An Austrian Dance Evening

Body Image, Reconstruction and History

This evening, composed of three parts, offers an approach to the historical positioning of Austrian choreography by means of a lecture and two performances. It was especially designed to be presented in 2011 at Tmuna Theatre in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Questions regarding the loss as well as the heritage of choreographic thinking are evoked to connect a dance piece’s cultural context with personal elements tied to a choreographer’s life.
The acknowledgement of this heritage enables recognition and understanding towards contemporary choreographic works.

Geographic influences, forms of expression and ideologies of discipline determine greatly the development of the trained body as well as the lifetime process of self-reflection upon embodied patterns and the personal significance of a choreographer’s career’s path.

The aging body of the performer exposes itself as a memory-container of internalised techniques and choreographic wisdom is somehow set free from being always interpreted. The young dancer’s body on the other hand wants to know, to experience at any cost.

Programme:

1. Lecture: Austria’s Contemporary Dance by Dr. Andrea Amort
One main aspect of that introductory lecture concerns the question of how Austrian contemporary artists deal with the history of their artistic ancestors who have been banned or broken during the period of National Socialism.

2. Performance: Your Dancer
This solos was created in 2010 for Liz King, 63 year old dancer, choreographer and pioneer of the Austrian dance scene. It questions the body as a memories’ storage of somatic transformation processes.

3. Performance: Jetzt bist Du dran.
The main subject of this performance is the act of passing on and the act of reconstructing choreography, based on the choreography Mensch im Wahn / Man in delusion (Premiere 1929) by Andrei Jerschik (1902–1997).