DD Dorvillier / human future dance corps Danza Permanente
17 & 18/01/2014 – 20:30 – Kaaitheater Dance • 60 min. Extra: Join us for the post-performancetalk with DD Dorvillier and Karlien Vanhoonacker on 17/01
CREDITS From the score of Ludwig Van Beethoven's String Quartet #15, in A Minor, Op. 132, "Heiliger Dankgesang" I Assai sostentuto II. Allegro ma non tanto III. Molto adagio "Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit in der lydischen Tonart." IV. Alla Marcia, assai vivace V. Allegro appassionato Violino - Naiara Mendioroz and Fabian Barba Viola – DD Dorvillier Violoncello - Walter Dundervill With the voices of Heike Liss, Jonathan Bepler and Carla Kihlstedt choreography and concept DD Dorvillier acoustic environment, musical direction and analysis Zeena Parkins created with Fabian Barba, Nuno Bizarro, Walter Dundervill, Naiara Mendioroz performers Fabian Barba, DD Dorvillier, Walter Dundervill, Naiara Mendioroz artistic advisor/rehearsal ass. Heather Kravas lighting design Thomas Dunn costumes Michelle Amet technical director Jeff Englander sound guru Sébastien Roux project manager Milka Djordjevich European management Colin Pitrat production human future dance corps co-production/commission Rencontres chorégraphiques Seine-St. Denis (Bagnolet), The Kitchen (New York), French
Institute Alliance Française (FIAF), Crossing the Line Festival (New York), STUK Kunstencentrum (Leuven), Centre National de Danse Contemporaine (Angers), PACT Zollverein (Essen) major production support from The MAP Fund, primarily funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, with additional support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; from FUSED (French-US Exchange in Dance), a program of the National Dance Project/New England Foundation for the Arts, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in New York, and FACE (French American Cultural Exchange) with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Florence Gould Foundation, and through a fellowship in choreography from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. created during residencies at STUK, PACT, Performing Arts Forum, and CNDC Angers, and supported by the Menagerie de Verre, Paris in the frame of studiolabs, as well as the studios at the Centre National de la Danse in Pantin, France. The NYC performances are made possible in part with public funds from the Manhattan Community Arts Fund, supported by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and with public funds from the Fund for Creative Communities, supported by New York State Council on the Arts and administered by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. The piece would not have been possible to make and would not exist were it not for these beautiful people, called, among many other titles, dancers: Fabian Barba, Nuno Bizarro, Heather Kravas, Naiara Mendioroz, and Walter Dundervill. I would like to further acknowldge my incredible partners on this amazing ride: Zeena Parkins, Thomas Dunn, Sébastien Roux, Milka Djordjevich, Jeff Englander, Michelle Amet, and Colin Pitrat.
DANZA PERMANENTE NL - De choreografie van Danza Permanente werd twee eeuwen geleden geschreven in Wenen door een bijna dove man, Beethoven. De partituur was oorspronkelijk gecomponeerd voor vier snaarinstrumenten maar wordt in Danza Permanente omgezet tot een choreografie voor vier dansers. Zij belichamen de muzikale structuur, het gedrag, de dynamiek en de emoties, zij gedragen zich als geluid en visualiseren de muziek. Elke danser volgt ‘zijn’ instrument uit het Strijkkwartet nr 15 in la-klein. Zij stellen voor om naar de voorstelling te kijken met dezelfde bijna-stilte als wanneer je naar muziek luistert in een halfdonkere kamer. De partituur werd omgezet door choreografe DD Dorvillier en musicus Zeena Parkins, beiden uit New York, in samenwerking met de dansers Fabián Barba, Nuno Bizarro, Walter Dundervill en Naiara Mendioroz. De akoestische omgeving van Zeena Parkins en het lichtontwerp van Thomas Dunn volgen de partituur en kaderen deze visuele muziek.
