longer than expected
by christina ciupke and mart kangro
endurance can be addictive.
the fascination to exceed oneีs own limits.
the euphoric illusion that oneีs limits can be extended infinitely.
the inner emptiness that emerges when one obsesses over a singular goal.
all thoughts and perception melt into a highly concentrated target, denying a critical distance for hesitation and reflection.
a point is reached when a new perception of time emerges:
attaining the goal loses its meaning: it is endurance itself that has become the goal.
mart kangro and christina ciupke work with structures of repetition, endurance and control, and explore the
role these structures play in the process of learning.
credits:
choreography and dance: christina ciupke and mart kangro
technical support, light: kalle tikas
production management: susanne beyer
thanks to frauke havemann, indrek kangro, kaja kann, liis plato, pact zollverein essen, tanzfabrik berlin
coproduction: christina ciupke, hau 1-3 berlin, kanuti gildi saal tallinn
supported by: senatsverwaltung für wissenschaft, forschung und kultur berlin
presse
baltic times
let's get physical
by Joel Alas, jan 17, 2007
tallinn - "we wanted to explore the possibilities of losing control," says mart kangro, one of estonia's foremost contemporary dancers. "the easiest way is to exhaust yourself until you cannot take it anymore." kangro should know a thing or two about exhaustion. this week, he is in the middle of a manic training schedule ahead of the premiere of his latest production, "longer than expected."
the performance delves into the physical endurance and exhausting preparation that dancers put themselves through.
"it's about endurance, control, discipline and willpower, not only for a dancer, but for performers in general. there are certain limits you reach," kangro explains. "but as long as i am performing, i take into account the fact that somebody is watching me."
the dance piece will premiere on jan. 19 at kanuti gildi saal, tallinn's highly respected modern dance powerhouse.
while kanuti is known for its creative and experimental dance styles, kangro is recognised as a performer of all genres.
after graduating from dance studies at what was then called the tallinn pedagogical university, kangro worked as a showboat dancer on baltic ferries. he later landed a job with the estonian national opera ballet company, performing major roles in productions such as "romeo and julia," "don quixote and la esmeralda."
not content to simply dance, kangro also launched into directing and choreography, creating several performances that have toured internationally.
it's thanks to this international exposure that kangro has come into contact with christina ciupke, who shares equal creative billing on this weekend's production.
ciupke hails from berlin, and it's there that the pair first came into contact.
"we met three years ago through a seminar for composers and choreographers"_ ciupke says. "we got very interested in our different approaches. my approach is sometimes more reduced, although more poetic. mart is more conceptual and physical in another way. we thought that we feel very related in what we try to say in different ways."
after meeting in early 2006, the pair held several workshops and finally began physical rehearsal in november.
"we explore a wide field of movement related to the daily routine of dance and physical exercise. we explore the structures of movement and endurance - the things we [dancers] have to practice that the audience doesn't see on stage."
ciupke says she is quite critical of the prescribed concepts of learning and any school of thought that dictates the way things should be.
ciupke wasn't surprised to discover kanuti. she had heard about tallinn and its impressive modern dance factory through her berlin colleagues, and had formed strong links with its director priit raud.
berlin and tallinn share a special connection. as kangro tells it, the german contemporary dance scene is intensely linked with estonia's, and the two cities regularly swap ideas, dancers and performances. kangro and ciupke will next take their performance to berlin for its central european premiere at hau 3, a three-house theatre complex on tempelhofer ufer.
two choreographers in training clothes in front of a distorting mirror / tui hirv
eesti päevaleht / january 22.2007
self-torturers mart kangro and christina ciupke transformed kanuti gildi saal into a gym.
the utmost charm of contemporary dance is the fact that you never know what you get this time. our vague expectations are usually set to black-box, alternative music and brutal-vulgar choreography performed in white pinafores but frequently reality turns out to be something totally different. contemporary dance is not focused on form but on expression. now and then we whine that high-schools admit dance students who have never stretched their toes at a bar, but actually when it comes to contemporary dance then dance is not of significance any more since long. one dances on cruise ships and in folk-dance clubs. whereas in sold-out venues on behalf of dance one can see society-critical installations. the audience can get used to it or remain conservative.
