Berlin Choreographer with “Deluxe
Joy Pilot” in Seattle
By
Martina Law
Published 2004
Felix Ruckert
“Dance
is something to experience more
than to watch," says Felix
Ruckert, a Berlin
choreographer who is currently
touring the United States and
Mexico. One of his stops was
Seattle, where he performed ‘Deluxe
Joy Pilot’ at “On the
Boards," a lower Queen Anne
venue considered Seattle’s home
for experimental performances by
the international avant-garde.
Sara
Edward (PR/Marketing Manager) and
Lane Czaplinski (Artistic
Director) were among the staff
members of ‘On the Boards’
thrilled to have the
internationally-known
choreographer at their theater. Czaplinski told
me that he
was “blown away” when he first saw
a Ruckert dance performance. He
then knew that it was a must to
have Ruckert come to Seattle.
Ruckert’s Deluxe Joy Pilot
is a unique approach to presenting
dance, outside the traditional
performance boundaries. The
setting is very intimate;
spectators get to choose between
inflatable armchairs or big and
small massage beds that are
arranged around the stage. The
choice will determine the degree
of participation during the
performance. Spectators are free
to move around during the piece.
The
performance itself seems almost
like a seductive game between the
audience and the dancers. Audience
members lying on beds are
massaged, petted, caressed, shaken
and hugged by the performers. Some
of them are asked to interact with
the dancers on stage.
The
piece itself is a wild ride
through human emotions, feelings
and fantasies that are wonderfully
expressed by the international
cast of dancers. Their alternately
frenzied and smooth movements
intimate that the body and soul
are one.
Towards the end of the
performance, more audience members
are invited to the stage and
introduced to each other. It
doesn’t end with applause but with
quiet conversations between
performers and non-performers.
I got
up and approached an elderly lady
sitting next to a young woman on
an inflatable chair. Asked what
they thought of the performance,
they told me that it was the first
show by Felix Ruckert they had
seen.
“I was
amazed”, the elderly woman
whispered.
“I was
tired at the beginning”, the young
woman admitted. “But during the
show I got sucked in.”
Getting ‘sucked in’ seems the
appropriate term to me. Felix
Ruckert truly understands how to
engage his audience in a unique,
emotional rollercoaster ride of an
experience.
For
more information on Felix Ruckert
go to
www.felixruckert.de
For more information on ‘On the
boards’ go to
www.ontheboards.org
©
2006 All content property of European Weekly unless where otherwise
accredited
