In it he offered meditative, meticulous deconstructions of well-known images, with the slow, sometimes enigmatic gestures of the performers referring to the original works, as if the movement had been broken by a prism. Mr. Hoghe, indifferent and a physical contrast to his dancers, was a constant but deliberately unemotional presence. This kind of juxtaposition was a common theme in his work.
“You could say that not much happens with“ Boléro Variations ”,” wrote Claudia La Rocco in a 2009 review in the New York Times. “The performers lead beautifully crafted, often simple, phrases into a series of powerful recordings.” But in the end, she noted, “rich worlds of intention and regret blossom in every act.”
In another work, “Pas de Deux”, created in 2011 for Takashi Ueno, Mr. Hoghe offered the slow ceremonial donning of kimono sashes and a vision of the young dancer’s physical control and strength that was neutral to his own weak body.
“I brought this vulnerability to the stage that we should always be aware of,” and not just in times of crisis, he said last year when asked about working during the pandemic.
Raimund Hoghe was born on May 12, 1949 in Wuppertal. His mother Irmhild Hoghe, a seamstress, was a widow and had a 10-year-old daughter when she met Mr. Hoghe’s 15-year-old father. Mr. Hoghe never knew his father, who married another woman, although his parents continued to write to each other – letters he published in a book, “The Price of Love” (1984).
His mother, he said in interviews, always accepted his appearance and believed that she could go her own way. “She often said there were worse things than a back like mine,” he said in a 2004 interview in Le Monde.
