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| On the Verge - info
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Duration, including two pauses of 5 minutes: 1 Hour
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In this evening three approaches to a collection of similar themes are shown. The definition of personal space, setting up borders for these and the attempt to remove unwanted borders are the main factors. This is done solely through the use of music, movement and light, attempting to evoke images in an audience, providing enough freedom to inspire individual contemplation. The trilogy consist of Two to Never, 4 and iDentity dFragments.
Two to Never – Duration: 9:45
Two men in a world of contrast. They are subject to the changes in this world, they change the world, our world. The themes float free between the effects of a surprising environment, the even more surprising consequences of these effects and the need of help from anyone, just anyone, stranger or friend, to deal with them. Too much said about this piece here might ruin the personal interpretation, so no more.
…The best functioning piece of the evening
- Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung 18.6.2002 -
4 - Duration: 23:30
A square marked on the floor, divided into 4 smaller squares. This is the setting for 4 people, who slowly enter into or perhaps already are part of that world. Each of the 4 rooms represents an environment with its own set of rules and characteristics. This is reflected in the type of music and movement occurring at the moment a person enters a particular room.
In turn each person has his or her own personality which further ads to the quality of the music and the movement. When more than one person is in one room or separate rooms, all these qualities blend.
Gradually the qualities of each person, represented by the repertoire of movement and musical themes, are absorbed by the other persons.
In time the conditions in the parts of the world undergo a development. It might be as a result of the actions of the persons or perhaps the actions of the persons are being determined by the conditions in the changing environments. It is left open.
The developments can be divided into the following phases:
1 Awakening
2 Discoveries
3 Encounters
4 Spiralling tempo
5 Isolation
6 Communication across borders
7 Breaking through
8 Independence of borders
9 Leaving / Moving on
It will be observed that as the involved ones absorb each other's characteristics, their movements become more similar. This growing similarity could well be the reason for the increase in tempo, as each person tries to create a unique identity. Eventually this leads to isolation, each person in his own room. Over the next period of time they are dealing with this new situation. The isolation, which may or may not have been voluntary, seems not to be so comforting after all. Peculiarly however, the common isolation has its own way of bringing them closer to each other and a communication starts taking place. It takes a great effort to get to unity and to conquer the borders between them.
4 can be performed with live music. Gareth Lubbe plays the viola and sings overtone singing simultaneously [a truly amazing accomplishment, it must be said] but it calls for careful planning, since Mr. Lubbe is a busy man, being the first principal violist of the Royal Flemish Philharmonic in Belgium.
4 was first publicly shown on February 2007 at The
Place Theatre in London as a part of the festival Aerowaves.
Henrik Kaalund’s choreography, slicing arms and intense implosions, flowed powerfully. The quartets were finely crafted, knotting limbs like a moving sculpture of random body parts. Gareth Lubbe’s extraordinary vocals, part throat singing, part overtone humming, along with multi- tonal viola, surpassed even Soren Nils Eichberg’s pliant and communicative score. 4 was beautifully cast, impressively performed and oozed emotional integrity.
- Anthony Psaila, The Place online review 17.2.2007 -
iDentity dFragments – Duration 15:49
In our time, the greatest you can be is famous. If you are famous you are respected, loved. Or at least it looks that way to many. It seems to be unimportant how the fame is achieved, although a role as movie-, music- or sport-star appears to be preferred. Can it be that wanting to be famous is an attempt to find the answer to the question “Why am I here”? When you are famous you are something special. You rise above the masses, you are important to many people, you are needed, you matter, you are NOT without meaning. The fame attracts us like a light-bulb an insect. You can get burned. Perhaps you arrive to find that the light gives no answer. Perhaps then you find yourself naked and with nothing to hold on to, trying to determine what you are (worth) in an un-perfect state. Then there are the people who are not actively striving for fame but who closely follow the famous and their public and private activities. These voyeurs (we) live out the personal wishes through these idols. Sometimes it seems; as if there was no difference between what was experienced by the representative and the personal experience. You identify, you live it, you are something special, you see no difference between you and the other. The influence of the media in this respect is great. They determine our consciousness to a large degree. If we watch a fiction movie we may say that it was just a movie and had nothing to do with reality. But are we able to control how the values, morals and ethics represented there settle in our subconscious? A hero who, within an hour or two, kill our cripple several or hundreds of people is often considered very cool. With this hero we identify. This is how we would like to be, strong, irresistible, sexy.
Identity dFragments represents an attempt to deal with all this. A woman portrays all the aforesaid persons. She is grooving, she is a star, she is watching it all, she sees no difference, she is so cool, she is every woman. Until she isn’t, can’t, wants to. She tries to remember what she really experienced and what she can expect, trying to establish her identity.
A multitude of images is created by the use of an LED lamp. This kind of lamp is able to turn on and off almost immediately and is controlled by the music via a special software and computer interface. The lamp can also change colors. Using this setup; in many brief moments the woman is shown in a variety of contrasting roles. It is the same woman. They are all different women. It is really her. She is just watching it all. And then a change. This time it is really her. Or not? She is trying to find out.
Identity dFragments premiered October 2007 as part of Henrik Kaalunds evening Kurzchoreographien (Short Pieces) at Lofft,
Leipzig. It has been shown at festivals in Poland, Austria, Nigeria and numerous venues in Germany and internationally. Anne Schmidt won the 2. Prize dancing it at 12.
International Solo-Dance-Theatre Festival in Stuttgart 2008.
…She dances, incredibly exact and to the point, as if she was the wasn’t the motor herself but rather driven. In the choreography made by Kaalund for this extraordinary young dancer [Anne Schmidt], a woman is searching for the difference between what she experienced in the media world and what she really is…
… a fascinating, reminiscent of David Lynch, play with layers of consciousness…
- Leipziger Volkszeitung, 22. Sept 2007 -
Technical requirements:
- The evening requires a minimum space of 9x9 meters, black dance carpet.
- White tape must mark the space in 4 equal parts, each 3x3 meters, for the piece ”4”.
- If possible, the light in the theatre should be controlled by our computer system, via DMX. But this is not an absolute requirement.
That’s all! |
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