DANCE

Simple, almost sparse movements – fluid and highly dynamic, with countless repetitions and variations – characterise Dance. This piece by choreographer Lucinda Childs premiered in 1979 and amalgamates dance, music by Philip Glass and projections by Sol LeWitt into a meditative rapture.

Dance is considered to be the central work in the oeuvre of American choreographer and dancer Lucinda Childs. Premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1979, the production has been touring internationally ever since. Childs combines the exploration of pure dance in its physical essence, with no thematic focus, and its manifestation in a reduced movement vocabulary of quick runs, jumps and turns with the minimalist, forward-driving music of Philip Glass. Projections by Sol LeWitt redouble, magnify, condense and comment on both bodies and movement.

In 2009, Lucinda Childs reconstructed the piece with her rejuvenated ensemble. Since then, Dance presents an encounter between the original ensemble, including Lucinda Childs herself, on screen and the dancers of the current company on stage – creating an exciting performative dialogue. Past and present of Dance and its protagonists merge, telling the story of the work’s history and continuing to write it. The central point and culmination is a powerful, highly focused solo that used to be danced by Lucinda Childs. It interrupts the fast-paced, even relentlessly driving element of the choreography for a short moment only, before it continues in its rapture.