Heareographics

Year & Context

2005

Research cooperation ICEM / Folkwang University & FH-Dortmund

About the Production

“Start from the physical state, from existence, from standing, from walking, and ultimately from jumping and dancing. For to take a step is a momentous event, to raise a hand, to move a finger no less so. One should have as much awe as reverence for any action of the human body, especially on stage — that special world of life and appearance, that second reality in which everything is surrounded by the radiance of the magical …”

— Oskar Schlemmer

In 2005, a question that had accompanied Theater der Klänge since its founding found its most technically and compositionally consequential answer. What began in 1987 with the Mechanical Bauhaus Stage as a vision — the synthesis of space, movement, light, colour and sound — and continued through Figure and Sound in Space (1993) and MODUL|A|T|O|R (2002), is fully realised in the Heareographics: music no longer dictates dance — dance generates the music.

In a research cooperation with the ICEM at Folkwang University Essen and the FH-Dortmund, a stage was developed in which sensors, computers and surround sound merge with video projection into a fully reactive environment. Every movement of the dancers inevitably produces sound and image — the body becomes an instrument, the stage a composition machine. The Heareographics are first and foremost a concert: formally structured in 14 movements (solos, duets, trios, quartets), with each evening’s concrete execution freshly improvised within that framework.

The press found strong images for the result. The NRZ wrote of the premiere: “With your eyes you can hear — 60 minutes of tangible concentration, 60 minutes of spellbound silence in the audience.” The Westfälischer Anzeiger spoke of “feedback-dance-sound-sculptures” fusing movement, light, colour, sound and form into a unique total artwork. The production continued in 2009 as Heareographics Suite, which gave rise in 2010 to SUITE intermediale — itself the starting point for CODA (2013) and Das Lackballett (2019).

Funded by: Kulturamt der Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf · Ministerpräsident des Landes NRW · Kunststiftung NRW · Fonds Darstellende Künste e.V. · Stiftung Van Meeteren · NPN Nationales Performance Netz (tour to Bauhaus Dessau) · FH-Dortmund (research funding)