defigurative choreography: duchamp & forsythe
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Defigurative Choreography: From Marcel Duchamp to William ForsytheAuthor(s): Gabriele Brandstetter and Marta UlvaeusSource: TDR (1988-), Vol. 42, No. 4 (Winter, 1998), pp. 37-55Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1146717
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GabrieleBrandstetter
body presents
figure
as
a
unity.
In theatrical
performance
conventions,
figure
has
traditionally
been the bearer
of
identity.
But in relation
to the
choreo-
graphic
text,
figure
also
means the
unity
of a movement
figure
and the
deriva-
tive
possibilities
of its
positioning
in the
syntax
of
movement
sequences.
The
task of
choreography-with
which
Forsythe
confronts himself
in his
works-is
to abandon
this notion
of
figure
as
unity
(or,
as
he
says,
as
operative
unity ),
to
stage
this dissolution
within and
by
means
of the
choreographic
presentation
of
figure.
One
springs
out
of one's
own
body
into
nothingness,
into
'Man
wei3
nicht'
[one
doesn't
know]
(Forsythe
n Odenthal
I994:34).
Before
I
follow this
process-the
dissolution of
figure,
which
presents
itself
as
defiguration-in Forsythe's
work,
I would like to
show
certain
possibilities
of
representation
and dissolution
(and
dissolution
within
representation)
of
figure
using
the
model
of the
Transformer
(see
Hawthorne
1989
and
Lyotard
1977).
A
Transformer
s a
small
figure,
a
toy
statue,
made
of:
connected
pieces,
which
in
one form
look
like
a
robot,
while
in
a
sec-
ond,
they
resemble
something
different:
a vehicle
(truck,
car,
motor-
cycle),
an
animal
(insect
or
dinosaur),
or
one of
the
inanimate
objects
(a
cassette,
a
tape
recorder)
that
increasingly
have
been
making
their
way
into
preteen
culture.
(Hawthorne
I989:2)3
Transformers are
two
different
figures
in
one,
two
corporeal
manifestations,
which
through
certain
manipulations-through
slip
mechanisms and
snap
de-
vices-are
converted
into one
another
by
means of
hinges.
The
term
Trans-
former
describes
the
changing
of
form,
which is not
a
metamorphosis,
but a
folding
of
prefigured patterns
into
a
mechanically
equipped
alter
ego.
They
are
cars or radios
anthropomorphosized.
Through
a
few
opening
move-
ments
they
are concealed or
revealed
as
fantastic
robots.
An
ad
states,
Trans-
formers-more
than
meets
the
eyes.
Transformers-robots in
disguise
(in
Hawthorne
I989:6).
The
Transformer
becomes the
figure
of a
form-changing
and
-disappearing
in
which a back
and forth
(fort/da)
game
of
defiguration
and
refiguration
becomes
visible-an
illusion in
which
the
Transformer is
staged
as
performer.
The ad
slogan
refers
not
only
to the
doubled form
but
also to
the
necessity
of
a double
vision.
The
manifestation
of
the
Transformer
that is
in
view
doesn't
let its
alternate
figure
disappear
completely.
This
one,
on
the
horizon
of
anticipated
repetition,
lies at the
periphery
of the
visual
field-it is
absent and
yet
still
barely
present
on
the
horizon
of
the
transformativeact.
But
the
mechanics of
folding
into the
one or
the other
without an
intermediate
space
entering
as a
gap
between them in the moment of
twisting,
a
mechanics
which
thereby
admits no
deviation
from the
cliches of
the
product,
neverthe-
less
reinforces a
preset
binary
pattern
in
that
it
reduces all
relationships
to
confrontations
(6).
The
fascination
of the
transformer
s
simple-Porsche
as
Batman,
Batman
as
Porsche.
As
processes
of
defiguration
and
refiguration
in
choreography,
trans-
former/transformation
suggests
something
different.
Forsythe's
pieces
work
at the
opening
of such
simple
folding
structures.
Choreographer
and
dancer
become
transformers of
open figures,
transformersof
themselves:
You're
in
the
situation
that
you
watch a
piece
that
isn't
yours.
I
called
it
Alie/nA(c)tion.
I
created a
piece
that's a
stranger
to me.
I
don't
know the
choreography
(Forsythein Odenthal 1994:36).
Alie/nA(c)tion,
ike
Forsythe's
other
choreographies,
has
to do
with this
act of
the
foreignness
of the
same as a
modality
of
not
knowing;4
it
has to do
with
the
experience
of
otherness,
strangeness,
and
alienation
as
performance,
as
ac-
tion,
and
as
process.
The
dissolution-de-
and
refiguration-of
figure
in
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39
choreography
is not
possible
without
giving
up
the idea of
identity
that,
in the
performance
of
signs,
is
coupled
with
representation.
I will trace these
as-
pects
along
two
lines: first of
all,
in
terms
of the surrender of
figure
as the
formula for
identity
and
pictorial
unity
in artistic
representation-a
transgres-
sion
of the borders
of
art
as
a
system
and its
presentation
in
the artifact-which
is
prominent
in
the
works
of
Marcel
Duchamp.
As an
example,
I
will
consider
his work
usually
referred
to
as
the
Large
Glass
(I915-1923),
as
well
as its cho-
reographic
transcriptions.
The
relation
of
figure
at the interface of
image
and
movement
is evident
in the work's actual
title,
La Mariee mise a nu
par
ses
celibataires,
meme
(The
Bride
Stripped
Bare
by
Her
Bachelors,
Even),
a
title
which no
longer
acts as the
topos
of
identity indicating
unity,
but rather enters
into a
choreographic
translation
with the
decentering
and
marginalization
of
meme,
the
topographical
figure
of
identity.
I
will then follow the
processes
of
defigurative choreographing
in
various works
of
William
Forsythe.
Meme-or Decentered Movement
With
Marcel
Duchamp's
work
The
Large
Glass-which he worked on
from
I915
to
1922
and
officially
declared
definitively
unfinished
in
I9235-the
notion of the
work
in
its
insularity
moves
out
of the
center
of
representa-
tional conventions. With this
work
Duchamp
formulated the
question
of
whether there exists between the
designations
of
art
and
anti-art a third
possi-
bility-a
locus
of indifference in
aesthetic
specification.
The
work of the artist
begins
at
this
site
of
indetermination,
out of the
not-deciding,
as
movement,
a
movement
that- as
critique
of
painting 6-becomes
an
open-ended passage
from the center to the
margin
of the field
of
determination
in
art.
Duchamp
spoke
of
a
great
delay -a
process
which in no
way
refers to
production.
It
doesn't have to do with the
time
or
tempo
of the
creative
process,
but rather
with
the
movement itself as the structure of
representation. Delay,
as end-
lessly
slowed-down
movement,
replaces
he
appearance
of the
image.
Move-
ment
becomes
image.
In
the notes to
the Green Box
(1934)
Duchamp
wrote:
Use
'delay'
instead
of
picture
or
painting; picture
on
glass
becomes
delay
in
glass-but delay
in
glass
does not mean
picture
on
glass
(in
Sanouillet and
Peterson
I973:26).
