Controlled abstraction
 

Piece "FLOE" by KONCENTRAT Artistic Group is not a contemporary dance show, even if it is presented at the contemporary dance festival; it is not  a variation on theatre structure either; it is a phenomenon of controlled abstraction.

Controlled abstraction is hard to evaluate, because there is always a risk of not seeing some essential elements of it and what follows - of its wrong evaluation, as a rule, a negative one. Most rational and honest approach is to use the tools of abstraction itself and surrender to its free yet sometimes strong current.

Following the above statements one can courageously begin the story about "Floe".

On the 'pool' stage of Central Artistic Pool a woman in black appears Slowly she sets a microphone stand and then the microphone itself. We can hear the wind blowing We can feel the cold inside. A woman stands behind the light board, the lights go down and the side neon lights go on. Below the board we notice another character - a man. His pose and outfit suggest the beginning of a rock event. The male character reaches the mike and... starts talking about himself. With a peaceful, low voice he talks about his fascination with dance, a need to express via this art form. The clash between this big, sturdy man and the contents of his speech - a passion for dance is funny. The performance turns into a surreal and abstract story about passion, a need to define oneself in a given art form. The piece seems grotesque, but underneath it is like the ice floe crashing in the title of the piece.  It grows, picks up tempo, even if on the surface remains  unchanged.

Controlled abstraction is to be seen not talked about. Lets leave all who did not see the show with a dose of desire. 

Magdalena Okoń, Teatralia Warszawa,October 8 2009

/.../ Frozen ice forms, which despite its immobility are subject of interpretation, the shapes which are deciphered calling for various associations inspired the artist. Those images made Dziemidok think about dance forms, supposedly set, yet always giving into variation. That's why his piece is definitely formal - in an extreme and literal manner, since it explores the expressive possibilities of opposite dance forms - the waltz (emphasizing the fluidity of movement) and point technique (staccato movement, emphasizing poses and breaks in the movement). It is also theoretically anti-emotional, cleansed of meaning and intentions, but it turns out as a joyful, affirmative proposal a play with movement; the artist finds here the pleasure in the act of performing simple tasks and in sharing his research results about movement, its features and qualifications. The comments of the creator are mixed with practical examples, being a kind of catchy illustration, making one think how things like various and conditional cultural interpretations of the tempo, poses, qualities of movement, its connection to the music, all of which theoretically absent from the piece, become visible. A piece also brings to live an old dream of the artist, also thanks to the use of the song Tell Him by a band Qentin and Ash, which despite its simplicity and kitsch melody still remains one of the artists favorite songs. 'Floe' shows themes and motives, which he has had in his mind for years but never had a chance to use on stage.

The finale of the piece is surprising. Dziemidok and Garniec stand together upstage, the song we already know can be heard and the neon lights placed along the space of the pool flash up and down, exposing the performers in short blinks of light. We get the illusion of fast movement like on pieces of paper with a drawing quickly flipped, or as on film. One more time, the immobility and poses opposed to movement make one think about the perception and interpretation of what we see. The sounds and words of the song and the blinking disco lights make man and woman standing still and without any intention seem dependent on one another. The audience might get the impression that they show, picture and project their common story (even if there has not been any story in the piece).

Autotematic piece of Dziemidok brings associations with painting, sculpture and installation, interdisciplinary research of avantgarde post-modern artists or piece Nothing by Towarzystwo Gimnastyczne from Poznan, referring to non-figurative painting composition and the process of projecting the meaning onto abstract movement and image by the spectators.

Julia Hoczyk, Kultura Enter. Monthly for exchange of ideas nr 16,December 2009

The Polish premiere Floe by Koncentrat and Nicole Seiler representing the conceptual dance, remains in the sphere of movement analysis and attempts to rationally grasp, name and categorize dance. It seems, that it opposes the Throwing Rocks duet, suggesting that every movement is culturally conditioned, not leaving room for empty spaces that Busy Rocks where looking for. Floe is the mixture of conceptual dance and stand up comedy with an autobiographical motive of emotional struggle of the performer with the creative process itself: inspiration, resistance of the form, it also contains a dose of selfirony. The main topic of this austere performance is the functioning of language in relation with perception and production of movement, the impossibility to grasp its specifics with categories too simple and the washing down of even the most basic definitions like: slow/fast, which always depend on the context. The comical from the mismatch of discourse - the performer with the vintage mustache glued on presents the subsequent categories of what he is going to dance in a moment. 

Agnieszka Krol, Countermimical play with elements of striptease and so on, that is a couple of thoughts after the Body/Mind festival,nowytaniec.pl, October 2009

The topic of creative process was also taken in Floe, one of 3 Polish premieres which took place at the festival. The piece was created as a collaboration of Polish artistic group Koncentrat and a Swiss artist Nicole Seiler. Floe talks about the process of defrosting the possibilities of movement in the body. Choreography, as we find out from the monologue of the dancer and the choreographer Rafał Dziemidok, was built on the analysis of 8 movement forms. The work on the piece started 2 years before the premiere During the winter walks in the forest, the shapes and forms of frozen bushes, trees and branches impressed the artist and became inspiration for the movement. That is why the dance in the piece is the set of forms changing in time. A big advantage of the piece is the space where it was performed - an old swimming pool, converted into a theatre stage Along the length of the ex-pool, a white strip of marley is put, covered each time by the dancer, exposing by that the 'space of time' taken by the frozen shapes . Music, the subtle sounds of water drops and wind introduces cold atmosphere of the winter which inspired the piece. The light used to highlight the dancers movement co-creates the whole of the piece. The stage is supervised by the ligh designer Ewa Garniec, clad in black, shiny, evening gown and a big hat.

