Experience a hidden world outside of sound, but within music.

A cello solo alternates between inaudible notes played with large visual gestures and loud, cacophonous sections performed in complete darkness. A work composed for two classical guitars is performed by two duos, one concealed from the audience, and the other on stage pantomiming the music being heard. In another section a musical ensemble plays a score, then puts their instruments down, and plays it again with movement only.

German composer Helmut Lachenmann's physically demanding compositions require musicians to perform very unusual movements. His music is about the conditions under which the music is made, the motions necessary for creating sound, producing a startlingly visceral musical experience. More Mouvements für Lachenmann is French choreographer Xavier Le Roy's poetic and fascinating version of a contemporary music concert from the point of view of someone obsessed with movement. This dance for eight extraordinary virtuoso musicians, including members of the Austrian new music ensemble Klangforum Wien, breaks down the work of making music by uncoupling sounds and movements, sonic events and silences, actions and stillness.

In short: something between a theater, a choreography, and a concert performance.

“It is something between a theater, a choreography, and a concert performance.”
Xavier Le Roy, choreographer of More Mouvements für Lachenmann

With his fiercely independent style, choreographer Xavier Le Roy’s work—including self unfinished (1998), Product of Circumstances (1999), Project (2003), Le Sacre du Printemps (2007) low pieces (2008-2011), 6 Months 1 Location (2008)—has opened new perspectives for dance and radicalized the conversation about the body and choreographic art. More Mouvements includes the Lachenmann works “Pression," “Salut für Caudwell,” and “Gran Torso.”

Choreography Xavier Le Roy Music Helmut Lachenmann Dramaturg Bojana Cvejic, Berno Odo Polzer Technical Director Götz Dihlman Sound Engineer Wolfgang Musil Musicians Gunter Schneider, Barbara Romen, Tom Pauwels, Günther Lebbing, Annette Bik, Sophie Schafleitner, Dimitrios Polisoidis, Andreas Lindenbaum

Appropriate for ages 14 and up.

* Post-show discussion on Sept 16 introduced by Dustin Hurt, director of Bowerbird.

The presentation of More Mouvements für Lachenmann in the 2011 Philadelphia Live Arts Festival is supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through Dance Advance.