DADDY, I'VE SEEN THIS PIECE SIX TIMES AND I STILL DON'T KNOW WHY THEY'RE HURTING EACHOTHER

Choreography Robyn Orlin

“Daddy…”, a piece for six dancers created in Johannesburg in 1998, is the work that propelled Robyn Orlin into the spotlight on the European stage. Since it was first performed at La Filature in Mulhouse in April 2000 and at the Théâtre de la Ville, Paris in 2001, the work has toured continuously the world over. Commissioned by FNB Vita Dance Umbrella, “Daddy…” won third prize in the African and Indian Ocean Choreographic Encounters of 1999, the Jan Fabre prize for the most subversive work at the Rencontres Choréographiques Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis in 2000, and, in London, the Laurence Olivier Award for the most outstanding achievement in dance in 2003.

Source : Robyn Orlin Company

Press

“A ring is set up on the stage where audience and performers gather together […] The stage, for once, is not sacrosanct: the audience share the performance space and wander about as freely as they feel able […] “Daddy”… finds five performers on stage waiting for their choreographer, who will never arrive. The show links a group of playlets, which, under the very funny leadership of Gerard Bester, as the manager panicking at the idea of needing to fill in, follow in a chain of delicious fiascos. “Sorry, we're a very young democracy” he offers by way of excuse. Each flop is the chance for a new hand to be dealt, the restructuring of a set of possibilities.”

Annie Suquet, La Croix, April, 17th 2001

“Robyn Orlin very intelligently chooses the symbol of ballet, spearhead of white culture in the face of ‘savage' dances (the artist grew up on a diet of arabesques before leaving for London, then Chicago, to study contemporary dance), to denounce everything that makes her skin crawl. For instance, there is the legendary scene during which the superb Nelisiwe Xaba, in a white tutu, sprinkles flour over the floor with the aid of a large sieve, drawing frost flowers of a sort, then entirely covers every inch of her black body. This is Swan Lake - the Orlin version: white swan and black swan united in the same woman. The staging, lighting, everything contributes to this symbolic “cannibalistic” magic. Excess, daring to play on the clichés of inconsistency, Robin Orlin uses every means to avoid the feel-good factor of that which it is all too easy to call Post-Apartheid […] All is movement, turmoil. It is totally visual, too. The red of piles of plates, lined up patiently on the floor before being sent flying by an unconcerned kick. The white of flour, sieved like in the village. The yellow of the electric ducks which ape the swans of classical ballet. Leopard-print fabric with lions' faces. Poppy-patterned slips. Good taste, bad taste? That is not the issue. Everything that creates or destroys has its part to play in life. There are stories that are always worth remembering: Senegal, slavery. And that little added extra, adapted to the French situation and so well put over, on the ironic fate of the “sans papiers” (undocumented immigrants). But note, there is no moral, no lesson […] We still laugh just as much, but we understand better where Robyn Orlin wants to take us: into a world of authentic fraternity. Please my Darling, tell me you like me too, as the final song so eloquently puts it.

Dominique Frétard, Le Monde, April, 14th 2001

Credits

Chorégraphie, scénographie, costumes et décor Robyn Orlin
Extrait de "Points de vue d'Afrique"
Réalisation Marie-Hélène Rebois date du document vidéo 1999 production Les Films Pénélope, ARTE France
Durée 100 minutes Updating : January 2011

Robyn Orlin was born in 1955 in Johannesburg and obtained bursaries to study in London (London Contemporary Dance School) and then in Chicago (School of Art Institute).

Since her first performance in Johannesburg in 1980, she has attempted to redefine choreography and the art of theatre in her country and has become one of the most committed anti-apartheid choreographers. She starts from the principle that “dance is political”, and in her pieces she examines the social and cultural situation in South Africa: its influences, its history, its rifts and its disintegration. The choreography then creates “an iconoclastic dance which puts its foot in it”, a dance-chronicle of today's South African society, skilfully handling irony and derision; a dance that shamelessly stirs up references and identities, blending traditional popular culture with the radical avant-garde, a dance that is capable of breaking down the artist-audience barrier by putting the audience at the centre of the event.

Robyn Orlin came to France for the first time in April 2000 at the invitation of La Filature Scène Nationale, Mulhouse, with “Daddy, I've seen this piece six times before...”

She achieved immediate recognition: Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis, Montpellier Dance Festival, Théâtre de la Ville, Paris, followed by tours all over the world.

In 2004, Robyn Orlin took part in the inauguration of the Centre National de la Danse, Pantin and composed a solo for Sophiatou Kossoko as part of “Vif du Sujet”.

In 2005 she created “When I take off my skin and touch the sky with my nose, only then I can see little voices amuse themselves...”, a piece with 6 singers from the South African Opera, then, during the summer, “Hey dude... i have talent... i'm just waiting for god...,” a solo for the dancer-choreographer Vera Mantero.
  From September 2005 Robyn Orlin was in residency for two years at the Centre National de la Danse, Pantin. In April 2007 her “L'Allegro, il penseroso ed il moderato” was premièred at the Paris National Opera.

Source : 

Digital resource - Médiathèque du Centre national de la danse
http://mediatheque.cnd.fr/spip.php?page=mediatheque-numerique-ressource&id=PHO00003887

 More information :  robynorlin.com

Marie-Hélène Rebois is a French director born in Nancy. Alongside literary studies (literature preparatory studies for “les grandes écoles”, a Master’s in literature, history of art and philosophy) and theatrical training with the director Jean-Marie Villégier and the Festival international de théâtre de Nancy, her home town, Marie-Hélène Rebois produced her first short films and became a filmmaker. In her films, she develops her favourite themes, always related to the expression of social issues and artistic creation, where family sagas, interior journeys, religion, writing, music, painting, opera and dance play a large role.
 She collaborated in the educational work of the production department of La Femis from 1992 to 1997. She worked for one year with the Montpellier Danse Festival to produce a film on the history of the festival (Montpellier Danse 1980-2000) and a special evening for Arte (Montpellier Danse 2000, points de vue d'Afrique). This programme received a special mention at the 11th Grand Prix international video danse. In 2003, her film Ribatz, Ribatz ou le Grain du temps was awarded the French selection prize at the Festival international de cinéma de Marseille. She also produced for the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris a film on the analysis of the body in danced movement: Le Geste créateur as well as, for the SACD (Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers), a short film on a circus act Rondeau pour un fardeau, a piece with lifts, together with portraits of the pianist Vanessa Wagner, the choreographer Jean-Claude Gallotta, and the Italian puppeteer Laura Kibel. In Dialogue avec les fauves, broadcast on Arte, she shows just how far man can go in communication with wild animals, with what language and with what gestures. Noces d'or, la mort du chorégraphe, broadcast on France 2, is the last part of the trilogy that Marie-Hélène Rebois imagined and started after the death of the French choreographer Dominique Bagouet (the first two parts were Histoire d'une transmission, So Schnell à l'Opéra, 1999, and Ribatz, Ribatz ou le Grain du temps, 2003). She has since produced three documentaries for Arte: Maguy Marin, la danse cachée; Montpellier Danse, 1980-2010, Zigzag, for the 30 years of the Montpellier Danse Festival and Merce Cunningham, la danse en héritage, where she follows the last tour paying tribute to the man who was one of the leading artists of the 20th century. Alternating rehearsal periods, images from archives, and interviews, her film raises the issue of the transmission of a truly intangible heritage. In 2016, her last film, Dans les pas de Trisha Brown, was selected for the Festival international de cinéma de Marseille.

Sources : Ardèche Image ; Film-documentaire.fr ; CMCA