BACON
A production of Dance Company Nanine Linning
Linning's acclaimed production BACON celebrates its comeback on stage thirteen years after its first release in 2005. BACON, which received the “Swan” for the best Dutch dance production, returns in 2018 with revised choreography and new video- and light design. Rehearsals started in the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart where the company got invited to dance in front of the huge triptychs during the Francis Bacon retrospective December 2016.
Bacon breathes live into the pictorial worlds of figurative painter Francis Bacon. At times a refined painterly vision full of wild beauty, than again ferociously aggressive – Nanine Linning’s choreography explores the emotional realm at the core of his oeuvre.
"Instead of quoting the imageries of Francis Bacon, Nanine Linning creates a choreographic painting herself." tanznetz.de
"Predators lurking, every fibre tensed, soundless and in slow motion, this is great choreographic and terpsichorean art.“ Mannheimer Morgen
With her piece, Nanine Linning fathoms the emotional cosmos of Bacon`s paintings and detects in their uncompromising depiction an analogy with her own art:
‘I’m interested in animalistic impulses, the instinctive. I challenge my dancers to transgress their own boundaries.’
With excessive physicality, the choreography explores fundamental patterns of behavior, which blurs the line between human and feral bearing by their archaic and merciless nature. From an almost disturbing proximity the spectator witnesses the struggle of the individual for affiliation - a solo like a scream out of the isolation. The fight for superiority becomes physically tangible in duets of gripping intensity and in a trio whose inseparable connection does not allow for harmony.
"Nanine Linning revises her early masterpiece “Bacon” for Theater Heidelberg.. and shows her choreographic skills particularly clearly.“
"She paints. With bodies. With light. With reedy feral sounds (Jacob ter Veldhuis). And her dancers provide brilliant colours, structures and nuances for the world of Bacon.“ Mannheimer Morgen
In Bacon`s art the portrayal of fundamental behaviour opposes the mystery of what the painting does not show - the hidden side of the portrait or the space behind the picture. Also, Linning`s set plays with these dark spots as well as with the characteristic geometric structures that surround the figures in Bacon`s paintings. She collaborated this time with light designer and scenographer Jan Boiten as well as cutting edge composer Jacob ter Veldhuis and video designer Juliane Noß.
The VSCD (Association of Directors of Dutch Venues and Concert Halls) dance jury awarded the Swan for best dance production 2004-2005 to Bacon.
“Inspired by the work of Francis Bacon, one of the most important painters of the twentieth century, Nanine Linning choreographed the surprising production Bacon. Together with five dancers, composer Jacob ter Veldhuis and video artist Jan Boiten, Linning has immersed herself in Bacon’s expressive oeuvre to create a single all-embracing production. An extraordinary and energetic marriage of different disciplines: video, music and dance – with a unique, mutually strengthening effect. The alternation between flowing and contrasting movements is physical, energetic and scintillating. An impressive stage design, a strong mood-setting composition and an intriguing choreography make Bacon an expressive experience that grabs you just as hard as the morbid, disconcerting yet simultaneously vulnerable work of the artist Francis Bacon.”
More press about Bacon by Nanine Linning:
“Those who love dance and the visual arts can indulge themselves in this piece. Five dancers use their bodies to paint a wildly beautiful choreography about beastliness, physicality, sensuality and aggressiveness. And all this is done with a rich variety of twists and turns, resulting in sombre contorted poses, which are at the same time very sculptural and beautiful to watch. Linning has captured this contrast, which with Bacon liked to experiment. The method of movement is highly restrained, reminiscent of the Japanese Butoh dancers, but reveals an inner explosiveness which is what makes it so exciting”. Volkskrant
“Linning’s piece Bacon is impressive when it comes to the expressive representation of pain, agony and fear” NRC Handelsblad
“This journey towards a more intuitive approach is a courageous exercise, which certainly deserves a sequel”. Parool
“With a great sense of aesthetics, the choreographer, whose previous works such as ‘Cardiac Motion’ have demonstrated her fascination with the inner man, and who dances in this production herself, contorts the body into the most beautiful shapes”. Haagsche Courant
“Nanine Linning’s Bacon is a stubborn beauty that stays with you for a long time. The result – an extremely intense production – is extraordinary”. Utrechts Nieuwsblad