SENSORIAL SYMPHONIES
Commissioned by Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg
Commissioned by Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg
What if we could feel the world as plants do?
In Sensorial Symphonies, Associate Artist of Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, Elisabeth Schilling embarks on a radical experiment, reshaping our perception of existence itself. Set against the backdrop of Sergei Rachmaninov’s iconic Piano Concerto No. 2—reimagined and interwoven with a contemporary score by Pas- cal Schumacher and the organic sounds of The Plant Philharmonic—this creation is as ambitious in scope as it is intricate in execution.
Sensorial Symphonies invites the audience into an immersive, multi-sensory journey, where plants are not mere decorative metaphors but active protagonists, taking centre stage with their elaborate, interconnected systems. The choreography honours the wisdom of plant life, its symbiotic relationships, resilience, and boundless adaptability, asking us to reconsider our place in a shared ecological web.
The piece transcends human-centric narratives, celebrating plants as both subjects and collaborators. Through touch, scent, design, sound and movement, it encourages us to not only see but also feel vegetal life, challenging Aristotle’s legacy relegating plants to the lowest rung of being. This is a politics of perception, a push to elevate the status of the natural world in our collective consciousness.
Musically, the work is equally groundbreaking. Schumacher’s score blends Rachmaninov’s un- mistakable emotional depth with the minimalist, organic tones of plant-generated sound. The intersection of these seemingly opposing forces—Rachmaninov’s sweeping romanticism and the subtle, non-human frequencies of The Plant Philharmonic—creates a sonic landscape as layered and complex as the ecosystems it seeks to evoke. The contrast is deliberate, compelling us to rethink what virtuosity means: the mastery of human artistry versus the understated yet exqui- site expression of plant life.
Performed by an all-female cast, the choreography mirrors the vegetal world’s relational, non-hierarchical structures. Dancers move with a fluidity that reflects the distributed organisation of plants, forming patterns of mutuality and reciprocity. Group sequences unfold like eco- systems, interdependent, dynamic, and teeming with unseen forces.
Yet, Sensorial Symphonies does not shy away from the contradictions it explores. The theatre—a human-made space—contrasts starkly with nature’s untamed vitality. Elisabeth Schilling’s work embraces this tension, examining how the slow, expansive temporality of plants can find expression within the urgency of live performance. How can nature’s boundlessness be contained within the confines of a theatre? These questions, embedded into the fabric of the work, invite us to confront our own separation from the natural world.
Through its rich interplay of music, movement, and sensory design, Sensorial Symphonies resists easy interpretation, insisting instead on an experiential, almost tactile engagement with its themes. In Elisabeth Schilling’s hands, dance becomes nature’s exuberant music – an inquiry, a transformation, a way of perceiving the world anew. This is not just a profound performance; it is an act of reclamation.
Our work is highly adaptable: we perform in standard “black box” environments as well as in unconventional spaces. At the Mosel Musikfestival, we staged the piece in a historic church—essentially refactoring our lighting and sound setup to integrate with the venue’s unique architecture and acoustics.
Dear Audience Member, Dear Reader, Dear Art Lover,
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Thank you so much for your interest in Sensorial Symphonies. It is wonderful to have you among us.
Sensorial Symphonies is a work that has been several years in the making – a labour of love that unites two of my long- held passions: the exuberant music of Sergei Rachmaninov and the rich, often overlooked world of plants.
The seed for this creation was planted in a desire to explore Rachmaninov’s music in a contemporary context — a dream I’ve carried since my teenage years. Alongside that, another fascination took root: the sounds of plants. I first encountered them during a concert at the BBC Proms, London’s renowned classical music festival. As a dance student, I had the privilege of hearing John Cage’s compositions involving plants, which left a lasting impression.
But how could one possibly bring together Rachmaninov and the mysterious realm of plants? And beyond that, how do we encounter plants as sentient beings, rather than as silent objects – a species so often neglected, underappreciated, and objectified in our culture?
We have largely forgotten, or taken for granted, that from plants come our breath, our food, our furniture, our books, our shelter, our medicine, and our inspiration. In a culture driven by consumption and utility, plants are often seen merely in terms of how they can “serve us”. Consider the way we refer to the rainforest as “the lungs of the world” – as if its sole purpose were to absorb the CO2 we produce.
Emanuele Coccia writes: “The world is above all what plants have known how to make of it. They are the actual makers of our world, although this making is clearly different from any other activity of the living.”
And it is precisely that “clearly different” mode of being that fascinates me as an artist. Artistic expression opens the door to other forms of thought, sensation, and experience. Might dance – ephemeral, embodied, and intuitive – be the ideal art form to encounter the plant world?
One of the key inspirations for Sensorial Symphonies was philosopher Michael Marder and his influential book Plant- Thinking. In it, he references the Portuguese word desencontro — a beautifully untranslatable term suggesting a narrowly missed meeting, a divergence between beings who exist on different wavelengths. It speaks to the difficulty – and the poetry – of connecting across species, across ways of being, across ways of experiencing the world.
