MAYBE FOREVER

Enchanting chemistry between two dancer-choreographers

Last year Philipp Gehmacher and Meg Stuart spent five days together in a dance studio. The result of these five days of improvisation-based dialogue was shown to a small audience. Those who saw it spoke of ‘an enchanting chemistry between these two dancer-choreographers’. The ‘conversation’ yielded so much mutual recognition that there was a pressing need to continue it.

Even though Meg Stuart belongs to an earlier performing generation than Philipp Gehmacher, they encounter each other as rich partners of equal quality who in their improvisation are able to share ‘the moment’ with each other. Neither need be subservient to the other. Stuart opens up Gehmacher’s minimalist ‘austerity’ towards greater expressiveness. In his turn, Gehmacher accentuates the impact of gesture and exposure. Their movements together appear to rise from a common source: not only do they share an interest in the ‘twisted body’, distance, loss and absence, but a highly affective, almost erotically charged closeness arises.