The term ¡°dance theatre¡± was probably coined in 1935 by Kurt Jooss, the choreographer, in his text ¡°The language of Dance Theatre¡±. He called dance that form of art which ¡°can meet all the demands of the theatre¡a dance which is capable of fully expressing all phases of the drama.¡± In the course of its development the concept has undergone continual change, particularly since the War. Whatever special form dance theatre took - whether via Gerhard Bohner, Reinhild Hoffmann, Susanne Linke¡ and, of course, Pina Bausch, the "£Õbermutter" who, in her search for new means of both ballet and traditional modern dance - the dancing part of dance theatre productions still proves to be the most lasting. With her kind of dance theatre Eva-Maria Lerchenberg-Thony (choreographer) wishes to convey danced theatre (in the true sense of the word), using predominantly modern as well as classical elements and particularly emphasizing the dancing. In her work she endeavours to show the dramatic situations, the characters and constellations purely via the body in order primarily to point out the motive forces - love, hatred, passion, pain, oppression, social conventions ¡ ¡°speaking movements¡± follow a dancing rhythm. The medium of language is replaced by the medium of dance - movement is the text.
"And I love you so¡...?"
Choreography: Eva-Maria Lerchenberg-Thony
Music: Chansons and Lovesongs
¡°And I love you so...?¡± is a choreographic merry-go-round on the subject of love with music by Jacques Brel, Juliette Greco, Jean Ferrat, Frehel, Edith Piaf, Louis Armstrong, Shirley Bassey, Ray Charles, Tina Turner, Ice Cube, Broadlahn, Hubert von Goisern, Haindling, Die Fantastischen Vier and Braunschweig-based singer and composer Vanessa Maurischat. Eva-Maria Lerchenberg-Thony uses her very own language - the dance - and puts it to the music to display different facets of love. A shy love that is lost in thought and hopes. A hungry love directly exploding from the middle of the dancer's body. The battle of the sexes is demonstrated by aggressive movements, while self-assertion is given in virtuous and risky form of dance. Even wacky elements of Break-dance are displayed to remind us that sometimes love is a feeling that can make us laugh. Her dancers - constantly present on stage throughout the course of the performance - go through these various emotional stages convincingly. They seem to form an enclosed entity that quickly can move from group choreographies to Pas de Deux or solo parts, in manners that are at times dramatic, at times funny.
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