On the edge of the fear with 'Phobia'

In duet the dancers Angela Herenda de Kroo and Camilo Chapela

I was waiting in the hall of the Schouwburg  Theatre of Arnhem and I knew that something mysterious was hidden behind the doors. I had the same sensation when I was in row to enter the house of horrors in an entertainment park.
Then the doors were finally open wide. I peeked a bit like a curious child. There were people among the seats but they were not just ‘people’, they were not part of the audience. They were actually the performers of ‘Phobia’. “They should be on the stage” I thought. Then I just went in and took my seat in the first row and knew that I didn’t have to wait for anything to start: the new Club Guy and Roni’s performance had already started. The company settled in Groningen knows how to surprise: this time the company collaborated with the Slovenian company EnKnapGroup and the result was a composition which was not made to deal with the stage only, but there was a lot of interaction with the audience. The stage was even not a stage anymore, it actually turned into an arena where strange people communicated by dancing and playing. Musicians of the Slagwerk Deen Hag were playing making original sounds with instruments in the form of skulls and other specific bones. The performers were spread through the whole space, and they were dressed differently from each other. 

A girl was slowly coming downstage when suddenly somebody put hands on her eyes. Unexpectedly the lights went off. Screams, laments, thunders. Everything collected in one word: fear. Through the text written by Bas Heijne and Martijn Rijk, the duo Club Guy and Roni chose to challenge the audience and lead it on the edge of the fear. In fact this was not only the theme of the performance, but it was also what the audience started to feel.
All the performers were fearing something. Indeed, an egg was the all performer’s fears container. They exchanged it carefully because they didn’t want it to break. Some of them even wore gloves while touching this egg. I found it really concrete: sometimes you go on preventing further impediments because you generally fear them, and you’re also scared to touch your own fears because they could overflow rapidly and trap you up.
The way of dancing was furious, intense, and the communication with the audience was constantly active.
The focus was based on the egg. The performer’s chance was thrown upon a table like dice, nobody could imagine what it would’ve happened if the egg had broken. It was like the forbidden fruit, and sometimes it can tempt you. Suddenly one of the girls threw the egg on the floor. The ‘Phobia’ spread in the theatre while the actress Veerle van Overloop started her monologue, and later she put gasoline on her body and asked for a lighter. Somebody from the audience gave her a lighter: the fire was on, the audience was on the edge of the fear, it was so quite in the theatre but I could hear my heartbeat. Then the lights switched off.
A  journey into the core of the fears, a path without any way out. Club Guy and Roni tried to make people seat in front of their own feares.
Did the company make it? Do you really want to know? Then just book your ticket and watch ‘Phobia’.

Choreography: Guy Weizman en Roni Haver
Composition: Hugo Morales en Pepe Garcia
Chef Music: Fedor Teunisse
Text / drammaturgy: Martijn de Rijk en Bas Heijne
Performers: Camilo Chapela, Angela Herenda de Kroo, Dunja Jocic, Veerle van Overloop, Adam Peterson, Luke Thomas Dunne, Ana Štefanec, Tamás Tuza, Ida Hellsten, Bence Mezei, Nik Rajšek
Musicians: Pepe Garcia, Niels Meliefste, Enric Monfort
Light: Wil Frikken
Sound: Martin J.A. Lambeek
Set design: Ascon de Nijs
Costume: Slavna Martinovic
Co production: Club Guy & Roni i.s.m. EN-KNAP en Slagwerk Den Haag. 

An evening with... Shechter - Nederlands Dans Theater

ENTERTAINING AND INSPIRING 

Choreographer: Hofesh Shechter
Choreography: Uprising
Date: April 11th 2014
City: Rotterdam
Theatre: Rotterdamse Schouwburg


By Ivar Draaisma



For the first time that I saw a choreography of Hofesh Shechter. and i liked it. his style and the whole design got me. the costumes, music, movement style. i really could identify myself with the whole piece.

Since this performance Shechter became a source of inspiration for me. I have been searching a lot of movement material of Shechter and hope to see more of his works in the future. 

His way of moving suits my way of moving, well,that is what i think. He uses a lot of organic movements. He shows that dance does not necessary need to express emotion. I as a dancer also think that you do not have to express emotion in dance. For Shechter, dance is nothing else but dance. And that appeals a lot to me.

In my solo, which I created in december 2014, I used Shechters pieces as a source of inspiration. Sometimes that was difficult because I only had some video's and it was too quick to keep up. But it was already special that there were video of this performance on the internet. So I sometimes went into the studio and practised with Shechter's movement material. It felt great and I am happy that I used it in my solo.

KAASH-Akram Kahn

Stadsschouwburg Groningen, 8 january 2016

Kaash

It is fourteen years ago (2002) that British-Bengali choreographer Akram Kahn came together with Composer Nitin Sawney and the world famous sculptor Anish Kapoor to make his first evening performance ‘Kaash’. The 55 minute during piece was an enormous succes. it became a favourite on the festivals around the world. 
Now fourteen year later the  Akram Kahn Company is back with a revised version of ‘Kaash’ with five new dancers

“Our new five-strong cast of international performers sheds another light and energy on the piece, focused on physicality and precision, that I believe still has all its relevance today.”

