Title: The Dying Swan
Choreographer: Mikhail Fokine
Original Performer: Anna Pavlova
Music: Camille Saint-Saëns, "The Swan"
Year of Composition: 1905
"The Dying Swan" is closely related to loneliness, especially in its emotional expression. The work does not aim for dazzling skills but emphasizes delicate inner feelings. It depicts the struggle of a swan at the end of its life, showing the loneliness of death. Although the swan symbolizes beauty and elegance, death is inevitable. During this process, the swan has no external help and can only rely on itself. Eventually, it must accept its fate and quietly die.
As philosopher Martin Heidegger mentions in "Being and Time," death is part of human existence. When individuals recognize death, they also understand their loneliness and limited life span.
In the dance, the performer uses trembling hands, extended upper body, and gradually weakening movements to express the swan's struggle, sadness, and submission to fate. She pours deep emotion into her performance. Every gesture reflects inner loneliness. Her facial expressions, subtle body movements, and the slow pace of each action all convey the dying life’s fight against loneliness.
Title: Café Müller
Choreographer: Pina Bausch
Premiere Year: 1978
Performance Group: Tanztheater Wuppertal
Pina Bausch spent her childhood in Germany often visiting cafés with her parents. This piece is an abstract remembrance of those childhood memories. The dance is set in a café filled with tables and chairs. Through movements such as weaving through the space, colliding with others, and falling to the ground, it shows emotional distance, longing, and suffering between people.
A café is usually a social place, but the stage’s cold and chaotic scenery symbolizes unbridgeable relationships. Dancers walk with their eyes closed, representing how people often overlook others in society. Even when they bump into each other, there is no real connection. One male dancer constantly moves obstacles aside for others, hinting at a lonely attempt to connect that ultimately fails.
In a famous scene, one dancer repeatedly falls, is helped up, and falls again—representing the search for support in relationships, yet feeling emotionally exhausted. Although the movements are intense, her expression remains indifferent, emphasizing that loneliness is not about “no one around,” but about “no one understanding.”
"Café Müller" uses dance to reveal the inner loneliness of modern people. Bausch does not speak about loneliness with words, but with silence, space, and movement, creating a shared experience of solitude for the audience. Instead of showing dramatic loneliness, the work explores an internal, ongoing feeling of loneliness that quietly exists in everyday life.
Title: May B
Choreographer: Maguy Marin
Premier Year: 1981
Performance Group: Compagnie Maguy Marin
The title "May B" can be interpreted as "May be," suggesting uncertainty about the future and the hesitation of individuals in difficult situations.
The dance style of "May B" is very unusual, with almost no traditional story or plot. The dancers' movements are constantly repeated and transformed, creating a sense of being trapped in time and space. The repetitive and mechanical movements evoke feelings of suppression, as if caught in an endless cycle from which there is no escape.
The stage design is minimal, with dancers usually dressed simply. The stage often features only a few basic props or an open space, emphasizing themes of loneliness and emptiness. This sparse setting draws the audience’s focus to the dancers' movements and emotional expression.
The work through the performers’ actions conveys a strong sense of loneliness and oppression. While there is no clear narrative, the repetitive and changing movements express the isolation and helplessness of individuals in society. This loneliness reflects not only emotional distance between people but also highlights conflicts and struggles within society itself.
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