By Ohad Naharin
Performed by 15-20 Batsheva Dance Company / Batsheva Ensemble dancers

65-75 minutes

Segments from Ohad Naharin's creations:
Max (2007), Seder (2007), George and Zalman (2006), Telophaza (2006), Three (2005), Naharin's Virus (2001), Moshe (1999), Zachacha (1998), Zina (1995), Anaphaza (1993), Mabul (1992), Kyr (1990), Black Milk (1991/1985)

Lighting Design for the original creations: Avi Yona Bueno (Bambi) and Ohad Naharin.
Costume Design for the original creations: Rakefet Levi and Sharon Eyal.

Music:
The Beach Boys, Maxim Warrat, Goldfrapp, A. Vivaldi, Harold Arlen/ Marusha
Cha-Cha De Amor (sung by Dean Martin and Rolley Polley), Hawaii five -0/ Morton Stevens
Traditional song arranged and performed by the Tractors’ Revenge and Ohad Naharin, Habib Alla Jamal
Paul Smadbeck, Traditional song arranged and performed by Ivri Lider


World Premiere: 2000, Suzanne Dellal Center, Tel-Aviv

Khan Chaudhry Productions

Premiere: 26 April 2010, Sadler's Wells London

Duration: approximately 90 minutes with one interval

Gnosis is a recent work by Akram Khan in which he combines his classical Indian and contemporary dance roots. It begins with Khan revisiting the classical motifs of two earlier solos, Polaroid Feet and Tarana. We follow him on a pathway of transformation, culminating in a shattering conclusion. Pursuing the idea of the 'knowledge within', it is an exploration of the inner and outer battles of characters, the human and the godly.

Drawing from sources both ancient and modern, Gnosis is also inspired by the Hindu epic Mahabharata, in particular the story of Gandhari, the wife of the blind king who blindfolds herself for life to share his journey. It explores the notion of inner knowledge and clouded vision, seeing darkness and yet being blind to light.

Khan is accompanied on stage by an ensemble of exceptional musicians from around the world and acclaimed guest artist Fang-Yi Sheu, from Taiwan.

Artistic Director/Performer - Akram Khan

Guest Artist - Fang-Yi Sheu

Musicians

Koushik Aithal - vocals

B C Manjunath - mridanga

Kartik Raghunathan - violin

Lucy Railton - cello

Sanju Sahai - tabla

Bernhard Schimpelsberger - drums

(previous musician: Faheem Mazhar)

Lighting Design - Fabiana Piccioli

Sound - Marcus Hyde

Costumes - Kei Ito, Kimie Nakano

Dramaturge - Ruth Little

Producer - Farooq Chaudhry

Technical Coordinator - Sander Loonen

Tour Manager - Mashitah Omar

Polaroid Feet

Choreography & Music - Gauri Sharma Tripathi

Tarana

Choreography - Sri Pratap Pawar

Unplugged

Improvisation - Akram Khan

Gnosis

Choreography - Akram Khan

Co-produced by

ADACH (Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture & Heritage)

Sadler's Wells, London

The Point, Eastleigh

Subsidised rehearsal facilities provided by Jerwood Space.

Special thanks to Yoshie Sunahata and the wonderful company of Kodo (Japan), Gauri Sharma Tripathi, Mr & Mrs Khan and Shanell Winlock.

Akram dedicates this performance to his guru, Sri Pratap Pawar and to all the other storytellers who continue the fight to tell the myriad of wonderful myths to the audiences of today.

Akram Khan Company in Brazil is supported by The Rumi Foundation

Commissioned by the Fondazione Campania dei Festival - Teatro Festival Italia. A Vertigo Dance Company and Fondazione Campania dei Festival - Teatro Festival Italia coproduction.

This new production by choreographer Noa Wertheim weaves together twenty years of the Vertigo Dance Company's creations from its inception to this date.

In her current piece Noa follows the trail of pebbles she laid, as if re-deciphering the secret of time. As stitches between the private and the public are unraveled she moves from real to surreal, from intimate to theatric, from impalpable to tangible.

The Vertigo 20 unique body language accentuated by wit and hinted sadness delivers a spectacular staging of rituals.

