Berna Kurt
February, 2017
February, 2017
Eight dancers on the performance space
(one is hidden below a cover)… playing with Christmas ornaments making up the
frontiers of the fictional ‘stage’→ separating the performance and the audience spaces…. interaction
with the audience…
Then the show begins… No more eye
contact with the audience… Building of the fourth wall…
Solo dances, short and longer duets,
trios, collective dances...
Usually a fixed rhythm and movements
following it… Individual reaction(s)
against some physical, psychological, social, political restraints?
Embracings… much more embracings… Some trials of moving, acting or becoming ‘together’?
Dancing in demi-point, following a syncopated
rhythm: 123, 123, 12… 123, 123, 12…
Hitting the body and making sounds out
of it… Screams, talks, breathing… Some ‘body
music’ or ‘body percussion’ moments?
Repeating some movement phases with
arms up and down… Dancing/walking in a moving circle, then moving in and out
the fixed circle, touching the chests… reminding
some ritualistic or folkloric-like scenes… for much of us, the audience from
Turkey accustomed to see such representations…
The
choreographic strategy looks like orienting the performers to act ‘together’
but not ‘synchronical’: individuality in collectivity is remarkable… An
intelligent strategy especially when performers have very different
backgrounds, experiences and physicalities and time for rehearsal is quite
limited.
Easy
to follow the performance, it doesn’t ‘demand’ so much from us... it doesn’t
question the limits or the definitions of ‘dance’ or ‘performance’…
(Attention,
the following part may include a spoiler!)
The
ending is surprising: a video screening and a quote from Mahatma Gandhi: “An Eye for an Eye Will Make the Whole World
Blind”…
A
little bit confused or not quite prepared for it? The ‘message’ looks like something
‘alien’, something ‘pasted’ to the performance: Christmas hopes for the ‘West’
but war, destruction, disaster, hunger for the ‘rest’ (of the world)?
…………………………………
R
e - l i c after Re-Rau
a
k a “burn’t”
16
December 2016, Akbank Sanat / İstanbul
Concept -
Choreography:
Korhan Başaran
Dancers: Beril Şenöz, Umut
Sevgul, Melissa Ugolini, Evrim Akyay, Kamola Rashidova, Canan Yücel Pekiçten
“Re-lic asks audiences to examine
what we find most important in our lives, what we truly care about and how can we
pay better attention to the world surrounding us. Even though it’s not always
easy, human beings must find a way of sharing hope and finding light.” (http://www.akbanksanat.com/en/detay/16-12-2016/modern-dans-gosterisi)
