Tactile Quartet(s)
In Tactile Quartet(s), Vera Tussing builds on her earlier choreographic explorations in the sensory engagement of an audience. This time, she has invited the string quartet Quatuor MP4 to join four dancers onstage for a playful encounter between movement and sound. What happens when we take the movements of a string quartet seriously as a choreography, and dance along?
The four musicians play passages from various quartets by Franz Schubert and Florence Price, as well as contemporary works by Georg Friedrich Haas, Michael Picknett, and Caroline Shaw. As they play, the musicians engage in one-on-one tactile encounters with the audience, creating physical interaction. Everything arises from touch – a bow on a string, an arm on a shoulder, an acoustic sensation on your skin. The dancers mediate the encounter between musicality and tactility, their choreography oscillating between touch, sight, and hearing. At the point where the orbits of dance and music intersect, you are invited to enter the kaleidoscopic score. Lend a hand, or an arm!
• Choreographer Vera Tussing has focused for many years on the sensorial, such as in her works T-Dance, Mazing, The Palm of Your Hand or Duet the City. She has been an artist-in-residence at Kaaitheater since 2017.
The Tussing Touch - an interview in Bruzz
'Het miraculeuze van een goed strijkerskwartet, maar dus ook van een danskwartet als dit, is dat ze het klaarspelen om individueel én als groep te schitteren.' – Pzazz
creation & direction Vera Tussing | musical collaboration & technical direction Michael Picknett | co-creation & dance Esse Vanderbruggen, Vera Tussing, Yoh Morishita, Zoltán Vakulya | co-creation & music Quatuor MP4 (Claire Bourdet, Margaret Hermant, Pierre Heneaux, Merryl Havard) | artistic assistance Muriel Hérault | lighting proposal Caroline Mathieu | costume & set Jivan van der Ende | contextual research & dramaturgy JS Rafaeli | contextual research Sebastian Kann | rehearsal support Bun Kobayashi | production Hiros | co-production Kaaitheater | residencies STUK, Kunstenwerkplaats Pianofabriek, wpZimmer, workspacebrussels, Arts Printing House Vilnius | in collaboration with Universal Edition Wien, Auteursbureau ALMO Antwerpen | support Flemish Government | thank you Clara Levy & Quartet partners (Sinouhé Gilot, Hugo Boulanger, David Dupouy, Anastasia Laurent, Dorelle Sluchin, Esther Singier, Victor Guaita) for their extensive contribution to the research, Gorka Gurrutxaga Arruti, Ehren Verrelst, Ruben Martinez Orio, IN/FINITY, Eglė Maceinaitė, Pierre Kouzmenko, Premiere Music Group | music excerpts Georg Friedrich Haas (String Quartet No2, 1998) // Florence Price (String Quartet in G Major, 1929) // Caroline Shaw (Entr'acte, 2011) // Franz Schubert (String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, 1831) // Michael Picknett (original score created in collaboration with Quatuor MP4)
