Hansel: Maybe eternal, but more or less forever

This year, Bitef danced at the very beginning. It was clumsy, as if done by a beginner or maybe it was just an impression caused by the fact that it was at the very beginning. Both dancing performances left an impression of inexperience. Does it mean that the only criterion regarding selection of the performances for the main programme is how spectacular they are? Is it really enough to use nothing more than well-made optical illusions, superficially used new technologies or great names from the world of choreography?
Maybe forever may be based on a tangible topic – unlike the attractive performance we saw at the beginning – but it does leave a gap filled with unanswered questions. The questions are various – form those concerning Love as a topic and possibility to present it by the means of contemporary dance, to those dealing with types of links between the two approaches to dancing. Eventually, it all comes down to one or two questions – what is the point of this performance and why is it at Bitef? In order to promote a young artist on non-European markets? Is it the very coming of Meg Stuart to Belgrade? Okay, but, couldn’t she have come with some other performance?
Another omission was made regarding the announced time spent on preparation of the performance. It said, five days. The audience was barely reassured by Meg Stuart herself. And I am sure I am not the only one who thinks that Maybe forever was being created yesterday, spontaneously, during the performance. Anyhow, whether it was made for five days, two months or it was completely improvised (which I would cheerfully support), Maybe forever will be remembered by Niko Hafkenscheid's music and the fact that Meg Stuart came to Belgrade.
In the end, Bitef wouldn't be what it is if there hadn't been any mistakes on the part of the organisation. What ever has happened, you wonder? Nothing much. Some of you will probably not even understand the remark. But, isn’t it unusual that there was no translation during the performance? I am aware that the (post)modern society imposes computer literacy and knowledge of English but wasn’t that gesture a sign for the so-called less educated that Bitef is not for them? Mr. Bitef, is that how you imagine emancipation?

Dušan Milojević

More or less

42Bitef08 began in a more or less usual way – the grand opening in Centre Sava in front of, give or take, 3000 guests and, naturally, with a dancing performance which, more or less, have been coming to Bitef from France. It is, more or less, a spectacle similar to those performed in Berlin by Blue man Group which is, more or less, the most popular product of German pop culture.
The opening itself was, more or less, not a pompous one. Milena Marković opened the festival in a, more or less, nervous fashion, sharing an anecdote concerning her visiting Bitef as a student and the change of fate – from the times when she jumped over a wall to see a performance till the present day role and, more or lass, a honour to announce the festival opened.
The performance was, more or less, ok. Several rounds of applause during the performance given to, more or less, virtuous dance of the performers, were the only ‘incidents’. More or less, the authors achieved what they had intended. It turned out that this kind of performance can satisfy, more or less, the entire audience. All of us, more or less, came because of the more or less spectacular announcement of the more or less spectacular performance. The audience was well-dressed, more or less. More or less without tracksuits. I guess they’d had time to go home after work and dress up for the occasion.

The audience was, more or less, filled with famous people – artists, bankers, politicians. All of them were, more or less, smiling – both while entering and while leaving the performance. The rounds of applause during the performance were more or less insignificant anyway. We are more or less used to them. Those moments might more or less represent the division within the society. The difference between educated audience and the one which is considered uneducated is, more or less, characterized by the spontaneous reaction. While the ‘uneducated’ more or less enjoy the performance, the more or less educated are appalled. We could, more or less, pose a question of different expectations. While some see this as a, more or less, ideal opportunity to be seen with a new hairstyle or in a new piece of clothing, the others expect to see some, more or less, new theatre tendencies. The question which, more or less, arises is – how long are we going to have such divisions? More or less infinitely?

Dušan Milojević

This is my first and my last bomb!

