'Lena's Bath'
Lena's Bath
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Artistic director/Choreography/costumes/set/concept: Karola Lüttringhaus
Dance: Lena Rose Polzonetti, Andrea Lieske/Dawn Webster, Karola Luttringhaus Music: Mark A. Wienand Photo above by Jennifer O'Kelly Like water itself, “Lena’s Bath” cleanses, revives, surges, storms, and threatens to drown in a whirlpool before returning us to a still surface. The intervening stretches of silence have a meditative quality that both calms and entrances, inviting, at times demanding us to focus on the fluidity of the dancers’ movements.
In “Lena’s Bath” water, and our relationship to it, comes to represent a deeper and universal condition. The performance dramatizes the famous line by Heraclitus that “You can never step into the same river twice.” The nature of the world is constantly in flux, the dancers suggest, a state of conflict between opposites. This conflict is one of opposing desires to both immerse oneself in and resist this timeless flow of transformation. “Lena’s Bath” offers no easy solutions for this struggle. There is no simple moral of “just dive in and get wet.” Rather, in floating, twirling, rolling, and carrying each other around the stage, the dancers seem to suggest that any personal change results from the experience of conflict itself and one’s always evolving reactions to conflict. “Lena’s Bath” uses real water on stage. Though contemplative at it’s depth, “Lena’s Bath” is an uplifting piece that has a great sense of humor and reflects a deep enjoyment of life. Supported by "Lena's Bath" was in part supported by the Moving Poets Theatre of Dance, Charlotte, NC. "Lena's Bath" was developed from an original 7 min duet version that was performed as part of "Arabian Nights", a collaboration with the Moving Poets Theatre of Dance premiered in March 2004.(www.movingpoets.com) |
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