After completing a B.Sc. in Chemistry at the University of Exeter, Christina Comtesse studied at the London School of Contemporary Dance, The Place. After a short time working in London with “181 Dance” and “The Danceband” as well as teaching at Middlesex Polytechnic and The Place, she was offered a contract with the State Theatre Osnabrück, Germany.
Afterwards, followed engagements in Bremer Tanztheater, and the Berliner Volksbühne, dancing eleven years with Johann Kresnik. She worked as a guest trainer and assistant in the Komische Oper Berlin and Linz in Austria and has choreographed for the Volksbühne and Schaubühne in Berlin as well as for Theater Konstanz, Krefeld/Mönchengladbach, Graz in Austria and Luzern in Switzerland.
From 2004 to 2006 she was engaged as Rehearsal Director in Luzern and from 2006 to 2014 as Rehearsal and Deputy Director in the state theatre Staatstheater Darmstadt, Germany under Mei Hong Lin, where she choreographed “Immer Wieder Weihnachten”, “Der Dritte Sinn”, “Jesus Christ Super Star”, and “7 Tage”, as well as many plays and opera productions. She was also responsible for restaging “Ulrike Meinhof” and “Sylvia Plath” by Johann Kresnik as well as “Bernarda Alba”, Mei Hong Lin.
In 2015 she choreographed "Lohengrin" for the Konzert Theater Bern, Switzerland, was choreographic assistant for “The 120 Days of Sodom”, Volksbühne Berlin, with Johann Kresnik and Ismael Ivo, and “Spieluhr" for Theater Gießen, as well as guesting in Landestheater Linz and Theater Heidelberg, Dance Company Nanine Linning. From August 2016 to 2018 she was resident choreographer for Landestheater Linz, and Deputy Artistic Director of TANZLIN.Z, where she choreographed "Das Was Bleibt", “Death and the Maiden” collaborated in “Die Kleine Meerjungfrau” (Winner of the Austrian Theatre Prize 2018) and numerous productions for the opera and drama departments. She also choreographed and co-directed "Carmen" for the Konzert Theater Bern, Switzerland, and “Shakespeare in Music“ for the Heidelberg Castle Festival. Season 18/19 she restaged "Macbeth“ by Johann Kresnik, which opened the ImPulsTanz International Dance Festival in Vienna, and “Die Brautschminkerin“ by Mei Hong Lin, which then toured to Taiwan. Afterwards followed “The Threepenny Opera“ for the Theater Heidelberg, and „Die Affäre Rue de Lourcine“,Heidelberg Castle Festival. In 19/20 she assisted Reinhild Hoffmann In Ein Brief/Christus am Ölberge am Theater Bonn and next season will choreograph „Jemand, ein Hommage an Johann Kresnik“ in Carinthia Austria and „Carmen“ für Staatstheater Cottbus, Germany.
Afterwards, followed engagements in Bremer Tanztheater, and the Berliner Volksbühne, dancing eleven years with Johann Kresnik. She worked as a guest trainer and assistant in the Komische Oper Berlin and Linz in Austria and has choreographed for the Volksbühne and Schaubühne in Berlin as well as for Theater Konstanz, Krefeld/Mönchengladbach, Graz in Austria and Luzern in Switzerland.
From 2004 to 2006 she was engaged as Rehearsal Director in Luzern and from 2006 to 2014 as Rehearsal and Deputy Director in the state theatre Staatstheater Darmstadt, Germany under Mei Hong Lin, where she choreographed “Immer Wieder Weihnachten”, “Der Dritte Sinn”, “Jesus Christ Super Star”, and “7 Tage”, as well as many plays and opera productions. She was also responsible for restaging “Ulrike Meinhof” and “Sylvia Plath” by Johann Kresnik as well as “Bernarda Alba”, Mei Hong Lin.
