INNERouterSPACES engl | timefellows

INNERouterSPACES

Production : 2014

“When the child was a child,
it threw a stick at a tree as if it were a spear,
and that spear is still vibrating there to this day.”

— Peter Handke (Wings of Desire)
(Voice of Bruno Ganz)

World Premiere at the Bühne der Kulturen

A Sorrow Without Desire

My Lovely White Dog Dancecompany reaches a high artistic level
Hot-off-the-press review on TANZwebNRW by R. Baumgarten

Handke has never felt more present. With its latest creation INNERouterSPACES, the Cologne-based dance company My Lovely White Dog, led by Nathalie Larquet and Klaus Dilger, embarks on an excursion into the folds of what Handke once described as “the inner world of the outer world of the inner world.”

The “outside” here begins with the neighbouring playground, through which the audience enters the Bühne der Kulturen almost through a backdoor: inside or outside—do we belong to this world, or don’t we?

Inside the theatre, we are first greeted by the voice of Bruno Ganz, lending his words to Peter Handke’s iconic verses from Wim Wenders’ film:

When the child was a child,
it threw a stick at a tree as if it were a spear,
and that spear is still vibrating there to this day.

Never have contrasts been so stark: the Bühne der Kulturen, with its decaying charm — a “sky over Berlin” of its own? And could that “spear” be the martyred totem of this abandoned playground? Still trembling today, forever, transforming the echo of that long-ago throw into a perpetual act of dance? If so, then yes — the choreographic scene in Cologne is indeed stirring — if only slightly, like the shiver of a breeze.

And thankfully, everything remains on a human scale. The poetic “spear” becomes, in the first choreography, nothing more than a broomstick — in a lightning-fast duet between Lynn and Nathalie Larquet. One wrong step, and the whole thing might collapse into cliché: two women, a broom… witches, then? But no — the piece deftly avoids this trap. It’s precisely that fine line that separates real art from mere indulgence. And INNERouterSPACES walks it with remarkable artistic discipline.

This also holds true for the sound design (by Lynn), which blends operatic fragments, the crackle of vinyl, and a text that, under the guise of speaking about “the art of wrapping,” actually evokes the brisk, almost mechanical gestures of wrapping Christmas gifts. The charm of the evening lies in this continual back-and-forth between the banal and the sublime, each reflecting the other — embodied by two dancers who, through movement, make visible the inner life of what appears outwardly mundane.

The lighting (by Klaus Dilger), used with rare precision, enhances this effect — most notably in one scene where, projected onto a bare wall, it conjures the illusion of an exterior façade more convincing than the real thing.

The inner world of the outside of the inner world also takes shape through black-and-white documentary projections. One particularly moving moment: the appearance of Hartmut Misgeld, a guardian figure of Cologne’s tango scene, who shares his vision of happiness — a feeling, he says, whose intensity wavers. And so, the vibrating lance planted in the tree returns, transfigured: happiness, too, trembles and oscillates. A beautiful metaphor for an art that elevates the everyday.

The story of the child continues: instead of throwing a stick, he throws away his beloved blanket at the age of three — a gesture of liberation (represented on stage by an old flokati rug). At seven, he walks to school barefoot — and is mocked. On stage, Lynn nudges a shoe forward with her foot, as if it were walking to school on its own. In these playful moments, INNERouterSPACES becomes INNERouterSPASS — an inner and outer delight.

Nathalie Larquet explores, through her choreographic language, the possibilities of Gaga technique — also in Israel, the birthplace of this approach. Moments of exhilaration alternate with quiet stillness, carried by the autonomous movement of different parts of the body. Practitioners of Gaga call it: “feeling the movement.”

INNERouterSPACES is a danced experience — brief, but dense. A work that favours restraint over showmanship. At a time when we still believed that wishing could summon reality, a sequel would have been inevitable. That now seems unlikely in Cologne. What remains is this half-hour of genuine sensation — a short dance for a long goodbye.