{"id":18535,"date":"2024-02-19T22:56:18","date_gmt":"2024-02-19T21:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/?p=18535"},"modified":"2024-11-01T21:07:49","modified_gmt":"2024-11-01T20:07:49","slug":"daily_3289_-_timulakportner_bathtub_ballet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/2024\/02\/19\/daily_3289_-_timulakportner_bathtub_ballet\/","title":{"rendered":"Daily: 3289 – Timulak\/Portner (Bathtub Ballet<\/i>)"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nBallet evening at the Royal Opera.<\/p>\n

Luk\u00e1\u0161 Timulak, Totality in Parts<\/i>. Had all the right pieces but left me cold. During the intermission I was doubting myself, trying to figure out whether I just wasn’t in the right mindset for modern dance today, or maybe I was too tired from work to appreciate it properly.<\/p>\n

It was just… boring. There is the “individual vs. group” angle, dancers moving as a group and then breaking out of it, but there really isn’t anything new about that. And I didn’t like the “language” it uses – and it’s definitely not just this work, it seems to be a certain style of dance that some choreographers prefer – that is all slouchy and dragging and “drawly”. I think of it as the “bad posture” school. The body seems to hang and be dragged along, rather than moving with energy. Pelvis forward, sternum back; leading with the elbow and letting the arm hang; toes turned inwards; shoulders rounded. A similar style is present in fashion photography as well, with a kind of world-weary, blas\u00e9, slouchy look. <\/p>\n

The only thing I will really remember from Totality in Parts<\/i> is the decoration on the far wall, with 512 lights arranged in a spiralling circle, pulsating and fading.<\/p>\n

Then came Emma Portner’s “Bathtub ballet”, and all my doubts left me. Nothing wrong with my head; I just needed a better show to look at. Twenty-five bathtubs lined up on the stage, and seven dancers doing everything possible with them. It sounds gimmicky, and it almost could have been – “look, here’s yet another thing I can do with a bathtub!” – but somehow it wasn’t. There was an energy and a curiosity here that was just totally engaging. <\/p>\n

And there is SO MUCH a bathtub can be used for. You can be in it alone, or together with someone. Bring water, or soap lather, or a duck. Lie, sit, stand, balance on the edge, arch across it. Hide in it, and reduce your body to a pair of legs, just a graphical combination of two articulated lines, really, paring off everything else. Stand it on end. Remove its bottom so you can pour yourself through it.<\/p>\n

\n<\/p>\n
(c) Nils Emil Nylander<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Aftonbladet’s review<\/a> finds Portner’s piece meaningless and banal, an agglomeration of loose ideas, a technical exploration without meaning. Whereas Timulak’s piece is existential.<\/p>\n

Expressen<\/a> likewise appreciates the existential message of Totality in Parts<\/i>, its expression of the loneliness of each individual dancer, a reminder that we are small atoms in a wide universe. Whereas the 45 minutes of Bathtub Ballet<\/i> is too long for a single idea.<\/p>\n

Dagens Nyheter<\/a> likewise uses words such as “weighty”, “mystical” and “powerful” to describe Totality in Parts<\/i>, but finds the bathtub idea too artificial, sees it as an unnecessary obstacle to movement rather than an interesting exploration.<\/p>\n

What can I say. I disagree with them all. I’m not looking for a deeper message in every single ballet; they don’t all need to tell a story or impart commentary on the human condition and our existence. I just want the performance to be interesting. Bathtub Ballet<\/i> does interesting things with the scene as a whole, and the enclosed space within each tub, and parts of the human body.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ballet evening at the Royal Opera. Luk\u00e1\u0161 Timulak, Totality in Parts. Had all the right pieces but left me cold. During the intermission I was doubting myself, trying to figure out whether I just wasn’t in the right mindset for modern dance today, or maybe I was too tired from work to appreciate it properly. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,18,796,768],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art_entertainment","category-dailies","category-dance","category-photography-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18535"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18545,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18535\/revisions\/18545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toomik.net\/helen\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}