Radouan Mrziga is the performer. The producing centre the Moussem Nomadic Arts Centre - Mrziga is a Moroccan born, Brussels based dancer whose show called "55" is a solo dance performance conceptual in nature around the topic of the human body as an instrument of measurement. 6 ancient cassette players are placed around the dance area and are started by the dancer at various cues in the dance sequence
Intermittently -simultaneously recorded linear soundtracks . The sounds are indistinct music as if from the kasbah as if played on a poorly a tuned car radio in a taxi. This continues sequentially "around" the space for the duration of the performance with long pauses of silence in between. It suggests a middle eastern or Arabic environment.
The "dance" consists of a routine of, at first inexplicable, physical jerks executed in a pattern, with rippling arabesque movements in the arms as if the dancer were playing a game of incomplete hopscotch. As there is little else to do we watch a jeans clad dancer with his Calvin Klein underpants showing at the back as he stretches beneath his leather jacket.
15 minutes in to the performance the dancer picks up a roll of masking tape and while using his body begins to describe circles on thr floor demonstrating press-up like movements and marking graphic axes from which he will build a geometric design reminiscent of Arabic architectural and decorative motifs.This we as audience begin to realise is the pattern he has been describing in the first section with his body. We are now reminded of Leonardo da Vinci's drawings of a man on a wheel and of the architecture of the Alhambra. Is the artist suggesting that the patterns are expressive of human form in measurement? A simple diamond shape has now become a five pointed star. Octagons turn to dodecahedrons as the pattern illustrated with the tape on the floor becomes more complex. A final sequence is a complex concentration in the centre area of the pattern thus described. The creation is made and the dancer leaves the space.
Post show discussion chaired by a choreographer Eliot from the Space elicits a number of interesting points. The dancer would have preferred to be able to construct a three dimensional image had resources and technique been available
I ask two questions: "Does it matter if we as the audience understand his/their meaning" and "is the process more important than the content/performance". No clear answers but a thought-provoking discussion. So I assume it does not matter if we successfully decode and the process is the key
Dansens Hus Oslo CODA Festival
Intermittently -simultaneously recorded linear soundtracks . The sounds are indistinct music as if from the kasbah as if played on a poorly a tuned car radio in a taxi. This continues sequentially "around" the space for the duration of the performance with long pauses of silence in between. It suggests a middle eastern or Arabic environment.
The "dance" consists of a routine of, at first inexplicable, physical jerks executed in a pattern, with rippling arabesque movements in the arms as if the dancer were playing a game of incomplete hopscotch. As there is little else to do we watch a jeans clad dancer with his Calvin Klein underpants showing at the back as he stretches beneath his leather jacket.
15 minutes in to the performance the dancer picks up a roll of masking tape and while using his body begins to describe circles on thr floor demonstrating press-up like movements and marking graphic axes from which he will build a geometric design reminiscent of Arabic architectural and decorative motifs.This we as audience begin to realise is the pattern he has been describing in the first section with his body. We are now reminded of Leonardo da Vinci's drawings of a man on a wheel and of the architecture of the Alhambra. Is the artist suggesting that the patterns are expressive of human form in measurement? A simple diamond shape has now become a five pointed star. Octagons turn to dodecahedrons as the pattern illustrated with the tape on the floor becomes more complex. A final sequence is a complex concentration in the centre area of the pattern thus described. The creation is made and the dancer leaves the space.
Post show discussion chaired by a choreographer Eliot from the Space elicits a number of interesting points. The dancer would have preferred to be able to construct a three dimensional image had resources and technique been available
I ask two questions: "Does it matter if we as the audience understand his/their meaning" and "is the process more important than the content/performance". No clear answers but a thought-provoking discussion. So I assume it does not matter if we successfully decode and the process is the key
Dansens Hus Oslo CODA Festival
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