Europe In Motion for me

[Maggie Chau]

Europe In Motion: "12 young choreographers, three partners, three countries, two moderators, five days of dialogue and four nights of presentations." A very interesting new concept of developing new talent during Springdance. This sounds pretty promising to me, the title associates me of innovation, inspiration, understanding, new, moving, experimental and future.

And yes indeed it was. Up until now I followed this European Motion every night. The first Triple Bill night was for me also the most impressive one; the night itself had a certain climax. First, we started with Roam to Rhytm from Tom Dale. I found it a regular piece, compared to others. With lots of arm- flippering movements, which is not bad at all, but I didn't feel any tension in my response. The only element in this piece was the music. It was the music that made that piece interesting for me.

The second performance is Tender from Erik Kaiel. It started with a really off-classical style of performing; the audience was invited to take place on stage. Whether it would be lying, sitting or standing, the choice is yours. So we were at that moment a part of the stage setting which gave me a totally different experience. The dancers themselves were also in the crowd. Two beatiful dancers started to move around and between us. Sitting on stage with two dancers dancing around, gave me much more intimate and tangible feelings. In the "second part" of Tender, Kaiel himself and another male dancer (sorry for not knowing your name) were performing in the middle of te stage, amongst the crowd. Kaiel functions at that moment as a kind of gymnastics balk, but a flexible one. The other male dancer walked, danced and moved on him, trying not to touch the ground. They've build up a great amount of suspense amongst the audience, very likely work.

The last performance of that night and certainly the most impressive one is dreams.land from Cosmin Manolescu. I was blindfolded when I was entering the theatre and we were instructed that we could pull off the black bandanna whenever we want. I was standing and having no idea where I was. Suddenly the music changes, I pulled off the bandanna and a naked dancer was dancing in front of me, very close. Then we were taken into their grimmy dreams. My first thought about dreams.land is that the concept and the performance were impressive but it would not be my first choice.

However, an aftertalk with Maria @Springdance Flirt totally changed my mind about it..................................

To be continued in my next post.

[lotte oosterbroek]

I will :)

[Maggie Chau]

I am composing the blogpost about the conversation right now, hope to finish it by today. It was really interesting but difficult to translate it into a good written piece. Have patient please......... :)

[lotte oosterbroek]

What was the outcome of the conversation with Maria?