Guest Performance
Continu
Sasha Waltz & Guests
World premiere 20 June 2010, Schauspielhaus Zürich, Schiffbau/Halle
In “Continu” a field of tension between choreographic, musical and visual currents of energy is generated, while the title denotes the continuity of the perpetual forces of Nature.
Continu
© Sebastian Bolesch
- ca. 2 h 15 min, one interval
Past Dates
Sasha Waltz engages in “Continu” with primary impulses deriving from her major projects for museums of 2009 - the artistic inaugurations for David Chipperfield's Neues Museum Berlin and Zaha Hadid’s MAXXI in Rome. Employing twenty-four dancers she has conceived a large-format, archaic choreography. The epochal symphonic work »Arcana« by Edgard Varèse represents the musical core of “Continu”, which is then complemented by compositions by other artists like Iannis Xenakis and Claude Vivier.
Ninety years ago Varèse - a visionary artist like no other of his time - promulgated the combining of artistic and scientific content. One may speak of transformation, of change, of awakening in respect to “Arcana”, though it be not so much a matter of alchemy as of a colossal nocturnal volcanic eruption, the Promethean temptation to take possession of the cosmos encompassed by and through sound.
Since the 2010 premiere of “Continu” in Schauspielhaus Zürich the piece has been revised several times and in Salzburg, summer 2011, Sasha Waltz presented the final version. The beginning of the new version includes the live percussion solo “Rebonds B” composed by Iannis Xenakis.
The company Sasha Waltz & Guests was founded by Sasha Waltz and Jochen Sandig in Berlin in 1993. To date, more than 300 artists and ensembles – architects, visual artists, choreographers, filmmakers, designers, musicians, singers and dancers – from 25 countries have collaborated as “Guests” on over 80 productions, ‘Dialoge’ projects and films. Sasha Waltz & Guests works in an international and constantly evolving network of production and guest performance partners, showing parts of its current repertoire of 20 pieces in about 70 performances around the globe each year. In Berlin, the company cooperates with a wide range of institutions such as municipal theatres, opera houses and museums and has contributed to the establishing of innovative production sites for artistic dialogue such as Sophiensaele (1997) and Radialsystem V, Space for Arts & Ideas (2006). The development of innovative forms of performance and creation in choreographic musical theatre has become the most significant focus of the work of Sasha Waltz & Guests.
For its anniversary year 2013 the company has been named ‘European Cultural Ambassador’ by the European Union. In 2014 Sasha Waltz & Guests was awarded the ‘george tabori ehrenpreis’ by Fonds Darstellende Künste.
Cast
Sasha Waltz Direction, Choreography
Iannis Xenakis, Edgard Varèse, Claude Vivier Music
Thomas Schenk, Pia Maier Schriever, Sasha Waltz Stage
Bernd Skodzig Costumes
Martin Hauk Light
Jochen Sandig Dramaturgy
Liza Alpízar Aguilar, Ayaka Azechi, Jiří Bartovanec, Davide Camplani, Maria Marta Colusi, Juan Kruz Diaz de Garaio Esnaola, Luc Dunberry, Edivaldo Ernesto, Hwanhee Hwang, Sergiu Matis, Thomas Michaux, Michal Mualem, Virgis Puodziunas, Sasa Queliz, Zaratiana Randrianantenaina, Orlando Rodriguez, Mata Sakka, Xuan Shi, Idan Yoav, Niannian Zhou Dance, Choreography
Robyn Schulkowsky Percussion
Renate Graziadei, Virgis Puodziunas Repetition