----
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'Insects contain an old knowledge that we have even lost in our development. So, that’s the reason why I call them the oldest computers, the oldest memory in the world. Don’t forget we are in that sense quite vulnerable; because we live in our inner skeleton and scarab beetles live in their outer skeleton. Scarab beetles survived a lot of catastrophes on the planet that we could not survive. I think animals are the best doctors and philosophers in the world. We still have to study them well to give ourselves again progress.'-- Jan Fabre
'In the late 1970s, the still very young Jan Fabre caused a furore as a performance artist. His 'money performances' involved setting fire to bundles of money from the audience in order to make drawings with the ashes. In 1982, the work Het is theater zoals te verwachten en te voorzien was (This is Theatre like it was to be expected and foreseen) placed a virtual bomb under the seat of the theatre establishment of the day. This was confirmed two years later with De macht der theaterlijke dwaasheden (The Power of Theatrical Madness) commissioned for the Venice Biennale. Since then, Jan Fabre has grown to become one of the most versatile artists on the international stage. He makes a clean break with the conventions of contemporary theatre by introducing the concept of 'real-time performance'– sometimes called 'living installations'– and explores radical choreographic possibilities as a means of resurrecting classical dance.'-- Troubleyn
from 'Requiem for a metamorphosis'
from 'Another Sleepy Dusty Delta Day'
from 'Je Suis Sang'
from 'Fase'
from 'Counter Phrases'
____________
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'For me, the past is always present in my work. But the past for me is amnesia. Is not remembering. And amnesia is the core of memory. And you can feel the past, because there is always an absence. There is always something that is missing. So the past is like a ruin. With a ruin you have always to build against something that is not there anymore. This rebuilding is the force of amnesia. The past is always hidden somewhere – it doesn’t show. And you can feel it because of the absence. So the project on the tragedy is based really on the absence of the tragedy. Because we don’t know what tragedy is anymore. So it’s work on the ruin of tragedy. What is left of tragedy – like a fragment.'-- Romeo Castellucci
'Since Romeo Castellucci founded his theater company, Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio, in Cesena, Italy with his sister Claudia in 1981, he has steadily won acclaim — and generated debate — for provocative, hallucinatory imagery and often apocalyptic themes. His notable successes include “Giulio Cesare,” a 1997 Shakespeare adaptation in which ancient Rome was inhabited by ghostly performers, some with anorexic bodies or laryngectomies. “Genesi,” his 1999 fantasia, juxtaposed biblical themes, images of radiation and sequences with several of Mr. Castellucci’s six children riding on toy trains. Indirectly but chillingly, “Genesi” evoked the horror of Auschwitz. His compositions, along with his jarring and sometimes disturbing visuals, reflect his early training as a painter and set designer. His company’s name refers to the Renaissance artist Raphael and the many painterly perspectives Mr. Castellucci tries to incorporate into his stage compositions. One of Mr. Castellucci’s overall goals is to express “a tragedy of the future,” partly by making visceral allusions to Europe’s violent history.'-- New York Times
from 'Tragedia Endogonidia'
from 'Inferno'
from 'Hey Girl!'
____________
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'One of the things about DV8's work is it is about subject matter. For a lot of people who go and see dance, dance is not about anything. DV8 is about something. I think the other thing that is important are the notions of humour and pathos, of tragedy, of multiple emotions and responses to my work — I've been so tired over the years of watching so much dance on one level; it may be very pretty, but it just goes on and on. It's pretty nice, pretty much the same and pretty dull really, a lot of it. So my big concern is to try and present images through movement and to talk about the whole range of social and psychological situations.'-- Lloyd Newsome of DV8 Physical Theater
'DV8 Physical Theater is a British dance theatre company founded by Lloyd Newson in 1986 and, influenced by the work of Pina Bausch and European dance theatre, it has committed itself to work which reflects issues in the real world rather than abstract dance concerns. It makes a practice of involving all performers in the creation of the work, drawing on their personal experiences as well as their choreographic ideas. Its first major work, My Sex, Our Dance (1987), was a duet for Newson and Charnock in which physical risk-taking mirrored the emotional challenges of a male relationship. In My Body, Your Body (1987) eight male and female dancers explored sexual stereotyping while Dead Dreams of Monochrome Men (1988) tackled issues of male alienation and desire. The work was filmed for television, as were several of the company's subsequent productions, including Strange Fish (1994), and Enter Achilles (1995), which won the Prix d'Italia award in 1996. The company tours internationally.'-- DV8
'Dead Dreams of Monochrome Men'
from 'Enter Achilles'
from '3 Ballets'
_____________
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'I am more interested in what moves people, than how they move.'-- Pina Bausch
'Drawing deeply on the violence in male-female relationships, often with mordantly witty texts and fantastical sets, Pina Bausch crossed the borders between dance and theatre, inspiring radical theatre and film directors such as Robert Wilson, David Alden and Pedro Almodóvar as well as younger choreographers including William Forsythe, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker and Lloyd Newson of the company DV8. She was unquestionably the most influential figure in European theater of the last thirty years.
