Voodoo Waltz

The glitched kind of montage of scenes in the book Voodoo Waltz for Epileptics correspond with
how Imre and Marne develop their choreographies. Often we work with a kaleidoscopic edit of
scenes that together generate meaning in a poetic sense. The method and the dramatic development
of a dance piece is subject to the rules of a different kind of language than words. Other than the
written word, the body contains and carries many meanings when dancing. The dancing body is
simultaneously a human figure and an abstraction. When writing body language, the understanding
of the way in which form and content intertwine is important.
The form Janja Rakuš explored for Voodoo Waltz for Epileptics somehow matches a kind of dance
dramaturgy: form and content collide. This allows for a somehow natural translation from the book
to the stage.

Epilepsy is a Multidimensional Portal.
An ecstatic minute in which a man experiences a breakthrough into grace and poetic mystery.
A moment in which life becomes translucent and forthcoming.
A magical gesture which sheds light on the elements of Fate. 

Melting choreography with a dramatic text was a virgin territory for Imre and Marne. It is the first
time that they work with a dramatic text as foundation for a new creation. And it is the first time
working with dancers and actors. The openness needed to understand these new combined materials
made this creation process fresh, pure and intuitive. Starting without a recipe, navigating on a gut
feeling. Eager to find out and master how these different dramatic languages can be blurred, as well
as using them complementary to each other.
The translation of the book into a performance inevitably asked for adaptations. The three actors on
stage perform Orfan, Ivana and Kinga, Wilhelm (Wilhelmina in the book) and Helmut (a newly
invented character replacing Alex Ribic in the original). One of the characters in the book, Brother,
completely vaporised into choreography.

Parts of the spoken texts are performed by the dancers and parts of the choreography is given to the
actors. All the performers on stage are choreographed, more than being directed in a psychological
way. Their bodies carry meaning in the way they move, and how they direct their movement in
space. The movement becomes an emotion. The physical becomes psychological. Spaces between
the bodies on stage become storytellers.

The gloom of human existence illuminated by gentleness. Hands that rest on the shoulders and wait
for anyone who wants to accept the mercy from the infinite canvas of Love.

The characters of Voodoo Waltz are exposed in a white box, as if torn from their original context.
The white membrane-like walls and ceiling are lifting and shifting, as if playing games with time
and gravity. One could see the enlargement of the space as a metaphorical landscape, a
representation of an inner life, knowing no boundaries. The stage as a gaping hole where meaning
emerges as doing, only to be destroyed immediately, returning to a void. A natural harbor of all
departures.
In contrast to the weightless and precise visual proposition, there is a more rough and human vibe to
the sound. Guitar, voice and electronics are the main ingredients to the new composition by Amos
Ben-Tal. Where the music plays an intermediar role between movement and time, the repeted
phrases in Voodoo Waltz sound like deja-vu’s.
The light design by Tom Visser is fluid, like water changing shades after a used paint brush is
dipped in a glass. The homeless figures are floating in this vast panorama. Without solid ground
underfoot, they are ever trying to reinvent who they are. Unrooted. Detached. Strange. Heavenly.
Hyper versatile and so light.

When a human dies, a glamorous flash unfurls in front of his eyes.
A ball of light moulded from memory.

Voodoo Waltz explores an open score of movement and (body)language. A new space, free from
politics and social tendencies, open for human touch and higher spirits. Vibrantly aware something
new is coming. Movement exists between blank lines of a poem. Dancing between words and
worlds of contrast. In this silent wound, we might find a moment of radical freedom.