Constanza Macras comes from Argentina and she was considered a dyslectic when she was a child. This may be a reason why she was able to develop her articulation in other ways. She was interested in fashion design at the beginning as well but later she found out that she could work in only one discipline. She studied dance in New York, Amsterdam and she has been working in Berlin for some time. She says it is difficult for her to accept another opinion, she had to find her own way. She founded the Tamagotchi YK2 group and since 2003 she has been a member of DorkyPark. The viewers could see their performance in the Archa Theatre in 2007. Since 21st January, the New Scene of the National Theatre has been opened to foreign companies; the first one was Constanza Macras' Hell on Earth.
Berlin is a state within the state, a microworld in the world. Concentration of manners and loathing. Ethics and ethnicity are discussed topics because you can find balance in the stream of unstoppable mass of possibilities only on the theoretical level. Everyone for themselves but in a system whose burden is difficult to bear. It is even more difficult for people who cannot stand tight. For example teenagers. Hell on Earth is dedicated to them. These are stories about them. Macras is a courageous woman because she puts these children from the problem quarter Neukölln in Berlin right into her dancers. And she shows everything what they like. She is not sorry for them and does not add poetry. There is non-emotional ratio that interprets reality. Courage pays off.
The very first story that is narrated in very general manner seems to be the key diagnosis of deteriorating local communities. It is about a lazy boy who does not like to have a shower. He plays football with his friends in the graveyard in the place without graves. Live graves! He is forced to wash himself after one week and when he uses his towel, he is bitten by scorpions because they had their nest in the towel. A state within the state. Neukölln as a motionless aquarium where many strokes nestle down.
There seems to be a chaos on the stage from the beginning to the very end. This chaos is stylish as well as thematic. Motives vary very fast that everyone has the chance to decode them. Dance elements rank from street dance, break dance, foreshadows of belly dancing or oriental blows of Japanese geishas, elements of classic ballet, hip-hop to physical theatre. The similar case is music. The violinist and the guitar-player who can also play keyboard and percussions play everything from jazz, scenic music, musical, pop, ethno to abstract pieces. Individual parts change fluently like in music but they bear intensive gnome. The whole stage shape remains consistent. The real chaos that erupts with coherent dynamism. But even this overfilling of the stage tells us a lot. Chaotic Babylon where an individual dissolves. A race, an age and shapes of a body are not important. The last thing left for these young people is gender, an ace you can bond someone with. Abusing, using, inferiority complexes and feelings of adulthood result from this situation. And it is cruelly real.
The stage is full with dancers all the time but it is quite simple. Dance space emerges in multiple levels with the help of the system of more decks that represent housing developments. Balance of the staging originates with scenic simplicity. It reminds us of a quarter but it is only a hint. The scene does not bring any symbols except for a shower in the centre of the stage (the majority of dancers avoids) and a tree with apples. It sticks with important things. Knowledge and cathartic bath. Apples fall down very quickly.
There are a lot of topic the choreographer works with. Envy (beautiful dance mass changing duets when the dances change their clothes), naivety (a scene with a big hair-dryer and princess-like violet and pink dress of girls "who know", singing pop songs and effort to look like their idols) and imitation of models (who would not be shocked by rude and "expert" replicas of a 10-year-old boy who tries to be equal with street bosses), maturing (a funny scene of discovering the magical effect of breasts), packing (running on the stage in an inseparable group) and many others articulated with rudeness and barbarity of reality that is so mean that only teenagers from a periphery can do. Parallel love duets are notable as well. Dancers create these roles to tell about the initial devotion or love which subsequently changes into deceit and one's own interest. Dance love-making among apples.
The most fascinating moment during observation of this unbelievably cruel world is realization that this performance and rehearsals prevent these chosen people from what they interpret. At least for a while. At the beginning and at the end. There is a man standing on the apron, he has a lot of muscles, almost a bold head and unpleasant sight. He fences the stage with a red and white tape at the end. As if the access to this quarter was secured. As if we had an opportunity for a sneak peek for a while but reality remains alone.
Translated by: Eliška Hulcová
Josef Bartos
Thank you for your thoughts. One got stuck in my mind – that passion makes us different from AI. Just yesterday I read…I am a dance critic. I am a member of an endangered species