Merce Cunningham /
Richard Siegal

BIPED / Unitxt
Music by Gavin Bryars Biped / Carsten Nicolai, alva noto unitxt'

"BIPED is a signature piece of Merce Cunningham’s late body of works. 42 minutes of pure dance co-exist on stage without correlation to projection and music.
„It was one of the first new musical compositions commissioned by Merce Cunningham since the death of John Cage in 1992. Like all of Merce‘s work it involved a collaboration with visual artists, in this case Paul Kaiser and Shelley Eshkar who had developed a very striking technique of video motion capture. In working on the music Merce and I agreed that we would follow the method established between himself and John Cage of working independently but towards a common goal, thereby avoiding any planned one-to-one relationship between music, dance and décor.”
(Composer Gavin Bryars about BIPED)

Ballet by Richard Siegal
„…suddenly, Richard Siegal stops the rehearsal, tells what he intended to insert here and there, asks the audience for their opinion, drops all inquiries and jumps to the next scene (…) it takes a while to realize what game is being played here – but even then, a hint of uncertainty is left behind. The means of presentation are chosen intentionally: the casual tone of voice, the official tone, minute details in choreographed passages where he articulates every single muscle like a cat, stand-up comedy followed by solemn seriousness. A wide-spectrum.” – TANZ magazine wrote about Richard Siegal as choreographer and performer. His new creation is yet to be named. 

Cast

BIPED (1999)

Choreography Merce Cunningham
Music Gavin Bryars
Set Shelley Eshkar
Paul Kaiser
Costumes Suzanne Gallo
Lighting Aaron Copp

Unitxt

Choreography Richard Siegal
Music Carsten Nicolai
Objekte Konstantin Grcic
Licht/Projektion Richard Siegal

Soloists and corps de ballet of the Bavarian State Ballet