David Greilsammer - Dance or Die

The Journey It was a few years ago, during a trip to the Amazon Jungle. While watching an ancestral ceremony, I was struck by an extreme need to change the way I was approaching my instrument. Naturally, I didn’t have any piano around me at that moment, but I knew that from now on, I would have to embrace it with a more corporal, immediate, and choreographic attitude, one that can express our human wish to be free, in a world that seems increasingly insane and cruel. Strangely, it is in that precise instant, in the middle of the Colombian Rainforest that came to my mind the piece that would become the cornerstone of this album, Schumann’s Davidsbündlertänze.

Throughout its eighteen short dances, symbolizing the battle for the arts, also hides, behind the notes, a passionate secret letter from the composer to his loved one. The two Baroque dances by Purcell, expressing stunning rhythmic innovations, as well as the two preludes by Debussy, revealing surreal creatures and their fantastical choreographies – all seemed to be essential to this journey. But along with these three men of the past, I felt the necessity to explore dance through the eyes of three women of our time, each one a composer from a different background and tradition. This dialogue between sounds of today and those of a far, distant time, was vital. Carolina Noguera’s work La Noche de los Cuerpos – bringing together rituals from her native Colombia and a contemporary language – was meant to find itself in the centre of this voyage.

Connecting the various universes in which she evolves – classical pianist by day, DJ by night, as well as a collaborator of various pop icons, British composer Georgie Ward has given life to a piece intertwining the worlds of techno and body-percussion, propelling us to an imaginary night club. Calling on her Nigerian roots and paying tribute to the rhythmic power of African percussion, Nkeiru Okoye has created music full of explosive, mystic, and blazing colours. As Nietzsche wrote in his marvellous book Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star”.

Programme

Robert Schumann (1810-1856): Davidsbündlertänze, Book I (16’)
Nkeiru Okoye (born 1974) Dance Til’ you Drop (new piece, world premiere) (2’)
Henry Purcell (1659-1695): Corant, from Suite in D Minor (2’)
Georgie Ward (born 1990): Techno Confessional, chapter I (new piece, world premiere) (‘3)
Claude Debussy (1862-1918): Les fées sont d’exquises danseuses, from Préludes (‘4)
Carolina Noguera (born 1978): La Noche de los Cuerpos (new piece, world premiere) (7’)
Claude Debussy (1862-1918): Danseuses de Delphes, from Préludes (3’)
Georgie Ward (born 1990): Techno Confessional, chapter II (new piece, world premiere) (‘3)
Henry Purcell (1659-1695): Hornpipe, from Suite in D Minor (2’)
Nkeiru Okoye (born 1974) Drums Calling (3’)
Robert Schumann (1810-1856): Davidsbündlertänze, Book II (17’)

65 minutes with no intermission.