In 2015 she choreographed "Lohengrin" for the Konzert Theater Bern, Switzerland, was choreographic assistant for “The 120 Days of Sodom”, Volksbühne Berlin, with Johann Kresnik and Ismael Ivo, and “Spieluhr" for Theater Gießen, as well as guesting in Landestheater Linz and Theater Heidelberg, Dance Company Nanine Linning. From August 2016 to 2018 she was resident choreographer for Landestheater Linz, and Deputy Artistic Director of TANZLIN.Z, where she choreographed "Das Was Bleibt", “Death and the Maiden” collaborated in “Die Kleine Meerjungfrau” (Winner of the Austrian Theatre Prize 2018) and numerous productions for the opera and drama departments. She also choreographed and co-directed "Carmen" for the Konzert Theater Bern, Switzerland, and “Shakespeare in Music“ for the Heidelberg Castle Festival. Season 18/19 she restaged "Macbeth“ by Johann Kresnik, which opened the ImPulsTanz International Dance Festival in Vienna, and “Die Brautschminkerin“ by Mei Hong Lin, which then toured to Taiwan. Afterwards followed “The Threepenny Opera“ for the Theater Heidelberg, and „Die Affäre Rue de Lourcine“,Heidelberg Castle Festival. In 19/20 she assisted Reinhild Hoffmann In Ein Brief/Christus am Ölberge am Theater Bonn and next season will choreograph „Jemand, ein Hommage an Johann Kresnik“ in Carinthia Austria and „Carmen“ für Staatstheater Cottbus, Germany.
"Der Tod und das Mädchen" - "Death and the Maiden" TANZLIN.Z Black Box, Musiktheater Linz, Austria
Choreography and Concept: Mei Hong Lin und Christina Comtesse
Stage and Costume Design: Dirk Hofacker
Music: Schubert String Quartet No. 14, Kevin Volans "White Man Sleeps"
Musical Director: Lui Chan
Light Design: Johann Hofbauer
Dramatic Advisor: Katharina John
Photos Tom Mesic
Critiques from "Der Tod und das Mädchen" - "Death and the Maiden"
Kronen Zeitung 16.01.2018
A magically touching world premier of a dance dialogue “Tod und das Mädchen” in the BlackBox Musiktheaters; Linz
.....In both choreographies which impressively interlace and naturally exchange with each other. Death is repeatedly a crafty seducer of intense eroticism. It is not just a Death Dance, here there is also a place for passion. Often as a spectator you are not sure where to look first, two songs of death as a sumptuous Poem............. thundering applause MH
Neues Volksblatt 16.01.2018
With the Death to a new life.
A much celebrated world premier: a grandiose dance dialog to Schubert's “Death and the Maiden” and music from Kevin Volans in the BlackBox
.......And then created Mei Hong Lin together with Christina Comtesse a stage masterpiece. The dance is a conflict of statements, arising from different perspectives. Mei Hong establishes ties with the emphasis of death on Schubert's ambivalent tonal stories, showing the maidens in their extremely contrary points of view. Christina Comtesse processes visionary material from society and other cultures following old greek beliefs, accompanied to the sounds of the richly bizarre music from “White man Sleeps”
In ten expressive scenes TANZLIN.Z with its 19 members performs acrobatic to neck-breaking accomplishments conveying – in every situation exact with the music – an emotionally exhausting world of pictures through their body language. Individual pictures emphasize extremely well what is about to take place, such as “Sky Burial” with the ring of Birds of Death, “The Widow Burning” or the spiritually exaggerated final scene with a performer wearing an elaborate Death-mask and pregnant, is accompanied by the heartbeat of a child. “Death is Life” “Life is Death”. With this, crowning a rich conversation and leaving a reflective public, which gave a well deserved and long ovation. Georgina Szeless
OÖNachrichten 16.01.2018
A touching death dance, which tells about life
Life and death, the beginning and the end, an eternal cycle. This is the message which is communicated in the dance dialogue “Tod und das Mädchen” between Landestheater dance director Mei Hong Lin and Christina Comtesse with many different layers.... 80 minutes of high performance...... A comical, bizarre, helpless Death-clown pulled back and forth by the dancers. Through bird masks glints of the plague and carnival. Death is also Winter, to be driven out in Shrovetide. To the sounds of a crackling fire he appears as the eternal bond in the Indian Sati ritual or widow burning. The intimate BlackBox stage allows the dancers to be close in all these scenes. Touching in their expressiveness, impressive with their mastery and endurance. Hats off to the 80 minutes of high powered performance of this dynamic ensemble.
