Hell's bells & Furtive folly (Heidenspass & Höllenangst)
Concept& stage direction: Béatrice Jaccard, Peter Schelling Choreography/Dance: Compagnie Drift - Béatrice Jaccard, Peter Schelling, Massimo Bertinelli, Michael Rüegg, Viacheslav Zoubkov, Budlana Baldanova, Judith Rohrbach Set designer: Peter Schelling Lighting designer: François Gendre Costumes: Daphné Ineichen Compostion: Massimo Bertinelli, François Gendre, Simon Hostettler Dramatic advisor: Brigitte Knöss Production manager: Beatrice Rossi
First night performance 15th November 2002 luzernertheater
A co-production of luzerntanz am luzernertheater and compagnie drift. compagnie drift get support for this production from Pro Helvetia, Präsidialdepartement der Stadt Zürich and Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation
Performances: Luzerner Theater, Lucerne (CH); Chiasso Danza (CH); TRAFÓ - House of Contemporary Arts – Budapest (H); Tanz in Olten (CH); Tanztage Basel (CH); Genua 04 -European Capital of Culture - Teatro dell’ Archivolto (I); LOT- Theater Braunschweig (D); Tollhaus Karlsruhe (D); Treffpunkt Rotebühlplatz, Stuttgart (D); Tanztage 05 – Posthof Linz (A); Tanzräume 2005, Hagen (D); XII. Annual Intern. Contemp. Dance Conference/ Performance Festival, Cracow, Kalisz, Bytom (PL); Espace Nuithonie, Fribourg (CH); Theater an der Sihl, Zurich (CH); 9th Bharat Rang Mahotsav – Kamani Auditorium, New Delhi (India); Ranga Shankara, Banagalore (India); Rabindra Sadan, Kolkata (India); Sophia Bhabha Hall, Mumbai (India); Kukart Festival, St. Petersburg (RUS); Theater Hameln (d)
In Hell’s Bells & Furtive Folly the dance company compagnie drift plunges into medieval surroundings far removed from nature.
The piece puts figures on stage which seem to have originated in masons’ stone reliefs from cathedrals or from illustrations of old song manuscripts.
It focuses upon awareness of life in a society that has already experienced or still waits to experience the full span of human emotions; veering wildly between drunken comedy and a realistic fear of death.
In this world many things seem to us both strange and familiar. Beauty merges into ugliness to reveal the fascination of deformity. Fear and pleasure are close to each other. Sharp contrasts are the rule and sheer concupiscence, intense uncertainly and fragility reign supreme.
The spectators plunge into surrealistic worlds created by the happenings on stage, feeding their hopes and anxieties. They move about with the performers within a fascinating world both timeless and replete with references to our own actual existence.
Bizarre figures from a fable, half man, half beast, crowd the stage, primeval powers are in play, the beautiful and the hideous, the fascinating and the repellent unite in a ravishing round dance. Fear, joy, hope and fright come close together. They interweave to produce a bizarre, poetic and surreal pictorial canvas, situated somewhere between heaven and hell; a universe of situations and absurdities that unfold in a fascinating mixture of the tragic and the comic, in which human brutality often flashes up behind professed irony that is sure of its effect.
