(sweet)(bitter)

Thomas Hauert is a dancer and choreographer whose sophisticated, improvisation-based research on movement has a strong relation to music – either actual music or the musicality of the movement itself. In the solo (sweet) (bitter), he interacts with the baroque madrigal Si dolce è’l tormento composed by Claudio Monteverdi but also with 12 Madrigali of Salvatore Sciarrino. Hauert interprets this musical poem of impossible love as the expression of a conflict between the bliss of pursuing an ideal and the torment of knowing that this ideal will stay unreachable – a tension which is a universal motor of life but takes as many forms, as many interpretations, as there are individual visions of this "perfect country”.

In his group pieces, the choreographer devotes considerable time to directing the dancers and relatively little to developing new things for his own body. For him this solo was an opportunity to immerse himself in this work and to explore inspiring approaches for future creations. Thomas Hauert centres the piece on the question of “interpretation”: interpretation as a way of executing a piece, a text, a score (the artist’s interpretation), but also interpretation in terms of the meaning given to a sign, a sound, a gesture (the audience’s interpretation). Two forms of interpretation encountering one another and giving rise to the
artistic experience. In this solo, Thomas confronts the musical interpretation with the choreographic interpretation. He uses a single piece of existing music, Si dolce è'l tormento from Claudio Monteverdi but in several interpretations,
that he links in relation with 12 Madrigali of Salvatore Sciarrino. Numerous possibilities can be opened up by this confrontation. For example: how do the musical interpretations and the instruments used influence the
movement? How can the different musical interpretations colour the same choreographic proposition? What musicality can be read in a movement based on music when this music cannot be heard. The relationship with the music is one of the foundations of Thomas’s choreographic practice. Many of the
movement scores he uses have a strong relation to music - either actual music or a musicality inherent in the movement. Thomas believes that there lies an infinite creative potential in the analogies as well as in the specificities and interactions of music and dance – two different embodiments of our desire to give an order to our experience of time and space. According to him, dancers and choreographers can learn a lot about movement from musicians (composers and performers): use of rhythm, timing, tension and release,
counterpoint, etc.

CREDITS
Concept, choreography and dance Thomas Hauert
Light Bert Van Dijck
Costume Chevalier-Masson
Music Claudio Monteverdi, Si dolce è’l tormento, Salvatore Sciarrino, 12 Madrigali
Production ZOO/Thomas Hauert
Coproduction Charleroi danse, Centre Chorégraphique de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles
Support Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles – Service de la danse / Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council / Vlaamse

Gemeenschapscommissie / Ein Kulturengagement des Lotterie-Fonds des Kantons Solothurn / Wallonie-
Bruxelles International

Ticket: 12 euros
Date: Saturday November 16th
Time: 21.00
Location: M54
Menandrou 54, Omonoia Athens

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/236393563

BIOGRAPHY
Having worked as a dancer with a.o. Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, David Zambrano and Pierre Droulers, Thomas Hauert (CH) founded his company ZOO in Brussels in 1998. Cows in Space, his first piece was immediately awarded at Rencontres de Seine-Saint-Denis/Bagnolet. The company has since created more than 20 works, which have been performed all over the world. In addition to his work for ZOO, Thomas was also commissioned to create work for other companies including Zurich Ballet, Toronto Dance Theatre, Candoco Dance Company, Ballet de Lorraine. Complementing his choreographic work, Hauert has developed an internationally recognized teaching method based on the movement research conducted with his company. He regularly teaches workshops worldwide. In 2012-13, he was a guest professor for dance and performance at Institute for Theater Studies, Freie Universität Berlin. Since 2013 he is the artistic director of the new bachelor degree in contemporary dance at the Manufacture, Haute école des arts de la scene in Lausanne.

Photo credits: sweet bitter ©Filip Vanzieleghem