Subtle and full of suspense The Frenzel Quartett masters the challenge of the stylistic zig-zag musical course. The end? Is the beginning, in the heartbeat of an unborn child. A thrilling applause. Karin Schütze
"Das Was Bleibt" - "That What Remains" TANZLIN.Z Black Box, Musiktheater Linz, Austria
Inspired from Dante`s Inferno
Choreography and Concept Christina Comtesse
Stage and Costume Design Corina Krisztian
Music Collage Christina Comtesse
Photos Tom Mesic
Critiques from “Das Was Bleibt” – “That What Remains”
Kronen Zeitung / OÖ 3.04.17
Das Was Bleibt – A Jewel of Dance
A danced social criticism, which upholds a humanitarian focus. This dance piece from Christina Comtesse in the Black Box of the Musiktheater has much strength and expressive bluntness. To be seen is a jewel of dance in an enthralling dance interpretation.
Movement, which makes the human body appear direful and at the same time graceful: “Das Was Bleibt” is outspoken, brutal obscene rape insinuations contrasting with fragile butterfly movements.
Behind these physical ambivalences is a deeply profound message, in which the stage hold up a mirror to mankind.
The awesome dancers make it possible to tell the story on many different levels. Side by side using body control, grace of movement and changeability they bewitch also with their emotional acting. Kayla May Corbin, as Lilith impresses with her artistic movements, producing moments of goose bumps, and an authentic interpretation of the roll.
The choreography of Christina Comtesse is extremely complex (multilayered), there seems to be a whole world of thoughts hidden behind every moment, burning themes are subtly and yet clearly taken hold of. The simple and yet extremely appropriate set (Corina Kristian) is used clearly with versatility and skill, supporting and transporting the story line. LA
OÖNachrichten 3.04.17
The production of Christina Comtesse is omnipresent. It guides the audience to a nightmarish world where the only hope of a way out is a door – through which Lilith will come just as she will vanish. ............Above all what remains of this evening is the memory of an impressive dance performance. Karin Schütze
Kronen Zeitung / OÖ 3.04.17
Das Was Bleibt – A Jewel of Dance
A danced social criticism, which upholds a humanitarian focus. This dance piece from Christina Comtesse in the Black Box of the Musiktheater has much strength and expressive bluntness. To be seen is a jewel of dance in an enthralling dance interpretation.
Movement, which makes the human body appear direful and at the same time graceful: “Das Was Bleibt” is outspoken, brutal obscene rape insinuations contrasting with fragile butterfly movements.
Behind these physical ambivalences is a deeply profound message, in which the stage hold up a mirror to mankind.
The awesome dancers make it possible to tell the story on many different levels. Side by side using body control, grace of movement and changeability they bewitch also with their emotional acting. Kayla May Corbin, as Lilith impresses with her artistic movements, producing moments of goose bumps, and an authentic interpretation of the roll.
The choreography of Christina Comtesse is extremely complex (multilayered), there seems to be a whole world of thoughts hidden behind every moment, burning themes are subtly and yet clearly taken hold of. The simple and yet extremely appropriate set (Corina Kristian) is used clearly with versatility and skill, supporting and transporting the story line. LA
OÖNachrichten 3.04.17
The production of Christina Comtesse is omnipresent. It guides the audience to a nightmarish world where the only hope of a way out is a door – through which Lilith will come just as she will vanish. ............Above all what remains of this evening is the memory of an impressive dance performance. Karin Schütze
“7 Tage” – “7 Days” Kammerspiele Staatstheater Darmstadt
Inspired from Max Ernst's Une Semaine de Bonté or Seven Deadly Elements .
Choreography and Concept Christina Comtesse
Stage and Costume Design Corina Krisztian
Music Collage Christina Comtesse
Inspired from Max Ernst's Une Semaine de Bonté or Seven Deadly Elements .
