October 18th/25th, November 9th/16th/21st, December 22nd, 2024 Staatstheater Darmstadt, Darmstadt
70 minutes
A Double Bill Creation for Hessisches Staatsballett
After the successful productions Timeless by Xie Xin and I’m afraid to forget your smile by Imre & Marne van Opstal, which was nominated for the DER FAUST 2023 theater prize, the Hessisches Staatsballett combines the dance positions of these currently groundbreaking choreographers for the first time in a double evening in Broken Bob. The marble is created in the earth like the ashes after the fire. In a long transformation, under heat and pressure, its fine lines paint themselves into the stone; tell of the past like the black from the ravages of the flames. Traces decorate and they stick. Hidden deep in the layers of being and buried in the overlay of inner impressions, a broken sense of beauty appears.
Powerful and sublime. Rice paper, gunpowder and six bodies are the ingredients of Xie Xin’s new creation Broken Sense of Beauty. In the piece, the Chinese choreographer deals with a personal tragedy. When dance comes into play, it’s about movement. About movements and their structure. Does this exist outside of the movement that produces it? When structure comes into play, it’s about systems. About systems and their meaning. Does this lie outside of the system that generates it? When meaning comes into play, it’s about people. About people and about Bob. In their new creation I am Bob, Imre & Marne van Opstal explore the effects of patterns in dance. In close connection with music and text, the Dutch siblings create a large choreographic network of identity.
