With Terry Riley’s »In C«, the acclaimed dance company Sasha Waltz & Guests and the Swiss post-industrial band The Young Gods ensure a spectacular festival finale: with its rhythmically repetitive power and the great freedom of the performers, it is perfectly suited for choreographic interpretation and was already met with standing ovations in 2024 in the Grand Hall of the Elbphilharmonie.
»The work was, for me, an attempt to bring democracy into ensemble music. Into a kind of music in which there is no conductor, where everyone has to listen and play together with the others,« explains Riley, who became the founder of Minimal Music with »In C«. It consists of 53 musical patterns revolving around the note C. Their order within the piece is fixed, but the musicians decide for themselves how often they repeat the individual figures.
Sasha Waltz created a corresponding choreographic system with 53 movement figures. As in Riley’s music, the dancers decide when to switch between the individual patterns. »The choreography »In C« is a game system of 53 movement figures for a structured improvisation with clear rules and laws, and a democratic score, because it grants the individual dancers certain freedoms within the ensemble: it is a piece about being an individual as part of a group, not an individual in the group,« explains the choreographer.
PERFORMERS
Sasha Waltz & Guests Kompanie
The Young Gods band
PROGRAM
Terry Riley
In C
