RICARDO FRAYHA
producer

Recognized worldwide as one of the most inventive choreographers of our times, William Forsythe, born 1949, worked in several dance companies before directing Ballet Frankfurt (Germany) between 1984 and 2004 and establishing a new ensemble, The Forsythe Company, which he directed from 2005 to 2015. Since the early 1990s, Forsythe has been developing a series of installation works that go beyond the stage: the Choreographic Objects. Fusing concepts from choreography ​​and visual arts, these installations propose the placement of the body in motion coming from previous stimuli. After the solo exhibition at Sesc Pompeia, William Forsythe: Choreographic Objects, presented from March 27th till July 28th, 2019, composed of eleven works that occupied different spaces at the venue, two works by William Forsythe went to Campinas for the Bienal Sesc de Dança, the video installation Alignigung No.2 (2017), previously not seen in Brazil, and the work Debut, São Paulo (2019), a recreation for the Sesc Pompeia exhibition, shaped as an entrance carpet with instructions. The video installation Alignigung No. 2 features a choreography in which the dancers Riley Watts and Rauf”RubberLegz”Yasit combine their bodies in a knotted constellation. With this video work, an event is offered that subtracts common elements typically associated with choreography: the structural development of time and space and the visual isolation of parts. This slow motion physical and optical puzzle in real time, which Forsythe calls an “entanglement” is a hybrid of choreography, film, and sculpture.

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WILLIAM FORSYTHE

Raised in New York and initially trained in Florida with Nolan Dingman and Christa Long, Forsythe danced with the Joffrey Ballet and later the Stuttgart Ballet, where he was appointed Resident Choreographer in 1976. Over the next seven years, he created new works for the Stuttgart ensemble and ballet companies in Munich, The Hague, London, Basel, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, Paris, New York, and San Francisco. In 1984, he began a 20-year tenure as director of the Ballet Frankfurt, where he created works such as Artifact (1984), Impressing the Czar (1988), Limb’s Theorem (1990), The Loss of Small Detail (1991), A L I E / N A(C)TION (1992), Eidos:Telos (1995), Endless House (1999), Kammer/Kammer (2000), and Decreation (2003). After the closure of the Ballet Frankfurt in 2004, Forsythe established a new ensemble, The Forsythe Company, which he directed from 2005 to 2015. Works produced with this ensemble include Three Atmospheric Studies (2005), You made me a monster (2005), Human Writes (2005), Heterotopia (2006), The Defenders (2007), Yes we can’t (2008/2010), I don’t believe in outer space (2008), The Returns (2009) and Sider (2011). Forsythe’s most recent works were developed and performed exclusively by The Forsythe Company, while his earlier pieces are prominently featured in the repertoire of virtually every major ballet company in the world, including the Mariinsky Ballet, New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, National Ballet of Canada, Semperoper Ballet Dresden, England’s Royal Ballet and The Paris Opera Ballet. Awards received by Forsythe and his ensembles include the New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award (1988, 1998, 2004, 2007) and London’s Laurence Olivier Award (1992, 1999, 2009). Forsythe has been conveyed the title of Commandeur des Arts et Lettres (1999) by the government of France and has received the Hessische Kulturpreis/Hessian Culture Award (1995), the German Distinguished Service Cross (1997), the Wexner Prize (2002), the Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale (2010), Samuel H Scripps / American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement (2012) and the Grand Prix de la SACD (2016). Forsythe has been commissioned to produce architectural and performance installations by architect-artist Daniel Libeskind (Groningen, 1989), ARTANGEL (London,1997), Creative Time (New York, 2005), and the SKD – Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (2013, 2014).  These “Choreographic Objects”, as Forsythe calls his installations, include among others White Bouncy Castle (1997), City of Abstracts (2000), The Fact of Matter (2009), Nowhere and Everywhere at the Same Time No. 2 (2013) and Black Flags (2014). His installation and film works have been presented in numerous museums and exhibitions, including the Whitney Biennial (New York, 1997), Festival d’Avignon (2005, 2011), Louvre Museum (2006),  Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich (2006), 21_21 Design Sight in Tokyo (2007), Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus (2009), Tate Modern (London, 2009), Hayward Gallery, (London 2010), MoMA (New York 2010), ICA Boston (2011), Venice Biennale (2005, 2009, 2012, 2014), MMK – Museum für Moderne Kunst (Frankfurt am Main, 2015) and the 20th Biennale of Sydney, 2016. In collaboration with media specialists and educators, Forsythe has developed new approaches to dance documentation, research, and education. His 1994 computer application Improvisation Technologies: A Tool for the Analytical Dance Eye, developed with the ZKM / Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe, is used as a teaching tool by professional companies, dance conservatories, universities, postgraduate architecture programs, and secondary schools worldwide. 2009 marked the launch of Synchronous Objects for One Flat Thing, reproduced, a digital online score developed with The Ohio State University that reveals the organizational principles of the choreography and demonstrates their possible application within other disciplines. Synchronous Objects was the pilot project for Forsythe's Motion Bank, a research platform focused on the creation and research of online digital scores in collaboration with guest choreographers. As an educator, Forsythe is regularly invited to lecture and give workshops at universities and cultural institutions. In 2002, Forsythe was chosen as one the founding Dance Mentor for The Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. Forsythe is an Honorary Fellow at the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance in London and holds an Honorary Doctorate from The Juilliard School in New York. Forsythe is a current Professor of Dance and Artistic Advisor for the Choreographic Institute at the University of Southern California Glorya Kaufman School of Dance.

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ALIGNIGUNG No.2

William Forsythe

(2017)

 

Choreographic Concept: William Forsythe, Rauf "Rubberlegz"Yasit | Choreographic realization: Riley Watts, Rauf”RubberLegz”Yasit | Music: OP.1 (For 9 Strings), composed by Ryoji Ikeda© Ryoji Ikeda, Courtesy of Budde Music UK

Film Producer: Simon Wallon, Kiss & Kill | Cinematographer: Steeven Petitteville | Camera Assistant: Melissa Sporn | Chief Lighting: David Gheghan | Lighting Assistant: Damon Marcellino | Chief Machinist: Michael Hernandez | Assistant Machinist: Justin Lesch | Production Assistant: Ryan Conover | Post production: Nightshift, Melanie Teixeira | Editing: Charlotte Audureau | Calibration: Alice Syrakvash

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©Copyright Opéra national de Paris (2016)
Directed by William Forsythe for Opéra national de Paris

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WILLIAM FORSYTHE: CHOREOGRAPHIC OBJECTS

 

Direction Studio William Forsythe: Julian Gabriel Richter | General management Forsythe Productions: Alexandra Scott

 

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Internacional articulator: Paula Macedo Weiss | Production in Brazil: prod.art.br | Technical director: Julio Cesarini | Audiovisual coordinator: Rodrigo Gava | Production directors: Ricardo Muniz Fernandes, Ricardo Frayha

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Realisation: Sesc São Paulo, Studio William Forsythe

Bienal Sesc de Dança, Sesc Campinas

Campinas, SP, Brazil

12 to 22/09/2019