{"id":2142,"date":"2013-11-18T10:36:57","date_gmt":"2013-11-18T15:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/?p=2142"},"modified":"2013-11-18T16:32:50","modified_gmt":"2013-11-18T21:32:50","slug":"performing-yourself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/2013\/11\/performing-yourself\/","title":{"rendered":"Performing Yourself"},"content":{"rendered":"

Members of Switzerland’s Theater Hora perform J\u00e9r\u00f4me Bel’s <\/em>Disabled Theater at New York Live Arts, November 12-17.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Remo<\/a>

Remo Beuggert of Theater Hora in J\u00e9r\u00f4me Bel’s Disabled Theater<\/em>. At back (L to R): Damian Bright, Sara Hess, Miranda Hossle, Matthias Grandjean, Julia H\u00e4usermann (hidden), Matthias Br\u00fccker, Tiziana Pagliaro, Gianni Blumer, Lorraine Meier. Photo: Ian Douglas<\/p><\/div>\n

Ten empty chairs wait in a semi-circle on New York Live Arts\u2019 stage, a plastic bottle of water beside each seat. Simone Truong takes her place at a table holding audio equipment and in a soft, noncommittal voice announces the performers\u2019 first task of the evening. She begins\u2014as she begins all her subsequent announcements\u2014with \u201cJ\u00e9r\u00f4me Bel asked the performers to. . . .\u201d\u00a0 This particular task is for them to enter, one at a time, stand facing the audience for one minute, and then leave the stage.<\/p>\n

Those who have seen the works by the Paris-based Bel that have been presented here (The Show Must Go On<\/i>, Pichet Klunchun and Myself<\/i>, and C\u00e9dric Andrieux<\/i>), know that he values a flat, no-frills vocal delivery and that he desires every performer to feel him or herself in the present instant, without reproducing what has been done before or considering future implications. The 2012 work being presented at NYLA is called\u2014clearly and baldly\u2014Disabled Theater. <\/i>And the ten who perform it\u2014all seasoned members of Theater HORA in Zurich\u2014are people with various learning and mental disabilities. Their actions are controlled to a degree by Bel\u2019s simple structure, but within it they have considerable freedom to do what they feel like doing.<\/p>\n

Standing for one minute in front of an audience of strangers is not easy. The performers do not have to look at us, but they know we are looking at them. And many of them have had the experience of walking down the street and seeing people avert their eyes. It is indeed a test. The one-minute span, however, is extremely flexible (and how many of us could perform this task accurately?). At the performance I saw, Julia H\u00e4usermann might have stayed on stage more than a minute, while Damian Bright (perhaps mischievously) chose to make his exit follow immediately upon his entrance.<\/p>\n

\"Gianni<\/a>

Gianni Blumer in Disabled Theater<\/em>. At back (L to R): Julia H\u00e5usermann, Remo Beuggert (hidden), Matthias Br\u00fccker, Tiziana Pagliaro. Photo: Ian Douglas<\/p><\/div>\n

Bel ups the ante gradually. When the performers re-enter\u2014again one at a time\u2014they announce their names, ages, and professions. This last, for all, is \u201cschauspieler\u201d or \u201cschauspielerin.\u201d Actors and actresses. Then they take their seats. We\u2019re getting to know them. They range in age from 20 to 43. Some are slim; some are plump. Some are shy; some are bold. Some speak loudly; some speak softly. All are adept at using the microphone on the stand to their advantage.<\/p>\n

The third task is (or could be) more difficult. Bel had asked them to name their handicap. Big Remo Beuggert says he has a memory problem and adds, as a humorous aside, that he\u2019d make a very bad messenger. Tiziana Pagliaro says simply, \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d Bright identifies his handicap as Down\u2019s Syndrome, gives its alternate title, Trisomy 21, and tells us brusquely, \u201cI have one more chromosome than you.\u201d H\u00e4usermann says, \u201cI have Down\u2019s Syndrome, and I am sorry.\u201d She goes back to her seat weeping and is consoled by Pagliaro. Lorraine Meier spits out an older, cruder term, \u201cmongoloid.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cI am a ‘fucking mongol,’ she says, \u201cor sometimes not. It hurts me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now for the dancing. The actors chose their music, we are told, and Bel chose seven of them to perform their solos tonight. This seems strange, but Bel is a theater craftsman, and we will soon see what prompted the exclusion of three performers. The dancing doesn\u2019t just happen in the spotlight. Several members of the cast move vigorously while sitting on their chairs in the background. They also clap rhythms when the music urges them on, or sing along. For Miranda Hossle\u2019s solo, three men fetch drums from backstage and accompany her; Hossle, who at times looks unhappy sitting on her chair, comes to life in a confident solo (I think of it as a serpentine dance being performed percussively.<\/p>\n