FR - La chorégraphie de Danza Permanente a été écrite il y a deux siècles à Vienne, par un homme quasi sourd, Beethoven. À l’origine, la partition était destinée à quatre instruments à cordes, mais dans Danza Permanente elle est transposée en chorégraphie pour quatre danseurs. Ceux-ci incarnent la structure musicale, la conduite, la dynamique et les émotions ; ils agissent comme le son et visualisent la musique. Chaque danseur suit « son » instrument du Quatuor à cordes n° 15 en la mineur. Ils proposent de regarder le spectacle dans le même silence que celui qui régnerait dans une pièce à l’éclairage tamisé où l’on écouterait cette musique. La chorégraphe DD Dorvillier et la musicienne Zeena Parkins ont transposé la partition en collaboration avec les danseurs Fabian Barba, Nuno Bizarro, Walter Dundervill et Naiara Mendioroz. L’environnement acoustique de Zeena Parkins et la conception lumière de Thomas Dunn suivent la partition et cadrent cette musique visuelle.
EN - The choreography of Danza Permanente comes from a musical composition created in Vienna two centuries ago by a deaf man, Beethoven. In this new work, the score is transposed into movement for four dancers, each taking the part of a single instrument. They embody the musical structure and dynamics of the string quartet, behaving as sound, in silence. The transposition is by choreographer DD Dorvillier and composer Zeena Parkins, with dancers Fabian Barba, Nuno Bizarro, Walter Dundervill, Naiara Mendioroz, and rehearsal assistant Heather Kravas. The lighting design by Thomas Dunn and the acoustic environment by Zeena Parkins follow the score, framing the silence and the dance.
DANZA PERMANENTE DRIJFT OP STILTE Ive Stevenheydens in Agenda/Brussel Deze Week – 16/01/2014 In Danza Permanente beelden vier dansers een laat strijkkwartet van Beethoven lichamelijk uit. Niets ongewoons? De choreografe DD Dorvillier vervangt de originele muziek door stilte en een compositie van de beroemde harpiste Zeena Parkins. DD Dorvillier, geboren in Puerto Rico en wonend in New York, begeeft zich met Danza Permanente in de voetsporen van Merce Cunningham en Twyla Tharp. Decennia geleden schreven zij al choreografieën op muziek die het publiek bij de uitvoering niet horen mocht. Dorvillier: “Ik koos voor Beethovens vijftiende strijkkwartet (Opus 132 in A minor of het Heiliger Dankgesang, IS). Niet enkel omdat die partituur diep ontroert. Het is ook muziek die denkt, geluid dat zelf emoties lijkt te beleven. Mijn werk als choreografe sluit aan bij de Amerikaanse minimal art uit de jaren 1970. Met Danza Permanente wilde ik vorm, structuur en emotie uit elkaar halen om ze afzonderlijk naar lichaam en beweging te vertalen.” De voorstelling kwam tot stand in nauw overleg met de dansers Fabián Barba, Nuno Bizarro, Walter Dundervill en Naiara Mendioroz. Dorvillier: “We zijn dansers, geen machines, en worstelden dus enorm met de door onszelf opgelegde taak. Dat aspect komt ook in de voorstelling bovendrijven. Zo lag in het begin alles open: voor elke noot was elk mogelijke beweging een optie. Het eerste deel van de partituur viel het zwaarste uit. Het kostte bijvoorbeeld drie weken om drie pagina’s te vertalen. In een reeks van intensieve residentieperiodes in Frankrijk en België vonden we de sleutel, een modus operandi. Zeena Parkins, met wie ik voor een tweede keer samenwerkte, droeg in grote mate aan dat vocabularium bij. Meer dan louter de nieuwe muziek aan te leveren – een spaarzame soundscape – nam ze ook verregaande choreografische beslissingen. Bijgevolg schuilt er ook veel stilte in de voorstelling of speelt het voetengeschuifel van de dansers een muzikale rol.” Knipogen Danza Permanente werd een erg fysieke en intense choreografie. “We wilden op de meest eenvoudige, directe manier de muziek zichtbaar maken,” zegt Dorvillier. “Hoewel lichamen dus strijkinstrumenten werden, draaide de dans heel anders dan verwacht uit. Bewegingen mogen wel zacht en ingehouden lijken, de dans is enorm veeleisend en uitputtend. Alle vier – in Brussel vervang ik Nuno Bizarro die van een blessure herstelt – moeten we non-stop een uur dansen en springen. De voorstelling bevat ook heel wat knipogen. Onze kostuums, kleurige hemden en shorts, hebben iets vrolijks en kinderlijks. Praktisch zijn ze overigens ook: in lange broek zouden we al na tien minuten in het zweet baden. Het lichtontwerp van Thomas Dunn biedt ook een kwinkslag. Zo staat een bepaalde lamp voor de eerste viool of lichten de gordijnen in een warme gloed op wanneer de emoties in Beethovens strijkkwartet toenemen. Maar die muziek krijg je dus niet te horen. Wij willen immers niet zo maar een mooi dansmoment met Beethoven bieden. We trachten aan te tonen hoeveel muzikaliteit er schuilt in pure dans – en vice versa.”
