Sound, performance and ritual collide whenever Valentin Tszin takes the stage. The Russian-born, Berlin-based artist has become renown for his teachings and performances which fuse the Japanese art of Butoh with contemporary dance and electronic music. Tszin has performed across the world which also includes collaborative performances with renown DJ/producer Dasha Rush among others. Tszin now presents a series of four new performances to be staged in Berlin beginning on November 14 at ACUD Theater. Each is a separate work and Tszin will be accompanied by Daniel Williams on sound and Madeline White on voice. From Tszin:
For me is very important not to forget what Butoh resonates with or against. I mean the resonance not with original Butoh notations, which remain in the past, but with the real context in which art exists right now. Techno culture today is not only a kind of music but us also a kind of culture and mentality. Like in the revolutionary 60s in Japan the main influence waswestern culture resonating with traditional Japanese aesthetics, then in the 70s and 80s it was the age of rock'n'roll, punk, industrial etc music. So, in the21 st century it is time for electronic and techno music. This means a very specific way of understanding composition. When a story has no classical structure from the beginning to the end, there might be patterns or fragments (like samples) which repeat and could appear and suddenly disappear at any part of the piece. The performance ‘Schizophrenie’, made with Daniel Williams, has this approach to the situation of samples appearing, of different bodies hidden in one person. How many doubles do I have? And most interesting is not the quantity of these doubles, but the intensity of their existence at a concrete time and space, and the luck in the centre, controlling them." "Each act is virgin. Even the repeated act". (John Cage)
Today, we are also pleased to present a piece by Daniel Williams that will act as a soundtrack to the performances. Williams has also contributed a few words about the track and performance. (see below)
Butoh and techno first came to me as an idea working with Japanese and Russian dancers back in 2005. I was amazed at the reaction of Butoh dancers to electronic sound, at a time when these sounds were still quite unusual in the theatre. Butoh like techno has many local variations but it is somehow an international art form - a rhythm shared by many people. And that first time of bringing them together coincided with the development of software and machines that lent themselves really well to improvisation. Butoh always has an important improvisation element and the language of techno can be powerfully broken down into parts for improvisation.
Improvisation in music and dance is ultimately something that can’t be recorded or archived. This gives it a strange and exciting importance today.
Techno gives Valentine and me a very special way to communicate. We can keep our work together as free as possible and make shows which feel like rituals. It gives us a shared resource aesthetically and rhythmically.
The track came about because we had been working a lot with an idea from John Cage, ‘Each act is virgin. Even the repeated act’. Because what we do is quite abstract in terms of music, sometimes it is really interesting to bring the same material into something concrete, in this case a club track.
From now through Saturday night, Tszin presents four different chapters on four unique nights that we urge you to experience. For information and reservations see below.
-JRS
WED 14. Nov | 7:45pm | "MITTEL OF NOWHERE"
RESERVATION: http://www.acud-theater.de/reservierung.php?Event=111474
THU 15. Nov | 7:45pm | "XHAIN & BERG"
RESERVATION: http://www.acud-theater.de/reservierung.php?Event=111475
FRI 16. Nov | 7:45pm | "A DOG"
RESERVATION: http://www.acud-theater.de/reservierung.php?Event=111476
SAT 17. Nov | 7:45pm | "ASSEMBLAGE"
RESERVATION: http://www.acud-theater.de/reservierung.php?Event=111477
concept and realization
Valentin Tszin (dance)
www.tszin.dance
Daniel Williams (sound)
http://soundcloud.com/vintage909-ghostradio
Madeleine White (voice)
www.maddishakes.tumblr.com