Vollmond from Tanztheater Wuppertal, A Magnificent Opus that leaves us with the memory of one of the great figures of contemporary dance.
Vollmond from Tanztheater Wuppertal. Foto: Jochen Viehoff
What happens the night of a full moon! The world is transformed! A playful and totally liberating event that brought us back to the corporeal experiments of Pina Bausch’s earlier years. Such a wonderful relief this is!!
A huge rock looms up in the middle of the stage. A heavy volume that grounds the eyes , that grounds the dancers, that grounds the stark landscape providing a strange space for the dancers who eventually ( Act II), include that rock in their choreography as they slide and slip down its slopes. Or they climb over it and slither around its sides. It is almost alive even though that great volume of unmovable matter holds our attention because it shrinks the dancers, it invigorates the movements, it slurps up the bodies in a tiny stream that appears to be drawn along underneath that rocky mass.
Bausch has recreated a new universe of bodies that, as her earlier work always did, imposing normal gestures but deconstructing the gracefulness of human corporeal expression to give it all new meaning. She uses other forms of dance , she disrupts everyday moves disarticulates the dancers, shifts in emotion and their impact on lther bodies. The results are unexpected, beautiful and even joyous but this time the playful, the “ludique” a great joy of living, dominates . The figures do not mistreat each other the way they used to. They launch themselves into moments of harmonious affection, playful longings, Instinctual relationships that inspire harsh gestures ( a slap, a twist, a push) but nothing more. Individual women turn to the audience and hiss commonplace challenges at them, always with a slight tilt of the head, a face harbouring naughty gestures or tricky glances.
The sexy red dress or the smooth slinky black dress helps their plight. Couples unite in expected pleasure and then rip the clothes off each other. Are they fighting or just desiring each other? It’s your guess. Or the women are handled like paralyzed creatures as they are suddenly guided by the males who do not gang up on them in a cruel way as we have seen in the past. Even if they do become objects of frenzied passion , the objects are sometimes meant to collect the volumes of water that the men pour wildly into the girls’ cups until the water overflows, and soaks them. The symbolism is obvious. Those half naked bodies with the shirts stripped off, the long wet hair tossed in the air, dresses that cling to the female bodies, desire gives its impulse to all the movement as sensual female bodies distinguish themselves from the group as a whole by integrating imitations of Indian danse gestures whose codes have changed. The group lapses into symmetrical movement as individuals constantly break up the harmony and they all flow back into the depths of the ocean, like water nymphs from a Wagnerian opera. They are playful, excitable, captured in enticing poses, fed by passion, or anger or tenderness. Then the water rises, and they become creature moving inthos pools of liguid or splashing aboout under the driving sheets of wet energy. A deluge draws them into the depths of the flowing streams as they crawl, then swim like mythical uhr-creatures moving out of the ocean and coming up for air, arising from the depths and then exploding into a huge tribal frenzy as they find their element and release all their restraints the minute the liquid takes over, and sprinkles them with flickering reflections of liquid llight. The water has now invaded the air. The glistening rock remains unmovable. The dancing figures slither and slide between the elements as they rediscover their space. The world becomes a joyous place as the bodies are possessed by their rhythms once again, the males clash, the women strut, flow, and all is immersed in joy.
Vollmond presented by the Tanzetheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch continues until Saturday , November 8 in Southam Hall. 2014