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Carolyn Carlson Carolyn Carlson was born in California to parents of Finnish origin. She studied dance at the San Francisco School of Ballet and at the University of Utah, where she met Alwin Nikolais in 1965; for seven years, she was an emblematic figure of his New York-based company. During this period she travelled the world, and in 1968 won the best dancer award at the Festival International de Danse in Paris. She then joined Anne Béranger’s company as soloist and choreographer; in 1972 her first piece, Rituel pour un rêve mort, was staged in the courtyard of the Papal Palace in Avignon. In 1974, she met Rolf Liebermann – a watershed moment. He brought her to the Opéra de Paris as star choreographer, and in 1975 invited her to run the opera house’s theatre research group (GRTOP). She created more than 25 works between 1974 and 1980, including Density 21,5; The Architects; This, That and the Other; and Slow, Heavy and Blue. In 1974, she began introducing the dancers to her improvisation and composition technique. From 1980-1985, she worked at the Teatro la Fenice in Venice, creating her emblematic solo Blue Lady (1983), before returning to Paris and to her new base, the Théâtre de la Ville (1985-1991). She then had a two-year residency in Finland before taking over as artistic director of the Cullberg Ballet in Stockholm (1994-1995). In between choreographic activities, she experiments with “improvisation shows” in collaboration with her favourite dancers (Larrio Ekson, Jorma Uotinen, Malou Airaudo) and musicians (Michel Portal, John Surman, René Aubry, Joachim Kuhn, Trilok Gurtu); and continues to create works for the repertoires of the Paris Opera Ballet (Signes) and the Bordeaux Opera (Hydrogen Jukebox), among others. While director of the dance section of the Venice Biennale (1999-2002), Carolyn created Parabola (1999), Light Bringers (2000), J. Beuys Song (2001) and Writings on Water (2002). She has also founded a contemporary-dance academy and a festival. In 1999, she established the Atelier de Paris-Carolyn Carlson with backing from the City of Paris; it quickly became a leading facility for the professional training of dancers and for supporting the creation of new work. Since 2004, Carolyn Carlson has been artistic director of the national choreography centre in Roubaix, northern France. In 2006 she received the first Golden Lion ever awarded to a choreographer by the Venice Biennale. Her stunningly masterful dance, constantly striving for poetry, is informed by her encounters with great creators such as the composers Philip Glass, René Aubry, Gavins Bryars, Kaija Saariaho and dancers including Larrio Ekson, Jorma Uotinen, Marie-Claude Pietragalla, Dominique Mercy and Tero Saarinen. Blue Lady / 1983, revisited in 2008 / solo interpreted by Tero Saarinen Carolyn Carlson’s Blue Lady premiered on 11 October 1983 at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. The piece caused a sensation and was performed for ten years all over the world. Blue Lady marked the blossoming of a major creative talent and performer who had reached artistic maturity and achieved an incredible richness of movement. Music by René Aubry, enormous Venetian blinds, a tree and swirling dresses and hats create a poetic environment for a flamboyant dance. Carolyn Carlson’s spinning body and arm gestures have left their mark on memories in a solo work that is both the sum and the exploration of possibilities. The inspirations for the piece are Venice and Carolyn Carlson’s entry into motherhood. This event profoundly changed her consciousness of the world and of existence. Blue Lady is structured on her perception of human horizons; it is a fascinating gallery of female portraits spanning the space of one life. Through their origins, Carolyn Carlson and Tero Saarinen share a Finnish soul built on distance from reality, unpredictability and irony. This distinctive relationship with reality forms an integral part of Blue Lady. When the piece was at the planning stage, Carolyn Carlson visited a psychiatric hospital in Venice and was especially inspired by the anxiety and suspicion she saw in the eyes of the mentally ill patients. This is a dimension of the work that Tero Saarinen will concentrate on. Double Vision / 2006 creation / solo interpreted by Carolyn Carlson Double Vision is a cross-disciplinary encounter between two artists: star choreographer Carolyn Carlson and young creative platform Electronic Shadow, comprising architect Naziha Mestaoui and film director Yacine Aït Kaci, who propose new types of perception by literally fusing space and imagery. This solo is the record of their encounter. It offers the audience a choreography that encompasses and integrates dancer and stage; Carolyn Carlson’s body orchestrates a world that stretches right across a stage brought to life by technology. The stage becomes the extension of gesture; there is only one image, the stage itself; the technology is transparent, giving way to the emotion of a disjointed perception of reality. The show is an ode to the imagined world, a double vision of reality, a poem of vision and sound about the relativity of our perceptions, a vision beyond sight. Time and space fold and unfold in an eternal cycle, of which the length of the show is a perceptible period. How can the past shape the future? construct our life works. There isn’t just one thing happening; past present future - all are contained in this simultaneity of events. Carolyn Carlson The idea of the arts is not to be the response to what is going on. It’s to be a catalyst for thought and change and an opening up of experience. Extra info:
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