100 Wounded Tears



Nobody expects a delicate comedy with the subheading “14 Images of Lost Despair”. The last premiere of DOT 504 called 100 Wounded Tears that took place on 22nd and 23rd February 2009 in the Ponec Theatre still glows with real gloominess that covers viewer’s mind with dark clutches of hopeless despair.

The authors of the project Jozef Fruček and Linda Kapetanea (RootlessRoot Company) have already presented their work with this ensemble with a piece that has become very popular with audience: Holdin’ Fast. This choreography – despite its subheading “a ballad about sexual addictions” was full of hyperboles and black humour when the topic of sex served as ventilation of human needs. 100 Wounded Tears seems almost like a sequel that hurts for its despair, for its projection of the blackest images of a sick soul.

The feelings of unfulfilled wishes accompanied by indomitable desire and fear change to behaviour that is very difficult to find in sunshine during the day. In the real life, dark mercifully covers everything that keeps uncovering very quickly during choreography on the stage. Cowardliness of a poor man, humiliation of a queen, hurting a cat. It seems to tick away time and waits for its rescue. It does not live to see that.

Despite any attitude to the topic, we cannot deny perfection of professional adaptation of the whole dancing performance that helped DOT 504 be a part of the physical dance theatre category. The director brought crudeness and genuineness of the performance in actor’s behaviour to absolute perfection. Among real wounds and tears from shredded onion, artificial blood eventually seemed to be almost embarrassing although its use was staged with maximum plausibility (and only certainty that if the actor really bled in this way, s/he would be very difficult to use in future gives us hope that it was definitely not real blood). The dancing part of the performance was adapted in the same perfect way. Feeling of chaos, confusion, unexpected falls and collisions was fully under maximum control of dancers. A viewer could observe the fact that it is real harmony only when s/he fully concentrated on the motion part of the staging. We cannot find another name than flawlessly created illusion, real art of dancing that has absolutely natural effect during high stylisation.

An original score of Michal Kaščák is a very important part of the staging. Slovakian punkrock harshly supports and comments on situations by singing of performers, mainly of one of them (Csangor Kassai) that uses his Slovak language for construing and ruling sad situations where the others (Helena Arenbergerová, Michaela Ottová, Lenka Vágnerová, Pavel Mašek, Jaroslav Ondruš and Tomáš Nepšinský) excel both in dance and expression.

100 Wounded Tears ranks among choreographies like Proposition (DOT 504) and Time of Pain
(PKB). Portrays of pain and evil. 100 Wounded Tears live it probably even in a more intensive way. It is a harsh performance where dancers really hurt themselves in situations that nobody wants to experience in real life. And the harshest thing is that this is not fiction but depiction of the real world that is somewhere round the corner where we are not brave enough to look.


Translation: Eliška Hulcová

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