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habibi
problem
Facets of solitary confinement
“habibi problem”, guest performance of the renowned
Austrian choreographer, a socio-critical and very political piece.
[…] Anxious one follows the prisoner’s routine, how
he dances as if in trance in his cell, while one can see the breathless
escape of his lover, through abandoned residential quarters and
staircases, on the screen. […] What stays in the end is just
the prisoner’s number, nothing more than figures, and the
souvenir of his lover. […] The 50 minute-production has exactly
the right length in order to communicate the topic precisely and
it puts the audience into just the type of trepidation necessary
to have a feeling for what is told on stage.
kultur-in-bonn.de, 04.02.09, Anina Valle Thiele
Life is not
a picnic
Absolute perfection in mimic and gestic, combined
with some cheekiness and humour – those were the ingredients
with which the Austrian contemporary dance company got the audience.
[…] Helena Arenbergerova, Erich Rudolf, Juraj Korec and Nikoleta
Rafaelisová showed dance of the highest standard.
Diana Armatage, Ruhrnachrichten, 02.10.2008
No supporting tools perturb the dance floor, only a screen showing
a black-and-white video-installation of an endlessly ongoing elevator
decorates the setting. And that is absolutely enough for this exciting,
strikingly danced piece. […] We want more, please!
Ilka Heiner, Westfälische Rundschau Schwerte, 04.10.2008
"Life is not a picnic succeded
in reflecting the frenetic pace of life".
Stephanie Burridge, The Flying Inkpot, Singapur
"[...] Austrian choreographer Helene Weinzierl
scored more than a few snorts of laughter from the audience with
her witty dance inspired by the tribes of shoppers she has encountered
in her native Salzburg. The 52-minute dance was a good-humored jibe
at consumerism and a revealing snapshot of the way modern life is
organised around commerce and shopping"
June Cheong, ST Life!, Singapur, 31.01.08
A clever critique of our times. Dance can be more
than just aesthetic.
Österreich, 18.04.2008
Ironic, humorous, inventive and intelligent is this
production, not to forget the outstanding composition and soundideas
of musician Oliver Stotz, which intensify the performance at the
right moments even more.
Susanne Zellinger, Oberösterreichische Nachrichten, 18.04.2008
With quaint movements the dancers of “cieLaroque”
exemplify the humorous critique of our society, presented by award-winning
Salzburg choreographer Helene Weinzierl. […] The artists imitate
unconventionally and always with a hint of naivety how people have
arranged themselves in today’s society.
Sonja Golgowski, Westphalenpost, 19.05.2008
Precise dance on the conveyer belt of consumer’s
society
Silke Rathert, Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, 16.05.2008
Life’s no bed of roses. Indeed not. Isn’t
it sad, downright nightmarish, how we instinctively fall into daily
routine? How we get up, go to work, sit down, sometimes remain waiting,
keep on walking, queue up in the supermarket, in the traffic, on
the elevator, then go to bed again, get up again, go to work again.
Is everything always the same? Are we today where we have been yesterday?
The daily grind?
The approx. 60 min production confronts the audience with these
questions, suggests hustle and bustle, and creates anxiety. The
four dancers, two women and two men, provide a multi-faceted, harmonic
interaction. Like automatic puppets they do their daily jobs in
mechanical staccato movements. They slide through space, simulating
virtuously daily routine, like queuing up at the supermarket check-out.
Helene Weinzierl’s composition „Live is not a picnic“
transfers the audience into a state of cringing. What we see is
fascinating due to the aesthetics of the performers as due to the
aesthetics of the black-and-white video-installation. It reminds
us of ourselves and we perceive its disgust.
Kultur-in-Bonn.de 12.09.2007
Bonn, a felicitous evening. No support, just a screen
showing a film of an endlessly moving elevator decorates the stage
for the dance piece “Life is Not a Picnic”.
The dancers Erich Rudolf, Juraj Korec, Helena Arenbergerova und
Nikoleta Rafaelisová do their job. Their dance is striking,
exciting and at several moments even hilariously funny.
Repeatedly they obsessively feel urged to return into a narrow light
bar in order to perform an exaggeratedly cheerful dance of consumption.
At the end, their aim seems to be to break through this constraint
and to determine themselves, when and how the music sounds.
General-Anzeiger, Bonn, 14.09.2007
Duo para ella – Comida para
dos
is a hilariously ironic survey on familiar
everyday situations.
A young woman is preparing an evening for two: the big screen shows
her in the kitchen, cooking pasta, and the virtual table seemingly
sets itself, the real table stays empty. Helen Arenbergerova dances
touchingly curious expectation, little coquetries and poses of a
potential seduction, growing frustration due to being waiting and
the anger about the guest who fails to appear.
(Bonn,
General-Anzeiger, 12.07.2005)
[Dancer Helena] Arenbergerova observes innovatively,
expressively danced and with striking, easily accessible images
heteronomy and self-discovery from different perspectives. The multimedia-based
stage concept and a distinct symbolism facilitate this dance-wise
sophisticated solo piece, which allows the dancer to fully present
her broad repertoire of expression. Appropriate euphoric applause
in the sold out Theaterlabor.
