luvos e

«Luvos, vol. 2» - 2001

probably the most weird and simultaneously touching vision of a brave new world of GMO's playing havoc with humanity, choreographed by Editta Braun. The piece plays with alienation and familiarity of the human body, both as an instrument and an object. What new surprises can intense views of the human body reveal? How can one define movement, body contact, nakedness, when it is nearly impossible, first, to figure out to whom each body part belongs? When one faces, so to speak, bodily illusions? Composer Thierry Zaboitzeff places Luvos in a world of cool, computer-generated grooves.

«Luvos, vol. 2» created 2001 in Salzburg

choreography: Editta Braun

performers: Ulrike Hager, Sandra Hofstötter, Magdaléna Čaprdova, Zoé Alibert, Anna Reitbauer

composition: Thierry Zaboitzeff

lightdesign: Thomas Hinterberger

length: 55 minutes

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„ ... ”Austria's currently most interesting choreographer lures us with "Luvos, vol. 2" into a truly "brave new world". As if driven by invisible waves, five naked dancers lie and roll upon glowing red sand, new beings growing out of their legs. (...) Pale, crab-like creatures striving sideways through the room, finding one another, mating and breeding new worms from which again other creatures emerge... - a vision of a beautiful and erotic, yet dangerously artificial world.

Neue Kronenzeitung, Andrea Hein

Touring: Kleines Theater - SommerSZENEfestival Salzburg, festival zwanzig+2, Klagenfurt, Théâtre Toursky Marseille, WUK - Werkstätten- und Kulturhaus Wien, Szene Salzburg – Theaterbörse IG Freie Theater, Posthof Linz, Théâtre 140 Brüssel, ARGE Kultur Salzburg Internationaler Frauentag, Internationales Tanzfestival Bielefeld, Stadttheater, International Dance Festival Thessaloniki, National Theatre, Theater am Rotebühlplatz Stuttgart, tanz_house festival Salzburg, 5. Sib-Altera Festival Novosibirsk/Sibirien, Szene Salzburg, Israelfestival - Jerusalem Theatre/Rebecca Crown Hall, Suzanne Dellal Center Tel Aviv, TanzRäume Festival Hagen, Brotfabrik Bonn, Theater im Depot Dortmund, International Contemporary Dance Festival Moscow Pushkintheater, Festival Österreich Tanzt, Festspielhaus St. Pölten, International Contemporary Dance Festival Limassol und Nicosia/Cyprus, Kaunas State Drama Theater, Kunsthaus Nexus Saalfelden, Tallinn Treff Festival, Time To Dance Festival Riga, International Dance & Theater Festival Bythom

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Be Manipulated

As Manipulate Festival returns to Edinburgh with another innovative array of visual theatre and animation, we talk to programmer Simon Hart about what to expect

FEATURE BY GARETH K VILE.

PUBLISHED 06 JANUARY 2012

Originally choreographed in 2001, Luvos is Editta Braun's savagely erotic response to genetic modification. Sinister and disturbingly sensual, Braun distresses and distorts the human body, using dance's potential for the expression of abstract ideas to picture an evolutionary process damaged by human meddling.

Simon Hart, who is bringing Luvos from Austria to Edinburgh as part of the Manipulate Festival, sees it as a striking example of how 'visual theatre' can reach the places where scripts might struggle. "For me, Luvos articulates in a very powerful and oblique way my fears and concerns about the results of global warming, and of uncontrolled genetic experimentations with elements of our natural world," he explains. "One of the strengths of a serious exploration of these themes in a piece like Luvos is that the series of beautifully disturbing images it presents engages my understanding and imagination at a more fundamental, non-verbal non-narratively linear level than a more overtly agitprop, spoken piece of theatre would do. In this way I find myself repeatedly considering these issues primarily through the vividness of the images that remain with me."

Hart, artistic director of Puppet Animation Scotland, which champions visual theatre and puppetry for both adults and children, is becoming one of the most important programmers in Scotland. Fearless in his selections – last year he included a meditation on brutal murder, while Manipulate 2012 connects political animated movies (Waltz with Bashir), Fringe successes (Polaris) and European experimental theatre – Hart has made a convincing case for drama beyond the traditional script. "I think the best visual theatre has the potential to engage with its audiences in more varied – and dare one say, at times in more profound – ways than text-based theatre. Individuals watching a visual piece like Luvos will engage with and interpret its powerful images each according to his or her’s own personality and history," he admits. "Potentially, there are as many different nuanced responses to one of Manipulate’s productions as there are audience members. Certainly in my experience the range and passion of comments and discussions one hears in the bar afterwards backs this up!"

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