Side Steps

Newcomer

Laura Arend

She is the new driving force of the Luxembourg dance scene. After stints as a dancer at the Merce Cunningham Studio in New York and with the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company in Israel, Laura Arend now runs her own troupe, the Laboration Art Company (LAC), in Luxembourg. She is currently picking up significant momentum—for instance with Iara, her latest work. In this piece, three performers—one with a contemporary focus, one leaning towards urban dance, and a ballerina—explore diverse facets of feminine energy. The result is efficient, delicate, rich in contrast, and photographically precise. The innovative, razor-sharp way Miranda Silveira—a former San Francisco Ballet member—handles classical technique offers a glimpse of why Arend is currently planning a piece for Marie-Agnès Gillot, the former Danseuse étoile of the Paris Opéra.

Iara—billed as a "ballet for the Amazons of yesterday and today"—begins on a combative note, where legs can transform into weapons. The trio embodies power and dominance alongside solidarity, tenderness, grief, and solace, evoking—at times—Elizabethan or Baroque moods. These qualities often emerge from the dancers' interaction with costumes that are remarkably versatile—garments Arend knows how to employ with both creativity and precision, drawing on her ongoing ties to the fashion industry, where she has already left her choreographic mark on world-renowned labels. Alongside Iara, she is touring with Iris, a piece in which a visually impaired dancer is guided by Arend and a performer from the Parisian Crazy Horse. In this way, Arend’s subtle feminism questions the status and potential of female presence within today’s social consciousness.

Thomas Hahn

Next performance of Iara at Tanzfestival Bielefeld, TOR 6 Theaterhaus, 23 July; 
www.tanzfestival-bielefeld.de

Background photo: IRIS (CORRESPONDANCES) by Laura Arend; photo: Bohumil Kostohryz