Willi Dorner
Willi Dorner is an Austrian choreographer, he was born in 1959 in Baden, Austria. He studied at the Austrian society for Dance therapy and is also a certified Alexander technique teacher. In addition to this he has also done further training in New York at the Erick Hawkins Studio and the school for body-mind centre. He began choreographing his own productions in 1990 as well as being involved in film making. His stage performances and site specific works are presented and shown around the world including Europe, Africa, china and North and South America. As well as internationally touring dance performances, he is keep on creating new interesting perspectives on performance. One example of this is Bodies in urban spaces, this is an "intriguing trail" with 20 dancers, these dancers lead the audience into different public spaces in different cities around the world, including London.
London Bubble
started out very small, slowly built up slowly from 1972, based in London. Take performances to site specific areas such as schools, nursery, community centres etc, specialize in old and young people. Their aim is to be involved in the community and help people. They offer workshops for example they are running a workshop in London for 18-24 year olds to help them find out about theatre making. They have weekly drama classes for adult as well as speech therapy sessions for younger children.
Punch Drunk
International company founded in 2000 by Felix Barret in London, their aim is to capture audiences in a theatrical sensory space, in different locations such as outside, old buildings etc. They are known for classical texts with their own artistic twist that included set, props, physical theatre and immersive entertainment. They like to break the fourth wall and integrate the audience into their space, they are supported by arts council England as well as another private foundations.
Emergency exit arts
They use visuals including puppetry, using old things and making things to create parade floats etc. Founded in 1980 and work on outdoor events including cultures from around the world, they are well known for combining this into their work. The size and structure they use is often impressive, the performers go in and out of the structure to enhance their work. They are known to cover social and economic issues, such as recycling and the environment., On the 5th November they have a fireworks display which incorporates art that is relevant to the theme they are covering.
Artichoke
UK based organisation established in 2005, it is a Charity that works with different artists, they invade pubic places as they believe that art shouldn't be confined to traditional spaces. Their aim is to make audience appreciate landscapes more, such as places like the coastline and countryside. Few events are tickets so are free, the company relies on grants and donations to keep going. Often audience members are encouraged to be involved with the art and performance.
What do the companies have in common?
All of these companies like to break down the fourth wall, this means that there is often audience interaction. When you are in a traditional theatre space the audience are often separated from the performers and there is no interaction at all. However when you are invading a public space like Artichoke you are going into an audience space and therefore there is no barrier between the audience and performers. Some of these companies like Artichoke, emergency art exits and punch drunk like to incorporate art into their performances, in site specific this is known as outdoor art installations, part of the performance is that the artists and performers move in and out of the art to enhance the overall experience. This is done by going into a public space and using what is has to enhance the companies work more, this is apparent in Bodies in urban spaces as ti uses the landscapes in an area and creates a place where performance is shown. In addition to this many of these companies like to involve the community and their aims are to enrich the community to help with social and economic issues, this is done by offering free workshops and classes and bring art and performance to more excluded social groups such as people living in care homes to get them more involved in society.
What is different about these companies?
In my opinion i think that Willi Dorner is very different to the other companies, their aim isnt to enrich communities and social groups, but to create different and interesting perspectives on performance. Furthermore they do not use art as part of their performance, the whole thing is based souly on the performers and the spaces they are in. All of the other companies are based in London/England, however Willi Dorner is an Austrian choreographer that internationally tours.
Which company are you most drawn to and why?
I am most drawn to Willi Dorner as a choreographer this is because be brings different works to different parts of the world. He is able to choreograph movement into places around cities that are totally unexpected, i find it really interesting to see dance and choreography in non traditional spaces. It also allows me to think about how i would use different spaces withing choreography of my own. In addition to this especially in Bodies in Urban spaces i like how all of the transitions between paces are very smooth, the performers are able to run with fluidity and ease to get to place to place, this makes the performance look slick and professional, which is something i look and enjoy watching in a performance. As well as this i like the mixture of colours used in this work, the bright colours allow audience to see the difference between members of the public and performers as they are not in traditional clothing. I think the mixture of colours really help to enhance the piece and make it stand out. It allows viewers to see statues and landscapes in a completely different outlook and take notice of the things around you more.
What is most surprising about the work you have discovered through research?
I was very surprised to see known many site specific companies there were, i wasn't aware of how much this area of performance was currently being explored. I have always enjoyed seeing different types of performance but my research has allowed me to see how different people find new perspectives on performance to be able to share with the public. Additionally it has been really interesting to find out about companies who use art as part of a performance, this isnt something i have much experiance with but i am very interested to explore it in the future. For example i would have never considered a firework display to be classed as a performance, however once it is added with speech, text and movement it is transformed into something more than just a firework display. I have found it really interesting to hear about how different companies integrate art into the community to help enrich it and hearing about how it has helped particular people. As well as this i find it particularly interesting how companies and choreographers look at a space and can visulaise how to transform it into a performance space, this is something i would like to do further research into and eventually explore myself.
No comments:
Post a Comment