Spur
Music & dance piece with Ensemble KNM Berlin
2016
Fotos: © Dr. Achim Plum
The choreographer Shang-Chi Sun and Ensemble KNM Berlin continue their research between dance and contemporary music started with "The Photographer" with music by Philip Glass, which was presented in 2014 at the Museum of Photography in Berlin, the Philharmonie in Cologne and the Cité de la Musique in Paris. With SPUR, both teams create a new production combining dance with the subtle and fascinating sound world of Beat Furrer around two iconic pieces of the composer: "Phasma" and "Solo for Cello".
Beat Furrer is one of contemporary music's most interesting composers of the moment in Europe. Since the 90s, Beat Furrer describes his act of creation as a search, almost archaeological, of sound, bringing to the surface invisible layers. In a complex process consisting of simultaneous movements that overlap, merge and filter each other, he reveals a sound landscape that he projects into time. A music born of the discovery, but hidden, waiting to be revealed, as an evidence...
SPUR means "trace" in German and carries in itself the mystery of multiple stories focused on one point: the notions of time, space and movement are intertwined. The movement is imagined in a frozen trace, becoming sediments. The capture of a past action that focuses fables and facts, past and present in an unspoken and poetic interpretation.
The choreography takes up the idea of gravity of the movement and its traces. The footprints that we discover in the undergrowth are the marks of a narration, of a story: the story of the walker who made them, and the history of time, wind and rain that have altered them. The past of the action and present of this discovery come together and merge. This temporal juxtaposition made of observation, imagination and bodily sensations are also central elements in the choreographic language of Shang-Chi Sun. His dance, between Asian movement tradition and contemporary dance, draws its strength from a simple and minimal inspiration: the trace is primarily an expression of weight, but also moving it, it becomes a momentum that transforms into movement as a starting point of a complex and multiple development.
"I try to capture the stories and bodily dimensions contained in the apparently abstract steps. There is a hidden message in gravity, which leads to the human. Do intense exchanges between contemporary music and movement offer a new perspective on the perception of the body? The sounds are like a key for sizing and witnessing the steps of the dancer. Beat Furrer's music is both daring and sensual. His way of composing is often unexpected and always masterful. He never hesitates to exploit the full potentiality of the instruments to experiment with new soundscapes. I want to bind my choreography to this particular music, let it leaded and transformed by it until revealing a new understanding of gravity and weight of the body. This is the starting point for me to search for a new perspective of the movement, a new language, perhaps."
Shang-Chi Sun
PRESS REVIEWS
Three men, one woman. All young, fully in the matter, technically high experienced, inventive. Shang-Chi Sun as the creator of such a wild and subtle work did a great job.
Stefan Amzoll, Neues Deutschland, July 11, 2016
Eye-catching is the beginning, without having any sound to hear. Quite a big thing. (...) With a solo part (…) Ying Ting An, a dancer originally coming from Taiwan like the choreographer, opens the "track". (...) All her effort is so subtle devoted to fill with dance that silence and to give sense to it that the space does not cease to "sound", without a tone coming up. Because silence is sound.
Stefan Amzoll, Neues Deutschland, July 11, 2016
This one-hour "track" does not end before the turbulences are evaporated and all movement turns back to peace. Morendo, danced abandonment of single tones builds up the final metaphor. Silence like at the beginning. But the outcome of this highly successful, the senses captivating evening is tragic.
Stefan Amzoll, Neues Deutschland, July 11, 2016
The encounter of dance and live music does not always mean that the musicians move from the spot. However, the cellist Ringela Riemke and the pianist Frank Gutschmidt of the Ensemble KNM Berlin pounce with verve into the difficult scores. Their concentrated performance has something immensely physical, as well as the sounds seem very physical.
Sandra Luzina, Tagesspiegel, July 11, 2016
This is not a deadly serious evening where you reverently listen at each Pling. The dancers bring playful wit and imagination into a music of recalcitrant-brittle sensuality. (…) But as Beat Furrer explores the possibilities of the instruments, also Shang-Chi Sun searches for other forms of expression. He gives his splendid dancers a large freedom, and that's what makes the encounter with the music so exciting.
Sandra Luzina, Tagesspiegel, July 11, 2016
Credits
Company Shang-Chi Sun
Choreographie und Regie: Shang-Chi Sun
Tanz und Choreographie: Fernando Balsera Pita, Malcolm Sutherland, Ying Ting An, Samuel Déniz Falcón
Licht, Bühne: Hans Fründt
Management: Laurent Dubost
Fotos: Dr. Achim Plum
Ensemble KNM Berlin
Musik: Beat Furrer, "Phasma" für Klavier, "Solo" für Cello
Aufführungsrechte: Bärenreiter-Verlag
Ringela Riemke, Violoncello
Frank Gutschmidt, Klavier
Management: Thomas Bruns
Öffentlichkeitsarbeit: Barbara Gstaltmayr
Dauer: ca. 60 Minuten
Eine Produktion der Company Shang-Chi Sun in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Ensemble KNM Berlin.
Mit freundlicher Unterstützung durch die Senatskanzlei – Kulturverwaltung des Landes Berlin, das Kulturministerium der Republik China (Taiwan) und Pro Helvetia, Schweizer Kulturstiftung. Die Recherche-Residenz 2015 wurde unterstützt von La Briqueterie und dem Centre Culturel de Taiwan in Paris. Vielen Dank an die Uferstudios, die Freie Volksbühne, Kulturradio, die fabrik Potsdam, Robert Witzsche Medien Design und HVS Plakat.
Dauer: ca. 55 minutes