True balls. Fot. z materiałów artystek.
On Friday, 30 August (7 pm), Biblioteka Tańca in Gdańsk (al. Grunwaldzka 44) will host the premiere of Helena Ganjalyan’s Une femme masculinefeaturing Korina Kordova. The duo is a remix, that is a work recycling another piece (yet not simply an “interpretation”, or a rendition of the original using different tools or a different arrangement, but a new piece referring to the previous one in content or form, in a discursive or contradicting manner). A remix oscillates between the things that were, are and may be. The past offers many probabilities, possibilities and paths of development. It provokes the future. Une femme masculine does not, however, go a long way back in time. It is rather an attempt to bridge the gap between now and then, make dialogue with the present. It is not about looking for up-to-date motifs in the art of past decades, but a response to an on-going process. The starting point of Une femme masculine have been Ann Van den Broek’s two pieces: Co(te)lette and We Solo Men.
In Une femme masculine, movement created by Van den Broek undergoes a transformation. Helena Ganjalyan tests how much you can manipulate its meaning, to what extend you can communicate something that was not the original idea. Her piece is a question on how context influences perception and how it can be used to generate new messages from an existing choreographic material.
The piece discusses the situation of a woman who identifies with masculine mentality and masculine behaviour, a syndrome known in psychoanalysis as the Diana complex. However, what does “feminine” and “masculine” energy really mean? Is the distinction justified? We are born men and women but not masculine and feminine.
The space for mutual complementation and the play of opposite energies employed in the work are meant to boost the dynamics of the body, gradually increasing the piece’s temperature and intensity. Une femme masculineis a multi-layered play for DOMINATION. It is a call for acceptance. It is an image of those who play out their strength over and over again. Meandering between terms such as “provocation” and “shame”, Une femme masculinedoes not ask “who am I” but “who would I like to be” or “who am I afraid to become”.
Choreography and conception: Helena Ganjalyan
Performance: Helena Ganjalyan, Korina Kordova
Music: Michał Mackiewicz
Remix of Ann Van den Broek
Production financed by the City of Gdańsk (cultural fellowship of the City of Gdańsk) and with the culture fellowship of the Śląsk province. Supported by the Zawirowania Dance Theatre and Centrum Ruchu in Warsaw.
To premiere at Biblioteka Tańca, Teatr Dada von Bzdülöw in Gdańsk and the Dance Theatre Department of the Ludwik Solski Academy for the Dramatic Arts in Bytom. The author would like to thank all the above institutions for their support.
