Tilman O´Donnell:
Corpus Dogmas #1: One the One Hand
Corpus
The A Sale
September 14, 2019
Following a summer with several outstanding initiative´s from the Danish and international dance environment like “The Chamber Ballet”, DDT´s summer performance and an outstanding guest performance by Netherlands Dance Theater and with an upcoming run of Liam Scarlett´s brilliant “Queen of Spades” the audience is ready to embrace even more contemporary dance.
Last night, Corpus showed the first instalment of “Corpus Dogma” with international choreographer Tilman O´Donnell.
When Tilman O´Donnell was brought in by Corpus in 2015, he chose to put the RDB dancers in the orchestra pit as a human choir. The scene was mostly bare until finally filled by backdrops and props from ballets that had been promoted to the status of national treasures. You can read my review of this ballet here. https://danceviewtimes.typepad.com/eva_kistrup/2015/10/garbo-speaks.html
Following a success
Now brought back by Corpus, Tilman O´Donnell once again focus on a Danish culture initiative, the dogma movement, created by a group of Danish filmmakers including Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg and others in 1995. The film group´s dogma included rules on base films on the traditional values of story, acting, and theme, and excluding the use of elaborate special effects or technology. It was supposedly created as an attempt to "take back power for the director as artist", as opposed to the studio.
The movement gave several of the Danish film directors and actors international careers.
Corpus will host another production of Dogma by choreographer Tina Tharpgaard in the fall.
The 16 dogma rules set by corpus includes early decisions that set design and costumes must be completed by the first rehearsal day. The scenographer and choreographers can have no contact, until the premiere of the piece etc. In addition, there must be no narrative. In short a praxis completely different from most choreographic initiatives.
Limitations
However, the Corpus Dogma cannot mirror the success of the filmmakers dogma project. Where the forced limitations made the films more creative and enjoyable, there is no breakthroughs in the dance version. The Corpus dancers and musicians simple presents a standard with very few changes.
Being a six persons ensemble, and in this production down to five performers, it is almost impossible to fill a long performance. Targeting themselves to even stricter rules and limitations makes the odds for success ever more difficult to reach.
I once viewed a project by Corpus where Sebastian Kloborg and an ensemble would create a ballet based on audience input in 24 hours. In that case, he actually succeeded in creating a rather good performance.
With their dogma project, Tim Matiakis and Tilman O´Donnell has somehow managed to limit the chance of creating a good production by their dogma rules. It will be interesting to see if Tina Tarpgaard can turn out a better product. I do not know whether she must follow the Corpus Dogma rules as they stand. If that is the case, she may need all her skills and all her luck.
Photo by Tejs Holm Copyright(c) Royal Danish Ballet/Corpus
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