This theme, which has crept gradually to the forefront, partly inspired the current variety in Dutch dance. The traditional search for an individual movement idiom, which dominated Dutch dancing for many years, has faded into the background. Dance is a perfect medium for working together and experimenting with other disciplines. Music and expressive art are inextricably intertwined with the development of the art of dance. But script has also become a must in the performances of many choreographers, whether spoken or projected onto a video screen.
Current affairs feature more prominently on the dance stage. Alongside universal themes such as human motivation, love and death, global developments and trends in image and popular culture are also translated into dance productions. Science appears to form an eternal source of inspiration for Dutch choreographers. They organize workshops, interview scientists or invite them to the studio in preparation for a creative process. The relationship between dance and music still works like a magnet to choreographers. Many dance-makers have a great liking for working with live musicians on stage.
But the audiences have probably been given the biggest role in today’s dance world. It is striking how important spectators have become. This is an area in which Dutch dance-makers do not shy away from their relationship with the audience. Some choreographers try to get into the minds of the public, while others place the audience on the set or invite members of the public to take part. Dancers make witty comments or seduce the audience into self-reflection by means of subtle insinuations. Whatever choreographers decide in this respect, the fact remains that the aloof image of Dutch dance has been shaken off and many makers now aspire to direct contact with their audience.
Audiences in the spotlight
In their production Theriak, Leine & Roebana invite members of the audience to take part in a mini-choreography featuring the basic principles of time, space and movement. The makers have moved away from pure, abstract dancing in favour of incorporating more emotion into their work. They created Theriak, a production about human powerlessness, together with the harpist Lavinia Meijer. A courageous combination in which the normally sweet sounds of the instrument made way for experiments with music styles and a screwdriver.
At the beginning of the production Poetic Disasters by Club Guy & Roni, a dancer addresses the audience, sketching various situations designed to make them fear the worst. Choreographers Weizman and Haver used this chaos theory as the basis for a production in which they tried to capture chaos and disaster in the form of poetry. The fact that the promises made by the narrator are not kept is of a lower order; the audience has been primed.
Up-and-coming talent Pere Faura has made two refreshing productions; This is a picture of a person I don’t know and Striptease, in which he cleverly and wittily dismembers the conditions and codes of performance. He too leads the audience a merry dance. He secretly films their reactions, which are then enlarged and analyzed in detail.
For many years, Keren Levi has been creating highly physical productions in which she explores the relationship with her audiences. Her production Territory (2004) was awarded the BNG Prize for new theatre makers. She used her prize money to produce last season’s The Prize Piece, which is about the painful ambiguity of living in a world without room for doubt. Levi uses this quandary to play with her audience, whom she forces to make choices such as at the end of the performance when the performers sing, leaving no time left for applause. Should they leave the auditorium or should they stay?
This direct approach is typical of the Dutch dance world. Makers including André Gingras, Anouk van Dijk and Dylan Newcomb also enjoy experimenting with this aspect.
Audience perception is at the crux of the powerful statement made by Ivana Müller (LISA) in the production While we were holding it together. With the exception of a few sporadic changes of attitude and positioning during the black-outs, the performers maintain their stance for almost the entire performance. In this tableau vivant, they tell snippets of stories which, when repeated and linked to other fragments or put into another context, take on a whole new meaning. But the audience has to keep asking itself what is going on. Despite the lack of movement on stage, all kinds of scenarios race through their minds. The sounds echoing around the auditorium remind them of other places. And the action is so palpable that after a while, it is difficult to believe that no-one has actually moved.
Müller trained at the School for New Dance Development in Amsterdam, which has also been home to many an interesting newcomer on the dance scene, including Pere Faura. These makers explore the boundaries of dance, often by commenting on the art of dance itself. For example, Andrea Bozic used the film Blow-Up by Michelangelo Antonioni as the starting point for Still Life with Man and Woman, in which she ingeniously intertwines video footage with live performance. In her production, repetition (in this case repetition of movement fragments) is one of the pillars of her narrative. Bozic allows her audience to analyze the medium of performance from the film perspective.
Sometimes the vagueness of the boundaries between various forms of theatre makes it impossible to classify the makers into any one category. This is why Andrea Bozic and the collective LISA appear in part 1 of The Dutch on tour under movement theatre, and in part II under dance.
Intensity of movement
Bruno Listopad is a dance-maker who allows himself to be influenced by theoretical concepts. He explores ways of enhancing the intensity of the performance. Listopad craves authenticity on stage; the dancers’ movements must be inherent to their inner drive, uniting thought and action like the brush marks of an artist on the canvas. In the production erva daninha (which is Portuguese for weeds), Listopad demonstrates the invincible and tenacious power of art which, like weeds, refuses to be halted or restricted in its development.
Enhancing performance intensity is a subject that intrigues many dance-makers. Club Guy & Roni’s work is also characterized by powerful, compelling dancing.
Ann Van den Broek developed a movement language that emphasizes the intensity of movement. Her productions revolve around the psychological processes that drive human motivation and instincts. Her performance Co(te)lette (2007) is about women’s urge and hunger for physical and mental satisfaction. An insatiable hunger, emanating from sexual desire or ambition, discharges from the bodies of the three dancers who shiver and shake with no prospect of relief.
Following on from Bacon, Nanine Linning examined the instincts, urges and emotions of mankind. In Cry Love, the audience was led to their seats through the scenery, ducking between dancers hanging up by their feet. The struggle facing mankind was depicted through a haze of video images projected onto a transparent screen.
In The Autopsy Project, André Gingras uses powerful imagery and movement to show how control of the human body manifests itself in both science and day-to-day life. An anatomical study on the dissection table, spectacular leaps from scaffolding and stills of naked bodies randomly distributed among the scenery as if in the aftermath of a bomb, illustrate his point of view. But control of the body is most evident in the dynamic, seemingly nonchalant dance scenes performed with impressive virtuosity.
During the past decades, Dutch dance has been put on the international map by a flock of headstrong, innovative dance-makers who enjoy exploring (and exceeding) the boundaries. The boundaries of the human body. The boundaries of the theatre auditorium and the place of the audience during a performance. The boundaries between dance and theatre, and far beyond: between their own discipline and other art disciplines, such as music, expressive art and video. And last but not least, the national boundaries. The Netherlands has become a place where dance talent from every corner of the world comes together to create exciting new dance, which can then be taken back to the furthest reaches of the world.
Marcelle Schots
