Both Sitting Duet / The Quiet Dance / Speaking Dance

The English dancer and choreographer Jonathan Burrows and the Italian musician and composer Matteo Fargion have known each other for almost 20 years. They have together created a trilogy comprising Both Sitting Duet (2002), The Quiet Dance (2005) and Speaking Dance (2006), in which they both appear on stage as performers. We have already shown each of the parts separately in the Kaaitheater Studios. Due to its tremendous success, this season we are presenting the combined version of the whole trilogy in the large Kaaitheater theatre on a single evening.

The relationship between Burrows and Fargion on stage is halfway between that of a long-established married couple and an encounter between two polite foreigners. The two ‘little men’ carry out movements, make sounds, speak and sing. Everything is done in a virtuoso rhythm, with exact timing, sometimes in unison, sometimes in two voices. Actually they are involved in a lively conversation with each other which is carried out in sounds and gestures and which demands their utmost concentration. But sometimes they are themselves no longer capable of concealing their laughter. They become absorbed in the pleasure of performing, almost forgetting what they are doing, and we the audience follow them, taking part in their dialogue. A choreographic, musical and poetic gem. Irresistibly comical!

ast season, Jonathan Burrows said the following about the relationship between choreography and poetry in Reservoir (Kaaitheater bulletin Jan-Feb 07): ‘I sometimes think that poetry is closer to choreography than anything else.  I´m still trying to articulate why, but it´s something to do with the way both forms come at subject matter tangentially and then use form to amplify the meaning, to arrive at something you recognise but couldn´t have articulated.’