Output details

Eidolon 1 and 2 (Dancework)

Commissioned by the Royal Danish Ballet (Den Kongelige Ballet), premiered at Operaen, Copenhagen. The choreography drew on the entire corps of the RDB, rehearsed and performed in two separate casts - one male and one female. The music was written by Kim Helweg specifically for the piece, drawing on a long history of collaboration. The research questions for this project were concerned with the way narrative detail emerges in working the same choreographic phrase with twogender-specific casts, with both versions having musically the same structure, yet danced to different orchestrations (conducted by Mats Rondin). During the creative process of choreography-making I taught the same phrase to both casts, thus exploring the differences in terms of narrative detail emergent in the distinct casts. Both versions of Eidolon found distinct qualities due to what I have observed to be an inherent athletic physicality in male classical dancers and a relative cautiousness in female classical dancers, owing, I would argue, to pointe work, which I abandoned during the process: the pointe work seemed to be inhibiting without partner work. The score was physically demanding in terms of speed, which required working with a lower centre and use of the back, which are features that are arguably more focused in the male classical dancer training than in the female training. The choreography sought to further explore the concept of the rehearsal room as researched for Goldberg - The Brandstrup-Rojo Project, with the set reflecting a large space with a central partition wall, working with the idea and illusion of a mirror. The choreographic premise was that dancers would 'mirror' each other, thus exploring the concept of 'imitation' in dance training and dance-making. The production investigated the narrative potential of working with a cast of the same gender, with a final moment of the 'other' gender appearing on stage, when a 'drama' would unfold in a duet.