title : Lutz Förster (2009)

concept : Jérôme Bel
by and with : Lutz Förster
with extracts of pieces by : Pina Bausch (Kontakthof, 1980 – Ein Stück von Pina Bausch, Nelken, Ahnen, Für die Kinder von gestern, heute und morgen) and José Limón (The Moor’s Pavane)
in collaboration with : Bettina Masuch
stage manager : Thomas Wacker
special thanks to : Pina Bausch, Carla Maxwell – Limón Dance Company, Robert Wilson, Caetano Veloso
Jérôme Bel and Lutz Förster also wish thank : Facultad de Danza – Universidad Veracruzana (Xalapa, Mexico), Folkwang Hochschule Essen, Centre National de la Danse (Paris), Ménagerie de Verre – Studiolabs (Paris), Sabine Hesseling, Franko Schmidt production : Springdance (Utrecht), R.B. Jérôme Bel (Paris)
in collaboration with : Landshoff Entertainment (Hamburg)
supported by : Kulturstiftung des Bundes

duration : 60 minutes
language : English

R.B Jérôme Bel is supported by the Direction régionale des affaires culturelles d'Ile-de-France, French Ministry for Culture and Communication, by the Institut Français, French Ministry for Foreign Affairs, for its international tours and by the ONDA - Office National de Diffusion Artistique - for its tours in France
website : www.jeromebel.fr

In 2008, I was invited by Pina Bausch to come and perform Véronique Doisneau in her festival in Wuppertal. This piece was a solo for Paris Opera Ballet dancer Véronique Doisneau. In this 2004 production, Véronique Doisneau was retrospectively describing her work as a « corps de ballet » dancer in the Paris Opéra, since she was going to retire that same year at age 42.

I answered Pina Bausch that unfortunately Véronique Doisneau was now retired and that she couldn’t perform anymore. But I offered to develop the same kind of work with one of her dancers. Pina Bausch said that she was interested by the project.

Some time later, I told Bettina Masuch, German producer and dramaturg, about this project and she said that she knew Lutz Förster personally, one of the most devoted members of the Tanztheater Wuppertal, and that she could put us in contact.

I knew Lutz Förster because I had seen him perform many times in Pina Bausch’s early works. After Lutz Förster had watched the Véronique Doisneau film, we both agreed to try to make a solo titled Lutz Förster in which he would talk about his own career as a dancer.

Jérôme Bel, January 2009, Xalapa, Mexico