\"Matthias<\/a>

Matthias Br\u00fccker performs his solo. Watching (L to R): Miranda Hossle, Matthias Grandjean, Julia H\u00e4usermann, Remo Beuggert. Photo: Ian Douglas<\/p><\/div>\n

Although many of the dances incorporate spinning, they are all very individual, wonderful to watch.\u00a0 Beuggert performs sitting on a chair. Matthias Grandjean dances with tense, precise hauteur to what sounds like a \u201840s tune. H\u00e4usermann exits so she can introduce her number by waving a hand in a leather mitt out from behind one of the wings. Yes, she\u2019s channeling Michael Jackson, grabbing her crotch occasionally, whipping her long red hair around, and sinking into a split (Jackson was never so flexible). Matthias Br\u00fccker obligingly drags her back to her chair, where she recuperates by lounging with her head on one colleague\u2019s lap and her feet on another\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Now for a question that asks for less concrete answers: \u201cWhat do you think about this piece?\u201d Gianni Blumer says that he\u2019s the best dancer in the group, and that he\u2019s unhappy not being one of the seven chosen. H\u00e4ussermann has a request: she would like to perform to something by Justin Bieber, instead of Jackson. Truong just happens to have a Bieber number on hand, and H\u00e4ussermann grabs the microphone and belts it out. Not all the people\u2019s answers reveal their own opinions. Damian Bright says that his mother called Disabled Theater<\/i> a freak show, \u201cbut she liked it a lot.\u201d Br\u00fccker thinks the piece is \u201csuper!\u201d But adds, \u201cmy parents think differently.\u201d His sister cried in the car going home. The actors say these things matter-of-factly and without self-pity.<\/p>\n

Bel\u2019s \u201cchoosing,\u201d of course, was just a theatrical ploy. He knows that, for spectators, watching ten solos in a row can be tiring, so he gave us a break. Now the remaining three dance. Blumer doffs his jacket and struts his stuff boldly (Meier like the music so much that, sitting in her chair, throwing herself around ecstatically, she almost upstages him). Br\u00fccker, too, revamps his outfit in order to look cool, plays with his jacket, lets his pent-up energy out, struts, runs and slides, does tricky, hip-hop stuff with his legs. In contrast, Sara Hess goes and gets a piece of floaty fabric\u2014at first to hide beneath like a harem girl with a secret. Before long, she\u2019s whipping it around, making it her dancing partner.<\/p>\n

\"Sara<\/a>

Sara Hess performing her solo. Behind her (L to R): Miranda Hossle, Matthias Grandjean, Julia H\u00e4usermann, Remo Beuggert, Tiziana Pagliaro, Gianni Blumer, Lorraine Meier. Photo: Ian Douglas<\/p><\/div>\n

Bel puts everyone on the spot, so to speak, challenging the actors to be themselves performing rather than performing themselves. Challenging us to look at and accept these performers\u2019 disabilities and then look deeper to see their strengths. Interviewed by Gia Kourlas for Time Out New York<\/i>, Bel said that after working with Theater Hora, he sees \u201cdisability in every human being now\u201d and that \u201cI will keep on working on disability, vulnerability; I will go on trying to give visibility to the hidden ones.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members of Switzerland’s Theater Hora perform J\u00e9r\u00f4me Bel’s Disabled Theater at New York Live Arts, November 12-17. Ten empty chairs wait in a semi-circle on New York Live Arts\u2019 stage, a plastic bottle of water beside each seat. Simone Truong takes her place at a table holding audio equipment and in a soft, noncommittal voice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[1011,553,1010],"class_list":{"0":"post-2142","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dance-theater","8":"tag-disabled-theater","9":"tag-jerome-bel","10":"tag-theater-hora","11":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}