Choreography and Concept Christina Comtesse
Stage and Costume Design Corina Krisztian
Music Collage Christina Comtesse
Photos Barbara Aumüller
Critiques from “7 Tage” – “7 Days”
Main Echo 12.11.13
A bemusing cosmos. So bemusing and yet so extraordinarily fascinating, that your eyes become fix and unable to move. Then always new, bizarre and disturbing scenes making the stage a cup of unremitting creativity. After 90 Minutes without a pause, one is saturated from the many pictures – and yet still hungry for more. Hungry for dance, which can tell a story so captivatingly. And dance that has nothing artificial about it, but which throughout achieves an aesthetic that is astonishing.
.......“7 Tage” is a captivating danced intimate play, which tells of the cycle of life, cleverly spun into beautiful bizarre pictures, which make you want yourself to be a part in this evilly scintillating and then benevolent shimmering dream. Bettina Keller
Frankfurter Neue Presse 8.10.13
What a paradox! Classical Ballet often sets literature in pictures which are ofter hard to understand, because silently danced feelings make is harder to tell an exact story. Christina Comtesse on the contrary compacts five volumes of a novel, with182 picture collages (Une Semaine de Bonté or Seven Deadly Elements) into ninety minutes and into the bargain forms a surreal sculpture in the dance space. That should makes things even more complicated.
Instead, she finds a way of telling in movement that is more literary than usual and in its wittiness takes the burdens off the audiences's shoulders. Is this surreal humour due to being British? The English tend to less abstraction and speculation as the Germans. Also Darmstadt's Dance Director Mei Hong Lin is so much in Linz, that the cat is out of the house, and the mice are dancing on the table. And how they dance!
....... This beautiful danced story is fun. dek
Kultur Nachrichten
Comtesse, together with her company creates a harmonious interpretation of Une Semaine de Bonté. Corina Krisztian is responsible for the set and cotumes, which she reduces to the essential elements of the novel. This leaves the audience enough space to make its own associations. The principal of the surreal collages is to choreographically direct to a complete package: A resulting artwork leaving the observer to his own thoughts and interpretation.
.....The premiere on the 5th October was rewarded with ecstatic applause. Anja Häfner
Darmstädter Echo
Already in 2009 the ballet mistress with “The Third Sense” inspired from Patrick Susskind's “Perfume” made a haunting piece for the Kammerspiele, which was just as bizarre and full of fantasy........
......disturbing pictures above all: the evil and cruelty of mankind.
These pictures are presented by the British choreographer Comtesse who brings the mythical creatures of Max Ernst to life on Stage. At the same time she gives the dancers freedom to develop and interpret their own movement. …....
…..Comtesse finds dreamlike pictures that open up a big associative space. Instead of sharp scissors and glue with Max Ernst, Christina Comtesse has cut over many long nights a collage of music and sounds of an enormous breadth. Julia Reichelt
Main Echo 12.11.13
A bemusing cosmos. So bemusing and yet so extraordinarily fascinating, that your eyes become fix and unable to move. Then always new, bizarre and disturbing scenes making the stage a cup of unremitting creativity. After 90 Minutes without a pause, one is saturated from the many pictures – and yet still hungry for more. Hungry for dance, which can tell a story so captivatingly. And dance that has nothing artificial about it, but which throughout achieves an aesthetic that is astonishing.
.......“7 Tage” is a captivating danced intimate play, which tells of the cycle of life, cleverly spun into beautiful bizarre pictures, which make you want yourself to be a part in this evilly scintillating and then benevolent shimmering dream. Bettina Keller
Frankfurter Neue Presse 8.10.13
What a paradox! Classical Ballet often sets literature in pictures which are ofter hard to understand, because silently danced feelings make is harder to tell an exact story. Christina Comtesse on the contrary compacts five volumes of a novel, with182 picture collages (Une Semaine de Bonté or Seven Deadly Elements) into ninety minutes and into the bargain forms a surreal sculpture in the dance space. That should makes things even more complicated.
Instead, she finds a way of telling in movement that is more literary than usual and in its wittiness takes the burdens off the audiences's shoulders. Is this surreal humour due to being British? The English tend to less abstraction and speculation as the Germans. Also Darmstadt's Dance Director Mei Hong Lin is so much in Linz, that the cat is out of the house, and the mice are dancing on the table. And how they dance!
