Sri Louise and Juliana Coles, coaching project: Dance Journal – The fusing of Yoga, Visual Journaling and Performance.

My last week at ImPulsTanz.
I couldn’t have been happier than with this workshop being my last at the ImPulsTanz Festival. The Coles sisters (yes, they are sisters, but Louise has renamed herself Sri) were amazing. And professional – and that’s not always a given when talking about ImPulsTanz teachers. Juliana Coles is literally the pioneer of Extreme Journaling, and Sri Louise is just such a guru. What we did:
In the morning we practiced yoga for a couple of hours before moving into the visual journal making, and at the end of the day we would “take it into the space” (ah, dance expressions!). It was one of the most engrossing courses I attended at the festival and I can not imagine a better finale.

Above is one of the journal pages I made. But you can see Juliana’s much more impressive work here or at her flickr account.

That was it for my danceWEB residency at ImPulsTanz 2009. Looking back at the good times, hard times, intense times, naked times – it all kind of felt like stepping into a parallel universe for five weeks. Definitely a recommendable experience.

Xavier Le Roy, Self-Unfinished

Photo: Katrin Schoof

Xavier was unfinished alright, or at least he made himself look like it. I had to look at him really hard at times, to figure out how the hell he did it. Basically, the piece is Xavier twisting and turning himself into forms and shapes – and we see him doing this with/without clothes on. He alters the image. And the image is his body. And his body becomes an optical illusion. Xavier is toying with our perception, and he does it well. As he left the stage to the tune Upside Down by Diana Ross, I still couldn’t tell if what I had just seen was an enormous headless chicken with four tiny, skinny limbs, or Xavier Le Roy himself.

Pieter Ampe and Guilherme Garrido, Still Difficult Duet

Photo: Bart Grietens

It’s difficult to watch, that’s what it is: starting off with light synchronised jumps, the two barbarians suddenly begin smacking and spanking each other leaving red and burning imprints of hands around their naked bodies. Despite the anarchistic nature of the piece, stamina, timing, and trust were still crucial elements – and this is the reason, this sado-masochistic galore was so funny.

Liquid Loft / Chris Haring & Jin Xing Dance Theatre, Lovely Liquid Lounge

Photo: Liquid Loft

It was a long evening of different works, taking place in what they had turned into a comfy lounge. The overall theme, which seemed to be gender, was extremely evident in most of the pieces, although in some much less. Maybe the inconsistency of this was confusing to begin with. The main production of the evening, Das China Projekt, raised questions about gender in relation to society, although the way it dealt with these questions was somewhat disappointing. Or so it seemed. It was impossible to make out whether Jin Xing, who played a role in the piece herself, was pretending to be the stereotype of an ignorant, orthodox, middle aged woman – or if she actually is one in real life? One or the other, it makes a huge difference to the work. Even as a transgender person, she fits surprisingly well into the female role traditionally held by society, which to me neglects everything the piece could be trying to argue. Were they, or were they not spokesmen of these conservative traditions?

Par B.L.eux / Benoît Lachambre & Louise Lecavalier & Hahn Rowe & Laurent Golding, Is You Me

Photo: André Cornelier

A collaboration between dance, music and digital art.
Visual, incredibly visual, but very two-dimensional. Something was missing, perhaps the fact that Louise Lecavalier wasn’t performing due to personal affairs, could have had an impact – but I’m not sure because I don’t know what the piece is like normally. What I know is that Benoît Lachambre had to perform an adapted version of the piece, so all the dance was in fact improvised. As was the live digital art on the screen behind it. Unfortunately, it just all seemed so flat, although some people liked the meditativeness of it. I think I failed to appreciate that.

Mark Tompkins, kings & queens

Photo: Gilles Toutevoix

A gig/performance starring Mark Tompkins as a drag (hence the queen). Or at least to begin with, because for every song he sang he added a piece of clothes, which in the end made him look like.. a sheriff (hence the king). The music, which was mainly rock’n'roll, was performed with capacity and spirit, and Mark Tompkins’ voice was old and rough, which made me believe in his words even more.

Mark Tompkins, Empty Holes

Photo: Anne Nordmann

A physical-theatre/puppet/shadow show starring Mark Tompkins (& dolls) as storyteller(s). Empty Holes. He could be referring to the holes in the love dolls, with who he was acting out the love life between a very sad woman and a very sad man called Doris and John Dreem. But maybe not, since the piece was considering heavy duty subjects such as life, love, and death.
It was indeed a tragic, but amusing piece of work.

Dance Classes

My third week at the ImPulsTanz festival – and I was depressed. For reasons that I cannot currently comprehend, I had chosen to do just classes this week, rather than another coaching project or a pro-series. This was a bad choice. A really bad choice. You can always do classes, you know, they are everywhere. You walk down the street and there’s a class, you walk down another one and there’s one more. Here at ImPulsTanz there are so many opportunities, how often do you get the chance to work with so many choreographers again? And here I was, learning somebody’s steps, one by one. Also, my mind and body had so far been challenged almost 50/50, and now suddenly it was only going to be about the body. Yuck! I need more than that. A little advice for all you future ImPulsTanz’ers: book a good mix of projects and classes – unless you prefer kicking those legs in the air while giving yourself a good look in the mirror.

