Choreographer: Alexander Ekman
Over ten years ago, choreographer Alexander Ekman decided to solely create works that offer a great amount of humor, as well as a critical note. With 'Cacti' Ekman amusingly challenges the audience to reflect on modern dance as a higher art form. Sixteen dancers stand, seemingly trapped, on oversized Scrabble tiles. They run, fall, writhe, and try to escape their invisible prisons. Eventually they each acquire a cactus. But what does it all mean? ‘Cacti’ is a gleeful parody of the art form’s greater excesses. A string quartet performs the music by Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven and
Franz Schubert live on stage, while the dancers become the instruments of the orchestra, resulting in a rhythmical ensemble.
In 2010 ‘Cacti’ was nominated for a Swan Award for ‘most impressive dance production’.
- Title: Cacti
- Date Created: 2010
- Rights: NDT
- Choreographer: Alexander Ekman
- Music: Franz Schubert - Symphony in D minor Death and the Maiden IV: Presto, arr. and adapted for orchestra by Andy Stein Joseph Haydn - sonate no V “Sitio” from Die sieben letzten Worte unseres Erlösers am Kreuze, Hoboken XX, 1B; Allegro from string quartets Opus 9, no 6 in A major Ludwig van Beethoven - stringquartet no. 9 in C, Opus 59, section from: Andante con moto quasi allegretto String quartet recorded by Harmen Straatman - Tinta Smidt von Altenstadt (first violin), Saskia Viersen (second violin), David Marks (alto violin), Artur Trajko (cello), Spenser Theberge (Lyrics)
- Light: Tom Visser
- Decor: Alexander Ekman
- Costumes: Alexander Ekman
- World Premiere: February 25, 2010, Lucent Danstheater, The Hague
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