Julyen Hamilton
KOAN - For Our Times
Wed 13.8
19:00
60 Min
Yaron Yerushalmi Hall
110₪
The Work
The new, the next, the solo created now, in our times.
The solo alone – to see what can often only be seen alone.
The lone voice – not in the wilderness but in the modern place and state…. …confused, angry, fearful……..insightful, observant, serene.
The single person acts and listens to the single person and the gathered crowd.
KOAN: a paradoxical anecdote / a riddle without a solution… origin in Japanese: a matter for public thought.
The solo KOAN created by Julyen Hamilton is a beautiful reflection on a solitary journey within the contemporary landscape where individuals search for clarity and understanding within themselves amidst the noise and chaos. It speaks to the paradoxical nature of our existence, oscillating between confusion and insight, rage and serenity, as we are watched by the collective consciousness around us. Like a traditional koan, it invites contemplation and introspection by encouraging us to explore the depths of our own minds and perceptions.
Koan, as a traditional form of spiritual practice in Zen Buddhism, is used to encourage deep introspective thinking and achieve enlightenment. It usually consists of paradoxical stories, sentences, or questions that have no direct solution or logical answer. The goal of a koan is not to be understood rationally or intellectually but to transcend conventional ways of thinking and reach a direct experience of enlightenment or “Awakening.”
KOAN has been performed in Spain, France, Mexico, Belgium, Greece, Portugal, Bulgaria, Italy, Serbia, the Netherlands, Argentina, and Uruguay.
“My work is to make performances – solo and company pieces – with dancers, musicians and other performers – and my process, among other things, is to create on the stage at the moment… to compose at the moment… to improvise…” Julyen Hamilton
The Artist
Julyen Hamilton is a dancer / choreographer / poet / teacher / musician. He has been making and performing dances for 45 years throughout the world. He has made over 100 solos, as well as 20 years of Company pieces and numerous collaborations with dancers, musicians, and theatre performers.
Born and brought up in England, he trained in London in the 1970s, a time of radical experimentation. He has been an exponent of innovative performance since that time. His work is mostly improvised: he composes dance works instantly, as well as the texts that often accompany them. His work with text is unique. It fuses naturally his long-term writing practice with his refined skills in dancing.
When working with his company, ALLEN’S LINE, he directs dancers and lighting designers to make and perform work through this same immediacy.
Since the 80s, he has performed constantly in close collaboration with many of the highest-quality musicians from all over Europe. (Barre Phillips, Fred Frith, Tristan Honsinger, Michael Moore…) It is with some of these musicians that he gives readings of his poetry.
He is at present performing the solos INTERVIEW, HELD DEAR and A KOAN for our Times performing with bass player Barre Phillips, Nuria Andorra, and Jordina Millá amongst many others.
With his company ALLEN’S LINE, he has been performing GOAT OCEAN in Rome, Paris, Bruxelles, and France during 2023, and their new work CHILD of DAY has shown in Paris and Bruxelles during 2024 / 2025.
As a pianist, he plays regularly with Hamilton Carroll in Berlin and Brussels. Their first cd, POINTER was released in 2016. His label, BLUEDOG PUBLISHING.net, produces videos of his performances on DVD, CDs and print. His new poetry album Jack Gets Out of Prison with bassist Wilbert de Joode was released in 2018.
Photos: Irene Occhiato, Phillippe Quinta, Arnaud Beelen
Choreography, Dance, Text, Decor: Julyen Hamilton
Light Design: Ofer Laufer
