Leise schäumt das Jetzt #1

In “Leise schäumt das jetzt” by Britta Lieberknecht, bodies and instruments collaborate at the Alte Feuerwache in Cologne

A brightly lit white room. Four performers with and without instruments explore it with great concentration. From the very beginning, you can feel the experience of all those involved. The movements seem clear, unpretentious, intuitive. The musicians literally merge with their instruments. Accordion and violin become extended arms and legs, playing a supporting role. Together with accordionist Eva Zöllner, violinist Harald Kimmig and dancer Lilo Stahl, Britta Lieberknecht’s new project takes you on a journey into a world of sound full of stories. Dance and music meet in changing constellations, in confusion, searching for suitable positions. Determination is in the air.

Sounds slowly become audible, first softly, then louder and louder. The dancers adapt to the rapidly changing qualities of the sounds. Sound and body, music and movement become one.

As a dancer and choreographer, Britta Lieberknecht has long specialized in the interaction of dance with New, Old and Improvised Music. Her career is a journey through the world, thoroughly interdisciplinary: in the 1970s, Lieberknecht first studied at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, before moving on to the Amsterdam Theater School, where she focused on modern dance. In Italy, she learned clowning and immersed herself in Commedia dell’Arte, the art of physical theater using masks. She then trained at the Merce Cunningham School in New York and presented her own solo dance pieces and street performances. Since then, Lieberknecht has repeatedly worked in changing interdisciplinary constellations.

In “Leise schäumt das jetzt”, the relationship between dance and music takes on ever new forms. Bodies and instruments collaborate in many different ways, negotiating possible references and relationships: One associates despair and struggle, brief relaxation and the search for closeness, the desire for distance and the return before parting. The communication between Zöllner’s deep accordion sounds and Lieberknecht’s consistently decisive movement presence is as clear, powerful and intuitive as Kimmig’s violin tones meet Stahl’s seemingly weightless filigree movements. Lonely as a couple. It is about intuition and improvisation, about the creation of moments. The “renunciation of a preconceived plan” described in the announcement is not always comprehensible. The movements sometimes seem planned and then again completely out of the moment. And yet the performers succeed in telling stories. The lighting design (Garlef Keßler) casts a shadow play on a wall. Changing color nuances open up additional narrative levels.
The evening concludes with a meeting of the four performers. They come into contact and inspire each other. The dancers react to the slightest change emanating from the instruments. Dynamics change: While Stahl moves in staccato-like rhythms, Lieberknecht performs slow movements from the horizontal to the vertical, as if she were melting away. The pace increases, becomes faster. Lonely as a couple in the change of emotions. The music rears up. One last bright note goes through your bones. One last movement, one last breath. Then there is silence. “Leise schäumt das jetzt” is an evening that lingers on and yet leaves you with the feeling that it’s not over yet, that there could be more to come. But the piece remains enough unto itself.