N (2004)

© GRANULAR≈SYNTHESIS (Kurt Hentschläger & Ulf Langheinrich)
Collaboration with Ballet Preljocaj

Dance Performance for 12 dancers, 3D Animation, Pulse & Strobe Lights & Electronic Sound
Duration: 73 minutes



A collaboration of Ballet Preljocaj and GRANULAR~SYNTHESIS
Concept and dramatization: Angelin Preljocaj, Kurt Hentschläger, UlfLangheinrich

- Choreography: Angelin Preljocaj
- Image, Light design: Kurt    Hentschläger
- Music & Sounddesign: Ulf Langheinrich

Costumes: Angelin Preljocaj with Martine Hayer
Motion capture: DoDes’Kaden /Stephane Dalbera
Choreologist: Dany Lévêque
Rehearsal assistants: Nadine Comminges    and Youri Van den Bosch

Dancers: Isabelle Arnaud, Hervé Chaussard, Sébastien Durand, Yan Giraldou, Natacha Grimaud, Anna Hagermark, Harald Krytinar, Céline Marié, Thomas Michaux, Lorena O'Neill, Toshiko Oiwa, Guillaume Siard

Coproductions:
Théâtre National de Chaillot-Paris, Festival Montpellier Danse 2004, Festival Perspectives-Saarbrück/Moselle, Théâtre de l’Olivier-Istres , le Groupe partouche-casino municipal Aix/Thermal
Working Residence at Scène Nationale de Cavaillon

“N” is the title which has been given to the work prepared with Ulf Langheinrich and Kurt Hentschläger. It is a “masked title” which purposefully does not express what is evoked in the work, which deals with the unspeakable, what is beyond description. Suffering, torment, humiliation, torture … the body as the primary vector for annihilation and destruction.

If what we are trying to say seems virtual and distant to a part of the world population, it is in fact quite close and cogently, sharply real.
It has spread throughout time from the very dawn of our existence to the present day, without interruption, reaching incandescent peaks of trouble. Its force is matched solely by our disbelief.

-Angelin Preljocaj:
Concepts about the “humanimal” condition were defined during the early meetings of the collaboration. Most of the thoughts and concerns back then have in the meanwhile become amplified further. “N”, the finished artifact, has, during the process of creation, moved towards a state of pointed ambiguity, describing a state of being and an atmosphere, predominantly the problem of the absence of empathy, rather than creating a singular narrative.

-Kurt Hentschläger:
« Syn-aesthetic is not sync-aesthetic »
Sound is designed as a sonic image, an unsettling current, an almost independent primal matter organised in various and at times countless single layers. Consistencies are recognizable. Melodies seem as if not yet invented. I envision a force, one slow motion wave and everything and all is drifting and drowning in it.

-Ulf Langheinrich:
The show comprises high sonic levels composed by bass frequencies and stroboscopics effects inadvisable for young children, pregnant women, epileptics people or ones who have pace maker and hearing aids.

© Kurt Hentschläger 2022