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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 January 2009
Tight Roaring Circle, a 1997 Artangel installation at the Roundhouse in London, was a collaboration between choreographers and a musician, as well as with the curators and the audience. Through the installation Dana Caspersen, William Forsythe, and Joel Ryan furthered their explorations into engendering, ordering, and composing movement. By obscuring each individual's contribution they also raised issues of authorship, disciplinary boundaries, and autonomy. Many of the issues provoked by the installation are also being pursued at the Ballett Frankfurt, where Caspersen is a dancer and choreographer, Forsythe is artistic director and choreographer, and for which Ryan often writes music. Having first studied philosophy, Steven Spier is a senior lecturer in architecture in the School of Urban Development and Policy at South Bank University. He has written an article on Forsythe's relationship to classical ballet for the Journal of Architecture, and a book that brings together an architect's and a novelist's work.
1. As quoted in Reynolds, R., ‘Artangel’, Flash Art, 01–02 1997, p. 49Google Scholar.
2. Artangel ‘commissions and produces new, temporary works by contemporary artists. Each commission is shaped by its location … and each project has at its centre the principle of collaboration’ (Artangel's brochure). It was founded in 1985 and has been directed since 1991 by curators James Lingwood and Michael Morris. Its most famous commission has been House (1993–1994) by Rachel Whiteread. Artangel is the topic of a forthcoming paper.
3. For a discussion of Forsythe's work at the Frankfurt, Ballett see my paper, ‘Engendering and Composing Movement: William Forsythe and the Ballett Frankfurt’, Journal of Architecture, Summer 1998Google Scholar.
4. Michael Morris, interview with author, London, 10 June 1997.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Dana Caspersen and William Forsythe, interview with author, London, 25 March 1997.
8. From ‘A Conversation between Dana Caspersen, William Forsythe, and the Architect Daniel Libeskind’, Royal Geographical Society, London, 7 March 1997 (in the event Professor Peter Cook substituted for an un-well Libeskind).
9. Morris, op. cit.
10. Ibid.
11. ‘Important Works on the Birmingham Railway’, The Builder, CCII (19 December 1846), p. 602–3.
12. Morris, op. cit.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. Caspersen and Forsythe, interview, op. cit. The stage in Frankfurt has a turntable at its centre.
17. British Architectural Library: Special Collections: the Roundhouse: Design Report. Heritage Lottery Fund Application, prepared by Michael Hopkins and Partners, July 1995, p. 17.
18. Steven Pilcher, English Heritage Casework Manager, North East London, telephone interview with James Beighton, 20 March 1997.
19. The Builder, op. cit.
20. The Guinness Book of Records (London: Guinness Publishing, 1997), p. 160. It stood 12 metres tall and 19 metres wide, was made of 2,725 square metres of white PVC-coated polyester, and took fifteen minutes to fill with 385 cubic metres of air and six hours to erect fully.
21. For instance, see Searle, A., ‘Boing, Boing’, The Guardian, 29 03 1997, p. 7Google Scholar, in which he concludes by saying, ‘Remember to take a small sharp object on your visit.’
22. Forsythe is well known for the challenging theatrical quality of the Ballett Frankfurt's performances, especially the lighting. For a synopsis of some of his techniques, see Potter, M., ‘Off-Centre: William Forsythe’, Dance Australia, 02–03 1994, p. 71–2Google Scholar.
23. Caspersen and Forsythe, interview, op. cit.
24. Mishima, Y., Runaway Horses, translated from the Japanese by Gallagher, M. (London: Seeker and Warburg, 1973), p. 214Google Scholar. The actual quote is prose.
25. Joel Ryan, interview with author, 14 June 1997.
26. Ibid.
27. Caspersen, Forsythe, and Libeskind, op. cit.
28. Sulcas, R., ‘Kinetic Isometries: William Forsythe on His “Continuous Rethinking of the Ways in which Movement Can Be Engendered and Composed”,’ Dance International, Summer 1995, p. 8Google Scholar.
29. Ryan, op cit.
30. Driver, S. and the editors of Ballet Review, ‘A Conversation with William Forsythe’, Ballet Review, XVIII, No. 1 (Spring 1990), p. 87Google Scholar.
31. A Ballett Frankfurt piece, for example, can be described visually as ‘moving through ballet like a fish through water as it disregards the conventional logic that governs the order and impulses of steps, incorporating infinite planes of orientation. Legs buckle, bottoms push back, arms skew, classical lines are drawn and erased in the air or on the floor. A finger determines momentum and direction; an ear leads the body as it writes in space; verticality and effortlessness appear and vanish like the imaginary constructs they are.’ See Sulcas, R., ‘In the News: the Continuing Evolution of Mr. Forsythe’, Dance Magazine, 01 1997, p. 35Google Scholar. The pieces tend to be demanding in their apparent athleticism.
32. Figgis, M. (director), ‘Just Dancing Around? Bill Forsythe’ (Euphoria Films, 1996), broadcast on Channel Four, 27 12 1996, 19.30Google Scholar.
33. Caspersen, Forsythe, and Libeskind, op. cit.; Figgis, op. cit.
34. Caspersen and Forsythe, interview, op. cit. He remarked that during a preview the night before the opening there were fifty children inside and no collisions.
35. Caspersen, Forsythe, and Libeskind, op. cit.
36. Sulcas, ‘Kinetic Isometries’, op. cit., p. 7.
37. Caspersen, Forsythe, and Libeskind, op. cit.
38. See The Dance of Life: the Other Dimension of Time (New York: Anchor Books / Doubleday, 1983).
39. Sulcas, ‘Kinetic Isometries’, op. cit., p. 8.
40. Caspersen and Forsythe, interview, op. cit.
41. M. Figgis, op cit. Rizzi is a choreographer and dancer with the company.
42. Caspersen, Forsythe, and Libeskind, op. cit.
43. Caspersen and Forsythe, interview, op. cit.
44. In correspondence with the author, Forsythe wished to change this verb to ‘access’.
45. Sulcas, ‘Poetry of Disappearance’, op. cit., p. 33.
46. Caspersen and Forsythe, interview, op. cit.
47. M. Figgis, op. cit. Steinhoff, while regarding Forsythe as a genius and a friend, nevertheless articulates his predicament in working collaboratively: ‘Artists need a kind of partner. They don't need a slave. They always want a slave. They want to have somebody who is solving their problems, helping them in being successful, but who they can treat as they want.’ Forsythe cites their ability to argue with each other as a key to their relationship.
48. Morris, op. cit.
49. Caspersen, fax to the author, 13 July 1997.
50. Ibid.