DÜSSELDORF,
DEUTSCHLAND
May 12- May 21, 2007
5/12:
~
Aline's sister, Stephanie Appel (nickname: Minzi), and her
son Maximilian met us at the airport. We got our bags and
drove to the beautiful apartment in the small town of Haan
where we will be staying for the rest of our time here in
Dusseldorf.
- We visited Stephanie's mother, Elfie, and went to dinner
at a traditional German restaurant
- We ate wiener snitzel (breaded veal) and kartofel
(potatoes).
~ We went back to the apartment to unpack and get settled.
Our apartment here...Danke Peter!
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5/13:
~ To Minzi's house for a Mother's Day Breakfast. We enjoyed
a traditional German morning meal, consisting of fresh
rolls from the bakery (baked and purchased that morning),
with butter, cheese, and sliced turkey and salami. We also
had some Nutella (almond/chocolate spread that can be found
in the States) mmm!
~ After some web-surfing, we finally found a performance at
16:00 in Wuppertal (the next city over). It's part of a
dance festival hosted by Tanzhaus NRW. The performance
venue was called Cafe ADA, a two story cafe with an
informal theater upstairs. The company of perfomers were
all famous Pina Bausch dancers.
~ We purchased the tickets right before the show, so we
ended up with standing tickets for 5 €. Considering the
seating only consisted of five rows of chairs on risers,
the price and placement was just fine.
******************************************************
*Performance Review*
- The name of the piece
was AUTANT EN EMPORTE LE TEMPS.
- Here is an excerpt from our daily journal summarizing the
piece:
The piece began with a rush of energy; all the lights
turned on, the fans placed around the stage turned on, and
the dancers ran out and sat in two columns of chairs set up
downstage. The movement was minimalist/abstract, but
considering things were constantly shifting, it seemed a
bit overwhelming and unclear at first. The relationships
between the dancers soon unraveled, already bringing back
some of the movement from the beginning rush but adding a
new perspective. The end of the piece repeated the first
section exactly, proving the choreographic motifs to be
true. Some of my favorite moments were when one of the male
dancers held a white rose next to a fan, cupped his hand
over the rose, and slowly released each finger, allowing
the petals to fly away onto the stage. Each character
portrayed a different emotion, a different phase in one's
life. To define their specific individual characteristics,
a movement motif was integrated into every section.
Some of our favorite moments:
- Oversized lamp shade placed over a woman's head. Her arm
was placed on the upward diagonal, and acted as a switch.
One of the male dancers tried to "flip her switch" by
pushing down her arm, but she denied the command
repeatedly.
- Part of the space included a drinking bar, which they
integrated into the piece successfully. There were also
poles in the middle of the space, which we thought would be
an interference, but they turned out to add another layer
to the choroegraphy. For instance, the dancers leaned
against them, creating a more realistic/natural setting.
- An upbeat waltz was one of the movement motifs within the
piece. A couple who sat at the bar, got up and swept across
the stage to a tango beat.
- A trio of dancers sat on the edge of the stage, scooting
on their bottoms in a continuous path from stage right to
stage left. Then, another dancer appeared as an obstacle on
their course, yet they solved the problem by sitting in his
lap to resume their track.
- Random integration of an incessant tapping of a tuning
fork on the edge of the stage.
- A basket filled with rocks was dumped onto the stage
abruptly. Later, a girl sat next to the pile and
meticulously placed each rock on the circumference of her
skirt. She grabbed the edges of her dress, stood up, and
carried the rocks with her off-stage.
* We both really appreciated how the minimalist movement
could tell such a full story. The use of repetition and
details reminded us a lot of Pina Bausch's successful
choreographic methods. We compared the choreography to a
puzzle where we weren't given the last piece, the overall
picture, until the very end.
