Hulk Grabowski, Boy Ballerina...<BR> <A HREF="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/10/27/DD109661.DTL" TARGET=_blank>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/10/27/DD109661.DTL</A>

There are dance works about boxing. Phoenix Dance from Leicester had quite a good one a few years back.<P>Has anyone come across a dance piece about wrestling?<BR>

A dance piece about wrestling? God help us, I hope not!

Even as we speak, my researchers are scouring archives worldwide for dance works based on wrestling. <P>The search is on. Watch this space!

My German researcher has come up trumps! The little known Tanztheater Duderstadt has a piece with a title that can be loosely translated as , 'The Wrestler's Fear of the Submission'. Herr Doctor Doctor Gottlieb, the Artistic Director of the Company, cites Pina Bausch, Merce Cunningham and August Bournonville as his principle influences.<P>The work features the angst of a wrestler nearing the end of his career. As he looks back over his life in the ring, a series of surrealist tableaux depict the emotional turmoil of this performer. In a particularly moving solo, depicting the despair of his first loss in the ring, the 18 stone Fritz Eitel, who plays the wrestler, shows remarkable technique as he executes fast foot work in the style of Gottlieb's beloved Bournonville.<P>The AD also pays homage to Cunningham's love of chance events. The composer/arranger was not told of the theme of the work except that angst was involved (one would have thought that he would know that, but there you are) and the ring scenes take place to a background of 'We'll gather lilacs' and extracts from Schoenberg. <P>In order to ensure that the funding bodies are sure that it is Tanztheater, a narrator comes on stage at various points to recite from Goethe, Brecht and Mrs Beaton's Cookery book.<P>The dance and cake decoration specialist from the Duderstadter Tageblatt described the work as, 'A remarkable synthesis of old and new and a parable for our time, providing multilayered insights into the trials of performers everywhere from Margot Fonteyn to Giant Haystacks.' She particularly admired Eitel's entrechats and his 'Half-Nelson'.<P>Catch it if you can.<p>[This message has been edited by Stuart Sweeney (edited October 30, 2000).]