The participants of Critical Endeavour are looking forward to read and react on your comments and ideas. Please send an e-mail to: critical.endeavour@impulstanz.com.

 

Burgtheater. First break. Mmmm, I want to go, but I force myself to stay. We had two okay pieces by Forsythe but what was this weird Preljocaj doing in between? Forsythe doesn't abandon the movement repertoire of ballet, but he turns it into a language of his own. Less cruely sky-high and with an ironical wink here and there – certainly in the last piece, with Antony Rizzi in a sleeveless shirt. Sometimes Rizzi's movements seem to mock with ballet: he slips on purpose, sighs ostentatiously, and so on. Then there's Preljocaj. This guy really puts me on another planet. We get a love duet against a vague pink and blue backdrop. The dancers wear costumes of two centuries ago, maybe three. The both are in love.

I cannot understand why voice and countervoice, why the 'traditional' Preljocaj and the 'critical' Forsythe get as much applause. With movies and books allright, they can fit in one bookcase - but with live art? How can the 'romantic' costume dance survive next to its 'criticism'? And in reverse: what's the meaning of Rizzi's sighs next to all this virtuosity and polite negotiation about “your place or my place?” As if we could live in two eras at the same time! What is the meaning, what is the sense of an evening like this: a melancholy chit-chat with the dead?