******************************************************
~ Back at Minzi's, Nicole checked her bank statement only
to realize that her Visa credit card was charging her a 3%
foreign transaction fee. Further investigation revealed
that every card except American Express would do so
(American Express charges a 1% fee). Also, for bank
withdrawls there were two fees, one for using an outside
bank and one a foreign transaction fee.
*** TO
AVOID THESE FEES do some research at your local bank to
find the partner bank wherever you are traveling
to***
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5/14:
~Goal of the day: get a cell phone and Check out the
Dusseldorf dance scene
~The local cell phone
store, E-Plus, gave us some trouble because they require a
German identification card with a German address to send
important paperwork to.
~We walked to the DeutscheBank, Nicole's partner bank, to
withdraw cash for the week (our new strategy to avoid all
fees).
~Took the bus to Dusseldorf to explore the city and search
for dance locations, but no luck : (
~Traveled back to Haan and enjoyed icecream at the local
Eisbar. The icecream here is phenomenal, much better and
cheaper than in the States!
~We went to several stores in search of an adapter for our
computer, no such luck there either.
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5/15:
~We went back to the
E-Plus store, showed Aline's passport as German
identification including her German address, and finally
received our international prepaid cell phone.
~We went to an electronics store, run by a friend of
Minzi's, who kindly lent us an adapter for the summer, free
of charge. Small town charm makes all the difference!
~Took the bus to Dusseldorf again for some siteseeing of
the Aldstadt (Old town), down the Rhein River, where there
are tons of cute cafes to soak up the view. We also stopped
by the ticket office of the Deutsche Oper Am Rhein (German
Opera House on the Rhein) to purchase tickets to Peter and
the Wolf and Mid Summer Nights Dream.
~Along our siteseeing path, we stumbled across a cafe with
free wireless internet (Wlan is the sign to look for). This
was a super find; we updated our site and checked e-mails,
something we haven't been able to do as often as we would
like.
~Ate a traditional German dinner with Minzi's family. She
cooked asparagus with hollandaise and boiled potatoes.
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5/16:
~
We went to the train station at Gruiten to go to
Dusseldorf. We put in a 20 euro bill to pay for two all day
train tickets, but nothing came out of the machine. We
ended up having to "ride black" as the Germans say (a.k.a
ride the train without tickets).
~ We arrived at the Dusseldorf Hauptbahnhof, and asked
three or four people how to get to Tanzhaus NRW.
~TanzHaus NRW
Dance house
North-Rhine/Westphalia
Erkrather STR. 30
40233 Duesseldorf
Tel. +49 (0)211 17270-0
~ Classes cost 8 euro. We
took a classical ballet class from a substitute teacher who
is a member of the Dusseldorf Ballet. Attendance was small,
which allowed us to receive individual attention. Barre was
only a half an hour long, so we had more time to develop
the combinations in the center.
~ The woman at the front desk informed us that the class
was a professional level. However, when we entered the
studio, there were only three other dancers, none of which
were professional. So be sure to research each class and
beware of mixed ability levels, despite the title given.
~ A dancer in the class named Ina Topekn kindly shared her
dance experiences in Dusseldorf, Berlin, Dresden, and Koln.
She gave us insider information on classes, teachers,
locations, and contact information for each of these
cities. SO NICE!
~ Back at
the train station, there was chaos and confusion as to
which track our train was leaving from. There were no clear
signs, there were places to search the grid to find your
track but even that was vague and backwards. We changed
tracks several times, and eventually just hopped on one,
hoping for the best. Luckily, a kind fellow sitting next to
us could sense our plight and informed us that we were
heading in the right direction.
~ The weather has been absolutely horrific...Nothing but
cold and rain since we arrived overseas. This has made it
particularly challenging for us to continue our siteseeing
and dance research explorations.
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5/17:
~
It is Father's Day in Germany today. No businesses here are
open, which gives us plenty of time to catch up on research
and paperwork (So that you can finally enjoy our awesome
website!..sorry for the delay friends.)!
