FLORESCENCE IN DECAY

Premiere – 23rd – 25th of March 2023 at the Grand Théâtre Luxembourg

‘In the beginning we were all the same living creature, sharing the same body and the same experience. And things haven’t changed so much since then. New forms and new modes of existence have proliferated. But even today, we are all still the same life. ‘

– Emanuele Coccia, METAMORPHOSES –

1 2 3 4 5

Elisabeth Schilling - Florescence in Decay © Pierre Weber

Elisabeth Schilling - Florescence in Decay © Bohumil Kostohryz

Change is everywhere, metamorphoses abound: a caterpillar turns into a butterfly, an acorn becomes an oak, from an egg hatches a bird; the sea becomes cloud, only to rain down again, creating a stream; a rock becomes a boulder, a boulder becomes sand; wood burns to ashes, and from ashes grow flowers. Nature is change, and we are part of it.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Drawing on images such as these, Florescence in Decay, Elisabeth Schilling’s new group piece for nine dancers, is a physical meditation on continuity, repetition, and change. Engaging different layers of time both within and beyond the scale of human experience, the piece explores the rhythms of a world not unlike our own through ideas of metamorphosis and cycle: becoming and passing away, growing and maturing, transience and renewal.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Drawing inspiration from the structures and textures of living and non-living beings, Florescence in Decay pulls stones, algae, corals, lichens, fungi and other forms into a swirl of becoming, enabling a constant process of creative evolution. Featuring music from Anna Meredith’s ANNO (performed by the Orchestre de Chambre de Luxembourg and Anna Meredith herself), which intertwines sections from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons with Meredith’s electronic compositions and other partner pieces, Florescence in Decay interweaves the sensibilities of dance and contemporary music to explore sonic and dynamic textures and their complex patterns of change. In an environment of mutual immersion, the dancers sense their relations, ceaselessly making and unmaking them, creating temporary communities. Everything is potentially interconnected, every act has consequences. Even as colourful individuals emerge and move about, they are never entirely disconnected from their environments – they may build alliances with others, and as they fade, they are once again returned to the pulsating body of life itself.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

If our world, then, is a world of entangled becomings and sensations, we need all our senses to make sense of it – we need, in the words of the anthropologist Anna Tsing, new arts of noticing. Florescence in Decay acknowledges these arts of noticing, inviting audiences into a world that prepares the imagination for a different view on the vicissitudes of change, allowing us to mourn in the face of its violence as well as to celebrate its powers of renewal.

‘I found the piece totally impressive, very lively, very powerful and at the same time tender. I was captivated and wonderfully carried through the performance.‘

Audience voice

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

‘The piece reminded me of what it was like to dream as a child.‘

Christopher Petry

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

‘Fresh, exciting, powerful’

Audience voice

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

‘She [Elisabeth Schilling] rushes through the dance projects like a whirlwind and does not shy away from any music or form of dance. (…) Elisabeth Schilling is full of energy. She draws from an infinite pool of creative ideas. Her work is well thought out, often containing a theoretical analysis of complex issues. If contemporary dance is not considered immediately accessible anyway, her choreographies are particularly abstract, but ultimately poetic. Since the dancer began presenting her choreographies in Luxembourg, she has been causing a stir.’⠀

Anina Valle Thiele – Luxemburger Wort

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

‘But it is a serious struggle for life and survival that is being played out here, as living species break free from their organic prison. It is a dance of struggle, alliances are created, then just as quickly undone, only to be reconfigured. All the elements seem to be one, as they suffer the same unstable fate.’

Jérôme Quiqueret, Tageblatt

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

‘Elisabeth Schilling’s latest dance creation “Florescence in Decay” on the music of Anna Meredith, inspires me once again with the so very independent language of form, movement and image of this remarkable artist. In the most beautiful sense, all her experiences from earlier works flow into this, build on it, quote materials, shape and thus develop her special signature and aesthetics ever further. A literally wonderful cycle of emergence and decay. Sometimes you see clearly structured processes, sometimes they are shadowy, vaguely minimalist changes, the whole embedded in a fascinating stage space’

Tobias Scharfenberger, Director Mosel Musikfestival

Rehearsal images

Design Research

Team

Concept & choreography

Elisabeth Schilling

Original cast

Creative assistance & rehearsal direction

Brian Ca

Music

Extracts of Anno

Composer

Anna Meredith

Dancers

Marla King, Malcolm Sutherland, Giuseppe Sanniu, Giulia Cenni, Julien Ramade, Rosanne Briens, Lou Landré, Stefane Meseguer Alves, Alisha Leyder

All movements have been developed together with the dancers.

Costume & stage design

Ariane Koziolek & Lynn Scheidweiler 

Dresser

Bruna Pazuti Gomes Da Conceiçao, Elodie Steffin 

Dresser intern

Nikola Ozimkiewicz 

Light Design

Steve Demuth

Photography & videography

Bohumil Kosthoryz

Music

Orchestre de Chambre du Luxembourg

Music Direction

Corinna Niemeyer

Solo Violin Lyonel Schmit Violins 1 Jean-Marie Baudour, Anastasia Milka, Dominique Poppe Violins 2 Antonio Quarta, Laura Clement, Violetta Musinschii Violas Emilio Vicente Argento, Joanna Madry Celli Judith Lecuit, Anna Origer Basses Patricio Banda Caviedes, Gabriele Basilico Harpsichord Tetsu Isaji

Production

Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg

Coproduction

Dance Theatre Luxembourg ; Making Dances a.s.b.l.

Recherche

Tanzhaus Zürich

Making Dances a.s.b.l

Support in administration, producing & consultancy Veronika Meindl, Jana Robert, Aurel Thurn