A NEW OPERA for DIDO MARZENA KRZEMINSKA Questions on ‘Queer’
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A NEW OPERA FOR DIDO MARZENA KRZEMINSKA questions on ‘queer’. What is ‘queer’ GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO nowadays? THE PROJECT Queer culture and gay culture flirts with kitsch, a form despised by dominant A New Opera for Dido by Marzena Krzeminska aesthetics. However, kitsch has taken an is a ‘pop’ version of Henry Purcell’s opera Dido important place among the general public, and Aeneas for 4 eccentric characters. Would not it be interesting to look for a new side of queer? Originally meaning ‘strange’ The creative process will integrate a precise or ‘peculiar’, queer is a term to be used to study of the original Baroque composition of describe everybody and everything that is out the opera: dramatic declamations, short arias, of norms and escapes easy categorization. I polyphonic songs, traditional English songs would love performers of New Opera for Dido and comic elements. Those forms will be to be queer, looking magically strange and reinterpreted: the dramatic declamations will peculiar. take a form of «slam», the traditional song might be coming not only from England but With this in mind, we will begin with the also from Eastern Europe, short arias might collection of resources: Dido’s last tune, be performed as pop songs. We will try to Sylvia Plath’s poem Crossing the water and keep comic elements. other texts dealing with the theme of nature, disappearance and sex. I began by taking up Marzena Krzeminska: the challenge of classifying identity through the «biological genre» or the «cultural genre». I am interested in many different styles of However, a simple verbalization of thoughts singing. I have already worked on aria ‘When I is not enough, it should still be passed am laid’ from the opera of Henry Purcell, when through the body. We will therefore work with I created a solo called «5-7-5 Haiku» in 2012. «biological femininity» and with different I have learnt some of traditional polish and women, examining their attitude towards their ukrainian songs, I sang in a gospel choir and own body. We will examine the attributes of recently I was initiated to katajjaq, a practice femininity interpreted by a man, in the spirit of inuit throat singing. I am interested in a of play with the femininity of Drag Queens. spiritual aspect of the act of singing together. However, this will not prevent us from asking I am also interested in the transformation of more universal questions about the essence the bodily sensations, the change of one’s of humanity, nature and disappearance. I state and a way of perceiving the self with am convinced that we should not determine different ways of breathing and singing. I everything by the lens of sex and gender, would like to counterpose those different whether it is «biological» or «cultural». This styles of singing, to understand what image creation is an opportunity to take an interest they bring, what kind of association. Gospel in the sensual potential and the richness of songs, traditional songs, pop songs, punk the expression of a sensual body. The study of songs – each of those styles has a cultural sexuality, sensuality and sensitivity is part of background, a way of positioning oneself the body experience that can be expressed in towards the World. different ways through dance, and this is not just about dances from pop culture. In this project I want to focus more on } Marzena Krzeminska LIST OF 3 ISSUES THAT I WISH TO AVOID IN MY WORK Superficial process I would like to avoid the promotion of the superficiality of contemporary culture by involving myself in the process that pretends to talk about something without taking responsability to genuinely question the reality we are living in. Easy to consume product I would like to avoid preparation of ‘easy to consume’ performance based on one idea, sort of ‘jumping piece’ or ‘shaking piece’, that would be extremely simple in the form and very explicit in the description. I think that we live in a very complex world or maybe better, that our experience of life might be very complex and it should be expressed in the complex form. The ambition to create such a form includes taking risk of entering False democracy or a collective work, practices’ among the partiicipants. I was a choreographer) is put in the position of into the chaos and finding the way back out where nobody wants to take the observing how easily people were giving up ‘knowing everything’ and the dancers are of it, enriched by this journey. responsability on the initial agreement (which was a work put in the position of ‘the puppets in her Writting a smart text with a quotation I have participated recently in the collective with a famous artist) and adapting to the hands’. It is important for me that each of famous philosopher and creating a project. It was not initially a collective situation of ‘sharing practices’, that except participant of the project keeps his ‘identity’ movement-image illustration to it, as many project, but a workshop given by the artist the word ‘practice’ and a duration time, and any dancer is not treated as a ‘carte choreographers do, doesn’t interest me. I in collaboration with an art theoricien and a didn’t consist of research question, clear blanche’, that choreographer can project have been taking my time to understand curator. During the week a workshop became intention or embodied practice! We were on, whatever idea she wants. Creation and to learn what are the processes, that somehow a collective project because the all getting bored, following the rules, that is a process of negotiation between the one has to pass through in order to create original leaders where smoothly passing we have created for ouerselves, fearing to choreographer and the dancers, between a performance where we can find new the work to their assistants (that didn’t have break the atmosphere of a social politeness. all the participants of the project. The energies, learn from our bodies, let the the same qualifications as original leaders, I definitely don’t want people to be rude. But aim is to find new agreements, new ways emotions speak...Well, I keep learning. neither the desire to fully take responsabilty the artistic process is usually a collective of organizing within the group, to find for the group and the work) and there was process with shared responsability. I would new theatre, new rituals and new ways to some openess towards ‘sharing their like to avoid a situation where one (usually acheive katharsis. Marzena Krzeminska photography : Francesca Woodman, Providence, Rhode Island, 1975-78 BIOGRAPHIES Simon Tanguy Performer Marzena Krzeminska Choreographer and dancer, based in Artistic director Rennes. Since the age of 18 he has been Choreographer and performer, graduated creating his own shows within a youth from SNDO (School for New Dance circus company that performs in the street Development) in Amsterdam and Theatre and traditional circuses. In 2005, after Academy in Warsaw. ten years of practising judo, he obtained a She lives in Brittany (France) for few years philosophy degree in Rennes. Having taken now. up contemporary dance, he enrolled at the She teaches in the Musée de la Danse Samovar School in Paris, training in physical and participates in their different projects, theatre and clowning, where he developed like Fous de Danse or Permanence, where his ideas around burlesque, buffoonery she performed in Kiss, a performance and grotesque performance. In 2011, he choreographed by Tino Sehgal. graduated from the School for New Dance Her solo work „Too Beautiful” was presented Development in Amsterdam. He explores in march 2017 in the frame of Festival 360 motion intensity, extreme emotional states degrés in Saint-Brieuc, France. and the shifting musicality of an alert body. She is currently working on a new project He also adds to contemporary dance an „Nature & Queer, a new opera for Dido” energetic background that derives from which is an extension of the research of her theatre and he transposes into the former first solo «5-7-5 Haiku» created in the 2012 the wildness and openness of clowning. in the frame of the solo project program in He has worked both as a dancer and Poznan. performer for international choreographers: Marzena worked as a performer with such Boris Charmatz, Maud Le Pladec, Deborah choreographers as: Deborah Hay, Benoit Hay, Ame Henderson. His solo “Japan” Lachambre, Rob List, and as assistant to the received the ITS choreography award 2011. choreographer with Maria Hassabi in New The trio «Gerro, Minos and Him», made in York and Jeanine Durning in Amsterdam. collaboration with Aloun Marchal and Roger She collaborates with choreographer Simon Sala Reyner, received 2nd prize Danse Tanguy and Compagnie Propagande C. She Elargie in 2010 at the Théâtre de la Ville- danced in a piece choreographed by Simon Paris and the theaterhaus prize Stuttgart in Tanguy People in a Field. She also worked 2013. as dramaturge for the piece Championnat In 2013, the company Propagande C was that he created with circus artists, the duet created in Saint-Brieuc. Three pieces got Digging with the British collective NORA produced since then : « People in a Field » and his last piece I Wish I Could Speak in (2014), « Inging » (2016), « I Wish I Could Technicolor. Speak in Technicolor » (2017). In Brittany, In 2017, Simon Tanguy and Marzena Simon Tanguy collaborates frequently Krzeminska have co-signed „Cabaret with the Musée de la Danse, with the précaire”. choreographers Marzena Krzeminska, Élisa } Marzena Krzeminska Le Merrer and with others partners from the ... she received the public award of the she could dance first and think afterwards” creator and performer (2009), as well as department of Côtes d’Armor.