press excerpts
'...new choreographic ground with Cie. Drift… A completely different dimension of body language – minimalistic, in which each ever so small movement achieves meaning. They take all the time in the world, develop their characters and their scenes, which then suddenly seem to explode. - There is a battle between two men in a breathtaking tempo who when they accelerate up from the floor, seem to freeze in the air, in a different sort of elevation – What Cie Drift excels in is the weightlessness they work with, for example, when a woman seems to hover in the air – weightless, bodiless. Then again drastic measures when a hand is hacked off which then becomes autonomous and creeps over the little wall… The charm of the small gestures dissolves in the quantity and fantasy of the images – an hour long, without a pause, and sublimely composed…” DEWEZET, Deutschland, 3.5.2010
A Helluva Show„..blends magical realism with routine yet rhythmic movements...dark, melancholic and hypnotising, a comedy of errors...“The Indian Expres, New Delhi, India, January 10, 2007
Bizarre Beings in a Surreal World
„..The images reflect a surreal society whose emotions sway wildly between drunken comedy and a realistic fear of death...“The Pioneer, New Delhi, India, January 11, 2007
Theatre of the Absurd
„..With characters that took birth as if from illustrations of old manuscripts and ambience that are medieval and far removed from natureKamani auditorium staged a inimitable and momentous contemporary choreography by one of Switzerlands best known dance companews..stupendous performance..“ Mid Day, New Delhi, India, January 22, 2007
Meet the funny and the poetic
„..The performance was unique, scintillating and made the audience laugh as well as provoke deep reflection at the same time. Drifts claim of giving quality, originality and innovation was more than satisfied with the audience crying for more. Brilliant lighting, excellent dance...“Deccan Herald, Bangalore, India, January 21, 2007
You could get lost in strong imagery
„..the entire play looked..like a beautifull contemporary art painting..They took the audience through a journey of joy, pleasure, love, fear, anger and a host of emotions...one had to marvel at the dancers ability to move like a ballerina, twist and bend like rubber, and express themselves silently..“ Deccan Herald, Bangalore, India, January 15, 2007
Focus on body language
„..the grotesque mingles with the beautiful, the repellent with the fascinating, the tragic with the comic..the prowess of the actors had the audience engrossed..unbelievable finesse..a performance that elicited a standing ovation..“Hindustan Times, Kolkata, India, January 18, 2007
Swiss hell freezes over
„..unique contemporary dance show..a contemporary choreography, which has all the elements of life thrown in like violense, depression, turmoils ajnd of course the most elusive and yet most sought, Joy..“ The Financal Express, Mumbay, India, January 19 , 2007
Surreal worlds between joy and great fear
„It was marvellous, witty, imaginative, inspired… A surreal, martial spectacle that visually could have derived from a fantasy movie, the organic machines of which rule over the world….The charm of this production by Béatrice Jaccard and Peter Schelling was to be found in illusion. Humans, by the manner in which they move, either became machines or amalgamated to form a new organism…the highlight was a blatant splatter scene …in which the actors cut off all of their own or someone else’s limbs which went on to have a life of their own. This may sound dreadful, but it was funny to watch.
…..‚A hell lot of fun and mortal fear’, was an experience full of irony, presented with inspiration…eccentric and poetic...’Westfälische Rundschau, Germany, 17th June 2005
multi headed and many armed characters
‚...a danse macabre between heaven and hell, between scary and funny...magic images surreal and grotesque, amazing and absurd...’ oönachrichten, Linz, Austria, 16. April 2005
Bizarre beings
„…An eccentric world where fabulous creatures appear strangely medieval….Whimsical stage characters…. equally absorbed in their workaday routine as much as in their social relationships….In this manner abstract dance theatre can tell a story without resorting to the normal concepts of social interaction….“ Stuttgarter Zeitung, 29th November 2004
Macabre and eloquent comic
„…Light-heartedly limbs are sawn off, eyes gouged out and eaten, disconnected heads roll about…on the wall of the stage the apparently amputated limbs of the dancers move to and fro with a ghostlike facility…macabre, yet incredibly funny…Thrillingly…the duels…tell complete life stories of hate, love and jealousy.The one emerging victorious is rewarded with loving caresses by the women – and eaten. A moment like that impacts like a thunderbolt. It is quite staggering what Drift can convey without the use of a single word.” Badische Neueste Nachrichten, 26th November 2004
Celebrates sensuality, pleasures of love and pain
“Hell’s bells and furtive folly” is ingenious, eccentric and poetic dance theatre that captivates by a cleverly arranged choreography. The Compagnie Drift manages to create genuine bridges that span hundreds of years and take a view from the medieval world of images to the media images of our own time. One has seldom seen such shrewd fluidity between different image worlds portrayed with such humour…..truly fortunate for the spectator…’