Heike Krüger, 04.07.2008
TROPEA - ON COUCH
AND SOFAS
A couple sitting on a couch watching TV. Seen on video screen as
part of Helene Weinzierl’s new production for "Laroque
Compagnie". In front of the screen (fabulous) dancers pretending
to be the TV programme. Which requires some virtuosity seeing as
the (virtual) TV audience on the couch is incessantly zapping from
one programme to another. Consequently dancers have to be quick
to move from football field to talk show to soap opera and back.
One dancer alone can be both Ronaldo in red (from behind) and his
opponent in blue (from in front) at the same time. What a cunning
idea to let the real artists of movement synchronise a film on stage
which the video screen only shows as written text. Helene Weinzierl
merits an "Oscar" for her new invention: following subtitles
and supratitles she now comes up with titles from behind.
Here is a brilliant performance of making the pretend and the real
world appear perfectly synchronized. Occasionally the couple on
the video actually falls asleep. Which of course is during a cultural
programme. And it all ends with an anarchic room fight.
(KARL HARB Salzburger Nachrichten 6.11.2004)
TROPEA - DANCING INTO
MY SOUL
The “tanz_house Herbst 04“
(tanz house fall 04) began on Wednesday, November 3 with a Laroque-Dance
company performance at the republic - fascinating production by
Helene Weinzierl
04.11.04 They danced their way into my heart and soul: Wednesday,
November 3, the four dancers from Laroque-Dance company staged the
first of many “tanz_house Herbst 04“ performances before
an almost full house at the republic. (...)
Then, on the stage, there were a blue plastic sofa, a green garden
or spare bench (depending on the situation) and a coat stand draped
with various utensils. Projected onto a video screen during the
performance you could see an elderly couple on a couch facing the
camera or rather the TV. They were fighting over which programmes
to watch and at times even turned violent – a veritable battle
for the remote control broke out. Meanwhile on stage three men and
a woman dancer synchronized the programmes. Football, commercials,
news, talk shows, love stories, horror and crime were all presented
with a wink and at the speed of lightening. The belligerent couple
on the screen did all the channel surfing.
Helene Weinzierl, according to a N.Y. newspaper article wants to
make this world a better one with her choreographies. Her message
is not a cynical but an ironic one if anything: the world of finance
and capital are links in a chain triggering movement. It is not
the journey which is the reward but the run for our beloved money.
The game is made provokingly real with sound clips of America’s
old and new Old Nicks (“We are winning“) and clever experts
opinions on marriages between homosexuals.
The production, by the way, is called TROPEA / couch potatoes’
paradise. Concept and choreography are by Helene Weinzierl, artistic
manager for LaroqueDanceCompany tanzimpulse Salzburg. Video sequences
pleasantly kept to the background instead of ruining the performance
on stage, together with dance and acting, make for a fascinating
range of dramaturgy spoilt only by the lead in and out enterprise.
Compliments also to each of the dancers, plus light and sound production.
The performance takes fifty minutes. “Just sit down and relax“
– not a problem.
(Georg Reittner, Drehpunkt Kultur)
.... and the damage done
The opening performance, and by far the most powerfully engaging,
was "... and the damage done". Perfectly choreographed
by Helene Weinzierl, Robert Tirpak danced with precision, animal-like
aggression and the innocence of a child.
( Edinburgh evening News 8/2003)
....
and the damage done
H. Weinzierl has shown with "...
and the damage done" a refined concept danced by the fascinating
and impressive Dancer Robert Tirpak. With this Video- and Solo performance
she has shown the existence Involvement of human being. In the smallness
as well as in the society, a order of efforts, fails and recover.
( Kleine Zeitung Graz, 11/2001)
systems<damaging>s.
"systems<damaging>systems", an intelligent and
sensitive dance as result of an attentive direction from a choreographer
that obviously is not satisfied any longer with the impeccable steps,
but needs to go deeper and committed herself to get deeper in the
critical role that artists today have in the advancement of a better
society.
( Patrizia Tombesi, TanzAffiche 10/2000)
The ensembles choreography, versatility and variety
of interpretation is sensual, credible, a far cry from the sterile.
The expression is excellent; dancing and acting unite in harmonious
perfection; the performers exhaust themselves for the audience,
approaching them at the physical as well as the spiritual level.
The power and conviction of the dance is fascinating in the way
it portrays happiness, pain, comedy.
Light, majestic, the dancers skip about the stage, hover above it,
displaying a pristine facility t represent the libidinous that is
far
removed from perfunctory professionalism. The applause in the city
theatre expresses the delight and appreciation of the audience.
(Liquid Underwear Passauer Neue Presse, 29.11.1999)
Egon Schiele. What a subject for a modern ballet !
Nudity, wild living, shattered taboos. What pleasures in store for
the aesthete with a slight inclination to voyeurism. But, alas !
This is the wrong address for obscenity. No stridencies. No shocking
images. Nothing. But this is not a drawback. Helene Weinzierls choreography
approaches Schiele stealthily, with caution. She does not tear the
mask off any faces, she lays bare the soul, shyly almost, with great
care, she unveils the tender self-regard of the man of genius, the
responses of those around him, mother and sisters. Over and over
again images from the paintings
flash across the stage, not simply as some form of three-dimensional
plagiary, but rather as an autonomous and self-willed (self-)portrayal
of the painter. The gestural repertoire of the LaroqueDanceCompany
is clear and fraught with power. One of the great strengths of this
production lies in its reductive quality; another, in its irony.
The audience was delighted.
(Ich Ewiges Kind, Schwäbische Zeitung 7/1998).
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