David Greilsammer, piano
"Dance, when you’re broken open. Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance, when you’re perfectly free."
One night, when discovering these mighty words by Persian poet Rumi, I was left with no choice: I walked to my piano, stared at it in the dark, feeling ready to dive into the wildest dance of my life, one that would change my spirit and give birth to new rhythms and sounds.
I knew there would be no way back from this voyage, so I asked six souls to accompany me. Three men from the past and three women from the present took a step forward and joined me, each bringing their own prodigious choreography. As we started to dance together, I could see my piano changing form, becoming a different creature, leaving behind its old traditions. Little by little, our bodies all came closer, dancing faster and faster. Ancestral rituals merged into rhythms of the future. Soon, we would reach our destination, where life is celebrated with no limits - as Rumi said: a place where we’re perfectly free.
c.65 minutes – no break, no intermission
Robert Schumann (1810-1856): Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6, Book 1 (16’)
Nkeiru Okoye (*1974): Dance til' You Drop (1’)
Henry Purcell (1659-1695): Corant, from Suite in D Minor, Z. 668 (1’)
Georgie Ward (*1990): Techno Confessional: Chapter 1 (3’)
Claude Debussy (1862-1918): "Les fées sont d'exquises danseuses", from Préludes (4’)
Carlonia Noguera (*1978): La noche de los cuerpos (7’)
Claude Debussy: "Danseuses de Delphes", from Préludes (3’)
Georgie Ward: Techno Confessional: Chapter 2 (5’)
Henry Purcell: Hornpipe, from Suite in D Minor, Z. 668 (1’)
Nkeiru Okoye: Drums Calling (African Sketches: No. 4) (3’)
Robert Schumann: Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6, Book 2 (20‘)
