During the then futuristic evenings at the Cabaret Voltaire, hosted by the DADA group, the artists – sometimes decked out in ridiculous costumes – played noise music or recited sound poetry without words. This “act for art” aims to destabilise: the artist himself, the spectator, and the society around it. Performance art, on the other hand, takes it on and often even seeks it out. Dance, traditional or modern, seldom has contact with the burlesque. But there is one they avoid taking: that of ridicule, even feigned.
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In contrast to pieces in which little soldier dancers march “la tête haute et sans faire de faute” (head high, making no mistakes), Olga Mesa crawls on all fours, scratches her nose, shows off by posing on a chair, and falls over! And what if playing the fool was the best way of destabilising the established order (of the dance performance and of the world) a little?ĭaring to expose yourself in this way, naked before an audience, daring to sing opera when you are not a professional singer, daring to simultaneously take on the two behemoths that are the story of Carmen and the Shakespeare’s Sonnets – that really is daring! Did the dancer jump off her chair or did she fall? But let us re-examine the end of the sequence. The striptease takes place to military music! Could the naked seductress be a “little soldier”? This is a plausible interpretation since the first act of Carmen/Shakespeare, by Olga Mesa and Francisco Ruiz de Infante, deals with seduction and the balance of power in love relationships.
The scene continues with the same irony: perching on a chair, her back to the audience, Olga Mesa makes great sweeping gestures with the fan and strikes her thighs. This is the image of the seductress seeking to beautify herself turned completely on its head.
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With the naughty air of a child who has done something silly but gained the complicity of the audience, she then devotes herself to a pseudo make-up session that consists of nothing but a series of grimaces. Then, as we listen to the chorus Avec la Garde montante from Bizet's Carmen, she undresses behind a projection screen and returns to the front, equipped only with a fan, which naturally is not enough to cover her. On stage, Olga Mesa adjusts the projectors. What François Barré wrote, in 1994, about performers practicing their art in the field of the contemporary art, can apply just as well to dancers and choreographers concerned with getting rid of learned gestures and revitalising their experience of dance. Their joint aim is to go beyond the contemplation of the masterpiece or the object, up to the point suggested as exclusive to artistic activity, and to substitute for it actions, durable or transitory forms likely to explore new states of consciousness.” For them, juxtaposing “art and life” means what is found in the resources of the personality, in the exercise of passions or the impulses, in the anonymous beauties that reality presents to us at every moment – experiences ready to transform those who succumb to them. It continues to be, and I hope always will be, a place that brings together formidable artists that dare and inspire.“They seek new forms of freedom in art, sometimes beyond the aesthetic conventions of the time or the social norms which govern our behaviour. When I think back I remember a free, creative, wildness present at NDT. We were vulnerable together, we were amazing together and we were fearless together. I was inspired by generations of incredible dancers, artists, people, souls. I experienced worlds and worlds within worlds. I was humbled by it and at the same time felt completely a part of it. I continue to be grateful for this.įor twenty years at NDT, I was surrounded by creativity and a wonderfully intense, mad energy. I was able to travel many miles within myself and geographically as the moon princess.
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The creation process took many months and much exploration, discovering what our theater had to offer and how to combine this with Maki Ishi’s incredible music.
Jiří created Kaguyhime using every aspect of NDT’s new home. One pivotal moment in my career at NDT was being a part of Kylián’s Kaguyahime. Carel Birnie was the most unorthodox financial director one could wish for and in reflection, I’d like to celebrate his venturesome spirit that made so much possible at NDT. This was for a film that NOS and the dancers put together to celebrate the feat of NDT having their own ‘designed for dance’ theatre, a project that Carel worked on for many years. I was just about to run over the wavy Rem Koolhaas rooftop of the theatre to the finale of Janáček’s Sinfonietta. “This photo of Carel Birnie and myself captures a very lighthearted moment but was taken during a transitional time in NDT’s history – the opening of the ‘new theatre’.
Photo Carel Birnie and fiona lummis: sven ulsa
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