Stay in the Loop
BSR publishes on a weekly schedule, with an email newsletter every Wednesday and Thursday morning. There’s no paywall, and subscribing is always free.
Venice Contemporary Dance Festival
'Body and Eros' in Venice:
Been there, done that
LESLEY VALDES
The International Festival of Contemporary Dance ran June 14-June 30 at the Biennale in Venice. I caught two companies out of the 15 that performed: Japan’s accomplished all-girl group, Batik, and from Austria, Chris Haring with the troupe called Liquid Loft. One of them came away with the jury’s top prize, the Golden Lion. Both groups performed works that were more annoying than artful because their clear aim was to shock. These companies possess talent and imagination, but at Venice provocation toppled art. Both companies I observed— and, for that matter, everyone else in the beautifully printed but intellectually dense festival book— ran amok in their quest to elucidate and titillate.
For this state of affairs I blame Brazilian festival director Ismael Ivo’s festival theme, “Body & Eros.” Ivo has pursued it, or variations of same, for three years in the floating city. Batik’s choreography is essentially an exploration of rage. In Shoku, beautiful stompers hurl red dresses over their heads; white frilly underwear contrasts with crude actions too vulgar to depict. The dance continues for about 90 minutes as the women appear to protest bondage to an unseen man (or men).
Asian females have had a much harder time of it than most, but feminism rarely makes good art. I wanted to whistle when a European woman next to me at the splendid Teatro Malibran rose to leave— without applauding — the moment the dance finished. We appeared to be in the minority.
Haring’s self-indulgence
Batik had at least involved some choreography, some chosen steps. (I hope to see this group again, dancing some other material.) Not so Haring’s multi-media, Art of Seduction: Posing Project, Part B, which would have been wittier had Haring tempered his self-indulgence. He puts his voice through a computer to make rude, gurgling and growling sounds as he tells autobiographical stories. Nothing new here. Nor did I see anything arresting in the staging.
At the warehouse-style Teatro alla Tesse at the far end of the Arsenale— the splendid ropeyards and shipyards where the Biennale occurs— the audience sat on the floor, on three sides, watching four dancers under four blankets making bottoms-up motions. Since they must have been hot as hell making their suggestive motions, electric fans stood like sentries, blowing down on each white blanket. Also standing were tall electric lights. At the back of the theater, the nude Haring stood posing, holding a famous print of embracing lovers where his BVDs should have been.
When his colleagues came out from under those blankies, they switched on their spotlights, dressed and re-dressed themselves in stretch fabric— posing, preening and telling tales of how they came into their maturity. Haring came stage front and told his own stories about a teen crush on a girl he met under a tree in a convent— and how they did or didn’t get it on. One of his dancers crooned a vocalise— think of Meg Ryan’s famous deli scene in When Harry Met Sally.
Been there, done that
Visited online, Haring’s other works look promising. He’s wary of contemporary culture; he’s mad for American cinema. His dancers get into positions that look sci/fi. But in person, sitting on the floor in the teatro for a mighty long 90 minutes, the pretentiousness of this non-dance multi-media piece— no matter that his colleagues are composer Andreas Berger and dramaturg Thomas Jelinek— was insufferable. We in the U.S. have been-there/done-that.
Still, the international jury thought well of Haring’s Art of Seduction: Posing Project, Part B, part of a series the Viennese artist had begun a year ago at the Biennale. It is, as the press release states, “a fresh vision for the future of dance.” Choreographer Pina Bausch was also awarded a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Dance. No accounting for taste, as they say. Or tastelessness.
To read a response, click here.
Been there, done that
LESLEY VALDES
The International Festival of Contemporary Dance ran June 14-June 30 at the Biennale in Venice. I caught two companies out of the 15 that performed: Japan’s accomplished all-girl group, Batik, and from Austria, Chris Haring with the troupe called Liquid Loft. One of them came away with the jury’s top prize, the Golden Lion. Both groups performed works that were more annoying than artful because their clear aim was to shock. These companies possess talent and imagination, but at Venice provocation toppled art. Both companies I observed— and, for that matter, everyone else in the beautifully printed but intellectually dense festival book— ran amok in their quest to elucidate and titillate.
For this state of affairs I blame Brazilian festival director Ismael Ivo’s festival theme, “Body & Eros.” Ivo has pursued it, or variations of same, for three years in the floating city. Batik’s choreography is essentially an exploration of rage. In Shoku, beautiful stompers hurl red dresses over their heads; white frilly underwear contrasts with crude actions too vulgar to depict. The dance continues for about 90 minutes as the women appear to protest bondage to an unseen man (or men).
Asian females have had a much harder time of it than most, but feminism rarely makes good art. I wanted to whistle when a European woman next to me at the splendid Teatro Malibran rose to leave— without applauding — the moment the dance finished. We appeared to be in the minority.
Haring’s self-indulgence
Batik had at least involved some choreography, some chosen steps. (I hope to see this group again, dancing some other material.) Not so Haring’s multi-media, Art of Seduction: Posing Project, Part B, which would have been wittier had Haring tempered his self-indulgence. He puts his voice through a computer to make rude, gurgling and growling sounds as he tells autobiographical stories. Nothing new here. Nor did I see anything arresting in the staging.
At the warehouse-style Teatro alla Tesse at the far end of the Arsenale— the splendid ropeyards and shipyards where the Biennale occurs— the audience sat on the floor, on three sides, watching four dancers under four blankets making bottoms-up motions. Since they must have been hot as hell making their suggestive motions, electric fans stood like sentries, blowing down on each white blanket. Also standing were tall electric lights. At the back of the theater, the nude Haring stood posing, holding a famous print of embracing lovers where his BVDs should have been.
When his colleagues came out from under those blankies, they switched on their spotlights, dressed and re-dressed themselves in stretch fabric— posing, preening and telling tales of how they came into their maturity. Haring came stage front and told his own stories about a teen crush on a girl he met under a tree in a convent— and how they did or didn’t get it on. One of his dancers crooned a vocalise— think of Meg Ryan’s famous deli scene in When Harry Met Sally.
Been there, done that
Visited online, Haring’s other works look promising. He’s wary of contemporary culture; he’s mad for American cinema. His dancers get into positions that look sci/fi. But in person, sitting on the floor in the teatro for a mighty long 90 minutes, the pretentiousness of this non-dance multi-media piece— no matter that his colleagues are composer Andreas Berger and dramaturg Thomas Jelinek— was insufferable. We in the U.S. have been-there/done-that.
Still, the international jury thought well of Haring’s Art of Seduction: Posing Project, Part B, part of a series the Viennese artist had begun a year ago at the Biennale. It is, as the press release states, “a fresh vision for the future of dance.” Choreographer Pina Bausch was also awarded a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Dance. No accounting for taste, as they say. Or tastelessness.
To read a response, click here.
Sign up for our newsletter
All of the week's new articles, all in one place. Sign up for the free weekly BSR newsletters, and don't miss a conversation.
