia Vardarou, Sue-Yeon Youn  

Music:               Another Green World (1975), Brian Eno

Arrangement:    Carlos Garbin

Artistic Advice : Ann Veronica Janssens

Dramaturgy:      Bonjana Cvejic

Light:               Luc Schaltin

Costumes :        Anne-Catherine Kunz

Coproduction:   De munt, Kaaitheater (Brussel), Théâtre de la ville de Luxembourg, 

  Théâtre de la ville (Parijs), Sadler’s Wells London, Sterischer Herbst (Graz), 

                        Opéra de lille, Ruhrtiënnale (Bochum), Concertgebouw Brugge, 

                        Festival Montepellier Danse 2015

By Hanne Blomme 

     19/02/2017

Dario Tortorelli – D NO BODY 5

 

Almost a year ago, I saw the performance from Dario Tortorelli for the first time. It was in Conny Janssen’s theatre in Rotterdam. I was absolute flattered by the performance, the movement, the light, it was all such an experience. Although at that time I didn’t know anything about the background of the piece. It was 2016, at “De Nederlandse Dansdagen” when I saw the performance for the second time. I was actually really happy when I noticed it was that performance that I could see again. Again it was a pleasure to see.

Sunglasses laying in circles, around and facing a black helmet on a turning platform. Romeo Heart started his trip, as a setup or an installation. In the middle as a statue, with all the sunglasses facing the monument. Dario says, “He is a character born out of my alter ego, and then ended up becoming the character that encompasses everything, because through him I convey my ideas, my moods, for instance my inspirations drawn from the world of cinema, music, and I invited others to interpret him. The character emerged slowly, it wasn’t premeditated. It came a little by little, I think the idea/desire that you have when you’re a child is to have magical powers, of being a pop star… I drew from there to build him up.”  Dario Tortorelli started a series of solo performances with the aim to recreate the ideal self through influences of others. Society is pushing us to adapt to a reality without discovering ourselves.
 

Also the audience got sunglasses that made them being a part of the performance. The Trip of Romeo continues in this performance with a strong image and funky music.

With D NO BODY 5, the Italian choreographer wants to explore new directions of presenting an image by transforming the body in abstract ways.

The performance really attracts me because of the futuristic feeling, the mysterious factor and the not-knowing what comes next, I even was doubting the second time when I saw it. The use of the strobes is really good; it sets moments that are not far from each other apart. The contrast of dynamics, the slow motion movement that creates a mysterious not-knowing image, and the fast moving funky dance moves, for my feeling it just fits really well in the total image of the performance. In the whole performance there was some factor that made it all really unpredictable and mind blowing.

Joris Vos

Choreographer and initiator: Dario Tortorelli

Performer: Adi Amit

Light Design: Remko Van Wely

Music: Röyksopp & Robyn, David Bowie

Date: 08-10-2016