![]() In 13 Tongues, Cheng is inspired by Taiwanese folklore in a phantasmagorical creation of a marketplace, where dancers move in shifting groups, the movement seeming to ripple through every cell of their body, around those declaiming tales in loud shouts and sharp, fractured solos. Both men’s work come together on this double bill. He has also planned for his retirement, handing over the reins to Cheng Tsung-lung, a choreographer who has a different style but who draws just as deeply on the exceptional talents of the Cloud Gate dancers. Lin Hwai-min, founder of Cloud Gate, has in his own thoughtful way had as radical an effect on dance in his day as Duncan did in hers, bringing contemporary dance to Taiwan and creating a hugely influential company. ‘A masterpiece’: Lin Hwai-min’s Dust, performed by Cloud Gate Theatre. What’s impressive, though, is Ritter’s forging of her own style of movement, creating sensual, swaying patterns where each woman is both part of a community and a distinctive individual, reacting with fluid and unexpected shapes to the promptings of a score composed and played live (with electronic interventions) by the cellist Lih Qun Wong. There’s a sequence where a backlit figure seems to be in agony, as if mourning a family group seen in the foreground water, important to Duncan, falls into ceramic bowls. Ritter has looked at history and incorporates elements of Duncan’s tragic life. But it is in the final piece, Unda, a new work choreographed by Joy Alpuerto Ritter for six female dancers, that the most interesting glimpse of Duncan emerges. The design team have created a mistily lit space that evokes Greek temples there is fire there are draped costumes. His effects are simple – a shuddering man, a couple dragging each another slowly through spaceĭurante and her collaborators have done their best to catch the mood Duncan supposedly conjured. There are some insights, but it feels tame. The Ashton is lovely, played beautifully by pianist Anna Geniushene, and it is danced with a pensive grace by Begoña Cao (stepping in at short notice for an injured Durante), but its peach-costumed poses, elegant skips and dramatic runs only give us glimpses of the force of nature that the dancer supposedly was.ĭance of the Furies, on the other hand, reported in its day (1911) to be ugly in its depiction of women red in tooth and claw, now looks positively quaint as the five women batter their fists against the sky and run with their hands behind their backs. The dancer Elisabeth Schwartz interprets six dances by Isadora Duncan as faithfully as possible by performing them, and she turns these interpretations into an object of interpretation for the audience itself.Both short pieces are problematic it’s as if we are looking the wrong way through the telescope of history, and instead of coming into close-up, Duncan’s significance seems diminished. “What is special about Jérôme Bel’s production Isadora Duncan is that it does not understand Isadora Duncan’s dances as an object of exchange, but rather their interpretations. The performances in Oslo are presented with the support of Institut Français de Norvège. This performance was initially planned to be shown at Black Box teater during Fall 2020. Bel last visited Black Box teater during spring season 2019 with his iconic piece from 1995 titled Jérôme Bel. He explores the relationship between choreography and popular culture, dancer and spectator, as well as our understanding of art and contemporary dance. When linked with Jérôme Bel’s concerns about dance as a lever of emancipation, Isadora Duncan’s teaching, rekindled here, makes it possible to assert the topical nature of her critical potential.įrench choreographer Jérôme Bel is part of a generation of choreographers who rose to prominence in the mid-1990s. Through her great freedom of expression, favouring spontaneity and naturalness, she provided the bases of modern dance, which in turn lie at the root of contemporary dance. It uncovers a woman who was a feminist, Darwinist, communist and an advocate of free love. The piece examines an artistic pioneer from her American roots to her ultimate demise in France. Beneath the romantic figure, Duncan stands out as a visionary choreographer. With this piece devised for Elizabeth Schwartz, a respected dancer, teacher and dance historian, Bel draws a portrait of the deceased choreographer Isadora Duncan, based on her autobiographical work, Ma Vie – My life. Jérôme Bel returns to Black Box teater this fall with his newest piece Isadora Duncan. Grand and philosophical homage to a pioneer within choreography. The New York Times about "Isadora Duncan" “Performance art that is smart, severe, even philosophical, and at the same time cheeky and funny and entertaining”
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |