Cal Performances Presents
Th ursday, February , , pm Friday, February , , pm Zellerbach Hall Th e Forsythe Company
Th ree Atmospheric Studies
Th e Forsythe Company is supported by the City of Dresden and the State of Saxony, as well as the City of Frankfurt am Main and the State of Hesse.
Th is presentation is made possible, in part, by Goethe-Institut San Francisco.
Cal Performances’ – season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.
12 CAL PERFORMANCES Program
Th ree Atmospheric Studies
A Work by Th e Forsythe Company North American Premiere
Part I + II Clouds after Cranach Part III Study III
Direction William Forsythe Music, Part II David Morrow Music, Part III Th om Willems Stage Lighting William Forsythe Text, Part II William Forsythe Text, Part III Dana Caspersen, William Forsythe and David Kern Costumes Satoru Choko and Dorothee Merg Sound Design and Synthesis Dietrich Krüger and Niels Lanz Voice Treatment, DSP Programming Andreas Breitscheid, Oliver Pasquet and Manuel Poletti, in collaboration with the Forum Neues Musiktheater Staatsoper, Stuttgart Speakers, Part II Amancio Gonzalez, David Kern and Jone San Martin Speakers, Part III Dana Caspersen, David Kern and Ander Zabala Duration hour, minutes Premiere February , , Spielzeiteuropa, Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Berlin
Th ree Atmospheric Studies is a triptych of dances drawing on a wide range of iconographic traditions. It is also choreographer William Forsythe’s most explicit and most political work: a great performance, simultaneously furious and refl ective, on one of the central confl icts of our time. Forsythe succeeds in creating imposing images of war purely by means of the human body; however, despite their great clarity, he refuses to use these images to articulate a specifi c political thesis, preferring instead to generate choreography and direction out of the fatal inner energies of the confl ict.—Peter Michalzik
CAL PERFORMANCES 13 Cast
Th e Forsythe Company
Dancers Yoko Ando, Cyril Baldy, Francesca Caroti, Dana Caspersen, Amancio Gonzalez, David Kern, Marthe Krummenacher, Ioannis Mantafounis, Fabrice Mazliah, Roberta Mosca, Nicole Peisl, Christopher Roman, Jone San Martin, Yasutake Shimaji, Elizabeth Waterhouse, Ander Zabala
Staff William Forsythe Artistic Director Dr. Vera Battis-Reese Managing Director Susanne Brenner Technical Production/Stage Supervisor Dorsey Bushnell Personal Assistant to the Artistic Director Th ierry Guiderdoni Artistic Assistant to William Forsythe/ Ballet Master Dietrich Krüger Sound and Video Designer Roserita Kuster* Make-up Niels Lanz Sound and Video Designer Dorothee Merg Head of Costume Department David Morrow Pianist/Composer Ulf Naumann Technical Production Julian Gabriel Richter Production Manager Mechthild Rühl Press/PR/Marketing Manager Tanja Rühl Technical Production/Lighting Supervisor Max Schubert Technical Director Paul Viebeg Planning/Stage Manager/Tour Manager Martina Zimmer Assistant to the Managing Director Melanie Zimmermann Assistant to the Press/PR/Marketing Manager * guest
North American Tour Representation Rena Shagan Associates, Inc. A West th Street New York, New York () - www.shaganarts.com Felicitas Willems Tour Coordinator Anne McDougall Company Manager
14 CAL PERFORMANCES Program Notes
Desastres de la Guerra: How William In contrast to the theatre’s other creative Forsythe’s Three Atmospheric Studies talents, Forsythe is almost always present when Turns Dance into Political Tanztheater his company performs and is constantly alter- ing what happens on stage. Th ree Atmospheric Political content, which has almost fully disap- Studies radicalizes this principle, given that peared from the theatre, can appear in unex- the piece has evolved considerably having gone pected places. Th ree Atmospheric Studies is, to through a number of iterations. my mind, an example of the most political in- With the exception of one sentence, tervention and position-taking currently on of- Composition is completely silent. “My son was fer in the theatre. Impossible? How can a piece arrested,” says dancer Jone San Martin, pointing by a choreographer often seen as an aesthete ex- to her child. By virtue of his red t-shirt, the son press basic truths about some of the most press- remains easily identifi able as he moves among ing confl icts of our times? How can Tanztheater the other less conspicuously clad performers. In morph into the political at all? Can dance really the troupe’s movements, gestures and images of hold its own—fundamentally, not merely by an explosion and of the son’s arrest can be dis- making use of allusion or reference—when it cerned, and the boy’s fl ow of movement repeat- comes to today’s complex political realities? edly ends in the arms of two “police offi cers.” For years, political art (and not just in the As the movement freezes, those so inclined will theatre) has proven wanting. Th e contexts have perceive stills of one, two or three scenes: an ex- become so complicated that art addressing po- plosion, an arrest and the horrifi ed recognition litical topics has either seemed overly simpli- of incoming rockets—tattered snapshots from fi ed—especially when it has not shied away the unending fl ow of war-time imagery. from taking a stand—or undermuscled and Th e fl ow of movement constantly grows in pale, since it has not pressed on into the moral agitation; the dancers’ ever more audible breath- dimensions necessary to adequately consider ing seems a sort of musical score. In the work’s and depict political subject matter. At best it has fi rst version, the movement’s fl uidity was para- been witty, an aperçu that briefl y accords us a mount, and the dancers gave the impression of feeling of freedom. being loaded, self-charging particles in the cen- Th ree Atmospheric Studies consists of three tre of a storm cloud—an “atmospheric study” in parts that are referred to as “compositions.” First the most literal sense. War, the explosions in the come Compositions to ; the fourth is a cru- Middle East—to give one interpretation—can cifi xion scene by the painter Lukas Cranach, be viewed as manifestations of a great cosmo- with the fi fth being a modern-day press agency logical aggressiveness and potency. In the fi nal photograph depicting an exploding landscape work, this aspect has receded into the back- in the Middle East. Both pictures can be seen ground, although it remains present, in favor of hanging in the foyer during the performances. the boy’s capture, which then persists as a defi n- Compositions and correlate, to the extent ing moment: My son was arrested. that Cranach’s thunderhead—not just a meteo- Th e complexity increases in the second com- rological phenomenon, but a divine, biblical one position. Th e mother sits opposite an interpreter, as well—can also be seen rising from the detona- who is supposed translate her accounting of the tion in the photograph. Here we see the under- events into Arabic. Th eir eff orts are meant to lying structure that informs all of the evening’s make the proceedings offi cial. Th us, the mother compositions, throughout which a single scene considers it important to make herself under- repeats itself on multiple levels. Bringing these stood, and the translating then evolves into the repetitions into alignment is the main challenge focal point, with the interpreter, who gradually confronting the viewer. relinquishes his neutral stance, taking on the key
CAL PERFORMANCES 15 Program Notes
Lucas Cranach the Elder, Lamentation Beneath the Cross () Bavarian State Painting Collections, Old Pinakothek, Munich
16 CAL PERFORMANCES Program Notes
Reuters/Athar Hussein (November , ) role. At fi rst, both mother and translator agree to describes an apartment building, an overturned proceed as precisely as possible, word for word. automobile, the cloud rising from an explo- “My son,” she begins. “Ibni,” he translates, ex- sion; within Composition , Kern is depicting plaining with over-exactness that he has to unite Composition . During the time that the dispute the two words, “my” and “son.” What follows between the mother and interpreter devolves starts to spin out of the mother’s control, with into an open fi ght, he describes Composition : the interpreter accusing her of being unfocused the mother wailing at the foot of the cross. Th e and the mother herself soon suspecting that his mother onstage reacts with indignation; she view of the entire situation is incorrect. claims she is not part the fi fth composition, but Th is scene, one of increasing alienation belongs to Composition instead. She is not the and uproar, is underscored by a box next to the fi gure of the mother eternally bewailing her loss, mother, from which a whining, accusing tone the icon of the confl ict; her story is concretely emanates, a tone that might arise from the cen- defi ned. She insists that a truth exists that can tre of her being were she not suppressing it. At be ascertained, that something happened to her the same time, the scene is interrupted by anoth- son which can be explained. er dancer, David Kern. He traces lines across the Th e event that was presented as real in stage that defi ne the artistic vanishing points of Composition becomes inherently intangible; the fourth and fi fth compositions, embellishing it withdraws. Th is is the central movement in the set with the perspective chosen by Cranach Forsythe’s political theatre: Th e happening hap- and recorded in the war-scene photo. He then pens, we imagine it, we create an image of it. But
CAL PERFORMANCES 17 Program Notes through this the process also fades, becoming resounds with the din of war. Th e mother sits essentially incomprehensible. Th us, Forsythe’s abject in front of the wall. All of the happening’s composition touches on the key experience to be diverse levels splay apart, visible for everyone to had in a media-based world: All of the globe’s see. catastrophes are accessible, yet they remain re- One character now makes tangible the dis- mote; all confl icts are open to the public, but parateness of war and suff ering, a fundamen- they have become unapproachable. tal helplessness: Dana Caspersen speaks to the Th is visualization of an impalpable pro- mother as a U.S. soldier, using an accent from cess—which remains constantly present with the American South. She explains that despite all its painful consequences, thanks to both San the tragic personal consequences, what hap- Martin’s performance and the sounds reverber- pened was in order, that there is no reason for ating from the box—serves Forsythe well, al- alarm—words we recognize. Here we have a bit- lowing him to illuminate the contrast between ter indictment against the scorn of those situ- pain and intangibility. With Th ree Atmospheric ated in superior positions. And, even worse, this Studies, Forysthe’s theatre makes clear the is the voice that acts as if it has everything under loss of “real” war, which, since the invasion of control, even in a shattered reality where action, Afghanistan by the Soviet Union or, at the lat- knowledge, sight, feeling and suff ering no longer est, the fi rst Gulf War, has characterized the constitute and can no longer constitute a whole. political education of a generation of television Th e cause of suff ering mocks the victims. viewers. Only here, in experiencing loss, are real- War guff aws at our expense and claims reason world happenings again substantial, happenings as its own. On the one hand, there is a huge gap we know constantly take place, despite their between this and Goya’s Desastres de la Guerra: diff useness. Th is “sense-ability” is not achieved Forsythe is an intellectual artist who approaches through association or empathy or identifi ca- feeling through formal assemblages. And yet, a tion; it results from the discrepancy between the deep kinship makes itself evident between the feeling of loss and the knowledge that ensues by erstwhile Spanish painter who portrayed war’s layering one composition onto the next. horrors and today’s choreographer of war: Both In the third composition, Kern describes a place warfare and humans in relationship to each cloud formation, using the voice of a weather other. Th ey show the space between the two to announcer or an evening-news expert. While he be the space in which power runs wild. Th ey is performing, the dancers again evoke a series strip war down to the truth. Th ree Atmospheric of explosions. What’s more, they crash against Studies shows us our desastre de la guerra. the wall, which, with technical enhancement, Peter Michalzik
18 CAL PERFORMANCES About the Artists
Commandeur des Arts et Lettres (), the German Distinguished Service Cross () and the Wexner Prize (). He has been chosen as Choreographer of the Year several times by the international critics’ survey. After the closure of the Frankfurt Ballet in , Forsythe established a new, more indepen- dent ensemble—Th e Forsythe Company. Th e company was founded with the support of the states of Saxony and Hesse, the cities of Dresden and Frankfurt am Main, and private sponsors. Forsythe’s most recent creations are developed and performed exclusively by the new company while his previous work is prominently featured in the repertoire of virtually every major ballet company in the world including Th e Kirov, Th e As an American working internationally for the New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Th e last years, William Forsythe is recognized National Ballet of Canada, Th e Royal Ballet, as one of the world’s foremost choreographers. Covent Garden, and Th e Paris Opera Ballet, His work is celebrated for reorienting the prac- among many others. Th e Forsythe Company, tice of ballet from its identifi cation with classical based in Dresden and Frankfurt am Main, en- repertoire into a dynamic st century art form. joys a yearly residency at the Schiff bauhalle of Raised and principally trained in New York, the Schauspielhaus Zürich and also maintains Forsythe arrived on the European dance scene an extensive international touring schedule. in his early s as a dancer and eventually as Forsythe’s choreographic thinking has en- Resident Choreographer of the Stuttgart Ballet. gaged with and contributed to the most signifi - At the same time he also created new works cant international artistic currents of our time: for ballet companies in Munich, Th e Hague, from performance and visual arts to architec- London, Basel, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, ture and interactive multimedia. He has created Paris, New York, and San Francisco. In , architecture/performance installations com- he began a -year tenure as Director of the missioned by Daniel Libeskind in Germany, Frankfurt Ballet where he created many of the Artangel in London, Creative Time in New most celebrated dance theatre works of our time, York, and the City of Paris. His short fi lm, Solo, such as Th e Loss of Small Detail () in col- was presented at the Whitney Biennial. In laboration with composer Th om Willems and , a major exhibition of his performance, designer Issey Miyake. Other key works from fi lm and installation work was presented at the Frankfurt Ballet years include Gänge (), the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich. In Artifact (), Impressing the Czar (), , Forsythe virtually reinvented the teach- Limb’s Th eorem (), A L I E / N A(C)TION ing of dance with his pioneering and award- (), Eidos:Telos (), Endless House () winning computer application, Improvisation and Kammer/Kammer (). Technologies: A Tool for the Analytical Dance Eye, Forsythe’s choreography and his companies’ which is used by professional companies, dance performances have won overwhelming audience conservatories, universities, postgraduate archi- acclaim and the most prestigious awards the tecture programs and secondary schools. As an fi eld has to off er, such as the Bessie (, , educator, Forsythe is regularly invited to lecture ), Laurence Olivier Award (, ), and give workshops at major universities and
CAL PERFORMANCES 19 About the Artists cultural institutions internationally. He served and cultural houses worldwide. Supported by as the fi rst Mentor in Dance in the inaugural the states of Saxony and Hesse, the cities of cycle of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Dresden and Frankfurt am Main, and private Initiative and currently codirects and teaches in sponsors, the company fi nds itself in an enviably the Dance Apprentice Network aCross Europe decentered position from which to approach the (D.A.N.C.E.) program. Forsythe has been rapidly shifting, decentered contemporary cul- awarded an honorary fellowship from the Laban tural landscape. Centre for Movement and Dance in London William Forsythe has radically infl uenced and an honorary doctorate from Th e Juilliard the kinds of thinking being done in the fi eld of School in New York. dance through his understanding of the mallea- bility and possibility inherent in the language of With the founding of Th e Forsythe Company, classical dance. He has seen the classical as a set William Forsythe has created a new, agile struc- of ideas about relationships that in and of them- ture within which to pursue the multifaceted selves have unlimited potential for proliferation creative work begun in the Frankfurt Ballet. of form, fl ow and dynamic. Now with his new Together with a more intimate ensemble of ensemble, Forsythe is taking this relational and dancers, Forsythe has built on the intense col- connective mode of thinking—that has carved laboration developed in the rehearsal studio over out so much creative autonomy for the individ- the last years and begun to explore a new ual dancer—and applying it even more radically dramaturgy of social and political engagement. to a decentralized, distributed model of group His enduring and evolving interest in develop- intra-connectivity. Th e newest work explores the ing alternative encounters with the audience is implications of a contemporary social shift from leading the company to performances and in- a politics of individual sovereignty to one of net- stallations in theaters, public spaces, museums worked multitudes.
20 CAL PERFORMANCES About the Artists
Dancers From to , he was freelance dancer and choreographer living in Paris. He has been a Yoko Ando was born in Yokohama, Japan. member of Th e Forsythe Company since . Studied theater at the Bunka Gakuin College and dance with Kuniko Kisanki. Worked with Marthe Krummenacher was born in Detroit, Japanese choreographer Kota Yamazaki and Michigan, and studied dance in Geneva at the theater directors such as Hideki Noda, Robert École de Danse de Genève. She joined Nederlands Lepage, Masahiko Shimada and with Antony Dans Th eater II in for three seasons. She Rizzi. Joined Ballett Frankfurt in and was a member of Ballett Frankfurt from , started with Th e Forsythe Company in . before joining Th e Forsythe Company in .
Born in Woippy, France, Cyril Baldy studied in Born in Athens in , Ioannis Mantafounis Paris at the Conservatoire National Superieur. studied dance at the Conservatoire de Paris. He He has worked with the Jeune Ballet de France has worked with the Gotenburg Opera Ballet and Nederlands Dans Th eater II and I before and Nederlands Dans Th eater II, and freelanced joining Ballett Frankfurt in . He has been a on diff erent projects in Greece. He has been a member of Th e Forsythe Company since . member of Th e Forsythe Company since .
