{"id":4913,"date":"2017-12-13T23:38:25","date_gmt":"2017-12-13T21:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dance.lv\/eng\/?p=4913"},"modified":"2018-03-20T13:35:54","modified_gmt":"2018-03-20T11:35:54","slug":"are-you-in-the-context","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dance.lv\/eng\/are-you-in-the-context\/","title":{"rendered":"Are You in the \u201cContext\u201d ?!"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Olga Dolina<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sometimes it happens to experience written in the stars<\/em>-like situations. When you wake up one rainy November morning and realize that hustle and bustle of Latvian culture festivals is long gone, and you want something more than just an everyday routine. I woke up having a clear wish to dive into the energy of a huge metropolis and wondering how great it would be to escape to Moscow or St. Petersburg. It has been a while since I last experienced this particular vibe of our neighboring country combined with the most enjoyable feeling of wandering and loosing yourself in corridors of the most beautiful museums and metro stations.<\/p>\n

Apparently, somebody up there heard my wish and there I was. Next day I have heard of an opportunity to participate in a one-week long Laboratory<\/em><\/strong> of<\/em><\/strong> Dance criticism <\/em><\/strong>that took place at the 5th<\/sup> international festival of contemporary choreography \u201cContext. Diana Vishneva 2017\u201d. True interest for dance \u2013 as long as remember. Ability to write in different languages – my everyday job already for a while. Russian visa beautifully placed in the middle of passport. Spare time and aspiration \u2013 those small pleasures of freelancer life. All I need is there and ready to go to improve professional and cultural experiences.<\/p>\n

Context Frames that Expand<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Over the past years, founder of the festival and creative director, worldwide acclaimed prima ballerina Diana Vishneva has developed a strong platform for a representation of the world\u2019s contemporary choreography in Russia. Context festival has succeeded to widen a comprehension of contemporary dance language and to educate its spectator, who originally has been used to grand \u201cBolshoi-style\u201d academic ballet. The main goals of the festival are to connect spectators with the most relevant ballet tendencies, help them not to get lost in the labyrinths of contemporary choreography, to grasp its essence, to get acquainted with the variety of trends. Alongside live guest performances festival includes educational program: \u201cContext speaks\u201d<\/strong> lectures, creative meetings with choreographers and dancers, workshops for stage photographers and critics, screenings of ballet backstage and biographical films. Nevertheless, the main focus of the event is on the future of the contemporary dance \u2013 an evening of young choreographers \u201cContext Lab\u201d.<\/strong> (www.contextfest.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Every year Context<\/strong> program of Moscow and St. Petersburg is rich for names of must-know choreography masters and their companies\u2019 must-see performances. In festival\u2019s short history it has already witnessed acclaimed works of Mats Ek, Hans van Manen, Marco Goecke, Ohad Naharin, Ji?\u00ed Kyli\u00e1n, Maurice B\u00e9jart, Martha Graham, Angelin Preljocaj and many more. No doubt, that Context<\/strong>, alongside Diagilev P.S.<\/strong> is a great annual opportunity to witness all the masterpieces of choreography gathered in one place. This year Context<\/strong> brought fragments from Wayne McGregor\u2019s, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui\u2019s, Aleksey Ratmansky\u2019s stagings, German\u201cGauthier Dance\u201d and American \u201cBodytraffic\u201d companies, special production of Spanish choreographer Gojo Montero for Perm ballet company, as well as NDT. Special evenings were dedicated to era of Sergei Diaghilev. In \u201cBallets by Igor Stravinsky\u201d evening three modern and recognizable Russian choreographers Viacheslav Samodurov, Vladimir Varnava and Alexey Miroshnichenko staged \u201cThe Fairy’s Kiss\u201d, \u201cPetrushka\u201d and \u201cThe Firebird\u201d respectively. The Gauthier Dance brought to Moscow its passionate ballet \u201cNijinski\u201d that is worth to highlight further.<\/p>\n

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Evening of \u201cStravinsky ballets\u201d. \u201cPetrushka\u201d choreographed by Vladimir Varnava. foto: contextfest.com<\/h6>\n

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A week without sleep, an inspiration for a year ahead<\/h2>\n

