GRANDILOQUENT

A co-production between Art Stations Foundation and WE GO
- comissioned by Arts Stations Foundation.
The project was part of the performance project OLD MUSIC NEW DANCE during the Cultural Programme / Polish EU Presidency 2011.

Kirstines thoughts about the project:
While I investigated what it was like to live during the Baroque era, I found a description of how people received this new type of music at first.
The word grandiloquent is used to describe the way people felt about the music and it is both amusing and interesting to me that it somehow resembles the way people still feel about it today. The Oxford dictionary has this to say about grandiloquence: Pompous (formal, disapproving); using long or complicated words in order to impress people.
With this word in mind we begun an investigation of how to make three Baroque musicians and four modern dancers work together as an ensemble on stage.
The musical starting point is the improvisational aspect of Baroque music where a part of the score is always open to interpretation.
The main interest for the final result was to create a living organism of dancers and musicians, and I believe we succeeded doing that. We hoped to achieve a performance where the audience could follow a group that constantly has to agree, negotiate and find solutions live on stage. The structure of the performance was to be be set, but consequently leaving space for the performers to make new choices live on stage.

Choreography + light design:
Kirstine Kyhl Andersen (Denmark)

Dancers:
Przemysław Kamiński (Poland)
Karolina Kraczkowska (Poland)
Christos Papadopoulos (Greece)
Esther Wrobel (Israel / Denmark)

Musicians:
Gunnhild Tønder - harpsichord (Norway)
Ingrid Økland - violin (Norway)
Emily Robinson - cello (United Kingdom)

Choreographic assistant:
Christos Papadopoulos

Musical advice:
Niels Bjerg (Denmark)

Technical realization:
Łukasz Kędzierski

Music by:
Claudio Giovanni, Antonio Monteverdi, Michelangelo Rossi, Diego Ortiz, Giovanni Gabrieli, Giovanni Paolo Cima, Biagio Marini

The project was made possible in collaboration with: Dansens Hus (DK) / Copenhagen and Burdąg Foundation (PL)

All photos by Jakub Wittchen