Self Unfinished (1998)
By and with: Xavier Le Roy
According to a collaboration with: Laurent Goldring
Music: Diana Ross
Duration: 50 minutes, no intermission
Production: in situ productions and Le Kwatt
Coproduction: Substanz-Cottbus, TIF Staatsschauspiel Dresden, Fonds Darstellende Künste e.v. aus Mitteln des Bundesministeriums des Innern.
With the support from: TanzWerkstatt-Berlin, Podewil-Berlin and the Berlin Senatsverwaltung für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kultur.
"A chair, a desk, a soundtrack, that doesn't start. A dancer in a shirt uses strong sound effects to imitate a robot. Indeed an understandable, even conventional idea, that is until Xavier Le Roy' s (1963, France) play turns into a gripping mental space. Head over heels, the dancer' s body is transformed in a real time into a series of hallucinogenic morphological aberrations, representing images of body that reconfigures itself based to unwritten laws and a disquieting, inhuman rhythm. It undergoes long stases, makes infinite movements and begins to crawl abruptly. In addition to the torsion carried out in the "spectacle de danse" (dance performance), Xavier Le Roy taps into a new field where scientific and social data is transferred and imprinted in imaginary representations of the body."
Francois Pironin the journal des arts of Connivence, 6th Biennale de Lyon
The brightly lit performing area gives no clues to "how to read" and the mechanical - man beginning is offset with a return to ordinary task - like activity: walk, sit, turn off tape machine. By the time you're into the contortions with the dress, we're given this extraordinary hybrid creature which confronts us with a multiplicity of interpretations. For me it alternated variously as insect, martian, chicken, watering can, caterpillar into pupa, et al. What saved it from being a Pilobolus - like entertainment (a crowd - pleasing American group that combines bodies to create biomorphic oddities) were the stillnesses and extended durations. We must sit with our attention riveted, waiting for the next stirring. Like watching a spider or snail. Your timing in this piece is exquisite: no pandering to short attention spans here.
Yvonne Rainer (email 22.12.1999)
02/04/2025
28/04/1999
09/05/1999
Tafelhalle - Nuremberg, Germany
10/05/1999
Wiener Festwochen - Vienna, Austria
24/05/1999
29/05/1999
01/06/1999
Goethe Institut - Singapore, Thailand
07/10/1999
15/10/1999
19/10/1999
Nouvelles Scènes - Dijon, France
23/10/1999
Mousonturm - Frankfurt, Germany
28/10/1999
Moving Time - Tilburg, Netherlands
02/11/1999
13/11/1999
15/11/1999
Danças na Cidade - Lisbon, Portugal
24/11/1999
TanzWerkstatt - Berlin, Germany
27/11/1999
21/01/2000
Espace Pasolini - Valenciennes, France
28/01/2000
11/02/2000
Mousonturm - Frankfurt, Germany
29/02/2000
New Moves - Glasgow, Great Britain
08/03/2000
Dance 4 - Nottingham, Great Britain
10/03/2000
Centre Pompidou - Paris, France
15/03/2000
07/04/2000
27/05/2000
Unterwegs Theater - Heidelberg, Germany
30/05/2000
Belluard Bollwerk - Fribourg, Switzerland
05/07/2000
Freie Universität - Berlin, Germany
17/07/2000
Kunstmuseum - Luzern, Switzerland
10/09/2000
23/09/2000
06/10/2000
Black Box Theatre - Oslo, Norway
10/10/2000
SESC + Goethe Institut - São Paulo, Brazil
25/10/2000
Theater am Neumarkt - Zurich, Switzerland
24/02/2001
Panacea Festival - Stockholm, Sweden
10/03/2001
Espace des Arts - Sâlon/Saone, France
30/03/2001
Springdance - Utrecht, Netherlands
18/04/2001
HetVeemTheatre | Amsterdam, Netherlands
15/05/2001
Théâtre de la Ville - Paris, France
23/05/2001
Balletteatro Auditorio | Porto, Portugal
28/09/2001
Goethe Institut Bogota | Bogota, Colombia
25/10/2001
Goethe Institut Quitu - Quitu, Ecuador
31/10/2001
29/04/2002
Dance Festival Zagreb - Zagreb, Croatia
03/06/2002
Dance Festival Zagreb - Zagreb, Croatia
05/06/2002
Bellone Brigittines asbl - Brussels, Belgium
02/09/2002
16/10/2002
19/11/2002
Kunsthalle Baden Baden - Germany
08/02/2003
29/03/2003
15/04/2003
07/05/2003
20/07/2003
Tanzwerkstatt Europa - Munich, Germany
02/08/2003
Tanzwerkstatt, Podewil - Berlin, Germany
11/10/2003
18/10/2003
11/11/2003
15/11/2003
MU Theatre - Budapest, Hungaria
20/02/2004
27/04/2004
Teatro Niccolini - San Casciano, Italy
12/03/2005
Chapter Arts Gallery - Cardiff, UK
12/01/2006
Milchhof, Aula - Berlin, Germany
11/02/2006
18/04/2007
Green Street Studios - Boston, USA
22/04/2007
Les Subsistances - Lyon, France
27/06/2007
Kaaitheater - Brussels, Belgium
27/09/2007
22/01/2008
29/03/2008
Museion, transart - Bozen, Italy
18/09/2008
Sadler's Wells - London, Great Britain
16/01/2009
Le Vivat - Armentières, France
02/02/2009
02/07/2009
Kalamata Dance festival - Kalamata, Greece
25/07/2009
Institut Français - Bangkok, Thaïland
20/10/2009
02/04/2010
06/11/2010
Sophiensälle - Berlin, Germany
11/12/2010
Festival Uzès Danse - Uzès, France
18/06/2011
Kanagawa Art Center - Yokohama, Japan
25/06/2011
Mercat de les Flors - Barcelona, Spain
10/03/2012
CCN - Ballet de Lorraine - Nancy
26/04/2012
Théâtre de Vannes - Vannes, France
16/11/2012
Macao Arts Festival 2013 - Macau, China
16/05/2013
Projektcentret - København, Danemark
20/09/2013
Fabrica Europa - Firenze, Italy
14/05/2014
Centre Pompidou - Metz, France
02/11/2014
Beit Mazia - Jerusalem, Israel
04/06/2015
Beirut Art Center - Beirut, Lebanon
29/09/2015
Carriageworks - Syndney, Australia
17/11/2015
Dancehouse - Melbourne, Australia
04/12/2015
Biennale di Danza - Venice, Italia
30/06/2017
Escenas do cambio - Santiago de Compostela
09/02/2018
18/06/2018
20/03/2019
Teatro de la danza, Mexico - Mexico
13/05/2022
TPAC Opening season, Taipei - Taiwan
10/09/2022
