Making of Less might be more, but sometimes less is just nothing

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In November, CNDB is presenting online 9 video productions that accompany each of the performances that resulted from Dance me to the End of… (exercises, distances, proximities) – a program whereby ten guest choreographers worked along with the first generation of students from The CNDB Academy of Dance and Performance.

Jan Burkhardt (DE) and Sigal Zouk (ISR), Mădălina Dan, Simona Deaconescu, Farid Fairuz, Eduard Gabia, Andreea Novac, Manuel Pelmuș, Willy Prager (BG) and Vava Ștefănescu – were invited by CNDB to revisit well-known works of theirs which, in their time, wrote history in Romanian contemporary dance.

The choreographers worked together with the students from The CNDB Academy of Dance and Performance to bring back to stage the older works, but also to propose new ones. After a year of courses and workshops, the formed teams went through an intensive process of practice and live presentation.

The whole process was documented by Bogdana Pascal, video artist and TVR producer. Throughout November, CNDB will broadcast these video productions via live streaming on Facebook.

The nine video productions capture Dance me to the End of… (exercises, distances, proximities) in its essence: the revisitation of recent Romanian contemporary dance history as an exercise in training the new generation of dancers and performers.

Through interviews with artists, rehearsals recordings and excerpts from the original nine shows, the documentaries presented by CNDB invite you to discover the collective and personal efforts behind Dance me to the End of… (exercises, distances, closeness) – the program through which a new generation of artists is making their debut right in the middle of a pandemic.

LESS MIGHT BE MORE, BUT SOMETIMES LESS IS JUST NOTHING – by Willy Prager

Inspired by Zoom, a Spanish disco band from the ‘70s, this work is at the intersection of visual art and disco dance culture. A performance in which the choreographer of Bulgarian origin, Willy Prager, is interested in the processes of transformation in the context of social, political, economic and cultural changes.

For this performance, we developed a working method based on procedures for translating and reformulating a pre-existing performance material.

Before COVID-19, the development of contemporary art followed the principle of modernity – a “less is more” approach. Restrictions in recent months, less communication, fewer meetings, less dancing, less participation, less protests, less socialisation, less interaction, less interpretations, less criticism, less demonstrations, fewer participants, less of… makes the performance question this thesis and explores whether less is still more or nothing. (Willy Prager)

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The facebook event where you can watch this video production is available here.