Savoir Faire

SHUT EYE – SOL LEON & PAUL LIGHTFOOT

I shut my eyes in order to see – Paul Gaugin

In Shut Eye, house choreographers Sol León and Paul Lightfoot have captured their innovative poetic approach towards contemporary dance once again. The piece expresses a world full of fantasy, that carries symbolic meanings behind the dynamic use of black and white, the respective light and shadow. Shut Eye offers the spectator a glimpse into a surrealistic world that asks the question: is what we see limited by our senses or is it conditioned by how we let our brain manipulate the image through our emotions? Shut Eye is dedicated to Georgi Milev.

WOKE UP BLIND – MARCO GOECKE

“The songs You and I and The way young lovers do by Jeff Buckley, who died tragically and young, deal with love in different ways: the first is slow, with very stretched-out vocals; the second has fast, almost hectic guitar accompaniment. Both songs form the basis for Marco Goecke’s choreography Woke up Blind. The two female and five male dancers are drawn into an acoustic world in which they excel in contesting with Buckley’s vocal power and his frenetic guitar sounds. Like young lovers, they throw themselves into the unknown regardless of the consequences, driven purely by longing. In Woke up Blind, Goecke has once again managed to reach the core of human emotions through pure, highly complex movement.” – Nadja Kadel

PARTITA FOR 8 DANCERS – CRYSTAL PITE

Partita is a simple piece. Born of a love of surface and structure, of the human voice, of dancing and tired ligaments, of music, and of our basic desire to draw a line from one point to another. – Caroline Shaw, composer, on Partita for 8 Voices

“What else could I do but respond with a dance? Partita for 8 Dancers is both an interpretation of Caroline’s piece and my way of expressing gratitude for it. During the creation process, her Partita was both a map and a mentor for me. It showed me the route and cheered me on as I followed it. There were times I felt as if Caroline drew a line right through me, connecting me to her, and onwards to you. Her music rings true in the way that geometry does, in the way that love does. There are infinite ways to render it visible… here is one of them.

I am grateful to the incredible dancers of NDT for their essential creative contributions to this work, and for their mastery and earnestness, which I find deeply moving. Thank-you to Renee Sigouin for helping me to remember and sort the source material, and to David Pay for connecting me to Caroline Shaw in the first place. Thank-you to my dear design team: Nancy, Tom and Jay, who never cease to amaze and inspire me. And thank you to NDT for giving me this precious opportunity to make something, and to share it with other humans in this, potent space.” – Crystal Pite