Dance Review: Concerto by Lucinda Childs

Concerto  

Technical, Minimal, Abstract

Performed by Introdans on February 17, 2017, Stadstheater Arnhem 

Choreographer: Lucinda Childs Assistant: Ty Boomershine Music: Henryk Mikolaj Górecki - Concerto pour clavecin et cordes opus 40, executed by Elisabeth Chojnacka Costume design: Anne Masset Light design: Dominique Drillot Repetiteur: Diane Matla Dancers: Hayden Idrus, Brooke Newman, Elisa Rudolf, Pascal Schut, Vincenzo Turiano, Angelica Villalon, Alberto Tardanico

Simplicity, repetition, patterns, clarity, rhythm; this is the American choreographer Lucinda Childs, this is Concerto. Childs is well known as ‘the queen of minimal dance’.  She devises a number of movement phrases around a theme and then seeks the possible variation within this framework. Her choreographies look simple and light, but in fact they are creations of complex formations and directions, which pushes the dancers on stage to their extremes.

Normally, Concerto is danced by eight dancers, but this time there were only seven dancers; three women and four gentlemen. The choreography starts with three dancers standing on stage on a white floor and a white curtain in the back. When the music, composed by Henryk Mikolaj Górecki, starts to play, the dancers start with the movement phrase, waving through each other. After a few seconds the other four dancers join them. The movements are fast, technical and rhythmical. With little steps and jumps the dancers float through horizontal and diagonal formations on stage, as a whirlwind without energy, that doesn’t stop for approximately nine minutes.

It’s not that the dancers dance without energy, moreover, this choreography asks a lot of energy from the dancers because of its continuity. The little, almost inconspicuous, changes in directions and formations ask a lot of concentration. Therefore, the dancers perform super clean and show their marvelous technique. With energy, I mean the continuously, not changing, energy of the choreography which made it look more like a constantly repeated exercise on stage, which makes it, energy wise, empty. 

All dancers wear the same costumes; simple, wide black pants, black tops and black socks, which makes it sometimes hard to recognize the dancers on stage, especially when you are sitting on the second balcony, because they look very similar. Not only the way they look is the same, but the way they move as well. The height of their legs and arms are equally in almost every single movement. You are no longer looking to individual dancers on stage, but you are looking to one abstract moving piece. 

Concerto; an abstract choreography with minimal movements, minimal costumes, a minimal décor, minimal music and minimal energy. If you consider to go to the performance, keep in mind that it can be interesting to choose seats at the balcony, because from that perspective you can see the structure and formation of the choreography better.

Concerto is one of the pieces of the performance Monumental by Introdans. Other choreographies of the performance are: Canto Ostinato by Lucinda Childs, Lieder Eines Fahrenden Geselle by Jiřì Kylián and Memory of a Shape by Regina van Berkel. Monumental is touring through the Netherlands. For extra information, locations and dates you can look on the website of Introdans: www.introdans.nl.