Transalpine: Col Collon

Short video of the biggest challenge we faced when Sonja and I crossed the Alps with our three yaks in 2011: Crossing the col de Collon at 3080m with a big glacier on one side and iron stairs on the other...

Transalpine: Menton

Having left their farms in Switzerland on September 12th, Sonja Mathis, Rosula Blanc and their three yaks arrive on the shore of the Mediterranean in Menton on November 6th 2011 after 600km, 36 mountain passes and eight weeks walk. The last day of the journey brings storm, rain, inundations, a last pass to cross and a very bad, wearying trail for the yaks...

The Snow Grouse (La Perdrix des Neiges)

Genre: Mountain dance film
Length: 12 min 05 sec
Country of Origin: Switzerland
Location: filmed in Pakistan at the foot of Mt Nanga Parbat
Year of Production: 2005
Premiere: November 5th, 2005, Mase (CH)
Dance: Rosula Blanc (CH)
Music: Goro Noda (Japan)
Costumes: Rosula Blanc (CH)
Camera: André Georges (CH)
Artistic Director and Editor: Rosula Blanc (CH) 

At the foot of Mt Nanga Parbat (8125m) in the Himalayas at an altitude of 4000-5000m in a landscape of mainly rock, ice and snow lives the snow grouse. How is she surviving in this environment that seems so hostile towards life? Shy and wild, we only get short glimpses of her as she flies past to disappear in the rocks again.

In this film based on Japanese Butoh the snow grouse became the symbol for the quest of the possibility of dance in the austere spaces of the highest mountains of the world. How to meet the immense spaces with the dancer's body? The rocks? The snow? The precipices? The cold? The strain of altitude?

The glimpses of dance in this breath taking environment guide us to a poetic vision of the spring in the mountains with a strong contrast between the fragility of the living being and the power of the mountain nature.

Goldfishexpress

Genre: Music Video
Length: 6 min 17 sec
Country of Origin: Switzerland
Location: filmed in Osaka and London
Year of production: 2001/2002
Avant-premiere: 2001 Scenography Exhibition Laban Center London (UK)
Performers: Susanne Beschorner (BRD), Katsura Isobe (Japan), Rosula Blanc (CH)
Music: Kaja (Japan)
Camera: Rosula Blanc, Katsura Isobe, Maresa von Stockert
Artistic Director and Editor: Rosula Blanc (CH) 

Riding the commuter train in Osaka, staring into the habitual city view, a passenger has fragmentary insights into a different level of reality. As if his view was invaded by a parasitic frequency the inner and outer landscapes mix. He perceives people as their inner psycological essence, pressed forwards, constantly running after an imaginary goal, and finally they are so used to running that they can't be without anymore. Without consciously realizing the shift, "running" became a goal in itself.

About the "Goldfishtown"
I remember an evening almost twenty years ago I spent at the "Climax", the music club Kaja was managing at the time. It was a quiet night with only a few guests and a young singer-songwriter performing. During a break of the rehearsal with his band Kaja came over for a drink and we sat at the bar watching the fishes in the aquarium. The small goldfishes were still very confused and upset about the big fish Kaja had caught in lake Biwa the night before and put in the aquarium with them. We sat there for a long while without talking just watching the fishes. Finally Kaja got up. "I have to go back to my rehearsal" he said. "Sure" I nodded. And I remember how I watched him walking around the bar, exchanging a few words with the young bartender and then disappearing through the back door. There was this silence around him that I admired so much.

The confined world of the goldfishbowl is to me like a small model of the emptiness of the town life Kaja describes in his songs. The fishes in the aquarium are living in an artificial, cut-off universe; they are just there to be watched by others without any power of decision. The goldfishtown is a decorative life in an artificial surrounding - going round without real purpose, dressing up just for the outer appearance. But looking at it from a different angle, it also hints at the silence and selfsufficency which can bring depth and beauty into this "goldfishbowl".