4: STILL LIFE

A white stage and two dancers. Choreographer Nicole Beutler goes back to basics in 4: STILL LIFE. She immersed herself in the history of dance and distilled from it the essential ingredients of the dance duet between man and woman. The partner dance was scrutinized from the baroque court dance via Lindy Hop to the postmodern dance. We see mating rituals, leaders and followers, merger and fight, distance and intimacy.

The principles of Bauhaus, the visual art movement from the beginning of the 20th century, offer a significant starting point. The geometry of square, circle and triangle is the guiding principle for this musical and visual composition. Movements, sound and lighting are completely interdependent. With great accuracy, as we have come to expect of Beutler's precise choreographies, she guides us into a poetic world where an intriguing dialogue between the dancers and the space conjures up new meanings all the time.

The piece is a composition of five moving still lifes, a dance of the space, an extraordinary court dance, a mating dance, a ritual and a 'Lichtspiel'. Every part has its own unique atmosphere and energy, supported by the music of Beutler's steady composer Gary Shepherd.