In C
With the onset of the pandemic more than two years ago, many digital formats emerged that attempted to replace the live experience of a performance. The rehearsals for In C in 2021 also fell into the lockdown period and partly took place remotely. In C celebrated its digital premiere as a livestream in Berlin's Radialsystem in the same year.
But Sasha Waltz & Guests did not simply try to convey the peculiarities of dance digitally, but to integrate digital tools into their working process. For example, all the movement figures were recorded in the form of video tutorials so that they could be learned digitally in the future, regardless of location. In this way, In C challenges not only the materialities of choreography but also the possibilities of flexible artistic production in times of pandemic and artistic exchange.
In a dense interplay of music and choreography, Sasha Waltz has developed choreographic material together with her dancers that is deliberately not designed as a finished stage piece. Similar to the revolutionary composition of the same name by Terry Riley from 1964, to which the choreography refers, In C follows an open and experimental structure that gives the dancers room for new variations during the performance. The choreography is a game system consisting of 53 movement figures and clear rules and laws for their execution, within which the dancers can improvise individually and at the same time as part of the group. In this way, the dancers simultaneously explore the democratic potential of individual freedom in connection with the community during the performance.
"The score of "In C" consists of 53 musical figures and reads like a stage direction for musicians. I was tempted to translate these detailed instructions into dance in a choreographic exploration of the music. The result is a system of 53 movement figures for a structured improvisation with clear rules and laws. The length of the piece and the number of musicians and dancers remain variable. "In C" is a dynamic, modular system that remains adaptable in times of pandemic. It is an exciting challenge to be able to develop many different variations and formats from it in the future." — Sasha Waltz
Direction / Choreography: Sasha Waltz
Composition: Terry Riley
Costume: Jasmin Lepore
Dramaturgy: Jochen Sandig
Dancers: Sebastian Abarbanell (4 + 5 February 2023). February 2023), Jirí Bartovanec, Alessandra Defazio, Melissa Figueiredo, Yuya Fujinami, Ageliki Gouvi, Agnieszka Jachym, Margaux Marielle-Tréhoüart, Aladino Rivera Blanca, László Sandig, Joel Suárez Gómez, Stylianos Tsatsos
Assistant Director: Francisco Martinez Miranda
Lighting: Olaf Danilsen, Martin Hauk
Costume Design: Sandra Tiersch
Guest Performance Management: Karsten Liske
Commercial Management: Stephan E. Schmidt
Directorate / Management: Sasha Waltz, Jochen Sandig, Bärbel Kern