«Orthopädie or to be»: Kilian Haselbeck/Meret Schlegel
Current Dance Works Saison 2013-2015
Two bodies – one young and athletic, the other older and more delicate. What happens when the personalities of two dancers from different generations meet on stage? What emerges when an explosively physical language of movement encounters another that is quieter and more sensitive? While this piece muses on generation and dance styles, ‘Orthopädie or to be’ is about two human beings meeting in dance, a reflection on their differences and the uniqueness of their bodies. Following on from a short version originally created at the Tanzhaus Zürich in March 2013, a long version of the work has since been enjoying great success on tour: both present a touching encounter of young and old that disrupts and challenges conventional ways of viewing and thinking about age.
“The encounter between Meret Schlegel and Kilian Haselbeck in ‘Orthopädie or to be’ is unconventional and unexpected. A mature woman and a young man measure each other up, at first cautiously and then more and more sympathetically, acknowledging the respective fragility and strength of their experience. They provoke and compete with each other, clash and join together. In so doing, they humorously evoke chimeras and familiar questions of generational difference and social roles. Schlegel and Haselbeck: two individuals who come together in a mood of extraordinary respect. Playful, ironic and casual, it is quite simply a moving spectacle.”
Kilian Haselbeck / Meret Schlegel
Kilian Haselbeck was born in Schaffhausen in 1986. Even as a small boy he wanted to be a dancer: a video shows him, aged 11, replicating a dance by Michael Jackson. He finally came to contemporary dance via hip-hop and ballet, graduating from the Rotterdamse Dansacademie (Codarts) in 2008. Since then he has worked as a freelance dancer and choreographer in numerous independent groupings both in Switzerland and abroad. Meret Schlegel was born in 1951 and has spent many years on and behind the stage at a wide range of cultural institutions in Zurich. After training as a dancer and dance teacher, she worked as a performer and dancer with artists from other genres in the US and Europe. From 2000 to 2011 she was artistic director of the Tanzhaus Zürich. She has since returned to the stage.
