A one
day visit to neighboring Nurnberg
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5/25:
~
Today's journey was to Nurnberg. Peter Himmel (Aline's
cousin) and Katja (Peter's girlfriend) went with us by
train from Kitzingen.
~ Group tickets are available (5 people maximum) for all
day travel for 27 Euros!!!
~ First we stopped by a tourist information center to ask
about some performances in the city. We bought our tickets
to Palindrome Dance Company's performance, "Choreodysee,"
and got directions to the theater.
~ Our sightseeing included: Kaiserburg Imperial Castle, St.
Sebaldus Church (destroyed during the war and restored by
the citizens of the town), Handwerker Hof (a small village
within the city with craft/souvenir shops and restaurants),
Albrecht-Durer's House (a famous visual artist from
Nurnberg), and the shops on Breite Gasse.
~ We also
stopped to eat some traditional Nurnberger Rostbratwurste.
~ The heat was almost unbearable! (34 degrees Celcius)
~ After some dinner at the BarFuesser, Peter and Katja
walked us to the railway to leave for the 20:00 performance
at the Tafelhalle Werkbuehne, Ausserre Sulzbacher Strasse
62.
~ Palindrome Palindrome Inter.media Performance Group
(modern dance with science and multimedia media)
www.palindrome.de/
(check out
their video archives, you can even purchase a CD/DVD of
their repertory!)
Artistic Director: Robert Wechsler
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*Performance Review*
- ChoreOdyssee was based on Homer's Odyssey. The producer
was drawn to the roles women played within the story, and
their ultimate impact on Odysseus and his men.
- Set:
~ A projection screen upstage right (front projection onto
the screen)
~ The "living room": modern furniture upstage left
consisting of one white couch, a table, and two black
chairs.
- The narrator began the piece by explaining the
impossibility of performing the story in its entirety, and
their alternative plan: five female performers, each one
representing a different character in the story.
- At the end of the main introduction, the producer spoke
about his choreographic ideas while passing a loaf of bread
and a platter of paper cups filled with wine to the
audience to represent the importance of hospitality within
Greek culture.
- Each performer came out of the "living room" to do an
improvised solo:
Dancer 1: Came out to perform intricate hand/finger work.
She had a great mix of African, hip-hop, and full-bodied
modern movement.
Dancer 2/Narrator: Performed a series of leaps and rolls to
the floor in amazingly awkward seated positions to the
commands of Dancer 1, who shouted out baseball terminology:
"STRIKE ONE... CURVE BALL... YOU'RE OUT!" paralleling the
ups and downs of this epic war. And here was the climax of
the whole performance: an overhead projection of light
outlining Dancer 2. The rolls and leaps to the floor
instigated an increase in the number of lines of light
surrounding the dancer. It was as if firewrks were
exploding around her; it was mesmerizing! This went on for
5 minutes when suddenly, the lights came on, and the
celebration of her exotic floorwork ended abruptly
- The narrator came out and planted mini flag posts around
the stage symbolizing the points along the epic journey.
- Dancer 3 (representing Calypso): Entered the flag area
and began her dancing right away. A weird and wonderful
vocabulary of movement flowed from this striking woman.
Awkwardly placed the Narrator commenced an interview with
the charismatic dancer, the questions in German, the
answers in English. The narrator eventually left the scene
while Dancer 3 continued to take us into her peculiar world
of sickled feet, starts and stops, luscious floor work, and
complex arm work that emphasized the back.
- A clip from the modern film of the Odyssey was shown, a
very strange transition.
- Another film was directly shown of an American
Anthropologist who described his research of how sound
travels between the rocky terrain of the islands of Calypso
and Circe to produce magical sounds. A Nintendo-like video
of the Islands and of his research were shown as the
Anthropologist spoke. The scene was so mystical and the
technology so primative that I thought is was a joke, but
no one was laughing!
- This is when our least favorite participant, a music
student from the University of Berlin, came out wearing a
sheepskin blanket and leg warmers draggin under her feet.
she came to bless the stage with her horrid interpretation
of the ancient song of Apollo the warrior, while playing a
traditional Greek harp-like instrument which she admitted
was brand new, never been played; it was absolutely
offensive! Not only was she a dreadful performer, she
giggled every time she made eye contact with the audience;
I think she was in on the joke!
- More of the Anthropologist video was shown. This time
while he spoke, the music student attempted to
simultaneously recite his speech, making it impossible to
understand any of the information. As the Anthropologist
continued, she played her instrument while the producer
recited from the book, casually seated in “living room”.
Not one piece of this catastrophe was audible or pleasant
enough to try to understand!
- Dancer 4 (representing Penelope): Finally, when that was
over, a gorgeous long, lean, ballet femme came out in the
most casual manner. I’ve never seen anything like this on
stage; her facial expressions and lack of effort appeared
as if she wastaking a casual stroll or shopping in a
clothing store; like she did not concern herself with
anyone else, she wasn’t in a hurry, her countenance never
changed. Captivating! Not to mention she had the most
amazing feet, and spellbinding, lean hip structure. The
whole solo was filled with sickled feet and minimal arm
gestures, but I craved for the ballet beauty to perform a
ponche, ten pirouettes, and a cambre, anything! She was a
great performer, but the choreography called for her to
simply walk off the stage. The lights dimmed to a blue
silhouette, and that was supposed to be our signal that the
performance was over. The audience was stunned and unsure
if the performance was over or another speech was in order;
what happened here? An entire moment of silence went by and
finally one audience member began the slow crowd clap.
Unbelievable!
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