Plants invite us to think, sense, and experience the world differently. That invitation lies at the heart of Sensorial Symphonies. From it emerges a deeper inquiry: the question of the we.
“A flower – both one and many.“ – Michael Marder
A flower is not a single unit but a constellation of florets, each with a certain independence yet bound together. Through their modular growth and radical openness to their surroundings, plants unsettle our notion of individuality. They grow in modules, open and porous, transformed by water, wind, soil, and light. A plant has no clear beginning or end: it is always in exchange, transformed by what passes through it, even as it transforms its surroundings in turn.
The being of plants – their way of being with – was a guid- ing inspiration. Plant-being is defined not by individuality, but by relation. Not as isolated entities, but as what some have called a collective being: an assemblage of multiplicities, of coexistence, of conviviality.
Questions arise: What is this being with? Is it a being-we? Where does it begin, and where does it end? Is it possible to imagine a we that does not depend on inclusion or exclu- sion?
As Héctor Peña suggests, “Proposing the synonymy between ‘vegetality’ and ‘weness’ is not tantamount to asserting that the true form of plants is ‘we’ or that every ‘us’ must be plant-like. On the contrary, just as plants do not appropriate even their essential vegetality but share it with us — making us we with them, with other animals, and with the cosmos itself — likewise, the us becomes, beyond any form of indi- viduality, the consciousness or feeling of a ‘multi-’ or ‘pluri- dividuation’, which rots, grows, bears fruit, and comes to birth without a term.”
In this dynamic spirit — in what Michael Marder calls “a rhythmic turning of the changing into the changed” — reality itself becomes a shared space, woven from relationships in which all sides are transformed by their encounter. To truly participate in reality is to enter this reciprocity — one that is tangible, physical, and embodied, as Andreas Weber re- minds us.
I invite you into this world — shaped by your perception, your experience, and your imagination as much as by our creative work.
So many people have worked tirelessly to bring this experience to life. My deepest gratitude goes to our producers, the Théâtres de la Ville, for their belief in the work; to our admin- istrative and backstage teams; to the extraordinary artistic collaborators; and, above all, to you, our dear audience.
This work lives through your perception. It lives through our shared encounter. Welcome to Sensorial Symphonies.
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Warmly,
Elisabeth Schilling


Sound installation by Alexandra Duvekot
Vegetal installation by Ville de Luxembourg – Service des Parcs
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Presented as part of Sensorial Symphonies by Elisabeth Schilling, The Forest Still Sings for Us invites visitors into an immersive dialogue between the human-made and the vegetal. The installation weaves together the inner sounds of trees—recorded in forests across the world and in the Parc Municipal de Luxembourg—with a living vegetal environment created in the foyer of the Grand Théâtre.
To bring plant life into the architecture of the theatre is never a neutral gesture. It carries the cultural weight of a long history in which “human” and “nature” have been defined in opposition. Within this entirely human-made environment, visitors enter a space resonating with the inner life of a tree—with the vibrations of what it means to sound within a trunk. A gentle yet disorienting paradox unfolds: to stand inside a structure of walls, seats, and lights, and yet, through sound, inhabit the intimate interior of a plant.
Here, Schilling’s work resonates with Emanuele Coccia’s notion of a “being-in-the-sea-of-the-world
Through this poetic encounter, The Forest Still Sings for Us turns the theatre—a place historically devoted to human expression—into a porous, living organism. It becomes a site where resonance replaces separation, and where the boundaries between species, materials, and meanings begin to dissolve.
Here you can find a catalogue that brings together interviews with two team members, two academic texts, and a literary contribution by Ian de Trouffoli. The publications also include an interview with the creative team and a programme from the Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg featuring a conversation between the composer and the choreographer. Together, these materials offer insight into the artistic, academic, and poetic dimensions of Sensorial Symphonies, highlighting its collaborative creation process and exploration of the relationships between movement, music, and the vegetal world.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀‘One thing is certain you will never look at your garden or at nature in the same way, after you’ve seen this multi-sensory piece.’
‘Schilling does not deliver what she thinks the vegetal world would do if it could dance. She has painstakingly observed plants, and the dancers portray this with complete accuracy.’
‘A lesson in life for us all, and a very unusual project to convey it. Schilling and her co-producers have created something daring. It’s quite extraordinary, and not something I have ever seen on stage.‘
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Grégory Cematti, Le Quotidien
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‘A poetic, vibrant, and resolutely contemporary performance that leaves in the eyes and mind the luminous power of an authentic encounter between body, music, and nature.’
Giovanni Zambito, Fattitaliani
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‘Her dancers form an organism in which individuality is not so important. What matters most is that every element of the group is equally important and carries the group forward. ‘Plants, too, do not exist as individuals, but together with the earth, with the air, with the sun. And this idea of togetherness was essentially the starting point for this work, which is reflected not only in the choreography but also in other elements,’ says Schilling.’
