REQUIEM
Production of Dance Company Nanine Linning / Theater Osnabrück, World Premiere February 2011
Reprise danced by Dance Company Nanine Linning / Theater Heidelberg, Premiere Oktober 2011
Reprise danced by Konzert Theater Bern (Zwitserland), Premiere October 2014
REQUIEM is a multidisciplinary production with 25 dancers, live orchestra, soprano and bariton, choir, video and Dutch composer Michiel Jansen.
In REQUIEMchoreographer Nanine Linning imagines the tension between life and death, the profane and the sacred, the carnal and the spiritual. Inspired by Fauré's Requiem, Dante's La Divina Commedia and the absurd and surreal images of the artist duo Les Deux Garçons, it represents Linning’s search for her own paradise on earth. Unlike most requiems, Linning’s REQUIEM celebrates life rather than death.
Nanine Linning used the text of the Latin requiem mass as the basis for a dance evening that deals with vanishing boundaries. It opens with a walk-through exhibition for which the audience is invited up on to the stage. Amid a cabinet of surreal figures inspired by ancient mythology, the dazzling white of the costumes, objects and faces draws them into a timeless space. The second part consists of a choreography in which the figures from the first come to life.
REQUIEM was originally conceived in 2011 as a co-production between Dance Company Nanine Linning / Theater Osnabrück and Linnings own company Stichting NANINELINNING.NL, with the financial support of the Dutch Performing Arts Fund NL. After its premiere in Theater Osnabrück, it was revived at Theater & Orchester Heidelberg before being taken into repertoire at Konzert Theater Bern in 2014.
With REQUIEM, performed by Konzert Theater Bern, Linning received the prestigious Swiss Dance Award 2015, given out by the Minister of Culture of Switzerland. According to the Federal Dance Jury; Christian Spuck:
“‘My requiem celebrates life rather than death’, says Nanine Linning, and the dance company of Konzert Theater Bern performs this dance of death with astonishing precision and profound emotion, veering between exhibition, concert and dance. It begins in a Creator’s laboratory, with chalk-white hybrid beings, centaurs and chimeras that amaze and disturb, followed by a multi-disciplinary dance spectacle inspired by Fauré’s Requiem, captivating in its emotion, sensuality and grand musicality. With the dance company of Konzert Theater Bern, Linning’s dazzling visual language creates a manifest beauty because she does not simply attach images to the music: she systematically refines it and, with this multi-disciplinary project, ingeniously explodes the form of the city theatre.”
The press about REQUIEM in recent years:
“When it’s about emotions and effects, Nanine Linning and her dancers tickle all senses.”Osnabrücker Zeitung 2011
“With the demanding concept consisting of many artistic disciplines melted into one multi disciplinary experience, Nanine Linnings REQUIEM impressively underlines being the hit of this season and many seasons to come. Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung 2013
“An opulent ode to life: Nanine Linning’s dance production »Requiem« is a brilliant movement treasury in white.” Der Bund Zwitserland 2014