Soul Chain by Sharon Eyal
Saturday evening, cold wind, empty streets. On the way to Residenztheater some lost figures performing underwater movements in slow motion. Is this part of Tanzplattform Deutschland that was taking place in Munich from 4th to 8th March 2020? 15 productions chosen from a jury were presented during five days to an international (specialist) audience. In front of the venue: also dancers in slow motion with only a few interested bystanders watching, as everybody is keen on getting into the gleamingly illuminated theater that is promising a thrilling evening.
Soul Chain starts with industrial techno and the 16 dancers of tanzmainz introduce themselves by arriving on stage in differently sized groups and in perfectly orchestrated unity marching on their tiptoes in continuous momentum. The choreography is about love and inspired by strong emotions, and connects ballet and electro to a thrilling contemporary dance. For the extremely challenging choreography of Soul Chain, choreographer Sharon Eyal was awarded the German Theatre Prize "Der Faust" in 2018.
The stage is illuminated like a clearing at sunrise, fog billows and the mythical scenery coalesces with music and dancers to a captivating and ecstatic event. The dancers do not stop their precision work of synchronized movements even once during the 50 minute staging. They are a continuously ongoing, smoothly working machinery of continuously marching and moving dancers. To the sound of thumping music they drift to and from each other seemlessly like molecules; they resemble insects, extraterrestrials, nonsexual bodies existing only of muscles and strings hardly distinguishably if male or female and most of the time perceptible as one body. This piece of art is one breathless act drawing the audience more and more into it. A natural phenomenon provoking standing ovations and the outburst of a spectator: "I want to see this again". Chapeau!
