Sunday, 19 February 2017

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


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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: 
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



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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




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