NOTES ON DANZA PERMANENTE Danza Permanente is a transposition of Beethoven’s String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 132, into movement for four dancers, each dancer taking the part of an instrument line. I wanted to investigate how music functions in relation to feelingness and thought, how it produces meaning and a sense of drama through its structure. I wanted to adopt operations that are from the domain of music, without producing more music to hear. Though making the music visible was the goal that produced our process, ultimately this was not the result, and that is a good thing. What was produced in the effort became a third and more interesting thing—not the original, not the replica, but a new dance, with an unusual set of tensions and ways of relating between dancers. The piece has become about labor: the labor of the dancer, the interpreter, the translator, the organizer—all roles that at some point a choreographer also takes on. The performers operate in a zone where they fluctuate between captivating the viewer with their individual presences and captivating the viewer through their concentration and the complexity of the forms and patterns they move through space in time together. They are on an edge—they are very self-aware but also need to relinquish being alone. This is their intelligence and their grace. The most powerful experience I have is when they are on this edge—when they are being very present but moving forward together without turning back. Once a move is made, it’s done—it has been seen, it’s over, there’s no sense in turning back, which would make the dance that is the music stop. But it’s not about momentum, necessarily. They could and might stop, but don’t. They decide to go forward, and this has to happen as an ensemble. One gets a sense of willfulness, of labor, rather than the illusion of momentum where something bigger is propelling the dance forward. These questions were significant in the dance’s development: Where does the energy come from? How is it that we are, or don’t manage to be, together? I would like to go further in exploring the distance between the self and the figure that one becomes while dancing for an audience. What happens to the shape of a person? How is the figure reinvented, distorted, and seen again? How is this related to the way we look and what we see, in the theater and outside of it? The way that music relates to perception is unique to music alone, yet there are operations in music—between relations of dynamics, rhythm, and pitch—that we are working on transposing in both abstract and representational ways. There are also musical operations between instruments and between musicians that we adopt as well. So the dancers operate as musicians, but have the added difference that they are the dance. In Danza Permanente the first thing you see is four dancers, their bodies, and the colors of their clothing. It is visual. There will always be the visible actual presence of the dancers to contend with, no matter how musical the structure of this dance is, because without it, there is no dance. Whatever the dancer gives off as visual information—in effect, as their own instrument—this will color some kind of meaning. Gender, age, energy level, perceivable differences in training, effort, etc.: This all creates its own regime of significance, regardless of Beethoven’s structure, or I should say, this aspect is part of the structure of the transposed work. In fact, I think that it’s the very presence of these nonmusical variables that makes the absolute difference and kinship between music and dance visible. There is a texture of realness and artificiality at the same time, which makes it possible to get involved with an idea, as much as with a dance, and maybe even reflect a bit on musicality in so doing. As told to Samara Davis. Published on www.artforum.com on 25/09/2012.
