anoukvandijk dc Bliss Press kit Premiere: 8 november 2007 Choreography Anouk van Dijk Dancers GAO Yanjinzi SHI Xiaojuan CHAOKE TAO Ye CAO Peizhong WANG Tao WANG Hao XIN Xin YANG Chang Lighting Design Amelia Davies Anouk van Dijk Costumes ZHONG Jiani Ah Kuan Music FM3 featuring Merja Kokkonen Dramaturgy Jerry Remkes Artistic assistant Nina Wollny anoukvandijk.nl >
REVIEW NRC Handelsblad 12-11-2007 By Ingrid van Frankenhuysen Dancers elevate Bliss to great heights Anouk van Dijk has done it again! Her visit to the Beijing Modern Dance Company in China brought out the best in her for Bliss. Besides having the phenomenal dancers of the company, Van Dijk flirts with spiritual, light, Chinese-sounding music by the Beijing duo FM3 and Finnish Merja Kokkonen. The choreographer combines the fragility of the music and the refinement demonstrated by the Chinese dancers with subtly graceful and peaceful dancing. Spinning around and continually looking straight upwards, the dancers elevate Bliss to great heights. Amelia Davies lighting also contributes to this. In the programme Women of the World, the private Chinese company, founded in 1995 by Zhang ChangCheng, coupled Van Dijk with the Chinese artistic director and resident choreographer Gao Yanjinzi. She brought East and West together in Offering, by dancing a sacrificial or cleansing ritual somewhere between a monastic order and a Chinese temple. To music by Arvo Pärt, the atmosphere is meditatively slow, with the main role played by a bowl of water and the four-foot long hair of one of the female dancers. REVIEW Trouw 12-11-2007 By Sander Hiskemuller Poignant dance through unexpected encounters Unexpected encounters led to exciting results in Holland Dance. Under the wing of the festival, Anouk van Dijk an old hand at modern dance worked with nine dancers from China, where modern dance is still in its infancy. It was a nice touch to present the fruits of their collaboration alongside a work by the Beijing Modern Dance Company itself, clearly demonstrating the great extent of the crossover. Offering, by Gao Yanjinzi, is an oriental meditative trip of repetitively striding figures and dripping water as a communal cleansing ritual, in which aesthetics, movement and perception become one. Van Dijk s abstract style of movement, emanating from the individual physique, must therefore have felt quite alien to the collectivelyoriented Chinese dancers. Her idiom looks however strikingly lyrical under the Chinese influence, and the theme of an omnipotent higher power came across with welcome transparency. REVIEW De Volkskrant 12-11-2007 By Annette Embrechts Anouk van Dijk turns Chinese dancers into aesthetic warriors In this edition, the Holland Dance Festival is presenting a remarkable amount of work by foreign companies, created by Dutch choreographers (or choreographers working in the Netherlands). Anouk van Dijk, for instance, worked with the Beijing Modern Dance Company. Anouk van Dijk made it far from easy for the Beijing dancers. She has them puffing and panting, and doing many controlled falls. In a new dance language for them (Van Dijk has developed the counter-technique, in which contrary movements allow the body to hang off balance), they are strongly focused on the ground. It is as if there are dark forces flitting above the stage, pushing down the dancers actions. It is beautiful to see how Van Dijk s dance style applied to Chinese bodies acquires something of an aesthetic martial art. The dancers keep an eye on each other and do not bump into one another. Real contact only comes in the final duet, in breaths and sighs. Van Dijk does not break down the closed aura of the Asian dancers, but plays it as trump card, creating a charged atmosphere. The restful group patterns are formed through secret codes, with one female dancer directing the scanty rays of light like a queen. The rolling and falling is given extra dynamics by long trouser-skirts, which look like Chinese warrior outfits when the dancers stand still. A soundscape of bass tones and sound scales affirms the ominous character of this exciting guest choreography with China s bestknown modern dance company.
