Quietly foams the Now #2

Quietly foams the Now
At the first event of the Kultursommer, music and dance meet on equal footing

The Kultursommer Bergisch Gladbach began with a spectacular tension arc. Four women artists – two dancers who also used their voices and two highly virtuosic instrumentalists – offered the audience in Britta Lieberknecht’s dance studio a one-hour insight into their workshop. “Now we’re available for half an hour, then we’ll continue working,” Lieberknecht said after the long final applause, underscoring the promise to let the audience participate in the process of creation… for here two expressive dancers improvised, meeting two musicians who had just as much to say. Music and dance met on equal terms. Accordion and violin began while the dancers were still sitting in a circle on simple wooden chairs with the curious audience. From scraps of single notes, tiny motifs, rhythms tapped with fingers, and short foot-stamping, a rhythm briefly developed that recalled a tango. Not, as one might expect, introduced by the accordion, but by the violin, which was scratched and tapped as if it were a small percussion instrument. The episode passed, the musicians sat on chairs, rose occasionally, moved a bit, and thus not only communicated through sounds. Then the two dancers joined. They moved together at first, then brought in the instrumentalists and began to sing. With long tones they built dramatic arches, suddenly interrupted by short, vital movements. The audience could understand the correspondence even without words – it was about struggle, conflict, reconciliation, tension, joy. At some point, it ended. A work of art that existed exactly once and has now passed. “Quietly foams the Present #2” is what Britta Lieberknecht called the work. The improvisation here is about letting the stories happen. Both in movement and in music, in sound, there are always touchpoints. The art lies in allowing oneself to engage with others unconditionally. With Lieberknecht dances expressively and aesthetically Neus Barcons Roca. The violin is played by Hannah Weirich, the accordion by Eva Zöllner. All four are superbly trained and recognized luminaries in their fields. They engage with contemporary art and manage to draw spectators and listeners, almost breathless, into the action. The piece premieres in Köln, on December 13–14, at the Alte Feuerwache.