Distinctively Dutch Festival opens with U.S. premiere by Dance Works Rotterdam
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"Anatomica#1" draws inspiration from and includes references to Andy Warhol. -
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"ANATOMICA" explores both the sensual nature of the animal kingdom and a human body's complex capabilities.
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The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust will open its Distinctively Dutch Festival Saturday at the Byham Theater, Downtown, with the U.S. premiere of Dance Works Rotterdam's "ANATOMICA" -- a piece in need of no cultural translation.
Through highly acrobatic and athletic movement and partnering, artistic director Andre Gingras sheds light on the body's multifaceted characteristics -- from artsy and adventurous to seductive or even superficial -- and how they're displayed (for better or worse) in society.
When: 8 p.m. Saturday.
Where: Byham Theater, Downtown.
Tickets: $14-$45; 412-456-6666 or www.pgharts.org.
Half the program, "Anatomica#1," will explore the more instinctual, sensual nature of the animal kingdom as dancers address through movement the question, "How do we find the best mate?"
To attack the topic, the company researched courtship rituals and mating practices of birds and animals, Mr. Gingras said. On stage, "we have kind of created in a sense our own parallel of these courtship rituals and mating dances to a certain extent."
And the piece considers more modern scenarios, too, such as the invigorating, and sometimes humiliating, process of trying to find a mate in an Internet chatroom.
"I feel this really reflects the most humorous and most ridiculous and most tragic aspects of meeting people online," Mr. Gingras said.
He created "Anatomica#1" as his first work for Dance Works Rotterdam after coming on as artistic director in 2010 to accompany the already existing "Anatomica#3," which celebrates the body's complex capabilities.
"We talk about the body at its most virtuosic," Mr. Gingras said, as dancers run about the stage, fly off a ramp and leap from mattresses. "It's the joy of what the human body can do."
The piece also draws inspiration from and includes references to Andy Warhol and his work on celebrity, superficiality and fame.
"Anatomica#2," what will be the final installment of Mr. Gingras' triptych, has yet to be created, but it's on his to-do list, he said. However, he has already crossed many other items off his agenda since taking the reins of Dance Works Rotterdam. He has revamped the company -- one of the oldest in the Netherlands -- with artists with a range of talents, including contemporary dance, hip-hop, break dancing and acrobatics.
"We just have a real mixed crew now, and that's wonderful," said Mr. Gingras, whose own background is a melange of dance, theater and English literature studies. "I think that's the future, in a sense, that diversity and what that can bring to a contemporary dance company."
And diversity is something Mr. Gingras appreciates in Dance Works Rotterdam's followers, too. The "ANATOMICA" series meshes humor with more poignant moments, he said. "I think that can work for a lot of different types of audiences."
First Published February 16, 2012 12:00 am