Daniel Konrad, Luxembourger Wort
Mat Iech is a dance education and accessibility program that brings contemporary dance beyond traditional stages and into everyday spaces. Rooted in dialogue and inclusion, the project adapts performances for diverse audiences — from senior homes and hospitals to rural communities and youth centers — creating space encounters through movement, conversation, and participation. With carefully prepared publications and creative engagement methods, Mat Iech transforms dance into a shared, human connection that celebrates openness and curiosity.
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More information HERE
We created a trilingual publication giving the audience an opportunity to delve deeper into the creation, its research and contexts.
1) Plant’s dance: how to translate vegetal texture into movement and create your own green choreography
We offer a city exploration in search of the tiny – sometimes invisible to human – inhabitants of the urban surrounding, disgracefully called weeds. In this walk, we will flip our world upside down and celebrate the grass growing out of the sidewalk, the ivy sneaking up the walls, the brave little green bits that ignore the human made boundaries, the long green arms that climb out of the sewerage system. While walking we will report on our findings and transform them into a collective sonic work.
Inspired by Elisabeth Schilling’s immersive concept, this project brings together community, nature and performance in a shared creative journey. Participants engage in workshops to craft a “vegetal web” of dried herbs and local flowers, which they then carry together in a silent procession — each step weaving our collective care for nature and for one another.
How it works:
Ideal for theatres, cultural centres and partner organisations seeking a meaningful, participatory event that nurtures ecological awareness, community connection and poetic embodiment.
Choreography – Elisabeth Schilling
Dance – Manuela Hierl, Marla King, Noa Nies, Aurore Mettray, Marine Tournet
All movements are created together with the dancers
Choreographic Assistant & Rehearsal Director – Brian Ca
Costumes & Stage Design – Agnes Hamvas
Musical Concept & Original Composition – Pascal Schumacher rooted in a De- and Reconstruction of Sergei Rachmaninov’s 2nd Piano Concerto integrating elements of The Plant Philharmonic
The Plant Philharmonic – Dogwood bush (Cornus), Pando Forest – Beneath the Tree (Populus tremuloides), Japanese Eelgrass (Zostera japonica), Eelgrass (Zostera), Pando Collage, Scotch Broom (Cytisus scoparius),Apple Tree (Malus domestica), Ginkgo Tree (Ginkgo biloba), Pine Tree (Pinus), Weeping Willow (Salix babylonica), Sequoia (Sequoia sempervirens), Linden Tree (Tilia), Horse Chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum), Platane Tree (Platanus), Beech (Fagus), Den (Pinaceae), Mexican Jumping Bean, Icelandic Birch (Betula pubescens), Tomato Plant (Solanum lycopersicum), French Beech (Fagus sylvatica), Eucalyptos (Eucalyptus), Fig (Ficus), Larches (Larix), Oak (Quercus), Scotspine (Pinus sylvestris), Sedge Roots (Carex), Teasel (Dipsacus)
Communities, interactions and communication in ecosystems (P1-0255) and Ecotremology ( Z1-50018) financed by Sloevian Research and innovation Agency.
Recorded by – Alexandra Duvekot, Jez Riley French, Jeff Rice, Rok Šturm (National Institute of Biology, Slovenia), Hidden Sound.
Recording 2nd Piano Concerto – Daniil Trivonov, Philadelphia Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Scent Artist – Ezra-Lloyd Jackson
Lighting Design – Fränz Meyers
Sound Installation The forest still sings for us – Alexandra Duvekot
Live Music – United Instruments of Lucilin,
(Galdric Subirana – percussion)
Dramaturgy & Leadership Coach – Eva Martinez
Sound Designer – Jan Brauer
Dancer in research – Giulia Cenni
Texts on the piece – Neel Chrillesen
Accompanying Philosopher – Héctor Andrés Peña
Photography & videography – Bohumil Kostohryz
Accompanying Musicologiests – Jean-François Boukobza (CNDSM Paris), Steffen A. Schmidt (ZHdK Zürich)
Producers – Joëlle Träuffler, Antoine Krieps, Jon Roberts, Clara Berrod and Susan Hay
Management Pascal Schumacher – Executive Music Producer Rafael Junker, Monday NightProductions
Head of Technique – Patrick Floener
Press and Website – Tyska Samborska
International Relations – Marie Simplex
The framing program was created together with Manon Meier.
Elisabeth Schilling’s research on vegetality has been informed by books of Michael Marder, Stephano Mancuso, Emmanuele Coccia, Wolf-DieterStorl, Monica Gagliano, Zoë Schlanger, amonst others.
Commissioned by – Theatre de la Ville de Luxembourg
Co-produced by – Elisabeth Schilling & Company & United Instruments of Lucilin
Supported by SACEM Luxembourg, Minister de la Culture Luxembourg, TROIS C-L | Maison pour la danse
Residences – Karukera Ballet Guadeloupe & RedSapata Art, Culture and Dance Initiative