phere at Detlef Skowronek's projekttheater, a hungry audience - and a whiff of chaos "for the cosmic laughter.' From this fertile soil there grew 'Südgrenze,' their magical/satirical kaleidoscope of civilisation on power, travelling, death and the absurd friendship between two masked figures, a giant (Anton) and a dwarf (Lena). There are only a few seconds to the scene in which the little one, crouching through life, manages to triumphantly scale the throne of absent auth-
qualities of a 'universal artist' are being thrashed out: someone who can fill the contours of his/her own art form authentically and at will. A system of exercises is aimed at destroying habitual movement styles. Adassinsky: "Exposing habits for what they are allows us to strike at the roots of movement, to get back to absolute zero. This is the way to create a marionette that you can do anything at all with." Working from this basis, the group and 20 students devised 'Grauzone' at
Dresden. 'Once,' DEREVOS first piece with an eternal triangle story in the style of German rustic theatre, was the starting point for a journey of exploration through diverse style on the borderlands of dance and theatre concluding with ten performances entitled 'Once More About Love.' Driven by Adassinsky's rehearsal series with Slava Polunin for the planned harliquinade 'Karneval in St. Petersburg,' the mammoth project reflects its own location once more and reveals what it's all
Anton Adassinsky in Terschelling, Holland, photograph by Oleg Shatz
ority with a chicken coop ladder ... but the masterfully minimalist way it happens rips the lid off a fundamental problem of the cosmos which each spectator can read as personal, political or psychological according to where they're coming from.
In Dresden Adassinsky's playing pied piper to young talent in his ambitious trial of strength 'School on wheels:' in workshops over several weeks and a series of public peformances the
the crumbling romantic setting of the Hellerau Festspielhaus in 1996, a ritual reflecting the turbulent history of the historic building. The actors eavesdropped on the voices of the past haunting the rooms of the building in its various uses, from the Rhythmics educational institute of Jaques Dalcroze, the cradle of Ausdruckstanz, military hospital, SS barracks to Soviet Army billet. For the recent clown project 'Inner Garden' 60 students from ten countries gathered in
about: protecting an
survival itself.
survival itself.
endangered
species,
4
DEREVO is on tour with 'Once:' on July 2 at the Asti Festival in Italy, July 5 in Iserlohn, July 8 at the Arena Festival in Erlangen, from July 10-14 with 'Execution Of Pierrot,' 'Once' and 'Red Zone' at the 1000-year anniversary celebrations in Gdansk (Poland) and with 'Red Zone' from August 8 - 27 at the Edinburgh Festival.
