What's the difference between a gesture and a movement? The intention behind it. Dance offers a way, a route towards emotion, where the body can make itself driver of the spirit. Whether the dance in question is ancient and tribal or entirely contemporary, the journey remains the same. Nevertheless, the methods used are different. In asking grandmothers to dance for her, the Korean choreographer Eun-Me Ahn has found an unexpected and interesting premise. Dressed in large floral skirts and evident excitement, the grandmothers dance their lives for us in harmony. They seem happy to be able to prove themselves and to celebrate their own existences. They are joined up on stage by disguised dancers, all directed by Eun-Me Ahn, who is otherwise known as the 'Pina Bausch of Seoul'. This is yet another show that confirms her position on the avant-garde scene, combining folklore and electronic music, sweat and video, wrinkles and unexpected contrasts.
'Dancing Grandmothers' is on as part of Paris Quartier d'été from the 6th to the 9th August at the Théâtre de la Colline. As Pina Bausch would say, "Dance, dance, otherwise we are lost."
