Sasha Waltz Impromptus at Cal Performance Berkeley California

Sasha Waltz and the producer in an interview after the performance 

The stage is slant, looking like art canvasses, which change from white to red and include a pool for dipping nude at one stage in the performance.   The singer stands off ramp with the piano which is played live, allowing for silences.  

A Dance Performance  set to the lieder of Schubert at Cal Performances, Zellerbach Theater, Berkeley, California  Saturday night.  .  Sasha Waltz (Valtz), in her interview, after the performance , says that she does not want the dance to seem as illustration of, or following the music, but is "music" in itself.     She says the dancers are like a good wine; they have matured and dig deeper into the expression of their dancing.  

 She says psychology shows that as people watch the dance, they enact the moves in their minds and she hopes they will develop compassion.  She chose to have a singer sing the lieder, rather than the dancers, singing, as it is distracting from their own vocabulary.  She likes live music with dance.  Unlike ballet, she says contemporary dance allows more invention.  The dance is an elision;, bodies fall off one another, almost not touching, when that is possible, as they are moving in tandem.  Men and women, men and men and women and women.    The music is played on the piano and is incredibly beautiful   Two lieder in particular have lovely lyrics. 

Here is one example I will share:

The Wanderer Speaks to the Moon

I on the earth, you in the sky -
we both wander briskly on;
I stern and troubled, you mild and pure;
what might be the difference between us?

A stranger, I wander from land to land,
so rootless and unknown;
up mountains and down, into forests and out,
but nowhere am I - alas! -- at home.

The sky, endlessly spreading,
is your beloved homeland;
O happy is he who, wherever he goes,
still stands on native ground!  

(Der Wanderer an den Nond, D. 870  Text:  Johann Gabriel Seidl)

Ioh auf der Erd, am Himmel du,
Wir wandern beide rustig zu:
Ich ernst und trub, du hell und rein,
Was mag der Unterschied wohl sein?

Ich wandre fremd von Land zu Land,

So heimatlos, so unbekannt;
Berg auf, Berg ab, Wald ein, Wald aus,
Doch bin ich nirgend, ach! zu Haus.

Du aber wanderst auf und ab
Aus Ostens Wieg'in Westens Grab,
Wallst Lander ein und Lander aus,
Und bist doch, wo du bist, zu Haus.

Der Himmel, endlos ausgespannt,
Ist dein geliebtes Heimatland;
O glucklich, wer, wohin er geht,
Doch auf der Heimat Boden steht!  ,

The other lovely examples are:  Des Madchens Klage, D. 191  Friedrich von Schiller   "The Maiden's Lament".     Der Doppelganger, D.  957. No. 13  Heinrich Heine, "The Wraith", and An Mignon, D. 161b  Johann Wolfgang Goethe.  "To Mignon".