マイケル·クラーク·カンパニー
Come, been and gone

Ballet meets punk, and neither comes out the same. In its highly anticipated first visit to Chicago, the electrifying Michael Clark Company provocatively pays homage to the decadence and unbridled fun of 1970s club culture. British dance iconoclast Michael Clark sets his choreography in come, been and gone to the music of fellow rebel David Bowie, and collaborates with video artist and dance film pioneer Charles Atlas. Clark’s dancers don Bowie-style leather jackets and echo his unique body language, building up to a detonation of jumps and kicks. “Come, been and gone” pulls off a remarkable feat—matching the cool, alien beauty of the singular singer, who makes a cameo appearance here thanks to 1977 film footage of his track “Heroes.”

マイケル·クラーク·カンパニー
Tate Project Part I ]
The choreography rehearsed and performed in 2010 paired the rigour of classical steps with contemporary movement, a juxtaposition that paralleled Clark’s training as a ballet dancer at the Royal Ballet, and his later anti-hierarchical, anti-authoritarian choreographic experiments. Balletic poses, jumps and steps were isolated from traditional narrative sequences and made strange through repetition. The graceful leaps and turns of the trained dancers seemed awkward and uneven, just as they were often out of sync and oriented in different directions. This choreography paralleled the performance space, which was demarcated by geometric and striped floor mats designed by Charles Atlas, which resembled the large windows at the back of the hall and the black beams that extend vertically from floor to ceiling.

Noumenon

A truly universal artist, the American Alwin Nikolais (1910-1993) devoted his life to a radical form of staged art he called “dance theater.” Inspired (perhaps unconsciously) by the experiments of Bauhaus members such as Oskar Schlemmer and László Moholy-Nagy in the 1920s, Nikolais devised a style of abstract dance that encompassed costumes, stage sets, choreography, lighting, and music, all under his control. Also in 1963, Nikolais met analog synthesizer pioneer Robert Moog, who was at the time just starting his business in New York. He was fascinated by the sounds of Moog’s machines, and with the money provided by a a Guggenheim Fellowship, Nikolais bought the first ever commercially produced Moog synthesizer. It was the primary sound-source for all of Nikolais’ scores from 1963 to 1975. The instrument is now housed at the Stearns Collection of Musical Instruments at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

AION
AIŌN is inspired by an abstract notion of time and the journey between dimensions. In AIŌN Erna Ómarsdóttir choreographer and Anna Thorvaldsdóttir composer invite the audience on an otherworldly voyage where music and movement merge in a unique way. Concept and artistic direction: Erna Ómarsdóttir and Anna Thorvaldsdóttir Music: Anna Thorvaldsdóttir Choreography: Erna Ómarsdóttir Conductor: Anna-Maria Helsing Video art: Pierre-Alain Giraud and Valdimar Jóhannsson Light design: Valdimar Jóhannsson Assistant choreographer: Lovísa Ósk Gunnarsdóttir Costumes: Agnieszka Baranowska Dancers: Charmene Pang, Elín Signý Weywadt Ragnarsdóttir, Erna Gunnarsdóttir, Félix Urbina Alejandre, Inga Huld Hákonardóttir, Shota Inoue, Tilly Sordat and Una Björg Bjarnadóttir.

NanoDanses
FILE FESTIVAL

All the people we meet during our life time – what happens to them? An old woman’s memories of her past loves come to life in this magical miniature world. The gentle, melancholy story unfolds in real time before the audience through dance and live film. A set of highly expressive dancing fingers take centre stage. Choreographer Michèle Anne De Mey and film director Jaco Van Dormael have given their imaginations free flight. The projected miniature world that forms this ”nano performance” captures every nuance of human emotion. The audience also have the opportunity to follow, step by step, the making of the live film. The carefully crafted, diminutive stage settings are brilliantly expressive.