The Mortician
A Piece for One Dancer
Director: Marc Wagenbach
Dance: Clémentine Deluy
Music: Tal Isaac Hadad, W.A.Mozart
Premiere performance: April 20, 2014 in Wuppertal
Duration: 60 minutes
PART I - PATHOLOGIES OF PAIN
Death is a taboo subject. In a world in which all of the systems familiar to us appear to be collapsing one after the next. The erosion of the obsolete. Individual moments, fragments, incidents of discontinuity and rupture. The heterogeneous, the composite are ubiquitous. But who are we in our moments of grief and loss? How do we find our peace? The Mortician is a meditation on this question and an exploration of states of existential solitude. Pathologies of pain. The individual fragments of this work formulate a unique approach to narration. Referencing performance art, installation and dance, The Mortician stakes out new territory as it seeks out transitory sites and explores a unique corporeal sensibility. In structural terms, The Mortician is inspired by Mozart’s final composition, his Requiem Mass in d-minor from 1791, which informed the collaboration between Clémentine Deluy (dance) and Marc Wagenbach (direction). The Mortician fragments Mozart’s composition while establishing a radical immediacy between spectators and performers. Between objects and space. A state of being touched.
PART II - A JOURNEY INTO THE UNDERWORLD
Everyone is gathered around the table. Everyone is visible. The mixing desk, the wooden table from where the spotlights are controlled, all is laid bare to the eye as boxes are folded, paper torn and the trash is swept up. All those present are parties to the process. Material remains. Actors in a now past event. No illusions, no curtains. As objects become partners. Intimate playmates. On a journey to find a state of peace. A journey into the underworld.
A REQUIEM. A piece for one dancer