Choreography | Noa Wertheim
Assistant Choreographer | Rina Wertheim Koren
Dancers and Co-Creators | Dorry Aben, Yael Cibulski, Hen Ezrihen, Dovydas Letkauskas, Dor Mamalia, Nitsan Margaliot, Amos Micah, Tomer Navot, Sian Olles, Marija Slavec, Eyal Visner, Emmy Wielunski
Music | Ran Bagno
Lighting Design | Dani Fishof - Magenta, Set building | Yigal Gini
Costumes & Stage Design | Rakefet Levy - School of Theatrical Design,
Costume production | Rosie Canaan, Head seamstress | Anna Polyakov
Graphic Design | Dorit Talpaz
Cinematographer | Elad Debi, Plamen Jelyazkov
Video Editing | Oren Mansura

Duration: 106 minutes

A world utterly at the mercy of the power of theatrical imagination is what Jan Fabre has been advocating since C'est du Théâtre Comme Il Etait à Espérer et à Prévoir (1982) and Le Pouvoir des Folies Théâtrales (1984). Those were the first of his pieces to draw attention with their flouting of stage convention. It's a kind of Theatre of Rebellion (As Long as the World Needs a Warrior's Soul, 2000), influenced by his training in plastic arts and his practical experience of performance art, simultaneously bringing to the stage a time related to materials of the painter, as well as that related to human beings or animals (Parrots and Guinea Pigs, 2002). However, everything is created out of the body and its language. The physical body in Sweet Temptations (1991), spiritual in Universal Copyrights 1&9 (1995) and erotic in Glowing Icons (1997). This body, that has memory and fundamental instincts similar to those of animals, is endowed with the almost magical power of metamorphosis. That is why he likes to describe his actors as "warriors of beauty", drawn into the enormity of images and dreams. Nonetheless, over and above excess, and often with humour or irony, Jan Fabre manifests a profound affection towards humankind and its weaknesses. In all these years entirely devoted to his art, a protean body of work which includes sculptures and installations, text and stage-production – more than thirty pieces to date - Jan Fabre, from the workshop to the tangible work, from the studio to the stage, has pursued the feverish quest of his visions. In his work, people are defined by their impulses, from the place where their beauty lies, in their bodies, their pleasure, from ecstasy to agony, from subservience to revolt. From his monologues (Elle Etait et Elle Est, Même, Etant Donnés) or personal solos custom-designed for his performers (Quando l'Uomo Principale è Una Donna, L'Ange de la Mort) to his flamboyant group pieces, the approach of this "man who measures clouds", preserves a flavour of childhood and games. Relying on his intuition, Jan Fabre works relentlessly on the plasticity of bodies, seeking to pour them into a poetic mould and create new horizons. Jan Fabre has already presented a number of pieces at the Avignon Festival, Das Glas im Kopf wird vom Glas in 1988, My Movements are Alone Like Street-Dogs in 2000, Je Suis Sang in the Courtyard of Honour in the Pope's Palace as well as an installation, Umbraculum in 2001 and L'Ange de la Mort in 2004. 

Jan Fabre learnt to look at faces like one looks at a landscape or at a space. If, as in his view, physical gestures are subject to time and wear, what of tears and their meaning, their eloquence ? In the same vein, in the intimacy of silence and of affection, the artist from Antwerp re-bonds with a deep-seated feeling, the need for consolation. Why do we always cry after the event and not before ? Since the beginning of the 1990s, he's been trying to capture this fleeting mood, between visible and invisible, sketching with his own tears, and as if he were a researcher, he has categorized them according to their source: - pain, joy or loneliness. Everywhere life's energy flows is a vast field of observation and of creation for Jan Fabre. Tears are the second fluid, after blood, which has attracted the attention of this master alchemist whose work is entirely dedicated to the body and its language. His second living tableau created for the Courtyard of Honour in the Pope's Palace, L'Histoire des Larmes (A Tale of Tears) mixes the history of painting and music in a major on-stage celebration, assembling actors, dancers and musicians. While tears may be represented differently depending on the period, they seem an obvious choice for this purifying ritual which is also at the centre of the artist's work. This study of fluids has another meaning, another colour. It sparkles. The tears work with light, dig a void. A work of transparency or of a calming fire, Jan Fabre as plastician artist possesses all the keys that enable him to show us that crying is another way of seeing, hearing and speaking, in order to rediscover the pathway and the spirituality of tears. 

