RDH and the IMPULS Scandal

Do not disturb!
Or: The limits of spontaneity

29 July 2010, 6:45 p.m.

Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s piece En Atendant

Vienna – It was a moment with great potential. The audience was about to leave after the final applause for the premiere of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s new piece En Atendant when two men came on stage and asked for the audience’s attention.

The two men were no less than Florin Flueras and Manuel Pelmus from Romania, leading figures on the Bucharest dance scene, known for its actionist works and political attitude. They have given a number of performances in Vienna as guests of Tanzquartier Wien and also at prestigious festivals across Europe: Many view Romanian choreography as the avant-garde of Eastern European contemporary dance.

Flueras and Pelmus asked the audience for three minutes to perform the Romanian Dance History. It appeared to be an intervention that had not been pre-arranged with the organisers. The organisers didn’t seem taken by this idea and the two were silenced like troublemakers. It’s a pity that these known artists weren’t able to attract the attention of the audience after the performance – after all, they had waited respectfully until the end of the show.

It seems unlikely that De Keersmaeker would have been against this action, even more so since in her school, P.A.R.T.S., young artists are trained to be freethinkers and not indifferent floor gymnasts. Parts of the audience would surely have stayed and listened to them, too.

The rejection of this request that had been presented in a most peaceful manner illustrates a phenomenon that is not only apparent in contemporary dance. Today, artistic works that are produced and presented on the international market are slick and predictable. The market obviously has no interest whatsoever in productive disruptions, or in the rebellious and unpredictable. However, the Vienna international dance festival Impulstanz is not known for showcasing shallow entertainment. Throughout its history, the audiences at this festival have been confronted with uneasy statements, be it by celebrities like Jan Fabre or by underdogs like Ann Liv Young.

Discursive bonus track

The intervention by the Romanians could have provided the audience with a discursive bonus track. It would have added a somewhat rough Eastern European edge to the perfectionist subtlety of the Western European choreographer’s piece. Perhaps it could have been an ideal complement to De Keersmaeker’s work, which is far too greatly influenced by the sound structures of ars subtilior, a rather formalistic music phenomenon that was common between 1377 and 1420.

The dancers’ movements are too well-formed and perfect, and the presentation of the three-aisled space of the former corn exchange as a dramatic, sacred room is just a step too far. And the way that the period of disaster during the Hundred Years’ War – a time marked by pain, violence, plague and the Inquisition – is now presented as a state of morbid twilight is too pretentious. The vain, strangely snorting Adonis-like figures and athletic, graceful characters build quite a contrast to the straightforward concept of the body in the Middle Ages, as illustrated in book paintings from that time. In this piece, which starts with a stunning C flute solo, De Keersmaeker simply failed to find the substance for a successful dramaturgy.

(Helmut Ploebst / DER STANDARD, print edition, 30.07.2010)

(English translation: Mandana Taban)