I’m afraid to forget your smile / Force Majeure / Midnight Raga
Choreographies by Imre & Marne van Opstal, David Raymond & Tiffany Tregarthen and Marco Goecke
I’m afraid to forget your smile
The Dutch siblings Imre & Marne van Opstal are the shooting stars of the European dance scene. For Hessisches Staatsballett, they created their new work I’m afraid to forget your smile for six dancers, incorporating choirs and exploring the act of letting go as a transitional state—an immersion in loss. A fleeting spark, so tangible and yet so ephemeral, that time itself seems to stand still.
After performing with the renowned Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) 1 & 2 as well as the Batsheva Dance Company, the young van Opstal duo launched their promising choreographic career at NDT in 2016. Today, they create regularly for this prestigious institution and for companies across Europe.
Force Majeure
In Force Majeure, David Raymond & Tiffany Tregarthen explore the idea of existential surrender to an external force that may, at the same time, be deeply rooted within ourselves. They ask to what extent this unpredictable variable in the equation of human life reappears across the ages, and how our inner climate is intertwined with the outer one. Their search is for a harmony of formation and dissolution—for the pact between creation and destruction as a driving force for change within ourselves, in our relationships with one another, with the world around us, and with our future.
The Canadian duo’s piece, set to compositions by French composer Angèle David-Guillou, premiered as a new creation for Hessisches Staatsballett in the 2022/23 season at Staatstheater Darmstadt. As part of Chronicles, an excerpt of the choreography will be restaged, set to David-Guillou’s works Forgetting Trees and Exocet.
Midnight Raga
For exceptional choreographer Marco Goecke, music is not usually the starting point of his creative process. In his duet Midnight Raga, whose title refers to classical Indian music, it is different: the music of Ravi Shankar forms the point of departure.
Despite the inspiration drawn from an Oriental–Indian aesthetic — also reflected in the heavy blue silk fabrics of the costumes — Goecke’s distinctive, nervous movement language remains unmistakable. After its premiere in 2017 at Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT 2), the choreography, tailor-made for the two dancers, is now being restaged with the Hessian State Ballet, taking on a new embodiment.
I’m afraid to forget you smile
Choreography
Imre & Marne van Opstal
Set & Lighting
Tom Visser
Chorus Preparation and Musical Direction
Ines Kaun
Rehearsal Director
Jaione Zabala Martin
Dramaturgy
Lucas Herrmann
World Premiere
Darmstadt – September 17, 2022, 7:30 pm
Staatstheater Darmstadt, Großes Haus
Premiere Wiesbaden
October 28, 2022, 7:30 pm
Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Großes Haus
Trailer
De-Da Productions
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© Andreas Etter
Force Majeure
Choreography, Set & Costumes David Raymond & Tiffany Tregarthen
Music Angèle David-Guillou
Piano Waldemar Martynel
Lighting James Proudfoot
Rehearsal Director Jaione Zabala Martin
Original Cast
(for the restaging in the 2024/25 season)
Greta Dato, Gorka Duran Villar, Ramon John, Sayaka Kado, Kenedy Kallas, Masayoshi Katori, Bridget Lee, Mei-Yun Lu, Marcos Novais, Yamil Ortiz, Alessio Pirrone, Anthony Michael Pucci, Rita Winder
Duration approx. 17 min.
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© Andreas Etter
Midnight Raga
Choreography & Costumes Marco Goecke
Music Ravi Shankar, Etta James
Lighting Udo Haberland
Choreographic Assistance Hedda Twiehaus
Restaging Ludovico Pace
Rehearsal Direction Luc Jacobs
Dramaturgy Nadja Kadel
Trailer De-Da Productions
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Currently there are no upcoming performances of this Program.
