In Performance: Daniel Linehan – Montage for Three / Not About Everything (Paris)

Hors-Série 2
Montage for Three / Not About Everything
Daniel Linehan

Théatre de la bastille
76, Rue de la Roquette
Paris

Wed.-Sat. 10-13 February, 21h
Reservations: 01 43 57 42 14

http://www.theatre-bastille.com/

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Montage for Three
Choreographed by: Daniel Linehan
Created and Performed by: Daniel Linehan and Salka Ardal Rosengren

“…I transform myself in advance into an image…”
Montage for Three is a choreography-of-images that takes its source material entirely from found photographs, both famous and obscure. The two dancers embody the photographs with the absurd and impossible aim of giving presence to something which is absent. They strive to erase the inherent sentimentality of the photographs in order to see what lies beneath the nostalgia. The living/moving/present bodies confront the mechanical/static/reproduced bodies until the two forms begin to exchange roles. The still images begin to take on a life of their own, as the dancers begin to serve as a trigger for the viewer’s memory.

Not About Everything
Created and Performed by: Daniel Linehan

A single body enters into a circle of books and magazines, and begins to turn. The turning begins gently, but it gradually transforms into insane gyratory motion. The body begins to speak, repeating “This is not about everything, This is not about everything…” Daniel Linehan tells us that he is not speaking about desperation, endurance, or government policy; he is not speaking about celebrities, virtuosity, or metaphysical problems. Yet even though his words seem to negate, he calls to our attention these issues that evoke a world far larger than his contained little circle.

Within the singularity of the obsessive circular motion, Linehan introduces a series of variations, accelerations, and subtle shifts, creating a funny and complex dance. He subjects himself to strenuous physical and mental processes involving multiple simultaneous tasks: to speak, think, react, address the audience, etc., without ceasing his perpetual spinning. Within a constantly moving system that inevitably produces the feeling of disoriented vertigo, Linehan struggles to remain lucid and strives to create a space for thoughtful reflection.