Folkwang's world premiere closes Art Summit

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.