Vincent van Gogh: Visitor Submissions

The Peruvian dance company - Yvonne von Möllendorff-Danza Contemporanea - has recently staged a choreography on the life and work of Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. Created as a full-length program this work is divided into 14 scenes. Music, dance, theatre and visual arts are linked tightly together under the title Cross Section/Vincent van Gogh, that has been elaborated after meticulous investigation of this outstanding artist, involving a team of collaborators, specialists in this field: painters, psychiatrists, art historians ...

The production has been conceived, designed, choreographed and directed by Yvonne von Möllendorff, featuring on stage 3 dancers and 2 actors. The work is based entirely on the life and work of the tortured nineteenth-century Dutch painter, whose personality and emotions are represented by the actors in a complex double role : Vincent/Theo and Theo/Vincent in order to underline the strong bond between the two brothers (Oscar Pacheco, Juan Carlos Garcia). The dancers (Vania Masias, Rolando Rocha, Yvonne von Möllendorff) are impersonating such concepts as Colors, Texture and Time each, in relation to Van Gogh's work in general or directly to some of the most impressing paintings (Starry Night, Sunflowers, The Church at Auvers, Wheat Field with Crows, the series of self-portraits ... )

Set to a variety of music (Satie, Stravinsky, Ravel, traditional Japanese, Peruvian composer Manongo Mujica among others) the work dwells on the passionate inner dialogue, the extreme situations and the extraordinary energy that reach down to us through the colors, forms and 'sound' in the paintings of van Gogh. A careful lighting-design stresses on the choreography's dreamlike atmosphere that is meant to recreate the labyrinth of his mind and the hidden mysteries of the soul that anguished this artist, whose mood may swing from wild euphoria to deep despair.

Yvonne von Möllendorff formed her own contemporary dance company in 1986, having created 16 different programs over the past 12 years. Each new production incorporates elements of theatre, painting, music as well as architecture, literature, circus or martial arts.

In fact, the group has performed in more than 30 festivals in the United States, Mexico, Cuba, Nicaragua, eight South American nations, and in Europe in Spain, Portugal, Germany and Italy.

A graduate of Munich's Staatliche Hochschule fur Musik, Ms. von Möllendorff performed as a dancer in companies in Brussels, Amsterdam and Paris before joining Peru's National Ballet in 1976 in Lima, where she composed over 20 choreographies for the State company.

Van Gogh given a new body by Juan Carlos Garcia with touches of intense reds and blues. In the background Vania Masias as 'Colours' and Yvonne von Möllendorff as 'Time'.

Upcoming Performances: 2002

DANZA CONTEMPORANEA

Anounces a tour to Europe, ITALY and BELGIUM

March 18 / 19 performance in the beautiful Palazzo delle Stelline in Milan
March 22 / 23 in the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels

Selected Program
CROSS SECTION/VINCENT VAN GOGH

Recent Performances: 2000-2001

Peru
Lima
Arequipa
Mexico
Ciudad Victoria
Mante

A duet, inspired by the colour blue, danced by the couple Vania Masias and Rolando Rocha (as Colour and Texture), to Igor Stravinsky's music.

". . . The work had the honor of inaugurating the Festival ... What holds it together is a conductive thread, therefore it does not need a lineal story, thus allowing the audience to deal with its own logic. The movement and the use of the space are magic links for this interaction. Each spectator's personal reading will be different and the work motivates many opposing sensations; to digest them will be part of the pleasure . . . ."

" . . . This formidable Peruvian company has moved deeply into the heart of the audience of Aruba, with impressive images, transcending all frontiers . . . ."

" . . . Double skill: Achievement of a work that can be easily understood, for its continuity, the attractiveness and solvence of the movements of the interpreters, as well as for the interesting development of the images.... A colorful road, a promising rhythm. Its structure, based on vital elements, keeps the interest awake... a continuous sway between the mystic matters and the daily matters . . . ."

" . . . The choreographer faces an unusual individual whose demistification must have been a complex process that involves, like it is habitual in Yvonne's works, other disciplines, until reaching the final transformation into a work of great lyrical beauty . . . ."

" . . . Our dreams sometimes take us far away, on mysterious roads. So does artistic creation. How often our hearts remain closed to some texts or topics, because of prejudices that we don't not even recognize as such? ... It is to be mentioned that this work takes us from the most terrifying darkness to the immense brightness that doesn't know limits . . . ."

" . . . This work, under the masterly, creative and exemplary direction of Yvonne von Mollendorff, is superb and magnificent as she puts at stake the dramatic essence, joined to the scenic aesthetics... the audience was deeply moved, attentive and expectant . . . ."