Tilman O'Donnell

THE VIEW FROM HERE

CHOREOGRAPHY:

Tilman O’Donnell

SOUND DESIGN & COMPOSITION

Dehendrik Lechat Willekens

LIGHTING DESIGN

Thomas Zamolo

PERFORMERS

Maria Pilar Abaurrea Zardoya, Matthew Branham, Kit Brown, Samuel Denton, Laura Lohi, Yiorgos Pelagias, Kristian Refslund

REHEARSAL DIRECTOR

Mattias Suneson

PRODUCTION:

Leonie Wichmann

A special thank you to Jenny Nordberg

PROGRAM NOTES:

When I was growing up my uncle used to send me SX-70 Polaroid photos in the mail. The images were from his travels as a film worker in Hollywood, and depicted everything from elaborate film sets to the anonymity of hotel room doors, or the view of an empty street corner in a small town where he was on location.

On the backs of these photos he would write a short note of what he saw and where he was. Always with the heading: The View From Here.

This dance is inspired by these snapshots into other places, both fantastical and simple, and the gift of receiving a one of a kind, momentary account of another person.

’The View From Here’ is a community of performers that hear, that see, that move, that pause. Dancing with and between utilitarian rehearsal wings (the simplest of theater technologies) the performers cover and reveal, refract and defer.

The musicality of these entrances and exits is captured in real time, via microphone, and woven into a sound score. The continuity in sound juxtaposed with the dis- appearance and reorganization of each visual scene underscores a continuity of discontinuity. That our meanderings, our comings and goings, define us more vibrantly than a fixed linear notion of self and other.

’The View From Here’ is a meditation on these procedures of change - corporeal, spatial, temporal, and sonic.

It is a series Polaroids to my uncle, and to all of you.

What if the “greats” of history weren’t really the people whose names everyone knows today? Are losers only losers because they were never in the right place at the right time? Would we have ever discovered gravity if Newton had been hit on the head by a brick rather than an apple? Plato was incredibly smart but in a shoot-out with Jesse James there would only have been one winner. What use is being a genius?

American/German/Swedish/Israeli multidisciplinary artists David Kern, Tamar Lamm, and Tilman O’Donnell have created a mixture of satire, concert and competitive hoedown featuring such famous historical figures as Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein, Joan of Arc, Socrates, Maria Callas, Abraham Lincoln and Sigmund Freud.

Premiere Weld, Stockholm January 31st 2020.

By & With: David Kern, Tilman O’Donnell, Tamar Lamm

Lights: Thomas Zamolo

The Corpus Dogme project was spearheaded by Corpus artistic director Tim Matiakis. A series of rules were ascribed to a designer (Jenny Nordberg) and two choreographers, of which Tilman O’Donnell was one.

Program notes:

Inspired by Jean-Luc Nancy’s book The Pleasure in Drawing, the work defers to the careful and meticulous act of drawing (drawing out, drawing toward, drawing through) to trace the contours of how form is formed.

The Dogma rules anchor and divert the work, in equal measure. The crystalline sets, lights, and costumes invite performer and spectator alike to contemplate the periphery, to wonder at and chart the shadows and the margins, and not solely center stage.

“...in general drawing / design (dess[e]ein in both senses) constitutes a way of placing itself in contact with the formation of the form (of the thing, the thought, the emotion).. [...] Little by little, what is at stake each time is nothing less than: how does the world form itself and how am I allowed to embrace its movement?”

- Jean - Luc Nancy The Pleasure in Drawing

Choreographer: Tilman O’Donnell

Set, costumes, props, light cues: Jenny Nordberg

Dancers: Alexander Stæger, Hazuki Kojima, Louella May Hogan, Alma Toaspern, Marco Herløv Høst

Playlist, prologue: Mitja Nylund

Dramaturgical consultant: Tanja Diers

Light & stage: Kasper Riisberg

Sound design & sound engineer: Jonas Jensen Costumier: Annette Nørgaard

Props: Mikkel Rasmus Theut

Production manager: Per Uffelmann

Production assistant: Luna Stage

Intern: Lara Ostan Vejrup

Artistic process consultant, Corpus: Marie Haugsted Mors Creative producer, Corpus: Eva Steen Nordhagen

Artistic director, Corpus: Tim Matiakis

Filmed by: Luna Stage

Trailer Edited by: AdeY

In Some Sense, the latest full length collaboration between dancer/choreographer Tilman O’Donnell (USA/GER/SWE) and musician/composer Mikkel Ploug (DK) follows the contours of a lecture by French philosopher Alain Badiou entitled From Logic To Anthropology, rendering its key concepts as musical score and choreographic inquiry. 

