Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm

For the opening of the “Le Sacre du Printemps” music festival, the Alte Oper Frankfurt and the Künstlerhaus Mousonturm are presenting Xavier Le Roy’s classic of conceptual approaches to dance, choreography and music. Inspired by the documentation of a Berlin Philharmonic’s rehearsal directed by Simon Rattle, the French choreographer and performer poses the question: How does a conductor move? Le Roy studied Rattle’s gestures and developed a solo performance from them that reverses cause and effect: The conductor’s movements – actually intended to synchronize the musicians – seem to be created by the music itself. Here, the orchestra is made up of speakers that are placed in the auditorium. When does one play? When is one played? What do the musicians hear, the conductor, the audience, when hearing itself becomes part of an embodied experience of movement and sound?

Concept, performance: Xavier Le Roy * Music: Igor Strawinsky * Production: Le Kwatt (FR) and illusion et macadam (FR) * Co-production: Centre chorégraphique national de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon, Les Subsistances Lyon, Tanz im August – Internationales Tanzfest 2007 Berlin, PACT Zollverein Essen * A performance of the Alte Oper Frankfurt in cooperation with the Künstlerhaus Mousonturm.