COLLECTIVE ONE:THIRD: Fate of the Galaxies. 20.07.2017, SOUN D ANCE Festival, Dock 11, Berlin
One of the joys of watching, or taking part in, improvisation is the multitude of potentials each movement has; not all can be followed up, choices must, of course, be made, but the action of choice-making, so explicitly clear in improvisation, is in itself beautifully wrought with paths taken and those left unexplored. Such was palpably evident in the work of six dancers — Edith Buttingsrud Pedersen, Annukka Hirvonen, Sarah Jegelka, Justyna Kalbarczyk, Stefanie Petracca, and Roberta Ricci — who, together with electric guitarist Hannes Buder and lighting artist Emese Csornai, opened the SOUN D ANCE festival with a view to how instant composition can serve as a „laboratory of real life“ for those of diverse countries and cultural backgrounds. Through series of duets, trios, and group work (seldom featuring, perhaps quite meaningfully so, the solo) the eight artists infused the atmosphere with both typical motifs (wandering hands, diagonal balances, tinklings on the cords of the guitar) and unexpected suggestions (relational pulls between bodies, a sound emerging from genuine watching, the rare but surprising pedestrian gesture), building to a generous final offering which balanced the individual dancers‘ own inclinations and internal developments with the work of Buder and Csornai — and while the music of Buder at times led, at times illustrated, and at times was inspired by the movement of bodies on stage, it seemed rather an old sadness to see six beautiful female bodies dance to, or even with, one male voice. Yet the artists were accomplished: so enriching was their ability to bear an idea through from inception to maturity, that traces from seed to blossom were really possible. Yet not devoid of the fizz of uncertainty that makes improvisation so special.
Review by Sasha Amaya for Viereinhalb Sätze.
sasha amaya 