The Stages of Staging
Ten performers are rehearsing a series of scenes in a gym studio equipped with blue mats and balls which at the same time is also the set for a video project. They explore their individual and collective yearnings, constantly switching between video recordings and their «real» life. The rehearsals turn into an athletic training. The media are changing too: dance becomes an athletic discipline and music a visual story.
For «The Stages of Staging», the latest work by artist and choreographer Alexandra Bachzetsis, the contemporary media culture with its narrative gaps serves as a model for the way we live and work and for how we visualise our longings. The movements of the ensemble are guided by a number of cultural influences: the films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, British working class Northern Soul music, the staged photographs by Jeff Walls and also contemporary music videos by Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry.
Alexandra Bachzetsis has become an important choreographer in the Swiss dance scene. Recently, her work has been seen at dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel and at the Swiss Contemporary Dance Days in Basel.
Credits