One good thing happened though; I learned some of Glacial Decoy, Trisha Brown repertoire, in the weekend intensive. If you got to learn some steps – why not learn something iconic?

Studiovisit

Photo: Barbara Kraus

We got the chance to meet “multipack” video and performance artist Barbara Kraus in her new performance and live in apartment here in Vienna. “Multipack” because of her many personas/characters all with different purposes and functionalities. We talked about a character named Johnny for almost an hour. She told us how she sometimes uses him publicly because, he can do things she can’t as Barbara, as a woman.

Here is also a picture of another of her alter egos, but I don’t know her name. Sorry.

Photo: Barbara Kraus

Barbara has collaborated with, among others, Nadia Lauro, Jennifer Lacey, Nadja b. Schefzig, fishy, Robert Steijn, Frans Poelstra, Fritz Ostermayer, and Lloyd Newson.

Cie. Maguy Marin / CCN Rillieux-la-Pape, Description d’un combat

Photo: Benoît Fauchet

A piece about a war. A slow piece about war. A super slow piece about war. A super slow piece about war that consisted of 1% movement and 99% speech. A super slow piece about war that consisted of 1% movement and 99% speech in French. The audience was not happy – they booed and hissed when they realised they weren’t going to get any dancing for their money. I just didn’t understand, first of all the French, who actually were able to understand what was been said on stage, second, why Maguy neglected to translate it into English. Was that really a conscious choice? I kind of doubt it, since I last week learned that Maguy Marin is a woman who always tries to make everyone understand, even if she has to say things in four different languages. The irony of this whole escapade was that the piece, with the theme being war and all, created an unbelievably loud, hostile and aggressive reaction in the crowd.

Alain Buffard, Les Inconsolés

Photo: Marc Domage

They were sometimes identical, sometimes naked men torturing each other, playing with each other, or fighting each other like angry dogs. Their behaviour was surreal, fragmented. It was hard to follow. Inside a white box their bodies projected shadows in different sizes, shapes, images and perspectives, which were easier to take in, although less interesting in comparison to the rest, which was stimulating at times. I wasn’t referring to the nudity just then.

Superamas, factory2 – “Youdream” in process comedy

Photo: Gainnina Urmeta Oetiker

Weird experience. Nothing happened. They were just filming. I thought I was there for a performance – you know, the kind where people go on stage and entertain you. But no, it was apparently just an open work situation. Hence the end of the title: …in process comedy. Duh! But if they were really filming this means we, the audience, also might go on screen as this piece will become both a television and theatre show, if I got it right. Isn’t that exploitation? Hey, Superamas, pay me.

Fumiyo Ikeda / Tim Etchells, in pieces

Photo: Hermann Sorgeloos

I felt so impatient. Totally agitated. I wonder what got into me. Maybe the fact that the piece dealt with time in a choreographic structure, which seemed somewhat conventional and predictable. Anyway, I kept shifting around in my seat, and when Fumiyo towards the end of the piece shouted at us: “Get up! Get up. Go away” – or something, I was so ready. But that was actually pretty weird. Why did she approach the audience like that without meaning it? She didn’t really want us to respond to what she was asking, but then what’s that about?

It was a dance piece, and Fumiyo moving solo on stage was delicate. Her movements seemed genuine, but as soon as she would open her mouth and speak, it suddenly didn’t stay so real. It sort of seemed imposed. She would count a lot – as in, say a number out loud and then dance or speak. The piece was the most interesting, when she was still counting without telling us what she was counting. At this point, the numbers represented anything. The very little joy I found in this was soon in pieces (yes, I was bored).

Alice Chauchat and others: The Love Piece

Photo: Damir Žižić

Overwhelmed by a combination of cheesy love songs and the look of his brown sincere eyes, I am swept of my feet for a second – fortunately I am sitting. I am in the Kunsthalle watching The Love Piece, exclusively for ten audience members and ten performers. The focus is to give love and the tall, brown-eyed man that has taken me by the hand is being really honest. If I am sincere so is he, when the situation makes me laugh he seems amused. He understands me, he really does. He likes me, he really does. I am troubled by the thought of involuntarily consuming prostitution – can you buy someone’s love even if you don’t intend to? And at the same time I am imagining how it will be when I leave and he comes after me.

I feel pathetic in an enjoyable way, just like when I cry during ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’.

Maguy Marin, coaching project: “entrer en scene” / “entering the stage”

Maguy Marin: The Pina Bausch of France, as a friend phrased it so well. Working with her was fun, hard, challenging, demanding, testing, difficult, tough, weird – in other words: not easy. Especially, not, if you were one of the unlucky ones that couldn’t follow where Maguy was getting at, which some people just couldn’t or didn’t want to, as this made her very tired. Although every day she’d return with new energy. So, not only did I learn about ‘entering the stage’ and the internal event of this, but also communication – or lack of. Interesting mix.

