Football Dance Portrays Speed, Explosive Energy
By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
Can you imagine a football match without a ball? Well, Norwegian choreographer Jo Stromgren's performance titled "A Dance Tribute to the Art of Football" is just that.
The dance work about football features a variety of movements and situations with a comic twist to reflect the energy and sweat of the sport. It will be on stage Nov. 20 and 21 at Sejong M Theater as part of the Seoul Performing Arts Festival (SPAF), which kicks off today and will continue through Nov. 21. The SPAF 2009 features some 40 performances from 12 nations under the theme "Analog & Digilog."
"In a football match, everything around the ball is already like a ballet. It is possible to see it as 22 'dancers' doing fantastic formations and movements. But you have to get rid of the ball to actually discover this, I think," Stromgren said in an e-mail interview with The Korea Times.
His troupe became the first to charge into this new territory when it put the work on stage 12 years ago.
The artist said that movements from sports have a different energy from the traditional movements of dancers. "Once deciding to use football movements, it suddenly becomes more interesting to look for other things. Now I see that it is a piece with speed, timing and explosive energy. And a bit of chaos. I think all choreographers like to be surprised by simple ideas with a lot of creative potential," he said.
The performance was initiated by a group of contemporary dancers, including Stromgren, who had become weary with the intellectual and conceptual period of contemporary dance in Europe, he said.
They wanted something different, mostly for fun. "But after the premiere, we realized that we had made something with huge potential. We never dreamt of touring worldwide, though, and certainly not to South Korea! Which is as far away from small Norway as you can get," he said.
The biggest challenge in bringing sports onto the stage is overcoming the prejudices of what art should be. "However, this opens up for greater surprises. And I am happy to see that we have convinced a lot of people that definitions of 'fine arts' are to be relative also in the dance field," the choreographer said.
The artist also attempts to draw parallels between the sport and the world today. "The general horror of mankind I think is what people are able to do when they are in a group. When they surrender to collective thought and actions, all risks become extreme. I think all the elements of world politics are to be found on the football field as well. So, we hope that audiences not only see the 'football' ingredients of the show, but also are able to associate further and imagine some bigger pictures," he said.
While the performance is pure dance, his company is basically a theater company where most productions are done by actors. The troupe specializes in nonsensical language and is interested in "playing" with the themes of prejudice and misunderstandings, he said.
To boost the popularity of the contemporary dance, he said dancers should find a personal style and a personal viewpoint. Personality is always interesting and never goes out of style. "I think the main reason for people to go to a theater, read a book or watch a film is to see what other people are doing, thinking and experiencing. Just as we listen through the wall to what the neighbors are fighting about. This means keeping a humanistic touch to the artwork. The same thing applies to dance companies. Nobody goes to a concert just to listen to rock; they go to hear a particular band. I think dance needs the same trademarking," he said.
As far as his participation in the SPAF, Stromgren said that the festival certainly has a good reputation outside South Korea and he is very happy to be a part of it this year.
"We are always looking for interesting places to co-produce and influence our work. Asia is the continent we have toured the least and Korea could possibly be the best place for people like us to become more 'Asian.' We'll see. First of all, we need to present the best show possible at the festival and see if people like what they see," said Stromgren.