....... This beautiful danced story is fun. dek
Kultur Nachrichten
Comtesse, together with her company creates a harmonious interpretation of Une Semaine de Bonté. Corina Krisztian is responsible for the set and cotumes, which she reduces to the essential elements of the novel. This leaves the audience enough space to make its own associations. The principal of the surreal collages is to choreographically direct to a complete package: A resulting artwork leaving the observer to his own thoughts and interpretation.
.....The premiere on the 5th October was rewarded with ecstatic applause. Anja Häfner
Darmstädter Echo
Already in 2009 the ballet mistress with “The Third Sense” inspired from Patrick Susskind's “Perfume” made a haunting piece for the Kammerspiele, which was just as bizarre and full of fantasy........
......disturbing pictures above all: the evil and cruelty of mankind.
These pictures are presented by the British choreographer Comtesse who brings the mythical creatures of Max Ernst to life on Stage. At the same time she gives the dancers freedom to develop and interpret their own movement. …....
…..Comtesse finds dreamlike pictures that open up a big associative space. Instead of sharp scissors and glue with Max Ernst, Christina Comtesse has cut over many long nights a collage of music and sounds of an enormous breadth. Julia Reichelt
“Der Dritte Sinn” – “The Third Sense” Kammerspiele Staatstheater Darmstadt
Inspired by Patrick Süskind's Perfume
Choreogarphy and Concept Christina Comtesse
Music Tobias Gremmler
Stage Design Corina Krisztian
Costume Ulrike Schörghofer
Inspired by Patrick Süskind's Perfume
Choreogarphy and Concept Christina Comtesse
Music Tobias Gremmler
Stage Design Corina Krisztian
Costume Ulrike Schörghofer
Photos Barbara Aumüller
Critiques “Der Dritte Sinn” – “The Third Sense”
Theater und Konzert 2009
Greetings from Hitchcock and “Psycho”.........
.....The humour makes the pleasant difference from the usual Dance Theatre pieces. Christina Comtesse's wit accomplishes to tell the humourless theme of a smell searching murdering man. Like British black humour, that plays with the dark side, she also sees in the murder of young women, not only the moral and social aspects, but rather a grotesque fiction. This is really what it is about. …..
….A speciality of this choreography are the smells, which occur in almost every scene. It begins with a rather nasty smell from an old tin of fish, which comments the abominable beginning scene, then follows different perfume smells, some sweet, some heavy, some bitter, some feminine, depending on the interpretation of the scenes, and these smells arouse the public to the appropriate associations...
At the end, the premiere audience is ecstatic and bestows a strong applause, calls of “Bravo” and trampling feet. The ensemble showing themselves exceptionally casual, so that one notices that the performers themselves also had a lot of fun with this work. Frank Raudszus
Main Echo 4.2.2009
“The Third Sense” is 90 minutes long without a pause, a piece for all the senses.
......The choreography has humour, ironically attacking today's trend, to eliminate all body odours with a spray. The dancers are highly concentrated, they sing, speak and move in a fragile choreography dreamlike over a metallic stage, changing into a wild mob or loving pairs.
Fee Berthold
Tagespiegel 17.5.97
Christina Comtesse distils from Susskind's roman, rich raven black humour and bloodcurdling comic. In monstrously fantastic scenes, she succeeds in producing grotesque body pictures, with an almost surreal anatomy. …..
.......The fetish female attributes, dismembered female bodies – this production drives a monstrously-ludicrous game. Sandra Luzina
T.A.Z. Berlin 20.5.97
With joy and laconic humour the director Christina Comtesse deploys a panoptic of femininity, which Grenouille will murder in the most absurd ways. Comtesse's staging cannot deny, that she (as well as her dancers) come from the company of Johann Kresnik: the narrative of a life's story in individual stations, as well as many choreographic moments in this her first full length work show the master's influence. But she directs in a more relaxed way, in a positive sense more superficially. Without pathos, free from theoretical and analytical ballast she narrates a story full of bizarre and grotesque comedy. Michael Mans
Berliner Zeitung 18.5.97
…..a surprising achievement. Comtesse has her own metaphorical language a flair for compacting and can narrate. Michaela Schlagenwerth
Theater und Konzert 2009
Greetings from Hitchcock and “Psycho”.........
