Meg Stuart & The Field

Dance and water, the established American choreographer Meg Stuart and the young Zurich collective The Field. These seemingly surprising combinations promise to be the most exciting con­stellation in this year’s festival programme. In 2021, Tanzhaus Zürich and The Field invited Stuart to a workshop at the river Limmat and Lake Zurich. It was an experiment as well as a return: During her artist residency with her company Damaged Goods at the Schauspielhaus Zürich from 2000 to 2005, she got to know Zurich and its waters well.

Stuart is known for her uncompromising ar­tistic research which explores our physical and imaginative limitations. She has now invited three longstanding collaborators Maria Scaroni, Isabela Fernandes Santana and Kristof Van Boven as well as designer Jean­-Paul Lespa­gnard and musician Mieko Suzuki to collaborate on the Saffainsel together with The Field. In the shallow waters, they will investigate the shore as a transition between nature and civilisation, as well as the interactions between liquids and bodies, natural elements and human movement.

In «Waterworks», the performers evoke dreamlike fictions on a man­made island. The water is the stage for those scenarios – liberating, connec­tive, terrifying and full of possibilities. (mvh)