Before becoming a dramatist then a choreographer, Raimund Hoghe used to write portraits, both of famous and unknown people, which were published in Die Zeit. That habit remains at the heart of his work as a choreographer, under the guise of solos addressed to famous figures—Joseph Schmidt, Judy Garland, Maria Callas—or to some of his favourite performers—Songs for Takashi or Musiques et mots pour Emmanuel (Music and Words for Emmanuel). They always take the form of a “musical offering,” where his performers express their art through a presence deeply aware of the effects of music and of time, of the imaginary resonance of a voice and a melody. Ornella Balestra—widely recognised for her work with Maurice Béjart—is one of those dancers able to best embody this mixture of intensity and reverie that characterises Raimund Hoghe's dance (see his Swan Lake, 4 Acts, Boléro Variations, Quartet, or La Valse (The Waltz)). In Canzone per Ornella, the choreographer brings together for his dancer music and texts by Pier Paolo Pasolini, both those that have already been explored and those that are still to be experienced, playing with her ability to strike the perfect balance between virtuosity and entertainment, between enigmatic presence and movie-like figure.
Raimund Hoghe
A writer and dramatist for Pina Bausch, Raimund Hoghe has spent the past twenty-five years creating a challenging choreographic body of work, alternating solos and group shows—Sacre – The Rite of Spring, Swan Lake, 4 Acts, Boléro Variations, etc—which revisit major works in the history of dance. Each of his shows rests on a tiny thread, a fabric made of gestures, shapes, and melodies, which he imbues with the thickness of memory. Letting the music spread through the bodies, his rituals take form in a space conducive to all kinds of associations. Raimund Hoghe's first show in France was Verdi Prati, performed in 1993 at the Festival d'Avignon.
Distribution
With Ornella Balestra, Raimund Hoghe,
Luca Giacomo Schulte
Direction, choregraphy, stage design Raimund Hoghe
Artistic collaboration Luca Giacomo Schulte
Lights Raimund Hoghe, Amaury Seval
Production
Production Hoghe & Schulte GbR
Coproduction Theater im Pumpenhaus Münster
With the support of Ministère de la Culture et de la Science de Rhénanie-du-Nord-Westphalie, Kunststiftung NRW, Ville de Düsseldorf et pour la 72e édition du
Festival d'Avignon : Goethe-Institut (Lyon)
With the help of La Ménagerie de verre (Paris) dans le cadre de Studiolab, agnès b.