Joanna Zielińska, Artist and her body.About VII Body/Mind festival , one more time,nowytaniec.pl, November 2009

Rafał Dziemidok is one of the most unorthodox characters of Polish dance scene. He stands out not only because of his posture, but also exceptional stage personality, the ability to feel the audience and - despite cooperation with environments as different as Teatr Dada von Bzdülöw and Polish Dance Theatre - his own, separate path of artistic search, revealed in strongly intellectual yet spectacular productions. At Warsaw's Body/Mind festival and Old Brewery's December "Co z tym tańcem" presentation series he could be seen as one of the co-creators and the main performer of Floe - the newest piece of Koncentrat Artistic Group. This time, the Warsaw-Berlin based trio invited a Swiss choreographer Nicole Seiler to work on the concept of the show.
This basically solo performance begins not by the performer, but by Ewa Garniec, the light designer (apart from Koncentrat she cooperates with Michał Zadara or Grzegorz Jarzyna). Dressed in long, evening gown and a hat partially covering her face, she slowly crosses the stage - at first she cautiously places the microphone tripod down stage, in order to finally sit behind the light desk - on the small elevation upstage. Between those two points stretches a narrow strip of white marley - floe? Only on this strip will Rafał Dziemidok move during the performance.
When he finally appears, the first thing a spectator sees - especially the one who has seen the dancer before - is the mustache. Quite large, thick, "noble" mustache - as it turns out fake, yet very realistic... Dziemidok, bombastically chanting English text in Factor T or hypnotizing with the looped movement of rabbit-like leaps around the circle in Rabbit Death and Riding Contest, in his actions functions between a very formal and abstract dance - and a comical acting element. Even if Floe is definitely the most analytical of Dziemidok's pieces, the typical of him vis comica does not leave him there. He starts the speech in English - he tells about the source of of the inspiration, which for him were the frozen forms of nature (again - 'floe'). Then he speaks about the movement material, which he worked out in his career as a choreographer - and for which no room was found in any of the previous performances. The commentary is cut by movement inserts - each time the dancer crosses his white 'island' once. He comments on the changes of tempo and the relativity of its perception, builds variations based on the same movement material.
In a sense Floe fits into the lecture performance stream of creation - as opposed to analogous performances of Xavier Leroy, Eszter Salamon or Edyta Kozak, who tell about their work quoting ready made pieces and contexts - Rafał Dziemidok uses scraps of ideas unused, leftovers which remained after the proper 'products' of creative process. He recycles them - making a specific photo negative of his work. Apparently, we can learn about a man most from his leftovers... In Floe Dziemidok using them shows us the picture of individual choreographic kitchen - attempting less to speak wisdom about dance in general or to formulate universal manifestos, more about his own path.

Witold Mrozek. Kra. O skrawkach.nowytaniec.pl, January 2010

I could not resist the impression that the dancer all the time teases the audience, that his theoretical speech in which he explains, describes, interprets each of his movements is not so serious a 'sense prosthesis'. That without such frame his dance walk across the white ray would not be understandable. And exactly this deeper meaning is most interesting in Floe - not only does it show the difficulty to interpret the movement itself, but most of all the words which define it. Not only the relativity of simple, easily shown differences in perception of 'fast-slow', but the relativity and lack of precision of all such definitions. Our senses are deluded, which is ironically demonstrated by the creators of Floe - light and music can give the impression of fast movement even if in fact there is none (like in the last scene with the blinking neon lights, when the still dancer seemed to have moved together with lights and music). The contrast revealing additional illusions and stereotypes in our perception was for this intellectual piece provided by a simple pop song /.../ Dziemidok showed that 'serious' movement with 'frivolous' music can give both a completely different character, the same with the specific light work. In Floe music, light and movement function parallely. Their mutual influence is strongly pointed out.

Magdalena Hajdysz, Deeper meaning of Floe. Dance stage event.Gazeta Wyborcza - Trójmiasto, 26th of January 2010

Ice, frozen trees, branches, puddles, that is static images, having its Santa Claus charm can be successfully depicted in dance or movement. The interpretation of climate related phenomena proposed to the audience by Rafał Dziemidok was moving. /.../ one can boldly claim that the idea was interesting and the dancer talented. His movements were though out, he himself - focused. Breathing, which was an important element of the dance, namely the specific sighing sounds on the beat, performed sequentially by his feet, hands and all body, connected with the sounds of whistling wind came out very intriguing.

Dziemidok, justifying his choice /.../ of music, did not hide at all, that it was not the top of world's achievement even in the realm of pop. That confession, so honest, autoironic and full of distance to the opinion of the spectator, made the whole performance seem very clear and authentic.

Aleksandra Prokop, Icebreaker in Żak.
Gazeta Świętojańska, 20th of January 2010