A major choreographic figure in the international scene, Robyn Orlin has long been considered as the enfant terrible of South-African dance before being acknowledged in Europe in the early 2000s. In 2007 she was invited by Paris Opera Ballet to choreograph L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato.
This book is about her personal and artistic journey from Johannesburg to Berlin, from New York to Paris and London. Born to Jewish parents from Eastern Europe who fled Nazi Germany, Orlin’s youth was marked by the fight against apartheid. She never dissociated her aesthetic choices from her political commitment.
Olivier Hespel tells us about an intuitive artist, funny and rebellious, just like her pieces, convinced that “art is useless if it is not in touch with reality”.
“Beauty in theatre does not interest me. Neither does the technique of actors or dancers. What I am looking for is their humanity.”
“Refusing to let things become set, initiating movement and thereby contradiction, this is my very position as an artist.”
Olivier Hespel is a cultural journalist living in Belgium. He contributes to Vif / L’Express news magazine and ZONE02 magazine.