UTOPIAN SYNESTHESIA DD Dorvillier in conversation with Jennifer Lacey on Danza Permanente Could you explain the system you use to make Danza Permanente? It’s the score of a string quartet, “Opus 132 in A minor” by Beethoven. It has five movements, and a long, slow adagio in the center of piece. Each movement we made differently; basic strategies had to do with reducing the melodic and rhythmic content to a series of themes or generic phrases. Some of it is so self-evident- there is a melody, which repeats in variations through the whole first movement, in a different key or something, so we reduced it to a theme. There would be a phrase of dance that would go along with that theme, note-by-note to try to embody that theme. And of course its totally subjective, the way that we made choices about the shapes of the movements and the way they were organized in space had to do with reading the music, hearing it played, our own references, what it made you feel like, how it made you feel like moving… Sometimes it was based on how the notes were moving: low to high, rhythm unfolding or something was in unison. Each of the different movements we found different strategies to translate. You have this scientific approach but there’s a lot of subjectivity present, the work relies on it, and is strengthened by it. Did you all needed to agree on a method or was there immediately a respect for the obscurity of individual interpretations? We agreed on the theme but sometimes people had to do certain interpretations, so some people solved that first note by stepping to the left and some solved it by bending a knee. There were some places where people solved those kinds of problems in different ways and we decided that this is inherent to that instrument. So they were responsible for an internal consistency, for their own instrument in the dance. When you were first making the material, there wasn’t just the relationship to the theme in the music but a relationship to words and to concepts. The first four notes, first eight measures are a series of four notes that are kind of played back and forth between four instruments. They progress from low note to high note and vice versa. We listened to it as just four notes in a row; it had a kind of meaning or a kind of “feelingness” to it. When we were in Seattle, we listened to the loop over and over, and we moved with the eyes closed, videotaping each other for 20-minute sessions. Many things happened. Knowing that we were trying to find something consistent so that we could make the patterns in the music visible and finally in that whole work it seemed like it was about a whole life, about evolution or a cycle or this kind of underpinning of life. Then in the musical analysis of the string quartet with Zeena [Parkins], there was a lot of language about these 4 notes as the base of the 1st movement; they function as this renaissance motet, they gave substance to the thing. The choreography is well made, but the satisfying-ness of it was in the engagement, in the discussion of what the dancers were doing while they were doing it and at the same time the difficulty; it didn’t look like they were struggling at all, but I could appreciate that they were working. And working with pleasure. I think that’s the key. Sometimes I’ll wonder “did I make this piece just to see people work?” That’s not why I made the piece, and what I enjoy is not even the prowess of their memory, in the movement itself there isn’t much virtuosity, so what we’re left with is the excellence of their concentration and their joy as you say, the joy that comes from them.
Why make music visible? DD: I’m challenging myself now with this concept of making music visible because it’s with a wink and a nod. Making music visible is kind of a utopic promise. I say ‘utopic’ because if I’m saying that we can make the music visible that means there’s no difference between music and dance, but in fact it’s the difference between music and dance that makes life so interesting. You do have a tendency of these unwieldy blocky concepts that exist in the world and that influence people and ourselves, and you tend to go at them as a screen for activity. I think probably one of my modes of expression is obsessive-ness, and I’m very attracted to work that’s obsessive or extremely detailed. I’m actually really interested not in detail to produce beauty, but in detail for the sake of detail itself, which can be boring and dangerous. When you engage with that with other people it’s like you’re making a tapestry together. You need to put all that energy into all the details that go into just preparing the threads, and then you have that loom; everything has to be scheduled and negotiated. Used by permission of Movement Research. This interview was originally published on Critical Correspondence on www.movementresearch.org/criticalcorrespondence.
DD DORVILLIER Born in Puerto Rico, 1967, choreographer and performer DD Dorvillier has been developing her work and practice in New York City since 1989. In 2010 she moved to France and has continued to elaborate her work internationally. Through her original contemporary works DD Dorvillier has always challenged pre-established definitions, including her own, of dance and choreography. By building works through physical and philosophical approaches Dorvillier addresses issues of spectatorship, translation, and meaningfulness, in a playful yet urgent manner. She has received Bessie Awards for choreography (Dressed for Floating 2003) and performance (Parades & Changes, replays 2010). In 1991 she and dancer/choreographer Jennifer Monson created the Matzoh Factory in Brooklyn New York. For over a decade the studio was a grassroots site for wild experimentation where choreographers and artists congregated. She has worked with: Jennifer Monson, Zeena Parkins, Jennifer Lacey, Yvonne Meier, and Sarah Michelson, among others. She has been an MR Artist in Residence, curator of the MR Festival, and co-editor the MR Performance Journals “Release”. With her company human future dance corps Dorvillier has been presented and commissioned in New York by PS 122, The Kitchen, New York Live Arts, Danspace Project, and Movement Research, among others, with residencies at New York Live Arts, Movement Research, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and MANCC in Tallahassee Florida. Her work has been supported by The Rockefeller Foundation MAP Fund, Creative Capital, Live Music for Dance, James E. Robison Foundation, The Jerome Foundation, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York Foundation for the Arts. Dorvillier received The Foundation for Contemporary Arts Fellowship in 2007, The Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in 2009, and most recently, the Doris Duke Artist Award in 2013.
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