Thereby
neither
the
category
of the
presentation
itself
(art
as
the
representational
form)
nor
the
genre
(picture,
painting,
sculpture)
is
nameable:
Time,
which can in
no
way
be
fixed,
alone
steps
into
the
gap
of in-
determination- A
delay
in
glass
(Daniels
1992:73).
Delay, referring
to what?
Correlative sizes of the
site,
the relative
time,
and fixed coordinates
are not
discernable. In terms of the motionless and static connotations of
glass,
this
formula
of retardation works
like an ironic
reversal of the
dynamism
of
the
avantgarde
(the
Dynamo
of
the
Futurists,
for
example)-the
process
of end-
less
slowing
down until the
melting
point
is
reached.
Octavio Paz
considered this
glass
and its
enclosures-and
here even the
spectator
is
enclosed,
since he can't
perceive
this
glass
sculpture
without
seeing
himself
in
it-as
one of the
most hermetic
works of
our
century
(1978:29).
But
I
am not
concerned here with
an
analysis
of the
many interpre-
tations of
the
Large
Glass,
the
Machines
Celibataires
see
Carrouges
1954;
see
also Szeemann
I975).
Rather,
I
am
considering
the act
of
staging
as
staging
of
the
act-of
the act
in
the
sense of
action and
acting
as well as in the
sense of
nude portraiture n the visual arts.
Duchamp
began
his career with his scandal-
provoking
painting
Nu
descendant
un escalier
Nude
Descending
a
Staircase,
19I2)-a
presentation
of
nudity
literally
set
in
motion.
The
choreography
in
Duchamp's
work,
which
moves the
figure
of the
nude
(as
a
unity)
out of the
center and into
an undefined
border
zone,
already
begins
with
this
early
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41
painting;
mise a nu7-a
staging
(mise-en-scene)
of the nude
as act
of the
act
and
as
staging
of the
staging,
meme.
The movement of
delay
also
appears
in the title La
Mariee
mise
a nu
par
ses
celibataires,
mmem...
tself.8
The
title
stages
a
figure
of decenteredness.
In
the
winding
movement
of
the
phrase,
there is
a
pull
toward the
periphery-glid-
ing
out to the
margin
and over the
edge
in the
ellipsis
of an
interrupted
line,
as an
undefinable rallentando
gradual
slowing].
The
adverb
meme,
pushed
to
the
edge,
after
the
comma,
was added
later
by
Duchamp
(Paz
1978:33;
Daniels
1992:97
ff)-this
too a
delay.
Used as an
adjective,
the word
meme
signals
an
almost
emphatic
intonation of
identity.
According
to
Maurice
Grevisse,
meme
stands
as
adjectif indefini'
et
variable or that
instance that is
not the
other
( qui
n'est
pas
autre ) I980:514).
Meme,
whose
etymological
roots
go
back
to
the
Latin
egomet
pse
( moi-meme
n
personne ),9
tresses
identity
in
more
ways
than one. Le
grand
Robert ists the
following
uses for
meme:
l'identite
absolue
of
the
one and
the
same;
simultaneity
(la simultaneite);
imilarity
(la
similitude);
and
equality
(l'egalite)
(Robert
1985:353)-the
absolutely
homogeneous,
af-
firmed as a
figure
of
unity
with the term meme.
Does meme as a
figure
of
identity
now
slip
out
of the
center of
the
Large
Glass
(the
center that
displays
love-m'aime)'I
to the
periphery?
As an
adverb
following
the
sentence,
meme, self/even,
moves to
the
edge,
into a
marginal
position,
in
which
not
identity
but
uncertainty
and
openness
are
indicated. As
an
adverb,
meme becomes a
particle
of
indeterminacy,
the
supplemental
word,
which
Duchamp,
in
interviews
with
Pierre
Cabanne,
claimed
he added
precisely
because it had
no
significance
and
had
nothing
to do
with the
title or
the art-
work:
The
adverb,
a
magnificent
demonstration of
'adverbiality'
meant
noth-
ing
(Paz
I978:33).
The
particle's
ambivalent
position-as
a
figure
of
uncertainty-at
the
margin
of the
sentence,
enables
movement:
the
pull
away
from the center-the point that in
choreographic
terms marksthe
midpoint
(of
the
circle)
as
the locus of
identity
of
the
figure
(Forsythe
sets
up
and
disturbs
his
ballet
topos
in
his
choreography
for In the
Middle,
Somewhat
Elevated,
I988)-
into
the
open
produces
a
curious
suction.
This
movement-always,
of
course,
slowed
down-appears
as
repeated
thrusts,
as,
perhaps,
in
the
many supplemen-
tal
notes,
the
texts from
the
so-called Green
Box,
which
enabled
the
Large
Glass
to
become a
book'2
and
an
exhibition room
(en
miniature).'3
This
movement of
supplements
to
the
text of the
Large
Glass,
which
stages
the
nude
anew as
eros'
matrix,
continues
on
the
stage
in
the
works of
Merce
Cunningham
and
Jan
Fabre,
which I
shall
briefly
examine.
First,
con-
sider
Merce
Cunningham's
choreography
in
Walkaround
Time
(1968),
for
which Jasper Johns reproduced Duchamp's La Mariee mise a nu
par
ses
celibataires,
meme.
The
Large
Glass
was
divided
up
and
screened on
individual,
mobile,
clear
plastic
boxes that
were
scattered
throughout
the
room
(see
Sontag
I990:30
fi).
This
time,
the
Large
Glass
(which
by
I93I
had been
bro-
ken in
transport),
has
stepped
out,
scattered,
from
its
own
center.
In
the
movement of
the
nine
dancers
(an
analogy
to
the
nine
celibataires
in
Duchamp's
Large
Glass)
between
the
transparent
glass
cubes,
the
figures
are
staged
to be
next to
each
other
and
after
each
other
at one
and
the
same
time.
Their
bodies
show
through
the
glass,
and in
a
constant
exchanging
of
posi-
tions,
a
proliferation
of
the
figures
occurs:
they
are
alternately
placed
in
front
of or
behind
the
transparent
geometric
bodies,
appearing
as
if
they
are
embed-
ded in exhibition cases. Following Cunningham's choreographic principle of
taking every
location
and
every
figure
in
the room
as
equal
and
equally
en-
titled,
using
chance to
situate
the bodies
as
points
in
space
and
time
(see
Cunningham
in
Kostelanetz
I992:37-39)
and
allowing
all
viewer
perspectives
in
this
spatial
arrangement,
the
multiplied
glass
becomes a
staggered
frame of
movement.
A
frame,
however,
which-as
mise-en-scene of
the
figures-itself
1. The Bride
Stripped
Bare
by
Her
Bachelors,
Even
(The
Large
Glass)
by
Marcel
Duchamp
1915-
1923).Oil, varnish,ead
foil,
leadwire.
Philadelphia
Museum
of
Art:
Bequest
f
Katherine
. Dreier.
Photo
courtesy
f
the
Philadelphia
Museum
of
Art)
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42
GabrieleBrandstetter
participates
in the movement.
