Ita Infinita - Elisabeth Schilling • prof. Dancer

ABOUT PREMIERE & TOUR FRAMING PROGRAMME ON BACH POEM AUDIENCE VOICES TEAM CREDITS

CONCEPT

In this way, to infinity. The melody, like an endless thread, weaves through three dancing bodies, and although they keep distancing themselves from each other, they are entwined by the interdependence of their movements. But is this really about three bodies? Or is it about movement and melody, in the context of which the bodies are, at times, one body, at times two, at times three…?

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Ita Infinita follows the choreographic trajectory of Elisabeth’s celebrated HEAR EYES MOVE. Dances with Ligeti. In collaboration with United Instruments of Lucilin, this new work departs from Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Partita for Violin n°1 in B minor” (BWV 1002)and includes a newly written improvisational music score created by Elisabeth herself, exploring infinity and interconnectivity in a space where past and present collide.

In order to explore how movements and textures, both musical and physical, overlap, merge again and again, in such a way that the body does more than illustrate the music, and the music does more than merely score the body. Out of the simultaneity of dance and music emerges a unique form which grows and flourishes, blurring the boundaries between nature and art – for the Baroque was always in search of infinity and found it here and there, in vastness as well as miniature.

Elisabeth and her team embrace this idea, drawing inspiration not only from Baroque art but also from the shapes and textures of nature. For example, the winding patterns of the dances – notably the Allemande and the Sarabande – not only reflect popular architectural and landscaping styles of the time, but also the abundance of small infinities such as those found in plants, snail shells or whirlpools.

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Inspired by the lavish robes and ornaments of the baroque era, the close collaboration with costume designer Agnes Hamvas also brings about a visual atmosphere that produces another aesthetic level that is interwoven with dance and music, by combining the pomp of the baroque era with a more modern simplicity in the costumes. A more understated infinity, which still glows in radiant colours.

Have a look at our rehearsal trailer to catch a glimpse of the creation

Check a glimpse of the Allemande

Behind The Scene – Documentary on the creation of ITA INFINITA

PREMIERE & TOUR

Future

20 April – SERVIOR, MS Centre Geenzebléi, Wiltz, 15h00

20 April – Trisomie 21 Lëtzebuerg a.s.b.l., Betzdorf, 18h30

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21 April – Fondation Pro Familia, Düdelange, 2 performances, 15h00; 16h15

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22 April – Maison relais inclusive, Niederkorn, 9h45

22 April – Croix Rouge, Don Bosco, Luxembourg City, 16h00

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23 April – Fondation Lëtzebuerger Kannerduerf, Mersch, 17h00

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24 April – Fondatioun Kriibskrank Kanner, Bertrange, 11h00

24 April – Le Département Jeunesse la FMPO, Maison Saint Martin, 16h30

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Past

PREMIERE – 7 October 2022 – Echter’Classik Festival, Trifolion Echternach, Luxembourg

more information and tickets HERE

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9 – 13 October 2022 – tour:

09 October – SOS Kannerduerf Mersch

09 October – Centre thérapeutique Manternach

10 October – Two School Performances, Trifolion Echternach

10 October – Servior Um Schleeschen Echternach

11 October – School Performance, Trifolion Echternach

11 October – Servior Belle Vue Echternach

12 October – Kinderheim St. Paul, Synagoge Wittlich

13 October – Hospice civile in Echternach

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Thanks to its compact format – the Partita has a duration of approx. 25 minutes – it offers great flexibility in terms of presentation. It can stand alone, or be integrated in dance or music festivals, providing great touring potential with comparatively little effort and great adaptability.

PREMIERE

TOUR

FRAMING PROGRAMME

The performances are accompanied by a carefully designed framing program including workshops, publications, introductions and post- performance discussions in order to make contemporary dance accessible to a new public.

