“As one of the most influential dance and choreography artists since the 1990s, [Meg Stuart] is best known for her highly energetic pieces in which performers embody the boisterous longing for presence in relationship to specific surroundings.” —Spike Magazine
Meg Stuart, one of the world’s most acclaimed contemporary choreographers—and recipient of the 2018 Venice Biennale Golden Lion for Dance Lifetime Achievement—returns to the Walker for the first time since 2006 for a rare US appearance. The American-born, Berlin/Brussels-based artist continually invents new presentation contexts and movement languages in collaboration with artists from diverse disciplines. This multipart engagement includes the North American premiere of Celestial Sorrow, a Walker co-commissioned immersive installation and performance made with visual artist Jompet Kuswidananto, along with An evening of solos and duets, a stunning retrospective offering a glimpse into an oeuvre that continues to grow and transform.
Meg Stuart/Damaged Goods: An evening of solos and duets
Friday, April 5 & Saturday, April 6
McGuire Theater, 8pm
With a focus on the body as a vulnerable, uncertain presence, Meg Stuart and her company Damaged Goods reconfigure 30 years of evocative dance in a presentation that encapsulates their profound influence on contemporary performance. The evening will revisit both the past and the present, combining a selection of solo works and duets with excerpts from evening-length performances. For this evening, Meg Stuart works together with regular Damaged Goods-performers Maria F. Scaroni and Claire Vivianne Sobottke, and live musician Brendan Dougherty.
Walker Commission
Meg Stuart & Jompet Kuswidananto/Damaged Goods: Celestial Sorrow
Thursday, April 11–Saturday, April 13
McGuire Stage, 8pm
“When the lights of Celestial Sorrow are switched on again…all you can say is: this is exactly what I wanted to see onstage, a work like no other.” —Mouvement
In an immersive installation made with celebrated Indonesian visual artist Jompet Kuswidananto, Stuart creates a vibrant world of light, movement, and music inhabited by three performers and two musicians. Possession, implanted fictional traumas, imaginary and invisible spaces, and the voices that make them resonate are just some of the starting points for an adventurous leap into unknown territories. Created with and performed by Jule Flierl, Gaëtan Rusquet, and Claire Vivianne Sobottke, with live music by Mieko Suzuki and Ikbal Simamora Lubys.
RELATED EVENTS
Talking Dance with Meg Stuart
Saturday, April 13, 1pm
McGuire Stage, Free with Gallery Admission
Join Meg Stuart for an intimate conversation within the immersive onstage installation of Celestial Sorrow. Stuart will discuss her multipart engagement at the Walker as well as the greater expanse of her three-decade artistic career. The conversation is moderated by leading dance scholar and performer Thomas F. DeFrantz, a professor of dance and chair of the African and African American Studies Program at Duke University and the director of SLIPPAGE, an interdisciplinary research group that creates innovative interfaces for the telling of alternative histories.
Talking Dance with Meg Stuart is presented as part of the Gertrude Lippincott Talking Dance Series, made possible by generous support from Judith Brin Ingber.
ABOUT MEG STUART
Meg Stuart is an American choreographer and dancer, working and living in Berlin and Brussels. She founded her own company, Damaged Goods, in Brussels through which she has realized over 30 productions, ranging from solos to large-scale choreographies, site-specific creations and improvisation projects.
Stuart strives to develop a new language for every piece in collaboration with artists from different creative disciplines and navigates the tension between dance and theatre. Her work revolves around the idea of an uncertain body, one that is vulnerable and self-reflexive. It is analogous to a constantly shifting identity and constantly redefines itself while searching for new presentation contexts and territories for dance. Meg Stuart received various awards for her oeuvre and practice, amongst others a Bessie Award in 2008 and the Konrad-Wolf-Preis in 2012. More recently, La Biennale di Venezia awarded her the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in the category of dance.
Meg Stuart/Damaged Goods has an on-going collaboration with Kaaitheater (Brussels) and HAU Hebbel am Ufer (Berlin).
Read more on Meg Stuart’s bio here.
Read interview with BRUZZ
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