Jiří Kylián has already made many masterpieces, one of them the fascinating Sleepless, a creation for six young dancers in which the set plays an important part. It has a wall behind which dancers – or sometimes just parts of their bodies – appear, disappear and return. The set allows unexpected entrances or creates hallucinating images of heads which in a grotesque way do not appear to go with the bodies.
The fascinating “Sleepless” is one of Kylián's many masterpieces, which shows how he could become one of the most influential choreographers of the last 30 years.
It could be an interesting exercise, to trace and to document all the sleepless nights and hours, which we, creators, interpreters, assistants and all involved, have to endure in the course of making a new product, or a so called “Work of Art”. These hours and nights will probably be countless… Imagine, that we all would assign someone to accompany us at any time while we are creating, someone who will precisely measure the time in which we are awake or asleep.
Probably, this exercise would not be very revealing or practical, as I can imagine, that it must be very difficult to determine, to which degree a human beings are conscious or subconscious, awake or asleep, or to which degree they are aware of their activities, or how accountable they are for their actions…
”Sleepless” is a work for the young dancers of NDT II. And creating this work was equally challenging and rewarding, (For them as well as for myself). Basically it comes down to the simple fact, that teaching and learning are just the two sides of the same coin. The dialog between generations is always fascinating… It brings a certain feeling of “Maturity” to the young ones , and a feeling of ‘'Rejuvenation'' to the older ones…
The Work of Lucio Fontana, the Argentinean artist, had an indirect influence on my creation of “Sleepless” – His “Incisions” which he inflicted on his paintings have created a “New Dimension” in the “Two Dimensional” world of painting:
His action of cutting through the canvas, thus declaring, that the canvas is not necessarily the only thing to behold but that there might be something more important lying behind or beyond it, was a revelation and an achievement which left a deep scar in my mind… Dance is an art form, which totally relies on our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual awareness.
It is totally dependent of the three dimensions which are available to us (until now), and which determine the entire space in which we move, live and exist…
Lucio Fontana took a knife, with which he destroyed the monochrome surface of his paintings.
But his “Kill” gave his paintings a new life… He gave the two dimensionality of painting a third dimension. He opened the secret door to the “Unknown”… But this was just the beginning… We will look for other “Dimensions”, physical, emotional, philosophical or spiritual, as long as we possess the energy to do so…
Jiří Kylián – The Hague, April 2, 2010