Distribution

text, scenography, choreography : Jan Fabre

music : Eric Sleichim

actors, dancers, musiciens : Linda Adami, Marcel Andriessen, Aldo Aranda, Vicente Arlandis, François Beukelaers, Dimitri Brusselmans, Katrien Bruyneel, Annabelle Chambon, Cedric Charron, Anny Czupper, Barbara De Coninck, Gael dePauw, Olivier Dubois, Ivana Jozic, Coraline Lamaison, Ekaterina Levental, Apostolia Papadamaki, Tony Rizzi, Maria Stamenkovic-Herranz, Geert Vaes

French translation : Olivier Taymans

Latin translation : Luc De Coninck

dramaturg : Miet Martens

assistant : Renée Copraij

lighting : Jan Dekeyser, Jan Fabre

costumes : Daphne Kitschen, Jan Fabre

Production 

Production : troubleyn / Jan Fabre (Anvers)

en coproduction avec : le Festival d'avignon, deSingel (Anvers), Hans Christian Andersen 2005 (Aarhus), muziektheater Amsterdam, Grand théâtre de la ville de Luxembourg, Séoul Arts Center, Blindman (belgique), Cankarjec Dom (Ljubljana)

avec l'aide du : Programme culture 2000 de l'Union Européenne

avec la participation du : muziektheater Transparant pour la musique

Texte français publié par : L'Arche éditeur (juillet 2005)

Duration: 60 minutes 

Amelia explores the use of point technique using extended intertwining solos, complex partnering sequences and extreme speed to generate powerful performances with unexpected moments of tender emotion and serenity. 

A portrait of today’s man and woman seen through the eyes of one of the most innovative artists of our time. Edouard Lock continues to push the limits of dance by exploring human gesture through a breathtaking interplay of speed and extremes and the flawless weaving of choreographic, musical and cinematic strands. 

Lock uses intricate choreography for both camera and dancers, creating amazing and constantly shifting points of view. Trademark performances, brilliant and relentless, combined with the delicate sensual lighting of André Turpin and the minimalist environment of a giant wooden box with rounded forms that seems to have no exit, create a disturbingly exquisite and moving experience. 

The original score, written by David Lang for violin, cello, piano and voice, combines evocative minimalism and with lyrics from five of Lou Reed’s most famous works, created in the 60s for the Velvet Underground.

Entity premiered on 10 April 2008 at Sadler's Wells, London

An hour-long breathtaking trip through a soundscape created by Coldplay and Massive Attack collaborator, Jon Hopkins, and award-winning composer Joby Talbot (The Divine Comedy), ENTITY is a staggering blend of bodies, lights, technology and film that mark McGregor at the cutting edge of contemporary culture. Technically astonishing, emotionally uncompromising and hard-hitting, McGregor's work breaks boundaries and defies categorisation.

Co-commissioned by: Het Muziektheater, (Amsterdam); Sadler's Wells, (London); Biennale de la Danse (Lyon); DanceEast (Ipswich) and Swindon Dance / Bath University ICIA / Wyvern (HST) (Swindon/Bath) and supported by The Linbury Biennial Prize for Stage Design, The Estate of Sir John Drummond, The Quercus Trust, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, University of California San Diego and PRSFoundation for new music.

Concept, Direction & Choreography: Wayne McGregor

Music: Joby Talbot & Jon Hopkins

Set & Costume Design: Patrick Burnier

Lighting Design: Lucy Carter

Video Design: Ravi Deepres

Company: Wayne McGregor | Random Dance

Cast: 10 dancers

Length: 60 mins

La La La Human Steps’ Louise Lecavalier and Édouard Lock, the dance company’s founder, choreographer and artistic director. ‘Human Sex’ premiered in 1985 and rose the troupe to international prominence.

Babette Mangolte

(b. 1941 Montmorot, France; lives New York City)

Water Motor, 1978

16mm black-and-white film, 7:55 minutes

In 1978, Babette Mangolte made a film of famed choreographer Trisha Brown dancing a hyperkinetic solo called Water Motor. The first portion was filmed in "real time," at 24 frames per second, and the second at half-speed, or 48 frames per second. In the second take, Brown's movements appear elongated in time, the slowed frame rate making visible what was previously inaccessible to the naked eye. As Mangolte describes, "the movement takes on a luscious quality that informs the viewer of what was missed before." Filmmaker Yvonne Rainer called Water Motor "One of the best dance films ever made.

Duración: 46 Minutos 

La película de vídeo Roseland, dirigida por Walter Verdin, Octavio Iturbe y Wim Vandekeybus, está hecho de material de primeros tres coreografías Vandekeybus: What the Body Does Not Remember (1987), Les porteuses de mauvaises nouvelles (1989) y The Weight of a Hand (1990). Roseland coloca estos trabajos coreográficos en el entorno extraordinario de un cine de Bruselas en ruinas que ha sido abandonado por los últimos veinte años. Roseland recibió el Dance Screen Award por 'transformar la energía teatral de la coreografía en una experiencia dinámica de la pantalla, utilizando una amplia gama de técnicas cinematográficas.'

