Wednesday 1 July 2009

Il faut être léger comme l'oiseau et non comme la plume.
Paul Valéry

To meet Pina Bausch (who died yesterday) was to understand why her choreography was so transcendent for the C20th dance world. She would fix you with her gaze, looking deep into your eyes as she listened to what your body was speaking. Most importantly when it was at rest. For Bausch the question was always why does one move at all not how do we make dance? What is that impetus within us? And often the urge was painfully and absurdly funny.

Anne Linsel's 44min 2006
doco is on the web in its entirety.
Dominique Mercy-the dancer who was at her side since she formed her company in 1973 interviewed
Val Lawson's article
and other interviews on this site (though many of the links have expired)
A Stage for Social Ego to Battle Anguished Id (New York Times) and a good piece in the LA Times by Mark Swed.
Wim Wenders was to direct the first 3D dance feature with Bausch [Producers of the German company Neue Road Movies say that work on the film will resume work after a period of mourning.]
the Pina Bausch company website
BBC Radio 4's Front Row (15min in)

Siobhan Davies has just announced that she is creating Britain's first digital archive for dance
Grand Magasin perform The Resurfacing Problem- the culmination of a residency at Toynbee Studios in which three performers find their repeated attempts to speak disrupted, distorted and sometimes completely destroyed by the very tools designed to improve communication.

Swedish artist Johanna Billing has been commissioned to make a new film I'm Lost Without Your Rhythm which is the second project in the 3 Series; a collaboration between Camden Arts Centre, Modern Art Oxford and Arnolfini. Her new work is based around the recording of a live performance of dance ‘learned’ or performed by amateur Romanian dancers in Iasi (pronounced ‘yash’). Magical World (2005) is showing as part of As Long as it Lasts at Marian Goodman in New York.
Her MySpace website

[Addition:
Channel 4' Life Class: Today's Nude is encouraging ordinary people to try their hand under the tutelage of John Berger, Gary Hume and Maggi Hambling. It's part of a project by Artangel which has also seen free life classes taking place in cities across Britain.]

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