Pina, Rina and us

As part of Bangkok Art and Culture Centre’s (BACC) ongoing third annual Performative Art Festival, Friends of the Arts Foundation has been running “Connecting Asean+ 2014”, a series of free dance workshops for young people between the ages of 13 and 20 from the Asean bloc since Friday.
 In addition to various dance genres like khon, jazz dance and hip-hop, they’re learning traditional and modern dances from the Asean countries and getting the benefits of voice training and mind mapping. Making this year’s event even more special is the fact that they are working with internationally revered dancer and choreographer Rina “the Princess of Israeli Dance” Schenfeld who’s recreating her latest work “Note to Pina Bausch” with selected workshop participants.
 This is Schenfeld’s third trip to BACC in three years and she’s pleased to be back.
  “I like the colours, the culture, Thai food, Thai manners and BACC as an art space,” she says. I also like co- producing projects with Vararom Pachimsawat [director of Friends of the Arts Foundation]. I even like answering your interview questions!
 “The students have learned from me how to work, dance and move with objects like stones, elastic ribbons, plastic bags, flowers; how to speak gibberish, how to eat an apple on stage, and so on,” Schenfeld says of the ongoing workshop and rehearsal.
 “They’ve also learned how to move with humour. I find that they’ve opened up well to these new experiences, in addition to different motions and emotions. It’s as Pina Bausch said, ‘I’m not interested in movement; but in what moves people’.”
 Schenfeld, now 76 but still as prolific as ever, admits that she too has learned from this unique experience.
 “I’ve learned that the idea of mixing students, amateurs and maybe even people from the street and from the audience can work very well. It’s like a dialogue, like music heard at different levels. One strengthens another. It’s like a big echo to my solo. It’s a conversation between the old and the young, the experienced and the inexperienced, the single and the multiple. The dancer, the students and the public will have a different experience and we’re all looking forward to this great event on Sunday.”
 “The piece is a homage to Pina Bausch. Pina changed the world of dance. She is considered the mother of dance theatre and she was a very dear friend of mine and I’ll show all this.”
  “It’s a combination of dance, poetry by Hadassa Tal, video screenings and beautiful music by Henrich Eisenmann. I obtained the rights to use some of Pina’s beautiful films that she made herself namely ‘The Plaint of the Empress’ and ‘Ahnen Ahnen'.”

One performance only
“Note to Pina Bausch” by Rina Schenfeld and Connecting Asean+ 2014 participants takes place at the 4th floor studio of Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BTS: National Stadium) on Sunday at 5pm.
Admission is free.
For reservations, call (090) 907 2893-4, or email [email protected].
For more information, visit www.Friends-of-the-Arts.info.