Cindy Van Acker takes on Pléïades by avant-garde composer Iannis Xenakis, a free and defiant spirit whose revolutionary energy runs through his entire body of work. Xenakis is celebrated for his mathematical approach to composition, his fascination with probability, and his unorthodox scores, drawn not on traditional staves but on an engineer’s graph paper. Through these innovative methods, Xenakis seeks to recreate climatic phenomena and mass movements, to make the world resonate; he lets us hear clouds, flocks of starlings, the power of a vital impulse.
Composed in 1978 for six performers and no fewer than eighteen sets of instruments — including the sixxen, designed especially for this work, Pléïades is a unique rhythmic creation. Structured in four sections, whose order is left open, it takes its titles from the families of instruments used : Claviers, Métaux, Peaux and Mélange.
To enter this powerful and intricate musical landscape through dance, the choreographer faces the impossibility of maintaining a single stance throughout the score, perpetually revisiting the relationship between bodies and sound. On stage, she brings together five dancers, six musicians from the Geneva-based contemporary percussion collective Eklekto performing Xenakis’s music live, and scenographer and lighting designer Victor Roy.
