Marie-Gabrielle Rotie
Marie-Gabrielle Rotie, born 1967, is from Pembrokeshire and studied Fine Art at Carmarthen College of Art and Technology and Wimbledon School of Art (First Class BA Hons) and then Dance, encountering Butoh in 1992 and studying with the main Butoh teachers in Japan and Europe, notably Ko Murobushi, Masaki Iwana, Kazuo and Yoshito Ohno, Carlotta Ikeda and Kim Itoh. She was awarded a Lisa Ullman travel scholarship and an Arts Council grant to research Butoh in Tokyo in 1999. In Tokyo she had the privilege of studying and meeting with Akiko Motofuji,WIDOW of butoh founder Hijikata, who shared information AbOUT his notebooks and films.
Collaborations with Japanese Butoh dancers include duet work with Ko Murobushi and Atsushi Takenouchi.
Since 2000 she has created over 15 stage productions for her own company touring the UK with eight productions showing at The Place Theatre since 2001 and other works showing at: Royal Opera House (Clore and Linbury), Royal National Theatre, Laban, Home Gallery and innumerable other venues in the Uk, including Nuffield Theatre, Dartington, Hull, Exeter Phoenix etc. and festivals in Europe including short format festival in Milan, Butoh festival in Die Pratze Tokyo and other festivals in Italy, Germany, Spain etc. She has been extensively funded by Arts Council of England and supported by British Council touring (in Portugal/Romania/Switzerland/Italy).
In 2001, she was choreographer in residence in Romania creating Human Zoo Trilogy with Cosmin Manolescu, funded by the British Council and Project DCM, touring Romania, UK and Switzerland. In 2004, she was selected from over 200 applicants as a semi-finalist for The Place Prize with her trio Brutality of Fact that also showed at the Linbury/Royal Opera House and Laban.
Commissions from Laban include 2006 and 2007 creations ( Cleaver and Darkness Cycle no 2) for graduating dancers Plus Two commissions for solo and duet work ( Incarnate and Black Mirror). She was commissioned by the Royal Festival Hall to create choreography for the re-opening ceremonies of the Southbank centre in collaboration with Candoco and Athina Vahla in 2007. She has worked as a performer for Athina Vahla, Athletes of the Heart and Mladinsko Theatre in Slovenia and for Darren Johnston.
Since 2007 she has enjoyed an intensive commissioning process as costume design advisor and choreographer/director for the London College of Fashion, working with the costume design MA and BA departments to create their spectacular end of year shows, staged at Victoria and Albert Museum, Royal Academy and Sadler's Wells. She has developed a specialist approach to the relation of movement to costume design.
Commercial work with actors and opera singers includes innovative and acclaimed choreography for Bacchae (2002) by Sir Peter Hall and Sir Harrison Birtwistle in Royal National Theatre/Olivier stage with Greg Hicks (whom she trained in butoh) in lead role as Dionysus, which then toured to Epidavros in Greece; The Believers (2003) for The Playbox Theatre in collaboration with writer Ron Hutchinson, which toured to Santa Monica PlayHouse USA : The Fairy Queen (04/05), with opera and early music group Armonica Consort.
She has pioneered Butoh in the UK and organised over 50 workshops and 4 Butoh festivals. She teaches Butoh for BA and MA at Goldsmiths University and regular teaching includes for Dartington, Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Laban, Central School of Speech and Drama etc.
Whilst Butoh has been a major formative influence on her choreography, Rotie's work is distinguished by a distinct and singular aesthetic, quite removed from any derivative attempts at mimicry of japanese butoh. rotie's work has more in common with the world of fine art or early dance pioneers such as Mary Wigman.
press quotes:
Flying chair for Da Vinci (solo)
The ghost of Mary Wigman haunts in the shadows Londondance.com 2002
An eloquent exploration of momentum, suspension and gravity .. both painful and disturbing to watch but compelling in its madness Place on line reviews 2002
Human Zoo Trilogy
A truly hypnotic blend of movement, lighting and sound - bodies take on an alien almost eerie quality.
Dance Theatre Journal 2000
Refract ( created with Liz Lea)
a wonderfully evocative piece of quiet intensity - minimal movement to maximal effect . Dance Europe 2002
Mutability (solo)
intense and accomplished Western Mail 2003
a remarkable display of control and internalised emotion. Western Mail 2003
Rotie mutates into various animalistic forms in a solo journey- she cranes her neck, pokes at the space, as if hatching out of an egg, feeling her way through life. In a costume that is like a second skin or some sort of cocoon and with sparse lighting, the piece has a purpose, a focus and simplicity that is very engaging. Dance Europe 2004.
Marie-Gabriele Rotie choreographed Brutality of Fact. This work was danced intensely with Rotie, Pei-Jen Tsai and Yuan Zhang. Its inspiration was the 1944 Triptych Studies for figures at the base of a crucifixion by Francis Bacon. Its movement aesthetic was tempered by Rotie’s knowledge of Japanese Theatre and Aesthetics. The dancers’ moves, varied shapes in standing, sitting and then moving through space conjured all matter of angst and disgust with reaches of legs, arms and head. All postures had a particular resonance that brought their own sense of horror at the sight of unspeakable torment. From the sparse vocal sounds to the clarity in movement shapes of contortion, balance and flow it was evident that Rotie had a clear vision and the specific compositional tools to render this extraordinary work. Criticaldance.com 2004
External links
- www.rotieproductions.com