Falling into Shadow

Moving to the increasingly frantic speed of its score, Walking Mad (2001) by Johan Inger takes us through the various stages between madness and violence. Inspired by an old television recording of a famous conductor's increasingly frenzied performance conducting the bolero, Johan Inger shows us the complicated relationship between men and women and within ourselves. 

By placing a moving wall at centre stage, Inger breaks up the minimalism of the bolero into different physical spaces. The wall illustrates the boundaries we create in our relationships, in our minds, and the fragile barrier between sanity and insanity. Originally created for the dancers of NDT 1, we are excited to now bring it to NDT 2. 

"The wall, apart from the music, was the starting point of Walking Mad. If I was to make something special with it, I had to have it in the studio from day one. I wanted to make it into the tenth member of the cast." - Johan Inger 

How do we keep making art amidst negative feedback, when the more you create, the more is said about you? The expressive new work of Botis Seva, founder of Far From The Norm, revolves around the role of criticism and our response to it in the process of creation. 

A new voice for NDT, Seva is at home in the realms of hip-hop, physical theatre and contemporary dance, and continuously reinvents his approach to dance and creativity. His experiments with form, structure and theatrics result in an intricate and emotional language of movement.  

"As humans and as artists, we must go back to the real reason we started making work and move away from caring about what someone says. Instead, we should focus on the bigger purpose: I believe we are here to shine a light in the darkness of the world." - Botis Seva 

In the returning Wir sagen uns Dunkles (2017), associate choreographer Marco Goecke provides a glimpse into the unique world of the studio where choreographer and dancer meet, and stories arise from indescribable energies. The questions and answers that arise from these encounters shape Goecke's works, translating the ineffable into a powerfully choreographed collection of contrasts.  

The work exudes a restless vibration, in which the body is surrendered to intoxicating tremolos, resembling the flutter of butterfly wings. The fast-moving virtuoso dancers effortlessly communicate in Goecke's language, gesticulate in peculiar ways, weave their steps through the music, and let the audience experience a sensation of both attraction and disquiet.

"I have never been inspired in my life. I just go into the studio with everything I am and have experienced. And then I always come up with something. Everything arises from energies that you can't even describe – maybe that's what you call creativity." - Marco Goecke 

Photo: Rahi Rezvani