Robyn Orlin (South Africa) – IN A CORNER THE SKY SURRENDERS – UNPLUGGING ARCHIVAL JOURNEYS … # 3 (FOR VOLMIR <3)...
Duration: 70 min.
ATTENTION: There are scenes in the performance in which the dancer appears nude. Recommended age range 12+
Performance Language: English.
Rewind … Manhattan lower east side … 1994 …
When I was living and working in New York I was struck by the survival instincts of the homeless. Inlower east side Manhattan there was always traffic of large cardboard refrigerator boxes in many of thestreets, which often broke out into vicious street wars. Different attitudes were used to preserve andinhabit these ‘cardboard homes’. At this same time I was struggling to find a space to make my workand decided to join the ranks of the homeless and use a cardboard refrigerator box in which to work ….and so my solo , ‘in a corner…. ‘ was born, and was performed in New York , Chicago, South Africa and Australia ….
Fast forward … Berlin 2001 …
I am visiting the jewish memorial …. as I was walking through the different cement cylinders, I started tofeel lost, anxious and a sense of panic …. I remember looking up to the sky and slowly finding my wayout with the help of the sky …. I remember as I exit the memorial my piece with the box and wonderingif the piece would have a life in Europe …. thought placed on the back burner of my brain, neverthinking more about it …
Fast forward … Berlin 2020 …
Corona arrives on our doorsteps …. I watch how everybody is coping or not … I quietly keep looking upat the sky for clarity ….. I use Zoom to try to connect with the outside world …. there is a moment thatthe boxes that appear on my monitor are no different to the cardboard boxes on the Manhattanstreets or the Jewish Memorial in Berlin….. but the situation is a little different (we cannot leave ourboxes), but the coping mechanisms similar …
After recreating this solo with Nadia Beugré in 2022 at the Montpellier Dance Festival, then in 2024 for Marta Izquierdo Munoz at La Place de la Danse, Robyn Orlin revived this seminal piece in 2025 for Volmir Cordeiro.
Johannesburg-born dancer and choreographer of Lithuanian and Polish Jewish descent,
Robyn Orlin founded the “City Theatre & Dance Group” in 1988. Since “Daddy, I have seen this piece six times before…” (1999), which won a Laurence Olivier Award, Orlin’s pieces have been performed all over the world.
“Daddy, I have seen this piece six times before…” is a richly satiric portrait of race relations, confrontations and the threat presented by democracy to Western “elitist” dance forms. Perhaps the pinnacle of Orlin’s socio-political expression and achievement is the commission by the Paris Opéra of “L’Allegro, il penseroso ed il moderato” (2007) where she had étoiles and ballet dancers pulling down tutu’s supremacy.
Nicknamed in South Africa as “permanent irritation”, she reveals, through her work, the difficult and complex reality of her country. She incorporates various artistic expressions (text, video, plastic arts …), in order to explore a certain theatricality that is reflected in her choreographic vocabulary.
A project by Robyn Orlin With Volmir Cordeiro
Lighting design and stage management: Beatriz Kaysel Velasco e Cruz. General management alternating with Agathe Patonnier
Sound design: Loup Gangloff
Costumes: Birgit Neppl
Reconstruction of the set: Annie Tolleter
Booking: Damien Valette
Coordination: Bertille Zimmermann
Production: “City Theatre & Dance Group” et “Damien Valette Production”
Coproduction: Co-production and residency program as part of the initiative Accueil Studio du Dancing, Centre de Développement Chorégraphique National Dijon Bourgogne-Franche-Comté,
With the support of CND Centre national de la danse – Accueil en résidence et de l’Espace Pasolini/Laboratoire artistique/Valenciennes in creation residency.
With the support of the Direction régionale des affaires culturelles d’Ile de France
Photos by Jérôme Séron
Premiere: 1994 m.
Recreation: 2025 m.
The festival “New Baltic Dance” is funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture, the Vilnius City Municipality, the Lithuanian Culture Institute, and the EU.