Photo: Herman Sorgeloos

Zeitung was a bit of a puzzle to me. Repeatedly during the piece I found myself willing for the dancing to end – for the lights to go off and the audience to surge towards the doors – but when the applause eventually came I desperately wanted it to stop and for the piece to continue. I’m not sure why. Maybe the act of finishing is an endearing one. The bows could have been just another fragment of the piece. Another combination of light, sound and movement. Another little whole with its own triumphant beginning and end.

I write ‘another’ because there were many – many beginnings, endings and combinations. Again and again the audience was called to attention, transported and gently deposited to be revved up and again called to attention. And, rightly, we attended – captivated by the music and the dancers’ gaze and bodies. Their shudders, leaps, grasps and quiet walks. They found their home in the choreography and had command over the constant shifting and juxtaposition of movement which (weeks later) still manages to awaken amazement in me – rendering useless every perception of cliché or categorisation that I have ever held.

Yet, despite the many beginnings and endings, somehow repetition did not find its place. And I wanted it to. Each section was too polished and complete for the audience to be able to find what might be reaching into or out of it in order for it to be bound to the rest of the piece. The whole work seemed to lack a spine or engine which could have been found if the structure had been allowed to be recognised as a repetitive one. But it wasn’t. Instead, it was presented as a running tap. A tap which, of course, could produce both chocolate and champagne but was sadly still running due to negligence rather than need.

Photo: Liu Yang

Bahok, meaning carrier in Bengali, is a contemporary dance piece which sets out to explore physical representations of cultural exchange. Choreographed by Akram Khan and scored by Nitin Sawney, the title reflects the message that we are all products of cultural codification with different stories to show and tell.

Using eight dancers from a mix of cultures, Khan places them as characters in transit, waiting for their flights in an airport terminal. During their wait, the dancers play out lost in translation moments; seemingly to highlight the connect/disconnect moments of intercultural exchange.
I saw:
A contact improvised sex dream between a spitting Eastern European man and a narcoleptic Chinese woman.
A photo clicking Chinese duet turned threesome when China tought India the correct hold for a pas de deux turn.
A striking ensemble piece which resembled the Dance of the Airport Traffic Signaller (heavy use of arm rotation) set within an industrial rave (Nitin Sawney’s atmospheric score).

Perhaps I missed the nuances within Khan’s storytelling, but all the gobbledy-gook between cultures failed to resonate with me. Still something imprinted itself indelibly within my memory. Two words. Three syllables. Zhang Zhenxin. This young Chinese man danced furiously and gorgeously; a moving monument to fluidity and expression. He managed to pull off the contemporary/kathak choreography and make it look better than it possibly should. Just to see him perform, I would go see Bahok again. Enough said.

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.