.....The humour makes the pleasant difference from the usual Dance Theatre pieces. Christina Comtesse's wit accomplishes to tell the humourless theme of a smell searching murdering man. Like British black humour, that plays with the dark side, she also sees in the murder of young women, not only the moral and social aspects, but rather a grotesque fiction. This is really what it is about. …..
….A speciality of this choreography are the smells, which occur in almost every scene. It begins with a rather nasty smell from an old tin of fish, which comments the abominable beginning scene, then follows different perfume smells, some sweet, some heavy, some bitter, some feminine, depending on the interpretation of the scenes, and these smells arouse the public to the appropriate associations...
At the end, the premiere audience is ecstatic and bestows a strong applause, calls of “Bravo” and trampling feet. The ensemble showing themselves exceptionally casual, so that one notices that the performers themselves also had a lot of fun with this work. Frank Raudszus
Main Echo 4.2.2009
“The Third Sense” is 90 minutes long without a pause, a piece for all the senses.
......The choreography has humour, ironically attacking today's trend, to eliminate all body odours with a spray. The dancers are highly concentrated, they sing, speak and move in a fragile choreography dreamlike over a metallic stage, changing into a wild mob or loving pairs.
Fee Berthold
Tagespiegel 17.5.97
Christina Comtesse distils from Susskind's roman, rich raven black humour and bloodcurdling comic. In monstrously fantastic scenes, she succeeds in producing grotesque body pictures, with an almost surreal anatomy. …..
.......The fetish female attributes, dismembered female bodies – this production drives a monstrously-ludicrous game. Sandra Luzina
T.A.Z. Berlin 20.5.97
With joy and laconic humour the director Christina Comtesse deploys a panoptic of femininity, which Grenouille will murder in the most absurd ways. Comtesse's staging cannot deny, that she (as well as her dancers) come from the company of Johann Kresnik: the narrative of a life's story in individual stations, as well as many choreographic moments in this her first full length work show the master's influence. But she directs in a more relaxed way, in a positive sense more superficially. Without pathos, free from theoretical and analytical ballast she narrates a story full of bizarre and grotesque comedy. Michael Mans
Berliner Zeitung 18.5.97
…..a surprising achievement. Comtesse has her own metaphorical language a flair for compacting and can narrate. Michaela Schlagenwerth
"Greyzone" Graz Schauspielhaus Austria
Choreography Christina Comtesse
Music Gary Carpenter
Set and Costume Design Gabriele Mai
Choreography Christina Comtesse
Music Gary Carpenter
Set and Costume Design Gabriele Mai
Critiques “Greyzone”
Kleinzeitung - 10 March 2002
“GEWALTTATIGE AMAZONEN” (VIOLENT WOMEN)
Five modern Amazons, dressed in black garments, sadistically torment five prisoners using long metal poles, which also function as cage bars.
......Christina Comtesse investigates the behaviour between victim and perpetrator in her ten-woman piece “Greyzone”, which is rightly placed at the beginning of the dance performance “Starke” that premiered on Friday at the Playhouse Theatre in Graz. It is one of three tailored choreographies for a just as homogenous and engaging ensemble “Tanz Graz”.
Utopia – The English woman’s contribution displays on the one hand a very clear narrative structure, which makes one’s entry and understanding of the piece easier. On the other hand, artistically influenced by Carinthian Johann Kresnik, and with a mother from Klagenfurt, the choreography possesses a richly changeable, danceable and abundant movement vocabulary. Last but not least: the unique tailor-designed score composed by Gary Carpenter. The wide spectrum of sound, from inexorable ticking of a metronome to compelling vocals (beautifully sung by Fran Lubahn) and expressively rich string tones (performed live and conducted by Albert Seidl), provides a platform for the impressive scenes. It is not the finale in which the Utopian victory of freedom is conjured, but the expressions of the victims suffering in their cages which leaves the strongest imagery. Ernst Naredi-Rainer
Kronen Zeitung - 10 March 2002
“EINE “STARKE” OHNE SCHWACHEN” (A “STRENGTH” WITHOUT WEAKNESSES)
"The strengths”, the programme title for three ballet pieces for “Tanz Graz” in the Playhouse Theatre, was not only correct in its literal sense, but in the way in which ten women and ten men displayed tremendous physical and conditional strength. The dance theatre evening also showed no weaknesses in substance.
