Lines

Krisztina de Châtel wanted to create ‘clenched tension’ – tight as a fist. This was also the starting point for visual artist Jan van Munster, who created an abstract neon work for Lines (the square dance floor is demarcated by 16 standing light boxes). De Châtel was also inspired by the ideas of Bauhaus artist Oskar Schlemmer. This led to the fusion of van Munster’s quest for (symbolic) expression and Schlemmer’s concept of the Tänzermensch who follows the laws of his own body and the laws of cubist space.

Krisztina de Châtel about Lines: ‘A single movement for forty minutes, with a slight shift in space. It was draining. With music by Philip Glass and twenty minutes without music so that you only heard the dancers’ feet. It was a monumental piece. One critic wrote: ‘beautiful but boring’. When I kept on doing it, they got used to it. And now, when I step away from that theme, they get confused. ‘Where is the old Châtel?’ they ask.’

Five dancers dressed in white visualise the permanently shifting spatial patterns: stern and imperturbable, they shape circles, diagonals, crosses, squares and straight lines… the energy is ever-present. This is the minimal force that makes us walk upright, makes us breathe and therefore makes us persevere. (Ons Erfdeel)

premiere 15 November 1979, Toneelschuur, Haarlem
choreography Krisztina de Châtel
dance Marijke Huybregts, Toska ten Kate, Sjoukje Osinga, Petra Rhijnsburger, José Way
music Philip Glass – Music with Changing Parts
stagedesign/lightobjects Jan van Munster
light William Heyltjes
costumes Marianne Strategier
photography Bob van Dantzig