Schubert

WIR SAGEN UNS DUNKLES – MARCO GOECKE

Marco Goecke’s new creation for NDT 2 begins with encounters in the studio between the choreographer and the dancers. Their meetings appear unimportant, yet simultaneously they are more important than anything else; young, naughty and evil, playful and punky. “Today, my feelings belong to the dancers, more than ever before”, says Goecke. A blink of the eye, a glance, a seemingly f leeting gesture. Just a moment or a story? What remains is a tear on an eyelash that is fanned away. How do we get closer? A butterfly that remains a second before it f lies away. The sounds of Schubert and Schnittke meet those of Placebo, The Swan Song and Song To Say Goodbye. Then there are the rattling pants, its sound interfering with the music. Goecke: “The dancers understand me immediately. There is no limit, they want to be challenged.” They move fast, virtuoso, gesticulate in peculiar ways, unconscious yet self assured, and – whether solo, in a pas de deux or larger group – they communicate in Goecke’s language, as if they had never learned another. Darkness Spoken, without words. – Nadja Kadel

ONE ON ONE – JOHAN INGER

One on One centralizes the dance between two people and investigates the evolutionary stages in relationships: the exploration and sensing of two bodies, their meeting and touching when coming together or the collapse that occurs through the small cracks in their partnership. Inger chose to make the piece on Franz Schubert’s Impromptus and 21st Sonata. These tender scores were written during the composer’s final years of his life, and count as one of his last major compositions for the piano. Schubert was ostensibly incapable of maintaining a romantic relationship, something he pursued until the day he died. For Inger, this longing is inherent to the composer’s music and symbolizes the prevalent desire in this ballet. With One on One Inger won the 2016 Benois de la Danse for best choreographer.

CACTI – ALEXANDER EKMAN

Over ten years ago, choreographer Alexander Ekman decided to solely  create works that offer a great amount of humor, as well as a critical note. With Cacti (2010) Ekman amusingly challenges the audience to reflect on modern dance as a higher art form. Sixteen dancers stand, seemingly trapped, on oversized Scrabble tiles. They run, fall, writhe and try to escape their invisible prisons. Eventually they each acquire a cactus. But what does it all mean? Cacti is a gleeful parody of the art form’s greater excesses. A string quartet performs the music by Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert live on stage, while the dancers become the instruments of the orchestra, resulting in a rhythmical ensemble. In 2010 Cacti was nominated for a Swan Award for
‘most impressive dance production’.

Programme booklet (NDT 2 | Schubert)