“Dancers and musicians join together to create a symphony with body slaps, claps, breaths and strings in an original created score.
I was approached by Gerald Tibbs about a year ago.
He asked me If I would like to create another piece for Nederlands Dans Theater II.
This time it would be to create a piece accompanied by the Holland Symphony Orchestra.
My first orchestra piece! What should I do? What music should they play?
How will my work be affected by only using classical music? So many questions!
I realized early on that I wanted to use a string quartet on stage together with the dancers.
I wanted to create a game between dancers and musicians, a game which would become a composition.
We picked out fragments from Schuberts Presto which became the core of the composition.
The musicians would give the dancers a fragment
and then the dancers would answer with either a movement or a sound.
I remember the first day the musicians entered the studio and we began to put together fragments and movements.
I remember thinking... I have the best job in the world!
4 musicians and 16 dancers in front of me ready to work and create something with me.
3 months later we are now on stage ready to share the fruits of our labour.
I want to thank musicians and dancers and everyone involved for their help and ideas through the process.
Hope you will enjoy this quirky piece”.
Alexander Ekman

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