MAT IECH EVENTS

Due to the great flexibility that Ita Infinita offers, it is to tour to both theatres, festivals and alternative spaces. A specific focus for the October 2022 tour has been to tour the work in full or excerpts in or around senior homes, in so-called socially deprived areas, in hospitals, in rural areas with poor accessibility or also in kindergartens and schools. The tailor-made events are highly flexible and adapted to the specific needs of every institution and inhabitants and include a moderation, a post-show performance talk as well as a short movement workshop and the distribution of the free accompanying publication. These events are part of Elisabeth’s Outreach Program called Mat Iech.

PUBLICATION

The project is followed by a publication in three languages designed for all ages, with commissioned texts by musicologist Jean-François Boukobza and poet Florence Sunnen, as well as riddles, drawings, interviews with the creative team and photographs of the performance work.

HOLOGRAMS

As part of the stage work, the multi-media agency Mad Trix has been commissioned to create holograms to play in a portable unit and be taken on tour. The mysterious and magical portal into Ita Infinita brings another dimension to the work. Dance is thus given a place in a virtual form, which prolongs the ephemerality of this art form while bringing a consciousness of dance in the mind of the viewer. The hologram unit can be toured separately to the performance and also promote the work in venues in advance of performances. Take a peek …

Hologram – process of creation by Mad Trix

AUDIENCE TALK

Every performance will be accompanied by Elisabeth Schilling herself, who will offer a short introductory presentation around the background of the work, the process and the subjects that the work is dealing with. This will include music knowledge as well as perspectives on the field of dance.

REHERSALS

’Johann Sebastian Bach: Partita for violin in B minor’ written by Jean-François Boukobza

Johann Sebastian Bach’s sonatas and partitas were written between 1717 and 1723, during the musician’s stay in Cöthen, a small town (sometimes spelled Köthen). 1723, during the musician’s stay in Cöthen, a small town (sometimes spelled Köthen) of barely five thousand souls. This principality, with its agricultural and craft traditions, was then ruled by a of the Anhalt dynasty, a family with strong roots in the regions of Prussia and in the Prussian and Saxon regions. Trained in composition by the composer Heinichen, the excellent keyboard player, who developed a passion for modern Italian concertante music. Although the Calvinist court limited the use of music to the church, it generously promoted concerts given “in the city”. Concerts given “in the chamber”, and surrounded itself with virtuoso musicians, among whom the musicians, including the violinist Ferdinand Abel, the cellist Christian Bernhard Linigke and Bernhard Linigke or the violinists Martin Marcus and Joseph Spiess, latter probably being Spiess was probably the recipient of the sonatas, although it is now known that Bach played them Bach himself played them on the violin as well as on the keyboard, adding accompanying parts.

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Once installed in his position as Capellmeister, Bach wrote the major part of his instrumental production here: some fifteen works for the concertos (including the six Brandenburg 6s), four orchestral suites, keyboard pages for orchestra, keyboard works such as the English and French Suites and the first volume of the Well-Tempered Clavier, sonatas for flute, lute or violin and continuo, six suites for violin and and basso continuo, six suites for cello, and the three sonatas and three partitas for solo violin. These bring together the different European schools and the tastes generally appreciated at the time. They combine the old style inherited from Corelli’s church sonatas of Corelli – works in four movements containing a fugue – with the concertante and virtuoso practice of the modern pages of Vivaldi or Locatelli. They also unite the ‘French’ style of the dance suites of Couperin, Anglebert and Marchand, characterised by theatrical tone, rhythmic complexity and richly ornamented fabrics the richly ornamented fabrics to the German violin traditions inherited from Muffat, Schmelzer, Rosenmüller or Biber.