The
displayed
transparency
of the
glass
allows
the bodies
of the
dancers
to
appear
incorporeal,
transparent,comparable
to
the
exhibitive and
mirror effect
of
shop
windows.'4
The view
through
the
ex-
posed
figures
becomes
the mise-en-scene
of the mise
a
nu-of
the act
of
movement and
of
the
unclothed
figure.
Cunningham
sets
Duchamp's cut-up
love-machine into
separate geometrical
figures
within his
choreography,
and
the movement
of the dancers
in the
gaps
becomes the
hinge
of the
decentered
parts.
15
The
logic
of the
hinge,
writes
Paz,
rules the world
of
Duchamp's
work:
What
unites,
separates;
by
uncovering
the
object,
transparency nterposes
itself between
that
object
and
my gaze
[...I]t
is the
glass
that
separates
us
from
the desired
object
but which at
the same
time makes it
visible. The
glass
of otherness
and
of
sameness:
we cannot break it or
escape
from
it
because the
image
that reveals
us is our own
image
as we watch
it
watch.
(Paz
1978:152-53)
Always
gliding
toward
the
periphery-in
the
border
position
of
the
self/
meme,
into
the
out(side)
of the
identity-figure-the
dancers
walk
(sit,
stand,
pause)
in
the circle of
time.16 The
alphabet
of the
Cunninghamesque
movement
figures,
the elements of
his
training
such as
the roll
ups,
everyday
movements,
as
well as
complex
jump
combinations and
balance
positions,
step
into
the
trans-
parent
image-space
of
the
glass:
motion
inclusions,
implements
of
time.
Delay,
the
deceleration
of the
relationship
between
text
and
production,
appears
to
apply
to the
aforementioned
transcriptions
of the
Large
Glass as
well
as to the
Large
Glass
itself.'7 The
circularity
of
the
process
in
the erotic
ma-
chinery of the LargeGlass-the Walkaround ime of a never resolved
suspense
of
desire-becomes
the motor
that drives
Jan
Fabre's
piece
Elle etait et elle
est,
mmem
She
Was and
She
Is,
Even,
1991).
Fabre,
who
counts
Duchamp
among
the artists
who
have
influenced his
work,
staged
the
Large
Glass
as
an
incessantly
cycling
speech-movement
(see
Mattenklott
1993).
The
Bride as
sex-cylinder
(Duchamp)
in La
Mariee
mise
nu
par
ses
celibataires,
memebecomes a
speech
machine in
Fabre's
transcrip-
tion.
In
Duchamp's
Glass,
the
letter box of
the
alphabet
forms
the
hinge
between the
vertical
and the
horizontal
parts
of
the
Bride: The
line of
sepa-
ration
between above
and
below/
is
my
desire-magnet
(Fabre
I99I:37).
Sub-
sequently,
in
delay,
the
mixture
of
letters
is
expelled.
Fabre's
nonstop speech
from the mouth of the Bride-the subtitle reads: Solo for a Young (Mary
Ascending)
Woman -exhibits an
ejaculate
of
never-changing
words
issuing
from
desire's
machine
celibataire.
My only
function
consists of
making
love
again
and
again
and
again
and
again,
and
again,
and
again
in
many
different
forms.
(Fabre
I991:30)
In a monotonous voice, the Bride, sous toutes sortes de figures, spells out
text
from
Duchamp's
Large
Glass,
ordering
its
elements into
an
assemblage
of
quotations:
the
chocolate
grinder,
fly
wheel,
pistons
and
buffers,
cylinders,
tin,
cords and
iron
wire,
illuminating
gas
and
love
gaso-
line ;
men/spectators- the
poor
suckers...voyeurs/
with a stolen
glance/
in
wait
for
my
undressing
(Fabre
I991:33).
Mise
a nu de
moi-meme,
and
yet
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43
no
exposed
I
(33)-a
meme that
is
marked,
and
that indicates
the
identite
absolue -is revealed
here;
there
is
only
emptiness.
Fabre's
choreography
stages
this
exposing
(of
emptiness) through
the
posi-
tioning
of the
bodies and
spaces.
In the
production
of
She Was and
She
Is,
Even
he
staged
three
spaces
in
a
specific
relationship:
on one
side,
the inner
stage
space,
on the
other,
the audience
space-as
a
long,
narrow,
dark
body
for
the
'voyeurs '
(in
Hoet
and de
Greef
1994:127).
In
between
lies
another
space,
a
no-man's-land
separated
by
a
lit
surface:
he
space
of
the
enraptured
igure
of
the woman
(Assomption),
Mariee/Maria. The
in-between-space
as
eternal
pas-
sage
between
longing
and
fulfillment
(127).
This
space,
which
remains
empty-blank-becomes
the
objet
rouve
f the
choreography.
The lit
surface
is
forced
open
as the
locus of
transparency;
ut in
as
figure,
and in
there
the
in-
sect
of
the
Bride'8
presents
itself
as
(glass)
enclosure. In
France,
mariee
s
the
popular
name for a
moth:
noctuelle
(owl
moth)
in
glass
(Paz
1978:33-34).
With the idea of
the
insect Fabre
makes another
connection to
Duchamp,
to
both the
Large
Glass
and the
most
famous of his
Readymades,'9
he
urinal titled
Fontain
(1917):
to the
one,
with his
object
Passage
(1993),
a
sculpture
of a uri-
nal
completely
covered
with
preserved,
large,
shimmering-blue
beetles;
and
the
other,
with
a
series
of
female
figures
that are
exhibited as an
installation
entitled
Wall
of
the
ClimbingAngel
(I994).
Here,
Fabre works
with
wire
sculptures
that
resemble
female
mannequins
and
are
covered with
dresses
made of
shimmering
beetle
shells.
Suspended
in
the
emptiness
of the
gallery
space,
these
suits of
ar-
mor-a frozen
metamorphosis
between
nature
and
art-again
etch the
space
of
the Mariee
(the
virgin/the insect)
into the
glass:
Transformersn
the
Skies.
Fabre's
nterest
in
working
with
insects,
which
from
the
very
beginning
and
in
many
ways
has
informed
his
creative
activity,
can
be
traced
back to
his
study
of
the
research done
by
his
grandfather,
renowned
entomologist
Jean-
Henri Fabre
(Hoet
and de Greef
1994:19,
48).
For
Fabre,
even
drawing
is asso-
ciated with
the
image
of
the
insect:
in
the
activity
of
etching
and
in
the
idea
of
metamorphosis.
His
works in
the
visual
arts
arise
from
the
cutting
of
tracks
into a
surface: the
endless
scribbling
of
the
Bic
ballpoint
pen
on
cloth and
pa-
per.
In
Changing
Leaves,
a
series
in
which he
mounts
insects on
Bic-blue
paper,
a
reversible
encounter
occurs-the
insect as
paper,
the
paper
as insect
(Hoet
and de
Greef
I994:4I).
The
idea
of
etching
in
space
also
dominates
Fabre's
choreography.
