matruska

DOLLS INSIDE DOLLS

 

MATRUSKA (Russian Dolls) is a contemporary dance-theater play that discusses the issues and needs of contemporary women from different angles. Matruska (the Russian doll) is a metaphor for the countless intimate drawers we find in the feminine sphere. It is, as well, a collection of different aspects and identities that coexist inside the same person. Matruska shows a woman, who seeks to engage in a posthumous flight to rise up towards her future whilst guiding herself through a desperate need to find and reveal her own identity. In opposition to a linear structure, we employ a dramaturgy that is made up of a series of episodes or fragments (similar to an impressionist structure), resulting in the notion of infinity. The episodes are born from daily activities, both private and social, and lead to a barrage of physical and emotional actions ensuing an image of a provocative eclecticism. The feminine point of view, we believe, provides us an ideal take on matters affecting us all; uncertainty, the frustration and absurdity of the everyday routine, violence, the fear of getting to know ourselves, emotional instability, and life itself are discussed through various identities and fragments, represented by three female performers.

 

INTRODUCTION

 

Matruska is a contemporary dance play with a theatrical dramaturgy that is based on a hybridization process typical of the post-modern sensibility and it brings together the borders between theatre, dance, clowning, pantomime, music and fine arts. The goal is to synthesize those disciplines, trying to find a new language in the most pure and sober form possible.

In opposition to a linear structure, it is essential to create a dramaturgy made up of a series of episodes or fragments (similar to an impressionist structure), giving the feeling of them being infinite. These episodes are born from daily activities, both private and social, cause a barrage of physical and emotional actions and give an image of a provocative eclecticism.

The play raises world issues and the needs of contemporary women considered from different angles; emphasizing the richness and variety of points of view and the originality of new approaches. We consider that women’s point of view is ideal for talking about matters which affect us all: the everyday frustrations, the violence, the fear of knowing ourselves and going further with our lives —many times based on the uncertainty and on an absurd routine which just aspires to survival— and the emotional disorders which are the consequence of contemporary world.

Russian Dolls is a metaphor of the countless intimate drawers that we could find in the feminine sphere; a collection of different aspects and identities which coexist inside the same person, represented by three female dancers that unify that reality.

Matruska shows a woman, immersed in her own struggle to find her identity, and for this reason, she decides to rise in posthumous flight and soar up towards her future. This flight will guide her through the boost that comes from a desperate need of reveal what is inside of her. To understand her identity, she has to accept all its various aspects and adapt to their constant changes in a sort of ritual which allows her a never-ending evolution.

 

DRAMATURGY OF THE MOVEMENT

 

The submerged identity

 

A woman who lives an identity crisis, a vital conflict of communication within herself, feels a weight on her which does not allow her to move in freedom. Finding strength in her weakness, she decides get rid of that weight and starts to search inside herself to find out who she is. Step by step, she will find some aspects of her personality, one inside the other; some of them contradictory, some complementary in a journey that could take the rest of her life, making her live ceaseless evolution.

 

The divided identity

 

To go deeper into that search and explore in detail all its sides, that woman divides (splits) into three, multiplying herself and creating images from herself which can interact with each other. To convey this, we rely on three female dancers. The three of them are, actually, the same woman who starts that trip into herself; but in this way we can portray on the stage all her inner conflicts, all her contradictions and all the aspects of her mood. This will provide us with a variety of possibilities.

 

A weight that becomes a posthumous flight

 

Posthumous originally means “after buried”. Our woman is under an indeterminate but annoying weight and is completely subject to it. That weight prevents her from making any kind of movement, which for her, means she will not be able to express herself. She is locked. She is buried. Thanks to a strong effort, she manages to rise from under the weight and take flight – a flight which tries to take her out of that state, a posthumous flight, which may also be the last one she makes.

 

A ritual of Russian Dolls

 

After creating a bridge of communication with herself through a letter whose content we know very little of. She starts to examine her identity, “opening” one of its aspects which she will explore with the conventions of a ritual (that is, through a series of actions mainly developed because of their symbolical value. However, she will on her own give concrete meaning to those symbols).The most important characteristic of this ritual is that aspects of her identity are found one inside the other, like the Russian Dolls – everyone of them contains another one.

 

The research through the movement                   

 

Once the flight has just started, the woman elaborates on the ritual based on the movement. Now the explorations of several technical languages which in principle belong to different disciplines of the stage arts appear. Contemporary Dance Techniques (some of them from quite varied origins and not always giving the same results), Pantomime (a language which codifies gesture poetically), Clowning (which gives free rein to the expression and the production of a personal and visceral style of movement) and the world of Body Expression which comes from the training for theatre actors and gives never ending possibilities of meaning. We rule none of them out and to avoid empty or poor eclecticism or a simple collage, we will look for a common language which can be used in the whole show, including and reconciling all the others and giving coherence to them. Each of those languages or techniques is a Russian Doll which contains another one inside it as well, and so on. The result is a language made-to-measure and suitable for Matruska.

 

The daily (everyday) catastrophe

 

This is one of the elements which appear in the ritual – the failure and daily pain that come from the simplest elements which surround us, the provocation caused by the things that happened to our dancer and apparently do not have special importance.

 

AESTHETIC ASPECTS OF THE DRAMATURGY

 

The poetry of detail

 

This refers to the importance of the little details, every one of them full of extremely significant meaning .An incessant succession of tiny actions will help her to understand all that happened in her search and give a true sense to the whole process.

 

The object as a destabilizing element

 

The treatment of the daily objects, which can be recognize easily by their frequent use, suddenly become something else; and jump into a disturbing dimension, finding new meanings and obtaining a new symbolical perspective within the limits of the dramaturgy.

 

Gradient (degrade) and chiaroscuro

 

Use of these concepts as painting techniques will enhance the subject and character of the play, just like the aesthetics of the action. A succession of tones between two points highlights the complete range of possibilities created to move from one to the other, and at the same time provide the dramatic contrast between the illuminated and the cast shadow over volumes (with the aim of stressing some elements more effectively by isolating them from the whole and contrasting each).

 

The humour as a contrast

 

We are not going to cut the humour from our show. On the contrary, we will develop it and give it an important function. It is present in all vital paths and, of course, it will be present in our first dancer as well. Humour will lighten some serious moments and give them another dimension; relieve the tension of other moments or just become the objective of some scenes which will cater for the game and the pleasure.

 

SCENES or FRAGMENTS

 

I.

Posthumus flight

II.

Letter to a dancer

III.

Dance of Forks

IV.

Personal Hygiene

V.

Submission

VI.

Suicide

VII.

Ceremony of Crying

VIII.

Penis envy

IX.

Little winter variety

 

PHOTO GALLERIES

 

Openning Night in Millenaris Teatrum with Kopeczny Kata & Dombi Katalin

Opening Night in Gödör Táncterem with Erika Méndez

Opening Night in Bakelit Multi Art Center with Kulcsár Vajda Enikő, Hucker Kata & Fülöp Ágnes

Opening Night in Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid with Fülöp Ágnes & Tóth Karolina