The choreographer and the dancer must remember that they reach the audience
through the eye. It’s the illusion created which convinces the audience,
much as it is with the work of the magician.
George Balanchine
Statement about the work
I totally agree with Balanchine that dance reaches the audience trough the eye,
but unlike him I don’t want to create an illusion. Instead of veiling
the action (like a magician), I am looking for a dance that creates a space
for the audience to experience the dancer experiencing.
I believe that there is a parallel between ballet and the ‘antique’
conception of movement (Deleuze). Or differently put: I believe that ballet
suits our eyes/minds that tend to function like a cinematographic machine (Bergson).
In ballet bodies move from one ‘eternal form’ to the other, or from
one ‘image’ to the next.
In this project I want to work within the ballet-technique but focus on the
movement between the ‘images’. Showing the transformation (rather
than the transition) of the dancer moving from one pose to the next.
Instead of creating a dancing ‘cinematographic illusion’, I would
like to take apart the cinematographic machine. Slowing the movement down, showing
the immobile images, and the darkness between them. In cinema the real movement
(in the cinematographic machine!) happens while the audience is watching the
dark. In this project it is movement, this darkness, that I would like to bring
to light.