THE NIGHT OF DIONYSOS
APOCALYPSE
TRISTANISOLDE
THE MAIDS
DELIRIUM OF A CHILDHOOD

ISMAEL IVO

DELIRIUM OF A CHILDHOOD

Sequence of scenes

Desert
Salamta (the creation)
Warum so dunkle Flammen?
Avocado tree
Mütterlein – Oasis
And one day, the sky was covered with birds
Agora, Nana
Fábälähala
(From earth you came to earth you shall return)



Music

Gustav Mahler – Kindertotenlieder – Rückert-Lieder
Christa Ludwig und die Berliner Philharmoniker
Unter der Leitung von Herbert von Karajan

An Anthology of African Music, UNESCO-Collection
Edited for the International Music Council by the International Institute of Comparative
Music Studies and Documentation

Ethiopia III
Recordings by Cynthia Tse Kimberlin

Ba – Benzélé Pygmies
Recordings bv S. Arom and G. Taurelle

Une journée chez les Bassaris – Senegal
Recordings A. Morat, edited by R. Hollinger




delirium of a childhood


A Documentary Solo Dance
“The Spotlight shifts, the hunger remains.”
We all know, what has been happening in the world and many individuals and some nations are united in their desire to protect these people and meet the humanitarian needs. There are institutions or the world food program, but the problem is that for every hungry child who makes the headlines there are millions more who do not. When was the last time we read about hungry people in Azerbaijan, Guinea, Brazil, India, Romania or Tajikistan? In all the news coverage of West Bank and Gaza, when did we hear about hungry Palestinians? Let’s take a side walk to the outskirts of New York and other big cities in North America and open your eyes to a different reality. I’m talking about the chronically hungry and in particular about children under 5, a stage of development when good nutrition can determine whether they will be able to move out of poverty that has caused their hunger. “James Morris – executive director of United Nations World Food Program – declares that there is chronically hungry people around the globe. They have a rare chance to garner at best few newspaper column inches or a few seconds on television. Then, it’s back to business as usual.” – Shouldn’t their own governments be doing more? Often, yes, but whether the local or international
motives , intrigues and interests this are outside their control. They continue to depend on our support. For the majority the help will come too late but at least we have to be aware of this situation. This solo is a documentary of my personal memories and an attempt to touch dream and hope. A hope that an individual consciousness can influence a collective desire to break this continous dead spiral. Above all a dream that we will wake-up from this “delirium” and recognise our responsibility to inspire our governments to take care of the future of mankind. A strong believe in the power of art and dance as instruments for an open discussion and reflections which gives us a chance for “the day after” be a better day over the years to come.
Ismael Ivo Berlin, November 8th, 2004




“For hunger is a curious thing; at first it is with you all the time, waking and sleeping and in your dreams, and your belly cries out insistently, and there is a gnawing and a pain as if your very vitals were being devoured, and you must stop it at any cost, and you buy a moment’s respite even while you know and fear the sequel. Then the pain is no longer sharp but dull, and this too is with you always, so that you think of food many times a day, and each time a terrible sickness assails you, and because you know this you try to avoid the thought, but you cannot, it is with you. Then that too is gone, all pain, all desire, only a great emptiness is left, like the sky, like a well in drought, and it is now that the strength drains from your limbs, and you try to rise and find you cannot, or to swallow water and your throat is powerless, and both the swallow and the effort of retaining the liquid tax you to the uttermost.” (Kamala Markandaya)

Half the body buried under a huge, earth colored skirt, a lonely figure, which holds itself in an eternal embrace, plays a tiny mouth-organ. This image, strange and familiar at the same time, may be part of a dream, but it could also have been here for ages. "Delirium of a Childhood" is undoubtedly Ismael Ivo’s most personal work. It is a stirring testimony of childhood and reminds us of the starving, ghostlike bodies that enter our lives via television. The solo was created in 1990 and - sadly enough - has lost nothing of its topicality since then. It is a poetic elegy about the physic and psychic abuse of the continent Ivo’s ancestors were forced to leave. "For hunger is a curious thing: at first it is with you all the time, waking and sleeping and in your dreams – your belly cries out insistently, and there is a gnawing and a pain as if your very vitals were being devoured.. Then that too is gone, all pain, all desire, only a great emptiness is left, like the sky, like a well in draught... "(Kamala Markandaya)

"Delirium of a Childhood" is a dream. It is the attempt to perceive reality through the eyes of a child and its inner world - its sensitivity and perception of images and imagination. It is a journey into human memories not localized in space and time.

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