Staunch

In “Staunch” five men dance in a cube of which three walls are blind. They are only visible through the frontwall. Because of the constantly changing form of the cube the dancers are limited in their movements. At the end the backwall rolls forward and the dancers are literally crushed against the frontwall. The choreography was inspired by Krisztina de Châtel on a study trip to Ghana and Senegal. John McDowell specially composed the music for this production and based it on the African rhythms of the Mandinka and Woloff tribes. The composition corresponds with the principles of movement Krisztina de Châtel uses. By using a limited number of means she tries to create the highest possible tension. Krisztina de Châtel has created her choreography for the theatre, a three dimensional space with an audience, and not for a flat screen of television. In “Staunch” five men dance the whole piece unisono, except for the beginning and a few solos. By making close-ups, individuals and individual movements are isolated, underlining the choreography. The piece lasts for 56 minutes and the men dance without interruption. It is exhausting for the dancers and that is, among other things, what the piece is about. In the music, there are no pauses, so the decision was made to shoot the whole choreography with one camera in one take. John McDowell’s music gives the choreography and the dancers an important impulse. It is performed “live” during the recording. That is the reason why the musicians are placed in black and white at the bottom of the screen. They form, as it were, the floor on which the dancers dance. “Staunch” premiered during the 1987 Holland Festival. In the same year Krisztina de Châtel was awarded the Sonia Gaskell prize of the Amsterdam Fund for he Art, for “Staunch” in particular, but also for the works choreographed for her own dance group since 1976. In April 1988 Krisztina de Châtel also received the Dutch Choreography prize 1987.