Pushing the boundaries for the sake of beauty

Choreographer and dancer Raimund Hoghe battles with modern interpretations of beauty in his latest work, ‘Young People, Old Voices’, at this week’s Dublin Dance Festival

BORN WITH A kyphosis (a severe curvature of the spine that, in less PC times, used to be referred to as a hunchback), German choreographer Raimund Hoghe has grappled with spectres of physical beauty more than most. While the media taunts us with digitally manipulated images of unattainable physical perfection, and a lucrative industry has grown around the pretence of providing it, Hoghe asks the question underpinning all this – namely, what is beauty?

The dance piece Young People, Old Voices, which Hoghe brings to headline this year's Dublin Dance Festival, juxtaposes youth with experience, bringing into poignant relief the charms of both. "The idea was to use music, like Billie Holiday, Judy Garland, Alberta Hunter, and that these old, broken voices would in a way be telling the young people something like a story," Hoghe recounts. "And in casting these young people, it wasn't about defining themselves with hairstyles or make-up, but by their personality. Just plain, normal kids you might not even notice on the street. But on stage, because of their personality, they'd be strong and beautiful."

Hoghe grew up in Wuppertal in post-war Germany, a society shattered by the imposition of highly restrictive ideals of beauty and social acceptance. “This is why I often refer to German history in my work. Because here you can see what this leads to, when a country believes it’s better than the others – its culture, its race . . . blondness. A German woman was required to be blonde.”

Growing up and coming of age, Hoghe confounded his audience with his many career transformations. Starting out as a journalist for the news weekly Die Zeit, he met famed choreographer Pina Bausch (who died suddenly and tragically last year) through his work and eventually joined forces with her as a dramatist, although he continued to write for the newspaper. When, after years of collaboration, he began to choreograph his own work, he no longer had time for writing. He now concentrates solely on his own dance repertoire.

Hoghe's work features minimal, stark gestures and images. The gentle respectfulness of the movement he choreographs, however, only amplifies the power and magnetic energy of what transpires on stage. When he first appeared in Dublin at the dance festival in 2006, his Swan Lake, Four Actsmesmerised its audience with the eloquence of its deceptively simple sequences.

“I think he’s an amazing artist,” says Laurie Uprichard, artistic director of the Dublin Dance Festival. “He doesn’t get on stage and parade, it’s not a defiance statement, it’s just about an existence. And the strength of that existence makes you, as a viewer, grapple with it on your own terms in your own time. That is really special about his work.”

Young People, Old Voicesserves as the flagship for the theme of this year's dance festival: bodies. As well as Hoghe's work, Uprichard has also programmed dance from older dancers, who also leap over traditional boundaries of beauty and youth in dance.

Although Uprichard doesn’t like to make a blanket statement, she says she’s “less and less interested in watching those 22-year-old dancers who are just whipping around” and is “just really enjoying watching older dancers in performance”. She cites the example of Mikhail Baryshnikov, who in his early 60s still dances “really beautifully”.

Medical advances in training and care “has allowed people to dance much longer on average than 30 years ago,” Uprichard explains. “The ability to keep your body healthy and to find that core strength has allowed people to dance for much longer. And people used to get injured in their 30s, 40s, 50s, and that would be it. Now they have miraculous laser surgery that, for example, puts your knee back together.” Hoghe came to Dublin earlier this year to select young people from Ireland for this piece, which changes its cast over time as people get older, and depending on where he performs it.

He deliberately chooses “normal” looking young people for his piece. Their youth should lie in their character, not in a projection of a media fantasy. “I wasn’t looking for a model,” he says. “For example, at the very first audition in Bruges [where the piece premiered], there was a girl who was known by her peers as ‘the pretty girl’. She was blonde, tall, slim. They said, I’m not even trying if she’s there, I won’t have a chance. But I had to tell her, I’m sorry, but you’re too pretty. She was also too aware of her attractiveness.”

A similar incident also happened here in Dublin. “I got an e-mail yesterday from a girl who said she’s a performer, and that she worked as a model, and she was in Big Brother last year. And I had to say, I’m not really looking for a Big Brother type,” Hoghe chuckles.

“Who decides what beauty is?” Hoghe asks. “Beauty is in diversity.” In placing diverse people on the stage – including himself – who don’t reflect a conventional, ultimately unattainable ideal of beauty, he places the question before the audience and asks them to decide.

Although he doesn’t focus attention on his own body and its particular form, neither does he make any attempt to conceal it. On his website, he quotes Pier Paolo Pasolini: “Throw your body into the battle.” That is his inspiration to go to the stage.

“I can’t change my body.” Hoghe says. “People think you can change everything. OK, you can operate on a lot of things today. But you don’t have to change everything. You just have to accept it.”

Young People, Old Voicesis at the Samuel Beckett Theatre on May 18 and 19

DDF: three to see this week

SWIMMING WITH MY MOTHER

Wednesday and Thursday Project Arts Centre

Irish choreographer David Bolger is joined by his swimming coach mother Madge in a duet about dance, swimming and life.

DAY

Wednesday to Saturday, Peacock

Jean Butler (below) returns from New York where she teamed up with choreographer Tere O’Connor in a newly commissioned solo. Expect a giant leap on her ongoing artistic journey.

DOUBLE TRACK

Saturday and Sunday, Samuel Beckett Centre

Dutch dance company Beppie Blankert Danceconcerts is joined by musicians from the Crash Ensemble in a fascinating visual experience using mirrors and video projections.

See dublindancefestival.ie