Simple, captivating and undoubtedly one of the funniest contemporary dance pieces of recent years: in "Simple", Argentinian choreographer Ayelen Parolin, who has lived in Belgium for 20 years, robs herself of one of her most important dance partners - the music.
And yet the piece is anything but silent. Without music, it is up to the three dancers in their colourfully speckled, tight-fitting overalls to provide the rhythm. They use their bodies as percussion instruments, set the pulse and beat and sweep the audience along with them. "Simple" is an homage to "Summerspace" (1958) by Merce Cunningham, one of the most famous works of modern dance, which radically broke with traditional notions of choreography. Ayelen Parolin simplifies the original into Dadaist fun: the performers tirelessly repeat the same sequences of movements, executing them with unusual gestures, weird jumps and baffled facial expressions. The unfinished and the return to the beginning are the common thread of the piece, a fascinating exercise in the construction and deconstruction of contemporary dance. Failure has never been as beautiful as in this stage catastrophe disguised as a dance piece: The three performers* demonstrate a good dose of self-irony and allow themselves to be guided entirely by the pure, childlike joy of dance and movement. (Source: asphalt Festival gGmbH)