The
etching
cuts the
physical
form,
the
unity
of
the
figure,
in
two.
The
insect,
as
the
figure
of
the
divided,
segmented
form,
replaces
the
individual
as a
figure
of
indivisible
unity
of form. In
Fabre's
ballet
works
De
danssecties
The
Dance
Sections,
1987)
and
The
Sound
of
One
Hand
Clapping
(I990,
a collaboration with
Forsythe),
the
figures
of the dancers-some of
them in
armor,
appearing
like
shining
insects-cuts
through
the
space
in
ex-
tremely
slowed
down,
extremely
precise
movements
and
poses.
Fabre calls
these
performers
of
intersection
warriorsof
beauty :
The
warriors
of
beauty
are
insect,
actors and
dancers.
We are
all social
insects
(Hoet
and de
Greef
I994:13).
In
the
theatre,
the
work
of
choreographing
on
the
insect
body
of
incision in
the end is
directed
toward
the
zone
between
the
sharp
edges
of
the
outline,
which-like
the
contingent
movement of
the
scribbling
of
blue sur-
faces-no
longer
derives
from
the
workings
of
the
rational
codes of
ballet.
As
in
the
drawings,
which
he
makes
aggressive
through
rips
(51),
Fabre
also
seeks to
rip open
the
space
with the
staging
of
movement:
as a
tear in
the
fissure in which the space between the dancersbegins to dance (II7).
Such
reflection
of
the
self-mirroring
open
space
points
to
the
choreographic
search
for
the
bottom
of
the
bottom-the
miseen
abyme2?
of
the
dance-which
Forsythe
again
and
again
stages
in
his
works,
literally,
in
the
destabilizing
of
the
foundation of
the
movement in
a
gaping
crack in
the
floor.
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44
GabrieleBrandstetter
2. William
Forsythe's
Alien/A(c)tion. Ballet
Frankfurt,
993.
(Photo
?
Self
Meant to Govern
Dominik
Mentzos)
William
Forsythe's
Choreography
William
Forsythe's
works
reflect
always
anew
that
the
beginning
and the
end
of
the text
of
choreography
are not
representable.
The
gesture
of
pointing
toward this
nonrepresentability
is
imaginable,
however-as
performance.
At
the end
of
Alie/nA(c)tion,
he
curtain
rises and falls
four
times,
in
repetition
of
the
punning
word
game
that a
dancer/speaker
(the
choice of
languages
n
Forsythe's
choreography
releases
all conventional
patterns
of
ascription,
roles,
or
figures,
of
theatrical
presentation)
scans
along
with
the
rising
and
falling
of
the cloth black-box: Cut, Schnitt, Shit, Schnitzel... The end as a cut and
the
beginning
of
a
piece
as the
preview
of a
(technical)
rehearsal,
n
which
ev-
erything
has
already happened
and
been
repeated.
For
example,
Firstext,
the
first
part
of
Dreiteiligen
Ballettabend
A
Ballet
Evening
in Three
Parts,
1995),
whose title announces itself
as the first
text,
is dissimulated
in a
choreogra-
phy
without
a
beginning.
In
Forsythe's
words:
In
Slingerland spin
in all
directions
like
crazy.
Beginnings
are
dark
and there
is no end
in
sight.
No
fixed
points,
lines,
or
planes:
no
balance,
no
justice
(in
Horowitz
1989).
In his
choreography,
Forsythe
attempts
to
bring
to
performance
those ideas
about
text that
have
been
put
forth
in
the discourse
of
poststructuralism.
A
passage
from
Roland
Barthes's
S/Z,
about the
inconclusiveness,
the
multi-
vocality, the endless reinscription and translation of text, was printed in the
program
of
Forsythe's
ballet
Impressing
he
Czar
(1988):
In
fact,
the
meaning
of a
text can be
nothing
but the
plurality
of its
sys-
tems,
its
infinite
(circular)
transcribability :
ne
system
transcribes
an-
other,
but
reciprocally
as
well:
with
regard
to
the
text,
there
is no
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Defigurative
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45
primary,
natural,
national,
mother critical
language:
from
the
outset,
as it is
created,
the text
is
multilingual;
there is no entrance
lan-
guage
or exit
language
for the
textual
dictionary,
since it is not
the
dictionary's
(closed)
definitional
power
that
the text
possesses,
but its
in-
finite
structure.
(Barthes1974:120)
The
entry
into
a
movement
text,
the
picking
up
and
rewriting
of
it as
cho-
reographic
process,
looks
different
in
Forsythe's
work
than
is
usual
in
ballet
re-
hearsals.
In
the
search for new
combinations and
positions
of
the dance
figures,
he
instructs
his
dancers
to
renounce
the
idea of
meaning :
You have
to
get
used to
simply babbling
these
words
and
developing
a
sense
of
being
confronted
with them
in the
middle of
the
sentence
(in
Fischer
i993:n.p.).2'
In
order to
show his
process,
to
penetrate
the
transversality
of
languages
(speech, writing,
step), Forsythe
relies on the
system
of
(verbal)
speech
in
nearly
all
his
stagework.
Reaching
for the
thesaurus s
part
of
the
choreographic
work. In
Artifact
1984)
Forsythe presents
a
lexicon
of
words and a
structure
scheme based on
a
syntax
that
was
developed
in
the
rehearsal
process
(see
R6mer
1993:27-46);
in
Eidos:
Telos
I995),
definitions
and
etymological
references
are
juxtaposed.
What
does the
term
figure
mean in
this
context?
In
the
representational
domain of
dance
movement,
primarily
two
meanings
of
the term
figure
are
involved. In
one,
figure
means
the
spatial
form
of
the
dancer,
that
is,
the
statue,
the
outline of
the
performing
body.
And in the
other,
the
term refers
to
specific
movement
unities.
Forsythe
speaks
of
the
fig-
ure as
operative
unity.
Ballet
presents
a
system
of
such
operative
unities as
smoothly
connected
figures.
Yet
even within
the
terminology
of
ballet,
the
term
figure
is
not
singularly
defined.
Since the
I7th
century,
figura
has
been
used in
social
dance
and
in
the
dance of
the
theatre
(ballet)
to
connote
specific
step
combinations
(danzefigurate)
s
well as
the
con-figuration
of
danc-
ers
ordered
according
to
a
specific
pattern.22
And
in
the
early
I8th
century,
Raoul-Auger
Feuillet
defined
figura
as
an
element
of
choreo-graphy
in
the
senses of
both
word
and
writing
in
his
system
of
dance
notation
for
ballet:
fig-
ure,
le
chemin
que
l'on
suit
en
dansant, 23
n
which
he
designates
le
chemin
as
line,
the
prewritten
line of
choreography
that
the
steps
follow- La
ligne
sur
laquelle
n
danse.
ean
Georges
Noverre
in
Lettres ur la
danse
([1760]
1966)
used
the
term in
the
sense of
tableau. So
the
idea of
the
figure
in
ballet
appears
o
waffle
indecisively
between
image
and
writing,
between
body
and
line,
statue
and
ornament.
