Monday, March 7, 2011

Arien (1985)




"Realism as processed in Miss Bausch's artistic blender has interesting results. The idea of filling a stage surface with water seems like a gimmick. But by the end, we are so used to dancers sloshing through the water, getting their evening gowns wet, even gliding on a rubber raft or holding a party in this huge puddle, that we barely take notice of the fact that they are completely drenched at the end.
Like previous Bausch pieces seen here, the decor - again by Rolf Borzik - creates a mood-setting and metaphorical environment. Water has symbolism of different kinds. But here it is used not so much as an aquatic universe as a physical property to affect the dancers' movements and how we perceive them.
Thus after the dancers play children's games of various sorts and the men dress up the women in fantastic make-believe costumes, the inner truth of a person is blatantly revealed when one of the women with a painted face rushes under a downpour - the red makeup streams down her face and onto her chest."
Anna Kisselgoff
The New York Times
3 October 1985

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