Ginevra Panzetti and Enrico Ticconi, INSEL
Sophiensæle Festsaal; August 10, 2023
Trajal Harrell and Schauspielhaus Zürich Dance Ensemble, The Romeo
Haus der Berliner Festspiele; August 12, 2023
Tanz im August, Berlin’s annual two-and-a-half-week summer festival of contemporary dance, returned for its 35th edition with a new director: Ricardo Carmona, former associate curator of Hau, Hebbel am Ufer. Unchanged, however, was its showcasing of recognised companies, innovative choreographers and new aesthetics and formats from around the world at various venues across the city. Unfortunately, this year I was only able to see two shows.
INSEL by Ginevra Panzetti and Enrico Ticconi is based on the idea of islands as emblematic of isolation. Dark texts recited in Italian and projected in English, refer to pain, dismay, loneliness and hopelessness, the dismal feelings evoked all acted and embodied by dancers Sissj Bassani, Efthimios Moschopoulos, Aleksandra Petrushevska and Julia Plawgo.
Photo courtesy Tanz im August
The result is something reminiscent of Commedia dell’Arte, where the performers exaggerate to reach an overdramatic outcome. The choreography repeats itself. The performers throw themselves on the stage floor from behind a curtain before they move scattily: individually, in duets, and towards the end, coming together in something that seems to be a collective ritual around a hanging container from which a thin stream of sand falls.
INSEL felt flat, despite the pathos involved in its content. It felt as if the exaggeration of darkness and despair, its blowing up out of all proportion, only served to make the piece less profound and effective. And while the piece does include the interesting sounds of a thunderstorm and music inspired by cantu a tenor, a polyphonic form of Sardinian singing, it was all way too loud, even with the ear plugs given before entering.
On a totally different note, The Romeo by American choreographer Trajal Harrell and Schauspielhaus Zürich Dance Ensemble, proved an immersive and very pleasing experience.
The Romeo is inspired by the primal impulse behind the desire to dance, and to transcend the here and now. Harrell asks us to imagine a dance that could be at home across place and time. One danced by all generations and genders, people of all temperaments and moods, to celebrate the defeat of a person or collective tragedy. A dance named after the headstrong lover from Shakespeare’s tragedy, who in dying, in the sense that the story lives on, defied and defeated death.
As always, Harrell combines voguing with bizarre and fascinating outfits in choreography full of fluid, wavy, undulating movement. Together with his company, he held the attention of the audience for the work’s full 70 minutes. It is difficult to describe, though; the sort of piece that has to be lived in to be truly felt and appreciated.
Photo Orpheas Emirzas
Elegant voguing takes place across the stage, the cast in individual, colourful, often extravagant costumes that I particularly enjoyed watching for the way elements were recycled and the highly creative nature of combinations. The large cast move in all directions, often appearing from and disappearing behind a steel see-through round construction at the back of the stage. At times they come towards the audience insistently, looking at us defiantly.
But that defiance is part of the style, part of the voguing culture that, fascinatingly, brings out the glamorous yet vulnerable personality of all the dancers. Indeed, watching them, I found myself imagining their characters. In one way or another, everyone is fascinating. As they showcase themselves and their role, attitudes and singularities are very visible in their walking and in their posing.
Despite the basic nature of much of the movement, and its repetitive nature, The Romeo holds the attention superbly. The piece turns out to be mesmerising and meditative at the same time. Maybe it’s something to do with the nature of the rocking movement, or perhaps the constant and rich amount of fashion show-style runway walking mixed with serious looks and gravitas, that makes it so absorbing and interesting. As I said, Trajal Harrell’s work is hard to describe, but the result is excellent.