Basically,
however,
the
following
holds:
In
classical
ballet,
the
logic
of
how
steps
and
turs are
combined,
the
rules that
connect
elements of
preparation,
pirouette,
and final
position
with
the
corresponding port
de
bras-
all
follow the
aesthetic
principle
of
the
(beautiful)
unbroken
line.
Choreography,
as
practiced
by
Forsythe,
considers
this
unity
of
figure
de-
ceptive,
the
unbroken
line
a
pretense.
Forsythe's
operations
of
de-
and
refiguration
do
not aim
for a
superficial
splitting
or
destruction
of
the
code.
Rather,
they
direct our
gaze
toward the
basic
disconnectedness,
toward the
gaps
in
the
unity
of
the
figure.
The
architect
Daniel
Libeskind,
with
whom
Forsythe
collaborates,
formulates
this as
follows:
What is
revealed
at
different
points
in
different
ways
is
the
gap
between
the
moments in
time.
The
parts
that
ensure that
something
continues
are
those
parts
that
cannot be
shown,
because
they
are
missing
(Libeskind
I989:I4).
Forsythe's
choreography
stages
the absence of these
connecting joints
in the
figure,
the
hairline
cracks
in the
line:
the
disappearance
of
the
copula.
He
starts with
a
classical
pose,
a
ballet
step
or
an
enchatnement,
isarticulates this
figure,
distances
or shifts
the
hinges
by
setting
each
line in
relation
to each
angle,
and
so
arrives at a
movement
series that
is
defigured
through
multiple
joint
locations,
which
does
not
look like
ballet
at
all :
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46
GabrieleBrandstetter
But
we
began
with
a familiar ballet
position
because
we
always
orient
ourselves
to
it,
we can
always
use it as
point
of reference.
By
continually
approaching
such a
figure
differently,
plucking
it
apart
and
putting
it
back
together
in
different
sequences,
I
can
bring
forth a tremendous
vari-
ety
of
information with
very
little material.
(in
Fischer
1993)
The mortar between
figures disintegrates,
the elision of
transitioning parts,
the
extremely rapid
reversals
in
direction
and counterdirection
put synaptic
barbs into the
gliding,
into the
appearance
of seamless ballet
figures.
The ele-
ments are
inverted,
juxtaposed,
and
put
next to one another-often
in
pastings
and
clumpings
with indistinct
edges,
following
a
grammar
of discon-
tinuity:
figures
of
a
steptext
(the
title
of an
early Forsythe choreography)
whose seams
remain visible. It
is
those
moments of
congestion,
of harsh ar-
rangement,
of vibration
(the
gap-jumping
rhythm
almost too fast to
perceive)
in the
choreographic
line,
that
are so
extraordinary
about this
dance
piece.
The
dancers,
trained in the
system
of classical
ballet,
learn to work with it
in
such a
way
that
they
rewrite,
decompose,
and build
in,
deviate
from,
or en-
large interruptions
of the
interlacings
in
the
code,
each
in
his or her own
im-
provisatory experiment.
An
exchange
of
speaking
(of
the common
code)
and
spelling
(of
one's own
defigured alphabet)
takes
place:
The dancers learn
to
spell
back their own
language
(in
Fischer
1993).
Elsewhere,
Forsythe
stresses that the dancers
should create their own
personal
ballet
slang.
Amanda
Miller,
choreographer
and
long-term
collaborator
with
Forsythe,
speaks
in
this context of
doodling -scribbling
and
scrawling.
The
speaking
and
writing
of the movement text as a form of a
parole,
which-like scrawl-
ing
and
babbling-transform
the
langue
of the fixed ballet code. Thus the
dancers
develop
a
lexicon of
multiply
branched
transcriptions
of
single
ballet
figures
and their combination
possibilities.
This resultsin the
nearly exponen-
tial
growth
of movement
lexemes,
whose
collection,
selection,
and recombi-
nation-with all the
choreographic possibilities,
(de)figuring
with
catachrestic
and
metaleptic operations-can
now be stored
in
a
specially
developed
CD-
ROM
program,
from which dancers and
choreographers
can draw. In
works
like
Self
Meant to Govern
(1994)
or
Eidos:Telos
(I995)
and
Dreiteiliger
Ballettabend
1995),
the
choreographic patterns
are
based on these
defigurative
operations:
[I]n
other
words,
positions suggest
movements within an
associative
chain or
organization,
which is
based
on
where the limbs
are
placed
in
relation to each other. Your
kinesphere
functions as a
memory-say,
for
example,
your
hands are near
your
knee,
and
you
remember that
that is
where the movement
sequence
A
begins
or ends. You
then
perform
A
no
longer
in
its
original
orientation,
as it is
prescribed
in
the move-
ment
vocabulary.
This
unoriginal
orientation
puts your
body
into
yet
an-
other
orientation,
accessing
some other
sequence
of
movements;
but
you
keep trying
to
re-adjust yourself
back and
forth between
states of dis-
and
re-orientation.
(Forsythe
1995:39)
The movement of
an
oscillating
dis- and
re-orientation
organizes
the
structure
as a
constantly
reversible
process.
The
pro-
and
retrogression
of
memory-the remembering of the order in the movement sequence, the me-
moria of the
passing
of time and
space-become
the
generators
of a
vocabulary
that
appears
like
an
alternating
current.
Reversals of
direction,
metaleptic
exchanges
complicate nearly every
motion of the
dancers. It is this effect
that
not
infrequently
awakens
in
the
spectator
the
impression
that a
figure
or
line is
growing
out of
the
impulse
of
both
an
inward
and
outward
mobilization.
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47
Up
to
now
we have
been
discussing figure primarily
as a movement
sign
in the
choreography
and its
defiguration
in
the
transcription
process
of
Forsythe's
work. But what has been said also
applies
in
a
comparable way
to
the
figure
of
the
body:
the
dancers'
spatial
form,
the
figura
of
their out-
line,
and
the
configurative
form
of
their movement
relationships
fall under the
transformation
processes
of the code
as
well.
In
subverting
the art
figure
of
their ballet bodies-molded into instruments of
presentation
through
labori-
ous
procedures
of
inscription-the
dancers
become transformers of them-
selves.
A
dissolving
of
the outlines
of
and connections between the
parts
of
the
body
occurs
through
the continual isolation of
single
parts
and
their
con-
ventional
coordination.
Screwings,
twistings,
and
multiple
initiation centers
of
movement
impulses
allow the bodies to
appear
as
polymorphous figures.
Their
fragmentation
imparts upon
the viewer the
impression,
as critic Edith
Boxberger
writes,
that
the elements of the movement deform into a
mean-
dering
flow
of
contortions and intertwined
convolutions,
which
frays
n
all di-
rections at once and
spreads
out amoebalike
[...],
an
oscillating
construction,
fickle
and
fragile,
full of unrest
(I994:32).
The
unity
of
figure,
even
as
operative unity,
is not
given. Despite
the
implication
of
the title
Self
Meant
to
Govern,
n
Forsythe's
choreography
a cen-
ter of
operation
that
governs
the
movement cannot be discerned: it
is
grounded
in
the loss
of
linking
elements that are
still
capable
of
demarcating
the
identity
of the
figure
as a
representational unity.
