Bitef

EXPLORINGTHE FRONTIERS

The title of the new production by the choreographer Dalija Acin is quite appropriate and accurate: it can be taken literally, as an instruction or, more precisely, as a warning how to approach this work of art. And indeed, Handle With Great Care requires a very dedicated and patient observer, one who will follow its deliberately and pointedly slow rhythm without a grumble, who will not read explicit and transparent "global metaphors" into her highly abstract, anti-narrative and anti-mimetic structure ... To forestali the Situation of"a bull in a china shop" one should perhaps begin thè analysis of this production from the most obvious: the description of the picture. The concept of space (also undersigned by Dalija Acin) is extremely minimalist: only a humble ceiling lamp, like those in an interrogator's room or a factory, describes a feeble circle of light in an indefinitely wide field of darkness, with a big old mattress dominating in the circle. On the mattress we see two iemale bodies (Ana Ignjatovicand Dalija Acin herseif) which are considerably"deconstructed"by thè chiaroscuro play because some of their parts are always in the darkness - their faces in the first place. These bodies create an impression of a reflection or a duplicate because they are dressed identically - black leotards, short black skirts and identical, funny and big pseudo-historical wigs, and they take an identical position on the mattress. The movements they slowly begin to make are very soft and delicate: never leaving the mattress, the two bodies literally slide in different directions, along its surfaces and edges. Now and then they slide to thefloor and continue, in a very unusual pose, with legs raised atthe knees, to slide towards the washed brims ofthe circle of light; then they begin to resemble some stränge insects oran undefined mass which has burst its banks. These Choreographie elements are performed over and over again creating - although the repetition does not involve any particular regularity- thè effect of repetitiveness.The deliberate absence of evolution and dynamics isadditionally marked by an extremely minimalist, monotonous sound like the rumble of a machine through which, rarely and barely audibly, penetrate distant echoes of classical melodies (excellent"music" by Rastko Lazic). A hasty observer, incited by such'Vhythmic qualities"and evident lackof a narrative and mimetic structure, might deny even thè existence of any dramaturgy in this production. Apart from the fact that the repetitiveness is a dramaturgical principie in itself, there is in thè production a markedly present a driving element (dramaturge Sasa Bozic): it takes the form of high-heeled ladies' shoes which stand on the edge ofthe circle of light and keep eloquently announcing - the Event. Personally, I was confidentthat here we would have the dramaturgical effect of "a false lead"butthe shoes truly set to dance. In thè end Dalija Acin puts them on, Stands upright and thereby establishes an angle completely different from the one that predominated earlier-the horizontal, sliding and creeping immersion in the space.The Substitution ofthe vertical for the horizontal acts as a plástic distancing from everything already seen and experienced, as the"philosophical distance"and comment. One can easily conclude from this analysis that thè dance production Handle With Great Care is markedly conceptual, that its structure is very open and abstract and, as it has already been said, that one shouldn't read into it some final and explicit meanings. Nonetheless, this does not go to say that it is not associative and evocative; quite the reverse; this production sets forcefully in motion our intellectual and emotional apparatus. In this kind of theatre these mental and emotional reactions are quite personal but it seems to me nonetheless that they reveal the social and psychological categories less than the philosophical ones. Or, translated into Serbian: reading of social and psychological relations from the movements of these two iemale bodies (ofthe "absence of com munication "type) would be too illustrative, not to say trite in relation to the possible Interpretation of this choreography as an (philosophical) exploration ofthe frontiers of existence, the primal source from which everything emerges, human potentials and limitations, existence versus nothingness, different Individuation processes... True, no matter how hard you try to "handle with great care", as soon as you succumb to the linguistic shaping of thoughts and feelings which such an abstract and conceptual piece provokes, you are risking the descent into banality. One should therefore fall silent and surrender to the personal experience of this very daring, radical, analytical and exciting production performed on the New Stage ofthe Beigrade DramaTheatre.

Ivan Medenica