Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company & Emanuel Gat

Maybe you can’t and shouldn’t try to explain a choreographic work. When asked, “what is the work about?”, the accurate answer would be: “well, I have no idea, we have to wait and see”. The only thing pre-determined when it comes to choreography, the way Emanuel Gat sees and practices it, is the HOW. The WHAT, the WHY, the WHEREOF, are all elements which emerge from the thing as it is happening.

Asking what a choreographic work is about, is like asking what the score is before a football match has even begun. And yet inviting to such a live experience should contain that which has actually already been decided on.

Emanuel Gat’s work with the Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company will engage with two of the Lieder from Gustav Mahler’s song cycle “Das Lied von der Erde”. Two parts, with “Der Einsame im Herbst” and the last Lied of the cycle, “Der Abschied”, frame a third central part that is without music. Completely different every time it is being performed, the work follows principles in which the choreographic future cannot be designed, but has to be discovered by the dancers each time they engage with the work. Welcome to this experience!

Press reviews

• “Beautiful, simple choreography of the moment, with great intensity” – Wiebke Hüster, Kultur heute, Deutschlandfunk
• “A thrilling start to the season in every respect. Gat's lively exploration of Mahler's song cycle ‘Das Lied von der Erde’ is so convincing because he gets the sensitive dancers to surrender themselves to the Viennese composer's freely flowing sound world.” – Bettina Boyens, FNP
• “Gat proves himself to be a musical, intelligent, thoughtful choreographer who respects, appreciates, and loves Mahler and who replicates him with his dance. [...] One never tires of looking into this world.” – Wiebke Hüster, FAZ