STEVE VALK & TONY RIZZI
“BALLET FRANKFURT AND THE CONCEPT OF SOCIAL CHOREOGRAPHY”

Ballett Frankfurt was never simply a dance company. It was an artistic ecology in which choreography became a way of thinking. Within William Forsythe’s studio, dancers, dramaturgs, composers, designers and artists worked in an environment where ideas, practices and disciplines continually entered into new relations. Roles remained fluid because the work itself was fluid. Choreography was no longer confined to the organization of movement; it became an experimental practice for reorganizing perception, relation, knowledge and the conditions under which new realities might emerge.

Forsythe referred to this simply as “The Big Conversation”. Valk and Rizzi will talk about what it means. As that conversation expanded, it increasingly exceeded the theatre, contributing to what is now understood as Expanded Choreography and, more recently, Social Choreography. Photography, architecture, museums, archives, education and public space became not separate disciplines, but further sites in which choreographic thinking could continue to evolve.

Tony Rizzi’s exhibition can itself be understood as part of this continuing conversation. Bringing together Tony Rizzi and former Ballett Frankfurt dramaturge Steve Valk, this evening asks a question: What if Ballett Frankfurt was not only one of the twentieth century's most influential dance companies, but the early manifestation of a much larger cultural experiment?

The lecture will be held in English.

Steve Valk (*1962) is a cultural activist, contemporary dance dramaturg and director of the Institute of Social Choreography in Frankfurt, Germany. For twelve years (1992-04), he was Head Dramaturg and creative collaborator for William Forsythe and Ballett Frankfurt. From 1998 to 2004 Valk's focus on trans-disciplinary net-working led to the development of a new participatory epistemology for the institution of contemporary dance. The resulting large-scale projects "Schmalclub" (1999-02) and »New Meaningful Public Space« (2003-04) are now recognized as seminal works in the emerging field of Social Choreography. In December 2012, in collaboration with a network of local, regional, and international transdisciplinary theorists, cultural practitioners, civic and creative partners, Steve Valk founded the first Institute of Social Choreography. Currently, Valk leads seminars in Expanded Arts Practice / Experimental Social Work in the Department of Aesthetic Education at the University of Applied Sciences in Ludwigshafen. At Duke University’s Keenan Institute of Ethics, Valk recently co-founded the first Laboratory of Social Choreography with choreographer and professor Michael Klien.

Tony Rizzi (*1965 born Anthony James Rizzi in Dedham, Massachusetts) is an Italian American choreographer, performer and visual artist born in Dedham, Massachusetts, in 1965. After training at the Boston Ballet, he joined William Forsythe’s Ballet Frankfurt at the age of 20, beginning a two-decade collaboration that helped shape contemporary dance. Alongside his work with Forsythe, Rizzi collaborated extensively with Belgian artist and theatre director Jan Fabre, performing internationally while developing a multidisciplinary artistic practice that bridges dance, theatre, visual art, film, and performance. Rizzi has been taking photographs since the age of fourteen, already seeing life in pictures. In the early 1990s, he expanded this lifelong practice by developing large-scale collages made from Polaroid photographs. His visual work explores memory, identity and the relationship between image and movement. Since the early 1990s, Rizzi has also created choreographic works for companies throughout Europe and beyond. In 2000, he founded Tony Rizzi & the Bad Habits. Its first production, Snowman Sinking, created with his mother, Verna Rizzi, established him as an original voice in Tanztheater. Through his company, he continues to create performances that combine movement, photography, film, collage, text, humor, and social commentary. His works have been exhibited throughout Germany and internationally including the Künstlerhaus Mousonturm (Frankfurt), the Kunstverein Hamburg, MUMOK in Vienna and the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo.

STEVE VALK & TONY RIZZI“BALLET FRANKFURT AND THE CONCEPT OF SOCIAL CHOREOGRAPHY”

STEVE VALK & TONY RIZZI
“BALLET FRANKFURT AND THE CONCEPT OF SOCIAL CHOREOGRAPHY”