Entertainment Report :
Celebrated Swiss performer and choreographer Gregory Stauffer presented a contemporary dance show titled Walking at the Goethe-Institut auditorium in the city’s Dhanmondi area recently.
Stauffer was brought to Dhaka by the Embassy of Switzerland in Bangladesh in collaboration with Pro Helvetia-Swiss Arts Council and hosted by Goethe-Institut Bangladesh. His performance was inaugurated by Head of Political, Economic and Cultural Affairs of the Swiss Embassy, Christoph Fuchs, who greeted the audience and introduced Gregory Stauffer on behalf of the organizers, right before all the lights were turned off and the show began mystically.
In his solo performance, Gregory Stauffer was walking. Walking not in ordinary movements, but in a huge variety of different styles, he expressed himself mostly silent but in concentrated and conscious actions. Using not more than his bare body, a drum and a flute, Stauffer created a life’s journey with all its heights and depths, struggles and successes.
Stauffer was embracing the affection the environment has on the human mind and body as he was reacting to influences around him. Despite – or even precisely his very abstract performance his audience got caught by the story he was telling with no words.
On the other hand, he also conducted a workshop at Goethe-Institut, which was attended by 20 young dancers from Bangladesh. Stauffer is based in Geneva, Switzerland. Since 2006 he has created works which are deliberately located in a transverse and blurred territory between dance and performance. His work has been performed as much in theatres and festivals as in galleries.
