DV8 Physical Theater is a physically integrated dance company based in Artsadmin in London, England. Formally established in 1986 by Lloyd Newson (1986-2015), Michelle Richecoeur (1986-1988) and Nigel Charnock (1986-1989, 1992). Lloyd Newson has led this company as a choreographer and artistic director from the start, aside from the production of My Sex, Our Dance (1986), created together with Nigel Charnock.
The work of DV8 is characterized by a desire to communicate ideas and feelings clearly and without preamble, often with a focus on socio-political issues. This work challenges the limitations of dance by using whatever means it takes to find the most appropriate way to say something, thereby incorporating the elements of theater, dance, film, and, more and more, texts. DV8 has toured in the UK and 28 countries around the world, and received 55 national and international awards.
Video DV8 Physical Theatre
History
Foundation and Initial Work
Lloyd Newson founded the DV8 Physical Theater in 1986 in response to his disappointment with the lack of subject matter in contemporary dance. He feels that the audience is being 'cheated on the depths' (many) of contemporary dances, which he views are generally superficial; obsessed with 'aesthetics over content'. Newson's first work produced with the new company was made in partnership with Nigel Charnock, and was titled My Sex, Our Dance (1986); it overcomes the emergence of AIDS and investigates the idea of ​​trust, both emotionally and physically, between two gay men. This was followed by Deep End (1987), in which Liz Ranken's dancers joined Newson, Richecoeur and Charnock as players, and the Element T (H) ree Sex (1987) : works that focus on heterosexual relationships. The three works are on tour in the UK, and My Sex, Our Dance and Deep End are also performed in New York as part of the Next Wave Festival (held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music) in 1988.
The next job for the company is My Body, Your Body (1987), which explores the psychology of women looking for relationships with men who are rude. It was based on an audio recording of a close female friend from Newson and a book, Women Who Love Too Much by Robin Norwood. Production toured in the UK in 1987 and featured Wendy Houstoun, who later played a major role in If Only... (1990) and Strange Fish (1992).
In 1988, Dead Dreams of Monochrome Men was created for the stage and, two years later, was adapted for the film - the first of several made by the company. This production gets inspired from the book, Killing for Company, about serial killer Dennis Nielsen. It garnered numerous awards for the DV8, including the Time Out Dance Award and Evening Standard Ballet Award, both in 1989. In 1990, film director David Hinton, commissioned by the South Bank Show (ITV), collaborated with Newson to adjust the production stage to television.
1990 - 2000
After Dead Dreams of Monochrome Men, Newson began to develop a more poetic style, involving an increasingly complex set. He stated at the time that he was 'tired by the bruised physique' which marked the DV8's work from 1986-1989. The first of these works is If Only... (1990), which won the Golden Pegasus Award at the Melbourne International Festival (1990). Strange Fish (1992) followed, featuring Wendy Houstoun with Nigel Charnock and singer Melanie Pappenheim. Again, it was a critical success: stage production won the London Dance & amp; Performance Award (1992) and adapted for the BBC film of the same year, then won the company's first Italian Prix.
Throughout the 1990s, DV8 continued to produce well-received and popular work among audiences. The BBC film version of Enter Achilles (1995) won the Italian Prix and the International Emmy Award in 1997, while Happiest of My Life Day (1999) won the Set Time Out Design of the Year.
In 2000, the Sydney Cultural Olympics commissioned Can We Afford This , later renamed The Cost of Living . He went on to open London Dance Umbrella season, and toured Hong Kong. In 2004, the work was adapted into an award-winning film, directed by Newson, and reworked with additional scenes as a site-specific production, Living Expenses (2003), commissioned by and for the contemporary London Tate Modern art gallery.
Recent Jobs
In 2004-5, DV8 created Just for Show , the first of a series of co-productions with the National Theater (London). This is a significant new relationship in terms of cross company genre positions between the increasingly arbitrary "dance" and "theater" categories.
The next production, To Be Straight With You (2007), marks a step by Newson into the verbatim theater - arranging a very detailed movement into real (edited) words from real people. To make the manuscript, 85 people of different ethnicity and sexuality were interviewed by Newson and his researcher, Anshu Rastogi, about their experiences and views on religion, culture and homosexuality.
Can We Talk About It? (2011-12), the second word for word production, deals with freedom of speech, censorship and Islam. This is interesting in the interviews as well as those conducted by Newson himself, and involves people associated with the burning of Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie and fellow filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who was killed by the Dutch Islamist Mohammed Bouyeri. Can We Talk About It? won the Helpmann Award (Australia, 2012), and was named Production of the Year (Germany, 2012) from Tanz Magazine.
DV8's latest work, JOHN (2014) follows the life story of a man, the eponymous title character, played by Hannes Langolf. It's a trail of criminality, drug use, personal relationships, rehabilitation efforts and a desire to live a normal life. Once again produced in conjunction with the National Theater, it is broadcasted to theaters worldwide via the NT Live program.
On January 12, 2016, the company announced that Lloyd Newson's artistic director was taking time to think about the future. Because of this the company insists that the production of new jobs should be temporarily suspended.