'She shocked audiences by the apparently punishing lengths to which she drove her dancers. Leading American critic Arlene Croce excoriated Pina Bausch's US debut in 1984, describing her as a "theatre terrorist" and her material as "the raw pulp of abuse". Obsessive behaviour was meat and drink to Pina Bausch's caricaturist sense of humour – a gargoyle of a woman possessively counting out her spaghetti strands, men shovelling chopped onions into girls' mouths, crowds throwing themselves off walls. Absurdity and cruelty punctured episodes of dull banality or dreamlike confusion, and thanks to Pina Bausch dance-theatre became the most chic form of theatre in Britain, much (and, often, horribly) imitated.'-- Guardian
from 'Le Sacre Du Printemps'
from 'Barbe Bleue'
from 'Vollmond'
*
p.s. Hey. So, if plans have panned out, I'm posting this moments before I head to the airport and then get aimed at Abu Dhabi on my eventual way to Melbourne, Australia. Please check out these theater honchos and their things. Thank you!
'Insects contain an old knowledge that we have even lost in our development. So, that’s the reason why I call them the oldest computers, the oldest memory in the world. Don’t forget we are in that sense quite vulnerable; because we live in our inner skeleton and scarab beetles live in their outer skeleton. Scarab beetles survived a lot of catastrophes on the planet that we could not survive. I think animals are the best doctors and philosophers in the world. We still have to study them well to give ourselves again progress.'-- Jan Fabre
'In the late 1970s, the still very young Jan Fabre caused a furore as a performance artist. His 'money performances' involved setting fire to bundles of money from the audience in order to make drawings with the ashes. In 1982, the work Het is theater zoals te verwachten en te voorzien was (This is Theatre like it was to be expected and foreseen) placed a virtual bomb under the seat of the theatre establishment of the day. This was confirmed two years later with De macht der theaterlijke dwaasheden (The Power of Theatrical Madness) commissioned for the Venice Biennale. Since then, Jan Fabre has grown to become one of the most versatile artists on the international stage. He makes a clean break with the conventions of contemporary theatre by introducing the concept of 'real-time performance'– sometimes called 'living installations'– and explores radical choreographic possibilities as a means of resurrecting classical dance.'-- Troubleyn
from 'Requiem for a metamorphosis'
from 'Another Sleepy Dusty Delta Day'
from 'Je Suis Sang'
____________
![]()
'Most choreographers expect more from dancers than a proper use of steps. My personal feeling is that theatrical knowledge is a very important part of a dancer and the total process of making dance. She is totally giving, and at the same time she is super-aware of her actions in the performing space. She owns it.'-- Anne Teresa De Keersmaker
'Belgian dancer and choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker has revolutionised European dance. From her first production, Asch, in 1980, she has displayed extraordinary sensitivity in merging movement with music, often working with composers to create her pieces. In 1982, Fase, four movements to the music of Steve Reich was the first of several collaborations with the American composer. She founded her company, Rosas, in 1983. In the same year she made Rosas danst Rosas, with music composed by Thierry De Mey and Peter Vermeersch.
'From the beginning she has chosen a controversial vocabulary. It has earned her work such assessments as "chaotic,""self-indulgent""aggressive," and "anarchical," but also "formalist,""powerful,""emotionally tough,""stringently structured,""lucid,""gripping," and "honest." Since 1992, Rosas has been company-in-residence at Brussels’ Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie/De Munt. ERTS, a large-scale production incorporating videotapes, and Rosa, created for a film directed by Peter Greenaway, were her first projects there. Since then, she has made works featuring a complex structure of movement, gesture and texts, set to many different kinds of music.'-- RolexMentorProtege
from 'Rosas'
'Most choreographers expect more from dancers than a proper use of steps. My personal feeling is that theatrical knowledge is a very important part of a dancer and the total process of making dance. She is totally giving, and at the same time she is super-aware of her actions in the performing space. She owns it.'-- Anne Teresa De Keersmaker
'Belgian dancer and choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker has revolutionised European dance. From her first production, Asch, in 1980, she has displayed extraordinary sensitivity in merging movement with music, often working with composers to create her pieces. In 1982, Fase, four movements to the music of Steve Reich was the first of several collaborations with the American composer. She founded her company, Rosas, in 1983. In the same year she made Rosas danst Rosas, with music composed by Thierry De Mey and Peter Vermeersch.