Badiou’s speech patterns are uniquely musical, lending themselves to compositional exploration. The rhythm of his ideas inform the piece’s choreographic structure and embodied action.

Part lecture, part concert, part dance performance, In Some Sense navigates the overlapping territory of given forms - music, dance, language, and philosophy.

Concept & Design: Tilman O’Donnell & Mikkel Ploug

Choreography: Tilman O’Donnell

Musical Composition: Mikkel Ploug 

Lighting Design: Thomas Zamolo 

Film: T.M. Rives

Funded by the Danish Cultural Ministry & produced by Bora Bora Theater, Århus, Denmark.

Supported through residencies at PACT Zollverein, Essen Germany & a studio grant at Konstnärsnämndens Studio, Stockholm Sweden.

In Life & Love & So On follows the contours of a lecture by French philosopher Alain Badiou, From Logic To Anthropology.

The lecture provides the material for the dancers and informs the piece’s structure. 

As an example of the concept of negation, the proposed Danish canonization of artistic fields by rightwing political parties is parodied in a film.

Part orchestra, part chorus, part corps de ballet In Life & Love & So On examines how dance and choreography can engage us in a different form. 

A simple inversion.

Choreography, Costume, Set, Light, Score:

Tilman O'Donnell

Text:

Alain Badiou /Tilman O’Donnell

Film:

T.M. Rives

Commissioned by:

Corpus/Royal Theater, Copenhagen Denmark

Whatever Singularity #453: Solo for Tilman / Dancing with Alain follows the same structure as the solo created for Maxime Lachaume, danced by Tilman O'Donnell. 

Performed at Nordwind Festival, 2015. 

Festspielhaus Hellerau, Dresden

Kampnagel, Hamburg

Ca 20min

Whatever Singularity #453: Solo For Maxime / Dancing With Alain was conceived for dancer Maxime Lachaume as a duet with a film of French philosopher Alain Badiou's lecture From Logic To Anthropology, or Affirmative Dialectics (2012).

Single performance or loop.

Concept / Direction / Sets / Lights / Film Editing:

Tilman O'Donnell

Performance:

Maxime Lauchaume

Commissioned & Produced by:

Göteborgs Operans Danskompani

The Whatever Marathon is a two day performance created by Cyril Baldy and Tilman O'Donnell. 

20 minutes modules are performed back to back. 

Originally performed at the Centre Choreographique Circuit-Est, Montreal Canada. 

Guest artists:

Jacob Wren

Benoit Tardieff

Hanako Hoshimi-Caines

Adam Kinner

Manfred Stoffl

“To make someone an icon is to make him an abstraction, and abstractions are incapable of vital communication with living people.”

- David Foster Wallace

This work was commissioned Cullberg Baletten and looks into how and why we are drawn to creating cultural icons. 

Ca 50 mins.

Concept and Direction:

Tilman O'Donnell

Sound Design:

Mårten Ihre

Light Design:

Thomas Zamolo

Choreographic Assistant:

Cyril Baldy

The Progression Of Things is a site specific work created for Färgfabriken Konsthall in Stockholm, Sweden. 

The piece looks at our linear notions of timekeeping and its imprint on historical thinking.

It is a six hour performance of roughly twenty minute loops. 

With each loop, the room is reconfigured. 

Concept & Direction:

Tilman O'Donnell

Light Design:

Thomas Zamolo

Music:

Tilman O'Donnell

Produced By:

Cullberg Baletten

Marabouparken was commissioned by Cullberg Baletten. 

A sight specific work at Marabouparken Konsthall in Sundbyberg, the piece is a day long event running in a 40 minute loop. 

Concept / Direction / Music:

Tilman O'Donnell

Light Design:

Thomas Zamolo

Produced by:

Cullberg Baletten

This Is looks at the power structures that hold our cultures aloft, at what we see and choose not to see. 

The performers move through six different rooms, enacting simultaneous situations. The sound travels into the different spaces, further underscoring each action as connected to the next. 

Concept / Direction / Set / Costume:

Tilman O'Donnell

Light Design:

Thomas Zamolo

Choreographic Assistant:

Thomas Zamolo

All photos © Tilo Stengel