Anything goes with Diavolo

A scene from “Diavolo — Architecture in Motion” / Courtesy of ETM Korea

Architecture, dance create visceral production of metaphors at Diavolo’s Seoul gig

By Kwon Ji-youn

Who knew so much could be said with so few dancers and just a lone dome?

“Diavolo ― Architecture in Motion” (Diavolo) featured dancers dressed in skin-tight costumes, moving swiftly and adroitly about an abstract structure resonant with the moon and its craters, a honeycomb of bees or perhaps an undiscovered starship ― anything goes with Diavolo.

There was no narrative, nor was there any dialogue, and the motion was abstruse, convoluted and insistent. The performance was as emotionally demanding for the audience as it was physically taxing for the dancers.

Choreographer Jacques Heim directs Diavolo dancers during a rehearsal session for “Diavolo — Architecture in Motion.”

Diavolo, a dance company founded by French-born dance choreographer Jacques Heim in 1992 after he graduated from the California Institute of the Arts, spent the week staging performances at Olympic Park’s Olympic Hall in Seoul.

The company, based in Los Angeles, is known for its modern, abstract and acrobatic maneuvers on a stage crafted with meticulously designed bespoke architectural structures.

Heim did the choreography for Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas and served as creative director for the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games. His work also appeared on BBC America’s “Dancing with the Stars,” but most of his time and energy go into touring with Diavolo.

A scene from “Fluid Infinities”

Diavolo brings together a diverse team of dancers, designers, choreographers and engineers to create visceral and remarkable works that influence the audience emotionally, physically and socially by the spaces the dancers inhabit.

The performance appears to run a thin line between dance and circus ― the performers weave in and out of the dome through the smallest of craters, later perching themselves precariously on a rocking half-moon structure using just its edges and each others’ bodies as holds. There is no real formation, but the journey is strangely precise. Some manipulations look too dangerous to be mounted on a stage without mats, and the performers boast a fiery energy that explodes as it builds to an unforeseen climax. But Heim, now Diavolo’s artistic director, said the performance is more about “dance meets architecture.”

A scene from “Trajectoire”

“It brings together ballet, contemporary dance, martial arts, acrobatics, hip-hop and rock-climbing ― making a completely new genre,” Heim said. “At the core of it all is the architecture. My inspiration comes from the architectural environment that surrounds people, and humans are influenced by it.”

But the sequences appear to be less dance and more acrobatics.

The three performances were subtitled “Fluid Infinities,” which came to Korea for the first time this week, “Trajectoire” and “Humachina.”

According to the Diavolo website, “Fluid Infinities” is set on an abstract dome structure sitting on a reflection of itself. The performers explore metaphors of infinite space, incessant movement and the voyage into an unknown future.

As the trilogy concludes, “Fluid Infinities” investigates the perseverance of life through struggle and its promise to change.

It is performed to American 20th century composer Philip Glass’ “Symphony No. 3,” and was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association and co-commissioned by Movimentos 2014, University of Notre Dame’s DeBartolo Performing Arts Center and Syracuse University.

“Trajectoire” is a visceral journey through the ebb and flow of the human experience, and “Humachina” explores the relationship between human motion and mechanical forms using the most simple and important of machines, the wheel, questioning which will outlast the other.

“It’s about where we’re from, where it all started and where we are headed,” Heim said. “All three works are linked to each other, which is how we put together the repertoire for our gig in Seoul.

“What we do on stage is like a live abstract painting. There is no narrative, but strong themes pervade the work such as human struggle, fear, danger, survival, chaos, order, deconstruction, reconstruction, destiny, destination, faith and love.”

Heim requested that the audience take an active interest in the performance and consider all its philosophical meaning and significance, questioning and interpreting the performance the way they question and interpret art at an exhibition.

“It definitely wasn’t easy to understand,” said Kim Sul-ah, an aspiring dancer who attended Wednesday evening’s performance. “But the dancers were so skilled, and the choreography was so worldly that I couldn’t take my eyes off the stage. It’s not ‘my style,’ but it was inspiring.”

The company also puts time into providing educational and outreach opportunities for people of all ages while touring internationally, sharing the pioneering art form and the power of dance as a means of social impact.

Before its first performance on stage, the Diavolo dance company took part in a street performance Monday, from Gangnam Station to Sinsa-dong’s Garosu-gil, encouraging the participation of Seoulites.

The Diavolo Seoul concert had originally been set for June, but was postponed due to the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) scare.

The last three concerts will be today at 8 p.m. and on Saturday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. at Olympic Park’s Olympic Hall. For more information, visit www.diavolo.org or call (02) 525-8530.