Photo: Rosa Frank

THE DAYS OF ROSES

Musings on a first full length creation...

Mary Kate Connolly in conversation with

Luca Giacomo Schulte

ln May 2009, Luca Giacomo Schulte, long-time dra-

maturg and artistic collaborator with Raimund

Hoghe, premiered Rosenzeit: Getanzte Lieder (1), a

solo work for the ltalian dancer Ornella Balestra, as

part of Tanz NRW 2009 (2). This is the first full length

work Schulte has created for theatre, and like Hoghe

before him (who worked initially for many years as

dramaturg to Pina Bausch before making his own

work), he is making a somewhat natural foray into the

world of creation and direction. Given that it is creat-

ed by Hoghe's long-time collaborator and a dancer

who performs regularly with him (3), it is understand-

able that on the surface, some links to his work can

be seen in Rosenzeit. Delving deeper however, the

work reveals a different complexion, erupting from a

different place, and with artistic devices particular to

Schulte.

Formally, Rosenzeit offers a languid minimalist treatise

on gender, beauty, and the tracts of history which

caress Balestra's form, and the empty space which

surrounds her. Dressed in a plain strapless black dress

and impossibly high shoes, Balestra (re)traces an

evocative journey, through Lieder, French and ltalian

love songs, religious works and the music of Erik

Satie, with a reduced, highly stylised movement

vocabulary. Watching the work unfold it is unmistak-

ably evident that Rosenzeit was created for, and on,

Balestra - it quite simply would not work on another

body. ln the gloom, each and every sinew of her form

is heightened, softened by the cloud of flame red hair

tumbling about her shoulders. lt is a body strong and

wiry, frail and tiny; a body which easily acquires the

coquettish mantle of a girl in the first flushes of love,

but one which you know is older, forged by rigorous

training, memories and years. This feels essential for a

piece which, in a very oblique manner etches a cata-

logue of youth, disillusionment, abandonment and

self discovery; a woman looking back, re-inhabiting

the chisel blows that have formed her body... the

caresses and disappointments which have inscribed

themselves on her flesh. lt would prove an incongru-

ous fit for a younger form.

Visually, the work operates like an ever-evolving paint-

ing, with Balestra as the central figure in an otherwise

unadorned black landscape (a single crushed red vel-

vet cushion forms the only prop). The lines and per-

spectives forged by the movement in counterpoint

with the music serve to sever the emotion pent up in

the work from the physical actuality of Balestra. Thus

after a time, her physicality begins to operate on a

purely aesthetic level, until a turn in the music or

movement breathes emotional realism into the land-

scape and the viewer is thus jolted by the humanity of

her form. lt is on these levels that Schulte's back-

ground in fine art comes to the fore. Rosenzeit is cho-

reographed in brushstrokes, each sequence grounded

by a painterly sense of perspective and placing.

Mary Kate Connolly: How did this project come

about?

Luca Giacomo Schulte: The main impetus for

the project was Ornella. It all started during a

period when we did not have so much work with

Raimund and I thought it would be good to get

a choreographer to work with Ornella to keep

her a little bit busy! I asked Raimund and

Emmanuel [Eggermont](4) about a choreographer

and they said 'why not you?' I took a very natural

approach to the process and it unfolded from

there. Very early on, the idea came to me to link

her to a female character from the nineteenth

century, and I also at the time envisaged the

meeting of us in the creation of the piece as an

encounter between Germany and ltaly.

It brought to my mind the characters of the

Romantic period(5) because in Germany it was a

very strong period. During this time there was a

Ionging for the South, and a return to antiquity

and to the Romans. Here there was an important

link to ltaly, where the Renaissance ideas were

born. Romanticism was the era of Goethe and

also of Schubert and many German Art songs

were written. Initially following on from these

ideas, I thought a little bit about doing a work

comprised only of German Art songs but then I

also wanted to create a work ‘in situ‘ - I wanted

to work in response of the theatre and setting

where we were performing, in the Tanzhaus in

Düsseldorf.

