_ Dance from Berlin

by Frank Schmid
Independent dance and theatre critic


It is when I don't understand anything, when I refuse to understand anything that dance is at it's most exciting. This is what one friend, a dance spectator by profession, says. So does a second friend, who has more of an analytical approach than a physical-sensory one. He searches for the principle, the essence of the movements and fixes his gaze on the dancers. He sits there in full concentration, completely motionless whereas the first friend fidgets, wheezes and groans. These two always try to sit as far away as possible from each other. A third spectator is a gambler. He loves it when concepts are 'discussed' through dance. The game itself is of the utmost interest to him, the disintegration of systemic limits to their ultimate dissolution. All three expect to understand or learn to understand how the world functions. All three experienced highs and lows in Berlin's dance scene over the past years. Only a fourth one, a connoisseur of beautiful movement and of the stories communicated through dance who considers himself an aesthete and to whom theory, concept and performance mean nothing appeared more frustrated than stimulated during the last 5 to 6 years.

No wonder. Berlin's version of contemporary dance is dedicated to intellectualism. Concepts of form and subject theories, perception and communication psychology issues, interaction with the fine arts, architecture and the new media are more important than for instance the narration of a story of love. It almost seems as if first the art crowd and then the dance audience split into at the very least two different groups which eye each other with distinct alienation. This development is mostly due to the huge success of the international dance festival. Masses of spectators pour into the opera houses to see Jiri Kyli·n, Twyla Tharp, Merce Cunningham, or gladly Pina Bausch or the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre - and the list could go on and on. At festivaltime the audience of the Theater am Halleschen Ufer, the Podewil, the sophiensaele and the Tanzfabrik Berlin or the Pfefferberg miraculously unifies only to split up again afterwards into members of the scene and those who frequent the scene as guests. Was it really only 5 years ago that the four or five critics present were outnumbered by the producers and artists on the podium during the 'Tanz im August' press conference? In the perception of the media as well as that of the audience, contemporary dance has made an almost sensational qualitative and quantitive leap forward in Berlin. It was just 5 years ago that editorial colleagues asked with some irritation what one wanted to report on 'tanz im august'. Nowadays one could fill an entire theatre with the number of tickets requested by the press and other media alone. What are it's origins, this new or rediscovered love, this curiosity? Is dance superior in it's reflection of contemporary times to theatre or tv? Which nerve is it that artists hit with the original results of their explorations? We really do live in distraught times. Ideologies and utopias have disappeared, morals are no longer universally accounted for, appearance and reality of the mass media reproduce the same old hypocritical mash, and the new media's predominance of virtuality robs us of any remaining certainty or physical and mental unity. Science has dissected our bodies into exchangeable individual parts and the new technologies have alienated us from ourselves to a degree which the early sociologists would never have dared to predict. The determinism which is firmly established in our every day consciousness claims that every effect goes back to a cause and thus eliminates every secret and every surprise in it's radical need for control. The concept of objectivity not only seperates the observer from the object of his/her observation but also forms the basis for our feelings of isolation and inner rift. Wholistic approaches, spirituality, reasoning of religious redemption, whether Gnostic sparks of the soul, Christian ethics of compassion or chanting tantric hindu gods can only be interpreted with scepticism from the terrorist point of view of our enlightened reason. Anything which seemingly has no cause, which cannot be explained and which goes beyond the limits of our comprehension sullenly shakes it's beautiful tangled locks and insists on being in the here and now.

And lo and behold: we find all that and much more in the dance of Anna Huber and Xavier le Roy, of Rubato, Helge Musial , Felix Ruckert, Ingo Reulecke, Jo Fabian and Thomas Lehmen, to mention a few representative members of Berlin's dance scene. We should thank them all - with slight sentimentality - for exploring our forms of existence despite the unfavourable circumstances and for not taking what seems so obvious for granted. It is strange though that although cultural politics always claims that it has a strong interest in contemporary dance, it still refuses to award dance the acknowledgement it deserves. Of course Berlin's cultural landscape may be experiencing hard times, the city's pockets may be empty, and the directors of opera houses and theatres may not know how they are supposed to secure the existence and quality of their work in the face of past and future cuts in funding. A look into the funding pots and the procedures for grants causes one to writhe in frustration. It is not only that the number of independent, funded groups is too low; and not only that the lucky few who do receive funding cannot work for several months each year unless they pay for it out of their own pockets and do so generously, without claiming refunds, all because of various household embargos. It is also not only that the Theater am Halleschen Ufer, the main stage for independent groups, has to apply for it's own production funds in vain. It does so only in order to be able to give the theatre a more distinct profile or to help groups out of crises or beginners get on their feet. Not only is the TanzWerkstatt Berlin underfunded, as is the rich in tradition, and trendsetting Tanzfabrik, but each year the funds for Tanz im August are not even guaranteed. Even the BerlinBallet still awaits it's foundation. No one has dared to mention the establishment of a stage for dance in Berlin which is long overdue. It should not be underestimated that the paralysing effect of fruitless discussions about the BerlinBallet and the stage for dance is a substantial part of the basic situation out of which dance is created in Berlin. Considering the circumstances it is surprising that dance from Berlin is more in demand now, than it has been for a long time. It is also surprising that at the last Tanzplattform in Hamburg more than half of the participants were from Berlin, that the Springdance festival will have a Berlin theme next year and that there are more and more arrivals in Berlin from the rest of Germany as well as abroad, and that they, for instance labor G. RAS, even waive secure financial backing.

