Folkwang's world premiere closes Art Summit

By Linda Hoemar Abidin

JAKARTA (JP): What better way to close the Third Art Summit Indonesia 2001 International Festival on Contemporary Performing Arts than to present a world premiere filled with powerful imagery, subtle humor and soulful dancing by a young, ingenious choreographer?

On Sept. 26 and Sept. 27, a Jakarta audience will have the special privilege to see Folkwang Tanzstudio's dancers, under the direction of Pina Bausch and Henrietta Horn, perform the world premiere of Horn's Emerging/Auftaucher at the Graha Bhakti Budaya Taman Ismail Marzuki in Central Jakarta, which will be preceded by Horn's own enchanting performance of Solo.

Horn's Solo begins with lone violin music in darkness. As the stage brightens, an image of a statuesque woman seated at a table appears.

Then, in silence, she attempts to stand up, but stops halfway, as if pulled by gravity to sit down. Resting her chin on the palm of her hand, she ruminates before slumping on the table.

This intimate dialogue with the chair, the table and the music, builds on a repetitive theme with stylized elaborations.

The distilled, quiet, yet powerful images presented on stage stick in the memory, etching an image of a lonesome woman who attempts to break free, but keeps being pulled back to her past.

Horn's efficient use of movement and precision in timing, all within a narrow space between the chair and the table, conveys a sense of limited boundaries. It portrays a woman without a friend in the world, bar the chair, the table and the music. As the 25- minute-long solo performance progresses each of these three elements come to life as if becoming her life partner.

Supported by a minimalist stage setting and the meticulous use of lighting, Horn skillfully plays with music, silence and movement to create an atmosphere that evokes collective emotional associations.

Horn admits that her Solo draws inspiration from everyday emotional tension, filtered and reduced to the essential. Thus, purity of movement perhaps best describes Henrietta Horn's choreographic style.

Small rhythmic sounds accompany the opening image of Horn's Emerging/Auftaucher, which draws vivid inspiration from one of Toulouse Lautrec's celebrated paintings.

The audience first hears a continuous rhythm. Then, the powerful image of 10 dancers and chairs appears on stage. Equal numbers of male and female dancers, dressed in gray and black, begin dancing with gray colored chairs illustrating the routine of a tightly knit community.

As the rhythm, held and shaken by each dancer's hand, builds, so does the tension. Angular movements become more pronounced and more aggressive. Dotted with pauses, the tension grows with the silence.

A simple idea of shaking handheld musical instruments, slapping them on thighs, tapping chairs produces such a dramatic impact, evocative of deep inner emotions such as passion, jealousy, joy and anger.

Horn's genius lies in her ability to evoke strong emotional associations without being physical. For example, in a fighting scene between two males, tension rises as the two stare at each other while the rest of the group encourage a fight through shouts and tapping chairs.

Horn's Solo and Emerging/Auftaucher, present intensive plays of emotion with continuous shifts between meditative and explosive states.

After their Jakarta performances the Folkwang Tanzstudio -- founded in 1928 by Kurt Joos, paved the way for the development of dance in Germany -- will perform in Surakarta before continuing the tour to Hong Kong.

In Surakarta, the Goethe Institute, which invited the company to participate in the Art Summit, has organized for Horn to conduct a dance workshop. Indonesian dancers will have the opportunity to learn from a choreographer who believes that movement should be as pure as possible so as to transcend the emotions that lie behind each move.