The influence of German Romanticism can be seen to

underpin many of the facets of Rosenzeit. On a funda-

mental level, the exploration of individual liberty, and

nature as a source of inspiration (which characterised

the early Romantic era ‘Sturm und Drang‘) are evident

to the work (6). In addition to highlightning Balestra‘s indi-

viduality, evocations of nature echo throughout, earth-

ing her sometimes ethereal female figure. The hunting

cries of a bird of prey for example, water trickling in a

brook wich accompagnies a scene of cleansing and of

rebirth: in each of these Balestra appears to glean new

knowledge and strenght through a re-connection to

the natural world.

Arguably too, the counter-balance of opposites in

Rosenzeit which plays out not only in the visual bal-

ance of the piece, but in the gentle comment it pro-

vides on its subject matter, can be linked to the writing

and thinking of some contemporaries of the Romantic

era. Writing which for instance sought to envision a

harmony where all oposition and conflict would be

resolved by a unity. Hegel‘s posited interaction of

opposite ideas leading to a synthesis, or Schlegel‘s

philosophies on the concept of ‘irony‘, in which a form

of writing or thinking offered its own self-critique and

self-reflection, prove significant when considering the

threads which weave through Rosenzeit (7).

At the opening, Balestra lies prone in the semi dark-

ness. The shrill shriek of a hawk echoes, and slowly she

draws up to her full height and embarks on a coquet-

tish journey across the back cloth, statuesque and

commanding in her red-lined heels. All before her are

in her thrall, and yet so too is she imprisoned by her

seductive strength; it is tied to a necessity to conform,

to perform. She is an apparition, a vision of woman,

but a one-dimensional one. It is later as she removes

her shoes and stands barefoot, the trappings of seduc-

tion abandoned, that another facet is revealed. And so

this continues throughout - feminity and masculinity,

strength and weakness, death and rebirth - all are pre-

sented and immediately flipped like a coin to reveal

the opposing side of their reality. In these juxtaposi-

tions, concepts are immediately self-interrogative - no

sooner than the viewer has settled with the idea put

forward, than it has inverted to show an opposition.

And through this ever changing landscape, a sort of

harmony emerges - there is the sense of a deconstruc-

tion taking place within the work. A deconstruction of

woman and gender perhaps, but also of form, with the

resultant reassembly of each constituent part tinged

with a greater acceptance and balance.

Finally the dreamlike sense which seeps throughout

the work can be seen to have its roots in a Romantic

sensibility for intuitive modes of tought - an inclina-

tion towards the night-side as opposed to the day-

side of reality. Throughout Rosenzeit there is a perva-

sive dreamlike quality. It is unclear at times whether

Balestra is waking or sleeping, or perhaps retreating

into a subconscious reality rather than a present one.

In the same way as a painting studied for a prolonged

time will produce more and more facets, refusing on

an essential level to be ‘known‘, so too does this work

prevent complacency in the viewer.

MKC: Throughout the work, you seem to play

with gender and the opposing sides of strenght

and weakness. For example, the strenght and

inherent weakness in femaly sexuality. Could you

talk a little about that?

LGS: Well I think that you often find these

opposing elements in both the male and the

female. I felt that Ornella can be a little androgy-

nous looking, and we played with this a little in a

historical context with her hair for example - we

left her hair out loose because in fact that would

have been how a man in the Renaissance would

have worn it. Women wore their hair very close

to their heads and covering during that time, and

men wore theirs out open. In this way Ornella

reminds me a little of the intellectuals from the

Renaissance era, and so this for me evokes an

androgynous look. Also during the Renaissance

female artists, such as painters began to

emerge, and in both of these I think a strong

character is echoed.

Another reference to sexuality and opposing

forces is the hawk which shrieks at the begin-

ning. Ornella hates this reference because for

her it has a connotation of sexism, that in Italy

men consider women as little birds. But for me it

was not at all like this. For me it is more the

independence of a woman who is rising up and

who feels perhaps as free as a bird. It is also the

sound of a predator, a bird of attack, who is a bit

superior. And as Ornella rises up, for me it is the

rising up of individualism and of course more

specifically of a woman individual because she is

in her dress, and as soon as she stands up she is

immediately on her high heels. Here there is

perhaps for me also a reference to the

Renaissance and the rise of Humanism which

was bubbling up during that time.

