Sporen enthousiast ontvangen door Amerikaanse publiek en pers

Leine & Roebana terug van succestour door de Verenigde Staten

Na een tournee van vijf weken door de USA zijn we deze week teruggekeerd in Nederland. De tournee in Amerika is een enerverende en zeer positieve ervaring geweest. Sporen is unaniem positief ontvangen door het publiek en de pers.

Wij speelden in zeven zeer verschillend geoutilleerde theaters. Dát en de ontmoeting met uiteenlopende dansgemeenschappen hebben tot gedenkwaardige momenten geleid. Het publiek was razend enthousiast. Ook tijdens de post-performance discussions na afloop van de voorstellingen bleken de toeschouwers bevlogen en grepen velen het moment aan om met ons in gesprek te gaan.

In elke stad speelde Leine & Roebana in vooraanstaande theaters, met elk een eigen karakter.
Sporen kwam zowel tot zijn recht in de sfeervolle oude kerk van Danspace Project New York als in de strakke zaal van het spiksplinternieuwe ICA te Boston. Inspirerend was ook het bezoek aan Dance Place theater, waar wij vanwege de sterke binding met de locale dansgemeenschap, naast een voorstelling ook een workshop gaven. Tot slot was de voorstelling met onze vier musici, voorafgegaan door een masterclass, in het gigantische theatercomplex in Cleveland een geweldige afsluiting van de tournee.

Nog voor de zomer keren we terug om de mogelijkheden voor een nieuwe tournee in de USA te bespreken.

Leine and Roebana dancers ignite the Ohio Theatre stage

” Last night I was witness to 70 minutes of blisteringly good dancing. Sporen (Traces) choreographed by Andrea Leine and Harijono Roebana had the audience on the edge of our seats.
I stifled sighs and squeals of delight over the course of the evening. No narrative was there to be found except the narrative of life, of the body. Messy yet exactingly formal, overlapping sometimes solitary sometimes in duos or trios, the dancers built a city of movement.”

“…the work got underway opening with a beautiful duet with dancer and singer. The two shared an intimacy without touching; it was an intimacy of the voice and the dancer’s movements which glide and slip, support and stretch the sorrowful 16th century song. Then the scene was blasted with a mini entre’ act; the stage went black and a blast of sound accompanied a dancer making a pass across the lit downstage edge. Similar entre’ acts repeated throughout the piece … Used similarly to divide the work…”

” In between these “columns”, we saw an amazing array of dancing – quiet, slow, fast, wrenching, swirling – every effort, initiated from every point in the dancer’s body, followed through then abruptly interrupted. After a while I began to feel that this was not unlike a journey through a city – perhaps it was a city unto itself – a city of movement.”

” How wonderful it is to be engaged as a viewer, to just enjoy the amazing talent of the dancers and the rich choreographic feast that was laid before us. This was the kind of feast that could take days to consume, but it was compacted into a little over an hour. We did not tire in this time.”

” [The] musicians are involved in the dance not just playing their instruments (Piano/ Viola da Gamba/Voice). It is not dramatic like the works of Graham or Humphrey or Weidman. The time is not one time, but many, as the scores stretch from 16th century songs by J. Dowland, William Byrd and Henry Purcell to the sounds of Pierre Boulez and music composed for the work by Yannis Kyriakides, Martijn Padding and Han Otten and Wiebe de Boer/SoundPalette.”

” We were transported through time. A section with rippling spines felt like the timeless oceans. Movement flowed and then suddenly shifted, transforming the body taking on an entirely different effort.”

” Let us please continue on this trend Dancecleveland. It was marvelous!”

Toegevoegd door Susan Miller op 11 mei 2008

Lees hier alle reacties op het weblog REALNEO.

Recensie: LEINE ROEBANA, a brilliant offering by DanceCleveland

“LEINE ROEBANA… has a unique style that defies a traditional description. … Its dance style is not contemporary nor modern. It does not tell stories or have themes. It is purely a company which interprets music through bodily movement.”

” It is totally kinesic, based on bodies forming connections with each other. It is organic in
nature…The choreographers, like composers, take the music, the sounds, the moods and create visual energy and synchrony.”

” The dancers sometimes move in unity, though almost never touching each other. There are no lifts, no carries, just melding of bodies together in space. The short pieces are blended together by the next set of dancers moving into the preceding piece and then being left on the stage as the original dancers leave. There is little time for audience applause between segments as the sections blend together. There are no mid-performance curtain calls as there are no “lead” dancers, no stars, no specialty numbers. The flow is organic, with music, light or sound transitions.”

