Imaginary Dances

Infos :

1st movement "Agility" on our YouTube Channel

2nd movement "Nostalgia" on our YouTube Channel

3rd movement "Devotion" on our YouTube Channel

4th movement "Grace" on our YouTube Channel

5th movement "Joy" on our YouTube Channel

6th movement "Longing" on our YouTube Channel

7th movement "Intimidation" on our YouTube Channel

8th movement "Connection" on our YouTube Channel

Part 1 Agility: Their bodies gleaming in the midday sun, they respond to the commands of the leader with vigorous synchronised slapping of torso and thighs, to the incessant pulse of the log drums.

Part 2 Nostalgia: She remembered fondly the distinctive dances of her homeland - the gorgeous, bejewelled gowns, the sumptuous ballrooms. Nobody knows those dance steps anymore. Even her homeland has been erased from the map.

Part 3 Devotion: As the rays of the rising sun race across the dunes, men clad in white robes perform an ancient ritual. Arms outstretched, eyes raised skyward in ecstasy, they move in slow circles.

Part 4 Grace: “How could anyone consider this heretical?” he thought, looking down at their radiant faces, the immaculate powdered wigs and satin attire reflecting the light of the stained glass windows in an ever-shifting tapestry. “Let us worship the Almighty in the glory of the dance!”

Part 5 Joy: From the device to the ear to the brain to the limbs, the music brings forth an exuberant expression - by turns passionate, mimetic, gymnastic, jagged, graceful. Dance that celebrates life in all its forms.

Part 6 Longing: Against a backdrop of emerald green fields under a cloudless sky the dancers’ hands and fingers draw slow, graceful arcs in the air. But can those radiant smiles, the exquisite colours and sounds ever efface the memories lying beneath those fields?

Part 7 Intimidation: The two sides face off across the valley, each seeking to instill dread, one with pounding dance and fearsome facial expression, the other bellowing an ancient war song. Behind the fortifications the people cower as they have for millennia, awaiting the outcome of this deadly song and dance.

Part 8 Connection: From the forest the pan-pipers emerge, hair adorned with bright feathers. Their dance celebrates the unity of all things: humanity and nature, the past and the future, the living and the dead, the real and the imaginary.