PRESS - articles and reviews for "SWIM BABY!"

About "SWIM BABY!"
The Winston-Salem Journal, Winston-Salem, NC
05-18-2000
(excerpt)
By Lynn Felder

"PHASES OF LIFE: PRODUCTION STIRS EMOTIONS WITH INGENIOUS PHYSICALITY"

"Last night's performance by the alban elved dance company careered through phases of relationship and life passages, turning emotional ideas into stirring, moving pictures...First we heard the flutter of 8 mm film projector, then the recorded techno-industrial soundtrack by Rhan Small and Sylvia Bognar. The soundtrack was as richly shaded and textured as the dance. In one especially moving segment, Luttringhaus and Lieske, in white costumes, danced directly in front of two white screens. When two different 8 mm film were projected onto the screens, they are also projected onto the dancers, and Small's voice sang, "Everything in the world seems brand new. Even for me, it seems brand new."

Luttringhaus has described "SWIM BABY!" as a self - portrait of a time in her life when she was in transition... ...it is like being between two worlds, not quite belonging to either.

"SWIM BABY!" captures the unease of being between worlds ... Not everyone makes the transition; some people fall into the abyss in between. "

Der Tagesspiegel
Berlin, Germany
August 1997
(excerpt)
By Alexander Bartl

"…By projecting film on stage, choreographer Karola Luttringhaus created a medial mirror image of the dancers whose physical caprioles were not sufficient to prevent emotional idling. … All together she put a lot of emphasis on the principles of modern dance, the balance between suspension and release in unadulterated form. Every gushing up is answered by a falling back to where the movement originated. Mostly the movement were very close to the ground, and filled with elements on horizontal levels.

Once, her partner levels out a path on all fours where each deviation into the darkness throws her back into her narrow path. The piece is called "SWIM BABY!", but only in the very end of the performance the dancer in the film escapes her floating state and swims.

…Karola Luttringhaus was able to fascinate the audience with her way of combining bodies and moving images on stage."