Images © Bernhard Weis
Parallel Bodies II
SHORTCUTS - Ballett am Rhein
Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf-Duisburg
Premiere - 24th March 2023 - Theater Duisburg
Choreography, Concept & Costumes
Virginia Segarra Vidal
Dancers
Camilla Agraso, Doris Becker, Svetlana Bednenko, Philip Handschin, Dukin Seo, Edvin Somai
About Parallel Bodies II
Architecture and sculpture have always been a source of great fascination for me, especially antiquity and its constructions: temples, civil buildings, theatres, and homes—spaces created for different purposes, designed and constructed by humans as a way of expressing their culture and as a medium for accommodating their needs. These places were created for socializing, worshipping, governing, and living. Statues, friezes, and caryatids are an inspiration to me, as they seem to tell stories of times gone by.
'Parallel Bodies' is an exploration of the relationship between architecture, its proportions, edges, and the connection it can have with the body. The choreography is a study of the natural choreography of a specific building and its narrative perspectives. Created for the Lehmbruck Museum in Duisburg to mark the end of the exhibition 'Gormley / Lehmbruck: Calling on the Body,' it offered the opportunity to remove the dancers from the stage and place them instead in a different environment: a museum. The sculptures of Wilhelm Lehmbruck and Antony Gormley served as the starting point for the choreographic process. Their state of being and quiet contemplation inspired me to create a dialogue with the architectural space, combining my movement language with the dimensions of the museum. The dancers tested the volume of the space and became a part of the structure of the building, using the architecture as a vehicle to reflect on our experience of space and time. 'Parallel Bodies' is a metaphor for the potential movement of a sculpture placed on a plinth—still and silent but evocative of all that the viewer can imagine and feel.
With this anthropomorphic approach, a new version of 'Parallel Bodies,' specially choreographed for the theatre in Duisburg, raises again the questions of corporeality and perspective. What type of choreography do the audience's movements create during the break? How can the dancers' bodies intertwine with the spectators' ones? What possible encounters arise between the viewer and the observed? The intention is to break the fourth wall and the frontal view for both the performers and the audience and to activate the space they will be sharing. Like a statue that can be seen from all sides, the dancers' movements are an invitation for a new experience during a theater visit. We, as spectators, are encouraged to become aware of how our movements are interconnected. Indeed, our bodies are parallel to our surroundings and to all the other living bodies we meet along our paths.