Friday, February 14, 1997
DANCE:
Group explores interaction of people with their environmentBy
Alicia Cheak
Daily Bruin Contributor
Watching a modern dance performance can be as baffling as
staring at a piece of work at a modern art exhibit. It’s
interesting, unusual, but what is it all about? By featuring
movement with a backdrop of spectacular modern architectural
structures, Jacques Heim, modern dancer and choreographer, attempts
to unite them.
Modern dance might be off-beat, but Heim’s Los Angeles group,
Diavolo Dance Company, proves it cuts deep to the emotions. A
movement might be unfamiliar and odd, but Heim believes it is born
out of a human emotion or thought. This weekend his company will
present "La Serie des Tetes" at UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall, bringing to
the stage his signature hyper-kinetic style as well as a little
social irony.
"Movement never lies," Heim says. He believes that dance is a
way for people to communicate honestly and creatively.
Parisian-born Heim is the founder and artistic director of Diavolo
Dance Company, a company known for its unusual take on modern
dance, where giant structures play as important a role as the
dancers do.
"It’s very important to me. It’s very real. I love plays and the
theater but I could say to someone ‘I love you, my dear,’ but you
don’t know if its true. But as soon as we move, it’s very
real."
It is this same belief which he insists his dancers live, or
dance, by and which he hopes is reflected in the dance pieces.
"Really my story is about our group that looks at everyday
people who sometimes go through hell, and sometimes is in a state
of survival. In the middle of it, they come in contact with so many
architectural structures, and all of them mean something. For
example, we use doors a billion times a day. What does it mean?
What is behind the door? What is in front?" Heim says.
Heim believes that the environment, specifically the city,
powerfully influences how people communicate and live with one
another. He juxtaposes Los Angeles with Paris, where he was
raised.
"If you are in Paris, your mind and the way you relate to people
will be different than it would in Los Angeles, not because people
are so different, but because of the way architecture and its
history are around you," Heim says. On the other hand, Heim
explains that "Los Angeles seems to be structured in a manner that
cultivates isolation and confinement," and perhaps it is because
everything is so spread out that people are able to avoid
interaction and so maintain their own personal space.
Heim goes further in his comparison, relating that the only time
he saw Los Angeles come together was during the infamous ’94
earthquake. It seems that only a catastrophe can shake people out
of their cocoon.
"During the earthquake everyone was getting out of the apartment
or house trying to help. It was so wonderful. I said, my God, Los
Angeles is now a community helping each other during a state of
survival," Heim says.
"But as soon as the earthquake was done, boom! Back to the old
life, 90 percent to your car, or to another destination and you
never see the people again," he concludes.
Heim is careful, however, to point out that this grim assessment
is not the result of people’s nature. Rather, it is the way we have
developed our architecture which now shapes our behavior and
lives.
"I don’t think it’s because the people here are obnoxious or
weird but because of the way the city is built," Heim says. "In
Paris, when you are walking, you see people in the streets, in the
subway, the bus, but you are not scared about people. It’s
different here."
And it is the particular relationship between man and the
environment which Heim explores in "La Serie des Tetes."
"Tete" brings together, for the first time, three of Heim’s
architectural constructions: the giant cage of "Tete au Carre", the
wooden staircase of "Tete en L’Air," and a series of 10 doors of
"Tete a Claque".
It was a difficult process trying to integrate the three massive
sets into one performance, since each had only been performed
separately. After some adjustments, however, the sets have become
visceral and have a life and identity of their own. In fact, it is
the structures which remain steadfast while the dancers have to
work around, over, under, and on them. Heim explains that he
"wanted to see how bodies relate and deal with different kinds of
settings, and how movements change in response to them."
The movements which Heim works with are also derived from
observations of everyday pedestrian behavior. "Every piece we do,
whether we walk, run, catch, fall, or roll, anybody can do it.
But," Heim adds, "it is also very theatrical, physical and visual."
Heim believes that the familiarity of the movements will enable
audiences to perceive the themes of the various dance pieces
despite some of its more abstract content.
"It’s easier to relate to than when I used to do traditional
modern pieces," Heim says. "People used to come to me and say ‘it’s
interesting, I guess,’ but I was scaring people away. I wasn’t
communicating with the audience and I felt alienated and now I
think by using familiar movement I can relate to them."
Heim believes that communication in dance is as important as
self- expression. It is this chance to tell a story, and to tell it
well, which steered Heim towards making dance his vocation.
Heim received his masters in dance from the California Institute
of Arts. He created the Diavolo group in 1992 and since then, has
won recognition and appreciation for the vitality and visual nature
of his choreography. Heim also teaches Intensive Movement for
Actors at the UCLA Theater Department and is also part of the dance
department at Orange County High School of the Arts.
Although his first exposure to Los Angeles was a shock, Heim’s
dance group has allowed him to do what he loves  dance and
creating dance with others. "It provides me with a sense of
community, in the way we act and react, in the way we deal with one
another." And this interaction is translated into "Tete."
While Heim choreographs the pieces, he believes that what is
presented to the audience is a collaboration with all his dancers.
"When we start to create a piece, the set comes first, then we
improvise and then we start to build the pieces by using a collage
so at the end of the whole process, we really start to know what
the piece is about."
DANCE: "La Serie des Tetes," at Schoenberg Hall. Feb. 15 at 8
p.m.; Feb. 16 at 2 p.m. Tickets at CTO are $22 and $9 for students
with I.D. For more information, call (310) 825-2101.
The Diavolo Dance Theater presents the world premiere of "La
Series Des Tetes" at UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall.