cie. toula limnaios

»the confused waitress /// the evening lives from three levels of representation: the presence of the dancers, the acoustic stimuli and the video screen that holds centre stage. … after the social mask (of the waitress) has fallen, the blackest depths of the human soul become visible. repressed feelings break through, the character of the woman gains contours, her personality a face. the greek limnaios, who studied at the folkwangschule in essen and was a guest with pina bausch, relies on a strict canon of ever-repeating movements. she bends and twists as if in spiritual torment, shudders and shivers, flails her arms with her mouth wide open, tries to hit an imaginary enemy and finally sets into her own wax image, watched by the overpowering video eye at rest on the screen. in her introverted solo toula limnaios searches frantically for footing and for orientation. like an autistic child she clutches onto compulsive patterns and hammers on her palm with her fist. the berlin choreographer shows, as the title »vertige« (french: dizziness, frenzy) suggests, spiritual states of confusion which come close to insanity. as in hitchcock’s film classic »vertigo« the ground is in danger of being lost from under the observer’s feet. the video artist group cyan bombards the audience with a sustained burst of furious images. … «vertige« sets loose a frenzy that lets the audience eagerly absorb the dance and video images. you zap about, between the living woman’s body and the screen. … you long for the video recorder’s rewind function, so that you can simply wind back and later watch it all again.« (frankfurter allgemeine zeitung, tilmann billing, 2000)

»toula limnaios in the tumult of tormenting images /// then the tumult that gives the work its title seizes hold of her, spews out her threats and torments by giving them expressive form. tormenting memories appear,… on the screen, images pass in lightning tempo ….all of this makes the soul of the shape roll from side to side and throws her body into turmoil. she twitches like a fury, shivers in the thunder of the clattering machines, falls, lies stiff. hanging in states of suspense she searches for holds on a rope with a grip, and falls to the floor again. «i’m in heaven» hums a hollywood song. the legs of the woman doing a shoulder stand coo around each other like lovers. the figure only finds peace at the end as it returns to the initial constellation of waiting, which has an even more intense effect on the viewer.« (berliner morgenpost, volkmar draeger, 2000)