A Laboratory of dance criticism lasted for 7 days and took place in a cozy and well-situated Documentary film center (DFC) in Moscow (www.cdkino.ru<\/a>). Our workshop leader, educator, encourager and an inspirational role model was Vita Khlopova \u2013 a researcher of contemporary choreography, guest lecturer in Russian Academy of Theater Arts (GITIS), journalist, author and scientific editor of a series of books on contemporary dance. Two years ago, she created an internet platform on 20th<\/sup> century dance called \u201cNo fixed points\u201d<\/strong> (www.nofixedpoints.com<\/a>). There, in a well-structured and easily understandable way any dance interest can find summarized and in-depth knowledge about worldwide history of ballet, its personalities and performances. It also offers a mobile library and online courses. Anyhow, this project not only is helpful for all dance lovers, professionals and amateurs, but also surely is a great idea to develop, for example as similar educational and dance popularizing platform in countries like Latvia. Another helpful resource for improving dance vocabulary was Arzamas.academy[1] cultural education project and one specific course. A well-described series of lectures and video lessons dedicated for how to distinguish iconic styles of 20th<\/sup> century main choreographers.<\/p>\n

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Vita Khlopova . photo: <\/strong><\/em>contextfest.com<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/h6>\n

All in all, in criticism laboratory there were six of participants. Everybody except me were theater students from both Russian capitals and one 17-year-old bright mind school graduate, who was simply out of competition. All as one \u2013 inveterate theater and dance lovers, \u201cyoung and rebel\u201d, each of us with individual creative writing skills to be sharpened and critical thought to expressed. It has truly been an interesting and challenging from the very beginning: to dive into Russian theater\u2019s world insides, backgrounds and its reflecting media specifics.<\/p>\n

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Backstage of Context Laboratory of Dance criticism. Guest lecture of the Le Monde dance critic Rosita Boisseau; Diana Vishneva\u2019s talk to choreographer Alexei Ratmansky. Foto: Olga Dolina<\/h6>\n

This \u201cexpress school\u201d of dance criticism has been organized the following way: 3 days of theory, 4 days of practice. 7 classes resulted in 7 critical articles. First, we discussed how to and how not to write, where to write, and why to write. We talked a lot about dance criticism etiquette, structure and difference of texts, how to prepare ourselves for watching the performance, research to be done before and after the show. As unoriginal as it sounds, the main and summarizing point will remain the same: the context. We even had a joke, that we should probably exclude the word \u201ccontext\u201d from our vocabulary after festival ends. Anyway, this knowledge of contexts, constant self-education, quantity (at best \u2013 quality) of seen performances have a decisive role for good article. Two more classes were dedicated to leading 20th<\/sup> century ballet directions and choreographers on European and American dance platforms. Neoclassical ballet, free dance, modern dance, ausdruckstanz, post-modern dance, contemporary dance<\/em>: how to identify, distinguish, and reflect these concepts in writing.<\/p>\n

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In the last day of festival, one is allowed also to joke around: memes about the tough life of dance critic starring Vaclav Nijinsky, are made by my colleague from the lab. Foto: Polina Remneva, Greta Mavica<\/h6>\n

The second part of our agenda was much more intense: performances in the evening; late night and\/or early morning review writing; then afternoon meetings and intense discussions; afterwards \u2013 guest lectures and again, shows in the evening. No time for lunch breaks, but tea with bagels has never tasted better in my life. Still, somewhere in between I managed to pop into couple of exhibitions and enjoy pre-holiday hustle of beautiful Moscow.<\/p>\n

It has been a while since I have experienced such a marathon of writing. Nevertheless, reviews turned out to be condensed and sharp, because of the short amount of time I was supposed to focus on the problem only. First ideas and impressions are sometimes the most exact ones, and they often get lost in between the lines of big long-reads. In the \u201ccontext\u201d of every other article, we had different tasks, other accents. For example, we wrote for our perfect magazine, or, on the contrary, for media that is \u201cuncomfortable\u201d with our personal style. Within discussions we were searching for our stronger and weaker sides of writing that we can improve. As to me, I am still trying to reach this passage \u201cfrom Tolstoy to Chekhov\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 – to write in shorter sentences.<\/p>\n

One of the most memorable and valuable experiences was a lecture of Rosita Boisseau<\/strong> \u2013 a main dance critic and researcher from Le Monde<\/em><\/strong> newspaper. A woman of infinite energy, she shared a very straight and clear story of her more than 35 year-long professional success and secrets of everyday work. Using this opportunity, I would like to share my notes on her advice:<\/p>\n