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The Partita in B minor takes up the seventeenth-century practice of combining each dance with a ‘double’ – a lighter variant of the original. “A lighter, more animated variant, which nevertheless maintains the structure and harmonic framework established earlier. The page is also in keeping with Baroque taste by the theory of affects, which requires that each new opus should paint, arouse and convey emotions, offering the listener an intimate and sensitive ‘theatre of the soul’. Each key is thus linked to a specific character. The key of B minor is thus considered by some, such as Mattheson, to be ‘weird and uncomfortable’ or sometimes even melancholic. The rapid ‘doubles’ that follow the Allemande and Courante indicate agitation or fury, revealing a sense of excitement. The rapid ‘doubles’ that follow the Allemande and Courante indicate agitation or fury, revealing excitement and concealing a keen sensitivity. The initial Allemande is in the French style, with its complex rhythmic figurations and dense fabric. Some pages, on the other hand, show the adoption of the Italian style by their of dialogue and the liveliness of their replies. The rhetorical plan instituted in Germany by Froberger in his suites for keyboard, finally orders the whole according to an arrangement alternating lively and slow pieces, so as to bring out different emotions. An initial allemande is followed by a courante, a sarabande and genre pieces that Bach himself calls “galant” – in this case a bourree itself followed by a double. While the suites usually end with a lively gigue, this is not the case here – presumably for reasons of length, but also in order to vary the plan of each work, making each partita a single opus. Chamber works based on intimacy and delicacy of interpretation, the sonatas and partitas for solo violin thus call for the theatre of the diversity of emotions traversed, defying the the established rule that each place has its own style of music. By alluding in turn to the bedroom, the theatre or the church, they defy time as well as space while anchoring themselves in the reality of their time.

Poem on Ita Infinita written by Florence Sunnen

we weave

nous nouons

wir wirbeln

Stränge, Knoten, Gelenke

hier mit uns sind Fingerspitzen und Haar vernetzt

das Licht der Hand schürft

die Luft auf ins Ungewisse

each step leads

to the next infinity

und schleift die Zeit vom drehenden Haupt

und macht Keime aus Bewegung

der Klang vollendet

refroidi par la danse de nos spores enchantées

wie Wirbel angerührt

wie Wirbel aufgebracht

endlos aus dem Vergangenen ins Jetzt

so gehen unsere Schritte im Takt

sechzigtausend Bakterien im Lied

ein Finger krümmt sich wie der wachsende Farn

nos mouvements chantent leurs filaments

avec ce temps en spirale qui s’élance

et s’étend

raues Haar schleift über die Seiten

wie Kontinente am Meeresboden

rau-geriebener Klang

fine fibres twisting the limbs

to scrape into mellifluous sound

engaging again

in a progression of moods, a procession of limbs

Magenta im Feld, Lichtfetzen

und Glitzer der Kammermusik

das Gold in den Tannen, Rot des wandelnden Lichts

high up on mountain planes

we extend a leg to become a vein in a rock

the hand so quiet it seems like a sea

Wir sind Wiesen dürr wie das Meer

schwimmen blind im Paralysee

l’ombre de l’air qui se cambre et s’essouffle dans nos peaux

ein Bogen so rund wie der Takt des Planeten

im rosa-runden All

the ground uneven and melting

je plonge mes dents dans le fruit rond du temps qui s’écoule

die Adern in denen Plankton fliesst

et le monde qui s’écroule

au ralenti

an infinity

wie Eis

crashing

into the sea

AUDIENCE VOICES

‘I was thrilled by your dance company’s event with Lucilin. Your dance to Variations XXV by J.S. Bach, or perhaps I should say your dance with the 17th-century tonal runs, was fantastic and the times, movements and music began to converse. I also felt the tension and presence on stage, from the first minute to the last in the first part.Ita

Infinita kept me on the edge of my seat. As described on the programme, I could follow the movements of the three bodies towards each other, so that for moments they seemed to be one body, and the movements towards single individuals: an incredible dynamic between the bodies could be seen and I found it very exciting that the dancers hardly touched each other. There was something abstract about the movements, I mean, it wasn’t the all too familiar movements of affection and turning away. The fact that the movements of the bodies did not remain abstract, but that abstraction and concrete human bodies were present in the movements at the same time – at least that’s how I felt it – was also due to the costumes that clung to the bodies. (…)

No story was told or countless, infinite ones – that fascinated me.’

