Planning for an interview with Swiss choreographer Nicole Seiler I watched a DVD of Ningyo — a startling work of beauty due for inclusion in the upcoming New Dance Festival.
The word “Ningyo” is Japanese for mermaid, but this is not to suggest that the work fits into the same cultural landscape as Disney’s ambitious little underwater urchin.
However, in the creative process one gets the feeling that Seiler actually acknowledges the irony of making her mermaid into an austere creature, beautiful and serene, like a social outcast trapped at a party around a swimming pool.
This is not only because there is an actual pool onstage, but also because there is an actual DJ next to it. What we have is the image of lone female figure, writhing and contorting into exquisite shapes and patterns to a sound derived from goodtime house music.
The work is due to be performed in South Africa by the seriously talented Korean Young Soon Cho, and its beauty is amplified by the inclusion of Selier’s mysterious video art creating a waterscape of undefined dimensions.
The Mail & Guardian spoke to Seiler on the telephone while she was driving in the vicinity of Bloemfontein.
I’ve seen the DVD of the work Ningyo and it is very beautiful. I am eager to see the piece in real life because it’s probably going to be even more beautiful in the flesh. What have you been doing since you arrived in South Africa?
We got here on Monday — we are in Bloemfontein and we had our first show last night. We’re going to perform tonight again and we’re going to drive to Johannesburg tomorrow.
The reception and the hospitality have been great. The people at the [Sand du Plessis] theatre are beautiful. The public was half-half. One half really loved it and the other half didn’t know what to do with it. It’s not like a piece they see every day — these multimedia productions are not something you see a lot of around here I guess.
Were you told that you are going into an area where international contemporary dance is seldom seen?
I knew. And I find that interesting because people are open, they’re not closed-minded. It’s a nice experience even though I felt that for some of them it has been a total culture shock, but not in a bad way, if you know what I mean.
Yes, people don’t have a positive view of the Free State province. It’s seen as a bit of a backwoods. So it’s probably important that this kind of work is getting to them. Moving on to the actual piece, Ningyo: do you lament the fact that human beings are no longer water creatures?
Not at all. I think what’s nice about the mermaid legend is that you can find it in so many different cultures — it’s like a national figure. What I like about it is that you have this half-human, half-animal figure, a water creature that evokes the fear of sailors of the unknown.
Is the purpose of having the turntables onstage to bridge the gap between formal and informal dance?
For me it was a link with this old legend, this ethnic thing to the today world. The fact of having the water next to electricity brought about a tension — I liked that.
You seem to use or treat the dancer as an ideal being. Is it true that you play with abilities more than inabilities? Does the dancer have to be a perfect being for you?
No, I don’t think so. What we played with in the mermaid piece, especially in the second part when she puts on a blonde wig and white underwear, is more a translation of what Walt Disney did with the mermaid story.
The fact is, in our collective memory we have the Hollywood picture and not the real picture. In the original legend the mermaid was not beautiful. They were dangerous. They were more animal than beautiful women.
Do women in European contemporary dance occupy an entirely different place to men or do you see them as equal signifiers?
Completely equal.
So through your work you are not making some sort of feminist statement?
Not at all. I’ve been working a lot with women dancers, but more because I am a woman and I am looking at the world through a woman’s eyes. But it’s not like a statement; it’s just a personal thing. I’m female and that’s how I’m watching the world.
But it seems, through this piece, that you are talking about disconnectedness rather than a connectedness. But I don’t want to project meaning on to your work if it’s not there.
Disconnected from what? The world?
Yes. She seems slightly alone, alienated.
That’s more in relation to the figure of the mermaid I guess. Mermaids were always lonely, in all the stories they are isolated. When they try to live with humans they cannot really manage. It’s according to that.
Then you would try to resist universalising the mermaid as the everywoman figure. You want to keep it specific to the piece.
Yes.
What happens in the street performance titled K Two that you will be doing in Pretoria as part of the Capital Arts Festival?
It’s a performance using a character that came out of my first solo that I created in 2004, that I performed in Johannesburg in 2006. It’s a character close to video figures, a Lara Croft type of character.
We created the character for a tour of Italy and I doubled her and now there are two characters exactly the same and they are moving like animated video game figures. It’s been put into a street context because the life around is so real and then you have the two figures that are computer figures in a way.
Do you think it is important to bring European dance out of its context?
I think it is, but not every piece is good for that. It needs to be work that can be understood. If it’s too far from people’s habits then it’s probably not fulfilling its purpose as a touring work.
Would you ever collaborate with African dancers?
I’ve been asked that a lot and it’s difficult to say. It might happen through meetings and workshops, but whomever you collaborate with, there has to be a connection — and you can’t force that to happen.
This weekend the New Dance Festival kicks off at the Dance Factory with Sello Pessa’s Totems and Mozambican Maria Helen Pinto’s Mar Vermelho on August 21 and 22, as well as Gregory Maqoma’s Skeleton Dry at Wits Theatre on the same dates. Ningyo will show at the Dance Factory, President Street, in Newtown on August 24 and 25.
Also at Wits Theatre on August 26 and 27 the Sicilian troupe Compagnia Zappala will perform a contemporary adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.
Selier will also present a street art performance as part of the Capital Arts Theatre outside the State Theatre on August 28.
For a full programme go to www.artslink.co.za/arts or Tel: 011 492 0709.