Pina Bausch "Spring Festival", "PHILIPS 836 887 DSY" / Germene Akoney "Omage to the The Ansisters" Visit to Japan Performance Report

When the venue gets darker, the music by Pierre Henri, a French musician pioneer in electronic music, will play, and the first performance "PHILIPS 836 887 DSY" will begin. The dancer was Eve Pajee, a guest dancer at the Pina Bausch Vppatar Dance Company. This work was first performed by Pina himself in 1971. The title is taken from Pierre Henri's LP album part number.

In a regular electronic sound, Eve's body emerges under the controlled lighting. Eve, who stretches his hands in a crawling position on the ground, opens his legs wide, and moves sideways from the sneezing in. Slowly stand up to confirm your body. A body that accelerates and rotates in the next moment when the arm is turned small and large. We move on to a gentle movement using the whole body and face the sound in a strange way.

Eve catches the mixed melodies with a high concentration and squeezes each other. The moment you lie on the stage, the body is always tightened. In the scene where you stand up and put your left foot forward and hit your chest with your right hand, music and unusual raw sounds resonate throughout the venue. It is a tense work where you can feel the origin of Pina, who confronts music with your body.

The second performance is "Omage to the Angels" by Germene Akoney. With the title "Respect for ancestors", this work depicts dialogue with those who have left for the world of death and death. At the introduction department, Germene speaks to the audience from everyday situations using candles and cushions, with contemporary movements in between.

The scene where tark is scattered while walking like a circle is aimed at those who lost their lives on the way while traveling across the sea from Senegal. In line with the intensifying music, Germane explodes with inner emotions moving. A tranquil scene that comes after that, as if you were traveling inside yourself. The journey leads to the ancestors who have spun continuous and history, and Germene scatters red petals on the stage. It reflects African culture, such as the traditional religion Bo Doe and the poems of Senegal poet Villago Diop.

However, what is reflected in this work is not limited to the culture of land as a mediator. At the end, "Hurrt" sung by American singer Johnny Kash flows, and after that, in the background of the video, while understanding that death will come someday, Germene is trying to live in life saying "It's not yet at that time." Expressed with powerful and delicate movements. It was time to experience the front lines of contemporary African dance.

A break is sandwiched with the end of "Omage to the The Ancesters", seats are spread by staff on the stage, and a large amount of soil is laid on it.

And "Spring Festival" begins. Pina choreographed the Spring Festival of Stravinsky, famous for ballet music, premiered in 1975. What is drawn is the appearance of those who are trying to dedicate their maidens to the sacrifice of the ceremony, and the maidens who are chosen as sacrifices and sprint to death.

A woman lying on a red cloth. The women moving around around them touch as if they were to check their bodies and show a feverish group dance. A woman who notices the red cloth and lets her go like a shy thing. Women who stretch their arms forward and dance with powerful up and down movements. The men crowded there.

Women who come together. From there, a woman who approaches the man and tries to hand over a red cloth appears and escapes back to the group. Finally, when one woman handed a red cloth to the man, the other women paired with the men and began to dance around the woman. And the woman who handed the red cloth puts it on. The red cloth was not just a cloth, but a costume of sacrifice. A woman who is caught and packed to sacrifice the people. Behind the conflict between men and women and individuals and groups depicted here is the human work that sacrifices others for themselves.

The sacrificed maiden exposes fear and despair, but never pushes her arms up, shrinks her body to convulsions, turns her arms, rotates her arms, and spreads her arms to threaten the void. They seem to be struggling, seeking help, or trying to burn out their life in the spirit. A maiden who falls on the soil and rises up and finally dies without getting up. And the moment it turned dark, the applause of thunder rang at the venue.

African dancers of various origins, such as traditional dance, contemporary, and hip-hop, have become more clarified by dancing "Spring Festival" because they are works that go beyond national and eras and explore universal human and society. The transparent gaze of human beings in Pinna's creation has given a sharp criticism to this work, and this company has succeeded in succeeding it. And this success can be said to have once again proved that Pina's Spring Festival is worthy of being inherited as a classic.

＜NEXT＞ Salomon Bausch (founder and director of the Pina Bausch Foundation) / Producer Team Interview