Blog 1- Avant Garde

This summer I had the opportunity to live in Paris where I studied avant garde theater. One of the highlights was that we actually got to read Cocteau's "Wedding on the Eiffel Tower" in front of the Tour Eiffel itself. It was an incredible experience, especially because France is the birthplace of surreal theater, in my opinion.
Before living in France, I had very little experience with surreal, dada or avant garde theater so reading these plays was, at first, absolutely jarring. The work of artists like Artaud and Breton left me feeling uncreative to say the least. However, after I became used to the strange words, characters, actions and staging, I became very compelled by this kind of theater.
One specific concept I found very compelling was Artaud's idea of "Theater of cruelty." For lack of a better way to explain this, let me quote wikipedia;

"The Theatre of Cruelty is a concept in Antonin Artaud's book Theatre and its Double. By cruelty, he meant not sadism or causing pain, but rather a violent, physical determination to shatter the false reality which, he said, lies like a shroud over our perceptions. He believed that text had been a tyrant over meaning, and advocated, instead, for a theatre made up of a unique language halfway-between thought and gesture. Antonin Artaud described the spiritual in physical terms, and believed that all expression is physical expression in space."

Artaud was looking for meaning that transcended words and he achieved this by shocking his audience, and making bold choices that caused them to react and think, therefore becoming part of the experience themselves.

Although I had studied this concept I never really actualized it until I went to Avignon for the annual avant garde theater festival.
There I saw "Asobu," an hour long dance piece performed by Japanese dancers and choreographed by Josef Nadj. This performance was one of the most jarring, strange and captivating experiences I have ever had and I must admit I felt like I was part of it.




The piece was performed in the courtyard of what was once a palace. The dancers looked tiny in the middle of three huge walls. Images, mostly of horses were projected on to the walls which became a canvas and background. The dancers were spastic and I couldn't believe they could move that way for the amount of time that they did. There were parts where they jumped on one leg over and over as if hey were crippled. I can't even explain half of the things that they did, or my experience of watching it because it feels like a blur. I remember when I used to perform on stage and dance for a long set. When I finally found myself in the wings again, people who ask me how I felt about my performance and I couldn't remember anything although I was on the stage minutes ago. This is exactly how I felt after watching Asobu.