This year a number of co-commissions and co-productions by Wiener Festwochen and Festspielhaus St Pölten.
New Order + Liam Gillick: So it goes..
Commissioned by Manchester International Festival and Wiener Festwochen.
Produced by Manchester International Festival.
Orchestrated & conducted by Joe Duddell
World premiere
New Order take over Stage 1 of Manchester’s iconic Old Granada Studios for this special series of intimate shows, created in collaboration with two close associates: visual artist Liam Gillick, who has previously presented solo exhibitions at venues such as Tate Britain and MoMA in New York; and composer-arranger Joe Duddell, a fellow son of Manchester and a frequent collaborator with the band.
10000 Gestures
Boris Charmatz
One of Europe’s most daring and exciting choreographers, Boris Charmatz will be opening his newest work at MIF17. For this highly ambitious piece, staged in an atmospheric space in central Manchester, a 25-strong ensemble of dancers will perform, in succession, 10000 Gestures – none repeated, every one unique. At once joyous and melancholy, ephemeral and unforgettable, 10000 Gestures rethinks and reinvents the language of dance in thrilling fashion.
Produced by Musée de la danse in coproduction with Volksbühne Berlin, Manchester International Festival, Théâtre National de Bretagne-Rennes, Festival d’Automne à Paris, Chaillot – Théâtre National de la Danse (Paris), Wiener Festwochen, Sadler’s Wells and Taipei Performing Arts Center (ongoing/en cours).
Available Light
The revival of Available Light was commissioned by the Cal Performances, University of California, Berkeley; Festspielhaus St Pölten and FringeArts, Philadelphi.
Music by John Adams
Choreography by Lucinda Childs
Stage design by Frank Gehry
Available Light brings together three giants of postwar American culture: choreographer Lucinda Childs, composer John Adams and architect Frank Gehry. This new production takes the trio’s brilliant collaboration, first staged in 1983, to a new generation of audiences.
Available Light beautifully unites the distinct visions of its three creators. Gehry’s designs playfully subvert convention, setting a backdrop of chain-link fencing against a stage split over two levels. Adams’ hypnotic soundtrack pulses out in waves, subtly blending acoustic brass with synthesisers and electronics as it anchors the movements of a dozen dancers. And Childs’ intricate, mesmerising choreography, playing with notions of space and time, is a brilliant distillation of the minimalist aesthetic that has long kept her work at the cutting edge. A perfect fusion of music, movement and art, Available Light is a landmark in American dance.
