“Everything is waltz”
PERFORMANCE / INSTALLATION / ART BALL / WORKSHOP
I. CONCEPT
Walzer is a project by Jenny Beyer and Jassem Hindi, choreograph and sound artist, both interested in abstract objects and forms for what they are: a set of rules to play with, to distort and rebuild, to forget and to recreate, to learn from, to share with others.
Our collaboration was born under the common gesture of using a fixed art form and injecting it into our own practice, to see what it would change, what it would provoke. We wanted to experiment with the form of waltz as a material for our common work. By over layering art installation, choreography, performance, sound, music and bodies, we were able to consider and experience waltz as an attitude, a set of forms and rules, a playground for bodies and sound. We also discovered new ways to collaborate across art fields. The matter of waltz itself, just like any physical object, holds within its own structure, its own properties, some points of resistance and some frailties - an intrinsic ability to transform into something else, something new.
Walzer is a pool from which we can create and propose various forms. It is a performance for 5 dancers or more and one sound artist. It is an installation/performance project (presented at the Weimar Kunstfest in August 2009). It is a ball, considered as social art experiment (performed on several occasions during 2009 - 2010). It is an open research/workshop project in which we can invite public and artists to practice this matter with us.
We discovered and focused on several aspects we could use and integrate into our own practice. These elements include a set of various methods for artistic collaborations, the offering of a social and public space, the research on an “attitude”, a “spirit”, the behavior of a formal structure when dived into an experimental art pool. Waltz holds within its formal aspect something that calls for an opening between art fields, between periods of history, between bodies, between the public and the performers, between spaces.
A. 3/4 is an attitude
The organization of waltz itself offered us an entry point: its surface. A 3/4 structure is based on a natural imbalance, the third movement being always open, always on the verge of falling. It doesn't stand still, it doesn't come back to its initial position, it calls for movement, it calls for its own transformation. It allows us to introduce waltz to our contemporary practice, and to introduce new movements we recognize as waltz. The cracking of wood instead of a symphony, a football movement instead of a twist. A faint nostalgia of waltz appears, both in music and dance, and suddenly everything becomes 3/4. We use the very spirit of waltz, this movement of control and release, this third movement which opens to everything. We use the attitude of waltz to feed our contemporary practice, not its rigid cliche. We use the etiquette of a ballroom to create a landscape that is always changing, the reminiscence of something that is never exactly where it seems to be.
B. One word, several art forms
Because the word waltz defines at the same time music and dance, this allows us to research side by side, for sound and bodies, and project on each others art “field” some of our own methods. A sound piece transforms into an installation, the installation opens the dancer to other movements, these movements allow another space for the music. Side by side we can define a common space to share and practice.
C. Waltz is a social event
Waltz has been conceived as a social event, as an entertaining art. This very aspect gives us a space to produce, offers us the possibility to link it to a public event. The fact that it is entertainment points to us to the idea that it is also a public practice, an entry point into a social art performance. We can use it to inject contemporary art into society, by using the codes of waltz (balls) to play with our public, to make them practice for themselves some of the formats of contemporary art, or to question the physical place of people during a performance. It is also about how to reintroduce contemporary art experiences to a broader audience.
II. Projects
In this project, the kind of activity, the number of people and the type of space in which it can be displayed may vary a lot.
A. Performances / Installations
The performance itself is site specific dependent, and most of how we will implement our project will depend on the space, the social environment and time frame. It can be for one dancer and a musician. It can be for 9 dancers and a whole installation set.
B. The Ball
The ball is a social art event, involving all types of social and artistic interactions. It holds on to costumes, music, dance, videos, consumables (champagne and drinks). It is a play with codes and etiquette. A way to practice this ball attitude and to get introduced and be able to practice some of our own material, in sounds, choreography, set design... A question is asked: how can we try other forms of art and public interactions, how can we play with this, by breaking the rule and making the public the guest, and us the hosts. By letting the public dance and use the space, in a simple and direct manner. What is a ball, how does it help to acquaint with contemporary art? Every event will hold its own answer.
C.Workshops
Workshops are linked to our own personal craft, and to the number of artists involved at the time of our participation to any event, residency, festival. They will involve as much as a general introduction to our “world” and how we use art to feed our art, or very practical aspects. Such as dance courses, building an installation or a self made instrument, body practices, costume making, or a direct involvement in our performance.
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