STUK

Two monks were arguing about the temple flag waving in the wind. One said, "The flag moves." The other said, "The wind moves." They argued back and forth but could not agree.
The Sixth Ancestor said, "Gentlemen! It is not the wind that moves; it is not the flag that moves; it is your mind that moves." The two monks were struck with awe.
- The Mumonkan Case 29, by Zen master Hui-Neng

Angle is a dance solo created and performed by Salva Sanchis. It is set to short piano solo pieces by György Ligeti, John Cage, Luciano Berio, Jo Kondo and Keiko Harada, which will all be played live by pianist Yutaka Oya. 

Angle is dance piece about the perception of dance. Its title refers specifically to the way we look at dance. As we all know, dance, just like music, doesn't stand alone. It needs an audience to fulfill its purpose, and in that relation the audience brings in as much baggage as the artist.
As the zen quote above tells us, since the movement actually happens in our minds, what we see might vary depending on how we look at it.

In Angle, Salva Sanchis establishes a bridge between the spectator and the dance, so that this time, the spectator is not left alone in figuring out how to look at the dance. Thoughts, quotes and artists' ideas will be provided as a subtle framing to the open experience that the dance offers to us. But the space for free interpretation will remain open. Rather than receiving an explanation, we will be shown possible directions. Rather than being dictated what to perceive, we will be made aware that how we perceive is precisely dictated by us in the first place.

Salva Sanchis shows and questions the relation between dance, music and text on the one side, and the perception of each of those elements by the audience on the other side. He chooses for a construction in which all the parts are interrelated and yet they keep their autonomy. Thus, Angle consists of a multi-layered structure that invites us to make connections between elements.

The final objective will be for the dance and the spectator to ‘meet' in equal terms, both free and responsible. And just as sounds travel through space and become music only inside our minds, the dance too will invite our minds to...dance with it.

Salva Sanchis is a Brussels-based Spanish dancer and choreographer who was among the graduates of the first year of P.A.R.T.S. Has danced and choreographed for Rosas and is a gifted dancer with a compelling presence. His dance is said to be ‘abstract'. Alright, but then lyrically abstract. This production may become ‘meditatively abstract' or ‘Zen abstract', if that exists.

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