Oscillation. Ballet

Das Ballett Oscillation ist der letzte Teil einer Trilogie des Heidelberger Choreographen Iván Pérez über die Millennial-Generation. Diese Reihe blickt mittels des Tanzes, der Musik und visueller Künste auf jene, die zwischen 1980 und 2000 geboren wurden. Nach „Impression“ und „Dimension“ schließt sich der Kreis nun mit der neuen Orchestermusik von Ferran Cruixent. Das Besondere dieser Ballettmusik von Cruixent ist aber, dass sie tatsächlich auf dem Höhepunkt der Corona-Krise im Frühjahr 2020 entstanden ist. Im Rahmen unserer Umfrage bei unseren Komponistinnen und Komponisten, wie sie die Krise vor allem künstlerisch bewältigt haben, teilte uns Ferran Cruixent mit, dass seine Ballettmusik stark von seinen Empfindungen angesichts der Krise beeinflusst gewesen sei. Der Stil dieser Musik ist nach Cruixents Worten eher elegisch und nachdenklich.
Ursprünglich war die Uraufführung des Balletts „Oscillation“ für November 2020 vorgesehen, wurde wegen der Pandemie aber auf 2021 verschoben. Am 23. Oktober 2021 wird diese Uraufführung am Theater Heidelberg nun nachgeholt.
Wir haben mit dem Komponisten Ferran Cruixent über seine Arbeit und mit dem Choreographen Iván Pérez über „Oscillation“ gesprochen.

Inwieweit hat sich die Pandemie auf die Musik von „Oscillation“ ausgewirkt?

Ferran Cruixent: Die Quarantäne hat mich während der letzten Phase der Arbeit erwischt, daher kann ich nicht sagen, dass die Pandemie die Musik besonders beeinflusst hat. Trotzdem, die planetare Beschränkung hat der liturgischen Dramaturgie des Werkes schon eine viel breitere Bedeutung gewährt. „Oscillation“ stellt eine Suche nach dem Wesentlichen dar, nach der Liebe zum Leben. Ich freue mich besonders, es zu hören, um diese tiefsinnige Phase meines Lebenskapitels noch einmal zu erleben. Diese Musik ist für mich der unerwartete Ausdruck dieses Augenblicks: ein Stück voller Hoffnung.

Warum ist die Musik eher ruhig? Das Thema sind doch auch die Millenials, die die Jugend von heute darstellen?

Cruixent: Das Thema „Millennials" beschäftigte uns hauptsächlich während des Stücks „Impression“ (2018), des ersten Teils der Trilogie.
„Oscillation“ geht über die Millennials hinaus und ist eine Komposition in einer interdisziplinären Zusammenarbeit mit dem European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) und des Dance Theatre Heidelberg. Das über 70-minütige Werk ist in sieben zusammenhängende Sätze unterschiedlicher Dauer unterteilt und von aktuellen wissenschaftlichen Erforschungen des kollektiven Verhaltens von Zellen und ihrer verschiedenen Schwingungsprozesse inspiriert, insbesondere während der Embryonalphase.
So ruhig wie eine Schwangerschaftsphase scheint, so wirken auch manche Teile des Werkes. Nach unserem Gefühl vielleicht ruhig, aber der innere Mikrokosmos ist mächtig und gewaltig. Eine Summe aus unendlichen Schwingungen. Eine Suche nach dem Wesentlichen.

Hat die Musik besondere Klangfarben?

Cruixent: Ich greife wieder das Konzept des „Cyber Singing“ auf, bei dem Orchesterinstrumente mit modernen technischen Mitteln kombiniert werden, z.B. Smartphones. Das „Cyber Singing“ definiert eine neue Möglichkeit der Interaktion zwischen Interpreten und Komponist. Am Anfang von „Oscillation“ werden Aufnahmen von Walgesängen über die Smartphones der Musiker abgespielt. Eine ganze Familie von Walen aus verschiedenen Altersstufen singt unendliche Lieder und eröffnet damit die ganze Dramaturgie des Werks. Das Stück wirkt dadurch sehr liturgisch.

Hat Iván Pérez mit Ihnen während der Arbeit an der Partitur gesprochen und bestimmte Wünsche geäußert?

Cruixent: Das Schöne ist, dass ich die Musik vor der Entstehung der Choreographie komponieren durfte, weil es kein Libretto als solches gibt. So konnte ich meine eigene, freie Dramaturgie konzipieren.

Choreograph Iván Pérez im Interview:

Millennials are perhaps the most affected group in this pandemic. How did the corona crisis change the conception of your ballet "Oscillation"?

