KÖRPER

Being willing to risk, as well as to experiment, is my freedom

- SASHA WALTZ

One of the most eagerly awaited events in the Festival de Otoññ en primavera arrives courtesy of the celebrated Berlin choreographer, Sasha Waltz, who presents one of her key works, Körper, for the first time in Madrid. This legendary work is an examination of the human body, its movement and material essence. In 2000, the celebrated successor to Pina Bausch and her dance-theatre was made co-director of the Shaubühne am Lehniner Platz in Berlin, the great temple of German theatre. Körper was the work which inaugurated this phase and is possibly the most representative and most acclaimed work of her career.

What is the body? How is it put together? Waltz orchestrates a choreography for 13 dancers in which the human anatomy is situated in parallel with different architectural structures. Using a unique choreographic language which is at the same time demanding, narrative, borderline and symbolic, Körper examines in greater depth concepts such as morality, immortality and reproduction in the era of genetic manipulation. The work portrays bodies in everyday situations, shows their shape, their rhythm, their nakedness. It measures them, weighs them, counts the number of hairs, extracts liquids, senses organs. The stage is arranged with spectacular mosaics and disturbing paintings which are accompanied by the musical soundtrack of Hans Peter Kuhn.

After Körper played to audiences in England, The Guardian newspaper commented: "Only a wizard like Waltz could collect and dissect ideas with such skill... If you are ever lucky enough to see Körper, you might want to pinch yourself at the end and check that you're still there".

www.sashawaltz.de