ACME

(…) A multiple, ramified time in which every present instant splits into two futures, so as to form an expanding, dizzying web of divergent, convergent and parallel times – Italo Calvino on ‘The Garden of Forking Paths’ by J.L. Borges

For the creation of Time Emotion (working title), three dancers and four musicians converge on stage to the service of one idea: creating the sensation of a frozen and diluted time, constantly contracting and expanding our perception of sound and movement. The passage of time derives in a spatial construction; the auditory stimuli become tactile, and constitute a journey through an organic sonorous territory.

This germinal idea of the project stems from the reflections developed during the preliminary phase by Octavi Rumbau and Albert Quesada: two artists coming from seemingly different disciplines who share more elements than they could initially have thought. One from the acoustic imaginary of the musical instruments and the electronics, the other from movement combining listening and action.

In Time Emotion dance company ACME and composer Octavi Rumbau will investigate different ways to expand and contract time, either by using repetition, memory, the reminiscence or the instant per se. If we consider chronometrical time, the piece will be a one hour long ‘journey’, but subsequently a journey of relative duration for the psychological time of each spectator. An immersion from music into a discipline that integrates in a primary and organic way the parameter of ‘time’: dance. And at the same time, an incursion of dance in the world of musical composition.

Spanish premiere: September 2017 – L’Auditori de Barcelona

credits

Idea: ACME /Albert Quesada, Federica Porello, Zoltán Vakulya & Octavi Rumbau
Music composition: Octavi Rumbau
Dance & choreography: Albert Quesada, Federica Porello, Zoltán Vakulya
Created with Marcus Baldemar
Musicians: Miquel Bernat & Ensemble Funktion
Light design: Bert Van Dijck
Costume design: Sofie Durnez
Program text: JS Rafaeli
Production: ACME / Kosmonaut Production
Co-production: L’Auditori de Barcelona – Sampler Sèries, Charleroi Danses, TAKT Dommelhof
With the support of the Flemish Authorities, Vlaamse Gemeenschapscommissie, wpZimmer, Kunstencentrum BUDA, STUK, El Graner

Albert Quesada: “For this new research called Penguins, not knowing how this endeavour will end up, I want to team up with Katie Vickers and two other dancers. I will propose a subject and basic context, and with the other artists we will dialogue, discuss and discover together. Departing from a simple interest in the endless and rich relationship between movement and music, between dancers and musicians, we will investigate the specific music from the Penguin Cafe and play with ideas between concert and dance performance.”

“Musically, I know what it is to perform Bach, Beethoven, Bizet, Wagner and Ligeti amongst others, and am currently getting used to working with live contemporary musicians and electronics in a small quartet. Researching and dancing with the music of Penguin Cafe will be another step into working with live musicians. However, I have never worked with such a cinematic and popular music as the one from Penguin Cafe. It is a challenge and a privilege to confront my dance practices with their way of playing music, a quest to share a particular listening experience with an audience, and explore the two spaces of theatre and concert hall. In order to continue my performance work, I feel the need to research the role of dance in live music concerts. I’m interested on how orchestras and dance can merge, where dance and the visual display play a major role in concerts.”

credits

Research: Flamingos
By ACME / Albert Quesada & Katie Vickers
Music by the Penguin Cafe (http://penguincafe.com)