Meme,
as a
particle
that
signifies
an identite
absolue,
is
also
displaced
in
Forsythe's
text work:
In
the
verbal
paradigm
that forms the
choreographic
matrix of
Artifact,
THE
SAME stands
isolated-in the middle
yet
pushed
to the
edge,
as
a term in
the function of
a shifter:
'THE
SAME' as
stage
direction,
'THE
SAME'
as
infinite principle, 'THE SAME' as the eternally repeating, the indistinguish-
able,
the end of
the
exceptional
and the
unique
(R6mer
I993:36).
The
arti-
fact,
whose
working
contours are ever
dissolving
in
the dance.
The
same occurs
with
the
vocabulary
of
the dance.
A
figure
that could to
such
an
extent
be read as a concrete
unity
would
be a ballet
position,
for ex-
3.
Despite
he
implication
of
the titleSelf
Meant
to
Govern,
in
Forsythe's
ho-
reography
center
f opera-
tion that
governs
he
movementannot e dis-
cerned;
t is
grounded
n the
loss
of linking
lements
hat
are
capable f
demarcating
the
identity
f
thefigure
s
a
representational
nity.
Bal-
let
Frankfurt,
1994.
(Photo
?
Dominik
Mentzos)
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48
Gabriele
Brandstetter
ample,
or
a
pose
like the
arabesque-with
the extension
of the
supporting
leg
and
the
stretch,
back
and
up
high,
of the free
leg-a fragile
structure
sus-
pended
in
gravitational
and
antigravitational
countertension,
whose
immanent
sustaining
dynamic
lies in
the
play
of balance. The
place
of
the self that
gov-
erns
the
figure
is the center
of
gravity,
as the center
of the distribution
of
the
lines
of
strength.
It is in this
area of construction
and control
of the
movement
figure
that
Forsythe's
work
begins-namely
by
turning
to Rudolf
von
Laban's
Choreutik,
his
theory
of the relation
between
body,
movement,
and
space:
I am in
the
process
of
approaching
movement
in a
completely
new
way,
in which
I
am
thinking
about
inner
crystalline
structures.
According
to
traditional
opinion,
movement
in ballet moves
from the center
of
the
body
out
into
a
hypothetical space.
But
I
presuppose
an
internal,
crystal
geometry
that occurs
naturally
n the
body,
which
in turn influences
the
movement
in the
space.
(in
Fischer
1993)
Here
Forsythe
follows
ideas
developed
in
the
I92os
by
the
expressionist
dancer
and dance theoretician
Rudolf
von
Laban,
who
systematically
researched
the
body
and its
relationship
o the
immediate
environment
(kinesphere)
and
thereby
discovered
the
regular
crystals
of both
the
dodecahedron and
foremost
the
icosa-
hedron to
be
those
stereometrical
figures
that
could be
used as
models for
the
plateaus
and
angular
relations
of
movement
(Laban 1991).
The
crystalline
struc-
ture
of the icosahedron
enables
a
multilateral
description
of
body
movement
in
the
environment
of the
kinesphere,
which
takes
several
perspectives
nto
account
simultaneously.
Yet
the lines
and
planes
of
movement
direction
thus
described
and the
swings
articulated
by
the
body
and
carried
out
according
to
these
di-
rections all
emanate from one
center,
a
midpoint
between
the
spatial
orientation
and the movement coordination.This is where
Forsythe's
choreographic
analyses
begin.
What
happens,
he
asks,
when
multiple
axes,
planes,
and
points
of
the
kinesphere
are
activated
and
become
the
initiating
point
of
movement?
When
every
point
of the
kinespheric
figure
of
the
body
can
become
the
center
of
movement,
a
network
of
interferingsystems
develops.
No
longer
does
one
single
center
of
gravity
govern
the
movement
figure,
as
is the
case in
classical
ballet.
Rather,
a
multicentric
agglomerate
of
points
distributed
over
the
body
initiates
and
conducts the
motions in
the
space.
For
example,
the solo
in
In
the
Middle,
Somewhat
levated
plays
with
this
figure
of
the
center-of
the
one
point
of
gravity
and its
control-with
the
topos
in
ballet's
hierarchy
hat
celebrates he
prima
bal-
lerina
as
etoile
n
this
elevated
position.
In
Forsythe's
choreography
the
soloist
defigures
this
topos;
she falls, so to
speak,
out of the discursive
space.
She dis-
mantles
the
pose,
for
example,
by
gliding
out of a
balanced
arabesque,
extending
the
figure
to
its
tipping
point,
and
then
slipping
into an
extremely
rapid pirou-
ette-as
with
falling,
passing
over
the
conventional
preparation
and
instead
mo-
bilizing
the
port
de bras
from
the
shoulder,
in
an
isolated
spasmodic
outstretched
movement,
followed
by
a
head
movement
of
the
epaulement,
f
a
torsion of
the
torso in
the
opposite
direction,
while
teetering
on
her
point
shoe.
The
synchronization
of
such
defigurations
of
the
ballet
vocabulary
in
the
course of
a
sequence
no
longer
welds
unities
together.
This
choreography
is
simultaneously
its own
metachoreography,
in
the
analysis
of
movement
and
space
of
the
given
matrix.
The
figures
generated
in
this
way
during
the
course
of transformationbecome similar to one another, they take on the visual
qual-
ity
of
fractals:
Fractal
geometries [...]
are
the
images
of the
way
things
fold
and
unfold,
feeding
back
into
each
other
and
themselves
(Forsythe
1995).
In
terms
of
the
relation
of
figure
and
space,
the
patterns
of such
choreography
reveal a
similarity
with
the
designs
that
are
known as
parquet
deformations
(Hofstadter
I985:I95-2I8):
gradually
developing
transformations of
divisions
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Defigurative
Choreography
49
of the
plane,
or
tessellations, which,
through
the
lengthening
or
rotating
of
a
line or
through
the
introduction of
a
hinge,
result
in a
complete
distortion
or
regrouping-like
a
type
of
ornamental
morphing.
In
Forsythe's
choreography
the
complexity
of the
spatial figures
and
their
interferences is of course much
greater:
Our
gaze
would
be confronted
with a
space
filled with
a
dense
concen-
tration of
angularity,
complex
circularity,
symmetry, laterality,
sphericality, contraposition, convexity,
concavity,
rectilinearity,
and
dis-
tortion
[...;]
the
extraordinaryproliferation
and
perfect
disorder of
these
marks
may
bring
to
mind the
appearance
of a
page
covered
with
incom-
prehensible
glyphs. (Forsythe
and
Levine
1987)
In
the
polyphony
of
the
figures
in
space,
the
line or the
definable network
of
movement
signs
falls
apart.
Their
linking
is
disturbed,
the
stability
of
the
figure-as
body
and as
movement
sequence-begins
to
wobble.
With
each
step
a fall is
implied.
LaurieAnderson describes
walking
as
falling:
You
walk...and
you
don't
always
notice
it,
but
you're
constantly
falling.