In the first work “Greyzone” by the English woman Christina Comtesse, with gripping music by Gary Carpenter – a commissioned score for Tanz Graz – ten women were used in an intensive study of captivity, liberation, brutality and counter-violence. Especially impressive is the melancholy final sequence with the insertion of a solo mezzo soprano Fran Lubahn. Under the direction of Albert Seidl, Carpenter creates a carrying sound which is less experimental as calculatingly effective. Bernd Schmidt
Tanz.at Aktuell - 15 March 2002
"DIE STARKE: POESIE UND GEWALT” (“THE STRENGTHS”: POETRY AND VIOLENCE)
In “Greyzone”, the English choreographer and Kresnik collaborator Christina Comtesse shows clear lines and virtuoso use of light and space. Heavy bars are used, sometimes as prison bars and sometimes as weapons, by the acrobatically performing ensemble. A rather austere, yet gripping and changeable, game of suppression, oppression, revolt, desperation and hope, played to hard, prickly tones from Gary Carpenter. Andrea Hein
Kleinzeitung - 10 March 2002
“GEWALTTATIGE AMAZONEN” (VIOLENT WOMEN)
Five modern Amazons, dressed in black garments, sadistically torment five prisoners using long metal poles, which also function as cage bars.
......Christina Comtesse investigates the behaviour between victim and perpetrator in her ten-woman piece “Greyzone”, which is rightly placed at the beginning of the dance performance “Starke” that premiered on Friday at the Playhouse Theatre in Graz. It is one of three tailored choreographies for a just as homogenous and engaging ensemble “Tanz Graz”.
Utopia – The English woman’s contribution displays on the one hand a very clear narrative structure, which makes one’s entry and understanding of the piece easier. On the other hand, artistically influenced by Carinthian Johann Kresnik, and with a mother from Klagenfurt, the choreography possesses a richly changeable, danceable and abundant movement vocabulary. Last but not least: the unique tailor-designed score composed by Gary Carpenter. The wide spectrum of sound, from inexorable ticking of a metronome to compelling vocals (beautifully sung by Fran Lubahn) and expressively rich string tones (performed live and conducted by Albert Seidl), provides a platform for the impressive scenes. It is not the finale in which the Utopian victory of freedom is conjured, but the expressions of the victims suffering in their cages which leaves the strongest imagery. Ernst Naredi-Rainer
Kronen Zeitung - 10 March 2002
“EINE “STARKE” OHNE SCHWACHEN” (A “STRENGTH” WITHOUT WEAKNESSES)
"The strengths”, the programme title for three ballet pieces for “Tanz Graz” in the Playhouse Theatre, was not only correct in its literal sense, but in the way in which ten women and ten men displayed tremendous physical and conditional strength. The dance theatre evening also showed no weaknesses in substance.
In the first work “Greyzone” by the English woman Christina Comtesse, with gripping music by Gary Carpenter – a commissioned score for Tanz Graz – ten women were used in an intensive study of captivity, liberation, brutality and counter-violence. Especially impressive is the melancholy final sequence with the insertion of a solo mezzo soprano Fran Lubahn. Under the direction of Albert Seidl, Carpenter creates a carrying sound which is less experimental as calculatingly effective. Bernd Schmidt
Tanz.at Aktuell - 15 March 2002
"DIE STARKE: POESIE UND GEWALT” (“THE STRENGTHS”: POETRY AND VIOLENCE)
In “Greyzone”, the English choreographer and Kresnik collaborator Christina Comtesse shows clear lines and virtuoso use of light and space. Heavy bars are used, sometimes as prison bars and sometimes as weapons, by the acrobatically performing ensemble. A rather austere, yet gripping and changeable, game of suppression, oppression, revolt, desperation and hope, played to hard, prickly tones from Gary Carpenter. Andrea Hein