An Excerpt of a Concept on Ritual and Monotony
Choreography: Max Levy (US/JP)
Dancers: Kirill Berezovski, Malcolm Sutherland
The choreographer
Born in Tokyo, Max Levy trained at the prestigious San Francisco Ballet under the direction of Jean-Yves Esquerre. As a professional dancer, he has worked with the American Repertory Ballet, Charlotte Ballet and the Staatsballett Nürnberg, under the direction of Goyo Montero. He now choreographs and dances out of Berlin, bringing a meditative approach to athletic, movement-driven works while creating a world of detached fantasy and surrealism. His works have been performed with the Staatsballett Nürnberg, with dancers and choreographers of the Staatsballett Berlin, the Freier Tanz im Delta in Mannheim.And he reached the Top 10 of the 32nd International Choreography Competition in Hannover for his duet An Excerpt of a Concept on Ritual and Monotony. His upcoming projects include a new work for ChoreoLab – Made in Ulm, as well as his own full-evening performance, Meditations, premiering July 4,5,6 in Berlin.
The choreography
“How long I sat there everyday, looking at that shadowy reflection across from me. This otherworldly figure, beyond boundaries of glass and skin and time. It was everything I was not, but in it I could see shapes of my voice; sounds of my eyes. When it spoke, I could taste my own tongue; silent syllables of a lost language, sifting through my mind. In its inhumanity I was repelled, but understood. Calling me from afar with a voice just like mine. It spoke of beyond, and I saw before. It spoke of no ends, and I saw no beginnings.”
What are the highlights from your career up till now?
The opportunity I got to dance so many different works, with so many different styles and influences. Thanks to these chances I can decide what I want or don’t want in my own work.
The names of choreographers are irrelevant and the highlights would be too many to mention. Each choreographer and highlight has helped me find what I want out of my own process and creativity.
The chance to have danced so many different works, with so many different styles and influences, enables me to decide what I want (or don’t want) out of my own work. The names of choreographers are irrelevant, and the highlights would be too many to mention. Every different one has helped me find what I want out of my own process and creativity.
Why did you register for RIDCC?
As one day I want to work as a choreographer for different companies and run my own projects, I wanted to share to as many people as possible that what I felt was unique, no matter the context or comparisons it would receive. This duet represents the first process in which I really asked myself what was “necessary” for the true core in a work of dance, and if all other things were irrelevant. This was very important for my own growth, and I wanted to utilize it as a choreographic milestone to mark my taste and personality to the rest of the world, i.e. RIDCC.
What do you think RIDCC will bring you?
I hope this will bring my work to those who have not heard of me and help me transition my career from being a dancer to being a choreographer. But besides this concrete career goal, I believe RIDCC will put me in touch with countless other people that exist and create dance in this generation. My naivety used to assume that my chance to build something, would be some far-off future, but I realize that events like these help us connect with one another to give us the inspiration to already make our own imprint on the world. I think RIDCC will bring that motivation and network to all attendees.
What do you wish to cause with your choreography?
This duet is an attempt to create an atmosphere of curiosity and anxiety, by intentionally limiting conceptual choice. To see what can be produced as a result of intense monotony and unchanging apprehension. Instead of being allowed a playground of infinite options and widely varying dynamics, it attempts to put itself in a conceptual corner to focus its entire purpose on only one point.
