playful performance

This is an introduction I was asked to make for the performance Beginning, Middle, End by Andrea Bozic, Julia Willms, Madalina Dan and Michael Pinchbeck. In November 2008 Michael asked me as a dramaturge for his part of a performance: End. End was only to be one third of the whole performance and while reading the proposal that was send to Springdance I wondered how I could ever be a dramaturge for only this part…

After last year’s Dialogue (this years Europe in Motion) Springdance commissioned for a collaboration by three former participants from three different countries to make a performance for this year’s festival.
Andrea, Madalina and Michael decided to propose a performance, which would both allow collaboration and autonomy. The title of this performance, Beginning, Middle, End, refers both to the structure and concept of the work and to the structure of the working process.

The working process of six weeks was preceded by virtual contact in which the idea was worked out. There were three periods with actual contact: 4 days in March (beginning), 4 days in April (middle) and 4 days in this week (end). In these week they were showing each other what they have been working on and figuring out how these three parts fit together to form one performance. The remaining time each maker worked on his or her own part. But they kept looking to each other’s parts, via skype and live. This looking played an important part in the process.
The three parts were allocated alphabetically: Andrea Bozic asked her long time collaborator Julia Willms to work together to make Beginning, Madalina Dan worked on Middle and Michael Pinchbeck worked on End.

So this performance started out of 3 words, both as form and content: beginning, middle and end. The question is what it means to have such a structure for both the making process and the performance you’ll see tonight. Next to collaboration and autonomy this structure also provided content. What is beginning? What is ending? What is it like to be in the middle? And how do a beginning, a middle and an end relate and interact?

In the end this last question is perhaps the question I was thinking of as a problem in the beginning while reading the proposal. Now I would rather see it as a challenging idea to work from rather then a question that needs to be answered. I would like to end my introduction with the following quote, which can be seen as a starting point for this collaboration:

Every moment has a beginning, middle and end, then dialogue will have meaning.
(http://www.abwag.com/beginning_middle_end.htm)

I wish you a pleasant performance.

My press kit inside the artist goodie-bag I got yesterday seems to represent my split personality during Springdance. On the one hand I am being the objective journalist, writing my columns about the programme, atmosphere and side programme. On the other hand I am the dramaturge for Michael Pinchbeck’s End. Considered an artist, at least according to the batch I received with my goodie-bag, I morphed into another person in a split second. And is it not the task of the artist to present a subjective perspective on this world?

Of course two issues come to mind straight away. Can I be objective whilst being commissioned by Springdance to write about Springdance? How can I be critical about my own commissioner? The other issue is the question what it is to be a dramaturge. Does my subjective view matter for the artist I am working with? Or should I be able to objectify my own perspective on the performance. Should I try to represent the audience that will come and see the show?
In the end I prefer to mix up a clear subjective view with some elements, which I think are more objective. I try to use this approach in my writing, my research and my dramaturgical practice. Alternating in describing the subject matter and my own position in relation to that.

I can’t help thinking of Simon Ellis’s Down (working title). Ellis, one of the participants in Europe in Motion, not only presented his solo performance, he also provided the context of this performance. From the introduction, where I imagined myself in his place, having just introduced Beginning Middle, End myself an hour earlier, to the reviews, audience reactions and even the specifications for touring.

As an artist Ellis took the liberty to be lecturer, choreographer, dancer, critic, audience and PR assistant in one. Criticising both dance and the dance community, he shows, as the devil’s advocate, the ‘like knows like’ existence of this dance community. He left his audience powerless. Everything was already said. Interesting enough Ellis manages to represent several of my positions during Springdance & performance festival. And by doing this he got me thinking about my position(s) in this community.

In a way Ellis covers himself against any criticism from others, wrapping his entire performance. I could write a review on Beginning, Middle, End today…

Beginning, Middle, End by Andrea Bozic, Julia Willms, Madalina Dan and Michael Pinchbeck tonight (April 23), 19.00h in Theater Kikker.
More Europe in Motion: April 23 and 24, 20.30h in Theater Kikker.