REVIEW THEATRAALCENTRAAL, nov. 2007 by Maaike Glerum International choreography is an individual diptych When you see them sitting together, you couldn t imagine a greater difference. One has short blonde curls atop a tall, muscular body with broad shoulders, and the other a long, black ponytail atop delicate features and a small, fragile posture. Yet during the after-performance talk, Dutch choreographer Anouk van Dijk and Chinese choreographer and dancer Gao Yanjinzi are united on the subject of their new production Women of the World. Neither of them was unfamiliar with working with colleagues from another culture, but this cooperation demanded new skills from both choreographers. Van Dijk s idiom was unfamiliar to the dancers of the Beijing Modern Dance Company (BMDC), so they had to be taught the basics of this technique. Fortunately, the company had the services of an interpreter, as the Chinese didn t speak any English and Van Dijk said she only knew four words of Chinese. The cooperation, however, was an inspiring and instructive experience for both parties. The two works making up Women of the World reflect the special encounter between their makers; two women of the world for whom the exchange between the cultures of the East and West played a major role in this production. Both choreographers took an individual approach to their work. Van Dijk s work Bliss is a dark, powerful and ominous piece, which evokes images of prison camps and the constant threat of danger. Nine dancers explore the space on a subtly-lit, empty stage. In the background, there are the sounds of static radio waves, which swell to create a sinister soundscape, in which the dancers move as if they are magnets in a field of electrically-charged air. Their bodies bend far back from the torso, their gaze automatically focused upwards, and their feet follow the impulse that appears to be steering the dancers from above. In the beginning, they move individually, but halfway through the lighting changes and they dance in increasing synchrony, until the individual is completely swallowed up in the group. During a series of floor exercises, the dancers can hardly be distinguished from one another any more. Like that, next to each other in a long row, they look just like drilled soldiers. When a man and a woman dance together in a love duet in the last section, every form of human contact is upset. The couple search for intimacy like wooden mannequins, but they are not capable of sharing in each other s bodily warmth. Finally, the woman circles on alone; lonely in the glare of a red light, leaving behind the shaken spectator. After Van Dijk s powerfully charged dance style, Gao Yanjinzi s piece Offerings is a model of serenity and mysticism. The rituals of Buddhist monks not only formed the inspiration for the movements, but they are also the subject of the work, making it very reminiscent of group meditation. The nine dancers move in almost constant synchrony and in slow motion to taped music in which the rhythm of a Chinese drum alternates with Gregorian-like chants. Despite the wonderfully stylised images this produces, the slow tempo of this work did not appeal to everyone in the audience, some of whom found it bit too spiritual for your average Friday evening out. However, this does not detract from the fact that the dancers of BMDC are a feast for the eyes. Not only does the perfection with which they control their bodies elicit great admiration, but the dancers are also able to really touch their audience, as demonstrated in their performance of Anouk van Dijk s choreography. That inspires curiosity as to possible cooperative ventures with other Dutch choreographers. Hopefully, this production will provide those opportunities, so that we will be able to see this internationally renowned company more often in the Netherlands in the future. REVIEW UNIVERS, nov. 2007 East and West merge in Women of the World Many Chinese dance groups are still heavily involved in acrobatics, with lots of springy jumps and showy acts, and a dash of the sentimental and anecdotal. However, this purely extrovert climate is starting to change in China. One excellent example of this metamorphosis is the Beijing Modern Dance Company. The BMDC danced Bliss, a new work by Dutch choreographer Anouk van Dijk, developed in collaboration with the dancers. These young, soundly trained dancers interpret what Van Dijk has to tell with passion and virtuosity, in the choreographer s own personal dance idiom the Counter-technique. This involves a lot of energetic ground work. Spinning and rolling (though introvertly), dangerous too and martial, but also very peacefully reaching up to the sky and though with little physical contact, still strongly focused on one another. Sublime and intriguing!
PREVIEW Noordhollands Dagblad 08-11-2007 By Nanska van de Laar I could have never made this here Choreographer Anouk van Dijk creates a piece for the dancers of Beijing Modern Dance Company Amsterdam This evening is the world premiere of the double bill Women of the World, by the Beijing Modern Dance Company, in Theater Zwembad de Regentes in The Hague. Two choreographers have created works: Yanjinzi Gao, from China, and Anouk van Dijk, from the Netherlands. Working with the Chinese dancers was a very special experience for Anouk van Dijk, resulting in a piece that she said she would never have made with her own dancers here in the Netherlands. She first got to know of the Beijing Modern Dance Company when the company s director was visiting the Netherlands. He was here to look for cooperation with Dutch choreographers. We clicked, and when I toured Australia and Asia with my company, I also went to Beijing. In order to investigate how she could work with the Chinese company, Anouk paid them another visit later on to give workshops. Contemporary dance is still a new tradition in China. China s dance tradition is a very old one, but then I mean the classical Chinese dance. There are lots of schools in China where children are trained from a very early age in this traditional dance form. Pupils learn everything by copying and there is a very strict master-pupil system. In Western society, we work much more on the basis of self-perception and our own creativity and reflection. It was