'From the beginning she has chosen a controversial vocabulary. It has earned her work such assessments as "chaotic,""self-indulgent""aggressive," and "anarchical," but also "formalist,""powerful,""emotionally tough,""stringently structured,""lucid,""gripping," and "honest." Since 1992, Rosas has been company-in-residence at Brussels’ Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie/De Munt. ERTS, a large-scale production incorporating videotapes, and Rosa, created for a film directed by Peter Greenaway, were her first projects there. Since then, she has made works featuring a complex structure of movement, gesture and texts, set to many different kinds of music.'-- RolexMentorProtege
from 'Rosas'
from 'Fase'
from 'Counter Phrases'
____________
'For me, the past is always present in my work. But the past for me is amnesia. Is not remembering. And amnesia is the core of memory. And you can feel the past, because there is always an absence. There is always something that is missing. So the past is like a ruin. With a ruin you have always to build against something that is not there anymore. This rebuilding is the force of amnesia. The past is always hidden somewhere – it doesn’t show. And you can feel it because of the absence. So the project on the tragedy is based really on the absence of the tragedy. Because we don’t know what tragedy is anymore. So it’s work on the ruin of tragedy. What is left of tragedy – like a fragment.'-- Romeo Castellucci
'Since Romeo Castellucci founded his theater company, Socìetas Raffaello Sanzio, in Cesena, Italy with his sister Claudia in 1981, he has steadily won acclaim — and generated debate — for provocative, hallucinatory imagery and often apocalyptic themes. His notable successes include “Giulio Cesare,” a 1997 Shakespeare adaptation in which ancient Rome was inhabited by ghostly performers, some with anorexic bodies or laryngectomies. “Genesi,” his 1999 fantasia, juxtaposed biblical themes, images of radiation and sequences with several of Mr. Castellucci’s six children riding on toy trains. Indirectly but chillingly, “Genesi” evoked the horror of Auschwitz. His compositions, along with his jarring and sometimes disturbing visuals, reflect his early training as a painter and set designer. His company’s name refers to the Renaissance artist Raphael and the many painterly perspectives Mr. Castellucci tries to incorporate into his stage compositions. One of Mr. Castellucci’s overall goals is to express “a tragedy of the future,” partly by making visceral allusions to Europe’s violent history.'-- New York Times
from 'Tragedia Endogonidia'
from 'Inferno'
from 'Hey Girl!'
____________
'One of the things about DV8's work is it is about subject matter. For a lot of people who go and see dance, dance is not about anything. DV8 is about something. I think the other thing that is important are the notions of humour and pathos, of tragedy, of multiple emotions and responses to my work — I've been so tired over the years of watching so much dance on one level; it may be very pretty, but it just goes on and on. It's pretty nice, pretty much the same and pretty dull really, a lot of it. So my big concern is to try and present images through movement and to talk about the whole range of social and psychological situations.'-- Lloyd Newsome of DV8 Physical Theater
'DV8 Physical Theater is a British dance theatre company founded by Lloyd Newson in 1986 and, influenced by the work of Pina Bausch and European dance theatre, it has committed itself to work which reflects issues in the real world rather than abstract dance concerns. It makes a practice of involving all performers in the creation of the work, drawing on their personal experiences as well as their choreographic ideas. Its first major work, My Sex, Our Dance (1987), was a duet for Newson and Charnock in which physical risk-taking mirrored the emotional challenges of a male relationship. In My Body, Your Body (1987) eight male and female dancers explored sexual stereotyping while Dead Dreams of Monochrome Men (1988) tackled issues of male alienation and desire. The work was filmed for television, as were several of the company's subsequent productions, including Strange Fish (1994), and Enter Achilles (1995), which won the Prix d'Italia award in 1996. The company tours internationally.'-- DV8
'Dead Dreams of Monochrome Men'
from 'Enter Achilles'
from '3 Ballets'
_____________
'I am more interested in what moves people, than how they move.'-- Pina Bausch
'Drawing deeply on the violence in male-female relationships, often with mordantly witty texts and fantastical sets, Pina Bausch crossed the borders between dance and theatre, inspiring radical theatre and film directors such as Robert Wilson, David Alden and Pedro Almodóvar as well as younger choreographers including William Forsythe, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker and Lloyd Newson of the company DV8. She was unquestionably the most influential figure in European theater of the last thirty years.
'She shocked audiences by the apparently punishing lengths to which she drove her dancers. Leading American critic Arlene Croce excoriated Pina Bausch's US debut in 1984, describing her as a "theatre terrorist" and her material as "the raw pulp of abuse". Obsessive behaviour was meat and drink to Pina Bausch's caricaturist sense of humour – a gargoyle of a woman possessively counting out her spaghetti strands, men shovelling chopped onions into girls' mouths, crowds throwing themselves off walls. Absurdity and cruelty punctured episodes of dull banality or dreamlike confusion, and thanks to Pina Bausch dance-theatre became the most chic form of theatre in Britain, much (and, often, horribly) imitated.'-- Guardian
from 'Le Sacre Du Printemps'
from 'Barbe Bleue'
from 'Vollmond'
----
*
p.s. Hey. So, if plans have panned out, I'm posting this moments before I head to the airport and then get aimed at Abu Dhabi on my eventual way to Melbourne, Australia. Please check out these theater honchos and their things. Thank you!