” Several program specifics stood out. The lighting was so incorporated into the dance that the spots became additional performers. The simple setting, with a large panel of woven cloth hung mid-center of the back wall, changed colors to enhance the musical moods.
The music, specifically composed for the company, and its execution by two violists and a pianist, was
encompassing. A counter tenor added a surreal atmosphere to the proceedings. The special sound
effects added to the emotional level and tied to the modernism of the company by adding the dimension of the mediated world.

CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: BRAVO! Dance Cleveland plays a vital role in exposing Clevelanders to unique dance experiences. Thanks to Pamela Young, the Executive Director of DanceCleveland, for bringing LEINE ROEBANA to the area. Also praise to her for insisting the live musicians accompany the group as most of this company’s performances use recorded music.”

Lees hier het volledige artikel op Roy Berko’s blog

7. Cleveland, Ohio Theater

Vandaag, zaterdag 10 mei, is de laatste voorstelling van Sporen in het Ohio Theater te Cleveland. Dit maakt deel uit van het op een na grootste theatercomplex van der Verenigde Staten. Speciaal voor deze voorstelling zijn de vier muzikanten uit Nederland overgevlogen.

Het is een bijzondere avond. De voorstelling is niet alleen de afluiting van de Sporen USA tour, maar ook van DanceCleveland’s 2007-08 seizoen.

Aan het bezoek van Leine & Roebana wordt veel aandacht besteed. Vandaag had Harijono een interview op de klassieke muziekzender van Ohio. Vorige week, in de trein van New York naar Boston had hij een telefonisch interview voor de krant van Cleveland.

Body does speaking for Dutch troupe
By Donald Rosenberg

“[The] evening-long project is “Sporen,” or “Traces,” which the troupe will perform Saturday at the Ohio Theatre in Playhouse Square as the final event in DanceCleveland’s 2007-08 season.
“Traces” is part of the company’s mission to search for new ways to bring into focus what the choreographers believe is the essence of dance.”

“First and foremost, our intention is to communicate through the body,” Roebana said by phone recently while riding a train between U.S. tour stops.

“Dance is one of the places where you don’t need language. Your body understands, and you communicate through dance. Language is connected to what we know. Then maybe we could be directed toward what we don’t know. Our body could be a means to discover that.”

Lees hier het volledige interview met Harijono Roebana.

Recensie The Boston Globe

Netherlands troupe finds new energy in old pieces
By Janine Parker

“…[The] movement is striking, and the seven hard-working dancers are beautiful performers, a pleasure to watch.”

” The brief, shocking cacophony of sound that formally begins “Sporen” feels like a chastisement, a comment on our society’s inability to focus. This is followed by a soft and fluid solo, the stage suffused in a candle-like glow, but after this sighing release, the work quickly builds to an impressively relentless physicality as the dancers jaggedly boomerang against the floor or slice and jab their limbs through space.

Although abstract on the surface – the casual beginnings and endings of phrases have the shrugginess of improvisation – a hint of humanity finally emerges, and it’s surprisingly tender, given the aloof, almost hostile way the movement hurtles out of the dancers’ bodies.

It happens near the end, after one woman is stunned into a frozen state, one arm outstretched, pointing, while her head is tilted crazily upward, eyes fixed in a horrible stare. Around her, facial expressions soften, and a hint of pleasure informs those rippling hips and torsos. Only connect? The lone woman, having recovered and left the stage, reenters – and in answer to the discordance of the work’s opening clang, the piece ends, wonderfully, hopefully, as she runs, leaps, and hurls herself on one of the others.”

Lees hier het volledige artikel ‘Netherlands troupe finds new energy in old pieces’ in The Boston Globe, 5 mei 2008

6. Boston, ICA

Toen we via de achterkant van het ICA (Institute for Contemporary Art) naar binnen gingen hadden we geen idee wat ons te wachten stond. De lichte ontvangsthal met hoge glazen wanden en een warme houten vloer prikkelde al wel onze fantasie, maar het aanblik van de theaterzaal overtrof al onze verwachtingen.

Overgoten door zonlicht strekte de zaal zich voor ons uit. De grote ramen van de vloer tot het plafond toonden een uitgestrekte zee en een stalend blauwe lucht. Het podium was leeg, maar daarachter bevond zich een geweldig tableaux vivant met vogels die over het water scheerden, ontelbare bootjes en in de verte de skyline van Boston.

Gedurende de opbouw van de set verdween er steeds meer van het uitzicht. Eerst kwam er een groot wit gordijn aan de achterkant van het podium, daarna sloten stuk voor stuk de zwarte rolgordijnen voor de ramen. Aan het eind van de dag was de hele ruimte verduisterd.

In plaats van het waterlandschap van Boston prijkte het decor van Sporen nu in de zaal. Desondanks bleef de magie van de locatie voelbaar.