The player will show in this paragraph

Duration: 148 minutes

The Co(te)lette Film

The Co(te)lette Film is the film version of the dance production Co(te)lette. British director Mike Figgis was on board to direct this uncompromising film based on a concept and choreography by Ann Van den Broek. The film was selected for the segment ‘Belgian Cinema Today’ of the International Film Festival in Ghent.

In The Co(te)lette Film three women dance in a rather intimate atmosphere, caught between desire and fulfillment. No confrontation, rivalry, story, solution or ending; the storyline in The Co(te)lette Film is restless and empty.

“Devastated! Quite devastated! That is how you feel after watching Mike Figgis’s film version of Ann Van den Broek’s intense, controversial and award-winning choreography Co(te)lette. Afterward the discussion can flare up, as it does after every dance film, about the filmmaker’s contribution to this unique art form. One that reaches seldom seen heights thanks to the Flemish choreographer. With films such as Leaving Las Vegas, Mr. Jones, Internal Affairs on his résumé, Mike Figgis is not just anyone either. With Timecode he showed that he was not afraid to explore new narrative forms. In The Co(te)lette Film he again uses his tried and tested split-screen system. He uses it sparingly and it does not distract the viewer from the choreography itself.

It concerns three women who are confronted by their own bodies as well as the bodies of the other women. They also want to engage the spectators standing around the podium. Thanks to the camera work, which alternates between close-ups and long shots, the cinema audience is engaged as well. All the elements add up to a confrontational performance about desire, lust, fulfillment, attraction, rejection, seduction, searching, finding and not finding. Unlike the stage production, in the film there are spectators standing around the podium. When Ann Van den Broek won a prestigious Dutch dance award for Co(te)lette, the jury called it ‘a daring and fragile choreography, raw, confrontational and gripping’. There is no better way to describe the physical power of the performance. The scars on the dancers’ bodies are visible. Figgis’s camera is merciless.”

Source: Film Festival Ghent

director Mike Figgis

concept and choreography Ann Van den Broek

dance Frauke Mariën, Cecilia Moisio and Judit Ruiz Onandi

extra’s and understudy’s Erin Harty, Karen Lamberts and Emma Seresia

special extra’s Lie Antonissen, Surah Dohnke

première 19 October, 2010, Filmfestival Ghent (B)

other contributors: producers Vito Di Rosa and Bart Van Langendonck / Lighting cameraman Oliver Schofield / camera Mike Figgis /production designer Bernie van Velzen / editor Arlen Figgis / composer original music Arne Van Dongen / costume Catherine Van Bree / make up Alexandra Kourline / line producer Xavier Rombaut / co-producer Monique van Beek - WArd/waRD / producers NTR Bart Soepnel and Joost Van Krieken / associate producer Janine Dijkmeijer / first assistant director Aram Van de Rest / sound recordist Luc Cuveele / gaffer Laurens De Grande / camera assistant Kristof Meert / second assistant director Nathalie Teirlinck / constructor Merijn Sep / wardrobe assistantCharlotte Van Peel

The Co(te)lette Film is a co-production of Savage Film, a production company based in Brussels; the British Red Mullet; WArd/WaRD (NL/B) and the Dutch NTR. It was made with the financial support of the Nederlandse Mediafonds (Dutch Media Foundation) and the Vlaams Audivisueel Fonds (Flemish Audiovisual Foundation).

title : Cour d'honneur (2013)

conception and direction : Jérôme Bel

assisted by : Maxime Kurvers

with spectators : Virginie Andreu, Elena Borghese, Vassia Chavaroche, Pascal Hamant, Daniel Le Beuan, Yves Leopold, Bernard Lescure, Adrien Mariani, Anna Mazzia, Jacqueline Micoud, Alix Nelva, Jérôme Piron, Monique Rivoli, Marie Zicari

and performers : Isabelle Huppert, Samuel Lefeuvre, Antoine Le Ménestrel, Agnès Sourdillon, Maciej Stuhr, Oscar Van Rompay

texts extract : Médée by Euripide, French translation by Myrto Gondicas and Pierre Judet de la Combe, Le Prince de Hombourg by Heinrich von Kleist, French translation by Jean Curtis, Les Bienveillantes by Jonathan Littell, Polish translation by Katarzyna Kaminska-Maurugeon, L'École des femmes by Molière

music : Philipoctus De Caserta (Codex Chantilly), Scott Gibbons, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Richard Wagner

