Soul Chain
choreography: : Sharon Eyal
co-creator: Gai Behar
music: : Ori Lichtik
costume design: : Rebecca Hytting
stage and light design: : Alon Cohen
assistants to choreographer: : Rebecca Hytting, Tom Weinberger
rehearsal director: : Andrea Svobodova
duration: : 55’
premiere: : Staatstheater Mainz, 2017
dancers: : Cristel de Frankrijker, Madeline Harms, Daria Hlinkina, Bojana Mitrović, Nora Monsecour, Amber Pansters, Maasa Sakano, Marija Slavec, Zachary Chant, Finn Lakeberg, Cornelius Mickel, Matti Tauru, Louis Thuriot, John Wannehag, Alberto Terrible, Frederico Longo
director of tanzmainz: : Honne Dohrmann
production manager: : Lisa Besser
assistant to director: : Hannah Meyer-Scharenberg
tour coordination: : Maria Eckert
stage and sound set up on tour: : Luka Curk
light set up on tour: : Dominik Hager
stage manager on tour: : Matthew Tusa
photos: Andreas Etter
A production of Staattheater Mainz.
Supported by the Nationales Performance Netz / International Guest Performance Fund for Dance, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.
We find a big loneliness in us confronted with the love of life, this huge passion, which is not always present in our feelings. We have to accept this loneliness of us all. Everyone is living their own life and is ending it alone. There are big emotions within the bodies. I believe, it doesn´t need a story, much more its priority shows the actual expression through the bodies and muscles. “Soul Chain” represents a creation about desire. You see the pain, the sweat, how the inner being is trying to find its way to the outside. This power is growing more and more while the bodies are slowly getting tired. For me it´s all about the humans who are standing here. How they look at you, how you look to them, how they look at each other. Sometimes it´s impossible to see the emotion through your eyes, but you know they are there you feel them under your skin. Basically it`s all about love, about the love to the others, to yourself, to the space which surrounds you, love to everything. Love is like tissue. I don´t plan any scene, much more I feel what is right in this moment very intuitive, almost like an animal.
Sharon Eyal
Even though Sharon Eyal says “Soul Chain” is a play about love and longing, you should not expect too much romance. Rather, the movements are animalistic and pure, a steaming group that moves with the highest discipline in rhythmic unison. The longer a unison lasts, the more time we have to search for the differences as public and can find the dancers in full intention. One can see from the same thing how different we are. So here, in the contrast between the group and the individual, she expresses her love for the absolute uniqueness of each individual.
Fifteen dancers move as one. Individuals occasionally separate from the swarm, but then they once again merge to become part of what seems to be a single large organism. A chain of people, styles, characters and emotions. Anger, passion, longing, aversion... The inner struggle of each individual triggers a range of movements that constantly propels the group. In recent years, Israeli choreographer Sharon Eyal has conquered the European dance scene with her intense style.
Sharon Eyal was born in Jerusalem. She danced with the Batsheva Dance Company from 1990 until 2008, and began choreographing within the framework of the company’s “Batsheva Dancers Create” project. Eyal served as Associate Artistic Director of Batsheva (2003-2004), and House Choreographer of the company (2005-2012). In 2009 Eyal began creating pieces for other dance companies in the world: “Killer Pig” (2009) and “Corps de Walk” (2011) for Carte Blanche Dance of Norway; “Too Beaucoup” (2011) for Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and “Plafona” (2012) for Tanzcompagnie Oldenburg. In 2013, Eyal launches L-E-V with her long-time collaborator Gai Behar. In 2015, they premiered “Untitled Black” in collaboration with the Goteborgs Operans Danskompani. Eyal is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Israeli Ministry of Culture Award for young dance creators (2004), Landau Prize for the Performing Arts (2009), as well as she was named a Chosen Artist of the Israel Cultural Excellence Foundation (2008). She has received Belgrade Dance Festival’ Jovan Ćirilov Award in 2017.
tanzmainz is the contemporary dance company of State Theater in Mainz. Since 2014, dance director Honne Dohrmann has been leading the ensemble of 22 excellent dancers, rehearsal and production team. Performances are originally created for this ensemble by guest choreographers such as Guy Weizman & Roni Haver, Sharon Eyal & Gai Behar, Guy Nader & Maria Campos, Koen Augustijnen & Rosalba Torres Guerrero, Garry Stewart, Danièle Desnoyers, José Navas, Roy Assaf and Victor Quijada...
After 55 minutes it is all over but not yet finished. The piece continues to echo on stage and in the minds of the audience. Their response: cries of joy and standing ovations.
© tanznetz.de
Sublimely terrifying!
© Die deutsche Bühne online