With
every
step...you
fall. You
fall forward a
little
bit
and
you
catch
yourself.
You
keep falling
and
catching yourself.
And in this
way you
walk
and fall at the
same
time.
(Anderson
1989:13)
Every
step
is a
falling.
The
choreography
inscribes
the
fall,
not in
an
obvious
falling
into
one
another of the
dancers,
as
in
the movement
theatre of
the Ca-
nadian
group
Lalala
Human
Steps,
but in
one
of the
patterns
that derive
from
the
basic structure: in
the
exploration
of
the
borderline
between
stability
and
fragility,
between centeredness and decenteredness. At this
point
of
equilib-
rium,
which
is
displaced
with
every
step,
the
conditions of
the
presentation
of
figure -as
a
mode of
choreographic
representation-are
put
in
question.
Marcel
Duchamp
was aware of
this in
the
Large
Glass.
The
exposition
of
the
eros'
matrix
(matrice
'e'ros)
n La
Marie'e
mise
a
nu
par
ses
celibataires,
meme
acts
as
a
critique
of
the
myth
of
Eros
and at the
same time marks
its
never
definitive
affirmation.
A
delay
in
glass,
in
terms of
equilibrium.
Or
in
Duchamp's
words:
Et-qui-libre?
Equilibre
(in
Paz
I978:72).
Forsythe's
choreography exposes
disequilibrium.
The
copula's
falling
out of
the
order of
the
figures
conceals
and
reveals
the fall
out of
the
center of
grav-
ity-a
constant
subversion
of
the
balance
structure
that
creates
the
illusion of
elevation and stable geometry in classical ballet. The movement
pattern
in
Forsythe's
choreography
consists
of
ellipses.
In
the
network
of
the
slipping,
destabilizing
centers of
gravity
that
are
thrown all
over
the
figure
and-in
myriad
points
of
interference-into
the
space,
there nest
gaps,
holes,
tears.
Here
Forsythe
follows
the
concept
of
a
postmodern
architecture that
stages
Sturz und
Rif
[collapse
and
tear]:
subversive
structures
that
display
the
mo-
ments in
which their
stasis s
threatened
(Jonak
1989:7).
The
outline of
Forsythe's
choreographic
structures
articulates
a
similar
ar-
chitecture
of
imbalance. In
his
analysis
of
Daniel
Libeskind's
works,
Forsythe
comes to
comparable
conclusions;
when the
underlying
model
and its
con-
ventionalized
axioms
are
corrupted,
hybridized,
the
structures
proliferate:
The rational, orderly grid actually turns out to be made up of a series of
decentered
paces
1989:19).
The
process
of
defiguration
therefore also
relates
to the
total
structure of a
piece -whatever
is
to
be
signified
with
this
formula of
the
performance
of a
movement
representation
of a
certain
duration in
a
certain
place.
A
ballet
work
with a
beginning
and an
end
and a
dramaturgy
of
repeatable
figures
and
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50
GabrieleBrandstetter
climaxes
can no
longer
be
described.
So there
is no
figura
of
representation
in the
sense of a
figural
routine of
expectable
structures
that are fulfilled
ac-
cording
to the
logic
of the code.
Instead,
each
performance
realizes
a
different
possibility
for the
presentation
of the
figures-the body
and the movement
fig-
ures. Each
repetition
shows another
surface of the
text;
each
reading refigures
a new variantof how the
figures
can be linked. In the structure
of the
pieces,
choreographic,
precisely
established
parts
alternate
with
gaps,
which
the
danc-
ers
fill anew in each
performance
(for
which
a
time
indicator behind
the
stage
serves in
guiding
the orientation
in
space
and the
temporal coordination).
Some
of these
choreographies
seem to consist
exclusively
of such
gaps,
in
whose intervals
the actual
sentences are
inscribed, as,
for
example,
in
Self
Meant to
Govern,
whose matrix
is
organized
in
such a
way
that
each of
the
dancers
has to
manage
her own
parcours.
nd so
she has
various
structural
pos-
sibilities
to consider:
there are clocks
onstage,
whose
hands
point
toward
letters
instead of
numbers. Each
letter denotes a
movement
sequence
that
consists of
figures,
which are collected
in a lexicon
that was
compiled
specifically
for
this
choreography.
For the dancers
onstage,
a certain movement
(which
can be
chosen
out of her own
ballet-slang )
is
suggested
by
the letter
that is
indi-
cated. In
this
way,
the
performers
transform
he
figures
and their
interlacings.
Comparable
processes-simultaneous
and
postponed
within
the
grid
of
these
movement
figures
that are
coming
into contact
with one
another-concern the
complete
score
of the
staging:
sound,
light,
projections
of
pictures,
objects
in
constant
coordination
and
isolation. But
I'll
leave
this
aspect
for
another
time.
Finally,
considered in
the
sense of
perceptual
unity,
figura
disintegrates
even
in the
spectators'
perception.
In
the
growing
entropy
of
the
choreo-
graphic
textual
weave
there no
longer
are
any
fixed
spectatorial
vantage
points.
Even the
spectator
falls out of the
balance of his or
her
position:
But
recent
spatial
transformationhas
brought
about an unforeseen
difficulty:
it is
no
longer
possible
to see the
entire text from
one
position.
It
seems
that the
characters
suspended
in
the
foreground
obstruct
our view of
the
characters o-
cated
behind them
(Forsythe
and
Levine
1989).
The
stability
of the
observation-from what
Fabre
calls the
king's
perspec-
tive
in
theatre-is
subverted:
a disturbed
equilibrium
of
seeing.
Forsythe
stages
and
thematizes the
physiological
perception
phenomenon
of
parallax
(also
the
title of a
1989
ballet):
an
apparent
substitution
or
change
in
the direc-
tion of
the
observed
object,
which
seems to
shift
between the
angles
of
sight
lines. The
spectator
is-in
the
network
of the
signs
and
figures
of
the text-
constantly
confronted with
parallactic
displacement.
Furthermore,
in
the
third
part of Alie/nA(c)tion, a translation of this
perceptual phenomenon
is
staged,
which is
known
as
figural
after-effect : the
alteration
of
the
figural
or
spatial
attributes
of
figures
(their
apparent
slipping
or
tipping
to the
opposite side),
after a
specific
figure
has
for
a while
been fixed
in
the same
region
of
the
vi-
sual
field.
Forsythe
plays
with
such
perceptual phenomena:
The
sentence Ev-
erything
is all
right,
spoken
by
a
black
dancer,
gradually
spills
into a
narration
of
catastrophes,
while
the
group
of
dancers
synchronously
translates
he
word
right
spatially by
dancing
on
the
right
side.
That it is a
black
dancer is
significant,
since
Forsythe
is
choreographically
critiquing
the
polarization
of
the
political
left
and
right
as
well
as those
who
claim
to know
what
should
and
shouldn't be
considered
politically
correct.
