Glacial Decoy / In the Fall / Working Title

Performing Arts Season 2024/2025

– Performende auf Bühne

With three works created over a period of more than 40 years, the Performing Arts Season dedicates an evening to the American choreographer Trisha Brown, looking at her artistic work and its continuation after her death in 2017 as if under a magnifying glass.

For more than four decades, Trisha Brown was a defining influence on post-modern dance, creating her own pioneering movement language in a continual process of research and experimentation. This show consists of two of her core works, “Glacial Decoy” (1979) and “Working Title” (1985) as well as “In the Fall”, the first collaboration between the Trisha Brown Dance Company and acclaimed French choreographer Noé Soulier, which celebrated its world premiere in 2023. 

“Glacial Decoy” was Trisha Brown’s first choreography for a classical proscenium stage and marks a milestone of her career. This work was her first collaboration with visual artist Robert Rauschenberg and she went on to create numerous works in cooperation with other artists. Rauschenberg was in charge of the visual design for “Glacial Decoy”, creating diaphanous costumes reminiscent of caryatids. Rauschenberg’s large-scale black and white photographs form the backdrop for five dancers whose fluctuating, light-footed and yet powerful and immensely precise movements fill the space. As if in tandem – imagining they are invisibly connected to each other from a certain distance – the dancers spread out, only to come together shortly afterwards, underlining the juxtaposition of freedom and dependence in dance.

The invitation to Noé Soulier to create a piece for the current company was born out of a desire to bring Brown’s legacy into focus by engaging with present day choreographers who identify with her artistic heritage. “In the Fall” traces Brown’s movement vocabulary and combines it with Soulier’s own choreographic principles, resulting in a powerful and moving contemporary creation. 

In “Working Title”, eight dancers move to the recorded music of Peter Zummo in various formations. Both choreography and music are light and playful, while the exuberance of the work with all its asymmetric and unpredictable movement patterns challenges the dancers. The title refers to the simple staging that eschews a set and focusses on the choreography and on Zummo’s music. 

Programme

Glacial Decoy (1979)

In the Fall (2023)

Working Title (1985)

Artistic Team

Glacial Decoy

Trisha Brown – Choreography

Robert Rauschenberg – Visual Presentation and costumes

Ambient – Sound

Beverly Emmons – Lighting Design

Lisa Kraus, Carolyn Lucas – Restaging

Trisha Brown, Elizabeth Garren, Lisa Kraus, Nina Lundborg – Original Cast

Cecily Campbell, Catherine Kirk, Ashley Merker, Jennifer Payán, Rochelle Jamila – Current Cast

World premiere 7.5.1979, The Children’s Theater, Minneapolis, US

“Glacial Decoy” was made possible by a grant for the National Endowment for the Arts.  

In the Fall

Noé Soulier – Choreography

Florian Hecker – Music

Noé Soulier, Victor Burel – Lighting

Kaye Voyce – Costumes

Christian Allen, Cecily Campbell, Burr Johnson, Lindsey Jones, Catherine Kirk, Patrick Needham, Jennifer Payán, Spencer Weidie – Original Cast

Cecily Campbell, Savannah Gaillard, Burr Johnson, Catherine Kirk, Ashley Merker, Patrick Needham, Jennifer Payán, Spencer Weidie – Current Cast

German premiere

World premiere 16.11.2023, Cndc, Le Quai Angers, France

Produced by Trisha Brown Dance Company, Cndc-Angers, Dance Reflections by Van Cleef and Arpels, Festival d’Automne à Paris; Créteil Maison des Arts, with additional support from Villa Albertine.

Working Title

Trisha Brown – Choreography

Peter Zummo with “Six Songs (Suite for Lateral Pass): Sci-Fi, Slow Heart,

Song VI, Song IV” – Music

Mustafa Ahmed – Percussion

Guy Klucevsek – Accordion

Arthur Russell – Cello and Voice

Bill Ruyle – Marimba and tabla

Peter Zummo – Trombone

Beverly Emmons – Lighting Design

Elizabeth Cannon – Costumes

Trisha Brown, Iréne Hultman, Carolyn Lucas, Diane Madden, Stephen Petronio, Lisa Schmidt, Vicky Shick, Randy Warshaw – Original Cast

Cecily Campbell, Savannah Gaillard, Rochelle Jamila, Burr Johnson, Catherine Kirk, Patrick Needham, Jennifer Payán, Spencer Weidie – Current Cast

World premiere 17.9.1985, New York City Center, New York, US

Next date:

• Date Thursday, 23/January/2025 19:30 (2 more dates)
• Venue Haus der Berliner Festspiele - Große Bühne
• Address Schaperstraße 24, 10719 Berlin-Wilmersdorf