Intersection of performative and choreographic arts of the Eastern Europe early in the 21st century

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Intersection of performative and choreographic arts of the Eastern Europe early in the 21st century

Introduction

performance dance emotionally

Traditional art is realized through the social and cultural paradigm. Essentially, it is about the directionality from culture to a person with an affirmation of academic ideals and the principles of their perception. In the situation of establishing the post-modern "image-spectator" relation, the art is based on another - anthropological - paradigm, its directionality from person to culture with an opportunity of spectator and author joint authorship. Thus, neo-avant-gardism art of the 70-80s of the 20th century becomes the platform for development of the performance the aesthetics, based on the priority and self-reliance of the creative act. While in the USA the performance stands for professionalized activity being similar to performing arts (such as a dance, music and singing), in Europe and Canada it retains its radical character, freedom and splendid intimate origin. There are evidences in the "conceptual shamanism" by I. Base and "living sculptures" by Gilbert & George.

Thematic justification. Today, a performance is based on creativity, which is a way of living. Performers are those who create, perform actions and speak in their own voice, unlike actors who execute scenarios. Artists created performance in the XX century. Today, it can be found in theatres, but also in visual and musical production. A performance is not to solve a problem. J. Natell says that it is not even aimed at meaning something. However, more and more issues are raised to evoke finding a solution or, at least, searching for its direction.

Today's experience of performative art development comes to the intersection with the contemporary choreographic art, because the range of dimension of the contemporary dance is wide - from social dance (sub-cultural communication traditions through movements) to the body theatre (theatrical performance that goes beyond theatre). Sometimes, a dance may flow from repetition of a single routine movement that never occurred to be called a dance. Sometimes, a dance absorbs acrobatic movements, sophisticated forms of coordination and elements of martial arts within the psychological consistency of movements. In other words, a dance may encompass a variety of generally accepted as well as unusual movements that allow exploring your own body in terms of coordination, elevation, gravitation and ability to employ contact communications within improvisation right here and right now. This is how the P. Bausch theatre, Ohad Naharin's Batsheva Dance Company work with the movements, while studying the means of movement creation, creating the dance where each movement speaks of current problems and provokes the spectator to co-create the story he sees. Focused on the performance format as an Actionist form of art dance becomes created in a real time, it depends on the actions of the performing author that the spectator watches. In part, a performance originates from ancient traditions of the people's theatre. Commedia dell'arte is the best to represent this kind of European experience. Commedia dell'arte (Italian) is also called a comedy of masks. It is a form of theatre characterized by improvisation based on a scenarios or sketches with a short storyline and actors in masks. The actors took only one character and led it through life, which made them unrivalled in improvising for many hours. The skomorokhs was a similar experience of the East Slavs. That experience was later passed from Kyivan Rus to Ukrainian Cossack state.

Research analysis

The cultural anthropology, as a science that studies human behavior and the results of its activity, was established in early 20th century. Many specialists such as Claude Levi-Strauss [7], and Ihor Kon[6] made contribution to the development of this discipline. Anthropological paradigm development issues in culture is quite new for national science, art, education but they have already been reflected in the works of such scientists as H. Kabakova [5], andV. Rozin [8]. The art of performance has been considered by D. Bulychova [2], A. Tarasov [9], and Y. Zakharova [3]. N. Balynina [1], and V. Lauson [4], have analyzed performance in choreography of the Western countries. Contemporary dance art of the Eastern Europe develops through the implementation of Western Europe experience and author researches of modern choreographers. Polish Dance Platform - the project for studying the contemporary dance art experience of Eastern Europe, Ukraine and Georgia, presented by Jadwiga Grabowska (Jagiellonian University, Krakow) and Grzegorz Kondrasiuk (Maria Curie-Sktodowska University, Lublin), is based on the cultural organization Zelyonka, headed by Anton Ovchynnykov in partnership with Oleksandr Manshylin (Ph.D. in Art History in KNUCA) [12]. Analysis of the facts of creative experience of contemporary Polish choreographers such as Aurora Lubos, Maciej Kuzminski, Kuli Rosna, Kenneth Flake, Janusz Orlik and Hygin Delimat enlightens the patterns and personal instruments of the authors of the "Choreographic Territories - Eastern Partnership" cultural project, who unveiled the whole variety of techniques aimed at creating a performance including video sequences and water on the stage. The "wide-screen" staging of the mix of plastic and social ideas of an author has been realized through five one-act short but accurate forms.

Aurora Lubos' performance "Acts" is an actively provoking key to the doors behind of which the domestic violence takes place. It starts long before the official announcement. Aurora is lying at the doorstep amidst broken dishes. Even before the official start of the performance, a viewer gets a right to literally/physically step over the desperate woman.

- How do women respond to that? - They overstep.

- And how do men react? - Hesitate but step over the actress, as well.