to some people the collaboration of kangro and ciupke might have seemed to be a fraud. instead of black-box there was a gym with its green-coloured lumpy walls and squeaky floor. clothing was white-coloured but trendy, no linen pinafores. adidas tennis dress and nike sneakers. and instead of creaking cello the loud-speakers brought to the audience hysterically brisk text and music of "mastering english in three weeks". and it was far from floating choreography with graceful arabesques. instead of all that one could see a man and a woman executing power and stamina exercises synchronously, interspersed with acrobatics and balance tricks.
this entire triangle took place according to a certain rhythm. music was managed by the dancers themselves with the help of a remote-control. often one could hear only a peep that ordered the dancers to proceed with the next exercise. skipping-rope, torturing one's abdomen muscles in every possible way. imagine professional dancers on the stage moving their hips around and repeating "i sing. i do not sing. i am going to sing. i am not going to sing." then the lights go out and one can hear sickly-sweet piano and saxophone music just like from any soap-opera. woman is holding the knees of a man standing upside-down on him with her feet pointing the ceiling on one-meter high podium. it looks dangerous but they manage. they manage everything. they are out of breath but manage. they force themselves. they want to reach the human limits.
fixed idea to prove oneself.
and then suddenly i recognize myself. this is what life is about. we whip ourselves; want to manage everything, to be at our best, to be excellent and successful... and how repulsive it looks from aside! you wish to call out - stop torturing yourselves, you have already proved us how strong you are why do you keep doing it? but even if it was not a performance, even if you want to tell this to people in real life - they would not hear you.
we have this fixed idea, fixed idea to prove ourselves endlessly. this dance that can not be called dance is the charade of our own unlived lives.
dance: the unbearable burden of being / margit tõnson
eesti ekspress - areen / 22.01.2007
"longer than expected"
choreography and performance mart kangro and christina ciupke. premiere at kanuti gildi saal january 19. next performances january 26.-28 at hau 3 in berlin.
the title hits the mark. 50 minutes of power training, leaving the stretching and relaxing exercises behind the scenes. hopefully. eventually even the spectator's abdominal muscle is sore simply by watching the piece. or at least what should be there. fitness is business. beginning from the nike sneakers, gyms and concluding with every possible miracle mixture that helps one to grow and go light. training as an endlessly repeated process becomes eventually a life project. craving for perfection, shifting the limits of endurance, loosing the purpose within this life project are the regrettable surplus values of this process.
50 minutes of power training. just like that. for what? exactly. i believe this is what this piece is about. or then, that is the goal - to remind us that once there was a goal. but now there is only press-up and skipping-rope and ...
this is not a convenient piece to watch. you feel like getting up and screaming out loud "cut": stop torturing yourselves, please understand that we have already understood. but the whirl of achievement injects adrenaline that just keeps adding heat. in addition to all that the ability of multitasking that is so essential for survival in our modern society, which is to study english irregular verbs whilst trimming your abdominal muscles.
this is how this sweaty struggling alters into an allegory of a society where it is presumed that life is plain training, a dress rehearsal for something grand. something that actually loses its meaning in the course of sweating and beading thus converting the significance to the exercise itself. accomplishing the exercise ever more precisely and lifting the limits. till the end. question remains - till where?
for the first time in my life i read a program at kanuti gildi saal that speaks with me:
"endurance can be addictive. the fascination to exceed one's own limits. the euphoric illusion that one's limits can be extended infinitely. the inner emptiness that emerges when one obsesses over a singular goal. all thoughts and perception melt into a highly concentrated target, denying a critical distance for hesitation and reflection.
a point is reached when a new perception of time emerges: attaining the goal loses its meaning: it is endurance itself that has become the goal."
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