ANTHONY HOWELL & LINDI KÖPKE

Upcoming performances:

2012-13:

Tango Schumann is available for bookings. 

Performances by Tango Schumann usually last about 16 minutes, and four numbers are danced.  When a full evening programme is required we suggest that our Tango Schumann performance is preceded by an additional programme of performance videos by Anthony Howell or videos related to the theme of the dance programme.

Note also that previous programmes, including the Robert Schumann Bicentennial Programme danced in his birthplace, Zwickau in 2010, are also available for revival - for details please scroll down in the archive.

 

 Current projects

 

 

1. Evolution

A key aim of Tango Schumann is to expand the range of tango as a dance-form, demonstrating that the style can be effectively applied to more musical forms than traditional tango.  For the 'Evolution' programme, Lindi and Anthony arrange their dances in the historical order of the music's composition.

They dance first to a beautiful waltz by Chopin, then to a traditional tango, Que Noche! recorded by Juan D'Arienzo in 1937, then to the pure timing of silence and timbre that distinguishes Duke Ellington's Isfahan, from his Far-East Suite (1966), and finally their improvisation is led by a piece of tango nuevo called Taxi Nocturno by Axel Krygier.  Thus 'Evolution' begins with classical music, continues with traditional tango, then jazz, and concludes with contemporary 'tango nuevo'.

This programme is designed not only as a performance for galleries but also as an outreach programme, suitable for schools, for tango salons and festivals; bringing Tango Schumann's work to a wider public and demonstrating how versatile the tango is today.

Optional addition to the programme:  Partnerships – a programme of performance videos by Anthony Howell – Homage to The Horses of Saint Petersburg – Howell brings horses into the Imperial Riding School for the first time since the Revolution, and The World Turned Upside Down – Howell performs with dogs in Jayne Parker’s film made for the BBC.  Alternatively, Anthony Howell, who is also a poet, is willing to give a reading of his tango novel Oblivion, published by Grey Suit Editions, after the show.

Optional addition 2:  During the 90s, Anthony Howell was editor of Grey Suit: Video for Art and Literature.  This was a seminal VHS video magazine that provided a showcase for performance art, new music, poetry and installation.  With the original masters transferred onto DVD, a selection of performance works etc from the issues of this magazine can be shown - includes work by Stelarc, Sander, Station House etc.

 

 

2.  French Music at The Birth of Modernism

Tango Schumann explore the music of the French impressionists in this programme, taking on the problematics of modernism, to prove that this music can be as well interpreted by their dance as that of that of the previous period. 

They start with Satie's haunting First Gymnopedie, played by Cecile Ousset.  This is an essay in pristine structure.  According to Jean Cocteau, Satie's music was opposed to the shimering veils of impressionism.  Tango Schumann then dance to the seemingly raw energy of the first of Ravel's Valses nobles et sentimentales, played by Jean-Philippe Collard.  The piece brings to mind the violent brush-work of Van Gogh.. 

After that they take on the mood-immersed difficulties of Debussy's D'un cahier d'esquisses, played by Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, and they finish their programme exploring the fluidity of Alkan's Promenade sur l'eau, played by Alan Weiss.  Alkan's music precedes that of the other composers, but is nevertheless innovative and he pioneered the notion of musical pictures - taken up later by the impressionists.

Optional addition to the programme:  Impressionist film – to accompany this programme we present a rare example of impressionist film.  Germaine Dulac's The Smiling Madame Beudet, made in 1922, is an impressionist masterpiece as well as an early example of feminist film.  Suspense here is built up with a remarkable economy of means.

 

3.  Romance

This programme focuses on Tango Schumann's core area of music from the romantic era. It is music designed to conjure up the emotions, and unashamedly to move the listener. Thus the music may arouse light hearted or melancholy moods - as was always intended. 

Lindi and Anthony dance to the lilt of Schumann's Etude 5 for Pedal Piano, played by the Brahms Trio, then to Elgar's Salut d'Amor, the eerie poetry of which is nicely brought out by Lynn Harrell (cello) and Bruno Canino (piano). After that they dance to the third movement of the Sonata for violin number 3 in a minor by Brahms.

  

The programme concludes with the impeccably structured simplicity of Chopin's posthumously published Nocturne in C minor, played by Tzimon Barto.

Optional addition to the programme:  The Whirlpool is a short choreographed underwater dance film made by Jayne Parker.  Accompanied by the pianist Katharina Wolpe, playing music by Schumann, the underwater performer Deborah Figueiredo puts on a pair of red ballet shoes and walks en pointe across the pool floor. Captivated by the magic of this underwater world she begins to dance, unaware of the danger that lies ahead.

 

4. Homage to Chopin 

  

For their 2012 programme, Tango Schumann will present Homage to Chopin. In traditional tango, dancers demonstrating their skills usually dance three numbers, followed by an encore. They may use a tango, a tango waltz (vals) or a milonga – since these are the principle rhythms enjoyed when there is a gathering of dancers at a salon. With Chopin, there is also a range of rhythms to explore. So while it is tempting to dance three nocturnes, and remain in the same mood throughout the performance, we have chosen to work with a variety of rhythms.

Liszt speaks of ‘the little groups of super-added notes falling like light drops of pearly dew upon the melodic figure.’ His biographical rhapsody on Chopin is so overblown that it perfectly underscores the essential notion of Romanticism. 

  

Music was to the 19th century what visual art was to the twentieth. 

In its day, Romanticism was distinguished by the belief in ‘correspondence’ – it was essential to evoke, to assign natural or human characteristics and emotional value to every cadence. Everything suggested something else. There was a magnification of implication. This was the buzz idea of its day.

  

Chopin pioneered a tempo rubato – a rule of irregularity – similar to tango. And tango has assigned to it a romanticism bordering on the melodramatic. For both, the melody undulates to and fro. Tango Schumann will be dancing or simply listening to certain nocturnes, exploring a vals also, working with one of the noisier etudes and finishing with a contredanse. 

  

Zal will be mingled with Duende.   We dance to the Nocturne in F sharp, played by Adam Harasiewicz, to the Valse in A minor played by Idil Biret, then we depart from tango tradition and explore the slow simplicity of Tzimon Barto playing the Nocturne in C minor (opus posthumous) and we finish with the Contredanse in G flat major, also played by Tzimon Barto.

  

But can we find meaning through the music for every movement, guided by the authentic Zal of Chopin – pity, regret, resentment, sorrow? The theme of emotional articulation through abstract action is one continued from last year’s Homage to Schumann, performed for Schumann’s bicentennial in Zwickau, his birth-place last year.