therefore important for Anouk first to investigate how she could begin the creative process with the dancers. You have to know how they think there and how they communicate. The Chinese work far less with gestures in their physical language. It is also very important in the Chinese culture not to show negative or weak emotions outwardly. Everything is related to control and the strength to be able to keep your emotions inside you. It took a while before Anouk could fathom out the culture. In the beginning, I really thought they were appalled by what I was doing, but I heard afterwards that they were very enthusiastic. Of course, I don t understand the language either and that can be quite difficult at times. When someone makes a joke, it has to be translated for me before I can get it. The choreographer trained the dancers intensively, also to familiarise them with the Counter-technique. This is a movement system she has developed herself. in which the body s balance is found by giving every movement a counter movement. This is unlike most dance techniques, where movements are controlled from the centre of the body. The Counter-technique was completely new to the dancers. It was very important to train them in it, so they could understand how my work had to be performed technically. On the other hand, Anouk also looked carefully at the way in which the dancers of the Beijing Modern Dance Company moved. What I find really beautiful about these dancers in China is that they have a certain reserve whilst radiating an inner strength at the same time. In a very natural way, this gives them an extremely mysterious tension. The differences in culture and movement meant that Anouk created different things than she would have done with her own dancers. The dancers are not apt to do strange things like my own dancers, who sometimes come up with the most hilarious ideas. Their work is based very much on perfection and they have a clearly defined hierarchy. Men always come before women. In China, there is also a much higher proportion of male dancers to female dancers. Here, in the Netherlands, that s something you can only dream of! And yet Anouk tried to prise the dancers away from the way in which they normally work. I did show them some movements, but I also gave them assignments that forced them to think up their own solutions to problems, which eventually led to some very original movement material. The piece that I made is very lyrical and flowing. This would probably not have been the case with Western dancers. Anouk is curious to see how Chinese audiences will receive her piece; even more so than how it will be received in the Netherlands. Unfortunately, I won t be able to see it when they perform in China, but I have tried to make a piece with the Chinese audience in mind. It has become a piece in which the dancers feel comfortable, even though they found certain intimate scenes rather scary to perform.
PREVIEW De Telegraaf 02-11-2007 by Astrid van Leeuwen Anouk van Dijk makes the Chinese explode Dancing under ominous pressure The Hague, Friday. Choreographer Anouk van Dijk, who is used to a multicultural group of dancers, usually puts deliberate emphasis on the differences between her dancers. In Peking, she was confronted with the challenge of working with the totally homogenous look of the dancers of the Beijing Modern Dance Company. Yet the Chinese dancers gave her loads of inspiration: They are very modest and very formal, but if you ask them to move very powerfully for a bit, they explode. Anouk van Dijk (42) discovered in person that dancers in China work in a totally different way and on the basis of a completely different tradition than dancers in the Netherlands. Even in a well-known contemporary company such as the Beijing Modern Dance Company, the pupil-master principle is still the order of the day. Pupils try to copy their masters as well as possible, and eventually to equal them, so that they also become masters themselves. This is fantastic for the continuation of a tradition, but not for discovering new forms and movements. In China, very little is asked of the dancers in the way of their own contribution. This is exactly why Van Dijk was invited to work there. Three years ago, she met Shang Changcheng, managing director of the Beijing Modern Dance Company, during his visit to the Netherlands organised by the Netherlands Theatre Institute. He was looking for a partner with respect to content, and wanted a collaboration with a Western choreographer that would go further than just the invitation to make a piece for his company. In March 2005, Van Dijk went to Peking for the first time. She introduced the dancers to her own, very successful, counter-technique, which enables the dancers to make very extreme movements. Balance is not based on the traditional focus on the centre of the body, but on the fact that every movement is followed by a counter movement. On her second visit, she gave them improvisation assignments and on the third, she started to work on Bliss, which will be premiered next week in the Holland Dance Festival, along with a new creation by Gao Yanjinzi, under the title Women of the World. COVER The source of inspiration for Bliss were the ominous ink drawings of Nik Christensen, an English artist trained in the Netherlands. His images are very heavy. You feel a force from above and you see people searching for cover from it. They crawl over the ground and hide together. In the drawings, Van Dijk saw a resemblance to the pressure exerted by a totalitarian state on its subjects. The power of the state hangs continually over the population as a threat, and you can feel it. When she showed the drawings to the dancers, they shouted in chorus It s just like Peking. They associated his grey, dark skies with the pollution in the city. But Bliss has turned out rather less heavy than you might expect from the description above. That, according to Van Dijk, is due both to the qualities of the dancers and more generally to the inner power of mankind. I wanted to use the wonderfully lyrical and flowing qualities of the dancers. I was also fascinated by how the Chinese deal with the little freedom they have. They accept their fate for what it is, looking for solutions and finding strength in one another.