Amsterdam Weekly

29 june-5 july 2006

Julidans heats ip with a sweaty theme, and transforms Pardiso into a battle with the elements and the exhibitionist.

Some like to watch, some like to dance

By Monique Gruter

When you think about deviant sexual behaviour, classical ballet isn’t the first art form that springs to your mind. Modern dance, though…that can tackle that sort of conduct in gritty, witty, grounded or abstract ways.  In I like to watch, the enticing and teasing theme at this years’s Julidans programme at Paradiso, several choreographer brave a topic that’s basically taken for granted when viewing beautiful bodies on stage, though rarely used as focal point.

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Another piece, called BodyLounge, an offshoot of PickUp Club, is different from the other works on the programme. It is a delirious pageant of uncertainty. Fullblown audience participation is both a must and given, and the hilarity of this performance is that you cannot watch. Everybody is blindfolded. To gain entry to this ongoing, interactive theatre  performance you have to reserve a spot in advance because everyone has individual check-in times. Professional host welcome the participants during the check-in period with rituals of removing your shoes and socks, jewellery, mobile phones and so on, until finally, you’re given a blindfold to obstruct your keenest sense.

The host guide you- gently and reasuringly- through the Play Zone, where you’re taken on a sensory journey that taunts and heightens your four remanining senses. Accentuating the experience is the use of toys, smells, different textured fabrics, touch, voice and sounds.

BodyLounge’s  sucess lies in the wisdom of the projects’s visionary, German-born Ina Stockem, and her cast of movers, musicians and a DJ. ’ BodyLounge is not conceptual but fits closer to belevingstheater (experiental theatre).’, says Stockem.’ ‘Each BodyLounge is different and people keep coming back. They get more involved, bring hosts and take more responsibility. I think that is beautiful.’

The onus, during the transition from the Play Zone to the final Chill Zone, rest on the participants, explains Stockem. ‘ We have words telling the participants that the guided part is over and that they are responisble for whether they want to stay blindfolded or not. We encourage them to stay blindfolded, but most people want to have a break and visually scan the space.’

By removing the fourt wall, BodyLounge has created an engaging platform for anyone ready to plunge into the unknown- a sensory territory sprinkled with sensual connotations. Although trust, safety and freedom are the three major themes, be forewarned that if you  cannot handle sensory confrontation and uncertainty- even in the hands of professionals- than stay home.

I like to watch is on 1 July at 21.00, Paradiso, Weteringschans 6-8, 626 4521, €20. Julidans runs until 8july. For  full programme see www.julidans.nl.