"Tanz" (1987/88)
music program and movement concept to the sound sculpture created by Andreas Dettloff
for a dancer, computer, sampler and live electronics
This work is an attempt to combine the three art forms music, dance and fine arts very intrinsically. It presents a product of creativity of all involved artists. At the very beginning of the cooperation was the sound sculpture "Dance" by Andreas Dettloff, which I had seen at the Academy of Fine Arts in Duesseldorf. It consists of sixteen double-sided welded steel squares (1x1m), out of whose centers differently tuned tubes protrude like organ pipes. This sculpture must be "entered", because only with pressure and pressure misalignment of the human body in the „rooms“ air is compressed, thus causing the organ pipes sounds in varying nuances. Fascinated with various possibilities of the sculpture I took the next step and developed a compositional movement concept. The result was my music program "Dance" for a dancer, computer, sampler and live electronics. The decision to the computer control and the sampler was a necessity of my compositional intentions. Only with this equipment was I able to arrange the material in a very compact manner.
By means of the computer all levels of the performance (movement, music, reaction and communication) originate in the sound sculpture (in a spatial and a musical sense). Furthermore I decided to write a small computer program which, although it does control the sampler, does create the conditions needed to give the performance a temporal flexibility
as well as a kind communication and reaction possibility between music and the dancer; artistic liberty and improvisation within clearly circumscribed form. The controlling of the sampler is based on the principle of the "real time improvisation," whereby the program, although determined in the global process and musical structure, improvises between some samples within the micro-formal range. On the one hand some graphic instructions about spatial movement borders are given on the screen; on the other hand there exists the possibility of reacting with the dancer
and continuing the musical program when his actions end. The dancer moves and does not only react to the music;
also a musical reaction becomes possible by the computer (further steps in the program are released by certain combinations of keys of the computer keyboard). On another level contact microphones which are attached underneath the sculpture modulate its own sounds as well as any kind of noise and language articulations of the dancer (effect devices, four loudspeakers in the area). The large area for creative and spontaneous movement improvisation was employed for the performance. The dancer Robert Solomon realized this performance. Through his dance and theatratical creativity each performance became a new experience according to the respective spatial conditions.
Andreas Dettloff was born in 1963 in Iserlohn (Germany). Lives on Tahiti. Studied between 1982 and 1988 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Duesseldorf with the Professors Rinke, Partenheimer, Megert and Hueppi. Study trips led him to Australia, to the Easter Island and later to Tahiti. Themes of his sculptures are often myths and legends of the Polynesians and the traditional building of ships of these island peoples. These studies have their salient precipitation in Dettloffs works. His sculptures and sound objects find large resonance in European countries, Australia but also also in New Caledonia and on Tahiti.
Robert Solomon was born in 1945 in New York City. He worked as a dancer, choreographer, dance teacher and stage designer. Solomon studied in New York with Murray Luis and Alwin Nikolais. He performed in London (London Dance School, Sadler's Wells Theatre) and Essen (Folkwang Academy of Arts, Germany), Paris and Cannes. His activity as a soloist led him to America and Europe; he worked with the London Symphony Orchestra and in the Opéra Comique Paris. As choreographer Solomon was active for over two decades, and his works have been shown in Duesseldorf, Cannes, Marseille, Paris and Vienna and have received many prizes. 1983 Robert Solomon opened his own studio for Jazz Dance Theatre in Duesseldorf (Germany).