2023-07-14 14:41:04
The icon of postmodern dance came to Impulstanz from New York: “We don’t have a message, because we don’t preach.”
Lucinda Childs is a doyenne of postmodern dance. And she’s sort of his archivist. The 83-year-old New Yorker keeps her works and repeatedly brings them to stages around the world. With “Concerto” one of her pieces was shown for the first time in 2022 at the Vienna State Opera. That’s important, says Childs in an interview with “Press”. Otherwise, your works might be lost or even forgotten in the end. Because nothing is as fleeting as dance. Childs wrote everything down, made films and photos. So that her pieces are not forgotten even following her death, she is in the process of preserving them in such a way that they can also be rehearsed by others.
When Childs shows one of their newest creations – as is currently the case at the Impulstanz Festival – it can well be that you feel like you are on a journey through time. In the case of “Relative Calm”, for example, her latest collaboration with Robert Wilson, it was a journey into the 1980s. The two-part evening “Distant Figure” follows on Sunday. A premiere included. Again with music by Philip Glass, whom Childs met and came to love during her first collaboration with Wilson in the 1976 premiere of the opera Einstein on the Beach.
„Queen of Minimalism“
Originally, she didn’t care that much regarding music. “I came from an experimental group and preferred alternative venues like rooftops or churches. But when Wilson came along with Philip Glass, that changed everything,” says Childs, who, as the “Queen of Minimalism,” has collaborated with the composer on and off ever since. A few years following they first met, “Dance” was created in 1979, one of their most successful works. When Glass celebrated his 85th birthday last year, Childs was invited to choreograph a piece to one of his piano etudes: “4 Etudes by Philip Glass” will be shown on Sunday.
Childs, who began her career in 1963 at the legendary New York Judson Dance Theater and founded her own company ten years later, will be on stage once more on Sunday, in a twenty-minute solo to a text by Susan Sontag: “She has herself it deals with a diary entry by Friedrich Nietzsche.” It’s regarding a man who collapses on the street.
A solo with Susan Sontag
“Susan Sontag’s text is very unusual. And beautiful,” says Childs. She also met the writer personally. “I told her: That would be a great play. I like doing theatre, too.” It became a solo that premiered in 2020 and has only been shown a few times since then – in New York, Paris, Italy. From Sunday, “Description (of a Description)” can now be experienced in Vienna.
With her long career, Childs has fulfilled a childhood dream. “I wanted to be an actress since I was a little girl. Then I saw Merce Cunningham and I just danced, danced, danced.” She loves to perform: “You can express something with your body that you can’t say verbally. It is very personal.” This art form in particular suffered greatly from the pandemic. “The dance scene is slow to recover. It takes time to get the audience back to the theater.” When all the events were canceled and direct contact was difficult, she also looked at a few things on the Internet. She wasn’t satisfied with that: “A performance has to take place in front of an audience. She must be alive. Live. Three-dimensional.”
“Trump wasn’t helpful”
Childs has already created more than 50 works in her long career without pursuing an agenda. It’s regarding aesthetics. For pure dance. “We don’t have a message because we don’t preach. We are not political, we express our joy for this art form, which we want to protect and share.” Even if there is enough freedom for art in her homeland, the USA, it is very difficult to raise enough money. “It is especially difficult for the performing arts. Donald Trump has not been helpful.”
Since 1992 Childs has also been involved with operas, as a choreographer (e.g. for Luc Bondy’s production of “Salome” at the Salzburg Festival), and most recently as a director. She has planned a project in Nice for next year. The composer? Philip Glass, of course. Then Childs is 84 years old. Doesn’t she want to retire? “I’m privileged. Healthy and happy. Except for the jet lag, I also like traveling. So no.”
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