Very simple from the concept and questionable if necessary (except to economical and marketing questions), but I did it - joining Rosas & tg STAN at Kaai Theater to see the anniversary re-staging of 1999’s QUARTETT after 20 years.
Entering the space the sound took you immediately onto a trip back into the late 90ies (if you’ve experienced them as not the whole dance enthusiastic audience could state - even though there’ve been many who had seen the performance already when it premiered). TECHNOOOO … I thought of style, aesthetics, age, physical appearance when I thought about the piece that had been shown with the original performers Cynthia Loemij and Frank Vercruyssen, but I didn’t think of was the very obvious fact of sound. Even though it played only a role around the beginning and in the middle of the piece, it was a crucial element. The two performed the text by Heiner Müller perfectly and probably even better than 20 years ago - I don’t know. What I could see is that Cynthia brought her body language even into more perfection. It’s interesting to think of rivals of contemporary dance history’s classics, but I’ve to confess that I couldn’t feel the immediacy and relevance the piece might have had a 20 years ago … After the performance I noticed big applause as well as relief around me in the audience.
“While the text used to overwhelm me, I have now become much more aware of its layers and contradictions. It is simultaneously complex and simple, sad, cruel, but also funny. Our performance is less serious than it was twenty years ago.”
““I want to be your midwife to death.””
For the whole blog of the brusselsARTproject click here.