Viola Farber took over from Alwin Nikolais as the head of the CNDC (Centre nationale de danse contemporaine), Angers in the autumn of 1981. In addition to directing the establishment's College, she hoped to build up a real company in Europe. This consisted of ten members: four Americans who had come over with her, and six newly-auditioned French dancers. Working at full stretch, she was ready to present a programme of four pieces barely two months after her arrival.
A passionate music lover, Viola Farber drew upon this to infuse a number of her pieces with a cheerful lyricism. “Cinq pour Dix” is one of them, composed in collaboration with jazzman Michel Portal. This aspect apart, “Cinq pour Dix” allows glimpses of what its writing owes to the earlier period when she was a celebrated performer of Merce Cunningham (1953-1965): specifically-defined movements, confined to a course, on trajectories which open the amplitude of the space. The movement spreads from a light but firmly-held upper body, nonetheless susceptible to wide directional variations. The upper torso is open towards the front, allowing an exclamatory freeing up of the upper limbs.   

Source: Gérard Mayen

Born in Germany, Viola Farber emigrated to Texas with her family at the age of seven. Coming across Merce Cunningham by chance, she became one of his dancers most in the limelight, leaving him the day she could no longer bear the classic public-interpreter relationship. At the same time, she followed the classical lessons of Margaret Craske, “of effective harshness”, and of Enrico Cechetti, and, from the outset, stood out from the universe of Martha Graham and “from her proud suffering”. While she acknowledges that what touches her most with a dancer, is effort, she adds that, without grace, that effort would be meaningless. Overturning the conventional idea that expects a good dancer to adapt to all styles, she reminds us that each technique muscles and models the body differently.