Sasha Waltz

Sasha Waltz is one of the most sought-after choreographers in Germany. At Beethovenfest 2023, she will perform »In C« with her company Sasha Waltz & Guests and the Ensemble Musikfabrik at the Bonn Opera.

I find the term improvisation difficult in this context, because »In C« is actually a hybrid, a marriage of choreography and improvisation. Terry Riley wrote a score with 53 musical figures and I developed 53 choreographic figures to go with it. These are written down, not improvised. You can’t combine them in different ways, but there is a chronology: the dancers start at 1 and end at 53, but they are free to decide when to jump from one figure to the next, just like the musicians. This results in shifts and interlocking of the different figures. Sometimes three or four figures can be seen or heard on stage at the same time. But because dance also involves space, I had to introduce additional rules or laws that structure the space. These are actually variable: every performance is always different.

The dancers are like a second orchestra on stage, their bodies are the instruments. Dancers and musicians listen to each other and pay attention to where the others are in the piece. There are a few agreements so that the two groups don’t move too far apart. The score stipulates: you can be four to five figures apart, then you have to move on. This also applies to the dance in relation to the music.

The C is always present, but I feel the music is anything but static, more like a heartbeat that goes on and on and takes us along in its flow. I find it a very dynamic piece, because there are no pauses. The music creates a feeling of intoxication or ecstasy through the repetitions. I realised during the work that the dancers can’t keep this up like an instrumentalist; the body has physical limits. That’s why I incorporated some dynamic changes.

»In C« was created during the pandemic. We worked on it during the lockdown, when there were social distancing rules. I thought about how I can make dance when we can’t touch each other? So we worked over Zoom. I recorded the individual figures in video tutorials. We are now passing these tutorials on to other dance groups. I have certified the dancers from Sasha Waltz & Guests as tutors when they have worked with me and understood this piece. In the meantime, we have also developed simpler versions of the piece for children or non-professional dancers. The tutorials are like a choreographic score that other groups can interpret. Recently, two groups in Ukraine rehearsed the work online during the war and performed it at the KharkivMusicFestival. This opportunity arose through this new way of working. I just hope that people will enjoy it.

As a company, we want to act in a climate-conscious way. The principle of sharing a choreography with other groups online, for example, reduces our own travelling. That doesn’t mean that we no longer perform at all, but it is a way of scaling it. »In C« also has a very simple stage version, we only take the costumes with us in our hand luggage, so to speak. We don’t need any complicated transport. The play can be adapted for all situations: open air, or without the back wall and without the lights. Moreover, it's not mandatory to use the produced costumes, even if the colours are predetermined.