Maps DV8 Physical Theatre
Style
The work of DV8 is characterized by a desire to take risks, to question people's attitudes and beliefs, to break the barriers that separate art forms, and ultimately communicate ideas and feelings clearly and without preamble. Companies often discuss related social topics, such as freedom of speech, human rights, multiculturalism, tolerance/intolerance, gender roles, sexual identity and social class, as well as personal issues.
The DV8 work seeks to use the most appropriate means available to serve its mission. Thus, its production has incorporated elements of dance, naturalistic movements, video, circus skills and more recently, verbatim text.
Funding and Production
DV8 Physical Theater received funding through the UK National Art Council's Portfolio program, as well as occasional project support from the British Council. It has toured extensively in the UK and Europe, and further into Australia, the United States, Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan. Many long-term co-production partners are theaters and festivals from around the world. It is an associate company of Artsadmin, and also a member of ITC, Dance UK and IETM. Newson often stated that companies are motivated by artistic inspiration and creative needs, rather than financial demands, organizations and tours.
Work
So far it has produced 18 works for the stage, most of which have been on an international tour, and four award-winning films adapted from stage performances.
Stage
- My Sex, Our Dance , 1986 - commissioned by the Battersea Arts Center, and backed by funds from the Camden Borough Council.
- Deep End , 1987 - commissioned by John Ashford for The Place Theater, London
- Element T (h) ree Sex , 1987 - commissioned by Yorkshire Arts, and funded by Yorkshire & amp; Humberside Arts Board
- My Body, Your Body , 1987 - produced jointly by Dance Umbrella and London Borough of Camden
- Dream of the Monochrome Men Men , 1988 - commissioned by Third Eye Center, Glasgow
- If Only , 1990 - produced by The Festival Unit - Glasgow City of Culture 1990, Festival d'EtÃÆ'Â © de Seine Maritime (Rouen) and The South Bank Center (London)
- Strange Fish , 1992 - commissioned by EXPO 92 (Seville), England at EXPO, and produced in conjunction with National Arts Center, Ottawa
- MSM , 1993 - produced by Royal Court Theater and Nottingham Playhouse
- Enter Achilles , 1995 - produced by Wiener Festwochen and Royal Festival Hall with Dance Umbrella, with contributions from Bayerische Staatsoper/Labor, Bayerische Staatsschauspiel/Marstall.
- Bound to Please , 1997 - produced by Springdance Festival, ThÃÆ' Â © ÃÆ' Â ¢ tre de la Ville, Cambridge Art Theater, Royal Festival Hall, National Center de Danse Contemporaine d'Angers l ' Esquisse
- Happiest Day of My Life , 1999 - produced jointly by the Royal Festival Hall; ThÃÆ' Â © ÃÆ' Â ¢ tre de la Ville, Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel/Marstall, MÃÆ'¼nchen, LÃÆ' Â © onard de Vinci, opÃÆ' Â © ra de Rouen, Kulturhus ÃÆ'â € | arhus, Julidans/Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam Festival and Internationales Sommertheater Festival Hamburg
- Can We Make It/Living Expenses , 2000 - commissioned by Sydney 2000 Olympic Arts Festival and jointly produced in London by DV8 and The Royal Festival Hall in collaboration with Dance Umbrella
- Cost of Living (promenade performance), 2003 - commissioned by Tate
- Living Expense , 2003 - jointly produced by ThÃÆ'Â © ÃÆ' Â ¢ Â ¢ tre de la Ville and Festival d'Automne; Festival Romaeuropa; Festival Julidans/Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam; PACT Zollverein/Choreographisches Zentrum NRW and Hebbel-Theater Berlin
- Just For Show , 2005 - produced by Festival Romaeuropa and Accademia Filarmonica, Rome; National Theater, London; ThÃÆ' Â © ÃÆ' Â ¢ tre de la Ville and Festival d'Automne, Paris; spielzeiteuropa/Berliner Festspiele, Berlin
- Be Straight With You , 2008 - produced by spielzeit'europa/Berliner Festspiele, National Theater, London, Maison des Arts de Creteil and Festival D'Automne, Paris.
- Can We Talk About It? , 2011 - produced jointly with ThÃÆ'Â © ÃÆ'Â ¢ Â ¢ tre de la Ville and Festival d'Automne, Paris, National Theater, London and Dansens Hus Stockholm.
- John , 2014 - jointly produced by the National Theater, London, Biennale de la Danse de Lyon, La Villette, Paris, ThÃÆ'Â © ÃÆ' Â ¢ Â ¢ tre de la Ville and Festival d ' Automne Paris, Dansens Hus Stockholm and Dansens Hus Oslo.
Movies
The DV8 theatrical adaptation film production, except Dead Dreams of Monochrome Men, is produced by DV8 Films Ltd.
- Dream of Monochrome Male Men , 1989, commissioned by LWT
- Odd Fish , 1992, commissioned by the BBC
- Enter Achilles , 1995, commissioned by the BBC
- Living Cost , 2004, assigned by Channel 4
References
External links
- DV8 website
- Bremser, Martha (1999). Fifth Contemporary Choreographer . Abingdon: Routledge. pp. 297-303. ISBN: 978-0-415-38081-2.
- Enter Achilles IMDB
- Cost of Living IMDB
- Strange Fish IMDB
- Dead Dreams of Monochrome Men IMDB
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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