thanks to : Didier Bezace / Théâtre de la Commune, Reinout Bussemaker, Romeo Castellucci, Cidalia da Costa, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Pierre Fontes, Jean-Louis Mailles, Maison Jean Vilar, Christoph Marthaler, Marie-Josée Mas, Benoît Minvielle, Jean-Noël Obert, Colm O'Callaghan, Alice Pialoux, Alain Platel, Rosas, Björn Schmelzer – Graindelavoix, Johan Simons / NT Gent, Malgorzata Szczesniak, Nara Trochel, Lies van Assche, Anna Viebrock, Nina von Mechow, Krzysztof Warlikowski, Christophe Wavelet, Lina Zohair

production : Festival d'Avignon

coproduction : France Télévisions, Association R.B. Jérôme Bel (Paris)

For a long time, Jérôme Bel wanted to do a show on the memory of a theatre, on the memory of shows that would have been presented at it. We know that shows, stage performance properly speaking, leave nothing behind them except in the memory of the spectators who attended the performances. Because it is in fact the very nature of the live show to die, to disappear. Which is what creates both its grandeur and its weakness. It was in thinking of the Cour d'honneur of the Palais des papes, unquestionably one of the most symbolic theatre venues in France, that he imagined a solution: a show staging spectators who themselves relate their memories of this place and the shows they saw there. The spectators invited to take part in this project are theatre buffs or not. They are between 11 and 70 years old; they are students, teachers, graphic artists or nurses; they live in Vichy, Avignon, Paris or Clermont-Ferrand. Each in his or her own way, they offer an account of their experiences as spectators, good or bad. The challenges of this creation are therefore to attempt to quantify how shows are received by the spectators and to measure the influence of art on their life, thus in the Cour d'honneur. Because the spectator had to be given the place he or she deserved: the place of honour.

title : Pichet Klunchun and myself (2005)

a commission by : Tang Fu Kuen for the Bangkok Fringe Festival

concept : Jerome Bel

creation : Bangkok (Thailand) on Decembre 12th 2004, at the Bangkok Fringe festival

by and with : Jerome Bel and Pichet Klunchun

production : Bangkok Fringe Festival (Bangkok), SACD Le Vif du Sujet (Paris), Festival Montpellier Danse 2005 (Montpellier), R.B. Jérôme Bel (Paris)

with the support of : Institut Français (Paris), French Alliance of Bangkok, Cultural Service of the French Embassy in Bangkok and « The Flying Circus Project » in Singapore

thanks to : Frie Leysen and Mark De Putter

duration : 105 minutes approximatively

language : The piece is in English without translation (a live translation is possible - see technical rider)

subsidies : R.B. Jerome Bel is supported by the Direction regionale des affaires culturelles d’Ile-de-France (French Ministry of Culture and Communication) and by the Institut Français (French Ministry for Foreign Affairs) for its international tours

R.B. Jerome Bel :

artistic advice and company development : Rebecca Lee

production manager : Sandro Grando

website : www.jeromebel.fr

In 2008 Jerome Bel and Pichet Klunchun received the Routes Princess Margriet Award for Cultural Diversity (European Cultural Foundation) for Pichet Klunchun & myself (2005).


" In September 2004, I was invited in Bangkok by Singaporean curator Tang Fu Kuen to lead a project. I wondered for a while if I should accept the invitation or not, and I finally proposed to try to work with a traditional Thai dancer.

I am indeed deeply interested in the extra-occidental performing arts traditions, for both dance and theatre, since being dazzled by a Kabuki performance I attended in Tokyo in 1989. I had similar feelings with Indian traditional dance or with the parade of the Rio de Janeiro Carnival.

Tang Fu Kuen suggested to dancer and choreographer Pichet Klunchun that he meets me during my stay in Bangkok in December of the same year. We met without knowing anything about what could finally result from our meeting. I had just prepared beforehand some questions to ask to this dancer. Personally, I had only a vague idea of what traditional Thai dance was, and Pichet Klunchun didn’t know my work.

The circumstances of our meeting determined the nature and the form of the result we obtained. Jet lag, the fascination that the city of Bangkok and its inhabitants exerted on me, the monstrous traffic jams which did not make it possible to do all the rehearsals, the context of the Bangkok Fringe Festival where the piece had to be premiered, led us to present to the audience a kind of theatrical report of our experience.

We happened to produce a kind of theatrical and choreographic documentary on our real situation. The piece puts two artists face to face who know nothing about each other, who have very different aesthetical practices and who both try to find out more about each other, and above all about their respective artistic practices, despite the abyssal cultural gap separating them.

