How about Jazz?
Andreas Heise / Filipe Portugal
Synopsis
How about it? Are you in the mood for jazz? This season, ballet director Reginaldo Oliveira invites the choreographers Andreas Heise and Filipe Portugal to take audiences at the Rehearsal Centre in Aigen into a very different world of dance: jazz!
Like no other musical genre, jazz combines the diversity of improvisation with spontaneity. Jazz first emerged in America’s southern states around 1900 and has its roots in African American history. And yet – or maybe because of it – jazz is not just heartrending, melancholy blues but also pulsating life. Its lyrics are saturated with deep emotions (such as Sarah Vaughan’s “Misty”), African American traumas (“Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday) or dangerous devotion (Nina Simone’s “I Put a Spell on You”) but also with a zest for life or delicious irony (just listen to “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” by Ella Fitzgerald). Its stylistic variants range from New Orleans Jazz (defined by Louis Armstrong) to Swing, Free Jazz, Ethno Jazz and all the way to today’s Smooth Jazz or even Jazz Rap – to name but a few. In this two-part ballet night, the two choreographers explore a great diversity of rhythms, emotions and expressions of dance. Andreas Heise studied at the Palucca University of Dance in Dresden. He has danced at the Leipzig Ballet and the Norwegian National Ballet. It was there that he embarked on his career as a choreographer, which for instance took him to the Yekaterinburg Ballet Company, the ballet ensemble of the Graz Opera, the Stuttgart Ballet, the ballet company of the Theater Vorpommern and the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. He has worked with director Christoph Loy (e.g. at the Salzburg Festival) and gave his debut as an opera director with “Dido and Aeneas” in Oslo in 2019.
Filipe Portugal has danced at the Portugal National Ballet and the Zurich Ballet, where he became a soloist under the direction of Heinz Spoerli. He has worked as a choreographer for the Junior Company and the ensemble of the Zurich Ballet, the Charlotte Ballet, the Stuttgart Ballet as a part of “Noverre: Young Choreographers”, the Linbury Theatre in London, the Shanghai Ballet in a co-production with the Yen Han Ballet Company at the Shanghai Arts Festival, the Cannes Junior Ballet, the Delattre Dance Company and the Portugal National Ballet.
Duration: 2h / One intermission
Audio introduction
von Andreas Fladvad-Geier
Cast
Choreography
Andreas Heise
Filipe Portugal
Stage and Costume Design
Sascha Thomsen
Dramaturgie
Andreas Fladvad-Geier
MIT
Valbona Bushkola
Annachiara Corti
Mikino Karube
Gala Lara
Karine de Matos
Anna Yanchuk
Oliver Hoddinott
Lucas Leonardo
Paulo Muniz
Samuel Pellegrin
Cassiano Rodrigues
Matteo Rondinelli
Kt. Flavio Salamanka
Ben van Beelen
Klarinette Maurycy Hartman
Reviews
„Unglaublich, was mit Bewegung und Körperlichkeit alles vermittelt werden kann, ob allein, im „Pas de deux“ oder im Ensemble. Gesprochenes war nicht vonnöten. Kommunikation geschah allein im Tanz, synchron mit der jeweiligen Musik, deren Impulse die Körper der Tänzerinnen und Tänzer manchmal geradezu durchschüttelten. Auch die Ruhe des Augenblicks erschien in den manchmal verschlungen innehaltenden Körpern.“