Beautiful Dance / Your Eyes / Oh Souvenir

Listen with your eyes. What does it mean to listen? How can the listening experience, the structures of music, be transcribed into movement and expressed in performance? In the Trilogy we have tried not to dance to the music, but to dance in the music, to get inside it and dissect the act of listening. While Beautiful Dance, Your Eyes, and Oh Souvenir all explore very different forms of music: a piano sonata, a rock song, and an operatic duet, what binds the project together is a method, a set of concerns. The Trilogy is an attempt to develop a form of acoustic reading: a detailed, precise translation between the separate languages of music and movement. We try to enter into the music, discovering its structures, and transcribing them onto our bodies. This is an invitation to observe and to listen.

Trilogy Concept, Choreography, Dance and Production: Albert Quesada & Vera Tussing / Illustration: Gosia Machon / Costumes: Vera Tussing / Writer and Dramaturge: JS Rafaeli / SoundEngineer: Christian Francois / Special thanks to Rebecca Hanson, Alison Duthie, Julia Kalache, Petra Söör and the Costume Department at The Place

Part 1 - Beautiful Dance Music: Beethoven's Sonata No.13 in E-flat major Op.27 allegro molto e vivace played by Glenn Gould / Lighting Design: Albert Quesada & Vera Tussing / Residencies: Summer Studios, WorkSpace Brussels (BE), PACT Zollverein (DE), Open Arts Cafe (UK)

Part 2 - Your Eyes Music: Anno and Honeysuckle by JS Rafaeli / MusicalCollaborator: JS Rafaeli / Lighting Design: In collaboration with Andrew Hammond and Arne Lievens / Film and Editing: Vinicius Salles, Jordan Copeland, Ilke de Vries / SoundEngineer: Camilo Tirado / Originally commissioned by ROH2 for 'Firsts' at the Royal Opera House, London / Residencies: Choreodrome at The Place, Open Arts Cafe, The Royal Opera House (UK), DeWarande, Bains Connective, WorkSpace Brussels, wp Zimmer (BE), PACT Zollverein (DE)

Part 3 - Oh Souvenir Music: Parle-moi de ma mère from Bizet’s Carmen, sung by Plácido Domingo and Kiri Te Kanawa / Lighting Design: In collaboration with Arne Lievens / Produced by Monty / With the support of Vlaamse Overheid, Consell Nacional de la Cultura i de les Arts (CoNCA) / Co-produced by Monty, Kunstencentrum Vooruit (Départs) With the support of the Départs/European Commission (Culture program), kunstencentrum BUDA (BE) / Residencies: Monty, wp Zimmer, kunstencentrum BUDA, Summer Studios (BE), Choreoroam / The Place, The Royal Opera House (UK), PACT Zollverein (DE), DeVIR/CAPa (PT), La Caldera (ES)

Download the Technical Rider and the Light Plot on a pdf

Reviews by londondance.com – Katie Fishby Eleanor Sikorski

Support

Beautiful Dance

Video Excerpts / Full Piece

In Your Eyes we explore the structure of a rock song, where written scores are less relevant, and we have to find other ways of visualizing music: the flickering of the needle in a volume meter, the red light on the screen of a recording console, the movements of a band onstage etc.

Your Eyes takes a song apart to discover what it is made of. In the recording process each beat of the drums, chord of the guitar, and word of the lyrics is layered to create a whole. Rock songs have a uniquely visceral appeal; we explore the visual perception of sound, trying to get inside a song to discover the poetry at its heart.

Choreography and Dance: Albert Quesada & Vera Tussing Music: Anno and Honeysuckle by JS Rafaeli MusicalCollaborator: JS Rafaeli Illustration: Gosia Machon Lighting: In collaboration with Andrew Hammond and Arne Lievens Costumes: Vera Tussing Writer: JS Rafaeli Film: Vinicius Salles, Ilke de Vries SoundEngineer: Camilo Tirado, Christian Francois Produced by Albert Quesada & Vera Tussing Originally commissioned by ROH2 for 'Firsts' at the Royal Opera House, London Residencies: Choreodrome at The Place, Open Arts Cafe, The Royal Opera House (UK), DeWarande, Bains Connective, WorkSpaceBrussels, wp Zimmer (BE), PACT Zollverein (DE) Special thanks to Rebecca Hanson, Julia Kalache and Costume Department at The Place Year: 2009 Duration: 17 minutes

DOWNLOAD the Technical Rider and the Light Plot on a pdf

Video Full Piece (Vooruit) (The Place)

The sung voice is the nexus between physicality and musicality. In Oh Souvenir we explore the sung voice through Opera.Using the passage “Parle-moi de ma mère” from Bizet’s Carmen as our starting point, we explore how the experience of an opera audience is structured: from the curtain rising and the conductor entering, to the set, lights, and libretto, and the essential relationship between words and music.

Choreography and Dance: Albert Quesada & Vera Tussing Music: Parle-moi de ma mère from Bizet’s Carmen, sung by Plácido Domingo and Kiri Te Kanawa Illustrations: Gosia Machon Lighting: In collaboration with Arne Lievens Costumes: Vera Tussing Writer: JS Rafaeli Produced by Albert Quesada & Vera Tussing, Monty With the support of Vlaamse Overheid, Consell Nacional de la Cultura i de les Arts (CoNCA) Co-produced by Monty, Vooruit, Kunstencentrum BUDA (BE) Residencies: Monty, wp Zimmer, Kunstencentrum BUDA, Summer Studios (BE), Choreoroam / The Place, The Royal Opera House (UK), PACT Zollverein (DE), DeVIR/CAPa (PT), La Caldera (ES) Duration: 20 minutes

DOWNLOAD the Technical Rider and the Light Plot on a pdf