Some very problematic notions such as euro-centrism, inter-culturalism, or cultural globalization, are issues defined all through the piece. These notions which are so delicate to discuss can’t be left out. The historical moment doesn’t allow what is at stake here to be skipped over ".

Jérôme Bel, Seoul, June 1st 2005

title : The last performance (1998)

concept : Jerome Bel

choreography : Susanne Linke, excerpts from Wandlung (1978)

music : Franz Schubert, excerpts from Death and the Maiden

creation : Brussels (Belgium), on November 12th 1998, at the Kaaitheate

with : Claire Haenni, Antonio Carallo, Frederic Seguette, Jerome Bel

production : Centro Cultural de Belem (Lisbon), Kaaitheater (Brussels), R.B. Jerome Bel (Paris)

with the support of : CNDC / l'Esquisse (Angers), la Ferme du Buisson (Marne-la-Vallee), la Menagerie de Verre (Paris) and the Internationale Tanzwochen (Vienna)

thanks to : Pascale Paoli and Jean Torrent

duration : 60 minutes

subsidies : R.B. Jerome Bel is supported by the Direction regionale des affaires culturelles d’Ile-de-France (French Ministry of Culture and Communication) and by the Institut Français (French Ministry for Foreign Affairs) for its international tours

websites : www.jeromebel.fr

Performance's only life is the present. Performance cannot be saved, recorded, documented or otherwise participate in the circulation of representations of representations : once it does so, it becomes something other than performance. To the degree that performance attempts to enter the economy of reproduction, it betrays and lessens the promise of its own ontology. Performance's being, like the ontology of subjectivity proposed here, becomes itself through disappearance.

Peggy Phelan in Unmarked the politics of performance Routledge Ed.

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title : nom donné par l’auteur (1994)

a performance by : Jerome Bel

creation : Lisbon (Portugal), September 21st 1994, at the Teatro CineArte for the Skite 94 festival

with : Jerome Bel and Frederic Seguette

production : R.B. Jérôme Bel (Paris) - France

duration : 60 minutes

subsidies : R.B. Jerome Bel is supported by the Direction regionale des affaires culturelles d’Ile-de-France (French Ministry of Culture and Communication) and by the Institut Français (French Ministry for Foreign Affairs) for its international tours

R.B. Jerome Bel :

artistic advice and company development : Rebecca Lee

production manager : Sandro Grando

websites : www.jeromebel.fr

Performance :

General effect of things or facts, which are presented to public view, capable of provoking reactions.

in Petit Robert 1, French dictionary

Duration: 22 minutes

title : Shirtology (1997)
concept : Jerome Bel
creation : Lisbon (Portugal), on February 22nd 1997, at the Centro Cultural de Belem
with : Frederic Seguette
production : Centro Cultural de Belem (Lisbon), Victoria (Ghent), R.B. Jerome Bel (Paris)
duration : 25 minutes in three parts
subsidies : R.B. Jerome Bel is supported by the Direction regionale des affaires culturelles d’Ile-de-France (French Ministry of Culture and Communication) and by Cultures France (French Ministry for Foreign Affairs) for its international tours
production manager : Sandro Grando

A given language is a social institution, which does not depend on individuals ; it is a normative reserve out of which individuals draw their speech, in other words, it is “ a virtual system which only actualises itself within and through speech ”. Speech is an individual act, “ the actualised expression of the function of language ”, THE LANGUAGE being a generic term which encompasses given languages and speech. It appears most useful to distinguish between two analogical realities within the notion of clothing : the first one is an essentially social and institutional reality, not depending on individuals and operating like a systematic, normative reserve, out of which the individuals draw their own outfits ; we suggest calling this reality THE COSTUME, which in Saussure corresponds to a given language ; and a second individual reality, which is a real act of “ clothing ” by which individuals, in endorsing it, actualise the general institution of the costume ; we suggest calling this second reality CLOTHES, which in Saussure corresponds to speech. Costume and clothes form a generic whole, which we suggest calling from now on CLOTHING.

