Ballet Preljocaj

Empty moves (parts I, II, III)

Choreography: Angelin Preljocaj

He is a master of storytelling with powerful images, and excellent at weaving extremely different threads into a single story. But Angelin Preljocaj can do other things. His cycle of “Empty moves” rejects any form of narration. Four dancers in T-shirts and boxer shorts are involved in a seemingly classical repertoire of movements. The source of their inspiration is neither a story nor music but the original recording of a “reading” given by John Cage in 1977. The text is cut up into little pieces, the audience is talking, making deprecating remarks, booing, taking over the microphone. The effect is amazingly beautiful. Fragmentary gestures enter into an astounding dialogue with a storm of words and noises. Sound and movement melt into a suggestive total work of art. The architecture of pure dance emerges from deconstruction and disintegration.

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