The three new works which form the core of this mixed evening received their world premieres in the Opera House of the State Theater Stuttgart on July 25th, 2020 followed by only two further performances on the 26th. Commissioned by Artistic Director Tamas Detrich, the pieces were created in such a way that in the studio and on stage the dancers keep a minimum of two meters apart at all times. Louis Stiens Petals, set to music by Domenico Scarlatti and Francois Couperin, is a tender exploration of relationships – not only between two people but also between those people and their immediate environment: how much of what is going on “outside” do we want to let in, to acknowledge or even cope with? Fabio Adorisio’s Empty Hands, set to Bryce Dessner’s expressive and explosive Lachrimae, is a passionate, furious lament for five dancers. In Roman Novitzky’s Everybody needs Some/Body, a group of individuals tries to combat loneliness, uncertainty and most importantly lack of human contact, their collective movements eerily emphasizing their isolation from one another. The only work to include a pas de deux (made possible by the fact that the dancers in both the first and second cast live in one household), Novitzky nonetheless eschews sentimentality to show all the ambiguities inherent in a relationship.

RESPONSE I will feature these three works. All three pieces (Novitzy’s work is set to Max Richter’s dynamic interpretation of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons), are played live by musicians of the State Theater Stuttgart orchestra. The musicians are placed at the back of the stage with adequate space between each player as the orchestra pit is still off limits.

Depending on the situation in Stuttgart and the State of Baden-Wuerttemberg at the end of September, Tamas Detrich will add either pas de deux or solos from the company’s extensive repertory to the evening, responding to circumstances in the truest sense of the word.