Maguy introduced us to the way she works with her company, which she apparently does in a very particular manner: most of the tasks, we would carry out one by one in front of every one else. And since we were 22 people in the class, one task would take maybe 2 days in the studio. It could have been a very unpleasant experience (I’m sure it was for some), but actually it was fascinating how we would grow with the task, and the task with us – it was a journey, and even though we only spent 10 min. on stage each, every attempt to contribute well to this research was part of a mutual development and understanding of the task as an issue. Digging so deep into one specific thing was sometimes tiresome, but it’s a great ability to posses. I think this is evident in Maguy’s work, as well.

This picture is from an exercise where we had to dress up and then… wait. Wait. Just wait for the character to arrive and the transformation to take place without force or anticipation. A piece of cake for Maguy during her demonstration – not quite as easy for the rest of us. But as she said: we were there to fail. (Which we did)

Ultima Vez, nieuwZwart (new black)

Photo: Pieter-Jan De Pue

Supreme dancing, so so dance, and mediocre choreography. Yes, there is a difference between the three. The piece, which was clearly driven by the existentialist and evolutionary themes that you often detect in Vandekeybus’ work, was comprised of live music, set design, theatre and dance – kind of like a musical, yet not quite. The first scene, in which the dancers appeared naked on a dark stage, was definitely the most sensational – the mood was creepy-crawly and very exciting, but then this mysterious vibe disappeared and the rest of the piece seemed a bit like a run-of-the-mill. Although, one dancer, a blond Icelandic girl, managed to keep me intrigued the whole way through by her incredible stage presence.

Random Scream & Davis Freeman, What You Need To Know

Photo: Davis Freeman

Short, but handy. We learned how to gun someone down – Davis F. thought it might save our lives one day, so he practically gave a demonstration of how a pistol, semi-automatic, revolver, rifle, shotgun functions. Then came the funny bit: we got to shoot the dancers on stage. Was he trying to tell us something?

Ann Liv Young, The Bagwell In Me

Photo: Scott Newman

This is the most outlandish shit I’ve ever seen. It was freaky. But it had to be: the piece was about slavery and how the first American president, George Washington, allegedly fell in love with his own slave maid. As an unfortunate byproduct of his hyperactive presidential loins, she became pregnant, a fact that he consequently kept secret like any good politician. Ann Liv dealt with it in such a kinky, but also surprisingly serious, way. It was frightening, shocking, disgusting, and Ann Liv, the most eccentric performer I’ve ever seen, made the performance so intense that it is haunting – The Bagwell In Me was the last thing I thought about before falling asleep last night, and the first thing I thought about when I woke up this morning. It must be good.

During the ImPulsTanz festival there are so many performances that my eyes are about to fall out. It’s fantastic. Here are some snapshots of the performances of the first week.
Kerstin Kussmaul & Jan Burkhardt, Vexations : Wir nennen es Arbeit

Photo: Laurent Ziegler

If you like solving puzzles, this installation is right up your alley and was definitely an interesting method of involving the audience (as the performance). For every task you did, the price of your ticket was reduced. Great. Well, since my ticket was free this didn’t exactly apply to me, so I got away with not doing anything but observing everyone else that chose to move around the space. I did give myself the task of listening, so I did. Very carefully. Ah, music – I did not even realise that I was listening to the same piece over and over again. This is the beauty of Erik Satie’s Vexations. But I didn’t stick it out for all 840 repetitions.

Savion Glover Productions (the opening of the ImpulsTanz festival)

Photo: Savion Glover Productions

The Tap Master: Savion Glover. Or Happy Feet, if that suits you better. It suits me better, but I couldn’t actually see his feet because of the sea of people in front of me. His locks are cool though – they were bouncing around his head and face, while he was tapping along to the jazz music, played live by his band. Happy Locks, perhaps?

Rosas/Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, The song

Photo: Michel Francois

Dance (performed by incredible dancers with incredible physiques), sound (resourceful, live sound-effects) and light (like silent fireworks when a silver cloth descended from the ceiling). Together. I enjoyed this. Some bits were drawn out too long. Others right up my street, although the spectacular effects sometimes seemed to be dominating the aesthetic of the piece – almost too much for my taste. But only almost too much, because the piece was unpredictable… So I guess specularity won in the end.

Random Scream & Davis Freeman, Investment

I will never buy a lottery ticket, bet money, play poker or any game of luck in my life again. Not that I ever really did, but I now know enough to regret that I even thought about it. The responsibility is simply to great – if you win that is. If you don’t, it’s just stupid that you tried in the first place. Investment deals with the issue of money and responsibility by investigating the hypothetical event of sudden wealth. They even handed out lottery tickets. This piece is a good response to the current social climate, still in the aftermath of the economic crisis. We panic, we become greedy, we forget that money is not just fun to have. If you don’t have money, you don’t have responsibility.

Yeah, that didn’t make sense. I take it back; money is fun to have and if you’re poor you still have responsibility. But thanks to this piece, I do not want a lot of money. Just a little bit, please.