This is a link to a 50-minute documentary made by Mike Figgis in 1995 after five weeks filming with William Forsythe's Ballet Frankfurt during the rehearsals and performance of a new programme. I had the DVD on loan a few years back and it's great to find that it's now on Vimeo. Even greater that Figgis himself uploaded it, so it's unlikely a copyright owner is going to come and remove it just when you want to watch it.
'It's not about steps, anyway. Choreography is about organisation. Either you're organising the body or you're organising bodies with other bodies, or a body with other bodies in an environment that is organised. There's these framings of organisation, for me. & this seems to be the challenge of choreography at the end of the 20th century.' Not tango choreography, of course, nor tango either, but this statement about contemporary dance has some resonance with tango. It seems to be a surprisingly clear statement of the experience of dancing in a milonga, the experience of how we organise the body with other bodies and in an environment which is a cultural and historical framing. Steps? It's not about steps...
& if you think 'Ballet... no thanks!' watch just the first three minutes.
No comments:
Post a Comment