And indeed even in the high heels there is still an ele-

ment of the androgynous: as she walks backwards

perhaps it could be a man in the high heels, it‘s not so

clear. In this way the character is a little like some of

female figures in Pedro Almodóvar movie -

androgynous or perhaps transgender. A little like

Carmen Maura in Law of Desire for example (8).

MKC: How was this process differed from your

work with Raimund - to go from artistic collabo-

rator to conceiving and creating a full piece?

LGS: Of course it was a change because as the

director of Rosenzeit I was fully responsible. But

this was very nice actually - I found it satisfying. I

was very calm throughout.

I thought beforhand that doing this piece

would alter the way I work - I was sure that after

the premiere in May that I would look at  every-

thing differently, but now that it‘s done, I‘m not

so sure that I‘m any different! Initially I was

always wondering and worrying whether the

work would be too close to Raimund‘s work, but

after a time I got over that. Now that I have

done it, I feel that whilst it fits nicely alongside

the canon of Raimund‘s work, it also stands on

its own. Finally Ornella and I had a very good

working relationship and trusted one another,

which was really important. Actually it really was-

n‘t that scary!

MKC: Finally, religious imagery is quite strong in

the piece, could you talk a little about the influ-

ence of religion in the work?

LGS: Of course Ornella comes from a Catholic

country and her links to religion come from a dif-

ferent time and are quite conflicted. In the work I

sought to express this without being too theo-

retical. I tried to forge connections through the

music in which the connection is perhaps not

immediately obvious. For example one of the

songs, ‘Albergo a Ore‘ by Herbert Pagani, is an

Italian song which tells the story of two young

lovers who check into a pay per hour hotel to kill

themselves, and the song mentions how they

look like the saints in old paintings. Later there is

‘Agonie au Jardin‘ (9) which tells of the agony in

the garden while Jesus and his apostles maintain

their vigil before the crucifixion. Some moments

such as this are charged, but hopefully it is felt

more intuitively, rather than pointing it out so

obviously that it is embarassing. The religion is

partly a dramatic device but more significantly

the songs themselves are beautiful and there is

always an element of consolation or hope.

This sense of hope and consolation trickles through

Rosenzeit. It seems of particular pertinence to Schulte

in this, his first creation. Speaking about the final scene,

he says, ‘the last song ‘Mein schöner Stern‘ tells that the

stars should raise a person up to the sky, from the dust

of the earth. There is partly a death in this scene, but it

could also be a moment of catharsis, of coming through

something...that finally you see things clearer‘.

Mary Kate Connolly is a freelance artist and movement practioner.

Notes

(1)   Trans: ‘The Days of Roses: Danced song‘ ‘Rosenzeit‘ is a ref-

        erence to the song ‘Agnes‘ by Johannes Brahms

(2)   Dance festival featuring work from across North Rhine

        Westphalia, founded in 2007. www.tanz.nrw.aktuell.de

(3)   Balestra has performed in Tanzgeschichten (2003), and

        continues to perform with Hoghe in works such as Swan

        Lake and Boléro Variations

(4)   Emmanuel Eggermont is a dancer who performs in Raimund

        Hoghe‘s work such as Boléro Variations, and the solo

       L‘Après-midi.

(5)   Schulte is referring to the German Romantic period,

        specifically the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

(6)   German: ‘Storm and Stress‘: German literary movement of

        the late eighteenth century that exalted nature, feeling and

        human individualism. Hinze, Klaus-Peter and Leonard M.

        Trawick trans. (1993) An Anthology of German literature of

        the Romantic era and age of Goethe, San Francisco: EM

        Text

(7)   Alford, Stephen E. (1984) Irony and the logic of the Romantic

        imagination, New York: P. Lang. Honour, Hugh (1879)

        Romanticism, UK and USA: Penguin. Williams, Howard LI,

        (1989) Hegel, Heraclitus and Marx‘s Dialectic, Harvester

        Wheatsheaf

(8)    A 1987 fim by the Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, star-

        ring Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas and Eusebio Poncela.

(9)    From ‘Miroir de Peine‘ composed by Hendrik Andriessen,

        lyrics by Henri Ghéon

Text and photograph are published on the pages 43-46 in the

volume 23, no. 4 2010

of the

Dance Theatre Journal

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