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– Nadine Eder, Audience –

TEAM

Elisabeth Schilling is a dancer and choreographer. In close collaboration with an international team and across various collaborations, she develops transdisciplinary projects between movement, design, visual arts and music, making the disciplines dance among themselves and with each other. From 2021 until 2023, Elisabeth will be artist in residence at TRIFOLION Echternach. Elisabeth has received numerous choreographic commissions from institutions such as the Grand Théâtre du Luxembourg and the Philharmonie Luxembourg, the Tate Gallery of Modern Art (London), the Museum of Applied Art (Frankfurt/Main), Gauthier Dance (Stuttgart), the Scottish Dance Theatre (Dundee)… Moreover, her work has been shown in many different venues and festivals including Saatchi Gallery, Whitechapel Gallery (London), MUDAM (Luxembourg), Kunstfest (Weimar), Dag van de Dans (Brussels), Hunterian Art Gallery (Glasgow) and The Place (London).

As a performer, Elisabeth regularly dances in international productions across Europe, in the UK, Finland, Norway, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany. She has worked with more than 35 choreographers of all styles and generations and performed work by Scottish Dance Theatre, Sasha Waltz, Trisha Brown, Koen Augustijn, Clod Ensemble London… As a speaker, she was invited to talk at TEDx Luxembourg City and the #CultureIsNotALuxury conference, part of the British Art Show. Most recently, she has been nominated for a Fellowship at the Centre for Ballet and the Arts at New York University.

Elisabeth has received several awards from various institutions, including the Dance Award 2021 of the Great-Duchy of Luxembourg, among other prices: Dance Umbrella (‘Young Spark’), Bolzano Danza and AWL Mainz. In 2016, she founded Making Dances asbl, her company in Luxembourg, and her work has been touring ever since, with almost 200 performances in 19 countries.

Piera Jovic studied dance at the Conservatory of Luxembourg and in Spain as a student of the CobosMika Company. Since 2014, Piera has been dancing in pieces by companies from Luxembourg or France, often co- produced by the Choreographic Centre of Luxembourg (Trois C-L), but also in productions by independent associations. She is an active member of the multidisciplinary collective MASKéNADA and works closely with the ROTONDES Luxembourg for educational projects. In 2020, she will support the Belgian director Gregory Caers for an international youth theatre project to assist. Piera recently joined the Via Verde Company for her new creation.

Brian Ca is a versatile dancer, trained in contemporary, classical and hip-hop dance. He began his professional training at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et Danse de Lyon before joining the Ballet Junior de Genève. Over the course of his career, he has performed 35 eclectic choreographic works, ranging from the explosive energies of Wayne Mac Gregor to the supple qualities of Hofesh Schechter. Mainly in the leading roles, he has danced in works by various companies including Richard Siegal, Andonis Foniadakis, Opéra du Rhin, Damien Jalet, Joëlle Bouvier, Angelin Prejlocaj, Scottish Dance Theater, Compagnie Grenade… In addition, Brian Ca developed his own artistic work, focusing on psychology, neurology and digital art.

Malcolm Sutherland was born in Scotland and completed his professional training at Central School of Ballet in London. After a year as an apprentice with Ballet Basel, Malcolm was hired as a member of Staatstheater Nürnberg Ballett. He spent seven years in Nürnberg, performing in works from choreographers such as: Jiri Kylian, Nacho Duato, Ohad Naharin, Mats Ek, Johan Inger and Crystal Pite among others. Since leaving the company to work as a freelance artist, Malcolm has performed in several projects including: Klever Dance Company, Dance Theatre Luxembourg, Elisabeth Schilling dance, Focus Dance, Company Shang-Chi Sun, Kollektiv 52°07, Shaper/Caper, Rob Heaslip, Gwynne Bilski, Interdans festival, Choreolab Ulm and Dumfries & Galloway Dance. Malcolm has also choreographed numerous works for stage, including three full-length productions and completed his MA Choreography with distinction. Malcolm has been a choreographic assistant/rehearsal director on projects in Berlin, Malaga and Luxembourg.