Belgrade Drama Theatre. Woman-bomb. The performance begins at 10pm. Despite the late schedule, there are more people than the audience seats. I try to get myself in by saying I have to write the critique. Eventually, everyone turned out to have entered. The stage is deconstructed. It doesn’t exist. Or, better yet, the whole space is turned into a stage. The seats are where the stage used to be. I see an actress standing in a corner. She starts whispering. The audience screams: “Speak up!” She seems to be reluctant. Then, a voice. Where is it coming from? From the audience. Then another one. I cannot locate them. I start fidgeting trying to recognize actresses in the audience. Slowly, the voices start coming from all around but the faces are nowhere to be seen. One of these sitting next to me might start talking? I feel squeamish. Tick-tick-tick… this is my first and my last bomb! And then, a soft light starts discovering the actresses. All of them are women! Unknown actresses, in fact! Actually, I recognize some of them. I have seen them on other performances. But I have never seen them on stage. Interesting. Are marketing and mainstream powerful enough to bring popularity to some yet not to the others? Even when those others are more talented? The tension rises. We get information about women kamikazes. Assassination of Benazir Bhutto. The statistics. The photo materials. Revealing the manipulation and recruitment systems. There is only 12 minutes and 36 seconds left! What do these women do in such a short time? I see disbelief on some faces in the audience. Faces of older people. Some of them are holding small flags. The actresses ask them to stand up and wave the flags while someone is saying a text. How rude! Isn’t audience someone who watches a performance? Women. Human rights. Feminism. It all comes up. It breaks out. It breaks the chains. There is air of uneasiness in the audience. And a few satisfied smiles. Why don’t they focus on woman-bomb? Is it necessary for them to demolish the whole system of our beliefs and convictions in order to describe the phenomenon? Not all the women are potential bombs. Right? Please, tell me they are not!!
Oh, no! The one next to me starts talking! I knew I was in danger! She takes out a burglar mask and puts it on her head. There is a stewardess, too. We are on a plane. No, we are in a waiting room and the stewardess is there for some peculiar reason. Will she explode, when will she explode?! She falls into my lap which, despite the softness of her hair, gives me creeps. She stays there, motionless, for a few moments. Then, she gets up, resumes talking and puts a paper plane into my hand. I throw the plane into the audience… I become an accomplice! I release some of the tension, but it all comes back to me! They start the countdown! 20, 19, 18, 17… Everything is over! Over on the other side, Ružica Sokić seems ready for the explosion! She has put on her glasses and covered her ears! Shall I follow her example? Will it help me? The countdown is over. The lights go off. There is a silent Ka-boom… Someone has already taken up the responsibility for the explosion.
We are safe after all. We leave talking about the direction, the acting, the stage. Isn’t it a good way to avoid all the unpleasant questions Ivana Sajko asks in this extraordinary performance? This seems to be just the first and the last bomb in our lethargic reality. But, how do we manage to explode more than once?

Dušan Milojević

Gretel: Forever, nothing spectacular

Meg Stuart (USA) & Philipp Gehmacher (Austria) MOŽDA ZAUVEK/ MAYBE FOREVER Production: Damaged Goods & Mumbling Fish Globalization, deconstruction, shipwreck, individualization… What about love? Where does it fit in? Could there be a place for it in the world of alienation, racing with time, online communication? Could it exist and could it be expressed through art? Through dance? The examination took place within Meg Stuarts’s and Philipp Gehmacher’s eighty-minute-long performance. Using a range of choreographic images in a quick rotation, the couple reminds the audience of failed attempts in finding a common language with other beings who were not there (or maybe they were, on other side of audience?) watching the performance. The announcement (wrongly) stated that the performance is as result of a five-day-long cooperation between one of the most important USA choreographers and a rising Austrian dancer. Many have, undoubtedly, found the confirmation in the frail, interrupted dance of the couple with very different sensibilities. However, it took two months of intensive work to create the dance which is seemingly so simple even looks amateurish at times. But, isn’t love exactly that? Is there room on stage for a closely controlled dance we saw at the opening? Two principles, two unique, incompatible yet harmonious approaches to dance presented some of the questions on the stage. Complementing each other – sometimes even with conflicting movements – Stuart and Gehmacher showed us well-known aspects of love – everyday struggle, wrestling, bitterness, passion, small things that make us happy, continuous attempts. I am sure there were people in the audience who wondered if love can be a topic of contemporary dance. And if it can, how is dance supposed to deal with it? Likewise, it could be said that it would have been better if Niko Hafkenscheid had played throughout the play creating the background to Meg Stuart’s dance who should have individually examined the importance of love in modern society and the possibility of its staging. But, dear ladies and gentlemen, love is not Sleeping Beauty. It is not a spectacle. And it most definitely is not perfect! It is deprived of anything spectacular, there are neither audio nor visual effects and it does not require a complicated and pretentious stage performance. The main postulates of the performance are a naïve dancing of two people, erasing importance of gender gap and contemplating the potential of their merging into one perfection. The two of them – the one constantly splitting apart, trying to teach communication to the other half. They are learning by the means of imitation, trying to build a common vocabulary which would help them unite and become eternal. Maybe forever! Forever as ideal, ultimate aim, the only aspiration. Dušan Milojević