Yes, I Think I Know What You Want To Say ("I Think I Know What You Want To Say", work-in-progress)

Some more video stills captured for "I Think I Know What You Want To Say" (work-in-progress). Locations: dance studio in Heidelberg (Corinna Clack's class), Antiquariat Hatry, Gebärden Verstehen (German Sign Language school in Heidelberg).

Gestures You Need To Go With Gestures You Already Have ("I Think I Know What You Want To Say", work-in-progress)

One of the many video stills captured for "I Think I Know What You Want To Say" (this at Antiquariat Hatry): "Gesten, Die Du Bräuchtest, Um Sie Neben Anderen Gesten, Die Du Bereits Hast, Zu Gebrauchen" ("Gestures You Need To Go With Gestures You Already Have")

And one of the drawings in the background...

Upon seeing Pina Bausch's work (inspiration, process)

What interests me the most (as an artist) about Pina Bausch's work?

www.moving-moments.de © Bettina Stöß


This man mentions a few things which are important to me  (Thomas Riccio, in his review of Pina Bausch by Royd Climenhaga; Theatre Journal, 2010):

"Her process-oriented work was shaped by the moment and by the people with whom she worked. [...]
Bausch did not stage stories, but rather experiences—at once immediate, personal, and universal."

But, of course, it's much more than that. Yes, her work fills me with awe but after seeing a performance I am also left with a sort of desire, a hunger that's very hard to analyze or describe.

Maybe that's why I like reading others' thoughts about Pina's work, because it helps me find words for the impact her work has on me, as well--for example at Sadler's Wells Theatre's website, especially "I'm a Pinaholic" or this eloquent description:

"In a culture like ours, where categorisation counts for much, the stagings of Pina Bausch seek in vain for an easy name, concrete meaning, rational description... none of which can be found in what she actually does. Her world is elliptical, post-rational, pre-classical. She has - and this makes her both shameless and special - the unique ability to unite on stage the flailing impulses of a child with the witty self-consciousness of adulthood. These qualities were immediately on show in these two seminal works, which remain as fresh, startling and transporting as they were when first seen in another century and a smaller Germany. If anything, their originality has deepened with time."
From "The Singular Art of Pina Bausch" By James Woodall

Einfach brilliant: Der Mann im Nichts (inspiration, process)

Brilliantes aus dem Archiv der ZEIT: Der Mann im Nichts (von Clemens Setz)

"Der falsche Dolmetscher verwandelte uns also, in gewissem Sinn, in Aphasie-Patienten, die den "Vorteil" haben, hinter das Gewebe der nonverbalen Umstände zu blicken. Nelson Mandela sei "der letzte große Befreier des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts" gewesen, so Barack Obama, und die Sphinx neben ihm verwandelte diese Aussage, die möglicherweise unter dem dritten oder vierten Mal Lesen zerfällt, in drei oder vier vollkommen nichtssagende Gesten.

Ich hoffte, es möge keine Aufklärung folgen. Wenn der Pseudodolmetscher sich nach der Veranstaltung einfach in Luft auflösen würde, bliebe ein sonderbares, mysteriöses, verstörendes, provokantes, aber immerhin auch vollkommenes Kunstwerk zurück."

Participation & the "open" (or "unfinished") work (inspiration, process)

Among other things, I've been reading and thinking about Eco's ideas regarding the "open" or "unfinished" work, excerpted in this excellent book from The MIT Press, PARTICIPATION, edited by Claire Bishop.

"More than twenty years after its original appearance in Italian The Open Work remains significant for its powerful concept of “openness” – the artist’s decision to leave arrangements of some constituents of a work to the public or to chance – and for its striking anticipation of two major themes of contemporary literary theory: the element of multiplicity and plurality in art, and the insistence on literary response as an interactive response between reader and text. The questions Umberto Eco raises, and the answers he suggests, are intertwined in the continuing debate on literature, art, and culture in general..."

Sign language in dance (inspiration, process)

The Man I Love:
Lutz Förster, the genius of subtlety (here in Pina Bausch's piece "Nelken" from 1982)