Roland Barthes in Annales, "Histoire et sociologie du vêtement", July-September 1957


Trained as a choreographer, Jérôme Bel forgets most of dance, as if, in the forgetting, something else might be possible. Working in a language of movement and image that could be described as a kind of delicate, humane minimalism, his interests are located just at the slippery, evocative meeting point between the physical and the philosophical - the body itself and the processes by which live presence is constructed, the processes of language and the relationship of language to objects (animate and inanimate), the process by which narrative (or meaning) is constructed, through the deployment of objects (animate and inanimate) in time and space. (…) The T-shirts second hand - replete with the workaday slogans, logos, icons and pictures of international capitalist culture, much of it outdated ; slogans for products or ideas you don’t remember so well, numbers and dates (festivals, occasions), statistics, jokes, faces, admonishments, warnings, demands.


As playful as it is minimalist, Shirtology is « simply » a matter of deploying the people and the T-shirts in combination and arrangement – structures through time, pictures in space. The work of the piece is that of dressing and appearing – changing clothes, presenting oneself, in T-shirts – the body clothed, always in language, mainly in silence – the fragmented conversation of written slogans on neighbouring T-shirts.

Tim Etchells in Certain fragments Routledge Ed.

Die Klage der Kaiserin (1990) aka The Complaint of an Empress

This first film by choreographer Pina Bausch reflects her method of working as developed with the Wuppertal Theatre of Dance during the 1973/74 season. The film does not tell a story, but is made up of various scenes put together as a collage with scenes set in different locations, such as the woods and fields around Wuppertal, the city centre, the suspension railway, a carpet shop, a greenhouse and the rehearsal room. The futility of human activity and the search for love make up the film's central theme set against the strains of a Silician funeral march. Filmed on location in Wuppertal, Germany, between October 1987 and April 1989.

Performed by the Wuppertaler Tanztheater: Mariko Aoyama, Anne Marie Benati, Benedicte Billiet, Rolando Brenes Calvo, Antonio Carallo, Finola Cronin, Dominique Duszynski, Mechthild Grossmann, Barbara Hampel, Kyomi Ichida, Urs Kaufmann, Ed Kortlandt, Beatrice Libonati, Anne Martin, Dominique Mercy, Jan Minarik, Helena Pikon, Dana Sapiro, Jean-Laurent Sasportes, Mark Sieczkarek, Julie Ann Stanzak, Mark Alan Wilson, and others.

Duration: 2 hours

Dance-opera by Pina Bausch
Music Christoph Willibald Gluck

Musical Direction Janos Kulka
Director and Choreographer Pina Bausch
Collaboration Hans Pop
Set and Costume Design Light Rolf Borzik
Choirs Werner Wilke
Technical Direction Rolf Bachmann

Love
Orpheus
Singer Lois White
Dancer Dominique Mercy

Death
Eurydice
Singer Ingeborg Krüger
Dancer Malou Airaudo

Youth
Armor
Singer Elena Bajew
Dancer Vivienne Newport / Marlis Alt

Grief
Marlis Alt, Pedro Mascarello Bisch, Hiltrud Blanck, Tjitske Broersma? Sue Cooper, Michael Diekamp, Laszlo Fenyves, Colleen Finneran, Lajos Horvath, Margaret Huggenberger, Stephanie Macoun, Yolanda Meier, Jean Mindo (Jan Minarik), Vivienne Newport, Barbara Passow, Monika Wacker, Barry Wilkinson;

Power
Marlis Alt, Pedro Mascarello Bisch, Hiltrud Blanck, Tjitske Broersma?, Sue Cooper, Michael Diekamp, Laszlo Fenyves, Colleen Finneran, Margaret Huggenberger, Stephanie Macoun, Yolanda Meier, Jean Mindo (Jan Minarik), Vivienne Newport, Barbara Passow, Heinz Samm, Monika Wacker

Peace
Marlis Alt, Pedro Mascarello Bisch, Hiltrud Blanck, Tjitske Broersma , Sue Cooper, Michael Diekamp, Laszlo, Fenyves, Colleen Finneran, Lajos Horvath, Margaret Huggenberger, Stephani Macoun , Yolanda Meier, Jean Mindo (Jan Minarik), Vivienne Newport, Barbara Passow, Monika Sagon, Heinz Samm, Monika Wacker, Barry Wilkinson

Dying
Marlis Alt, Pedro Bisch, Hiltrud Blanck, Tjitske Broersma?, Sue Cooper, Michael Diekamp, Laszlo Fenyves, Colleen Fin neran, Lajos Horvath, Margaret Huggenberger, Stephanie Macoun, Yolanda Meier, Jean Mindo (Jan Minarik), Vivienne Newport, Barbara Passow, Heinz Samm, Monika Wacker, Barry Wilkinson

Premiere 23 Mai 1975 Opera House Wuppertal

International engagements /Tours
1993 Paris; 1994 Genoa; 2008 Epidaure; Düsseldorf

