Not coincidentally, in the film that Wim Wenders dedicated to the choreographer-director Pina Bausch, who passed away in 2009, Lutz Förster is always the leader of the most captivating “catwalks,” that is, the synchronized défilés performed by interpreters from the Tanztheater Wuppertal, which unfold like serpentine flows in the spatial fabric of many of Pina's shows. In a film about the "Bauschian" cosmos, it could only be Lutz, the supreme master of ceremonies.
This extraordinarily experienced dancer, blond, tall, and slim, knows how to exude an intense Teutonic charm mixed with a disarming humor. An actor and dancer of supreme elegance, Lutz wears the typical double-breasted jackets of the Tanztheater with an original aristocratic flair. He has magical hands and very long, expressive fingers that he willingly uses in his solos.
He is delicate in observation and focused on emotion. He oscillates between a regal severity and the playful pleasure of being on stage. He is both person and character at the same time. However, Förster's special physiognomy is not only linked to the “great mother” of dance theater, as evidenced by his solo initially titled Portrait of a Dancer, which has already been performed in various places around the world during a multi-year journey of reinterpretation and development of the original ideas: the latest performance took place at BIPOD 2017 (Beirut International Platform of Dance), where the piece took on the name Dance Stories by and with Lutz Förster.
In particular, Lutz's dense journey has been marked, in addition to Pina Bausch, by his past collaborations with José Limon's company, one of the greatest masters of American Modern Dance, and with American director Robert Wilson, a guru of the Western theatrical avant-garde at the end of the 20th century.
The self-portrait generated by these experiences brings together fragments of his memory in a recited and danced journey. The show debuted in 2009 in Utrecht, and since then Förster has continued to shape this “confessional” fresco that narrates an investigation conducted within the languages of dance theater and pure movement.
In a blend of actions, texts, and choreographies, the metamorphoses of this “total” artist flow together with excerpts from the works of the authors he has collaborated with. Among the proposed materials, one of the most famous solos from the Tanztheater Wuppertal repertoire stands out, taken from Nelken, in which Lutz gesturally recomposes the words of the song The Man I Love using sign language. In the succession of images and monologues, irony merges with melancholy, and the subjectivity of artistic reflection becomes the narrative of an entire aesthetic and cultural dimension of “theater-making.”
Förster's solo comes to Rovereto as a special tribute to the Oriente Occidente festival, which in its long history preserves the memory of the formidable success achieved by Nelken by Pina Bausch, performed in Rovereto in 1990.
Leonetta Bentivoglio
Lutz Förster's performance constitutes one of the pieces of the project The Emperor’s Gaze, curated by Leonetta Bentivoglio in collaboration with Ninni Romeo and produced by Daniele Cipriani Entertainment. The project presents creations by former dancers of the Tanztheater Wuppertal framed by initiatives aimed at exploring the legacy of the great German choreographer-director. Among these initiatives is a photography exhibition by Ninni Romeo, specifically set up for Rovereto.
At the end of Förster's performance, Leonetta Bentivoglio (author of various books on Pina Bausch, the latest of which, Pina Bausch – A Saint on Roller Skates, published by Clichy, was released in 2015) will lead a public meeting with Lutz Förster in Rovereto.
THE EMPEROR’S GAZE
Project curated by Leonetta Bentivoglio
In collaboration with Ninni Romeo
Produced by Daniele Cipriani Entertainment
