EFE Agency 05 de JUNE de 2005
EFE Agency
Berlin, Germany
05/JUNE/2005
By Guillem Sans
COLKER, FROM BRAZIL, PREMIERES SENSUAL PRODUCTION AT POWER STATION.
Wolfsbourg, Germany, May 6 - An old power station was the scenery chosen by the Brazilian choreographer Deborah Colker for the world opening of ?Knot?, her latest production, which last night sparked great enthusiasm from the public, in the car-factory town of Wolfsbourg, northern Germany.
?Knot?, which may be seen until next Sunday, highlights sex and extreme desire in its first act, in which the 16 dancers unfold their story midst a sea of ropes hanging from the top of the stage, first to the beat of electronic music, later to the rhythm of a piano concert by Maurice Ravel.
The second part conveys much softer sensuality as if the dancers, after breaking free from the fetters that previously kept them bound under high-voltage pressure, were now able to indulge in a more elegant liberation dance, around a cube with transparent walls.
This production has left nothing to improvisation; the moves conceived by Colker are executed with millimetric precision, while the choreographer herself received acclaim for her solo performances in fragments of the second act, which closed to standing ovation.
?I love this scenery, it inspired me greatly?, Colker remarked after the show, referring to the power station, a gargantuan hulk with old turbines that should be in a museum, adapted to the scenery in a remodeling that reminds one of a Berlin techno club from ten years ago.
The 43-year-old choreographer later explained to EFE that she conceived the production thinking of the idea that ?every day, we are bound by knots we later unravel?. This is her first creation that premieres outside Brazil, in faraway Europe, without her closest friends. Above all, it was ?really, the most difficult? of the six she flaunts in her r?sum?, in spite of being ?more pop? than the others, esthetically, particularly due to the glaring red in the second act’s stage design.
This is also the first co-production made in the ?Movimentos Festival? with a foreign dance company, a project for which Colker has dedicated lately all of her energies, to the point of leaving on hold every other project, idea, and commission.
Among these, stands out a dance performance entitled ?Maracan?? (after the soccer stadium in Rio that for decades was largest in the world) that the choreographer is concocting for the Germany 2006 World Cup. She refrained from getting into detail, other than that she’s opening, next Monday, tryouts in Cologne, West Germany.
Wolfsbourg received warmly the opening of ?Knot? in the third edition of the ?Movimentos International Dance Festival?, which, this year brings to Volkswagen’s hometown companies such as Montalvo-Hervieu, Tero Saarinen and Dave St-Pierre’s. The town lives off the car factory, and its residents are fortunate to enjoy a cultural program that rivals with that of much larger cities, such as Hannover, the neighboring Lower Saxon capital.
The London National Portrait Gallery, for instance, picked the Wolfsbourg Museum to expose in Germany, until July 24th, a retrospective with photographer Cecil Beaton.
The dance festival, in which Deborah Colker struck what could be her greatest hit yet, will be in season until the 29th - and nearly all of the 21000 tickets available (altogether) have already sold out, according to their artistic director, Maria Schneider.