In maart 2009 zijn Joris Weijdom en ik een dialoog gestart over onze onderzoeken. Joris Weijdom is hoofd van de onderzoeksgroep Virtueel Theater aan de HKU en een van de onderzoekers van het Lectoraat Theatrale Maakprocessen. Verder is hij werkzaam als docent aan de opleiding Design for Virtual Theatre and Games. Het onderzoekvan de onderzoeksgroep Virtueel Theater richt zich op twee vragen namelijk:

1. Wat is de invloed van interactieve technologie op de repetitiefase van een theatraal maakproces?
2. Welke eigenschappen zijn belangrijk in het ontwerp van de interface van de interactieve technologie die wordt ingezet in een repetitiefase?

Voor meer informatie over zijn onderzoek bezoek talltreelabs.org.

Deze correspondentie heeft mij geholpen in de laatste fase van mijn afstudeeronderzoek en op dit moment leg ik de laatste hand aan mijn scriptie theaterwetenschap. Na afrondingen van mijn scriptie zal ik dit onderzoek voortzetten en mijn analysemethode toepassen op enkele maakprocessen in 2009 en 2010.

Door middel van videoboodschappen van zijn kant en brieven van mijn kant Middels hopen weinzicht te krijgen in de kennis van de ander met betrekking tot transdisciplinaire maakprocessen en in het bijzonder het gebruik van interactieve digitale technologie in het maakproces (repetitieproces) van theater. Trefwoorden: ANT (actor‐netwerk theorie), objectgeoriënteerd denken, theater, technologie, transdiscipline, maakproces, VUE.

Deze correspondentie is te volgen: onderzoeksdialoog

Written for Springdance

Next year Bettina Masuch will do her speech in Dutch, she promises just before the world première of Jérôme Bel’s Lutz Förster. I’m not sure if that is the best choice if your want to get your message across in such an international festival, I’m writing in English for a reason, but it is a nice gesture.

Enter Lutz Förster. A personality, that’s for sure. The peaceful and gentle way of walking to a chair in the wings, and back with the chair, onto the stage, tells me that already. Bel gave Förster the opportunity to tell his professional life’s story on stage to an audience. And Förster likes to talk. He discovered that early in his professional life when he danced and talked in one of many performances by Pina Bausch. His talking in this biography is only now and then alternated with short dance scenes.

Förster doesn’t get too personal, he doesn’t do too much. He is just there, taking some of the viewers back in time and presenting others a short lesson in dance history. I must admit I belong in the second category. My knowledge of Förster’s work was close to nothing. And I had a good time, I wasn’t bored for a minute, I laughed, admired, enjoyed. But I do wonder, as did others, what Bel’s role was. In Pichet Klunchun and Myself the dialogue between Klunchun and Bel was brilliantly staged. They challenged each other, and the audience, to rethink the history and the aesthetics of dance. The performance <i>Lutz Förster</i> is only about and with Lutz Förster. Where is the other? Where is the mirror to reflect? Reflect both movements and words, both history and present? Let’s leave it at that question.

Springdance’s slogan is ‘A look back into the future’. Lutz Förster gave me ‘a look back’. If I want, I can now go ‘into the future’. This weekend is a weekend for new style; contemporary and modern dance, hip hop, flamenco, butoh and street dance.

Written for Springdance

The opening day of Springdance &amp; performance festival: It is hot, tight and rather oppressive in the narrow and long hallway of the Centraal Museum. Journalists, dancers, choreographers and others are waiting for the opening of Choreographic Objects by William Forsythe. There’s hardly any space to move so I start to feel like an object myself. I’m being moved by others; someone tells me to remove my bag, and yet someone else pushes me aside gently to get by.

