Sasha Waltz & Guests
"SYM-PHONIE MMXX"
A Staatsballett Berlin production, co-produced by Sasha Waltz & Guests with dancers of Sasha Waltz & Guests
THEATRE WORLD BRNO FESTIVAL
Janáček Theatre
Brno, Czech Republic
Sun 21 May 2023 at 18:00
Mon 22 May 2023 at 19:00
Photo by Malicor
Sasha Waltz has created a new work for dance and music which will be staged as a collaborative production of the Staatsballett Berlin and Sasha Waltz & Guests. The choreographer commissioned the renowned composer Georg Friedrich Haas to compose original ballet music for a joint creation. After numerous operas, this is Haas' first official stage work for dance.
Written for a large symphonic cast of the Staatskapelle Berlin, the composition creates space for parts which are determined by dance, creating an intertwined connection between musical language and the dancers' body language.Georg Friedrich Haas ranks amongst the most successful contemporary music composers. His success is due in part to having dedicated himself to the utopian idea – "yet unattainable in its perfection" – of creating new music that is both expressive and soothing – not despite but precisely because it is new.
The concept behind the piece is based upon the inspiring encounter between various art disciplines and, in the tradition of dance history, has become its artistic principle: music, dance and visual arts have been merged into a full-length work by Sasha Waltz and her team.
Two years with the corona pandemic lie between the originally planned world premiere in 2020 and the new premiere date. After all this time, choreographer Sasha Waltz would like to further develop her work. The extensive and necessary rehearsals are beyond what the Staatsballett Berlin had originally allotted to this production. Both companies, the Staatsballett Berlin and Sasha Waltz & Guests, have now found a way to stage SYM-PHONIE 2020 featuring dancers of Sasha Waltz & Guests. Reflections on issues of sustainability in regards to the already completed stage design (Pia Maier-Schriever), costumes (Bernd Skodzig) and light design (David Finn) as well as the wish to stage the commissioned composition by Georg Friedrich Haas led to this productive cooperation – this "symphony" of Staatsballett Berlin and Sasha Waltz & Guests.