Let us analyze the part offered to the viewer, who has to make a choice at the very beginning:

- violation of personal qualities in case of disagreement and acceptance of the fact of provocation;

- retreating from the role of participant to the role of a silent observer;

- disagreement and challenge by means of leaving stage...

Now the viewer is just an observer, who has refused to give a helping hand to his neighbor. May he feel humiliated? Or offended? During the discussion I'm told that not everyone steps across. Some go away, some are offered by the performer to drop in when all pass. That is, the performer gives space for the viewer so that he/she could be the part of the performance. I did not have the cruelty to ask during the discussion whether the author had experienced domestic violence in her life.

The performer unlike the actor acts from his/her own self, but in Aurora Lubos' "Acts", "the desperate woman" carries double and even triple line:

- the victim of violence;

- the presenter of violence against herself without any external actors, which sometimes resembles masochism;

- tyrant using the means of violence against the viewer manifested in the form of offers of some vodka and a piece of cake.

Is sharing the role of the victim is the real offer from the victim herself? The viewer on his/her own place may refuse, may accept the insistent silent treat.

Is there any need in partner within this space? One partner is a viewer, another is absent but manifested his presence through the result of communication on the appearance and state of his partner.

The translation of the violence is shown by the woman's actions and results in conscious accepting herself as a victim: demonstration of red hands, tears while handwashing the child's clothes, writing the examples of violence on the walls. The translation is enhanced by the video of self-torturing, such as pouring lemon juice into her mouth, playing with the knife at her face. Almost all the space is taken by the skirt painted with the real scenes of domestic violence taken from the study of the real correspondence. There is a bottle of vodka on the floor on the right and the laundry with water dripping loudly on the floor on the left. The victim with red painted tears and white paper eyebrows looking like the snowflakes handmade when being a kid keeps going around the room in circles. To break the circle of tears and crying the victim screams at the top of her voice defiantly looking in the viewer's eyes, pulling down the child's clothes washed with so many efforts. In addition, here we see the continuation of the cycle, which has not been overcome by her love to the child, the cycle where violence causes violence. The denial of violence does not mean the victory over violence. Then the woman hovers the viewer with the glass vodka silently offering him to join her; and after that under the walls and windows she waltzes with her glass of vodka, which she drinks, she pays attention to the viewer inviting him to join her again. Some accepts the invitation and even bite sweets after, some refuse the alcoholic dialogue. Addressing the harmonica the woman hears that among the diversity of the chords only one nervous note returns to her, just like the official distress call.

While studying the dance of the 20th century I have convinced myself and proved that one can say through the movement more than the censorship allows saying in words, that with the help of analysis of dancing performances of the 20th century one can truly learn about the state of a person. Is the dance in the center of the "Acts" performance? The author is sure that the movement does not play much in discovering the theme of the performance. One can assume that the limited usage of movement is the limit of the freedom of the individual who is gripped by the fear of abuse, which cannot be overcome. All the actions resemble the process of art-therapy, but the scream did not turn into song, vodka leads to the echo of a single note of harmonica, and drunk movements did not turn into dance...Nevertheless, everything gave us information about the existence of the problem and proved the cyclical nature of it. During the discussion of the performance, which has become the usual procedure, the author emphasizes that she is willing to share the addresses of the hostels for battered wives with those who would ask for help, gives examples of people whom she managed to help. But her actions did not encourage me to trust her, because anytime there was a hope for escape, Aurora rejected it with her own hand: self-beating, pulling the washed child's clothes down, drinking alcohol without any external signs of enforcement, in other words, she took actions which cannot be seen as the way of liberation. We can also see the search that did not lead to the result in the experience of P.Bausch, the author of "the theatre of dance" as the form of spectacle, on the example of "Muller Cafe" (1978), but we can see the way of the search there [1]. If Aurora refused from movement in her search for the way, the play of Janusz Orlik "Insight" is built on the plastique of movement. According to the announce he sends the viewer to the trip through the labyrinth of the human body. However, the challenges of the emotional state of the owner of this body are seen not as a simple travel but as a very nervous, sometimes compulsive and sometimes apathetic. The animation and isolation of the movement has become the base of the choreographic lexis, which has been carried with the sweater-partner. The sweater when having been taken off has been left on the face: the screen/the mask/the revealing of himself for himself. The performer tries to find the way to himself through the "withdrawal" from the outside world. Having entered the personal sweater one can find himself and turn back or cannot find the way to himself or not turn back to the world. The hero finds the comfort "Inside" zone staying in the sweater zone, or in "Chelaut" the zone of today dimension of isolated communication. The one-dimensional center of attention is opposed by the internal and external worlds, and the dialogue between P.Bausch and the performance "Muller Cafe", the heroes of which while looking for the exit have passed the doors located in several walls, and even the final glass doors have turned to be just the revolving gates leading back.

