Marvin
Site PHOSPHOR*Live, 12.01.2006
Fragments Paralleles, Carmen van Haren
- You see what happens when a young minded individual /robot tries to escape from automatic /mechanical patterns-
[To start with the second dance: why plays a robot? Under title of the piece is ‘biomechanical birth of an android’. When I enter the auditorium of the Lantaren Venster I find a complete construction of a fantasy mechanical world. It’s a shimmering landscape of carefully raked sand; modern light sculptures of transparent plastic _ with noteworthy subtle details _ and soft stone put in it. And here’s a sound that places you in another world.
In the back corner there’s a robot surrounded by these sculpture walls. Marvin. Human like, manly shaped, moving in shocks, plugged to plastic tubes. Though being a ‘robot environment’, this landscape somehow breathes. The sand is raked with a light hand. The sculptures and costume of the dancer have a special touch: it’s not really plastic, it’s not really ‘just there’, it’s clearly thought over and carefully placed. You could say, philosophize, the breathing environment is calling the robot to step out of its little room.
And Marvin does: with a bang the walls of his small world fall down. During the dance I see Marvin unload its cleverish but limited programming. He broadens its known rhythmic postures by developing a more flowing like movement. It is hard work, for this man robot. It is a race against laws. But he manages to get some kind of grip on its own instrument, the body. Some beautiful moves are made during this shaking off exploration.
There is not an explosive ending to Marvin. There is not a clear reference towards what will be next. No, in contrary. From physical heavy dance work towards a more introvert surrendering dance style, Marvin is getting less robot and more human, but in this an emotional component is not yet represented. I’d say Marvin truly is like a biomechanical birth: the beginning of new possibilities with just a very young mind in it.]
