Climb the sky. Ten Duets on a Theme of Rescue (Pite), About Now (Soulier), Out of Breath (Inger) by Martinez, C., Bach, J. S., Ter Veldhuis, Aπό (2023/2023), Amare, The Hague, Netherlands

CRYSTAL PITE Associate choreographer “I love the word “rescue”. It captures a whole story in a single word. Similarly, the body can convey narrative through the simplest of actions. For me, this work for Cedar Lake was an act of excavation. After creating the choreography, I searched within it for images that specifically evoked rescue. There are many of them. They exist inside the dancing like fragments of an untold narrative. I suppose the presence of rescue in this work is twofold, as I tried to liberate and expose these images for brief contemplation before releasing them back into the dance: saving and holding one picture of rescue in each of the ten duets.” – Crystal Pite NOÉ SOULIER Choreographer “My approach to movement is rooted in practical actions that most of us are familiar with, such as hitting, avoiding or throwing. I insert many distortions that motivate the dancers’ movements without being identifiable by the spectators. These diverted actions capture a poetic dimension of movement that lies beneath discourse and narration. Far from being purely formal, they aim to trigger affects and emotions in both the performers and the audience without having to be part of a narrative structure. In About Now, I confront this vocabulary of diverted actions with the steps of classical dance, that can be seen as stylized action verbs: “frappé, fouetté, assemblé… ”. With the dancers of NDT 2, we explored actions present in this classical vocabulary, and thereby delved into the sensual, experiential and affective dimension of this movement language, rather than into its formal geometric structure. Ballet is disciplinary, and imposes a formal framework on the body that disregards its natural tendencies and conveys stereotyped gendered norms. The problematic nature of this heritage appears more and more clearly. It is, however, illusory to think that we could completely separate ourselves from this legacy. Instead of denying it, About Now aims to rework its principle guidelines to create a new classic movement language that draws on the richness of this tradition. This way, About Now generates a different relationship to the body, one that is affective and sensual, and that reconfigures the dynamics of power embedded in classical dance.” – Noé Soulier JOHAN INGER Choreographer “I created Out of Breath during a tumultuous time in my life when the dramatic birth of my daughter brutally sparked the awareness that life can be extremely fragile from the very start. The piece addresses the ever lingering presence of death, how we tend to forget this is part of our daily lives but also how that anxiety is constantly surpassed and transcended by the vibration and passion for life. Out of Breath was made a month after this event and I was still very taken by it so I made this piece where life and death are both present, almost going hand in hand. The curved wall on stage recalls a sunken ship that provides the anchor point for the dancers to dance around. It is counterbalanced by the passionate and spirited music composed by Jacob ter Veldhuis and violinist Lajko Felix.” – Johan Inger