Sasha Waltz: Körper (The Body)

Camilo had two tickets to see Sasha Waltz this evening, and his date cancelled, so I went in her place and am entranced. There's a trailer here (nudity alert) for the piece we saw, but the trailer barely hints at how intense it is: bodies smacking into walls, into each other; bodies lifted or lifting themselves; bodies rolling down an incline. The sound of huge gears grinding, of traffic, of massive metal doors. Weaving in among the noise come wisps of accordion or violin. Body percussion. This led me to a chain of thought.

Each of us is here in a body. If we strip away the narrative, the roles, the interpretations, if we ask, "What happened to/in/with the body?" we would have a fresh life narrative. The body ran, or ate, or vomited; the body touched another body, or was wedged between panes of glass, sheets of metal; the body broke, the heart pounded, the toe throbbed. The gash in the leg bled. The body. It was marvelous to watch thirteen extremely fit bodies do what bodies can do; and it is a fresh idea to me to consider the story of the body as body. If I were five years younger I would sit up all night writing the story of this body. If I were still teaching, I'd assign my students to write the stories of their bodies: with no interpretation, no analysis, no blame, nothing to achieve, nothing to lose. Just the body. What did the body do?

Gratitude to Sasha Waltz who said, in an interview I watched online, "If I wanted a narrative, I'd do theatre." I see what she means.