Born in Pisa, Italy, Francesca Caroti was edu- Fabrice Mazliah studied dance in his home- cated at the Centro Studi di Firenze. She has town Geneva, at the National School of Athens danced with Aterballetto in Reggio Emilia and and in the Rudra Bejart Atelier in Lausanne. Jan Fabre’s company. She has been a member of He was part of the Mandafounis Cie., the Ballett Frankfurt since and a member of Nederlands Dans Th eater in Holland and the Th e Forsythe Company since . Ballett Frankfurt and has danced since with Th e Forsythe Company. Fabrice has also Dana Caspersen was born in Minneapolis, produced several works of his own. Minnesota and subsequently trained with a va- riety of people including Maggie Black and Erik Roberta Mosca trained in Biella with Paola Hawkins. She danced for three years with the Olivero, in Milano at the Scuola del Teatro North Carolina Dance Th eater and worked with alla Scala and in Stuttgart at the John Cranko Ballett Frankfurt from to before join- School. He has worked with Stuttgarter Ballett, ing the Th e Forsythe Company in . Vienna State Opera Ballet, Teatro Comunale di Firenze, Leipzig State Opera Ballet, Aterballetto Amancio Gonzalez trained at the Estudio de and Ballett Frankfurt. Has been a freelancer danza, Ion Beitia and the Centre International since and a performer with Th e Forsythe de danse, Rosella Hightower. Danced with Company since . the Scottish Ballet, NAPAC Dance Company, De Rotterdamse Dansgroep, Refl ex Dance Nicole Peisl was born in Austria, and gradu- Company and Scapino Ballet Rotterdam. ated at the Rotterdamse Dansacademie in . Joined Ballett Frankfurt in . Member of She worked as a freelance dancer, choreographer Th e Forsythe Company since . and teacher until , and joined the Frankfurt Ballet in . From to , she cre- David Kern was born in New Orleans. He ated several works, taught at diff erent univer- joined San Francisco Ballet in . Th ere, he sities and academies and was guest artist with danced many works by Balanchine and Michael Th e Forsythe Company, the Daghdha Dance Smuin. He joined Ballett Frankfurt in . Company and the Episode Collective. Nicole
CAL PERFORMANCES 21 About the Artists has been a member of Th e Forsythe Company has been a member of Th e Forsythe Company since . since .
Christopher Roman began in the theatre at Elizabeth Waterhouse was born in Albany, a very early age which led him to his career in New York, and received her early dance training dance. He has danced professionally with Th e at the Albany Dance Institute and the School Cleveland Ballet, Th e Pacifi c Northwest Ballet, of American Ballet. Elizabeth graduated magna Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Th e Pennsylvania cum laude from Harvard University with a BA Ballet and Ballett Frankfurt. He joins Th e in physics before completing her MFA in dance Forsythe Company in its third season after two at Ohio State University. She has performed in seasons of setting some of the works of William Boston with Marcus Schulkind Dance Company Forsythe for other European companies, teach- () and with Ballett Frankfurt (). She ing and performing internationally and persu- joined Th e Forsythe Company in . ing his own creative endeavors. Ander Zabala was born in Bilbao, Spain. He Born in San Sebastian, Spain, Jone San Martin started dancing with Ion Beitia in , stud- studied with Nentxu Nedel and was a member ied at Béjart’s Mudra school, John Neumeier’s of Ballet Nacional de España, the Ulmer Th eater Hamburg ballet school and Rosella Hightower’s and the Ballet Royal de Wallonie in Belgium, Centre de Dance International in Cannes. He before joining Ballett Frankfurt in . She has danced with the Centre Choregraphique started with Th e Forsythe Company in . National de Tours, under Jean Christophe Maillot, Ballett Frankfurt () and the Yasutake Shimaji was born in Japan. Birmingham Royal Ballet under David Bintley He started modern dance under the guidance from April to December . He rejoined of Miyako KATO and worked as a company Ballett Frankfurt in , and has been a mem- member of Noism from to . Yasutake ber of Th e Forsythe Company since .
22 CAL PERFORMANCES