METAMORPHOSIS
HERZSCHMERZ
BLACK BIIST
WALKING MAD
ORELOB
EPISODE 17
RöD (QUARTET #8)
BOXMAN
CINDERELLA
GEORGIA
SHE WAS BLACK
FALLING ANGLES
TRANSFIGURED NIGHT
PETITE MORT
DUENDE
ARCANGELO
SIX DANCES

THE GöTEBORG BALLET

WALKING MAD

Johan Inger created Walking Mad for Nederlands Dans Theater I in 2001, when some young choreographers had been asked to create dance for an orchestra evening. Inger was captivated by an old black and white tv-recording of Boléro with the conductor Zubin Mehta and the Los Angels Philharmonic: ”A theatrical image; in the beginning the conductor is very controlled, well combed and correct in his entire conductor image, but parallel to the musical crescendo he becomes increasingly dramatic and excited, as though entering into madness, in an uncontrolled state. Erotic charge was naturally there but I wanted to get away from, or beyond, the more open/clichéd erotic lead that often accompanies this piece of music.”

The wall in Walking Mad is minimalist, as the music represents an early musical minimalism. It divides the work into different rooms, is the reality the different characters relate to; a resonance box they work towards, and with. Initially to the front of the stage, finally to the back, when it has described a circular dramaturgy. The person in hat and coat who, at the beginning of the piece, steps into the Bolerian room, has then done a similar round journey.

Something happens on the journey, during the piece he multiplies in his meeting with the different seeking women, who, like himself, eventually return to their given frames, perhaps a bit older, grayer.

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