Finally Bettina Masuch takes the microphone and opens with a rather short and brief speech the installation and the 25th edition of Springdance. She urges us to get involved and Forsythe himself stresses to put on the vests which read a short mirrored text. So there we go! To the mirrors, to see how we can manage to rearrange these mirrors in such a way that we can actually read what is written on our back.

But the fun is cruelly interrupted by the voice of Forsythe begging us not to move the mirrors because they were carefully ordered so we could not see ourselves, not even to mention the 14 hours of polishing that went into the work. I felt like a small child whose toys are taken away. I took off the vest and in a sulk I turned my back on the mirrors walking out into the sun. Only to slip back in again seconds later, to take a peek at the other pieces.

Written for Springdance Stage

Last Tuesday Europe In Motion started as a meeting between “total strangers”, as moderators Igor Dobricic and Nicole Beutler prescribed it. On Wednesday I enter this dialogue as yet another stranger. Simon Ellis, Rui Catalão and Tom Dale present their work today, based on the question “what is central to your work as a choreographer?”.
As mornings go it takes a while to get started. I notice that the atmosphere is comparable to last year’s sessions, with the ‘Romanians’ being late, the ‘British’ ready to get started and the ‘Dutch’ walking up and down between kitchen and the kleine zaal in Theater Kikker.

Read more »

Mijn tweede brief aan Joris is hier te lezen als pdf: Brief aan Joris02

Deze brief maakt onderdeel uit van een onderzoeksdialoog tussen Joris Weijdom en Jochem Naafs.

Currently I am working with Michael Pinchbeck, a Nottingham based writer, live artist and performance artist. Together with Andrea Bozic and Madalina Dan he makes the performance Beginning, Middle, End. The startingpoint is that every artist takes one part. Andrea takes Beginning together with Julia Willms, Madalina takes Middle and Michael takes End. Michael asked me for dramaturgical advise for his part. The performance will première at Springdance on April 22 and will also play on the 23rd.
For more information visit their blog.

Beginning, Middle, End – Andrea Bozic / Madalina Dan / Michael Pinchbeck
Three artists meet for the first time. They make a performance about the beginning, the middle and the end of an encounter. This is the beginning.

Andrea takes the beginning, Madalina takes the middle and Michael takes the end. The beginning is about a beginning, the middle is about a middle and the end is about an end. This is the middle.
They play with threes. Three dances. Three artists. Three countries. Three bears. Three ways to tell a story or to sing a song. Three in One. They make three entrances and three exits. This is the end.

Andrea Bozic (HR/NL), Madalina Dan (ROU) and Michael Pinchbeck (UK) took part in Springdance Dialogue 2008. They proposed Beginning Middle End for Springdance 2009 to enable both a collaboration and an important sense of autonomy. They identified many intersections in their work; shared interests in absence and presence; issues of embodiment and self-referentiality; fictionalising personal life and personalising fictional life. Beginning Middle End has been built around the artists’ presence and absence in each other’s creative processes. Interested in the connections between their practices and the space between their practices, the artists asked how they might inhabit each other’s work and exit their own.

Production credits:
Concept and performance: Andrea Bozic, Madalina Dan, Michael Pinchbeck
Live drawing (Beginning): Julia Willms
Dramaturgical advice (End): Jochem Naafs
Produced by the Springdance Festival (in co-production with Theater Frascati), financially supported by the Europe in Motion project.

For this years dance and performance festival Springdance launched a community website. Please join Springdance Stage and get in contact with dancers, choreographers, makers, journalists, other visitors et cetera. I will keep all visitors of Springdance (Stage) up to date with a number of columns I will write before, during and after the festival. But the website also features videos, pictures and reviews from both makers and visitors. And you are welcome to share your own expectations and experiences too.

Visit http://springdance.ning.com/ and join by hitting the sign up button!

De tweede brief van Joris Weijdom:

Het bijbehorende pdf document is hier te downloaden.

Deze brief maakt onderdeel uit van een onderzoeksdialoog tussen Joris Weijdom en Jochem Naafs.