Hygin Delimat, the author and performer of "Forlivingin", actualizes the problem of societal alienation of block and solitary life, limited communication among large heaps of people. He draws on the body plas- tique, shows the problem through the dialogue of his own body parts. I have expected for such social and psychological break dance with the tough motivation of street art on the shaping the individuality for a long time. It is a deep echo of W.Forsythe's experience with an emphasis on the fact that the movement can be originated by any part of the performer's body.

Maciej Kuzminski's performance "Room 40" has been announced as a poetic, provocative and moving play that delivers the existential feelings to the viewer with the help of choreography.

For better perceiving of the visual imaging let us turn to the dictionary: "Existentialism or philosophy of existence (French Existentialisme from Latin exsistentia - existence) is a philosophical direction of the 20th century which views and studies a human being as a unique spiritual being that is able to choose its own destiny. The main expression of existence is freedom, which is defined as the responsibility for the result of the choice..." Maciej Kuzminski's performance "Room 40" shows the utilization of movement in an unusual for the viewer plane and proves that the horizontal can become the vertical for someone. By choosing the horizontal plane instead of the vertical one, the author has proved his personal right of existential expression of freedom. As for the images created by the horizontal choreography, the key moment is unity. From the beginning of the performance four girls have been standing still in the plank position (front support position) staring at the floor during five minutes. First, that is a static challenge for the viewer, since not everyone accepts that statics is a movement as well and that the absence of open communication enhances the subconscious communicative image. An unordinary viewer turns nervous, applauds though hears soft academic music somewhere. Second, everyone understands that was not an easy task and if one falls, all will fall, so that is an expression of collective stamina (in two worlds - the world of the audience and the world of the performers) and personal freedom of every heroine. Moreover, as was found out later, the girls worried about this fragment more than about any other, they worked on the strength of character, "were talking to their shadows not to look up", counted and understood that the unity invigorated them. Showing female endurance through the Floorworkcontemporary technique stands next to the M.Graham's challenge of early 20th century. The challenge was the first step to using the horizontal plane and levels, invented balance and angles, shortened feet and hands, transitions from level to level, wants to be neither flower, nor wind nor Silphida, for it wants to show dexterity and skillfulness of female body, able to perform the same choreographic activity as men [2]. Today Maciej Kuzminski has used high physical activity to show the strong will of a frail woman, who nevertheless became a flower of plastic movements in the splashes of water, the nude body of which was the pure aesthetics of movement. Perhaps, this freedom became the expression of existence, which is defined as a responsibility for the result of one's choice. However, the solo has been performed (the solo for four), because there is a feeling in the air that all of them could be the part since their entity has been perceived by the viewer.

The performance title "Room 40" chosen in accordance with the postmodern tradition had not told anything to the viewer until it was not said during the discussion that the idea of the play came to the author during his stay at hospital room No. 40, where the only plane for everyone was the horizontal plane of the patient, and the vertical plane remained for the healthy ones. Perhaps, the oppressive anticipation of the power to return gave the idea of using exclusively horizontal elements of the chosen technique. This became the basis giving the feeling of load, oppression and, at the same time, power capable of combining the directions and this power is given to the woman by the author. The solo radiates mostly the flavor of delight and the horizontal is no longer the weak side.

"Does the viewer witness the birth of absolute quality and completion of images" as was announced by the advertisements? It cannot be said with absolute certainty. The pipe from which the water begins to pour was conceived by the author as a drop counter and the Ukrainian audience understood it as navel string. And this cannot be made absolute since the viewer is not given the right of his own perception.

The search for personal identity unites the three performances of the platform. Pulse music and poster and lightning-fast video in the play of Kuli Rosna and Kenneth Flake "Stalking Paradise" have been prevailing over human movements giving the final word to the dream/search/modern phobia of "not being a cog in the machine", when you indeed have to be an element of a huge organism with no claims to the greatness of "the creator" and "the king of the nature".

Conclusions

Understanding the development of paradigmatic systems, based on the moral component of contemporary dance art gives the new starting point for reformative activity in the direction of considering universal human values. The contemporary choreographic art establishing itself on the moral universal principles and authentic approach to creation of the new principle of movements advances to strengthening itself as an energy field of modern culture. The experience of the 20th century is fundamental for the experiments of the 21st century, which prove the sustainability of the term "modern dance" as an established system and encourage postmodern experiments open to the search of the system. Furthermore, the fruitful experience inspires search in modern choreographic art and development of communicative direction of art. The use of contemporary movement techniques, deep insight into personal experience and accepting the life in the blood memory may be particularly emphasized.

Theoretically, we are looking for the answers to philosophical questions, but we are gaining more experience to reach the truth and to add the beauty to the expressive means once moved by postmodernists.

The intersection of experience of Aurora Lubos, Maciej Kuzminski, Kuli Rosna, Kenneth Flake, Janusz Orlik and Hygin Delimat with the experience of the artists of the 20th century creates a picture of healthy cultural and artistic potential for developing new means of using the movement within the postmodern space.

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