Contemporary dance | Carolyn Carlson | The Orient: Visible and Invisible

MasterClass ‘The Orient: visible and invisible’ Since 1971, when she moved to Paris, Carolyn Carlson has had significant influence and success in many European countries. She played a key role in the birth of French and Italian contemporary dance through the GRTOP (theatre research group) at Paris Opera Ballet and Teatrodanza at La Fenice. She has created over 100 pieces, a large number of which are landmarks in the history of dance, including Density 21.5, The Year of the Horse, Blue Lady, Steppe, Maa, Signes, Writings on Water and Inanna. In 2006, her work was rewarded with the first ever Golden Lion given to a choreographer by the Venice Biennale. During the master class the choreographer has worked, together with the live electronic music by Paki Zennaro, on energy, time, space, presence, improvisation. In presenting this Venetian workshop, Carlson wrote: «I have studied and practiced Zen Buddhism and the art of Japanese calligraphy. I accompany the sign of the graphic gesture with the haiku, respecting the tradition. Zen is experience of the present moment and dance, as living art, comprises in itself this philosophy of the vital presence. In the West we tend to look towards the outside, towards the future, while in the Orient one contemplates what is inside, in a circular time». In the video excerpt, some moments of the workshop: Motion with Explosion, Sustained Movement, and Suspension. Feeling and imagining the body, projecting it in space creating forms, volume, tracing directions. The body moves with pushes, impulses coming from different parts of the body (decentralization). The impulses are Explosions of energy that can last in time and transform themselves in fluid figures in metamorphosis (Sustained Movement). They can also stop and remain suspended up high and oscillate in space (Suspension). The energy of the dancer flows without interruptions in music and in silence, in jump and suspension. There is always a wave, an internal vibration that inhabits the body of the dancer. The body is alive the conscience is vigilant. The master-class was organized, on a project by Vito Di Bernardi, by the Intercultural Institute for Comparative Music Studies of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in cooperation with the Università di Siena. Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, 14-15 April 2009 Filming: Vito Di Bernardi, Ivan Battain. Editing and postproduction: Ivan Battain (Fondazione Scuola di San Giorgio) http://www.cini.it http://www.cini.it/fondazione/istitut...