Iván Pérez: This pandemic will mark all the generations experiencing it, but the Millennial specifically is the generation that will have to show its creative potential and come up with quick solutions. Firstly, the technological shift deeply affected the millennials, being the first generation embracing the internet and technology as an extension of our bodies. Then, the 9/11 disrupted our sense of security and technology became a surveillance tool. Currently, this generation has to deal with the corona crisis, in which technology is a way to stay connected globally, though forcing us to become locals in our cities, towns and homes due to the lockdown. This crisis has influenced the development of “Oscillation” too, of course. Months ago, I started an interdisciplinary collaboration with the Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in order to question collective behavior in cells and in humans. For several years, concepts like interpersonal space and forms of communication between bodies have been a part of my research in dance. For me, it was originally very exciting to bring dance and science into a creative dialogue around this new work, though I had no idea how relevant this collaboration would become as the Covid-19 started spreading and our living conditions drastically changed to this degree. Now, after experiencing months of lockdown and spatial restrictions in public spaces, we can all say that we have been a part of a collective study of interpersonal space. We have become, forcefully, masters of the ‘choreography of distance’. This is why “Oscillation” is the last part of a trilogy on the Millennial Generation, but also a reflection of the current events since March 2020. Therefore, the work investigates new forms of togetherness through dance, music and visual arts.

Is there a narrative element or is “Oscillation” abstract?

Iván Pérez: “Oscillation” is a multilayered dance performance with live orchestral music and video projection. There is not a narrative attached to it, though we can talk in terms of musical, visual and choreographic dramaturgies. I am not a fan of the word ‘abstract’ because it implies a sense of being cold or unemotional, or even worse, difficult to understand. I would rather use the word ‘visceral’, which immediately directs us to the senses and involves the body. I also like to see the work as a collaborative space, even though I am the director. More specifically, the piece derives from conversations between scientists and the artists, whom I carefully chose and brought together because of their expertise and respective sensibilities. Although, most importantly, it develops with the dancers in the studio. With them, it is a collaboration too, in which they have the freedom to bring their visions and ideas, searching together for choreographic practices that would trigger our curiosity and that would shine a light onto the questions at hand: How do cells and collectives work? How do we come together, regardless of imposed social distancing? The team consist of twelve dancers, a choreographic assistant, a composer (Ferran Cruixent, of course!), a dramaturge, several scientists, creative producers, a costume designer, stage designer, visual artist, video editors, etc. For me, everyone influences the work in one way or another. This is why I like to encourage conversation within the team and with the audience, too, to support the development of the work, but also for everyone to coown the project. Therefore, the work is for me a kind of synthesis of the arts and the result of a collective artistic effort, which is bound to be a construction of multiple viewpoints.

Ferran Cruixent says that his music will have a rather calm character. What does this mean for your choreography?

Iván Pérez: When Ferran says calm, I imagine that he wants to suggest that the music is somewhat fluid and with plenty of space for the dancers to live in, like with the opening part “Emergency and Self Organization”. This is true, though I am confident to say that he also composed very powerful and intricate movements, where the music is not only a constant flow of waves of sounds, rather a carefully constructed matrix of sonic events, like in the section that he titles “Fluorescences”. In any case, Ferran is a master in creating a communion between the instruments. He knows very well how to engage them in conversation with each other creating a sense of community between the musicians. This feeling written in the score transports the dancers and the audience too, I believe. We, the listeners, cannot escape from the sensitive development of its mantra, which takes you to a physical and sometimes even spiritual experience, especially if you listen to the movement “Coupling”. It moves me to tears during rehearsals in the studio, even though we are only using a computerized version of the score. Ultimately, what I most love about Ferran’s music for “Oscillation” is that with it, he manages to touch the concept of collectivity inspired by developmental biology and nature, the human soul and our need for contact with a flawless and honest integrity. I feel grateful for the opportunity to work with this powerful and meaningful score written by a composer of such a caliber. Now, I can only wish to do it justice with my choreography.

We see very few dancers on stage. What pictures await us?

Iván Pérez: We see six dancers on stage to be precise. In order to guarantee the safety of our performers, they need to keep the 1,5 meter distance, as the health associations stipulate in the regulations for theaters. Luckily, there are two couples in the company, which allow us to create two different casts, with one couple in each of them. The couple is performing, as in living on each other’s bodies in permanent physical contact, exploring intimacy and time in an ongoing slow motion dance. As its opposite there is a quartet that must keep distance between each other at all times and that will exist on the other side of the stage. These four performers search for new forms of communication by connecting through rhythm, time, energy and intuition, most of the times resulting in a sort of organized chaos formed of fast paced interactions. In a continuum of movement, the piece oscillates between two poles, love and life. Dance and science become parallel realms too, that invite us to reflect on our current existence. In visual terms, the video projections enhance and support this investigation thanks to the interdisciplinary artist Bogomir Doringer. Bogomir is a curator and researcher, busy with social phenomena and collective behavior, most recently studying the club culture and dance as a form of urgency. Filmed in bird eye view, Doringer is curious in borrowing the scientific approach to research and analyze dancers at work. Here, we see the dancers from a new perspective, zooming in and out, able to examine the anatomy of their communication. Carlijn Petermeijer designs the costumes, inspired by nature and the millennials. We see organic fabrics and colors, combined with a tailored and efficient design style. These bodies are clearly part of a generation that wants to feel free, comfortable and available.