On the Novel Hall stage circled by eight wooden pillars, a tall, slim figure in a dark blue trench coat makes a thorough dissection of the dancer's movements. Cloud Gate choreographer Lin Hwai-min (林懷民) made a sound of admiration and murmured, "It realizes the greatest possibility of art."
The dancer was Cesc Gelabert, a Catalonian choreographer/dancer who brings his most impressive solo performances Im (Goldenen) Schnitt I and II to start the sixth "Novel Dance" (
Im (Goldenen) Schnitt I and II is Gelabert's reconstruction of a minimalist and modernist dance created by the legendary German choreographer Gerhard Bohner in 1989, three years before he died of AIDS-related complications.
Gelabert was in the audience when Bohner performed the masterpiece that summed up his life-long artistic visions. He was utterly moved and vowed to preserve the solo for the international dance circle.
In Gelabert's words, Bohner made this solo a synthesis of two key movements: expressionism and the Bauhaus, which embrace modernist simplicity, rationality and utility in art.
Im (Goldenen) Schnitt I can be divided into two parts. The first section involves the artist's exploration of space with his body. The second part presents an "anatomy of the human condition," as the artist puts it. It's a journey of consciousness through the whole body -- from the skull, shoulders, chest, arms and toes -- to explore the structural possibilities of movement.
The minimalist stage design of sculptors Vera Rohm and Robert Schad puts the dancers in the foreground, accompanied by Johann Sebastien Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. The music is performed live by Heidrun Holtmann in Im (Goldenen) Schnitt II, the same pianist who accompanied Bohner when he danced the piece.
Gelabert said such a performance is more demanding and difficult than a flashy spectacle.
"Each joint and muscle needs to be in precise control. Each move needs to be absolutely clear. Your whole body needs to be in harmony with the precision of Bach's music."
"The dance is about concentration, precision and silence, in a way. I am in front of the audience with my whole life behind me. It requires the same quiet concentration from the audience. I want the audience [members] to be in contact with their own emotions and imagination," Gelabert said.
Lin, the art director of the Novel Dance series, had another point about Gelabert's brutally honest and dignified performances.
"It's a dance of the king. No words can describe its elegance and grandness. You have to see it yourself and be confrontational with the dance in a way that is equivalent to Bach's music."
Oyster by the Inbal Pinto Dance Company offers a change of mood, from solemnness to fantastic delight. Hailed as one of the rising stars of the international dance circle, Israeli choreographer Inbal Pinto masterfully combines elements of ballet, mime, acrobatics and contemporary dance to create a surrealistic circus-like vaudeville.
All the performers appear like white-faced manikins or curious creatures that seem to come out of the whimsical world of Salvador Dali. In the theater of child-like innocence created by co-director Avshalom Pollak, the audience is invited to join the ballerinas, flying acrobats, two-headed giants and marionettes to realize their wildest dreams.
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