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5/18:
~ Today was a research day. We made phone calls to numerous
companies and schools, and planned out our agenda for the
next few cities. As a break, we decided to take a hike
through the forest in Haan. It was the first day of
beautiful weather since we arrived.
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5/19:
~
The first thing on our agenda was a performance of Peter
and the Wolf at 11 a.m., but we had some difficulty finding
the location because it was not in the main theater. We
took a taxi to the Rhein Opermobil on the other side of
town, and luckily made it just in time.
******************************************************
*Performance Review*
~The minute we walked in, our underaged fellow audience
members were a dead give-away that we were at a children's
performance. The Narrator introduced the full orchestra,
which was within five feet of us. He proceeded to introduce
each genre of dance, ballet, modern, afro-modern, hip-hop,
and salsa. One or two dancers came out to demonstrate each.
• The ballet section
featured a pas de deux. The ballerina, Gabriella Ganan
Lacerda, was wonderful, her partner, Shumpei Nemoto, was a
dud, a terrible partner who was close to making her look
bad. He had absolutely no facial expressions! This section
was quite traditional, no quarrels here.
• The “modern” section
began with a woman casually walking on stage wearing
sunglasses with a beach bag and towel in hand. She whipped
out some contractions, flexed her feet, and rolled on the
ground a bit. Later, she put on a pair of flippers, yes
flippers, and attempted to repeat the beginning motifs
while wearing the flippers. It was horrendous! Not modern
at all, it was more comedic acting than dance. We could not
contain our laughter!
• Hip-hop was just that.
Two men in baggy sweats, a white undershirt, and white
Kango hat struggling to synchronize their two very
different styles. They did some very cool head spins and
acrobatics, but they also repeated the only steps they
could get together several times in the very short routine.
• Afro-modern, my personal
favorite, was a horrific attempt to meld Martha Graham and
Alvin Ailey.
• Finally, the Salsa
section. A drum player thumped over the classical
orchestral accompaniment, while the dancers fumbled over
their costumes and the stereotypical chair and table
nightclub (Tango) setting. Neither the male or female
dancers had much training in the technique other than
pelvic thrusts and exaggerated arm and hand gestures.
• After the drawn out introduction to dance and music, the
curtain was immediately ripped down to expose the broken
down set. There was a dash by the crew to hastily set up
the 20 x 10 foot stage with trees, a pond, a patch of grass
on wheels, and a white picket fence. Once the set was
assembled, the “Ballet" began.
• Each character
represented a different movement style. Peter= Ballet,
Bird= Ballet, Duck= Modern dance, Hunters= Hip hop, Wolf=
Afro-Modern dance, Cat= Salsa. In order for the children to
retain the information, the choreography was repetitive and
simple. Despite the ineffective layering of various genres
of dance, this performence was still considered a "Ballet".
• We were hesitant to walk
out in the middle of the performance, but thanks to our
gracious consideration of the performers, we stayed a few
minutes longer until the end. Ultimately, it was a noble
attempt to introduce young people to the art form of dance.
We just wish that the representation of each style was more
accurate, and that the overall performance quality was more
entertaining to actually interest more children in
supporting and participating in the field of dance.
******************************************************
________________________________________________________________________
5/20:
~ Today, our dance event was a performance of A Midsummer
Nights Dream, performed by the ballet company associated
with the Deuschen Oper am Rhein. It was in the same
traveling theater as Peter and the Wolf. However, the stage
was extended, allowing more dancers to perform at once. Our
seats were on the second level, first row, center.
Unfortunately, there were bars in front of us, right at eye
level, making it somewhat difficult to adjust oneself
comfortably to see the entirety of the stage. Dispite the
viewing obstacles, the performance was absolutely
beautiful!!
