Updraft - testo dello spettacolo

Updraft - testo dello spettacolo
a cura di Annie Hanauer

È davvero incredibile pensare di potersi staccare così da terra,
dalla superficie della terra.
Mi piace sentire l'aria sul viso, nelle orecchie e mi piace sentire i capelli muoversi
Mi piace questa sensazione sulla pelle
Potrebbe essere anche troppo, forse troppo ossigeno 

Venire giù
Deve essere bello farcela da sola
Senza alcun aiuto esterno.
Immagino che sia più sicuro venire giù, piuttosto che restare sospesi tutto il tempo.
Immagino che abbiamo bisogno di qualcosa di solido sotto di noi, forse, per la maggior parte del tempo.§

L'unica volta che ricordo di aver sentito l’assenza di gravità
Ero su una giostra in un parco giochi; su una torre.
C’erano dei sedili con un'imbragatura
disposte attorno ad un pilastro gigante
Che veniva issato molto in alto
E, una volta in cima, ti lasciava cadere di colpo 

Hai la sensazione di essere sospesa in aria,
legata ad una sedia, ma per un attimo in caduta libera
E poi alla fine atterri

È scioccante
come un rimbalzo violento che potrebbe procurarti un colpo di frusta
Quel momento di caduta libera è stato spaventoso ed esilarante
Non potevo neanche urlare
Avevo aperto la bocca ma non avevo più fiato
Non riuscivo ad emettere alcun suono 

È stato divertente e terrificante insieme
E volevo rifarlo subito
Ma poi non l’ho fatto, era troppo da accettare
Troppo da affrontare

It’s pretty impressive, to think you can just detach like that,
From the earth, the surface of the earth.
I like to feel the air on my face, and in my ears, and I like to feel my hair moving around
I like to feel the sensation on my skin
Too much of it could be too, too much oxygen, maybe 

Coming down
It must be nice to be able to do it on your own
Without any...any outside assistance.
I guess it’s safer to come down, than to just stay up all the time.
I guess we need something solid underneath us, probably, most of the time.

Actually, the only time I can remember feeling zero gravity
Was on an amusement park ride, that took me up in a tower
It had chairs with a harness around it on the outside
The chairs were in a circle around this giant pillar
And it would get hoisted up really really high
And then at the top, it let go, and it dropped you
It really dropped it 

So, you had a moment of existing only in the air
You were in free-fall—strapped into a chair—but a moment in free-fall 

And then it caught you at the bottom
Kind of shocking,
shocking like a big rebound that probably could give you whiplash 

But that moment of free-fall was so scary, and so exhilarating
I couldn’t even scream
I opened my mouth to scream and my breath was gone
I couldn’t make any sound

It was super super super fun, and terrifying
I wanted to do it again right away
But I didn’t, because it was kind of a lot to take in
A lot to deal with

Scopri di più sull'artista e sulla performance

Updraft is a site-responsive dance solo choreographed and performed by Annie Hanauer, with live & recorded music composed and performed by Deborah Lennie, inspired by the particular landscape, climate, and history in the valley of Greccio, Italy. Updraft was commissioned by the Comitato Nazionale per l'ottavo centenario della prima rappresentazione del presepe for Greccio 2023.

‍Updraft draws upon Annie’s personal perspective on her own body, after many years of interpreting other artists’ choreographic visions, the power of its non-normative presence, and her idiosyncratic movement vocabulary. Updraft looks at the body in relation to landscape, weather and the elements, and ideas of flying, falling, and letting go.

Updraft is a work which investigates the body’s relation to the natural world, and champions the wisdom of the disabled body in approaching risk, sensitivity, and intimacy in the company of the audience. It is a work about re-connecting to the idea that human beings are part of nature, not separate from it. It is about reading the weather outside the body as well as within it. It is about the freedom and risk of falling, and what allows us to fly. Updraft is an invitation to slow down, to listen, to feel, and fully be with our experience.

Creative Team

Choreography & performance: Annie Hanauer
Music composition & performance: Deborah Lennie
Costume design: Shanti Freed
Choreographic Advisor: Susanna Recchia
Artistic mentor: Fearghus O’Concchuir
Photography & video: Camilla Greenwell
Scenic research: Matt Chan

Commissioned by Greccio 2023 - Comitato Nazionale per l'ottavo centenario della prima rappresentazione del presepe / MiC Ministero della Cultura (Italy)
This project was supported by the “La Fabrique Chaillot” residency scheme at Chaillot - Théâtre national de la Danse (Paris, France)
Coproduction - Festival Bolzano Danza / Fondazione Haydn (Italy)
Production support - Cie. For Want of a Better (Caen, France)

Biographies

Annie Hanauer

Born in the USA, Annie Hanauer studied dance at the University of Minnesota before moving to London in 2008.  She is an award-winning independent artist, internationally established as a performer, choreographer, and teacher, and has performed extensively around the world.

Annie is passionate about building inclusive artistic practices centered on joy and respect, and sees performing as a space to challenge perceptions of people and the body. As an artist she works across disability-specific contexts and in “mainstream” dance work.  She is interested in the power, wisdom, creativity, and resilience of people who have been marginalized in some way, stemming from her lived experience as a disabled person. Her work utilizes curiosity and presence, often investigating the play between movement and language, and celebrates the power of non-normative bodies.

In 2022 she created A space for all our tomorrows, looking at ideas of utopia through a disability lens, which toured across Switzerland (Steps Festival, Reso) and in Italy, with further dates planned. Annie has choreographed work for Ramped (Off Centre), Candoco Dance Company (soft shell), Mobius Dance (Curious Playground), Zurich University of the Arts (paper landscapes), the University of Minnesota (IMPULSE), Theater Münster (Madrigale von Krieg und Liebe), with upcoming choreographic projects in Switzerland and France.

Annie has performed since 2013 with long-time collaborator Rachid Ouramdane, and has danced with Emanuel Gat Dance, the Paris Chamber Orchestra, Lea Anderson, Deborah Lennie, Wendy Houstoun, Nic Conibere, Boris Charmatz, Lucy Suggate, amongst many others, and was a member of Candoco Dance Company from 2008-2014.

www.anniehanauer.com

Deborah Lennie

Deborah Lennie was born in New Zealand and grew up in Australia. After studying voice and classical piano at the National Conservatorium of Music in Sydney, she entered the Actors' Centre Sydney and trained in acting. In 1996 she moved to France. She is interested in the relationship between voice, body and space. She has worked with choreographers Rachid Ouramdane and Annie Hanauer as a composer and performer; in film with Christophe Bisson; in sound poetry with Sonia Chiambretto, Luc Bénazet and Benoît Casas and with musicians Patrice Grente, Jean-Baptiste Julien, Naoto Yamagashi, François Chesnel, among others.

In 2011, she founded the company ''FOR WANT OF A BETTER... '' of which she is now the artistic director. The company has been hosted in France, Norway, Macedonia, Russia and the Ukraine.
Since 2020 she is associated artist of the Théâtre du Champ Exquis, Scène Conventionnée d'Intérêt National.

https://www.forwantofabetter.com/

https://deborahlennie.bandcamp.com