| Choreographer | Nacho Duato |
| Set Designer | Jaffar Chalabi |
| Costume Designer | Nacho Duato (in Collaboration With Ismael Aznar) |
| Light Designer | Brad Fields |
Multiplicity. Forms of Silence an Emptiness» is the result of the coproduction between the city of Weimar –European Cultural Capital in 1999 – and the CND. A ballet was commissioned to Nacho Duato which somehow had some special link with the city. For Duato the answer could only be one: Bach. Nacho’s ballet is therefore inspired in the music and life of Johan Sebastian Bach and is divided into two parts.
The first one, «Multiplicity» is a choreografic reflexion which arises mainly fr om the wonderful music of the brilliant composer. This first part is characterized by a choreographic variety and diversity which matches the linked different musical excerpts by Bach. Continous changes in costumes and settings highlight visually this musical collage.
The second part, «Forms of Silence an Emptiness» mantains a more introspective tone, more mistic and spiritual, reflecting upon the subject of the death, so present in the work of Bach. Musically speaking it is based mainly on the «Arte of Fugue».
«“Multiplicity”, Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato’s elegant production performed by his Compania Nacional de Danza, is certainly a Festival highpoint.
Johann Sebastian Bach’s music is the inspiration for Duato’s complex choreography which brings a visualization to Bach’s multi-layered sound in a manner that is totally true. The style is a pure and clear classical technique vested with the quirky nuances of contemporary dance and a changing choreographic design. The 30-strong company led by Duato perform with all the passion and duende, or spirit, that one would expect of the national company of Spain. However, that’s wh ere any similarity to flamenco dance ends. This is dance that is airborne more often than not, with mobile torsos and high-flying legs being the antithesis of the tacaneo or stamping foot-work and proud posture of flamenco
The first one, «Multiplicity» is a choreografic reflexion which arises mainly fr om the wonderful music of the brilliant composer. This first part is characterized by a choreographic variety and diversity which matches the linked different musical excerpts by Bach. Continous changes in costumes and settings highlight visually this musical collage.
The second part, «Forms of Silence an Emptiness» mantains a more introspective tone, more mistic and spiritual, reflecting upon the subject of the death, so present in the work of Bach. Musically speaking it is based mainly on the «Arte of Fugue».
«“Multiplicity”, Spanish choreographer Nacho Duato’s elegant production performed by his Compania Nacional de Danza, is certainly a Festival highpoint.
Johann Sebastian Bach’s music is the inspiration for Duato’s complex choreography which brings a visualization to Bach’s multi-layered sound in a manner that is totally true. The style is a pure and clear classical technique vested with the quirky nuances of contemporary dance and a changing choreographic design. The 30-strong company led by Duato perform with all the passion and duende, or spirit, that one would expect of the national company of Spain. However, that’s wh ere any similarity to flamenco dance ends. This is dance that is airborne more often than not, with mobile torsos and high-flying legs being the antithesis of the tacaneo or stamping foot-work and proud posture of flamenco
«The Dominion»
It might change forever the way you listen to Johann Sebastian Bach. “Multiplicity” Forms of Silence and Emptiness”, Nacho Duato’s choreographic tribute to the great baroque composer, brings out all the angularities and spiraling shape of the music, the rage, the playfulness, the ceremony and the tenderness. <…> Spain’s Compania Nacional de Danza performed a virtuosic theatrical interpretation of Bach and his music.
It is a familiar convention to perceive dance as “music given form”. However, the literal and metaphoric ways Duato renders the structures he finds in Bach’s music brings the convention into startlingly original territory.
In “Multiplicity”, however, Duato is exploring more than ways to describe music through dance. He is also able to convey encompassing ideas such as an artist’s complex relationship to his art and the immortality of genius.
In coproduction with Weimar 1999, Cultural European CapitalIt is a familiar convention to perceive dance as “music given form”. However, the literal and metaphoric ways Duato renders the structures he finds in Bach’s music brings the convention into startlingly original territory.
In “Multiplicity”, however, Duato is exploring more than ways to describe music through dance. He is also able to convey encompassing ideas such as an artist’s complex relationship to his art and the immortality of genius.
«The Seattle Times»