******************************************************
*Performance Review*
• The costumes suited each
character perfectly, yet the designs allowed for a modern
twist on contemporary ballet dress. The two distinguishing
‘worlds’: the reality of the village people and the
dreamlike setting of the nymphs and gods, were defined
through costuming and set changes. The village people were
dressed in traditional German clothes: lederhosen and
dirndels. To contrast this, the ethereal characters wore
flattering unitards dressed up with sequins and chiffon.
Glimmering body paint also highlighted the musculature of
the skillful dancers.
• The set consisted of four bushes moved about the stage by
inconspicuos students of the ballet school. Christmas
lights intertwined through the leaves added a dreamy
atmosphere.
• The dancers were absolutely phenomenal. Their stage
presence and incorporation of acting really made the
performance quality of a rarely seen caliber. Clean
technique and musicality underlined the contemporary lines,
inventive choreography, and emotional exuberance.
• The use and shaping of the arms paralleled the defining
personality traits and motifs within each character. For
instance, the God’s strides traveled over the whole stage
and the width of his broad torso and arms extended on
forever. In contrast, the quirky animated gestures of the
mischievous nymphs suited their characters
perfectly.
******************************************************
~ We went to the Dusseldorf Hauptbahnhof to buy our train
tickets to Wurzburg. We intended on buying monthly train
passes, so we wouldn't have to deal with buying tickets at
each city. Unfortunately, that's not how it works; the
closest thing were these year long passes, which discount
the ticket price by 25, 50, or 100 percent, depending on
the year pass that you purchase. These passes are extremely
pricey (between 250 and 500 euros) and not what we needing.
We decided just to buy our tickets normally. From
Dusseldorf to Wurzburg with a stop in Koblenz, a one-way
ticket costs 63 Euros. We also found out that if you book
two-way tickets three days in advance, they are much
cheaper.
- To avoid running into any problems, try to book your
tickets in advance because the longer you wait to your
departure date, the more expensive they become and the less
likely you are to get a seat reservation.
________________________________________________________________________
5/21:
~ We arrived at the Gruiten Hauptbahnhof, our local train
station that takes us to the main Dusseldorf station for
our cross country travels to Wurzburg. First we had to
carry 2 suitcases and 2 backpacks down the stairs, and back
up another set of stairs to get to our track. Then, we had
to purchase our tickets from Gruiten to Dusseldorf, which
were only 4 Euros each. We made it just in time, got on the
train with all of our luggage, and arrived in Dusseldorf
early enough to grab a bite to eat.
~ When we purchased our train tickets the day before, the
employee failed to mention the necessity of reserving
seats. We unknowingly sat ourselves down in two free seats,
and a woman approached us, saying that we were sitting in
her seats. We looked at our tickets, but no seat numbers
were shown. Not knowing what to do, or where to go, we
asked a conductor, and he told us to look for a seat
without a reservation on the screen above. Unfortunately,
all the seats were either handicapped or reserved... We
schlepped all of our stuff through about four train cars
(very tight, hot quarters), and finally found a place to
stand for the next forty minutes. We attempted to sit on
the bike racks, but our discomfort forced us to stand.
~ We arrived in Koblenz, where we had to switch
trains...luckily, our next train was leaving from the same
track we got off of, so we sat down for fifteen minutes and
wrote in our journal.
~ Figuring that if we got on the same part of the train, we
would spare ourselves the struggle of finding an inreserved
seat, we got on the very back of the train...but the setup
of this train was completely different. We were already so
exhausted that we tried standing in an extremely narrow
hallway where the bathroom was (unknowingly by the way).
Aline accidentally put her bags right in front of the
bathroom door only to realize that someone was inside.
After three or four people tried squeezing through us, it
was imperative that we find a seat. Dripping in sweat, we
worked our way through two and a half cars. There was
actually a luggage rack, but hardly any room for our
gigantic bags. A nice man helped us lift our bags to the
upper racks, and take them back down at the end of the
journey. Thank you for European gentlemen!!
****Moral of the story: PACK LIGHT and RESERVE A SEAT!****