EINEM
A MEDIATED DANCE WORK FOR A SOLO PERFORMER.

PREMIERED: APRIL 2003 TQW, VIENNA, AUSTRIA
20 MINS

CHOREOGRAPHY: MICHAEL KLIËN
MUSIC: VOLKMAR KLIEN
SOFTWARE-DESIGN: NICK ROTHWELL, MICHAEL KLIËN
ORIGINAL LIGHTING: JAN WALTHER

ORIGINALLY PRODUCED BY: BALLETT FRANKFURT, TANZQUARTIER WIEN & ZKM
CURRENTLY: REPERTOIRE OF DAGHDHA DANCE COMPANY

BACKGROUND
Performed to critical acclaim by an exceptional roster of solo dance artists, EINEM - a 'work in movement' - is a mediated dance work which is subject to continuous change. Since its inception in 2003 – and with each consecutive presentation of the work - EINEM has been developed by each of its solo performers towards the creation of a synergistic relationship between the dancer and the piece itself: thus allowing the work to grow, learn, mutate and live together with the individual dancer with whom a communication occurs back and forth over time. Dancers who have ‘co-habited’ with the work include Christine Buerkle and Nicole Peisl, Elena Gianotti and Laura Dannequin.

EINEM is based around a 'flowing' structure - a mix of variable instructions and rules as to how the designated performer is supposed to 'create her own movement'. These instructions and rules can and do change according to pre-defined parameters.
Essential to the process is the dancer entering into a dialogue between himself/herself and the choreographic structure. This is accomplished through observation by the dancer of a graphically expressed, complex algorithmic framework housed by a computer (and hidden from the audience). In counterpoint to this mediated information, the dancer has to make both strategic and instinctual decisions based on her actual subjective experience of the performance – determining which of the instructions and rules contained within the choreographic structure are to be retained or discarded. While some will survive and others will not, the dancer keeps up this communication process to ensure the overall survival of the choreographic structure. Therefore, she is constantly involved in adapting the structure in the lead up to and during the performance and to developing the solo to its 'ideal' momentary situation. In later versions additional choreographic methodologies were developed to leave out the computer element of the work, whilst strengthening the process and manifestation of EINEM.
EINEM can be understood as a mediated communication process between a self-propelled, flexible, dynamic and ever-changing template and a performer - who not only influences and guides the template, but also inhabits it every time it is performed.