“…unmarried noblewomen, devils, witches, knights, peasants, saints - they unite on the stage in their heavenly-infernal round dance…wherein the character of each dancer is clearly presented….from celebrated sensuality and pleasures of love to torture and martyrdom – everything dazzles, not as a parody of reality, but as segments ofspecific periods brought to life by dance…..” Basellandschaftliche Zeitung, Basle 29th November 2003
The head as a ball, the hand on a solo tour
“…the dancers of the Swiss Compagnie Drift make play using the influence of gravity. They demonstrate the bony inflexibility of a puppet, making parts of the body act independently, exhibiting sure self-knowledge.….Black humour, with which mortal fear should be countered…Well merited, enthusiastic applause…” Braunschweiger Zeitung, 1st March 2004
surrealistic moods
“…in an appealing, surrealistic atmosphere, somewhere between heaven and hell, bizarre forms reminiscent of animals move about….beautiful and ugly, fascinating and repellent, humanoid animals, creatures with many arms, chaste virgins and vile witches appear on the stage illuminating human brutality, bating it in a grotesque, yet dazzling atmosphere….the absurdity of everyday life is presented by the very skilled dancers with graceful, crushing irony; dancers who know to perfection how to be funny and precise at the same time. Above all, they know to show reality with its greatest contradictions and absurdities…” VareseWeb, Chiasso, 14th May 2003
Helluva lotta fun vanquishes fear of the devil
…The piece puts figures on stage which seem to have originated in masons’ stone reliefs from cathedrals or from illustrations of old song manuscripts…the style is highly original, wayward, bizarre…The dancers are convincing, their dance is full of life and replete with imaginative movement. In addition, they are masters of the art of being both playful and adorably precise…. Tages Anzeiger, 18th November 2002
The dance of androgynous beings in a surreal world of mystery
“Hell’s Bells & Furtive Folly” interweave to produce a bizarre, poetic and surreal pictorial canvas, situated somewhere between heaven and hell….Male and female dancers plunge into medieval surroundings far removed from nature. Instead they relate to a remote marginal universe of situations and absurdities that unfold in a fascinating mixture of the tragic and the comic coming together to flit about like will’-o-the-wisps.The language of movement is a fascinating blend of dance and theatre, a body language of crystal clear gestures and incredible impulses. At times the dancers appear as human beings in encounters of tenderness or aggression, at other times they appear as the mysterious inhabitants of a poetic and compelling androgynous world of poetic charm….a harmony of beast and man…..The dancers create a wonderful atmosphere of languor and lingering timelessness…
It is not by chance that the ‘Drift’, the Dance Company based in Zurich, is one of the most important and most individual groups of its kind on the Swiss scene, with an international reputation of long standing. Luzerner Zeitung (Lucerne Daily) 18th November 2002
The downfall of the mediaeval world
…As always in productions of the Drift Company, figures stalk through the mise-en-scène like dream dancers, at times in a manner reminiscent of slapstick. While remaining precise in their movements, at times restrained and at times totally unpredictable, they reveal a totally unexpected, uncanny potential….When the dancers both male and female mime fatal stabbings, amputations and the splitting of sculls, they are performing a fascinating execution ballet. Within that, behind the irony, we find flashes of human brutality effectively realised….there seems to be no limit to such inventiveness. Basler Zeitung, 19th November 2002 (Basle Daily 19th November 2002)
The dance of strange creatures
…bizarre figures in loosely connected scenes…with the waggishness of mimics and witticism in their gestures; and sometimes their actions tip over the edge into enchantment…tumultuous folly and madness… Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 18th November 2002 (New Zurich Daily)
The Dark Ages in an Enlightening Dance
‚...the presentations of Drift are a mixture of contemporary dance and theatre, surrealistic profoundness and witty light-footedness, bizarre and absurd….what one actually sees on the stage..are entangled bodies in a confined hell, postures of dancing human-like beasts, multi-armed beings, chaste virgins and evil men, the harbingers of death…” Thurgauer Zeitung, (Thurgovian Daily) 18th November 2002
A ravishing round dance into worlds long past
‚...Bizarre figures from a fable, half man, half beast, crowd the stage, primeval powers are in play, the beautiful and the hideous, the fascinating and the repellent unite in a ravishing round dance. Fear, joy, hope and fright come close together in this world, in which the creatures feel themselves to be at the mercy of strange powers, never knowing when the end will approach. Although this production introduces the spectator to worlds long gone, references to our present existence are not missing, since it finally rests on the timeless questions of our existence….”. Schweizer Illustrierte, (Swiss Magazine) 18th November 2002
Dancing against gravity
‚...light-footed and roguish, but always subtle…..the bodies of the dancers seem to hang in the air. Engaging ghostly beings whose extremities seem not to belong to them…Chaste pas-de-deux engender a strangely enraptured mood…“ tanz-danse.ch, 22nd November 2002