Richard Siegal. art.Life

The performers move through the space like a perfect choreography of swallows in the air. Forwards, backwards, in sharp turns and geometric formations, they divide and merge without ever losing harmony. It is as if every movement is controlled by an invisible force - an interplay of harmony and tension.

Choreographer Richard Siegal has been fascinated by Shudan Kodo, Japanese precision walking, which has gained worldwide fame in the form of viral YouTube videos in recent years. Groups of athletes move with impressive precision in synchronized formations. Shudan Kodo thus combines an extraordinary blend of discipline, aesthetics and collectivity that impresses with both its visual power and technical perfection. Siegal brings this together in the form of 70 athletes from Nippon Sports University with two of his ballet-of-difference dancers and immerses them in the minimalist, electronic soundscapes of Alva Noto in combination with the lighting design of Matthias Singer: The result is a futuristic perspective on the tension between the collective and the individual.

Thanks to the translation of these geometric, pixel-like formations into immersive visual worlds, the viewer can familiarize themselves with the work from the inside out. At the same time, it challenges them to rethink some of their fundamental assumptions and questions. For Richard Siegal, this first international, transdisciplinary work on Shudan Kodo, which will celebrate its premiere during the International DANCE Festival Munich in the Kunstbau of the Lenbachhaus, also marks an examination of the technocratic tendencies of our digitally shaped reality. And so fundamental questions about this form the basis of art.Life: What can crowds tell us about the digital age in which we live? Conversely, what can the digital reveal to us about the nature of crowds?