SWAN is a multimedial creation that kills a traditional theatre piece and brings it to a new and unexpected version. SWAN is inspired by the ballet „Swanlake“ and the japanese social phenomenon „Hikikomori“- where people are locking themselves down and choose social isolation by themselves.
The dancepiece is built on Tschaikovskis music. Although the asthetic of music and on stage change completely throughout the piece all music is digitally generated only from Tschaikovskys original music.
We see a shift in the piece of inner and outer world that shows a young man who is lost in his own fairytale and his loneliness/ his lack of social contact.
Videographics, music and the texture of two tutus that the dancer uses in different ways melt together to a magical mysterious universe.
„Never underplaying the rage of a young person, because of the person’s youth, this work takes anguish seriously, and premised on German-Chinese choreographer Hannah Ma’s ‘speaking body’ technique, which will knock your sense of emotional equilibrium. You may not understand the Eastern words that are part of the narrative, but that’s not the point. In translation they are equally obscure and poetic, segueing with magnificence with the video projection that forms part of the second half of the piece and scans across the dancer’s body, flirting with your memory of what lies there and what you see.” (Roby Sassen, myview ZA/ full critic: https://robynsassenmyview.com/2018/09/21/ode-to-a-broken-swan/).