This was the third time that I saw the TLT company performing, but being outside, sitting in the audience.
The first time was 2 years ago, I was dancing in a parallel project and, without having seen rehearsals before, I watched TANZ 6 at UG.
That was the day in which I definitively fell in love with them, my colleagues, and it was when I got the first idea of making a short movie about the dancers, about us. That day I thought I had the "obligation" to show to the "world" that magic in which I was living. One year later I presented, together and thanks to APOTROPIA, TANZ 0, at Südpol, for the DANCEMAKERS#3.
The second time that I saw them from the audience, they were performing TANZ 9 at Stadttheater Luzern. I danced that show with them three times (premiere plus other 2 shows), I knew the steps, I experienced them on stage but, incredibly, all my rage and frustration of being injured and not able to dance one of the production I loved the most, all my sadness, was swept away by their energy, as I had never saw them before, as they were not the people I was used to work with.
That day I learn a lot about what it means being a dancer, which can be so easy to say, so beautiful to see, but it requires something so deep and strong, something I cannot say, something we give to the audience, letting it grow and expand from our own bodies. Some kind of ritual.
My third time was tonight, premiere of TANZ 12 at Südpol. I rehearsed most of the show, I know most of the steps, but I experienced them just in the ballet saal, never on stage. I watched the Haupt Probe 1, Haupt Probe 2 and General Probe before tonight and I saw for the first time the building up of that mystical power, I admired the process that leads to the transformation of a simple stage in a ritual space.
I was sitting in the front row, which it means that you are at the same level of the dance floor, just few steps away from the dancers, able to hear their breath, sense their vibes, almost feel their sweat that I know so well.
This was one of the most incredible experience of my whole life and I'm deeply thankful.
On the top of this all, according to my personal taste, TANZ 12 is an extremely interesting performance for many different reasons.
First of all the choreographers were invited to represent the immortal epic Odyssey. Dance is such an abstract form of art and I'm always excited to see how the choreographers find the way to deal with a narrative form or a strong, strict dramaturgy without falling in clichés or grotesque pantomimes.
Then (as a dancer) it's also deeply exciting to have, within the same evening, a man and a woman as choreographers. Ihsan Rustem and Caroline Finn-Fischer. It's truly fascinating to feel, trough the translation of the dancers, these two different (if not opposite) creative energies.
Finally, the stroke of genius (which comes, as I discovered lately, from the inspiration of Kathleen McNurney) of representing both creations on a simple stage, delimited by the same set design, consisting on two long panels slightly inclined between them.
In fact, those that seemed simple walls, turn out to be a sequence of elastic bands, through which the dancers appear and disappear in the most incredible manners and as if that was not enough, the two surfaces come to life through evocative video projections.
All this has been conceived, designed and executed by Ida Zenna, our lovely photographer, who simply astonished me on this new role.
The result is a double point of view of the same story.
Ihsan tells us about Ulysses, wandering towards the unknown, struggling to get back home and, on the other side (yes, because, I must say, it really seems that the stage rotates 180° to reveal us what is hidden behind the lysergic and almost hypnotic walls of the first part og the evening) we find Penelope, told through the movements and steps of Caroline, waiting for his return.
Ulysses fascinated by women who want to hold him.
Penelope threatened by men who want to possess her.
The desperate fatigue of who is lost without knowing if he will ever return back home.
The exhausted fatigue of who is waiting without knowing if she is waiting for nothing.
Faith, trust, loyalty and confidence to hold them up to the end… and beyond.
At last but not at least (apart from the great technique of the whole ensemble, the precision, the artistic level, the interpretation and physicality that characterizes and distinguishes the company) it was astounding to see the two pictures of Penelope, drown by Ihsan and Caroline, both impersonated by Rachel Lawrence: the one dreamed, remembered by Ulisses and the one dreaming, remembering him. This was for me a great emotional impact.
Thanks TLT. You took my breath away tonight, carrying me into an enchanted world, into one of the most ancient love poems of our culture, told by the people I love the most.
……I mean…. FUCK ! YEAH !!!!