Limb's theorem

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The modern three-part ballet piece Limb’s Theorem was choreographed by William Forsythe and the music for it was written by Thom Willems . It is based e.g. T. to improvisation. It premiered on March 17, 1990 at the Frankfurt Ballet and is currently (2006) often seen at the Bavarian State Ballet .

Participation

Content and structure

Stage construction

There are few props on stage and they are changed with every act. In Act 1 there is a chair and a large diamond on the stage, with a dancer sitting on the chair and every now and then realigning this diamond, which only comes with a corner on the floor and hangs on a rope from the ceiling . In Act 2 (Enemy in the Figure) there is a corrugated wall in the middle of the stage and a mobile spotlight and a rope are moved back and forth during the game. In Act 3 there is a large partition in the middle of the right part of the stage and in front of it there is a kind of "half globe", where you can see the outside on one side and the inside on the other, which fluoresces with certain lighting. This "half globe" is rotated during the game.

music

One could speak of minimalist music in this piece , since there are no melodies and no variation of different tones. Rather, there are individual noises that dictate a complicated rhythm and z. Sometimes the ticking of the clock works very mechanically, so that the dancers use the music as a clock and often demonstrate their mostly very synchronous dance. The volume varies greatly from very quiet to loud and hammering.

particularities

The ballet piece impressively shows the effect of light and shadow as well as different sounds. The dance looks very different under different lighting, although in principle not much changes. This is particularly noticeable z. B. when some dancers dance next to each other on a line, while their shadow is projected from the side and they appear as shadows large, medium and small, i.e. subordinate to each other. It is also interesting that the dance becomes more "individual" the quieter the music becomes (and the dancers are less imposed on their rhythm) and the brighter the light becomes. In the last part the music gets extremely loud and all dancers are on stage and dance like clockwork until they all fall over at the end.

interpretation

The piece could be interpreted as a warning of a mechanized world in which the machines set the pace and turn off every individual life. Only individual individuals (here individual specially dressed dancers) rebel against this predominance, but are oppressed by the great mass. Ultimately, the purely mechanical is not vital enough and cannot sustain itself.

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