La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club presents a dance performance of Nela Kornetová during its Dance Festival 2023. The performance "Forced Beauty" of Czech-Danish duo Nela H. Kornetová – Lærke Grøntved was created in 2016 by T.I.T.S. Performance Group.
The performance Forced beauty is not for everyone. It is an extremely physical performance about violence, nudity, pain and terrifying awe. The authors write about it: "Two Women - Two bodies circulate around each other in a dense atmosphere accompanied by refined sound. How bloody will this 'Bloody Mary' be?" The production and its theme are characterized: "Performance Forced Beauty is inspired by the (re) presentation of violence in our daily lives and power structures in relationships. T.I.T.S. confront their fascination with violence while working both "with" and "against" clichés of femininity. They also explore mirror neurons in the human brain that are closely linked to the viewer's ability to exercise physical empathy... It's about obscenity and disgust in and around us."
La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival '23 will take place on April 6–30, 2023. More information here.
Further information about Forced Beauty in La Mama here.
"There's a piece of surrealistic poetry and many splashes of pain and horror. However, it is by no means an end in itself or even a self-inhibition of performers. It is a conscious, thoughtful performative attack, precisely controlled and structured production with plenty of layers and tones not only of physical theater but also of the theater of objects, technology, and work with light, music, words, sounds, and with space. It felt as if you were rushing through a wild river and not paddling or as if you would put on the terrifying machine while standing inside of it. A lot of objects are scooping around you, sounds and claws, and you have to concentrate fully to survive.
It's not for everyone. Someone must - at least occasionally - close their eyes (I put my hand in front of my face a few times), cover my ears, turn around, or run away. There were those who laughed… As if you were in front of the paintings of Jiří Sozanský as if you were at a concert of early, industrial Einstürzende Neubauten as if you were flipping through a book full of pictures of war or murderous torture as if you were witnessing mud fights or SM violence. However, you know that it is a play, that it is a conscious and controlled performance, which makes it possible to perceive events as a message, as a powerful emotional and intellectual experience that opens up the gates to ourselves. We, human beings, us, human society. After all, the pain and violence that performers perform (or illustrate, or show off) for this performance and for us are not happening to them or to us here, but it is happening in front of us, happening to all of us. We are living in it. We read about it in the newspapers, we watch it in the news. This production - like the creation of Nela H. Kornetová and the performance group T.I.T.S. - roars and gazes into the depths of body and mind. It exposes the skin, it bleeds and it hurts. It roars."
Nela Kornetová (and her project T.I.T.S.) has been part of contemporary performing arts in our country for a long time. In 2015, she brought (together with Juli Apponen) the performance Trumpets in the Sky to the Archa Theater at the Malá Inventura festival, and the same year she performed solo at the 4+4 days in motion festival, and then in 2016 at the ...prístí vlna/next wave... festival My Own Private Picture. Last year, at the 4+4 days in motion festival, she and several Czech dancers prepared a multi-hour long continuous performance un:tit:led, and this year she performed semi-improvised performances Mine and Cult of Busy several times with T.I.T.S in Studio Alta. It is obvious that a distinct personality of the Czech, and thus the European performance scene, was born, uncompromisingly and courageously working with raw physicality and archetypal drive. Aware of the aggressiveness of the current world and human beings as such, he crosses the threshold of pain and enters the horrors of the subconscious. Since the time of butoh dancers, since the time of Děrev or Tanaka, since the solo performances of Alex Švamberk, there has not been such a distinguished personality here.
T.I.T.S. Performance Group – Nela H. Kornetová: Forced Beauty. Concept, choreography, performer Nela H. Kornetová (CZ/NOR), choreography, performer Lærke Grøntved (DK), scenography, light design, effects Heidi Dalene (NOR), scenography, light design Ann Sofie Godø (NOR), video design, graphics Jan Hajdelak Husták (CZ/NOR), sound design Jonas Qvale (NOR), dramaturgical collaboration Mariann Hansen (FO) and Juli Apponen (SWE/FIN). Premiere 21 April 2016, Blå Grotte, Fredrikstad, Norway.
(Texts provided by Nela Kornetová.)