Akram Khan

the performance starts with one male dancer (Sung Hoon Kim) standing still on stage, dressed in a traditional black costume, facing the back wall with Anish Kapoor's big black rectangle. He stands for minutes and stays still when suddenly hell breaks lose.

Four female dancers (Kristina Alleyne, Sadé Alleyne, Nicola Monaco and Sarah Cerneaux) dance around him exhausting the audience in an ever changing chess game of geometrical patterns and lines, alternating between fast complex movements with al lot of the kathak influences, and complete statue like stillness.

'Kaash' is hindu and means 'What if'. that is what Kahn thought  when he started this collaboration with Kapoor and Sawney. what if we combine our imagination in one piece. Their inspiration filled
 piece with references to hindu mythology like shiva and his love life but also of physics  like the chaos theory and black holes. it's on the line between reality and illusion, Facts and myths.
One thing that comes back every time is a build up to a point where you can't take it anymore, where it gets important and then it drops again leaving the audience in silence.
Rehearsal director Yen-Ching Lin described it like:

You come to a point  and then you break it down to start over. The question is from which point you start over.

The intriguing music by Nitin Sawney with a lot of repetitive traditional rhythms and songs. and the artwork of Anish Kapoor with the dance  together make a complete art piece in which no one is more or les important. 

All together this reviewed version of 'Kaash' is a must see and an insuring journey.
You can still see it in holland, at the 17th of march in the Zuiderstrandtheater in The Hague.

Artistic Direction / Choreography Akram Khan
Composer Nitin Sawhney
Set Design Anish Kapoor
Lighting Design Aideen Malone
Costume Design Kimie Nakano
Additional Music ‘Spectre’ by John Oswald played by The Kronos Quartet

Voice Akram Khan, B C Manjunath
Sound Recording Bernhard Schimpelsberger

Producer Farooq Chaudhry

Revival for 5 dancers Performed by Kristina Alleyne, Sadé Alleyne, Sung Hoon Kim, Nicola Monaco, Sarah Cerneaux

Rehearsal Director Yen-Ching Lin
With the support of Eulalia Ayguade Farro, Moya Michael and Andrej Petrovic

Technical Director Richard Fagan
Technicians Alex Castro, Peter Swikker/Paul Moorhouse
Tour Manager Mashitah Omar

EXHAUSTING SPACE

“EXHAUSTING SPACE” By Iván Pérez

 

First thing I mentioned and remembered of the choreography Exhausting Space: floating, the dancers were floating over the stage. I still have to realize that they were not and it just looked like they were. So impressive and inspiring. Now I really want to know how they manage to float. I want to do it myself!

When walked in I noticed the placement of the public chairs. It was placed in a square, what means you were able to view the performance from a whole other perspective. I was happy that the piece gave me the change to! I took it and sit down right in front of the actual public (of the classic tribune), what gave me a special feeling. I felt like I was part of the performance now.

The (exhausted) space was influenced by black painted eggs, which formed lines which showed the barrier between the viewer and performer. Although this created the limit of the stage, you could not see this in the dancers movement. The quality of the movement was so soft that sometimes I thought when they would hit one of the eggs, or actually danced on them, they still would not break!

Once an egg felt down after throwing it a few times. I was confused. Does this belong to the piece? And then, why did they not gave this situation more time like the rest of the piece? Later on I discovered it fell down earlier than planned . Now I understood it and could get a message out of it: ‘’Although it looks like we fly, there is still gravity, we are still human.’’

I was really impressed by one of the three dancers Nina Botkay. She expressed her movement really close to her. But also you could notice she was aware of the dancers around her. Nothing seemed impossible for her to reach.

I was happy that I was able to talk with Iván Pérez after the dance. He told me: ‘I just really wanted to make a dance with good friends of mine.’ This I could see in the movement I saw one unity moving, it felt trusted and like the dancers where used to each other’s presence. And that is how I walked out of the theater, like I saw something where I was part of, part of the unity, like I also floated.

Written by Femke Verbeten

 

VIDEO

 

choreografie, concept, decor Iván Pérez | dans Nina Botkay/Inés Belda Nácher, Christopher Tandy, Iván Pérez | muziek Rutger Zuydervelt | licht Peter Lemmens | kostuums Carlijn Petermeijer | assistent choreografie Inbal Abir | stagiair Cristian Arenas | première 12 februari 2015, CaDance Festival, Korzo theater, Den Haag

When I saw the dance: 3th of October 18:00-19:00, during ‘De Nederlandse Dans Dagen’

Where: The Bordenhal, Maastricht

                                           Tour dates of the piece: www.ivanperezaviles.com/tour-dates

                                    Information about Ivan Perez: www.ivanperezaviles.com