Hail the New Puritan (1985-6)

1985-86, 84:47 min, color, sound

Exhuberant and witty, Hail the New Puritan is a simulated day-in-the-life "docufantasy" starring the British dance celebrity Michael Clark. Atlas' fictive portrait of the charismatic choreographer serves as a vivid invocation of the studied decadence of the 1980s post-punk London subculture. Contriving a faux cinema-verite format in which to stage his stylized fiction, Atlas seamlessly integrates Clark's extraordinary dance performances into the docu-narrative flow. Focusing on Clark's flamboyantly postured eroticism and the artifice of his provocative balletic performances, Atlas posits the dance as a physical manifestation of Clark's psychology. From the surreal opening dream sequence to the final solo dance, Clark's milieu of fashion, clubs and music signifies for Atlas "a time capsule of a certain period and context in London that's now gone."

Director/Editor: Charles Atlas. Choreography: Michael Clark. Dancers: Gaby Agis, Leslie Bryant, Michael Clark, Matthew Hawkins, Julie Hood, Ellen van Schuylenburch. Music: Glenn Branca, The Fall, Bruce Gilbert, Jeffrey Hinton. Camera: John Simmons. Producer: Jolyon Wimhurst. -- EAI 

This title is available for exhibitions, screenings, and institutional use through Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), NY. Please visit the EAI Online Catalogue for further information about this artist and work. The EAI site offers extensive resources for curators, students, artists and educators, including: an in-depth guide to exhibiting, collecting, and preserving media art; A Kinetic History: The EAI Archives Online, a collection of essays, primary documents, and media charting EAI's 40-year history and the early years of the emergent video art scene; and expanded contextual and educational materials.

La prestigiosa coreógrafa y directora alemana  llega a la Sala Gran con un nuevo reto: traducir sobre el escenario una de las primeras grandes óperas de la historia, Dido & Aeneas, de Henry Purcell, y dotarla de coreografía.

La obra supone uno de los puntos álgidos del Barroco inglés y recrea la trágica historia de amor entre Dido, reina de Cartago, y Eneas, príncipe troyano que el poeta Virgilio describió en su Eneida. El aria When I am Laid in Earth, lamento de Dido después de la marcha de Eneas, está considerada uno de los grandes momentos operísticos de la historia, y ha sido cantada por numerosas voces, como por ejemplo, Victòria dels Àngels.
Dido & Aeneas fue estrenada en 1689 por un coreógrafo y bailarín en la antigua población de Chelsea, en Londres, en una época en que las óperas se caracterizaban tanto por la danza como por sus arias. Sasha Waltz, una de las coreógrafas más innovadoras del panorama europeo, vuelve a tratar esta idea en Dido & Aeneas, y con su investigación sobre los cuerpos aporta un nuevo aire a la ópera de Purcell para presentarnos una miríada de momentos y de imágenes inolvidables.

La trilogía Cursive, Cursive II y Wild Cursive fue dirigida por el coreógrafo Lin Hwai-min, quien nació en Taiwán, en 1947. Es nieto de calígrafos de una burguesía alta, hijo de padres educados en universidades norteamericanas- es coreógrafo, bailarín, escritor, director artístico, estudioso de la opera china y budista practicante. Estudió danza clásica en Japón y Korea y danza moderna en Nueva Cork con Martha Graham y Merce Cunningham, convirtiéndose en un pionero de la danza contemporánea en Asia, su labor en su ámbito ha sido comparada con el trabajo de “deconstrucción” del ballet clásico efectuada por William Forsythe. Tras una primera época más apegada a la estética y la narratividad tradicionales (suntuosos trajes de seda, dramatismo de ópera china, adaptación de cuentos y novelas populares) Lin ha evolucionado hacia un lenguaje despojado, minimalista, espiritual, de gran belleza.

Su lenguaje coreográfico implica una verdadera fusión entre la tradición asiática y la danza contemporánea.

El y su compañía, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, son admirados en el Lejano Oriente y en diversos países occidentales. Es fundador, director y coreógrafo de la compañía Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, que proviene de una antiquísima danza ritual china. Lin Hwai-Min la fundó en 1973, al regresar a su tierra luego de permanecer unos años en EEUU, creando un estilo propio de danza.

La danza en Taiwán estaba sumergida bajo un preconcepto referido a la breve extensión de las piernas de los taiwaneses. Lin Hwai-Min diría al respecto: "La danza es una forma artística relacionada con la mente, ¿por qué no podemos danzar?”