Created for the dancers of Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, Elementen III – Blazing Wreck is inspired by the mathematician Euclid’s postulates which he set out in his seminal treatise Elements. Here, they imprint their rhythms on the movements, lighting, and space of this show, exploring the limits of perception. To accompany her in this quest for sensory incandescence, Cindy Van Acker also calls on the evocative power of the compositions of Finnish composer Mika Vainio. “All the pulsations of the body must belong to the music”, she says of this electronic score, which evokes the progress of a cargo ship through the raging elements. The image echoes the title of the piece, Blazing Wreck, a thinly veiled reference to the shipwrecks painted by Turner.
Casting & credits
Choreography Cindy Van Acker Music Mika Vainio Scenography Victor Roy Light Luc Gendroz Assistant Stéphanie Bayle Choreographic research Stéphanie Bayle, Paul Girard, Margaux Monetti, Raphaëlle Teicher, Rudi van der Merwe With the 22 dancers from Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève under the direction of Philippe Cohen : Yumi Aizawa, Céline Allain, Louise Bille, Valentino Bertolini, Natan Bouzy, Ornella Capece, Zachary Clark, Armando Gonzalez Besa, Xavier Juyon, David Lagerqvist, Nathanaël Marie, Tiffany Pacheco, Mohana Rapin, Angela Rebelo, Simone Repele, Sasha Riva, Sara Shigenari, Geoffrey Van Dyck, Lysandra van Heesewijk, Nahuel Vega, Madeline Wong Duration 54 minutes With the technical teams of Grand Théâtre de Genève and ADC Genève Coproduction Grand Théâtre de Genève – direction Tobias Richter, ADC Genève – direction Claude Ratzé, Compagnie Greffe – Cindy Van Acker With the support of Swiss Dance Days 2017
About
Here, the choreographer once again seeks to push back the limits of perception, sensation, and bodies, drawing on the virtuosity of the dancers and the evocative power of the music: “All that remains of movement is the wreckage, stripped of all ornament, it expresses only its essence. A wreck in the prime of beauty, a wreck whose life blazes”, she imagines. Indeed, Vainio’s music immediately conjures up notions of gravity, slowness, and weight, and his tracks combine industrial and maritime references with the idea of decomposition. Marked by heavy, powerful pulsations, his music evokes the solid progress of a cargo ship through the raging elements, but also offers dazzling, explosive moments of great ferocity, from which Van Acker draws these images: “Bodies become battlefields where sounds fight for ground. I see them swept away, set on fire, torn apart by Vainio’s powerful and complex music. Every pulse in the body must belong to the music. It is the master of every cell, invading them, making them vibrate, exhausting them”.
Images
