4 fois / sem. - A choreography by Avi Kaiser und Sergio Antonino
Avi Kaiser and Sergio Antonino, two choreographers of international renown, have been in Montreal since September to work on a creation with a group of dancers from the Dance Department of the l’Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). The fruit of their three and a half months of work was presented on December 14, 2005 at the Studio de l’Agora de la danse.
Avi Kaiser is well known to Montreal audiences through his two previous works: Le coq est mort, in collaboration with Suzanne Linke, in 1999 for FIND, and Humus, a creation for Montréal Danse in 2001. The latter was chosen by the weekly VOIR as the “best piece of dance for 2005”.
Avi Kaiser created 4 fois/sem. with Sergio Antonino, a talented, young Italian choreographer recently acclaimed for the presentation of his piece Millimetri, a commission for the prestigious Venice Biennale. The two have choreographed several pieces for groups, and Piazza figure due, a duo created in 2004 originated from a German-Italian production and was distinguished by the high quality of interpretation by the choreographer-dancers. This piece, presented in numerous European cities, toured North America, including Montreal, in 2007.
4 fois/sem. plunges the spectators into a universe inspired by a structure where the cutting up of time defines all activities for those who occupy it. Who are these persons ? Between their determined course and their own aspirations, incertainty and fragility, through which states and emotions will they go through ? This questioning, confrontation and will to distinguish individuals from a climate of anonymity are the points of departure for the two choreographers and 11 dancers. This choreography is constructed on the interior worlds of the dancers, each one bringing different colours and emotions to it. The structure in which they find themselves becomes a puzzle of intimate urges to share.
Avi Kaiser
The Israeli-born choreographer Avi Kaiser, who has lived in Germany for several years, started his career as a dancer. Among other companies, he danced with the Batsheva Dance Company together with Glen Tetly and Kurt Ross. Since 1991, Kaiser has worked with the choreographer Suzanne Linke. Kaiser is a frequent contributor to companies from many countries, including Israel, Belgium, Senegal, Poland, and Italy. His pieces always reflect the special character of a place and its people. Since August 2002, Avi Kaiser and Sergio Antonino have co-directed The Roof, a dance centre in Duisburg, Germany, which is dedicated to dance and its encounters with other art forms. Avi Kaiser is also a guest professor at several dance institutes and universities, such as the Dance Academies of Rotterdam and Tilburg, both in the Netherlands, the Wim Vandekeybus Company, and the Centre Choréographique de Grenoble, France, where Jean- Claude Gallotta is the director. In the fall of 2005, Kaiser taught classes at R.Q.M., and in 2006, he choreographed Donizetti’s’ opera La Favorite at the opera Zurich, Switzerland, conducted by Marc Minkowski.
Sergio Antonino
The Italian-born Antonino has also made Germany his second home, after graduating in dance from the Academy of Dramatic Art Paolo Grassi in Milan, Italy, in 2001, and receiving the first price for Sulla Schiena at the Sakharoff competition in Vicenza. During his studies, Antonino met Suzanne Linke. In 2004, he co-produced Assagie di potere with Suzanne Linke and Avi Kaiser for the central European festival Cividale del Friuli. Antonino has also worked as a choreographer for theatre productions, namely Omaggio a Goffredo Petrassi directed by Giorgio Marini, which was put on stage at La Fenice in Venice in 2004. In June 2005, Antonino presented his production Millimetri at the dance biennale in Venice. Since 2002, Antonino and Avi Kaiser have been co-directing The Roof dance centre in Duisburg while maintaining a close artistic collaboration. Their latest co-production PIYUT will premiere on May 25, 2008 at the Reggio Emilia Danza (RED) Festival in Italy.
The Goethe-Institut
In this project the Goethe-Institut, a long-standing partner of Avi Kaiser and Sergio Antonino, collaborated with UQAM’s dance department. The project was concluded with a panel discussion on “The creative process and the meaning of dance theatre today” which was organized by the Goethe-Institut and included Avi Kaiser, Sergio Antonino and other representatives of the contemporary dance scene.
4 fois / sem premiered on december 14 2005 at l'Agora de la Danse, Montreal.
