Outcome

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The National Dance Center Bucharest announces the second representation from the Dance me to the End of… program, in which revisiting the recent history of the Romanian contemporary dance becomes an exercise and practice for the development of the National Center for Dance Bucharest’s Academy of Dance and Performance.

Outcome, Manuel Pelmuș’s work, opening during the 2001 edition of the BucurEști West International Dance Festival, organized by the “DCM Project” Foundation, is one of the most daring choreographic works of the early 2000 Romanian contemporary dance scene. Outcome was viewed  as a short circuit, a shock, which, for many of the young choreographers of the time, led to a break of the French dance aesthetics, which had a strong influence on Romanian choreography following the “La Danse en Voyage” project, organized in Bucharest in the early ‘90s

Manuel Pelmuș’s work appeared in the context of a small but active contemporary dance community in Bucharest, which at that time was just forming and positioning itself. Many of the young Romanian choreographers of the time start travelling, presenting their works at international festivals, take part in research labs, are invited for artistic residencies and come in contact with the international scene, identifying with the ideas and practices of the “new european wave”. 

The European contemporary dance of that time was undergoing a process of innovation by questioning  the potential of choreography to view the human body in political and social terms, coming closer to the legacy of the experimental and radical dance from the ‘60s and ‘70s. The book No Wind No Word published in 2001 by the critic Helmut Ploebst can be regarded as the first overview of the new generation in West European dance history. Emio Greco, João Fiadeiro, Vera Mantero, Boris Charmatz, Jérôme Bel, Xavier Le Roy, Raimund Hoghe, Maria La Ribot and Benoît Lachambre are but few of the choreographers about whom Ploebst asserts that they launch political discourses that transpire through the staging and contextualizing of the body, in the thematic location of their subject, in the analysis, in the texture of the work or in the various cooperation methods or even economic strategies.

Nowadays, 19 years after the opening night, Manuel Pelmuș comments:

“I see it as an attempt to overcome certain limits about what I learned and understood about dance up to that point, as an answer to the international trends of the “new European dance” present in that period. Locally, I think there is an openness towards new forms of artistic expression and thought, like the new Romanian wave in cinematography, but also in visual arts or in the semi-institutional realm, through the a emergence of new, independent art constructs, a desire to invent and build new spaces for artistic research, like The National Dance Center Bucharest, and for another kind of political and civic consciousness, in the forming and affirmation process during the beginning of the new century in Romania”.

Regarding the relationship between this body of work and other signed by him, Manuel Pelmuș considers that this is the first piece that debates what choreography means for him, the body’s standing in society, artistic and political influences, all in which “a manner of choreographic thinking materializes, closer to the performance of visual arts and certain conceptual searches in choreography”. The artists talks about Outcome as a work that informed and influences everything he did afterwards, even if in different forms or setups:

“Outcome started a form of critical reflection towards the means of artistic production and the conventions and context in which they take place” (Manuel Pelmuș)

The work came to be as an echo of the artists closeness to the new European dance wave of the time. Besides taking part in international workshops and festivals,  Manuel Pelmuș wanted to understand what changes took place in the choreographic discourse of that time. Outcome was internationally noticed and included in a multitude of European festivals.

“Outcome became an echo of these interests, when a young generation of dancers and choreography became noticed in Bucharest, building new spaces, a new kind of artistic discourse, and I wanted to be a part of this new wave, alongside artists showing great promise and generosity.” (Manuel Pelmuș, 2020)

During the process of creating the original piece, Manuel Pelmuș worked alongside artist Eduard Gabia, the performer who is by his side today, handing over the baton to the young dancer Filip Stoica, the star of the new version of the work. 

“The main merit (if not all of it) for the work is Eduard Gabia’s. We were friends and, one day, I told him about my idea. Edi was very open and pervious, he fully understood the artistic proposal, even if the concept was quite uncommon for him, but for me as well. What followed was a period of rehearsals and discussions, during which the piece evolved naturally, supported also by Edi excellent performance abilities. It was not a working process in the traditional sense, one in which I showed some moves and he tried to do them as well as he could. It was more of a process of accumulation, in which we fed each other ideas and feelings, adding movement details as we went along, and finally everything came together as Outcome. I remember that we talked about the relationship between object and subject, between presence and expression, between body and context.” (Manuel Pelmuș, 2020)

Considering the legal requirements for preventing CO-VID19, regarding the maximum number of participants to a public event, participation to this event will be possible only by invitation, the final selection being done by the artistic team.