Duration of performance: 60 min

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Choreography and dance by Les SlovaKs Dance Collective
Milan Herich, Anton Lachky, Milan Tomasik, Peter Jasko, Martin Kilvady

Music
Simon Thierrée

Set design
Les SlovaKs Dance Collective, Joris De Bolle

Lighting design
Joris De Bolle

Costume design
Mat Voorter, Pepa Martinez

Technical director
Joris De Bolle

Technician
Jan Meuwissen

Production
PHILEAS PRODUCTIONS (Belgium)

Promotion
SEVENTYSEVEN - Bram Smeyers
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Coproduction
Kaaitheater (Belgium)
Teatre Mercat de les Flors (Spain)
Hellerau - European Center for the Arts Dresden (Germany)
NorrlandsOperan AB (Sweden)

with the support of the
Flemish Community

Press reviews

MILAN TOMÁSIK ABOUT THE CREATION

“In our work, music is a source of principal inspiration.  When preparing Fragments we knew very well, the music will have even bigger impact on us then in our previous performances (Opening Night, 2007 and Journey Home, 2009), because the music was composed before we started to rehearse. In fact, music was the starting point. The initial Idea was to work with known music, but we didn’t succeed. We listened to several compositions but we could not imagine to dance on any of it.
We felt, it was either too serious, or slow, or too dramatic; in other words, we were not happy. Therefore we‘ ve got very enthusiastic when Simon told us, that he started to work on the new musical composition, for a string orchestra. We loved the Idea immediately and said yes, let’s go for it, although there was a little fear, how are we going to do it? Will we like the music? Are we able to create a dance show on the composed music? At the same time, there was a big trust in Simon Thierreé, because he is our very good friend and especially, because his music is great for dance. It is easy to connect to, his music has power, it carries a story and the same time is open for interpretation. When we started working on Fragments in Umea (residency in Sweden), the music told us what to do. So we talked a lot, had a several propositions how to approach the music and somehow the “raw” dance material was created within the first two weeks of creative process. Of course the dance material, scenes and the show got much more refined later, but truly, perhaps from the fear, all the main scenes on Simon’s music were created during our first rehearsal period. But then came a crucial moment. Simon’s music is approximately 30 minutes long, four different movements and we wanted to make a full evening dance show. We had to face a big challenge: to repeat the music twice, to repeat only some parts of the music, or to bring a new music. We rediscovered the work of Melania Ollaryova, who was since the fifties a very popular Slovak singer whose retro-pop music is a great counterpoint to Simon’s serious music.

On the other hand, the two different musical styles created more possibilities to play with the dramaturgy and composition of the show. Each of us have multiple characters, or let’ s say, we play different roles in the performance and the music is the main partner who supports our actions.

Fragments can be performed with recorded music or with a live string orchestra of 32 musicians to plays Simon's composition. We will premiere this live version in Cultuurcentrum Bruges in november 2012 and are extremely excited to dance to this live performed music.

One could say, that for us it was a fantastic, intensive, re-uniting creative process.”