Soul Chain

World premiere October 28^th 2017, Mainz State Theatre
Running time 1 hour. No intermission.

Opening performance of 55^th Maribor Theatre Festival

Choreographer Sharon Eyal
Artistic consultant Gai Behar
Composer Ori Lichtik
Costume designer Rebecca Hytting
Set and Lighting designer Alon Cohen
Assistant to Choreographer Rebecca Hytting, Tom Weinberger
Rehearsal Director Andrea Svobodova

Cast
Madeline Harms, Daria Hlinkina, Bojana Mitrović, Nora Monsecour, Amber Pansters, Maasa Sakano, Marija Slavec, Milena Wiese;Justin Brown, Zachary Chant, Finn Lakeberg, Cornelius Mickel, Sándor Petrovics, Matti Tauru, Louis Thuriot, John Wannehag

Inspired by strong emotions all around love, the Soul Chain choreographer Sharon Eyal connects ballet and electro – the two very unlike phenomena – into a thrilling contemporary dance. The ballet ensemble thus becomes a swarming dance "machine", full of energy, that is reflected in an extremely challenging choreography that won the German theatre prize "Der Faust" in 2018. Even though the choreographer defines Soul Chain as a play about love and longing, one should not expect too much romance. Rather, the movements are animalistic and pure, a swarming group that moves with the highest discipline in rhythmic unison. The longer this unison lasts, the more time we have to search for the differences and can find the dancers in full intention. As the choreographer says, one can see in the homogenous structure of the One, how different we are. So here, in the contrast between the group and the individual, the choreographer expresses her love for the absolute uniqueness of each individual. After all, paradoxically as it may seem, uniqueness is the only category that is universal to us – and this, too, is ultimately a formal dance frame, in which the "Love" can take place.