So much has been said about culture as locational advantage over the past years. Even those who regard the economic use of art with justified distrust must have wished that culture as locational advantage would become effective not only in a promotional sense to the outside world, but also internally for structural reforms, secured financing or for innovation in sponsoring models. At least a clearer definition of performance locations, an even broader dance spectrum, which at it's best would also be internationally successful could be a first reward. We have already touched on what contemporary dance can induce socially and individually. A representative umbrella organisation for contemporary dance in Berlin which is in the process of being formed could achieve a lot. It could form a network of producers and groups and focus lobby efforts. Last year one colleague asked in a public forum if contemporary dance in Berlin was in a creative crisis. She was probably referring to the concentration on conceptual approaches in solo and other performances in Berlin's dance scene. Well, us residents of the capital city, often fail to look beyond city borders in general, we always believe ourselves to be incredibly important, which must have something to do with our genes or may be caused by Berlin's air. The question is perfectly justified. Depending on the perspective, experience and discipline in observation of the scene it may warrant varying answers. Large group choreographies have become rare recently, they would be much too expensive anyway. Aside from the financial aspect however, the interests of the dance scene tend towards the solo and performance. Perhaps because in this intimate art form an interest in theories of the body and identity issues can be expressed in a more intense way. Many works from Berlin show the dancing body as one which is fragmented into its individual parts. We often see them challenge physical and mental representations. The body is often presented as one which is defined through social and individual concepts and is therefore fixed. We see how this description is dismantled, sometimes even chiselled off. Is this inspection of the body as an object an expression of a new internal focus which neglects social conditions? And is this internal focus a reaction to the extreme acceleration which has taken hold of all parts of life of our society? Is it a reaction to the radical changes that have taken place in Germany since 1989, the results of which one can experience every day on the street or in the underground of an ever evolving Berlin? Does this profound and radical change which is social but individually experienced find expression in performance: the presentation of the lost unity of body and soul in dance pieces, which often goes as far as to lay the structure of the choreography open, without seeking to equip the skeleton with flesh? In some pieces produced in Berlin during the last years one really had the impression that in the end unfulfilling descriptions of conditions were in themselves the climax of the artistic analysis of contemporary issues. It seemed as though it sufficed as an idea for a choreography to present different manifestations of each subject and with them the origins of our being. The fragmentation of the body, the presentation of a frequently shattered self was often point of departure and conclusion of a work at the same time. Helge Musial had his dancers in ªcuts + slices. bodykind´ in the Tacheles search for the physical touch, for communion, for sensuality and feeling in neo-romantic fashion. He had the individual find redemption with the group, and not through an intensified, solitary differentiation of his or her own personality. In ªdistanzlos´, Thomas Lehmen presents fragments of his world of ideas, his note box, offers insights into his thoughts and desires. He thus makes himself transparent, opens himself up and seeks contact. Despite the factual, perfectionist and severe abstraction of her body architecture in her work, Anna Huber embarks on a search for her partner Lin Yuang Shang in ªl'autre et moi´. Cultural disagreements, very different professional backgrounds as well as aesthetic concepts seem to be no obstacle in the search for similarities which exist nonetheless. Jo Fabian rediscovers story telling in ªSteinberg. Born to be wild´. Although fictional, it is a highly political story which even has elements of biographical storytelling. Berlin's figurehead, Sasha Waltz, also creates herself anew with each of her pieces. Try to envision the ªTravelogue´- trilogy or ªAllee der Kosmonauten´ with ªK–rper´ at the same time. This is only possible in retrospect, keeping in mind the smaller works on the ªK–rper´ - themes presented at sophiensaele or the Jewish Museum.

Berlin's dance varies in shape and form despite it's quantity. The suspected creative crisis is rather a structural one. Or maybe not? It remains to be seen when and if the new technological possibilities, body-capture-technique, the cyber-dancers of the computer program 'Life Forms' and virtual humans will inhabit Berlin's stage screens. It may take a while. It is pretty expensive after all, much to the relief of many dance aficionados, be they analysts, gamblers, aesthetes or simply in search of sensibility. Some of them might stay away from the new design worlds of dance anyway. Or is the direction possibly an entirely different one? Are we rediscovering the art of storytelling? Will we leave the newest technologies to their groupies, those who always take the newest mobile phones on walks strapped to their belts like revolvers? Or will we use technology to search for a spiritual intelligence after discovering IQ and EQ, analytical and emotional intelligence? These are exciting times.