The
spectator
is
faced with
the question: Who stands or moves on the right side of which text? The
words
displace
the
figures,
and the
figures
the
words. In
Of
Any
If
And,
the
third
part
of
Gemischter
allettabend
Mixed
Ballet
Evening,
I995),
two
speak-
ers sit
at
the
back of
the
stage,
incessantly
and
nearly
inaudibly
whispering
a
text,
while at
the front of
the
stage
a
couple
of
dancers
repeatedly
begin
and
break
off
movements in
an
attempt
to
con-figure
themselves.
Out of the
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DefigurativeChoreography
5
I
4.
William
Forsythe's
n
the
Middle,
Somewhat
Elevated in
1992:
Afigure
hat could o suchan
extentbe read
as a concrete
nity
would be a ballet
position,
or example,
or a
pose
like the
arabesque
...,]
afragile
structure
us-
pended
n
gravitational
nd
antigravitational
ountertension,
hose mmanent
ustaining
dynamic
ies in the
play of
balance.
(Photo
? Dominik
Mentzos)
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52
Gabriele Brandstetter
flies,
staggered
tiers
of
blackboards
descend at
specific
intervals,
on which are
written
single,
disconnected
words
separated
by
spaces-elements
of a uni-
versal
writing
(Forsythe
1989:14)
whose rules
of
syntax
seem to be lost: a
spatial
etter-box,
which
keeps pushing
in front
of the
figures
of the
dancers;
a
chiasmus24
f
speech,
movement,
and
writing
elements.
Forsythe
continually
works with various rhetorical and
poetic processes
within the text. For Im-
pressing
he
Czar,
he included
one of Oscar Pastior's
anagram poems
in
his
choreographic
textwork,
whose title
Misverstand derder
Wegweiser?
Misun-
derstanding
or the
Signpost?)
likewise marks theme and
anathema,
lexicon
and
material,
in
the context of
choreography.
The
gaps
in the text-its
blurred
zones-demand from the
reader of
this
text the
search for another
way
of
seeing.
Forsythe's
suggestion:
So,
in
order
not
to
miss
relationships
that
could
provide
the
key
to
understanding
this lan-
guage,
let
us move
into
the
text
(1988).
Thus
the
spectator
him-
or
herself
becomes a
figure
in the
choreographic
text,
no
more
integrated
than
the other
existing
text elements
left over
from the
process
of
transformation;
an
inter-
rupted process,
an act of
writing
with disturbancefactors, as is reflected in the
title of another
Forsythe
piece:
Enemy
in the
Figure
(1992).
-translated
by
Marta
Ulvaeus
Notes
I.
The
passatismo
f
ballet,
which was
judged
to be both
an
aesthetically
and
technically
decadent form of
theatrical
performance
movement, was,
in a
repeated
Querelle
des
anciennes
t desmoderes
the
aesthetic
quarrel
hat has
taken
place
in France
ince the Re-
naissanceover
the
question
of
which should take
precedence,
the ancient or
the mod-
em), a topos of new danceconcepts n the early20th century.See Brandstetter1995).
2.
Since
the era of
the Ballet
Russes under
Serge Diaghilev,
the aesthetic and
the
perfor-
mance
conventions of
ballet have
undergone
massive
change.
One of most
profound
of
these
was the
elimination
of
narrative.The
destruction
of the
traditional
dramaturgy
f
Igth-century
ballet is a
wound
that,
as
we can see in
current
civic
theatre
produc-
tions,
is
still
healing.
3.
Hawthorne
interprets
he
phenomenon
of the
Transformer n
light
of
cultural
and
me-
dia/technological
change
and
the
associated
political
implications
as a
sign
of
the irre-
vocable
penetration
of
cybernetic
into
popular
culture and
as
a
signal
of
the
militarization f childhood
(1989:2).
4.
In
Forsythe's
choreography
Artifact,
he
following
lines are
repeated
uninterrupted
as
a
monotonous
poem
of
no
longer
knowing: they
will
never remember
where/
they
al-
waysforgotwhich/ they never rememberhow/ they alwaysforgotwhere [...].
5.
The
giving up
of
the idea of a
completable
work
leads to
another
concept
of
the art-
ist,
still
within
the romantic
dichotomy
of art and
life. See
Dieter Daniels
(1992:82)
and
Thierry
de Duve
(1989).
6.
Marcel
Duchamp:
Painting
s
the
critique
of
movement,
but
movement is
the
critique
of
painting
(in
Paz
1978:2).
7.
In
his
above
cited
analysis,
Octavio Paz
comments
that the
translationof
mise a nu as
denuded or
unclothed
falls short:
[I]t
is a
much
more
energetic
expression-
stripped
bare,
exposed.
It is
impossible
not to
associate
t
with a
public
act or
a ritual-
the
theatre
(mise
en
scene)
or
an
execution
(mise
a
mort)
(I978:32).
8.
Here
I
am
using
the title
with
the
ellipses,
which are
sometimes
ncluded,
other
times not.
9.
Meesme
and
medisme,
meisme
IIth
century)
comes
from
metipsimus
from
the Latin
metipsethe same],which followed the model of superlativesike maximus,minimus.
Io.
This
homophony (meme/m'aime)
as been
suggested
as the
interpretation
of
the
title,
but
while
Duchamp disputed
this,
he
also
played
with
it
(Paz
I978:33).
I
.
Duchamp
said in
an
interview
that
meme reminded
him of
the famous
double
mono-
syllable
of
Bosse-de-Nage,
Dr.
Faustroll's
monkey:
Ha-Ha
(Paz
I978:33).
12.
After
the first exhibition
of
the
Large
Glass
(New
York,
1926),
Duchamp
issued the
notes he
made as he was
creating
the
work,
which
were
reproduced
as exact
facsimiles.
-
8/9/2019 Defigurative Choreography: Duchamp & Forsythe
18/20
Defigurative
Choreography
53
The GreenBox
appeared
n
I934
under the same
(meme)
title
as the
Large
Glass:
The
Bride
Stripped
are
by
Her
Bachelors,
ven. See Daniels
(I992:I02 ff).
13.
Later,
Duchamp produced
La
Botte-en-Valise
I935-I94I),
a
numbered series of
what
he called
portable
museums :cardboardboxes with
miniature
replicas, photographs,
and color
reproductions
of
single pictures, Readymades,
and the
Large
Glass.
I4.
In reference to this effect of the LargeGlass, Duchamp noted in the White Box (A
l'infinitif):
i.
Show case with
sliding glass
panes-place somefragile objects
inside.
-
Inconvenience-narrowness-reduction of a
space,
i.e.
way
of
being
able to
experi-
ment in
3
dim.
as one
operates
on
planes
in
plane
geometry.
And
further:
No
obstinacy,
ad
absurdum,
f
hiding
the
coition
through
a
glass pane
with one
or
many
objects
of the
shop
window
(in
Sanouillet
and
Peterson
I973:74).
IS.
For
Cunningham's
choreographic
concept
of
space/time
as
inbetween
space,
see
Brandstetter
1991).
I6.
How
to
Pass, Kick, Fall,
and Run
(1965)
is another
example
of
Cunningham's
choreo-
graphing
of
everyday
movement as