Sergiu Anghel - an interview by Silvia Ciurescu

7/21/2019 Sergiu Anghel - an interview by Silvia Ciurescu

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Sergiu Anghel

I made my debut in 1974. I had graduated from high school the year before and in the

summer of 73 Adina Cezar, atasha !r"istaru, Anca #$ndrescu, Cristian Cr"ciun and I

decided to establish a contem%orary dance trou%e. As far as I am concerned, the decision to

%ut together such a trou%e, to stage a %erformance of contem%orary dance and gi&e u% acontract in Austria as 'ell as the %ass%ort I had in my %oc(et has to do 'ith a certain

ha%%ening.

In 73, in #arch or A%ril, the Al'yn i(olais Com%any 'as touring in )ucharest. It 'as 'ith

some difficulty that I managed to get into the *omanian +%era hall and find a seat in the bac(

ro'. I can still remember that on the s%ot I e%erienced but a sort of %er%leity. -omething

fundamental had changed in my 'ay of thin(ing, in that area of stability made u% of the basic

images all of us at some %oint form about art. e all carry inside such more or less fleible

contours 'ithin 'hich, li(e in a /e'el bo, 'e %reser&e the &alues %ainsta(ingly sifted out of

the bul( of daily e%erience. )efore such a bo, li(e before an ar( of la's that 'e carry along

our 'hole life, 'e size u% the allogeneic gold and meteoritic roc(s that %ierce our cultural

atmos%here in an endless a%%roimation of total, ultimate &alue. 0ust li(e in the biblical

%arable of the %recious stone li(ened to the ea&enly (ingdom, any normal human being,

u%on meeting 'ith such a 2stone, sells out his %ossessions, ta(es his fa(e /e'els out of the

bo, sells them and uses 'hate&er he gets for them to buy the ne' gem. It all loo(s sim%le

and common sensical, but only someone 'ho has learnt the hard 'ay 'hat it feels li(e to

em%ty com%letely ones o'n system of &alues can begin to understand 'hy the net day I

'al(ed aimlessly the streets of )ucharest 'ith ata5a 6 'ho had felt it too 6 tal(ing and

crying li(e babies. !he most %ainful feeling 6 for both of us 6 'as that 'e had been robbed.

e both felt li(e nine years of our li&es had been ta(en a'ay from us. And 'orse, that in

order to be thus 'ronged, 'e had been sub/ected to a gruelling labour at the end of 'hich all

'e did 'as fill our treasure boes 'ith sand. -till, the %arable reuires some re%hrasing, at

least 'here I myself am concerned. It 'ould ha&e been so sim%le and easy for me if it had all

come do'n to a 2trade in &alues, if I could ha&e s'a%%ed my ridiculously classifying

fortune for i(olais fluorescent flashes and bodies of light. !he truth is that i(olais sho'

had only the magical %o'er to re&eal to me, li(e in an 8ray, that my artistic structure bac(

then lac(ed a real articulation. ith each day I became more a'are that i(olais 2stone

%ossessed but this irradiating force. After all he only re%eated 6 at a different technological

le&el 6 'hat the :rench called 2danse lumineuse, an in&ention for a musichall theatre

belonging to the American dancer ;ois :uller. rand all of the high school. It 'as 'ith some reluctance that he came and, undoubtedly,out of sheer amusement at first. ?&erything changed radically the day he sa' the first

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com%lete choreogra%hy of the sho'. It 'as Albinonis Adagio, a s(etch of ?leatic mo&ement,

a choreogra%hy that in a 'ay abolished mo&ement, announcing the buttoh techniue, 'hich

'as to a%%ear here only after @9. +ur friendshi%, born on that day, lasted throughout the years

of my artistic gro'th accumulating mutual admiration, endless arguments, and /ealousies, fits

of fury, re%eated betrayals and reconciliation. :rom Cezar, or should I say in the s%ace of the

dis%utes generated around his con&ictions 6 challenged or defended by those 'ho came into

his house 6 I learnt more than I did, later, in the lecture halls of the :aculty of ;etters or at

u(e Bni&ersity. Among those 'ho crossed his threshold or 'hose homes hosted tem%orarily

our dis%utes counted -orin umitrescu, tefan iculescu, *adu -tan, +cta&ian emescu,

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failure e&ery time I tried to sli% in some hint along some cultural line. I 'as in&oluntarily

res%onsible for uite a fe' moments of 2significant silence before I finally ga&e u% this

game. )ut there 'ere also moments of disconcerting 2sincerity. ere is an anecdote as I

'as lea&ing for )ucharest from ConstanJa, 'here I had /ust com%leted some rehearsals 'ith

!he !em%est for the ballet theatre run by Ana #aria #unteanu, I acce%ted to offer a ride to a

:rench lady 'ho had /ust finished 'or( on a %ro/ect unfolding at the same time. +n the 'ay

the 'oman (e%t de%loring the gruesome sight of animals smashed by the traffic. 2#ais cest

une horreurK Luelle horreurK And she (e%t saying that. hat irritated her in reality 'as that

no one came to clear the road right a'ay of the dead cats and dogs. hen my %atience ga&e

'ay I e%lained that there eisted indeed such a ser&ice, and that she 'as in fact 'itnessing

the cleaning of the roads, since bet'een the cars dri&ing along and the cro's on the road side

there de&elo%ed a real symbiosis, than(s to the singular industriousness of the *omanians.

er 2candid uestion came li(e a cold sho'er 2#ais cest uoi un symbioseM Comment Na

cGcritM It 'asnt de&oid of humour though. iurgeni, on both sides of the

road, 'e started s%otting the regular locals, mostly %oachers, 'ho, arms stretched out the size

of a large fish, 'ere signalling that they 'ere selling the days catch. -ome of them 6 those'ho 'ere selling not only large fish but smaller ones too 6 (e%t mo&ing their arms, sho'ing

'ith the %alms of their hands the size of the merchandise. Intrigued, the :rench 'oman as(ed

me 'hat those signs meant. I ans'ered dryly that those %eo%le 'ere *omanians 'ho 'anted

to emigrate and 'ho had nothing else to offer to the %otential foreign 'omen interested in

ta(ing them along but their natural manly 2gifts, 'hose size they 'ere ad&ertising in this

mannerO 2#ais arrPte toute de suite alorsK she feigned the intention of o%ening the door.

