Press and Reviews

https://www.musicexport.at/melanie-maar-christian-schroeder/

voices :

‘ .., what you were doing felt dangerous, (perhaps) in the way that witnessing an ecstatic experience feels dangerous like someone is allowing themselves to be and perform in ways that aren’t necessarily sanctioned, that move against the grain of social/political expectation and acculturation, that defy assumptions and predictability. as a viewer, I switched between being able to let it wash over me and attempting to reframe the dance to try to get a hold of what is/was/will be happening…. but the transformations were so consistent and so seemingly unmediated and indeterminate within their manifestation that I could not categorize what happened or how long it took… I felt as if years passed and no time had passed at all, as if the present had been suspended……. Larissa- artist, audience member

‘You found your own world that people voluntarily enter deeper and deeper. We never know what's next. Never one thing to know. You created a fully embodied piece allowing the gap between dancing, pedestrian movement and concept to close.’ ……. Janet- teacher, dancer, choreographer

‘If you need convincing of the fact that despite market forces, identity, politics, art-jargon, classism and cronyism it is still possible to make work that truly thinks, I suggest a good dose of Melanie Maar’s Out Other. Its disruptive, immediate and thoroughly elsewhere.’ ….. Miriam- poet, publisher

‘Like Keat’s unnecessary grappling for reason.’….. John, artist, curator

‘Melanie Maar’s performance at the congress was an act of sheer courage and nothing short of breathtaking.’
Gary Hilburger
North West Parkinson’s Foundation

New York Times, The New Yorker, Time Out Magazine :

‘At first glance, Melanie Maar’s dances are subtle creations, but by the final blackout, it’s hard to shake the feeling that you’ve traveled to a mystical land where nothing is what it seems. It wasn’t just her space, she seemed to be saying. It was ours, too.’ NYT, Gia Kourlas, October 23rd, 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/24/arts/dance/melanie-maars-our-other-at-danspace-project.html?ref=dance&_r=3&

‘Remaining tranquil and contained, Maar’s acute dancing can seem hot and unruly. Her austere, ritualistic, dances are uncommonly good at evoking, without representing the natural world.’ The New Yorker, Brian Seibert, October 14th, 2013

‘.., she exuded a banked fierceness. Stripping out of her green- and blue-toned clothing, Ms. Maar wielded a pair of deer antlers in a muscular, primal dance; it seemed that she might transform into a man, a beast or both.’ New York Times review by Claudia La Rocco 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/arts/dance/03maar.html?ref=dance

” Phenomenal Bodies using the vibrant, primary colors of her cast’s costumes to offset the austerely sensual environment. This environment was as much aural as visual, particularly when she and the guitarist Kenta Nagai conversed using their respective arts.’ NYT Review Claudia La Rocco, April 10th, 2009

Interview for Time Out Magazine- ‘Not just another Vienna Waltz’ by Gia Kourlas, Nov 19th, 2010
http://www.timeout.com/newyork/art/not-just-another-vienna-waltz

Interview for Time Out Magazine- ‘Break on through to the other side’ by Gia Kourlas, April 8th, 2009