Digital Dance
TETRIS Mon Amour
Club Guy & Roni
Stadstheater Arnhem, 8
November 2017
 |
From the outset, it is evident that every element of the work has
been collaboratively created in order to create a kind of futuristic, virtual
environment through which the performers move. A large, neon, cubic frame
occupies most of the stage, sometimes framing the dancers, sometimes acting as
a looming and ominous background set piece. The dancers themselves move in a
rigid, android-like fashion which they impressively maintain throughout the
piece, interacting with each other not in a conventional human manner, but as
if they are avatars operating through an interface, confined by the rules of
this “game”. The physicality of the dancers and their commitment to expressing
these virtual characters was one of the highlights of the piece for me, as I
was completely captivated by their ability to appear non-human through their
facial expressions and movement quality.
A soundtrack of dark and jarring electronica was provided by
Slagwerk den Haag, who accompanied the dancers on stage. The musicians emerged
from behind their instruments on several occasions to join the dancers in
movement phrases, which was an amusing and clever decision on the
choreographer’s part. We see how the music is transformed through the bodies of
the people who wrote and performed it (regardless of their lack of dance
training!). It also gave the piece a sense of completeness- all of the
performers interacted with each other and with their surroundings, making the stage akin to a game on a computer screen for the audience.
Although Haver was largely successful in creating this world, I
felt that there was a lack of development throughout the piece. There was very
little change of dynamic, in either movement or music, and I believe that there
were missed opportunities for character development too- the piece stayed very
much on one level for its duration. The most interesting moment for me was when
two characters seemed to start to become romantically involved and almost
kissed- however, this was at the very end of the piece, and it was over before
we could see any further development. This kind of uncomfortable duality of
human and avatar within the dancers was something which I found fascinating to
observe, and would have loved to have seen more of.
However, I can’t deny that I was highly entertained nonetheless. TETRIS
Mon Amour is an exciting and stimulating dance piece which pushes the
audience to think about the freedom which we find within constriction. If there
are no rules, no limitations, can we truly find creative freedom? To quote van
Heuven once more, “It is about manipulating the system’s structure as skilfully
as possible to be able to be absorbed in the system.”
Watch the official trailer here: https://youtu.be/PfkpiSIYsoU
By Rosie Stebbing
No comments:
Post a Comment