After the 2Doyage died out I 'as %articularly amazed by the 'ay my former students

reacted. +n certain occasions, 'hen some %ro/ect made it necessary for my students to

%roduce a curriculum &itae, I noticed 6 not 'ithout a tinge of bitterness 6 that all of themclaimed to ha&e gro'n out of the 2Doyage e%erience. one of their high school teachers

'as any'here mentioned, to say nothing of the %rofessors from the Bni&ersity, 'hose

lectures some of the students 'ere still attending. All of us, their former %rofessors, 'ere cast

a'ay li(e s%arro's that had hatched cuc(oos eggs. I failed to understand it bac( then. o' I

can see clearly that the crucial %art in the gro'th of a generation is not the incubation %eriod

but the brea(ing of the shell. !he first generations of choreogra%hers that 'e %roduced at the

B!CA shared the e%erience of the duc(lings 'ho are unfortunate enough to hatch in the

absence of mother duc(, /ust as the neighbours cat is %assing by. !oday the unnaturalness of

meo'ing duc(s can but amuse meO

At the time, ho'e&er, the difference in 2language created a ga%, if not actually a ru%ture,bet'een generations, 'hich (indled a muffled conflict. !eenage iconoclasm and +edi%usli(e

reactions of all (inds, unassimilated culturally, smouldered during meetings or throughout the

&arious %ro/ects that 'e shared. !his rebelliousness gradually sli%%ed into do'nright boycott.

!he choreogra%hers association, 'hich too( great efforts to create and for fi&e years had a

%raise'orthy acti&ity, 'as slo'ly em%tied of substance until it e&entually lost its ob/ecti&es

against the bac(ground of almost com%lete absenteeism. !oday, those 'ho boycotted the first

association 'ould li(e to create a second one counting on the %artici%ation of %recisely those

%eo%le 'hom they boycotted. *omanian dialectics seem to ha&e a t'o%hase mo&ement the

first %hase consists 6 because of the scarcity of forage 6 in %oisoning the neighbours goat, as

this is the only guarantee of success for the second %hase, 'hich consists in fattening ones

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o'n goat 'ith the %oisoned food left from the first one. !he only thing that frightens me

about this logic is that the third %hase could be a rema(e of the first.

ard'or(ing and diligent %eo%le, the *omanians ado%ted the 'or( style of the anthill e&en

'hen it comes to choreogra%hy, %ulling in all directions at once, and thus securing %rogress a

slo' and un%redictable ad&ance. !he motion &ector is generated to a larger etent by someforces abandoning traction than by etra force a%%lied to one traction direction. If it is true

that yielding is the attribute of intelligence, then it is also true that *omanian choreogra%hy is

mo&ing in the o%%osite direction from those 'ho yieldO

Amid this deadloc( 'hich seemed to ha&e become the rule, there ha%%ened ho'e&er a small

miracle, 'hich heralded the re&i&al of *omanian choreogra%hic creation the +leg ano&s(i

)allet !heatre. ere %roduction dynamics are hallucinatory, here there ta(e %lace

international festi&als and contests, debates on choreogra%hyrelated to%ics, international

tours organized in collaboration 'ith the most im%ortant estern managers, etc., all of 'hich

ha&e caused the ner&e centre of *omanian choreogra%hy to mo&e com%letely to ConstanJa.

!he merit of Ana #aria #unteanu, general director of the +leg ano&s(i )allet !heatre,

etends nonetheless beyond strictly choreogra%hic successes. !he %ublishing of Am%hion

magazine, of some %rograms turned into real %rofessional sources of choreogra%hic

information 'ithin the sco%e of high culture, ualify this structure as a success model for

cultural management in *omania.

hat is ho'e&er beyond any com%rehension is the fact that the artists in this com%any, most

of them firstrate %rofessionals, do not flee to the est, li(e so many mediocre dancers, but

remain faithful to the trou%e in 'hich they matured and 'hich gre' and matured according to

the rules of mutual res%ect, of a balance of &alues and of reci%rocal and comradely su%%ort. If

there are any tensions 'ithin this trou%e, they arise solely from dis%utes around the choice of

%ro/ects that might best launch the com%any along the %ath to'ards true &alue.

-eeing this trou%e 'hich obstinately insists on staying 2here, on ser&ing an audience 'hich

cannot begin to gras% the etent of their sacrifice, I cannot hel% thin(ing about the 'ords of

enri de #ontherlant, uttered by a character in -iegfried ;es grands hommes changent de

%lanQte, /amais de %ays. -urely some *usso%hone %residential ad&iser must ha&e had the

same 'ords in mind 'hen he decided that, des%ite all e&idence, the highest distinction e&er to

ha&e been a'arded to artists in the field of choreogra%hy should go eclusi&ely to %eo%le

'ho changed countryO

)y -il&ia Ciurescu R>heataS

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Sergiu Anghel - an interview by Silvia Ciurescu