A Quiet Evening Of Dance

Dance as an experience. If anyone could be described as having “electrified” ballet, as having breathed new life into it and transformed it into a dynamic art-form ready to soar ever higher in the 21st century, that person would be William Forsythe. The American choreographer creates entire worlds using nothing but the human body, space and time, making dance an unprecedented experience for dancers and audience alike. This is very much the case with the four works that compose Α Quiet Evening of Dance — two revivals plus two new creations — which form the evening’s program at the main stage of Onassis Stegi on 6th-10th February.

Dancers who have worked with him for many years narrate profoundly communicative stories with their bodies, their breathing the only sound accompanying them. Humor, sensitivity, provocation, response. Guiding them: their rhythm and incredible coordination. Like the hands on an invisible clock, they record time, render it visible, expand and contract it by changing space and, ultimately, by opening the secret channel through which we communicate with it.

The performance, an Onassis Stegi international co-production, includes two new pieces — "Epilogue" and "Seventeen/Twenty One" —, two new versions of older works from Forsythe’s repertoire — "Dialogue (DUO2015)" and "Catalogue (Second Edition)", plus "Prologue", an extract from "Seventeen/Twenty One".

"A Quiet Evening of Dance" was included in the top ten dance productions in the UK during 2018 by The Guardian’s dance critics, Judith Mackrell and Lyndsey Winship. "A rollicking street vibe was channeled into "A Quiet Evening of Dance", an all-Forsythe program that started out as a witty ABC of classical shape and line, and evolved into a dazzle of loose-limbed postmodernism and balletic exuberance. Performed by some of the choreographer’s most long-standing dancers, with a startling addition of b-boy brilliance from Rauf “RubberLegz” Yasit, this program was beautiful not only for the breathtaking rigor of its construction but also for how it joyfully illuminated the individual quirks and genius of its seven dancers".

Credits

Choreography: William Forsythe and Brigel Gjoka, Jill Johnson, Christopher Roman, Parvaneh Scharafali, Riley Watts, Rauf “RubberLegz“ Yasit and Ander Zabala

The dancers are: Cyril Baldy, Brigel Gjoka, Jill Johnson, Christopher Roman, Parvaneh Scharafali, Riley Watts, Rauf "RubberLegz" Yasit

Composer/Music: Morton Feldman, ‘Nature Pieces for Piano No 1’, from First Recordings (1950s) – The Turfan Ensemble, Philipp Vandré © Mode (for "Epilogue")

Composer/Music: Jean‐Philippe Rameau, Hippolyte et Aricie: Ritournelle, from Une Symphonie Imaginaire, Marc Minkowski & Les Musiciens du Louvre © 2005 Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Berlin (for "Seventeen/ Twenty-One")

Lighting: Tanja Rühl & William Forsythe
Costumes: Dorothee Merg & William Forsythe
Sound Designer: Niels Lanz

Technicians
Director of technical Productions: Adam Carrée
Production Company Stage Manager: Bob Bagley
Electrician/Relighter: Gerald McDermott

For Sadler’s Wells
Chief Executive & Artistic Director: Alistair Spalding CBE
Executive Producer: Suzanne Walker
Head of Producing & Touring: Bia Oliveira
Tour Producer: Aristea Charalampidou
Producing & Touring Coordinator: Florent Trioux
Marketing Manager: Daniel King
Senior Press Manager: Caroline Ansdell
Wardrobe Supervisor: Miwa Mitsuhashi

A Sadler’s Wells London production.

Co-produced with:
Théâtre de la Ville-Paris, le Théâtre du Châtelet and Festival d’Automne à Paris; Festival Montpellier Danse 2019; Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg; The Shed, New York; Onassis Stegi (Athens); deSingel international arts campus (Antwerp).

First performed at Sadler’s Wells London on 4 October 2018.
Winner of the FEDORA - VAN CLEEF & ARPELS Prize for Ballet 2018

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William Forsythe has been choreographing for 45 years now. He has redefined ballet, transforming it from an art-form obsessed with repertoire into a dynamic, creative art free of all limitations. He is considered the most important choreographer of his generation.

The evening’s seven dancers are among Forsythe’s closest and most trusted associates. Ideal performers, they can provide us with a profound, insider perspective on the physical work of ballet and shed light on Forsythe's life's work.

The program is an international Onassis Stegi co-production.

“Catalogue” was created for two ex-Forsythe dancers, Jill Johnson and Christopher Roman, who created their own company, the DANCE ON ENSEMBLE. Forsythe describes the project as "complex, almost Baroque". In this updated version, it becomes a trio with the addition of the talented Brit Rodemund, who is collaborating with Forsythe for the first time.

“DUO2015” was originally created in 1996 for two dancers who would only use the front part of the stage. Today, it is danced by two male dancers.

The new version was premiered in 2015 and was subsequently included by Sylvie Guillem in her farewell program. Guillem collaborated with Forsythe at a historic moment of his career on “In the middle somewhat elevated”, which he created in 1987 for the Paris Opera Ballet, then under the direction of Rudolf Nureyev. With its electrifying atmosphere and eccentric equilibria, its pulse and constantly shifting relationships, the choreography would change the course of dance forever and turn both the choreographer and his dancers (Sylvie Guillem, Laurent Hilaire, Isabelle Guérin and Manuel Legris) into instantly-recognizable stars.

International reviews

“A rare and revelatory evening”.

The Guardian

“A richly satisfying program: witty, unpredictable, superlatively danced”.

Financial Times

“Quiet it may be, but William Forsythe’s latest evening of dance at Sadler’s Wells resounds with an extraordinary cerebral and imaginative force”.

The Stage

“A cerebral, sometimes funny evening: Forsythe tenderly taking ballet to bits, so he can expose and play with its mechanisms”.

Independent

“Every movement feels measured to within a millimeter and the dancers seamlessly move from autonomous to synchronised”.

Time Out (Melbourne)